tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25672911118468861042024-02-07T15:53:29.051-08:00The BlockThe official blog for Wordsmack Sci-fi and Fantasy Publishers.Wordsmackedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16965123820466250445noreply@blogger.comBlogger33125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2567291111846886104.post-67690972832258935502015-03-17T04:51:00.000-07:002015-03-17T04:51:19.308-07:00And now, a quick word from one of our editors<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I was checking the The Economist's iconic style guide and read the intro for fun (as nerds do). They quote this reader's letter:</span><br />
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<span style="color: #4a4a4a; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14.5599994659424px; line-height: 17.9200000762939px;">SIR—At times just one sentence in </span><em style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #4a4a4a; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14.5600004196167px; line-height: 17.9200000762939px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Economist</em><span style="color: #4a4a4a; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14.5599994659424px; line-height: 17.9200000762939px;"> can
give us hours of enjoyment, such as “Yet German diplomats in Belgrade
failed to persuade their government that it was wrong to think that the
threat of international recognition of Croatia and Slovenia would itself
deter Serbia.”</span><br style="color: #4a4a4a; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14.5599994659424px; line-height: 17.9200000762939px;" /><span style="color: #4a4a4a; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14.5599994659424px; line-height: 17.9200000762939px;">During
my many years as a reader of your newspaper, I have distilled two
lessons about the use of our language. Firstly, it is usually easier to
write a double negative than it is to interpret it. Secondly, unless the
description of an event which is considered to be not without
consequence includes a double or higher-order negative, then it cannot
be disproven that the writer has neglected to eliminate other
interpretations of the event which are not satisfactory in light of
other possibly not unrelated events which might not have occurred at
all.</span><br style="color: #4a4a4a; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14.5599994659424px; line-height: 17.9200000762939px;" /><span style="color: #4a4a4a; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14.5599994659424px; line-height: 17.9200000762939px;">For
these reasons, I have not neglected your timely reminder that I ought
not to let my subscription lapse. It certainly cannot be said that I am
an unhappy reader.</span><br style="color: #4a4a4a; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14.5599994659424px; line-height: 17.9200000762939px;" /><span style="color: #4a4a4a; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14.5599994659424px; line-height: 17.9200000762939px;">—WILLARD DUNNING</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">And then there's Mark Twain's take on writing and style:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #4a4a4a; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14.5599994659424px; line-height: 17.9200000762939px;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: #4a4a4a; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14.5599994659424px; line-height: 17.9200000762939px;">Mark
Twain described how a good writer treats sentences: “At times he may
indulge himself with a long one, but he will make sure there are no
folds in it, no vaguenesses, no parenthetical interruptions of its view
as a whole; when he has done with it, it won't be a sea-serpent with
half of its arches under the water; it will be a torch-light
procession.”</span></div>
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<span style="color: #4a4a4a; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14.5599994659424px; line-height: 17.9200000762939px;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 17.92px;">Enjoy and keep writing (and revising)!</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #4a4a4a; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14.5599994659424px; line-height: 17.9200000762939px;"> </span></div>
<div class="gmail_extra">
<span style="color: #4a4a4a; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14.5599994659424px; line-height: 17.9200000762939px;"> </span></div>
Wordsmackedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16965123820466250445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2567291111846886104.post-6776968843846570762015-03-10T07:09:00.000-07:002015-03-10T07:09:41.481-07:00Wordsmack in demand - find the radio and TV interviews hereThe Wordsmack team has been featured on radio and TV in the last month, and we can't get enough of chatting about our incredible authors, and how our controversial city, Johannesburg, is fast becoming the new base camp for science fiction writing.<br />
<br />
We have more exciting events coming up - so stay tuned on <a href="https://twitter.com/Wordsmackety" target="_blank">Twitter </a>and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/WordsmackPublishers?ref=aymt_homepage_panel" target="_blank">Facebook</a>.<br />
<br />
Firstly, our authors <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Abi-Godsell/e/B00G36P22Q/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_2?qid=1425985477&sr=8-2" target="_blank">Abi Godsell,</a> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=mico+pisanti" target="_blank">Mico Pisanti </a>and our director Louise Cosgrave, were on Radio Today. You can listen to the podcast <a href="http://jozi91072.podomatic.com/entry/2015-01-27T04_21_50-08_00" target="_blank">here</a>. We talked about Johannesburg as a location for sci-fi writing and about how young writers have a very fatalistic, yet practical outlook on the future.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0ZhaR72wh9eqWSRiehGRoZ_ISjXxOiN3EBGyxlIrr7vneVKgTznAIljNtXzQDn4EQz5v-BvNLwYrxgjdK2zTX2yjrqyf1tL05OJMjGfEzmggL9kjG49bohoWSEjOJoaLuzT2kRmxiIw8/s1600/Radio+Today.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0ZhaR72wh9eqWSRiehGRoZ_ISjXxOiN3EBGyxlIrr7vneVKgTznAIljNtXzQDn4EQz5v-BvNLwYrxgjdK2zTX2yjrqyf1tL05OJMjGfEzmggL9kjG49bohoWSEjOJoaLuzT2kRmxiIw8/s1600/Radio+Today.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
Louise was also on Kyknet. Talking about ebooks and speculative fiction in her best Afrikaans. She chatted about Wordsmack Publishers and why we focus on African speculative fiction. She also touched on the future of reading: is the physical book dead or will we always have a soft spot for the ancient technology of paper?<br />
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You can watch the broadcast <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGnHTvLUe9g" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiggDQF7f7jAcCCHLfDi_ARkQxVY4hDjrR5dGXzKZB3w0AFGUIIz24LkI8BPKqe_jAKhf56fbKOflzM2s-HhpOOQo2NlWB2rwulmCzW7Wzw9GzsQS1e9oXSAsjX95y3vxWLiC8AWFeRJpg/s1600/kyknet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiggDQF7f7jAcCCHLfDi_ARkQxVY4hDjrR5dGXzKZB3w0AFGUIIz24LkI8BPKqe_jAKhf56fbKOflzM2s-HhpOOQo2NlWB2rwulmCzW7Wzw9GzsQS1e9oXSAsjX95y3vxWLiC8AWFeRJpg/s1600/kyknet.jpg" height="179" width="320" /> </a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiggDQF7f7jAcCCHLfDi_ARkQxVY4hDjrR5dGXzKZB3w0AFGUIIz24LkI8BPKqe_jAKhf56fbKOflzM2s-HhpOOQo2NlWB2rwulmCzW7Wzw9GzsQS1e9oXSAsjX95y3vxWLiC8AWFeRJpg/s1600/kyknet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"> </a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiggDQF7f7jAcCCHLfDi_ARkQxVY4hDjrR5dGXzKZB3w0AFGUIIz24LkI8BPKqe_jAKhf56fbKOflzM2s-HhpOOQo2NlWB2rwulmCzW7Wzw9GzsQS1e9oXSAsjX95y3vxWLiC8AWFeRJpg/s1600/kyknet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"> </a></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05076006887550581100noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2567291111846886104.post-51826407280010762902014-11-12T23:52:00.000-08:002014-11-12T23:52:09.056-08:00Is there still money in books?<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Thanks to the democratisation of publishing - through self-publishing on Amazon and Kobo and similar platforms - readers are buying more books, for less. So the profits are spread around a bit more than they used to be. As a writer, however, is it a worthwhile investment to spend your time writing? Prolific writer and editor Nerine Dorman weighs in:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXkqT189lvY4aGQweZqnMfOi7cU9D5IH6awiYKuQuOGpbJ9G_i5Lpl0-gESI40hqCvqULcRZjlwaDgbbMnIWtfAg8pwXbtyALAeteK4qxkvkuegi8x9ntw3C55rI0Dw2ROLHgOzDyVgDww/s1600/nerine.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXkqT189lvY4aGQweZqnMfOi7cU9D5IH6awiYKuQuOGpbJ9G_i5Lpl0-gESI40hqCvqULcRZjlwaDgbbMnIWtfAg8pwXbtyALAeteK4qxkvkuegi8x9ntw3C55rI0Dw2ROLHgOzDyVgDww/s1600/nerine.jpg" /></a></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>Is there still money in books?</b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Yes...
