Anna Caro

Press release from Random Static Ltd:

Local artist Emma Weakley is about to have her first book published – and she’s still a teenager.

Wellington publisher Random Static will be releasing “Jack and the Beanstalk”, a quirky take on the classic fairytale. “Emma’s illustrations are delightful,” said Random Static editor Kelly Buchanan. “The story is simple enough for young children, but the sense of humour and the little details in the artwork make it entertaining for adults who haven’t completely lost touch with their inner child, too. It’s a bit outside our usual remit, but we enjoyed it too much to pass up.”

“I didn't expect anything to come of this little project, so it is very exciting to have it published,” said Emma. Ms Weakley is a budding illustrator who lives on the Kapiti Coast and turned 19 last November. She likes drawing monsters, listening to irritating music, and quiet days investigating dead things on the beach. Last year, she won the Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best Professional Art, for her cover illustration for “Newtons Sleep”. The SJV Awards are presented anually by SFFANZ, New Zealand’s national organisation for science fiction and fantasy.

The official launch for “Jack and the Beanstalk” is taking place at 2pm on Saturday the 20th of February, at Crossways, 6 Roxburgh St, Mt Victoria. Emma will be performing a reading and signing copies of the book, and the original art, concept sketches, and paintings will be on display. Light refreshments will be provided.

“Jack and the Beanstalk” will be available via Random Static’s web site and all good bookstores.

Hello, welcome to my new home! It isn't as finished as I had hoped it to be before launching, but I decided it was better to go ahead and work as I go. Pterodaustro Dreams is staying up for a while, but there will be no new content, so please update any bookmarks and feeds to here.

2010 is shaping up to be a busy year. I've mostly finished one short story, 'The Shape of My Wife', which I will be sending for publication soon, and another one, still unnamed, is almost there. Invented Wings has once again fallen by the wayside a bit, but the big project is of course the Foreign Country anthology. Submissions close at the end of the day (though we'll still be taking a look at any late ones that come in over the next few days) and we're already well above the numbers I expected. Which is great, of course, but also means the selection is going to be quite tough.

One thing I want to be starting on this blog is a series of posts about the editing process; I've found very little out there on the process of editing an anthology, so I think it would be a useful thing to put out there. So stay tuned for those, and for detailed descriptions of my tearing my hair out.

Meanwhile, as one deadline passes some new ones open. Au Contraire has released details of a couple more writing competitions, a bit more informal but with some great prizes. Check out the guidelines here