Bluegrass Symphony launch: In Which I Gush and Share Photos
Sometimes I feel soooooooo lucky, and last night was definitely one of those times.
It’s actually hard to describe how awesome everthing was at the Bluegrass Symphony launch. Jude at the SA Writers Centre was incredibly lovely, and helped to make sure the atrium was ready for the event to kick off at 7pm — and what a space! We are so fortunate to have such a gorgeous Writers Centre here in Adelaide, with such a great venue for book launches. Thanks to Dr Chad, Brain and Badger, the wine flowed all evening, the sushi platters were never empty, and the festivities were photographed for posterity — if it hadn’t been for these three, I would’ve been a giant ball of stress all night. Instead, I was a butterfly, flitting from group to group, chatting, laughing, and feeling so special. (Thank you so much, Angela, Chad, and David!!)
Russ came all the way from Perth to sell books (thanks again, Russ!!) and the wonderful crowd kept him busy all evening — by the end of the night he’d sold all the hardcovers he’d shlepped to Adelaide, plus most of the paperbacks he’d mailed ahead of time. SO COOL! And between sales, Russ acted as MC. He got the proceedings under way by giving a lovely speech before introducing the incredible Sean Williams, who launched the book. And when I say launched the book, what I really mean is gave the most unbelievably thoughtful, generous, flattering, mind-blowingly perfect speech ever in the history of book launches. Ever. From now on, any time I feel like my writing is crap, I’m going to relive all the perfect moments from Sean’s speech… And I keep saying perfect because, frankly, it was. Sean captured the essence of Bluegrass Symphony so beautifully in his descriptions, and this was nowhere clearer than when he compared the ‘vibe’ of the stories in my collection to Johnny Cash’s song, ‘The Long Black Veil’ (the lyrics of which he read out, like a poem, and I had goosebumps the whole time!):
Ten years ago on a cold dark night,
someone was killed ‘neath the town hall lights.
There were few at the scene, but they all agreed,
that the man who ran looked a lot like me.
Chorus ~ She walks these hills, in a long black veil.
She visits my grave, when the night winds wail.
Nobody knows, nobody sees, nobody knows, but me
The Judge said son, what is your alibi,
if you were somewhere else, then you won’t have to die.
I spoke not a word, though it meant my life,
for i’d been in the arms of my best friends wife.
Chorus*
Now the scaffold is high, and eternity’s near.
She stood in the crowd, and shed not a tear.
But some times at night, when the cold wind moans
In a long black veil, she cries over my bones
Chorus ~ She walks these hills, in a long black veil.
When the cold winds blow, and the night winds wail.
No body knows, no body sees.
No body knows, but me.
Oooooooh, reading the lyrics again just now gives me shivers! Thanks so much, Sean! (and Johnny!)
So, I was gobsmacked after hearing Sean speak — so much so that I pretty much lost the ability to string coherent thoughts together — which meant that my list of ‘Thank yous’ was somewhat abbreviated… Really, I wanted to thank everyone, and I did thank them all (you all) in a rambling sort of way… but by the time I got up to the lectern, I was just so overwhelmed and happy that I managed about half a dozen official thank yous before I went into general ‘gush’ mode. Even so, I somehow managed to maintain my composure long enough to read the opening of ‘The Short Go: A Future in Eight Seconds’ (which you can listen to here) and then basically spent the rest of the evening, smiling, hugging dear friends, having great wine, and signing books.
I think I can safely say that last night wins the prize for Most Awesome First Book Launch EVER.
Without further ado, photographic evidence of the awesomeness that was:
Beauty shot: Bluegrass display (photo by David Pollitt)
Russ selling books... (Photo by David Pollitt)
...and doing introductions. (Photo by Alex Hender)
Sean speaks brilliantly... (Photo by Alex Hender)
...while the crowd looks on. (Photo by Alex Hender)
Signing! (Photo by David Pollitt)
More signing (and pretty hairband!) (Photo by Tully Barnett)
Gloating with Jason and Brain! First ones to receive our contributors' copies to the Year's Best 2010! (Photo by David Pollitt)
Bluegrass Symphony launch is tomorrow…
… and I am excited!!!
That is all.
"Here's one I prepared earlier..."
Writers and Their Worlds
This morning I woke feeling a bit glum. Not anything major, and not for any specific reason. I just found myself weighed down by that general “things are just so freaking busybusybusybusybusybusy” malaise that comes with the beginning of a new semester, new classes, new schedules, and cramming twelve thousand new tasks into each week.*
But by one o’clock this afternoon, my spirits were (and are still) completely lifted.