And no. Yes, if you can tap into a market that has great demand, for
instance ghostwriting celebrity biographies or penning the next big
thing in self help since Deepak Chopra. There's no accounting for
readers' tastes – just look at the runaway success of Twilight, The
Hunger Games or the Fifty Shades books. The problem is, that once a book
is trending in traditional publishing, you're going to see dozens, if
not hundreds of other, similar books in the genre, all trying to cash in
on what's hot. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Some may be more successful
than others. Others will fade into obscurity without making any impact
whatsoever. But the market will be flooded, and reader saturation will
mean that the knock-offs may meet with a lukewarm reception.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Certain
genres are perennial moneymakers, like romance, which will have as many
sub-genres as you can throw a stick at, be it medical romances, LGBTI,
paranormal, erotica, BDSM... The list is endless, and its titles
ephemeral. Just go look at the best-sellers on Amazon. Depending on
readers' whims, different subgenres will do better than others from time
to time. Career-focused authors will push aside their personal
preferences and write to spec, and a good portion of them will see a
decent income. Granted, the ladies I've spoken to treat this like any
nine-to-five job, and they work hard, sometimes releasing a book every
two to three months. They endlessly self-promote on blog tours and
attend conventions. It's hard work.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Nowadays
it's easier than ever before to get your book published, but in many
ways it's never been more difficult to get your voice heard. Book
reviewers are bombarded with daily requests, often from self-published
authors who don't have access to professionals for editing, formatting
and design – and in many instances it shows. That said, some of the
bigger houses are also guilty of letting through mediocre titles purely
because the authors are proven sellers. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Readers
have nearly unlimited choices, but the trick is of course to find the
golden wheat among the chaff. And there's a lot of chaff.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Authors
who can carve out a niche for themselves, and keep at it while
providing a quality product, can make a living wage, but it is a
full-time job – and they are very much in the minority. For most it's a
case of selling anywhere between zero to a dozen copies of a book a
month, and for money to trickle in. The long and short of it is: don't
quit your day job any time soon. If you want to make money, write for
genres that popular, but don't hold your breath that you're going to be
an overnight success. Don't try to copy what the successful authors are
doing, but be aware of the elements of storycraft that strike a mark
with readers. There are no guarantees in this industry, because
sometimes even clearly derivative works end up being a bestseller.</span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">What do you think? What has been your experience? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">See the list of books Nerine's had published <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Nerine-Dorman/e/B004QXPOFS" target="_blank">here</a> including the book Wordsmack Publishers published, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Guardians-Wyrd-Nerine-Dorman-ebook/dp/B00KGYIEJO/ref=la_B004QXPOFS_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1415864955&sr=1-5" target="_blank">The Guardian's Wyrd</a>.</span>Wordsmackedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16965123820466250445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2567291111846886104.post-66713615495649807702014-09-01T05:33:00.003-07:002014-09-01T05:52:05.707-07:00Babies, Lusaka and eBooks.<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We've been very quiet of late. So quiet, in fact, that you'd think we've been off giving birth and moving countries.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">But that's exactly what we've been doing! Louise gave birth to a lovely baby boy, Nicholas, and Leani moved to Lusaka, Zambia. However, this doesn't mean we haven't been working hard on the next installments of <i>Idea War, The Folds</i> and ... is that a <i>Ripmender</i> sequel I see emerging? </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We've also been approached by some amazing writers with big plans for their books and careers seeking tips and advice, sometimes hugs. Leani met with a true inspiration: Makhiba Mollo - a business woman with a helluva story to tell. In fact, watch this space. This lady is going places. We've also seen our share of the good, the bad and the ugly in terms of manuscript submissions.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Remember: if you're sending your manuscript to publishers, make sure you've had it read by people who owe you nothing and can offer constructive criticism. Join a writer's circle, submit short stories to magazines (there are some great local publications) and foster those connections. This way you can get valuable advice on your writing. You may only have one shot for your work to be seen by a publisher, make sure it's perfect.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Our Young Adult books:<i> Idea War: Volume 1</i>, <i>The Ripmender</i> and children's book <i>The Guardian's Wyrd </i>are now also available on <a href="http://www.obami.com/portals/obami/about_obami" target="_blank">Obami</a>, the <span data-mce-mark="1" style="font-size: x-small;"><span data-mce-mark="1" style="font-size: small;">award-winning, social learning management system. Tell your teacher-friends. And it's for free!</span></span></span><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxscG80T5P7KU_X5SZNURU6lr1ouWE5-eaK7RCXoF1CbbKsC1jFQuvYN-VPMuMw8tWmFNbKxSkBOyj82dDKtuAd6xY-JnhFKlqMm5bjKpgw8F5fdAMIMis95KgrNJEdbV847DxeCQIVJP7/s1600/IMG_6471.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxscG80T5P7KU_X5SZNURU6lr1ouWE5-eaK7RCXoF1CbbKsC1jFQuvYN-VPMuMw8tWmFNbKxSkBOyj82dDKtuAd6xY-JnhFKlqMm5bjKpgw8F5fdAMIMis95KgrNJEdbV847DxeCQIVJP7/s1600/IMG_6471.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Future bookworm in the making.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVbq_qAakFTShzKpobTmGeVBcFSPT9XobvCSwirSQfIiR5Ga0MxPVfOh5_FpueZJAqjtyV3JblENAc_q1L5LSfxvj6ggC86pEq4wI3bEo-NMVWykQeYnSKw1hKunvqOG44d-f-aazV6DOB/s1600/20140831_110756.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVbq_qAakFTShzKpobTmGeVBcFSPT9XobvCSwirSQfIiR5Ga0MxPVfOh5_FpueZJAqjtyV3JblENAc_q1L5LSfxvj6ggC86pEq4wI3bEo-NMVWykQeYnSKw1hKunvqOG44d-f-aazV6DOB/s1600/20140831_110756.jpg" height="320" width="266" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Leani's inner grammar-Nazi is going to have to be purged.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Stay tuned fellow readers and writers, there's some exciting news around the corner!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Leani & Louise</span>
Wordsmackedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16965123820466250445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2567291111846886104.post-27318801338829012722014-05-29T03:01:00.000-07:002014-05-29T03:01:15.515-07:00GeekSNACK: A Free Short Story from The Guardian's Wyrd world<div align="center" class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The Party (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A
Guardian’s Wyrd</i> short story)<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">by Nerine Dorman</span></div>
<div align="center" class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Also available on bookly via Mxit</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7EQecZDbi4k_XEK1_6YvpiNS_Zrl78pIPTPRnBL_NkB6qOB_sZwRgvVsAlgJhdukVaLRz-b2tD-uJgL2Y4WT5zUa5GGuL8K1g531X88HlEd8AgdJmF6Nzz3cnKNKzMRuExDMGEgqLhFBv/s1600/shield1+copy.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7EQecZDbi4k_XEK1_6YvpiNS_Zrl78pIPTPRnBL_NkB6qOB_sZwRgvVsAlgJhdukVaLRz-b2tD-uJgL2Y4WT5zUa5GGuL8K1g531X88HlEd8AgdJmF6Nzz3cnKNKzMRuExDMGEgqLhFBv/s1600/shield1+copy.jpeg" height="200" width="151" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“This is a
very bad idea,” I told Rowan as we plodded up Andrews Road. The Hill from Hell
I liked to call it. My calf muscles were screaming.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">There was
enough moonlight for me to see Rowan’s grimace. “This party means a lot to me,”
he said.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“I don’t
care,” I said. “And I don’t see why you’re invited to parties all of a sudden.”</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">My friend
was the class geek, the one who was the butt end of all the pranks and teasing
whenever I wasn’t there to look out for him.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Angela
invited me,” he said.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Are you
sure?” Knowing Rowan, he had made all of this up. Angela Fourie was the most
popular girl in our grade. Everyone except for me seemed to be obsessed with
her. Okay, she was kinda cute, but she wasn’t <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">my</i> kinda cute. </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“She sent me
a Facebook invite.”</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Does your
mother know you’re on Facebook?”</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Shut up.”</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“The only
thing that’s saving you is that Oryxis and your mom believing you’re sleeping
over at my house,” I said. “If they hear that we sneaked out ...”</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“You sound
like Oryxis now, blah, blah-blah-blah.” Rowan made little talking hand movements.
“We’re just going for a little while.”</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I growled at
him but bit my tongue. Besides, I needed my breath for the last stretch of road
before we got to the security gate. If Rowan’s claim that he had an invite (of
course I hadn’t received one) wasn’t all a pile of dog poo, then we’d be
allowed in past those hallowed gates to Tierboskloof. If not ... Well, we could
go back to my place and play console games or something.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I waited
next to Rowan while he sweet-talked the security guard at the gate. My mom had
brought me here a few years ago when she was visiting a friend, and then they
hadn’t had all the security. I allowed myself to relax a little. Rowan would be
safe enough.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">As his
Guardian, I had to look out for him, just like Oryxis made sure nothing
happened to Persia, Rowan’s mum. They were royalty in exile, from the magical
kingdom of Sunthyst, and how I had gotten myself tangled in their lives was
definitely another story for another time. (That’s if you wanted to cue <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Neverending Story</i>.)</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But Angela
confirmed that we were on the guest list, the security guard buzzed us through,
and we followed the avenue up until we reached our destination. We could hardly
miss it. The music was pounding <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">doef-doef</i>.
Yay, my favourite. Not. I was already cringing and wishing I’d brought my earplugs
by the time Rowan rang the doorbell. Squeals of laughter sounded from the other
side.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Are you
sure you want to do this?” I asked him.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Sorry?” he
said, cupping his ear to me.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Whether he
genuinely couldn’t hear me or if he was just joking, I decided to ignore him.
My night had been ruined, in any case. I could only ride it out until the
bitter end. </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Fay opened
the door and blinked at us with heavily made-up eyes, and my heart did a little
jig. Okay, Fay was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">my</i> kinda cute. My
mouth went dry but that was okay, Rowan did all the talking and got us inside.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Oh. My. God.
Fay.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Things were
looking up. Definitely. Just about everyone from our class was here, and then
some. I didn’t recognise some of the older skate punk guys who were hanging out
on the balcony smoking cigarettes and trying to look cool.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Now what,
wise guy?” I asked Rowan.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He shrugged
and pointed to the kitchen. Drinks, I suppose. Angela’s parents were loaded, so
they could afford to let their daughter throw big house parties. Not an adult
in sight ... </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Loads of
fun, but things could also go horribly wrong if we weren’t careful.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Rowan, of
course, was completely oblivious to all the dynamics around him – all the more
reason for me to look out for him.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Everyone was
helping themselves to fruit punch in the kitchen, and I made Rowan dilute his
with more orange juice before we headed out to the balcony. From the smell of
things there was already way too much vodka in the punch.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It was like
we had some anti-cool device strapped to us. The kids sort of shuffled out of
our way so that we clearly stood on our own – outcasts. We might as well have
that tattooed on our foreheads.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Happy now?”
