Prime Minister's Literary Award Winners!

Big huge congratulations to Cath Crowley who today won the 2011 Prime Minister's Literary Award for Best Young Adult Fiction for Graffiti Moon!

**happy dancing**

I totally fell in love with Graffiti Moon when I read it last year and I think everyone should read it. For those of you not in Australia, Graffiti Moon will be available internationally February 2012.


The Children's Fiction category was won by Boori Monty Pryor and Jan Ormerod for Shake A Leg.

For the other titles that were shortlisted, visit here.
For the winners in the adult categories, click here.
My review of Graffiti Moon.

And in other news, Graffiti Moon was today announced as a finalist in the 2011 Australian Book Industry Awards for Book of the Year for Older Children!
Click here to see the other nominees.

Cath Crowley, can you feel the love?!

2011 Inky Awards Long List Announced

The long list for the 2011 Inky Awards was announced yesterday. They make me want to be a teenager again because to be eligible to vote, you must be a teen!

From Inside A Dog:
The Inkys are international awards for teenage literature that are voted for online by the readers of insideadog.com.au. It recognises the fantastic home grown writing talent from Australia with the Gold Inky and also titles that come from across the ocean with the Silver Inky.


I'm really excited about this list because a lot of the books are absolute favourite's of mine! And other's are currently contributing to my insanely massive TBR pile :)

GOLD INKY LONG LIST
(Australian titles)

Pigboy by JC Burke
Good Oil by Laura Buzo
Just a Girl by Jane Caro
The FitzOsbourne’s in Exile by Michelle Cooper
Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley
This is Shyness by Leanne Hall
Black Painted Fingernails by Steven Herrick
Silvermay by James Moloney
The Comet Box by Adrian Stirling
All I Ever Wanted by Vikki Wakefield

As always, my vote goes to Graffiti Moon because I am such a Cath Crowley fan-girl. I would also be happy with Black Painted Fingernails, Good Oil or The Comet Box which are all titles I have read and enjoyed. I'm dying to get my hands on All I Ever Wanted and This is Shyness.





SILVER INKY LONG LIST
(International titles)

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare
Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan
No and Me by Delphine de Vigan
Where She Went by Gayle Forman
Bright Young Things by Anna Godbersen
The Agency: The Body in the Tower by YS Lee
Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
First Light by Rebecca Stead
Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco Stork
Violence 101 by Denis Wright

It's a really tough call for me between Where She Went and Dash and Lily's Book of Dares. I loved both of them so, so much and really would not like to have to pick between them. I would also be happy if Anna and the French Kiss won because , well, le *sigh*. I have both Violence 101 and Clockwork Angel taking up space in my TBR too.




Congratulations to all the long-listed nominees!

The short list will be announced on September 1st and then the voting is open until October 18th. The award winners will be announced September 25th when we celebrate all things inky!

Graffiti Moon US Edition Cover Revealed!

The cover for the US edition of Graffiti Moon has just been revealed!

So, everyone in the US who has been patiently (or not so) waiting for this awesome Aussie book to be released in February 2012, say hello to the stunning cover...!

Personally, I love the US cover. While I do like the Australian cover, it took quite a while to grow on me, whereas I instantly took a liking to the US cover.

Apparently there are a few changed to the content in the US edition so I am totally going to buy it as well to add to my collection :)

How pumped is everyone for this book???!!!
(who me? :P)



Read my review of Graffiti Moon
Read my interview with Cath Crowley

Pre-order Graffiti Moon via Amazon

2011 Prime Minister's Literary Awards Short-list

Today here in Australia, the 2011 short-listed titles for the Prime Minister's Literary Awards were announced.


In the Young Adult Fiction category the titles are:
About a Girl by Joanne Horniman
Good Oil by Laura Buzo
Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley
The Piper's Son by Melina Marchetta
The Three Loves of Persimmon by Cassandra Golds

I have read three of the five titles (click on the title for my review) and while I really liked all three, my vote goes to Cath Crowley's Graffiti Moon.

In the Children's Fiction category the titles are:
April Underhill, Tooth Fairy by Bob Graham
Flyaway by Lucy Christopher
Now by Morris Gleitzman
Shake a Leg by Boori Monty Pryor and Jan Ormerod
Why I Love Australia by Bronwyn Bancroft

I have only read Flyaway by Lucy Christopher, although Morris Gleitzman's Now has been on my TBR list for a long time.

*********

The winners will be announced in the first week of July. To view the adult short-listed books click here.

Graffiti Moon Love

Over the last week, the winners for The New South Wales Premier's Literary Award and the Australian Publishing Association Book Design Awards were announced.

The NSW Premier's Literary Awards 2011
I am very excited because Cath Crowley won the Ethel Turner Prize for Young People's Literature for her totally awesome YA novel Graffiti Moon. I am super happy about this because Graffiti Moon was one of my favourite books from last year and I highly recommend it.

To view the other category winners, click here.