At noon today I spent a delightful hour away from the madness, reading from Bluegrass Symphony and talking about writing. I’d been invited to speak at the ‘Writers and Their Worlds’ session at Flinders here in Adelaide, an excellent initiative that brings professional authors to the university to share their experiences with undergrad students, postgrads, and staff interested in creative writing and creative industries. And I had such a fantastic time! For starters, there was a great crowd (and there were indeed enough people in the audience to warrant the term ‘crowd’, which was awesome), with some familiar faces and some new ones, all of whom were warm and friendly. They laughed at my jokes (always a good sign), and asked plenty of great questions at the end. Insightful, interesting questions – thankfully there was not a single, ‘Where do you get your ideas from?’ to be heard!
After a general discussion about how I got started writing, my philosophies on publishing, and the catalyst for Bluegrass Symphony, I read the beginning of ‘Carousel’. This is the first story in the collection, and one that I’ve never ‘performed’ before, so I was stoked that it went down really well! I always find it hard to gauge people’s reactions while I’m in the process of reading in public: I’m concentrating on enunciating clearly; keeping an eye on the clock to make sure I don’t get carried away and read for too long; trying to look at the page while also looking at the clock and also at the people in the audience without stumbling or losing my place… So when the audience is quiet, I’m not always sure if they’re rapt or falling asleep. (The generous applause and feedback I received suggests, in this case, that it was the former. Phewf!)
Doing public readings like this, though, confirms how important it is for me (and all authors, really) to get out there and share their work face-to-face. The atmosphere in the room was inspiring, and engaging in discussion with other writers (aspiring and established) is really what it’s all about.
And many of us carried the conversation on afterwards over coffee, which was also a treat.
Thanks for providing a writerly oasis at the end of an insane week, Writers and Their Worlds!
*OK, I’ll admit. Twelve thousand might be a slight exaggeration. Let’s call it an even ten thou.
Shades of Sentience review!
Katharine Stubbs has written a fabulous review of Bluegrass Symphony over at Shades of Sentience, which goes a little something like this:
The imagery in this collection will force you to pick up this book and keep reading. Even if you didn’t think you enjoyed reading of people who say ‘ain’t’ and ‘gots’ and drop a few letters off the start or end of a word – this collection will change your mind. It transports you so immediately within the story you can’t help but care for the character and feel how they’re feeling every step of the way.
And that’s just for starters! Wow!
Head on over to Shades of Sentience and read the rest of the review here.
It’s here!!
Hip-hip-hooray!! Three boxes filled with copies of Bluegrass Symphony showed up on my doorstep this morning, in plenty of time for the launch on August 19th!
And for those of you in Adelaide who may want to stop by and say hello at the launch, the details are as follows:
VENUE: SA WRITERS CENTRE
2ND FLOOR
187 RUNDLE STREET
TIME: 7 pm FRIDAY, 19 AUGUST 2011
BLUEGRASS SYMPHONY WILL BE LAUNCHED BY NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR, SEAN WILLIAMS.
“Lisa L Hannett’s collection plays like a country music album composed in the darker places of imagination, the little corners that you don’t want to look in as you tap-tap your foot to the catchy beat. Coolly beautiful, then coldly brutal, this is one of the most unnerving debuts in years.”
— ROBERT SHEARMAN
“BLUEGRASS SYMPHONY introduces a rare and original voice whose stories linger, dark and luscious and bold as tarnished brass, long after you have finishing reading them.”
— KIRSTYN MCDERMOTT
And, of course, if you can’t make it on the night you can certainly order a copy (hardcover or trade paperback!) at www.indiebooksonline.com 
Gobsmacked.
Jason Nahrung has reviewed Bluegrass Symphony over at ASiF, and whoa. I’m gobsmacked.
It’s hard to single out a ‘taster’ to post here because, well, the whole thing is incredible.
For example… ‘Down the Hollow’ resonated with memories of another great short, Margo Lanagan’s ‘Singing My Sister Down’: here is a ritual involving farewell, horrible to the reader, commonplace to the characters, offering insight into the familiar-yet-foreign society while evoking such strong empathy for its powerless narrator. Hannett shares an enviable trait with both of these lauded writers, in that she relies on the story to do the work. The characters are living their lives; they don’t feel the need to fill in the blanks for the reader. And the reader never doubts that they can trust the writer to tell them what they need to know, when they need to know it – no asides or footnotes or info dumps required.