I scowled at my friend.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Rowan sipped
at his drink and tried not to grimace. He obviously wasn’t used to hard tack,
for all the times he bragged about sneaking beers from Oryxis’s stock. The
stuff tasted pretty vile, so I took small sips. I didn’t want to get drunk. Not
here.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Just as I
feared we’d be standing around with nothing to do the entire night, I heard it
in a brief lull between dance tracks: one of the most beautiful sounds in the
world – a softly played classical guitar. The mystery musician was sitting on
another patio to our right, screened by a thick stand of wild banana.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The next
track started up and I grabbed Rowan’s sleeve. “C’mon, we’re not going to stand
about like a pair of lost farts in a perfume factory.”</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I didn’t
give Rowan a chance to argue and all but dragged him with me down a small
flight of steps into the garden then around the vegetation to where a girl was
sitting cross-legged on a pile of cushions. It was Fay, and she had a
nylon-string guitar clasped to her chest.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Hey,” she
said.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“You’re not
going to get heard over the music.” I gestured behind us.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“It’s fine.
It’s still better than being out there with all the posers.”</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Rowan made
to go into the room behind Fay.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“It wouldn’t
go in there if I were you,” she told him.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He froze. “Why?”</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Angela’s in
there with Tom.”</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Rowan tried
and failed to hide his disappointment. I hid my smile behind my hand.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Yeah, I
know. Sucks. She asked me to keep chips out front.”</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“That’s just
twisted,” I said.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Fay gave a
little shrug and played a trill of notes. “It beats getting hassled by boys out
there. Mike’s been trying to make me do shooters.” She stuck out her tongue.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Mike’s an
idiot,” I told her and sat down next to her. “Whose guitar is that?”</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Angela’s
brother’s. He’s gone overseas. I always play it when I visit.”</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“You’re
anti-social.” I smiled at her.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“So are you.”</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Well, that
was one way of chatting up a girl.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">As it turned
out, Fay and I shared a bunch of similar favourite bands and we took turns
showing each other different songs on the guitar. I hadn’t even known to speak
to her at school, but thanks to the party, we were good. Fay and Jay – it had a
nice ring to it. We had a laugh about that. I guess that’s why I didn’t notice
that Rowan had wandered off. The first we heard of any drama was when the music
got turned off and there was shouting.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Where’s
your friend?” Fay asked me.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I swore, and
my “Spidey” senses as I called it were tingling – I knew on a gut-deep level
that whoever was responsible for the disturbance, it was Rowan. He was in
trouble.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Crap, crap,
crap!” I muttered under my breath as I rushed through the bedroom behind us and
into the house. Fay and I had been so busy talking music we hadn’t even noticed
when Angela and Tom had finished whatever it was that they’d been doing. Not
that I cared. </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">My main
concern now was saving Rowan from getting beaten up. That kid couldn’t hit a
fly if his life depended on it, and it wasn’t difficult imagining a dozen
scenarios varying in degree of horror – Rowan with a black eye; Rowan with his
front tooth knocked out; Rowan with a broken hand ...</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">All these
scenes ended the same way: Jay having to “please explain” to Persia, who could
possibly literally fry me with whatever weird magic she kept up her sleeve. If
she knew we were even here ...</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">There was a
circle of kids out front in the driveway, and for a moment I thought the boy
sprawled on the ground was Rowan. But it wasn’t. </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Mike lay
there, moaning. Big-ass bully Mike, who was at least a head taller and twice as
large as Rowan. I couldn’t help but gape, as surprised as Rowan, who stood
there over him rubbing at the knuckles of his right hand. </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Angela’s
dating Tom, you douche,” Rowan spat. “When she says she’s not interested in
seeing you anymore, she means it.”</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Some of Mike’s
friends, eyed up Rowan and were muttering among each other, and it was at that moment
that I figured it would be a good idea if we went back to my place to play
console games. Less chance of Rowan causing any trouble.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“I’ll see
you on Monday,” I told Fay. </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">She gave me
a knowing smile and melted back into the house, clearly uninterested in what
was going on out here. Well, there went my chances of having something with a
girl tonight. Plus she’d been sending out all the right signals. </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I sighed and
ploughed through the crowd and grabbed Rowan by the elbow. “C’mon, mate, we
gotta chuck.” </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He glared at
me but didn’t bitch, thank goodness. </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I cast one
look behind me, but Mike’s friends were too busy helping him up off the ground.
</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Then I
groused at Rowan, “What did you go and do that for?”</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Rowan’s grin
was devilish. “That was payback.” </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Dude,
seriously, what would you have done if his friends had piled into you? You were
outnumbered.”</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“You’re here
now.”</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Dude.” I
shook my head. Had he honestly thought I’d haul his ass out of the fire? No. He
was right. I would. Even if I got hurt.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Running footsteps
from behind had us spin around. I tensed then relaxed. It was only Angela
coming up the driveway.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">She was
breathless and grabbed both of Rowan’s hands in her own. “Thank you! I can’t
believe Mike was such an idiot.”</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Then she
kissed him. Full on the lips.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Before
either of us could respond, Angela dashed down the driveway again, leaving us
reeling.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“What was
that?” I asked in disbelief – Rowan, getting lucky with the girls? </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Rowan just
smiled and touched his fingers to his mouth. “I don’t know, but her lips tasted
like cherries.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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***</div>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Did you like this short story? <a href="http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/the-guardian-s-wyrd" target="_blank">Buy The Guardian's Wyrd for more</a>.</span> </div>
Wordsmackedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16965123820466250445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2567291111846886104.post-36589807771665077232014-05-22T00:54:00.000-07:002014-05-22T00:58:16.376-07:00Early praise for The Guardian’s Wyrd<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KGYIEJO?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creativeASIN=B00KGYIEJO&linkCode=xm2&tag=wordsmack-20" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAlXiUedfvwod0v_MBtmENe-hVvUkkf_a31hhxjeXOP4UaZTc2WE_76eoY7wVm7CpN0GblnCvufUHNJEvwPu4y1B-G3xAV9A7DusH7N0ait-fXt9Th_5hDrzhYEULHEYomzR9Nso-Azvc/s1600/TGW+fb+cover+photo.jpg" height="148" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KGYIEJO?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creativeASIN=B00KGYIEJO&linkCode=xm2&tag=wordsmack-20" target="_blank">The Guardian’s Wyrd</a></i>, a fantasy adventure
book set in Hout Bay, has received five star praise ahead of its release today.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The book, written by the prolific writer
and editor Nerine Dorman, is available from online stores today and is the
story of Jay September, a mixed-race boy from Hout Bay who follows his friend
Rowan into the deadly politics of the magical realm of Sunthyst.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Reviewers have called it ‘a lovely,
sometimes harrowing, sometimes heartbreaking tale’. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The book is a story of friendship, of magic
and best of all: an adventure that will get your kids excited about reading
again.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But, here’s more about the book:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sometimes having a fairytale prince as a
best friend can be a real pain. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KGYIEJO?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creativeASIN=B00KGYIEJO&linkCode=xm2&tag=wordsmack-20" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdLcU4eB7fr5bJT5WgrONeW7bByl_TfFHyPVOL2beGUFJQbSw3BjBsBWPlij6ISsORBfDKl6ay5tD3h_JwvJjwoPEcHVXi5kg0TG7suoVxheUzhpjyeWlu5tSqHTGjYVTrW55Pssfy-N0/s1600/GW_Cover_09_author+c+i.jpg" height="200" width="125" /></a><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jay didn't realise that sticking up for
Rowan, the gangly new kid at school, would plunge him into the dangers and
politics of the magical realm of Sunthyst. But if anyone is up for the
challenge it's Jay September. With his trusty dog, Shadow, at his side, he
braves the watcher in the dark that guards the tunnels between the worlds, and
undertakes a dangerous quest to rescue the prince.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's a race against time – can he sneak Prince
Rowan away from under King Lessian's nose and bring him safely back home – all before
the prince's sixteenth birthday? Or is Rowan's mother, the exiled Queen Persia,
secretly trying to hold onto her power by denying her son his birthright?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jay is ready for anything, except, perhaps,
the suffocating darkness of the tunnels. And that howling …<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you’d like to interview the author, or
find out more about the book, please don’t hesitate to contact Leani from
Wordsmack Publishers at 0834614494 or <a href="mailto:leani@word-smack.com">leani@word-smack.com</a><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;">You can buy the book by clicking </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KGYIEJO?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creativeASIN=B00KGYIEJO&linkCode=xm2&tag=wordsmack-20" style="background-color: white; color: #6dc6dd; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">here</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;">.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;">See some of the reviews </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22086015-the-guardian-s-wyrd?ac=1" style="background-color: white; color: #6dc6dd; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">here</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;">.</span></span></div>
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<!--EndFragment-->Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05076006887550581100noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2567291111846886104.post-49073084360855474112014-05-15T22:53:00.000-07:002014-05-19T04:05:06.529-07:00Cover reveal: The Guardian's Wyrd<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's one of our favourite days here at the Wordsmack office: Cover Reveal Day. The other favourites include publishing day and Friday...</span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now, check out the gorgeous illustration by artist Colwyn Thomas for Nerine Dorman's fantasy novel <i>The Guardian's Wyrd</i>:</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrTygGM9Y-3r_uZLlfhDDp0bXXOl4g7MMagWQkBfveVYVU8ma-BWPY-JjmeitO8x-PkpcEZqhluA8EFffAs8FHfrAzoWQiAWuJ0scwhMQv46jeqfNsbEyu8TLg2AxO954gG8nlAn4gp0Wo/s1600/GW_Cover_09_author+c+i.jpg" height="640" width="400" /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lovely. And in case you're wondering, that's a rampant unicorn. They come with fangs and attitude. But, before you go away, check out what this book is about:</span></div>
<div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sometimes having a fairytale
prince as a best friend can be a real pain. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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kid at school, would plunge him into the dangers and politics of the magical
realm of Sunthyst. But if anyone is up for the challenge it's Jay September.