APA Book Design Awards
We're not supposed to judge a book by it's cover right? Well that's exactly what this award is all about. There are nineteen categories but I'm only going to comment on the Best Designed Young Adults Book Award. The winner as you might have guessed from my post title was Graffiti Moon! Congratulations to designer Melanie Fedderson! The really funny thing is that I originally didn't like the cover but over the last 6 months it has really grown on me :)

For the full list of winners and commended titles click here.


Read my review of Graffiti Moon
Read my review of Cath Crowley's other book A Little Wanting Song
Read my interview with Cath Crowley

A Great Day!

Today has been a great day!

Today is my birthday and one of my amazing friends made me cupcakes. Being the wonderfully creative person she is, Bryton didn't just make me ordinary cupcakes, no I got cupcakes decorated with some of my favourite books!

For those of you unfamiliar with these books, we have: Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, Graffiti Moon, The Alchemyst, Shiver and Guantanamo Boy.

Bryton's website is still under-going some work but you can check out some of her other cupcakes and crafty designs here.


Many other wonderful things happened today so excluding birthday celebrations, other cool news is that I have discovered that Rachel Caine, author of the Morganville Vampire series, and who is touring Australia and New Zealand in May, will be coming to PERTH!

This is very, very exciting news. Not only am I currently ADDICTED to her series, but I may actually get the chance to meet her. As Perth is such an isolated city, alot of people who come to Australia on their "AUSTRALIAN TOUR" usually leave Perth out of their visit, not to mention other capital cites in Aust such as Darwin, Adelaide and Hobart. Perth is the first place to be announced as part of her Bite Club Tour and my fingers are crossed for the other cities as more will be named soon.

Read my review of Glass Houses, book one in the Morganville Vampires series.

For a write up of each individual book, check out mummazappa's reviews at The Book Nerd Club.

Author Interview: Cath Crowley

I am extremely excited to have Cath Crowley stop by today and answer a couple of questions for us!

For those of you in the dark, Cath is an Australian YA author who has written the critically acclaimed Chasing Charlie Duskin (published in the US as A Little Wanting Song) and the Gracie Faltrain series. Her latest book, Graffiti Moon, one of my personal favourites and considered one of the best 2010 YA titles by Australian bloggers, was published August 2010 in Australia and is soon to be published in the US.

Read my reviews of:
Chasing Charlie Duskin/A Little Wanting Song
Graffiti Moon

Your debut The Life and Times of Gracie Faltrain was released in 2004. Could you tell us a little about the road to getting your first book published?
I studied Professional Writing and Editing at RMIT in 2001, when I was about twenty-nine. I loved the subjects Literary Non-fiction and Writing for Young Adults. Some of the articles and short stories that I wrote in class were published in newspapers and magazines.

While I was writing those smaller pieces I finished my novel and in 2003, Pan Macmillan published The Life and Times of Gracie Faltrain. I had no idea of the editing process at that stage and the editors at Pan were fantastic. They guided me through the editing process and I learnt a lot from them. (I’m still learning). I’ve been published with them since then.

What inspires you to write?
Other people’s original images and sentences inspire me to write. Artists like Leonard Cohen, Nick Cave, Clare Bowditch, John Green, Raymond Carver, and Charles Bukowski send me to the computer because I want to put lines together like they do.

Why did you decide to change the title of Chasing Charlie Duskin to A Little Wanting Song for its US release?
Chasing Charlie Duskin suits the Australian version. In that book Charlie is chasing herself as much as she’s chasing the ghost of her mother. In the US version Charlie still wants things but she has a stronger sense of self. She’s a bit sassier, a bit cooler. A Little Wanting Song is the first song/poem that I wrote for the new version. (The first version doesn’t have her lyrics.)

I love the way this title was chosen – it was very collaborative. I wrote down a list of my favourite titles and Allison Wortche (my great US editor) wrote her list and some other people at Random wrote their favourites. There were a lot of titles in the mix but that was great because I knew in the end we had the right one. And the whole book is written like a song or a wish – because Charlie’s voice is quite lyrical. So to name the new book after a song seemed right.

You've been editing Graffiti Moon for its US release. Are there many differences between the two editions?
Graffiti Moon is essentially the same. There’s a little more about Ed’s mum, and a little less about Lucy’s parents. There are two more poems by Leo and a little more about Jazz. I really like the two of them so it was fun to add some more scenes.

In Graffiti Moon, Shadow is a graffiti artist and Lucy is a glass blower. Did you set out to include these art forms or did they evolve with the characters?

I set out to use glass-blowing. I’d seen some beautiful pieces in an exhibition of an artist called Bethany Wheeler. She was generous enough to invite me into her studio and talk to me about her craft. I liked the metaphor and I liked her story. A glass artist had helped her when she was in Year 12 and I thought that was a great idea for a character.

Ed began as an artist who worked on paper. In the first draft of Graffiti Moon he was quite playful and he didn’t have problems reading. It wasn’t working, though, so I changed his character. While I was rethinking him, I met a student who told me about a boy who had hands stained by blue paint. At the same time I met a man who had an interest in graffiti and he was generous enough to share what he knew. Ed took off from there.