That faith is borne out in ‘Depot to Depot’, one of my favourites, in which the inexplicable is made clear only in the last scene. In ‘Commonplace Sacrifices’, the narrator is never named nor its nature explained: the situation simply is, and it is beautiful. Such assuredness in the storytelling is what helps makes the world of Bluegrass Symphony so palpable. Words are Hannett’s friends here, too. She knows when the story allows her to show her mettle with poetic description and when such language would be obtrusive. Restraint is not always the virtue of the debut writer, but Hannett understands its power, both in plot and prose.
Like I said. Whoa.
You can read the whole review here, and visit Jason’s personal website here.
Holy. Crow. It’s all happening.
Bluegrass Symphony was reviewed by Publishers Weekly today!
Whoa. It’s actually happening: I’ve written a book and now people are reading it. I know that’s how it usually works, but still. It seems like such a long process, between writing and publishing, that to realise that strangers are going to read and comment on what you’ve written… Takes a while to compute.
But it’s much easier to process when the reviews are positive! Straight from the PW website:
Australian author Hannett’s first collection shows off her fondness for lush imagery, unsettling concepts, indirect prose, and multilayered plots. “Carousel” features a girl trapped in a shed by her oppressive father; her attempts to escape elicit the sympathy of unusual rescuers. “Depot to Depot” spins the tale of a trucker who takes unexpected passengers on a strange detour. “Down the Hollow” looks at the sacrifices people must make to appease the Earth and the ways such a negotiation can go wrong. The 12 stories, all but one original to this volume, push boundaries and experiment with style, form, and meaning, rarely straightforward and often hovering between fantasy and horror. By no means an easy read, this is a collection for fans of weirdness, wonder, and oft-disturbing twists. (Aug.)
Woot!
Bluegrass Symphony: Auction for a great cause!
Russell B Farr, editor extraordinaire at Ticonderoga Publications, has organised an auction of some special copies of Bluegrass Symphony to help fundraise for a really worthy cause. Lezli Robyn — an award-winning science fiction writer, Mike Resnick’s collaborator, Cambell Award finalist, Ticonderoga author, and all-around lovely gal — is raising funds to help her fiancé pay for his outrageously expensive chemotherapy bills in his home state of Ohio.
On her Facebook page, Lezli explains:
My gorgeous fiancé, Jamie Driscoll, pictured with one of his lovely nurses during one of his chemotherapy sessions, is currently fighting stage 4 Hodgkins Lymphoma, and I’m so proud of him for still managing to maintain a full time job through his entire brutal chemotherapy regime. Unfortunately, his medical bills have been piling up above his means, and his last two emergency hospital stays added another $34,000 to his total debt. His lovely sister, Lynda Roberts, and family have organized a massive Barn Sale in Ohio – starting the very minute I post this – as a fundraiser to help raise money to help pay Jamie’s medical bills.
So many generous people have not only donated new items, antiques and second-hand goods, but businesses in Bellefontaine and surrounding towns have also donated some big ticket items to be auctioned off on the day. There will even be a bake sale to help raise more money!
I wish I was there today to help Jamie’s family at this huge sale, as I’m sure it will be an amazing day showing how a community gets together to help a local in need, but I’m on the other side of the world….
So, I am going to organize a fundraiser of my own!!! I met my fiancé on facebook, so it seems fitting that I try to raise money for him on here too. 
I have so many wonderful friends on facebook, and if any of you are willing to open your hearts and pockets to help such a remarkable man as Jamie, my soulmate, I thank you from the depths of my heart. If you donate to my paypal account, lezli.robyn@gmail.com, I can keep posting a running tally of the amount we’ll be raising together as a facebook community. And you can let me know via facebook email, or in the comments of the paypal payment, if you don’t want your name to be added to the thank you list I will publish at the end of the fundraising.
Thank you so very much in advance for any donations you can make! And even if you can’t send any money, I would love any best wishes you can send our way in the comments section below. Every positive thought is valued so highly during this cancer fight.
Please feel free to share this photo on your wall to help spread the word! And again, thank you!
To help Lezli with this cause, Ticonderoga Publications is auctioning off the following:
BLUEGRASS SYMPHONY PACK
1 copy of BLUEGRASS SYMPHONY, advanced reading copy, signed by Lisa L Hannett
1 copy of BLUEGRASS SYMPHONY, trade edition, personalised and signed by Lisa L Hannett
1 copy of BLUEGRASS SYMPHONY, limited hardcover edition, signed by Lisa L Hannett and Ann Vandermeer
We have 1 advanced reading copy of Lisa L Hannett’s forthcoming collection, BLUEGRASS SYMPHONY, signed by Ms Hannett. At this present time, there are no more than 4 signed copies of this ARC in the world.