With his trusty dog, Shadow, at his side, he braves the Watcher in the dark
that guards the tunnels between the worlds, and undertakes a dangerous quest to
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under King Lessian's nose and bring him safely back home - all before the prince's
sixteenth birthday? Or is Rowan's mother, the exiled Queen Persia, secretly
trying to hold onto her power by denying her son his birthright?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jay is ready for anything, except, perhaps, the suffocating
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">Sign
up here to be notified when the book has gone live on Amazon and other digital
platforms: </span><a href="http://www.word-smack.com/#!newsletter/c152j">http://www.word-smack.com/#!newsletter/c152j</a> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">AND <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22086015-the-guardian-s-wyrd?ac=1" target="_blank">add it to your To Read list on Goodreads here.</a></span></div>
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Wordsmackedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16965123820466250445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2567291111846886104.post-74022559269012025482014-05-06T02:25:00.000-07:002014-05-06T02:25:20.976-07:00The Ripmender is live!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00K519FD2/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00K519FD2&linkCode=as2&tag=wordsmack-20&linkId=R556ZWO3Y7QO53DU" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZYP1bXnNa06PQjZWnPaBUlW3YUNOOWA1wlGEYYbIDqrXqb0H29YYQhvo2l6pCOU4-w_3CWsXjnAs8FKAgWPkPnW2B9d4XbM3ySOx1JUYKfcPdjI6jAZD5XzufGpFndZGz5NHL_a0vYd0/s1600/unnamed.jpg" height="118" width="320" /></a></div>
<h1 style="background-color: white; color: rgb(96, 96, 96) !important; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 40px; letter-spacing: -1px; line-height: 50px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="color: #404040; font-size: 26px; letter-spacing: -0.75px; line-height: 1.6em;">And ready for downloading</span></h1>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px;">
Johannesburg, 6 May 2014 – A science fiction romance novel set in part in Durban and on an alien planet? Done. Wordsmack Publishers is excited to announce that <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00K519FD2/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00K519FD2&linkCode=as2&tag=wordsmack-20&linkId=R556ZWO3Y7QO53DU" target="_blank">The Ripmender</a></em> by Julianne Alcott, has gone live today. The novel follows Cathy as she tries to navigate going from a friendless, isolated first-year to the best friend of the world’s biggest teen rock-sensation, Nathan Jake.<br /><br />As the demand for ‘off-centre’ fiction takes off in South Africa, authors like Lauren Beukes, Charlie Human and Cat Hellisen are becoming known for meshing supernatural elements with local backdrops. Zombies in Cape Town and aliens in Durban – it’s the next wave of fiction in a country teeming with interesting and shocking stories.<br /><br /><em>The Ripmender</em> is part of this trend as it brings science fiction and romance to teen and young adult readers. Teen readers especially will relate to the multicultural characters and the local language used in the book.<br /><br /><strong>More about the book:</strong></div>
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00K519FD2/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00K519FD2&linkCode=as2&tag=wordsmack-20&linkId=R556ZWO3Y7QO53DU" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyb2sDoN_b0DKwUPup46PfVUUO-rHpq3J4ia2FTEw60NapPMwmnO9nDGiWLRh8O4efsXkPwgPK5PPaXK8QOKy_5Wawmv9nx1PGbO1MbqoGS8_YW-kUvbolY7odh4kOqeHCgMfS3vN5fho/s1600/Ripmender+final+cover_sml.jpg" height="320" width="200" /></a></div>
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<b><br /></b><br /><em>“In the real world, one’s idols end up going to rehab or jail, or marrying someone for three days. They don't end up being from another planet.”</em><br /><br />Cathy Slater dreams of meeting the love of her life ... teen rock sensation, Nathan Jake. Of course, this is impossible – he is adored by millions, and she has trouble fitting into her own family. Even if he is a tutor at her university, she can’t compete with the packs of adoring fans constantly surrounding him.<br /><br />But then her life changes forever when she stumbles onto Nathan Jake’s biggest secret. She wasn’t meant to see what he could do … what he was.<br /><br />Becoming part of his secret means that Cathy is thrown head first into his world – the one in which Ripmenders keep unsuspecting worlds like ours safe from invasion. And then there are the jealous super-fans to deal with …<br /><br />But can Nathan ever reciprocate Cathy’s feelings? As she discovers more about the Ripmenders and the shadowy organisation that runs them, the more she worries that his cold, calm demeanor will never give way to the loving man she always imagined him to be. Follow the couple from South Africa across the galaxy to fantastical planets through the rips of space. View it here<br /><br /><strong>About the author:</strong><br />Julianne Alcott lives in Durban where she works as a librarian at a primary school library. She loves inventing strange plots that she then can research – she’s done it all – from rubbing stinging nettles on her skin to going to the mall with a borrowed wheelchair. She loves hearing from readers, so send her a Tweet @JulianneAlcott or visit her blog at <a href="http://juliannealcott.wordpress.com/" style="color: #6dc6dd; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">http://juliannealcott.<wbr></wbr>wordpress.com</a>. She’s also on Wattpad, and every so often publishes stories for free.<br /><br />For more information on the book, the speculative fiction industry in South Africa or for an interview with Julianne, please don’t hesitate to connect with me at 0834614494.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05076006887550581100noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2567291111846886104.post-46679282489086105922014-04-14T00:50:00.001-07:002014-04-14T00:50:08.514-07:00Using Instagram to market your books<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Monique, our bright-eyed intern was given the task of starting an Instagram account and making it work as something that added value and promoted our books. Here are some of the lessons she learnt:</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Instagram for Dummies:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I created an Instagram account based
on all things geeky called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Geeksmack. </i>I
have been struggling with the question of how to make it successful and how to gain
followers. So, I made a point of learning how to Instagram and how to do it
well. Below are a few tips I have learnt along the way.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhf3gjtQlyLRLYz4P1XAFhPesM0uoaMbM76xBVfGjqqFUjgc5lw1hkp7dGDqrJ-QiloZ2GoG4nxwTec7S0H0_DUmG-gQWewt_9gnfJRz8ZmEqWxISKg_L68bfa7FRbhwnTgq935mhfVXfR/s1600/Screenshot_2014-04-07-11-02-03-1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhf3gjtQlyLRLYz4P1XAFhPesM0uoaMbM76xBVfGjqqFUjgc5lw1hkp7dGDqrJ-QiloZ2GoG4nxwTec7S0H0_DUmG-gQWewt_9gnfJRz8ZmEqWxISKg_L68bfa7FRbhwnTgq935mhfVXfR/s1600/Screenshot_2014-04-07-11-02-03-1.png" height="320" width="225" /></a></span></div>
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</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">First of all you have to decide what you
want to get out of the Instagram account you are going to create. You have to decide if you want to use the account to market a brand or just for
personal use.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></span></div>
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</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">You need to create an interesting username,
interesting short biography and post a picture on your account that depicts
what you’re trying to convey to the users of Instagram.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The pictures that you post need to be
relevant to your profile and its purpose. These pictures are a representation
of what you're trying to put out there for other people to see and to essentially
gain many followers.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Making Instagram
successful and gaining followers:<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; text-indent: -27pt;">To start you must post pictures that are
of good quality, interesting, original and unique and that attract people to want
to follow.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; text-indent: -27pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; text-indent: -27pt;">When posting hashtags on pictures, they
must be relevant and categorical. If people search that particular hashtag,
they will end up finding your posts. Do not over kill it with hashtags and write
a short description, so people will be encouraged to comment.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; text-indent: -27pt;">It’s important to like and comment on
other people’s posts. This is a good way of interacting and gaining followers
through this. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; text-indent: -27pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; text-indent: -27pt;">Ideally,
in order to gain followers in Instagram you want to target people that are
similar to what you are portraying on your profile. A good way to do this is to
search hashtags under the categories you are interested in, for example
searching #sci-fi. By doing this you can find people who have similar interests
to you and follow them and gain followers in return. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; text-indent: -27pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; text-indent: -27pt;">Follow the followers of the people who you
are already following or are following you.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small; line-height: 150%; text-indent: -27pt;"><span style="line-height: 115%; text-align: center; text-indent: -27pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial Rounded MT Bold;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small; line-height: 150%; text-indent: -27pt;"><span style="line-height: 115%; text-align: center; text-indent: -27pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial Rounded MT Bold;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: -27pt;"><span style="line-height: 115%; text-align: center; text-indent: -27pt;">Mo</span></span><span style="line-height: 115%; text-align: center; text-indent: -27pt;">nique De Nobrega is a 22 year old Journalism Degree
graduate from The University of Johannesburg. She has a passion for writing
with the hopes of one day fulfilling her dream of becoming the editor of
Cosmopolitan magazine. This all started from when she was a young girl and
developed a love of books and reading. “I enjoyed reading so much that I never
wanted to do my homework after school. Books were my enjoyment and
entertainment growing up, so was writing every day in my journal.” Her
favorite author out of all the books she has read is Jodie Picoult. “Picoult
tells the story how it happens in real life and not the happier, faker version
of the story”. Besides reading and writing, she’s a huge animal lover and hates
cruelty to animals.</span></span></div>