In Graffiti Moon, we get fabulous descriptions of Shadow's graffiti. Where did your inspiration come from for creating these works of art?
I knew his character so well by the time I started writing the second draft that his artwork appeared on the page without me having to think much about it. I looked at a lot of graffiti but none of it was exactly right for Ed because his paintings had to show his journey.

The artists mentioned in the novel inspired me: Bill Henson, Michael Zavros, Mark Rothko, Rosalie Gascoigne, René Magritte and Vermeer.

Both Graffiti Moon and Chasing Charlie Duskin are written from alternating perspectives. Is this way of writing something you will continue with in the future?
I’ve almost always written books with more than one narrator. I enjoy it so I know I’ll keep working that way, at least for a while. I love the way that characters like Ed and Lucy bounce off each other, tumbling around each other towards morning.


If you were to write sequels, where would your characters be now?
I’ve only ever wondered about one character in terms of a Charlie Duskin sequel, and that’s Luke. I’d write about what happens to him after Rose leaves town. He’s never known life without her and it’d be fun to write about him working out who he is and what he wants from the world. I think he works out that Rose is right. There’s more to life than his small town.

If you were to team up with another YA author, who would you like to collaborate with?
There are so many writers that I love but I wouldn’t want to collaborate with them. I work best alone for lots of reasons. My process is slow and muddled and there doesn’t seem to be any way for me to speed it up or make it more logical. Part of what I like about writing is that it’s solitary.

Do you have any favourite current YA releases?
They’re not all current but my favourite books that I read last year were…
*Notes from the Teenage Underground by Simmone Howell
*Six Impossible Things by Fiona Wood
*On the Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
*Five Parts Dead by Tim Pegler
*Little Paradise by Gabrielle Wang
*The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson
*Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

What can we expect from you next?
I’m working on a book that was called The Howling Boy but I think now will be called The Velvet Highway. Crow and Audrey narrate the story. They go looking for Audrey’s lost brother in a world that’s strange and beautiful and new for Audrey. It’s a mystery and a love story.

A massive THANKYOU to Cath for stopping by! I am looking forward to reading The Velvet Highway, whenever that may be!

Cath Crowley's website and blog.

Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley

Title: Graffiti Moon
Author: Cath Crowley

Release Date: 1st August 2010

My Rating: 5/5

Blurb:
Let me make it in time. Let me meet Shadow. The guy who paints in the dark. Paints birds trapped on brick walls and people lost in ghost forests. Paints guys with grass growing from their hearts and girls with buzzing lawn mowers.

It's the end of year 12. Lucy's looking for Shadow, the graffiti artist everyone talks about.

His work is all over the city, but he is nowhere.

Ed, the last guy she wants to see at the moment, says he knows where to find him. He takes Lucy on an all-night search to places where Shadow's thoughts about heartbreak and escape echo around the city walls.

But the one thing Lucy can't see is the one thing that's right before her eyes.

My Review:
Love Love Love Love Love! This is one of my favourite books of 2010! I absolutely could not put it down.

It is the last night of year 12 and Lucy and her two friends, Jazz and Daisy, are aiming for an all-nighter. Lucy, as always, is looking for Shadow. Jazz wants to find a hot boy and Daisy wants to have fun while deciding if she should dump her boyfriend. It just so happens that the boy Jazz chooses happens to be hanging with his mates; Dylan, Daisy's boyfriend, and Ed, who Lucy has an embarrassing history with. And so an adventure all over Melbourne begins!

We are lucky enough to get to hear the adventure from both the perspectives of Lucy and Ed, as well as little snippets of Poet's poetry (Poet writes the words to some of Shadow's artwork). The story is funny, witty and breath-taking. It literally had me laughing out loud at one point (and I received some strange looks as I was on a train at the time)! It is really great to have both the girl and the guy's perspectives. As a plus, at some points the perspectives cross over and we get to see how each of them interprets what the other has said or done, which is not something you see often (usually it is a straight swap to the other person and on with the story rather than going back and seeing what has just happened from the other side).

The conceptual art that Crowley has imagined for Shadow is amazing and I would love to turn around a corner and see some of the pieces on a wall. As the reader, we are able to feel connected to the artwork, not only because it is described in detail but we also get to hear not only how Shadow's pieces make Lucy feel but also what her creative force and the emotions behind her own art are. It is this kind of personal touch that really reaches out to the reader.

Graffiti Moon will speak to art-minded people the same way Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist reached out to those who adore music.

I really liked the extra personal details included such as Lucy's family's quirky arrangement, Jazz's supposed psychic abilities and Ed's inner turmoil over his future, the end of a past relationship and the death of a close friend. There is so much depth to all the characters that you just can't help love them all. You can also feel the tingles of attraction between certain characters. ZING!

I have had one of Cath Crowley's previous titles, Chasing Charlie Duskin, on my TBR list for ages and I am definitely going to have to put it on order because if Graffiti Moon is anything to go by, I'll be reading a lot more of Cath Crowley in the future.