The successful bidder will receive this, posted anywhere in the world. The successful bidder will also receive 1 copy of the trade edition (personalised signature by Ms Hannett) and 1 copy of the limited hardcover edition (also signed by introduction writer Ann Vandermeer), when these are available (July).
The winning bidder will receive something that is truly unique.
TO BID: Click here to go to Russell’s Livejournal page. Put your bid in the comments to the post he’s made about the auction. If you wish to bid privately please email your bid to bluebid@ticonderogapublications.com and then keep an eye on his Livejournal page for updates. The highest bid he receives in the comments will be the winning bid.
AUCTION closes 10pm Thursday 19 May (2pm UTC)
Speaking of Swancon…
In between floating around in clouds of joy over the completion of my thesis and bunkering down in the hotel to work on Midnight and Moonshine stories with Brain, I will also be part of this panel:
Steampunk Style and Substance
Monday, 25 April
11:30 AM
Plaza 1
I’ll also be celebrating great stories at the Ditmar Awards — don’t forget to vote for your favourites! (And I’m not just saying this because up for three awards this year) – as well as partying it up at the launch of the fattest book of vampire fiction ever published You can pre-order Dead Red Heart along with a host of other incredible Ticonderoga titles (including Bluegrass Symphony) for a discounted RRP here.
Come along to Ticonderogapalooza (which I believe is scheduled on the Sunday) to join in the festivities!
Hope to see you all there
Bluegrass, the T-shirt!
Ticonderoga Publications has designed a set of fetching t-shirts, each one sporting a different title from their list of books. How cool!
They’ve got a heap of colours available and loads of different covers featured — all of which you can check out here.
Awesome Spec-fic, super-cheap!
Indiebooks Online is having a sale!
Now’s your chance to order Ticonderoga Publications titles you might’ve missed out on in paperback — such as Angela Slatter’s The Girl With No Hands & Other Stories, Kaaron Warren’s Dead Sea Fruit, Sean Williams’ Magic Dirt and a heap of other great titles — for a bargain price. (Please note: this sale is for the paperback editions only.)
Even more exciting: you can now pre-order the trade paperback edition of Bluegrass Symphony at a discounted price!! You can also pre-order Ticonderoga’s massive Vampire anthology, Dead Red Heart; as well as Justina Robson’s Heliotrope; and the next installment in the publishing house’s paranormal romance anthology series, More Scary Kisses.
Don’t let me dissuade you from pre-ordering the limited edition hardcovers for these new books. They are gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous signed collectors’ items — only 100 copies of each, so get in quick!
Writers on Rafts, Yeti Debuts, and Cool Reviews
Instead of buying a coffee at work tomorrow, why not spend $5 to help the Queensland Writers Centre raise funds and support for the Queensland Premier’s Disaster Relief Appeal?
Visit the Writers on Rafts website (http://writersonrafts.com/) and enter the draw to win yourself a fantastic prize pack and help the QWC reach their $20,000 goal for the benefit of all Queenslanders ravaged by the floods.
More than 150 writers and writing organisations are on board including Nick Earls, Kate Morton, Tara Moss, Kim Wilkins, Emily Jade O’Keeffe, Frances Whiting, Jessica Rudd, Kate Hunter, Marianne de Pierres, PM Newton, and Venero Armanno, and Sydney Writers’ Festival, Byron Bay Writers Festival and Melbourne Writers Festival, who are all donating books, workshops, author talks, lunches and editorial to winners of QWC’s Writers on Rafts initiative.
And more exciting news on the writing front…
Bluegrass Symphony has been showcased over at Stomping on Yeti‘s website:
Literature and genre rarely play nice but when they do get together, they make one hell of a couple. Michael Chabon, Neil Gaiman and China Mieville are only a few of the author who have made their careers off border straddling novels chock full or rich prose, challenging ideas, and original concepts. Will these authors make a name for themselves?
Yeti highlights Bluegrass as a debut ‘literary crossover’ short fiction collection to look out for in 2011 (and puts me in the same company as Rachel Swirsky!)
To top it all off, my story ‘Singing Breath into the Dead’ (Music for Another World) has attracted two more awesome reviews. Ian Sales at SFF Chronicles says ‘Singing Breath’ “contains some lovely writing and an original world” and that “Hendrickson’s, Steel’s, Hannett’s and Williamson’s stories all impress with the originality of their premises.” And over at A Son of the Rock, Jack Deighton highlights ‘Singing Breath’ as one of the most successful tales in the anthology.