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Wordsmackedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16965123820466250445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2567291111846886104.post-37122295136840724802014-04-08T01:29:00.000-07:002014-04-08T01:29:22.141-07:00Calling all book bloggers!<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here at Wordsmack Publishers we realise the power of book bloggers - we love that the Internet has made it possible for anyone's voice to be heard. So get hold of us and we'll send you ARCs and cover reveals and interviews and all kinds of goodies!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiyZPLFdNUfsX1DgsrWsCxLuPCunzqZ7IrU_ZzpwxlxA4InO7an5Gb-RS6hw4vOOIZbjcMQny0vZqPztgaDl_ZqHJxtUgKwQXHUjvbGdDOl0XUQoRcDUUT38TCpVZBIqJ-_smHL02v0k66/s1600/images-20.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiyZPLFdNUfsX1DgsrWsCxLuPCunzqZ7IrU_ZzpwxlxA4InO7an5Gb-RS6hw4vOOIZbjcMQny0vZqPztgaDl_ZqHJxtUgKwQXHUjvbGdDOl0XUQoRcDUUT38TCpVZBIqJ-_smHL02v0k66/s1600/images-20.jpeg" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you're into speculative fiction - fantasy, sci-fi, paranormal - that kind of stuff, then our books are right up your alley. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Currently, we have two Young Adult books waiting to be reviewed and published, here's more info on them:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><b><i>The Ripmender</i> by Julianne Alcott:</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">"In the real world, your idol usually ends up in rehab or, even worse, </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">at a wedding altar in some tacky Vegas chapel. What they don't do is </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">tell you they are from another planet ... Just my luck!"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Cathy Slater dreams of meeting the love of her life ... teen rock</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">sensation, Nathan Jake.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">He's adored by millions, while she has trouble even fitting into her </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">own family! Although he is a tutor at her university, there is no way </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">she can compete with the packs of worshipping fans constantly </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">surrounding him.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">But then fate intervenes and her life changes forever when she </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">stumbles onto Nathan's biggest secret ... She wasn't meant to see what </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">he can do ... what he is ... Now there's no going back.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Who are the Ripmenders and what is their purpose here on Earth?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Follow Cathy across the galaxy as she uncovers the truth about the </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">shady organisation behind Nathan's secret. Can she ever truly </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">understand the mystery behind the man she loves? ... Or will an enemy </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">from the past ruin everything?</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">T</span><i style="font-family: Helvetica;">he Guardian's Wyrd </i><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">by Nerine Dorman:</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Sometimes having a fairytale prince as a best friend can be a real pain.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Jay didn't realise that sticking up for Rowan, the gangly new kid at </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">school, would plunge him into the dangers and politics of the magical </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">realm of Sunthyst. But if anyone is up for the challenge it's Jay </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">September. With his trusty dog, Shadow, at his side, he braves the </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">watcher in the dark that guards the tunnels between the worlds, and </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">undertakes a dangerous quest to rescue the prince.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">It's a race against time - can he sneak Prince Rowan away from under </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">King Lessian's nose and bring him safely back home - all before the </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">prince's sixteenth birthday? Or is Rowan's mother, the exiled Queen </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Persia, secretly trying to hold onto her power by denying her son his </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">birthright?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Jay is ready for anything, except, perhaps, the suffocating darkness</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">of the tunnels. And those eyes ...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">~</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Talk to Wordsmack by checking out our details here: www.word-smack.com</span><br />
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Wordsmackedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16965123820466250445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2567291111846886104.post-48246846876025763132014-03-06T01:50:00.000-08:002014-03-06T06:29:32.060-08:00Books for the price of a cup of coffeePublishers have been vocal recently about the fact that you can now buy a book for the same price as a cup of coffee. Isn't that sad, they lament? How will it last? Well, of course we'd also like to make big profits and pay rent and eat something other than 2 Minute Noodles. But for now, we need to get more people with those eyeballs of theirs onto our books so that their minds can also be blown by how incredible (and sometimes a little scary) our authors' minds are.<br />
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To do list:<br />
#1: blow people's minds<br />
#2: make money when Hollywood comes a-knocking<br />
#3: eat something other than 2 Minute Noodles<br />
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So therefore, the point, dearies, of this rant: Look at what you get for a measly R20 these days. It's not much. OR you can spend R20 on a book which will blow your mind, broaden your horizons and leave you looking down at your old school friends who clearly are not as impressive as you are.<br />
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Below shows: you can buy a Woolies smoothie, a cup of coffee (not even a double shot anymore), a song on iTunes, a cheapass app or ten diapers. OR you can do better.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX9NXhFCxAj6P24PuFaBYc4BTUx_1MpazTnC3CD0Ybgn-NDfYtyxzT9_ekZ40iFS8N-FHTvAC5jGKH-edsLPkWcoWyhIlLhyHKz0MY0Rc3agdOEv1kKxij-rxoWuFiXGuXEXpbabiAn0QZ/s1600/blog+images+2.001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX9NXhFCxAj6P24PuFaBYc4BTUx_1MpazTnC3CD0Ybgn-NDfYtyxzT9_ekZ40iFS8N-FHTvAC5jGKH-edsLPkWcoWyhIlLhyHKz0MY0Rc3agdOEv1kKxij-rxoWuFiXGuXEXpbabiAn0QZ/s1600/blog+images+2.001.jpg" height="161" width="400" /></a></div>
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This price is only available on the awesome Kobo: http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/the-folds </div>
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We were generous and thought we'd even look at what R40 can give you. It includes a Woolies meal, better apps, or a movie on box office movie and some homemade popcorn (no easy popping for you). OR the brain explosion thing.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn_mv99XfVlrXwwysAfx6CpMUW4rmEv9xQn3cLzt9mcJBEpe19W9me9q-RvjPkRGbPruWPEL1SHWXXPWp5i4oc_6SoXykb26DwMIyvp81FBRoZMwbaU9UWjNzzW7ZcPo5W6bTbT5FENadY/s1600/blog+images1.001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn_mv99XfVlrXwwysAfx6CpMUW4rmEv9xQn3cLzt9mcJBEpe19W9me9q-RvjPkRGbPruWPEL1SHWXXPWp5i4oc_6SoXykb26DwMIyvp81FBRoZMwbaU9UWjNzzW7ZcPo5W6bTbT5FENadY/s1600/blog+images1.001.jpg" height="162" width="400" /></a></div>
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This price is only available on the awesome Kobo: http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/idea-war</div>
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Be good, but if you can't, you may as well enjoy.</div>
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Leani</div>
<br />Wordsmackedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16965123820466250445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2567291111846886104.post-35111320837346260842014-02-12T02:01:00.001-08:002014-02-12T05:52:58.441-08:00Get to know your business geeks. Part 1<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I stumbled across a magazine last week that left me with a renewed sense of impressed-ness (I'm keeping that word) at how creative and innovative our little industry is here at tip of the continent. <i><a href="http://www.splicedmagazine.com/" target="_blank">Spliced Magazine</a></i> is a digital mag, based in Joburg, aimed at the geek community. It looks and feels like something with an enormous budget and teams of clever and artistic people. But, having stalked the poor editor (online. for now ...) I realised it's pulled together by three people: <span style="line-height: 21px;">Pippa Tshabalala, </span><span style="line-height: 21px;">Chris Savides and </span><span style="line-height: 21px;">Tim Hulme.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Having worked at a magazine I fully realise how difficult it is to just publish it, never mind getting it to look this good and have great content. However, what I had to be reminded of (and that was mentioned in the first Spliced editorial) is that there are incredible initiatives like this, but somehow we don't know about them or they don't get enough face-time on traditional media platforms. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhORuE4eI32uuQLTBoO3vgCfVJ4EMzu05yWMAc5ee-I8XlmSM8FoRU6jUNuJHxkPvuRJYQFgIpggo7jKPrC3HLNo5xhp1jH8EFkdYQI-dHlY7zM-QBVfSVrMPvW6E6uh5fq7WG3G053-XGC/s1600/1623598_572637999498649_712823645_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhORuE4eI32uuQLTBoO3vgCfVJ4EMzu05yWMAc5ee-I8XlmSM8FoRU6jUNuJHxkPvuRJYQFgIpggo7jKPrC3HLNo5xhp1jH8EFkdYQI-dHlY7zM-QBVfSVrMPvW6E6uh5fq7WG3G053-XGC/s1600/1623598_572637999498649_712823645_n.jpg" height="320" width="226" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So this week's blog is dedicated to amazing small businesses or operators that are working to bring great content or services to a growing market that is looking for original content or original ideas for everyday issues. Share it around and support them and keep the hope alive!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The publications:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><a href="http://www.somethingwicked.co.za/" target="_blank">Something Wicked</a></i> is a horror anthology and </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><a href="http://www.junglejim.org/" target="_blank">Jungle Jim</a></i> a pulp fiction magazine both based in Cape Town. Both accept writing from local authors and the magazines give them the opportunity to be published, which adds a whole new level of craft to their work, we can tell. These are also cracking good reads bringing a local relevance to horror and speculative fiction that for long has been missing from our shores.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.splicedmagazine.com/" target="_blank">Spliced</a>, as mentioned above, is giving 'geek' a sexy new look. Well worth the read (or you can just ogle the editor's boobs).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The competition:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.sffsa.org.za/Nova.html" target="_blank">Nova</a> short story competition - Run by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Association (say that fast, I dare you), the Nova is a short story competition in the speculative genre. This year it was judged by Lauren Beukes (the author) and Arthur Goldstuck (of WorldWideWorx), among others. This opportunity gives local, green writers an incredible leg-up in terms of the quality of their work. And we can see it in the quality of their writing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The venues:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/DeeTwentyGeekingVenue?fref=pb&hc_location=profile_browser" target="_blank">Deetwenty Geeking Venue</a>: A house in Blairgowrie dedicated to gaming and other geek endeavours. It's where the Trekkies meet and other gamers can drink coffee and do their thing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WishFGM?fref=pb&hc_location=profile_browser" target="_blank">Fairy Gothmother</a>: An arts and crafts coffee shop in Linden where you can go find your 'inner geek' or buy geek merch. Having gone to school in Linden I can tell you, a geek shop here is a development worth mentioning. It means the community is growing and businesses are catering to our needs.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://outerlimits.co.za/" target="_blank">Outer Limits</a>: A brilliant comic bookstore that gives you everything geek-related your heart desires. Think the comic bookstore in Big Bang theory - exactly that. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The events company:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/OrsmSrc" target="_blank">Orsum Source</a>: A collaborative effort by ourselves and Kate Barnes - we're organising geek-centric events including a Steampunk picnic and Live Action Role Play (Larp) parties. Enough with hipster food markets over the weekends!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6s4gBGelUPJ3DMaKK0FVQn5-R8LMZlQtN65uRXB2BbvVMKgxjavWRYkFeN6fBmklUT0XuV12vVQss0LsmBdoTxQuMAEiI6A4CQwpK3erTBPXWnt3-O0ObLYPbjKS8QCXhRSuc0WTpiUYD/s1600/1521978_249045368604286_1194703280_n-3.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6s4gBGelUPJ3DMaKK0FVQn5-R8LMZlQtN65uRXB2BbvVMKgxjavWRYkFeN6fBmklUT0XuV12vVQss0LsmBdoTxQuMAEiI6A4CQwpK3erTBPXWnt3-O0ObLYPbjKS8QCXhRSuc0WTpiUYD/s1600/1521978_249045368604286_1194703280_n-3.png" height="200" width="200" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The platforms:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.paperight.com/" target="_blank">Paperight</a> - Making it cheaper to study, Paperight turns any old photocopy shop into a bookstore by allowing customers to print their textbooks there. This is an incredible initiative in a country where textbooks are prohibitively expensive and access to bookstores is a real problem for many school goers.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.nativevml.com/work-detail/bookly" target="_blank">bookly</a> - So it's pretty clear that we have a massive thing for this business. In case you haven't read any of our <a href="http://wordsmacked.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-cellphone-reader-wants-your-books.html" target="_blank">older blog</a> posts, bookly is a reader for cellphones - and this includes feature phones, not just smartphones, bringing free books to millions of people in South Africa. You can access the app on Mxit and see how many people have read and liked a range of local (and classic) books. It's a library on your cell.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7bcRxbN4Z_pPq-BeJwRVnYRSoTs5WjA7IRlqOXPlcCpOhtv9zyTW2HhoYpcoLDEkSowmJxWPY3rTfODx6uXXIJjogj-ZhvIKuwTTJudd6NxC3iwC78YIOO5LpjbvmNkhuOStT84ciR3eV/s1600/Screenshot_2014-02-12-10-44-14.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7bcRxbN4Z_pPq-BeJwRVnYRSoTs5WjA7IRlqOXPlcCpOhtv9zyTW2HhoYpcoLDEkSowmJxWPY3rTfODx6uXXIJjogj-ZhvIKuwTTJudd6NxC3iwC78YIOO5LpjbvmNkhuOStT84ciR3eV/s1600/Screenshot_2014-02-12-10-44-14.png" height="200" width="120" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The Community:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://makegamessa.com/" target="_blank">Make Games SA</a> is a <span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;">registered association and an online community for </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;">professional, hobbyist and student game developers,</span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"> artists, designers for support in creating games. Very nice. Check them out: </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The stuff:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.arwen.co.za/2009/index.cfm" target="_blank">Arwen Garmentry</a>: Ok, so they've been around for years, but their gorgeous work often features on the wish lists of Steampunkers and anyone else, really, that has seen some of the beautiful clothes they make. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/SIN-BIN-Graphic-and-Fashion-Design/128220470565798" target="_blank">Sin Bin</a>: This business creates custom accessories, clothing and illustrations and has a loyal following among the cosplayers in SA. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This list is by no means done, we'll publish a Part 2 soon!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Stay cool, and support your local business geeks!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Leani</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Wordsmackedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16965123820466250445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2567291111846886104.post-42966554769776339632014-01-28T05:05:00.000-08:002014-01-29T01:46:41.286-08:0010 Questions for the New Face of Science Fiction<h3>
<b style="font-family: Calibri;">As our editors are working on the second instalment in the unique </b><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><b>sci-fi short story series, <i>Idea War</i>, we had author Abi Godsell answer 10 questions on why she writes science fiction and where her inspiration lies:</b></span></h3>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRH8JCxLWA_BSA2xOeJOJhKNwm5ozEvF9PakGKxa1bbKTJnUCpco0nCy_7n39siQuMR8KNFkxtLLVkZ41grlpwz06o7jz720UAUl6aeYxww2bJSXXp0doZ0y_NFwRwJRl8wlG3Nss01WoE/s1600/1471884_427064817419143_1307683058_n.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRH8JCxLWA_BSA2xOeJOJhKNwm5ozEvF9PakGKxa1bbKTJnUCpco0nCy_7n39siQuMR8KNFkxtLLVkZ41grlpwz06o7jz720UAUl6aeYxww2bJSXXp0doZ0y_NFwRwJRl8wlG3Nss01WoE/s1600/1471884_427064817419143_1307683058_n.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Abi Godsell, author of Idea War: Volume1. Fresh faced indeed.</td></tr>
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<b>Why do you write in the sci-fi genre?</b></div>
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Well, I'd classify myself as a Speculative Fiction girl mostly. Sci-fi is one of the genres I do a lot of work in at the moment, mostly I think because it combines story and science, future and fiction. It gives the distance that we need to say the things that are too painful and close, but never-the-less need to be talked about. It's also fun!</div>
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<b>You have very interesting female characters in your books. Are they inspired by real-life people?</b></div>
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Absolutely. Not directly, but, bits and pieces are borrowed and extrapolated from the incredible girls and women I grew up with. I had the good fortune to be in monastic schooling, so got to see girls playing a lot of the roles that stories and media often relegate to the male realm. It took me a while to learn to write boys, though!</div>
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<b>What was the book that inspired you to become a writer?</b></div>
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<i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0064471837/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0064471837&linkCode=as2&tag=wordsmack-20">Sabriel</a></i> by Garth Nix. It wasn't the first book I fell in love with, or my favourite book of all time, but it came at a time when I was verging on wanting to tell my own stories. It had everything, spooky setting with solid, chunky, believeable magic, a cross-over into a world much like our own, a strong and complex and very relatable female protagonist, military themes, and delicately handled romance. Part of it was also set at an all-girls' school. It was the first text that made me say, not just, 'This is so cool!' but 'This is cool ... I wonder how something like this would go down here?' And that was it, I was sold, and staring out of the window during a boring economics class was never quite the same again.</div>
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<b>What is your favourite character of all time?</b></div>
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Wooo. Tough call. It changes, of course, every day, sometimes more than once a day, depending on I don't know, mood, weather, how annoyed I am by traffic. But there are staples, characters I like and respect and relax into reading about, like putting on a familiarly worn jersey. Merriman Lyon from Susan Cooper's <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Rising-Sequence-ebook/dp/B0045JKE08/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1390912380&sr=8-2&keywords=the+dark+is+rising" target="_blank">The Dark is Rising</a></i>. The Maid, from William Morris' <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004SQU1I8/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B004SQU1I8&linkCode=as2&tag=wordsmack-20">Wood Beyond the World</a></i>. Karl from <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1592910564/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1592910564&linkCode=as2&tag=wordsmack-20">FreakAngels, Vol. 1</a> </i>by Warren Ellis and Paul Duffield. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060825456/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0060825456&linkCode=as2&tag=wordsmack-20">Coraline</a> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0064W67IM/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0064W67IM&linkCode=as2&tag=wordsmack-20">The Sandman</a> from Neil Gaiman's book and comic of the same names respectively.<br />
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<b>Steampunk or dieselpunk. Why?</b></div>
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Neither! I'm a Junkpunk fan. Junkpunk out of Phillip Gross's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0590198084/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0590198084&linkCode=as2&tag=wordsmack-20">Psylicon Beach</a>. I guess that would mean I lean more towards the dieselpunk in that I like noise and mess and rust and oil. That great towering cement factory that you see coming along the N3 into Joburg, that's one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. But, to be serious, it depends on the execution, and the story itself. With so much variety, so many voices and so many views coming into genre fiction lately, because the internet is a wonderful, wonderful thing, its hard to talk about homogenous genres, especially ones that are already so close.<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GTIEPYO/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00GTIEPYO&linkCode=as2&tag=wordsmack-20" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B00GTIEPYO&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=wordsmack-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=wordsmack-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00GTIEPYO" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
<b>How do you envision Johannesburg in 30 years' time?</b><br />
Greener, quieter, good public transport. In 30 years time I hope we'll have solved the fragmentation along economic, and, still, racial lines that is this parting gift to this city from the Apartheid Government. We have some wonderful talent and passion in our local government and planning departments. So I envision good and exciting things.</div>
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<b>If you could make one change to Johannesburg, what would it be?</b></div>
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Just one? Another tough call. Actually not as tough. Free, high-speed internet access city wide. First step along a difficult and slow road that ends with all of us being able to see and talk to each other. </div>
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<b>Do you think South Africans should read sci-fi, why?</b></div>
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Absolutely. We are governed, in a small way, by a truly exquisite piece of science fiction: The poem that is the pre-amble to the National Development Plan. It talks about a hopeful, accessible vision of our country in 2030. We spend quite a bit of time talking about what isn't working in the country, which is required, yes, but maybe it's also time to start dreaming of a future that does. We are a country in the process of re-writing our own future. I think sci-fi is essential.</div>
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<b>Why did you include a map of the future Johannesburg in your book?</b></div>
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I like to work with very specific locations when I write, ones that I can visit and draw, map and study. Not so I know them, but to try and capture a little of the richness that is living in Johannesburg, and weave it into my work. I liked the idea that maybe, someone would look at the map and say, 'Hey! That's my house, there in the middle of this disaster zone!' or 'I know this road on which this firefight is taking place, I drive it to work everyday.'</div>
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<b>Three books you suggest everyone to read?</b></div>
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Something your kids are reading, for school or otherwise. Something that someone your grandmother's age talks about fondly, and something, anything on a subject that you didn't even know existed before!<br />
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<b>About Idea War: Volume 1</b><br />
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Sixteen-year-old Callie Baxter refuses to just sit tight and accept the invaders who have occupied her city. Underneath the new Government’s façade of order and fairness lies the ugly reason for its being here, and it’s up to Callie’s group of underground rebels to expose its brutal objective.<br />
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She’s worked hard to keep her fledgling group of passionate rebels alive, but as the Government’s hit squads narrow in on them, she realises she has only just begun to understand the pain of loss, and the true cost of growing up.<br />
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Abi Godsell uses the groundbreaking new format of a short story science fiction series for a highly entertaining and smart read. In the first instalment of the Idea War series, we’re introduced to the characters behind the resistance to the Chinese occupation of Johannesburg, South Africa. Through the perspectives of various characters, it soon becomes clear that the new government’s first priority is far removed from the one they propagate on the blimps that dot the city’s skyline.<br />
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The city represents a shining example of recovery to the outside world, but can a small group of determined teenagers overcome the decay that has taken root at its core?</div>