All this added to the fact that I’ve just sent off the final MS to Ticonderoga means, so far, Sunday has rocked.
2010: A Year of Writing, Writing, Writing (and Teaching!)
So, teaching is well and truly finished and now it’s my last day at the Research Centre until next year. The summer looms before me (theoretically; I mean, how cold is it?!? It’s the solstice and I’m wearing my winter clothes, and we actually turned the heater back on last night to take the chill off the house! But I digress…) Summer looms: two months for me to finish the thesis (at last!!) and do a spit-polish on Bluegrass Symphony. Sure, I’ll be flat broke, what with the no job and all, but I’ll have something more precious than a full bank account… Time to slip into my oubliette and write.
And since the amount of work I’ve got to do over the coming weeks will probably preclude me updating this website as frequently as I’d like, I thought I’d take a minute to look back on 2010: The Year of Writing, Interrupted by Frequent Bouts of Teaching.
Obviously, I’m most excited about selling two collections this year (!!!!!) to Ticonderoga Publications. Bluegrass Symphony is coming out next year (with an intro by the dynamic VanderMeer duo! Be still my heart…) and Midnight and Moonshine is schedule for 2012 — which is super exciting, since I’ll be co-writing it with the other half of my Brain, aka Angela Slatter!
But I’m also pretty chuffed about what a crazy short story year I’ve had. All of these sold and/or were published since January:
- ‘Gutted’, Shimmer, Forthcoming (2011) — and I get to do an audio version for this story! Fun!
- ‘Unlocking the God’, Electric Velocipede, November 2010
- ‘Sisters Under the Skin’, Weird Tales, ‘Uncanny Issue’ 356, Summer 2010
- ‘Their Own Executioners’, ChiZine, July-September 2010
- ‘Tiny Drops’, Midnight Echo, Issue 4, 2010.
- ‘White and Red in the Black’, Dead Red Heart, ed. Russell B. Farr (Ticonderoga Publications) Forthcoming 2011
- ‘Singing Breath into the Dead’, Music for Another World, ed. Mark Harding (Mutation Press), 2010
- ‘Soil From My Fingers’, Tesseracts 14, ed. Brett Alexander Savory & John Robert Colombo (ChiZine Press), 2010
- ‘Weightless’, Sprawl, ed. Alisa Krasnostein (Twelfth Planet Press), 2010
- ‘The Curious Case of Physically-Manifested Bedsheet Mania & Other Tales’, co-written with Angela Slatter, Steampunk Reloaded , ed. Ann & Jeff VanderMeer (Tachyon Press), 2010
- ‘The February Dragon’, co-written with Angela Slatter, Scary Kisses, ed. Liz Grzyb (Ticonderoga Publications), 2010
I don’t think I can articulate how lucky I feel to have worked with all of these fabulous editors this year — I can only hope that my future stories reflect how much I’ve learned from them.
Other highlights of 2010:
- My first Worldcon!! So glad it was in Melbourne, so glad to have met so many of my amazing Facebook friends in person, so glad I got the opportunity to be on and attend some fantastic panels.
- Designing the cover for Angela Slatter’s The Girl With No Hands collection…
- …then seeing it AND her beautiful Sourdough collection appear on Ellen Datlow’s “Christmas List”!!!
- Going to Canada for the event of the (North American) summer: my mom’s wedding to my wonderful stepdad!
- Surviving the heaviest teaching load I have ever had (8 classes; about 175 students; over 600 assignments marked!!)…
- …and then getting an award for excellence in Humanities teaching
- Being selected for the Academic Internship at my university, which was basically a year-long “let us help you achieve academic status” program
- And, finally, coming so close to the end of my PhD I can taste it!
[Edit to add: I can't believe I forgot to mention that this year I also became an Australian citizen! Sheesh. Another absolute highlight, despite this oversight...!!!]
Phew!
Happy holidays, everyone. Hope your summers are warm or your winters cozy. See you in 2011 (or on Facebook!)
[Cue the oubliette]
Bluegrass Symphony, with cover!
*SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*
My book!
Cover!
Thanks to Russ and this gorgeous cover stylin’, my stories will now be jacketed before they are sent out into the world. And, frankly, nothing works better than a skull and a few splashes of blood to keep the words warm as they journey from place to place.
I. Am. So. Excited.