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Buy the book here: </div>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GTIEPYO/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00GTIEPYO&linkCode=as2&tag=wordsmack-20">Idea War: Volume 1</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=wordsmack-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00GTIEPYO" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
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<b>About Abi Godsell:</b></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18px;">Abi Godsell has been writing sci-fi, horror and urban magic short stories since 2006. She has had several stories published in Something Wicked and in 2011 she won the South African Science Fiction and Fantasy's South African division of the Nova Short Story contest for her sci-fi piece "Taal". She also moonlights as an Urban Planning student.</span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 18px;">She's dreaming of free public transport and internet access and musty basement libraries full of books and books and books. Creating new worlds is her speciality, and she set her first novel, <i>Idea War</i>, in a dystopian future Johannesburg, where the recovery is cautious, hesitant.</span><br />
<span style="line-height: 18px;">She has a thing for steampunk themes, engines and science fiction that includes strong female characters.</span><br />
<span style="line-height: 18px;">She has a <a href="http://cyanseagulls.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">blog</a>, </span><span style="line-height: 18px;">is on <a href="https://twitter.com/Cyanseagull" target="_blank">twitter</a> and can also be liked on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/AbiGodsell" target="_blank">Facebook</a>. Just click on the links.</span><br />
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Wordsmackedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16965123820466250445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2567291111846886104.post-28431009873113921072014-01-15T04:09:00.002-08:002014-01-28T00:48:53.664-08:00Free: Comprehension and language worksheet and content<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR8FHI3gL3-EB9UVPGfi-_oGxCaLYEsMhVr5e8eb-cB-7W7dhfPES-nEuvJzn0sWBN34gufUZwWxAz0Wn-_ySed94E2eT5t1rZcUjhg2uy5uc4hV8le2DuoV6DFJ6JeElvT9JmLOxs5WI/s1600/pinterest+pencils.001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR8FHI3gL3-EB9UVPGfi-_oGxCaLYEsMhVr5e8eb-cB-7W7dhfPES-nEuvJzn0sWBN34gufUZwWxAz0Wn-_ySed94E2eT5t1rZcUjhg2uy5uc4hV8le2DuoV6DFJ6JeElvT9JmLOxs5WI/s1600/pinterest+pencils.001.jpg" height="246" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Attention teachers looking for some local content: You can download the free <i>Idea War: Volume 1</i> Comprehension and language worksheet for Grade 9's <a href="http://cyanseagulls.wordpress.com/2014/01/15/free-comprehension-test-for-teachers/" target="_blank">here</a>. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The worksheet is CAPS-compliant and the story is relatable as it is set in Johannesburg. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">(The link takes you to Abi Godsell's blog, sorry for the redirect, but Wordpress can't host pdfs.)</span><br />
<br />Wordsmackedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16965123820466250445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2567291111846886104.post-15843619120764488392014-01-07T00:33:00.000-08:002014-01-07T00:33:24.559-08:00My top books of 2013 according to GoodreadsWordsmack is back from holiday! And this year we will be bringing you some amazing books. In the meantime though, if you're looking for recommendations, you can go to my <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/21283-louise" target="_blank">Goodreads profile</a>. I am now the 11th top reviewer on Goodreads in SA.<br />
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In 2013 I fell just shy of my target of 50 books with 47 books. Here are my five-star books:<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008AW5M9Y/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B008AW5M9Y&linkCode=as2&tag=wordsmack-20"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B008AW5M9Y&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=wordsmack-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=wordsmack-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B008AW5M9Y" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B7NPRY8/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00B7NPRY8&linkCode=as2&tag=wordsmack-20"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B00B7NPRY8&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=wordsmack-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=wordsmack-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00B7NPRY8" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BW2MOKO/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00BW2MOKO&linkCode=as2&tag=wordsmack-20"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B00BW2MOKO&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=wordsmack-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=wordsmack-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00BW2MOKO" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005ZOBNOI/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B005ZOBNOI&linkCode=as2&tag=wordsmack-20"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B005ZOBNOI&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=wordsmack-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=wordsmack-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B005ZOBNOI" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005CRQ2IU/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B005CRQ2IU&linkCode=as2&tag=wordsmack-20"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B005CRQ2IU&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=wordsmack-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=wordsmack-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B005CRQ2IU" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/000748920X/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=000748920X&linkCode=as2&tag=wordsmack-20"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=000748920X&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=wordsmack-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=wordsmack-20&l=as2&o=1&a=000748920X" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FC1BNI/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B000FC1BNI&linkCode=as2&tag=wordsmack-20"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B000FC1BNI&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=wordsmack-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=wordsmack-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000FC1BNI" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1563890410/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1563890410&linkCode=as2&tag=wordsmack-20"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=1563890410&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=wordsmack-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=wordsmack-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1563890410" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007HBLOZA/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B007HBLOZA&linkCode=as2&tag=wordsmack-20"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B007HBLOZA&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=wordsmack-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=wordsmack-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B007HBLOZA" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
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And some local favourites I enjoyed this year (I'm only including one of our own):<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005J4EXW8/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B005J4EXW8&linkCode=as2&tag=wordsmack-20"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B005J4EXW8&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=wordsmack-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=wordsmack-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B005J4EXW8" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1780891318/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1780891318&linkCode=as2&tag=wordsmack-20"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=1780891318&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=wordsmack-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=wordsmack-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1780891318" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GTIEPYO/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00GTIEPYO&linkCode=as2&tag=wordsmack-20"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B00GTIEPYO&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=wordsmack-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=wordsmack-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00GTIEPYO" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DTISX9U/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00DTISX9U&linkCode=as2&tag=wordsmack-20"><img border="0" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B00DTISX9U&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=wordsmack-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=wordsmack-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00DTISX9U" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
</div>
<br />
To see the full list, click <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/21283?read_at=2013&utm_source=pinterest.com&view=covers" target="_blank">here</a>.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05076006887550581100noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2567291111846886104.post-64216908482970833322013-12-04T00:24:00.000-08:002013-12-06T01:14:46.958-08:00Authors: Get More Eyeballs on Your Books<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Idea-War-Volume-Abi-Godsell-ebook/dp/B00GTIEPYO/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzk7of02aw0JR2QxIIAlFNBur6jquvxkloKx6BDkEZgMFmll80e_G_l4qwm4V1drYFP1vomQ2iJnW-Edzykh1xnh2fSQs_c7wLDn7Q1yEx0iONuRHsuNJ2RzhCUTLef0uOzwhEdK6CP76H/s320/Screenshot_2013-11-28-15-13-20.png" height="320" width="192" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Authors,
especially those who are self-publishing, need to be aware of the huge,
untapped market that the tech industry is frothing at the mouth for: the mobile
phone consumer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The juicy
information below shows that from the commuter in London to the infrastructure-poor
teen in South Africa everyone is using mobile phones more and more for accessing
the internet – sharing, browsing and reading. From buying life insurance to
banking to watching videos, cellphones are becoming relevant in a big way, especially
on a continent where the middle class market is expected to grow and the ratio
of phones to people is so high. (In SA there are <span style="color: #1b1819;">45m active cell phones for
a population of 49m).</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is why
you can find our books on Bookly, a mobile phone reader app on the South
African based Mxit. Now, this is more than just being able to read your books
on your smartphone. Apps like Bookly allow non-smartphones to buy and consume
books on this one platform (Amazon apps, for example, don’t allow buying). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>So how do I
get onto a mobile platform?</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Step 1:</b>
Start with the smartphone market and make sure that your book is available as
an eBook on platforms like Kobo and Amazon. Android and iOS users can download
reader apps for free and read their books this way on their cellphones when
they’re commuting or waiting in line somewhere.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Step 2:</b>
Build your reputation among the under-served market. Find a platform like we
did with Bookly that speaks to your genre. <a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2567291111846886104" style="mso-comment-date: 20131203T1531; mso-comment-reference: LC_1;">Worldreader </a>is focused on getting books out to
underprivileged learners, and keen to make contact with book donors.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Get into
contact with the spokesperson for the platform. Often these technologies are
still relatively new and the creators are keen on adding content to showcase
all the features and abilities of their apps.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And you’re
in a better, more flexible position than many of the slow-moving publishing
houses to quickly send over your work. However, let’s not make promises here
that you’ll get in there quickly. Sometimes persistence counts, but chances are
indie publishing houses already on these platforms are looking for tailor-made
content and contacting them would be easier.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Contact: tick.
Now for getting people to read your stuff.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">By now you
should’ve read quite a bit about writing great blurbs and good cover design.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">However, on
cellphones you have even less space and attention span to work with. So your
blurb needs to be shorter and punchier. We’ve found blurbs in the first person
do better than others. Make sense? No, but we’re working on figuring out why.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As for the
cover design – it needs to be digitally friendly. Look how striking the black
and white of Brett Bruton’s <i>Birth One</i> is on this screen shot, and it pays off
in the number of times read.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH78FwsGTiM1eWOP5T1El2g8Yo4kPBuh6hpEc5KIoxxmES-GUFDpJtip-DDkZp2CTWwh-uNwMKQ2rrW0cHurz7a7wnMh6Otz20xNEVuDw79SDofWu_egpvjmE522mTTrwJv5iN5kQqL8jA/s1600/Screenshot_2013-12-04-10-03-13-1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH78FwsGTiM1eWOP5T1El2g8Yo4kPBuh6hpEc5KIoxxmES-GUFDpJtip-DDkZp2CTWwh-uNwMKQ2rrW0cHurz7a7wnMh6Otz20xNEVuDw79SDofWu_egpvjmE522mTTrwJv5iN5kQqL8jA/s320/Screenshot_2013-12-04-10-03-13-1.png" height="320" width="192" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Striking the
right balance for blurbs and design takes some experimentation. However, if
you’ve found a good platform and have a good relationship with the content
editors, it’s easy to make changes and see how they impact your figures. We
like that we can see how many people have read our books and how many have
liked or disliked them. This immediate feedback allows us to make more accurate
decisions regarding the length, type of content, the blurbs and the look of the
books we publish. Power to the people, hey?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Then there’s
the content. We find our shorter stories do much better than the longer ones.
We’re talking 3000 words here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So you
don’t want to dump your entire novel onto this platform, rather, perhaps, a
short story using the same characters and world, but a different plot. Use it
as a way to build your reputation so that when your novel is launched, there are
more people who can recognise you and what your work is about. <span style="color: #262626;">Author
Fiona Snyckers chose Bookly to launch her novel <i>Team Trinity</i> to an
audience of 7.3m monthly active users, three weeks before the real-world launch
in bookstores.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Promoting
yourself:</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The problem
with mobile platforms, is that some aren’t linked to your social media accounts
or have different ways of connecting to the Internet – so you can’t link your
book site to your Twitter account or find all your friends from Facebook. Some
platforms are also very age-specific, so you’ll most likely be oldest person on
the platform, and asking 16-year-olds to follow you is kinda creepy. These
platforms are still very isolated from the rest of the online world. It’s still
early days, but for now consider that the platform that you’re using can send
messages to all the readers of your previous books, can tell how far they read
your books and how long they spent on your work. They can also send out
messages directly to a cellphone to alert users of giveaways, new releases and
other newsworthy items. For now, that’s all I’ve got, but it sounds pretty good
to me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Show me the
money! Please? Oh ok.</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">However, as
with most of these new endeavours, you’ll probably be paid a pittance, if at
all. So you’re back to being a poor writer. BUT, we live in hope. Which is why
mobile is so interesting – it could mean more eyeballs for your work, which
means more clout in terms of social networking and readers of your other books,
all of which you can take to a publisher and say <b>“Look, Look at these crazy
numbers – there are so many people reading me, you should have signed me years
ago, but I’ll forgive you … for a fee. And a footrub.”</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Some tidbits
of info getting the techies excited: </b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #131313;">The Internet Access in South Africa 2012 study, conducted
by World Wide Worx and backed by the howzit MSN online portal:</span></span></div>
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<ul>
<li><span style="color: #131313; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">A
total of 7,9m South Africans access the Internet on their cell phones. Of
these, 2,48m access it only on their cellphones, and do not have access on the
computers. The remaining 6,02m users access the Internet on computers, laptops
and tablet computers. However, 90% of this number – 5,42m – also access it on
their cellphones. This means that almost 8m South Africans sometimes or
regularly access the Internet on their phones</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The numbers
according to the <span style="color: #353435;">The Mobility 2014 research study, conducted by World
Wide Worx with the backing of First National Bank:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-bottom: 20.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -18.0pt; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
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<ul>
<li><span style="color: #353435; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;"> </span><span style="color: #353435; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">The 19 to 24 age group – representing students and
entrants into the workforce – is abandoning voice faster than any other
segment. Only 56% of this group’s mobile budget is now spent on voice, down
from 66% in mid-2012. Data spend, on the other hand, has increased from 17% to
24%.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #353435; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;"> </span><span style="color: #353435; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">Voice
spend has dropped from 73% of mobile budget to 65%, while data has increased
from 12% to 16%. At the beginning of 2010, voice stood at 77% and data at 8%.</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="color: #353435;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Check out the World Wide Worx
site for more info on cellphone usage and internet penetration in Africa.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Wordsmackedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16965123820466250445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2567291111846886104.post-71562055788634243172013-11-21T02:37:00.000-08:002013-12-06T01:18:28.439-08:00Idea War: Volume 1 by Abi Godsell launching today<div style="text-align: center;">
<img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=wordsmack-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00GTIEPYO" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
</div>
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<a href="http://www.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GTIEPYO/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00GTIEPYO&linkCode=as2&tag=wordsmack-20%22%3E%3Cimg%20border=%220%22%20src=%22http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B00GTIEPYO&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=wordsmack-20%22%20%3E%3C/a%3E%3Cimg%20src=%22http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=wordsmack-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00GTIEPYO%22%20width=%221%22%20height=%221%22%20border=%220%22%20alt=%22%22%20style=%22border:none%20!important;%20margin:0px%20!important;%22%20/%3E" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTmgWIC8Lz5E9qcsikdnigIrNKxeO7J7Rlts-qYq0Adi3p2rQNFdpyMoezusmfqYNf0YWfE7MOencbSWW0Wc69hMaiQ9TXrKgOQRowix6GGs7LskfSjOp1riSpokAY5sc3scFWFSDlNTg/s320/Idea+War+cover_final_RGB_sml+copy.jpg" height="320" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Jet-packs and socio-political sci-fi set in a future Johannesburg, South Africa. That and more is what awaits readers of the first instalment in the series <i>Idea War</i>, released today by Wordsmack Publishers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Author and Johannesburg-cheerleader Abi Godsell uses her city of birth as the setting for her dystopian coming-of-age series. <u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“It’s why I write the way I do, locating stories in very specific places. At least, this love of city, and wanting to share that love is one of the reasons,” says Godsell.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“I hope that someone reading <i>Idea War</i>, would take a look at the map and recognise a landmark in the text and suddenly say ‘Hey! But that’s my street! I drive that street to the veggie shop every Saturday,’” says Godsell.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>About <i>Idea War: Volume 1</i>:</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Sixteen-year-old Callie Baxter refuses to just sit tight and accept the invaders who have occupied her city. Underneath the new Government’s façade of order and fairness lies the ugly reason for its being here, and it’s up to Callie’s group of underground rebels to expose its brutal objective.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">She’s worked hard to keep her fledgling group of passionate rebels alive, but as the Government’s hit squads narrow in on them, she realises she has only just begun to understand the pain of loss, and the true cost of growing up.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Idea War: Volume 1</i> is the first installment in a thrilling new urban series which outlines the story behind the fight for the soul of a future Johannesburg.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The city represents a shining example of recovery to the outside world, but can a small group of determined teenagers overcome the decay that has taken root at its core? <u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Buy <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GTIEPYO/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00GTIEPYO&linkCode=as2&tag=wordsmack-20">Idea War: Volume 1</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=wordsmack-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00GTIEPYO" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
here.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">You can read more from Abi at these two blog posts:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Joburg as the perfect setting: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">http://violininavoid.wordpress.com/2013/11/19/writing-joburg-a-guest-post-by-abi-godsell/</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Strong female characters in science fiction: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">http://feministssa.com/2013/11/04/gender-roles-story-stereotypes-and-strong-female-characters-in-speculative-fiction/</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Be sure to enter our competition </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixRng_OhSpbT_fCkXX_a9qf76EYxflvlowRgnaMB0DY7pCWQcb82g368YMYDEH8bU_Zr1sSPKuSTomoMC_p9uxFt1pInsitUZAQQxTsuGdmdY4iM-qRUVbelZSbe700M83VP4dpMH6Fyo/s1600/compinstagram.002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixRng_OhSpbT_fCkXX_a9qf76EYxflvlowRgnaMB0DY7pCWQcb82g368YMYDEH8bU_Zr1sSPKuSTomoMC_p9uxFt1pInsitUZAQQxTsuGdmdY4iM-qRUVbelZSbe700M83VP4dpMH6Fyo/s320/compinstagram.002.jpg" height="318" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Follow Abi on Twitter @cyanseagull and read her blog here http://cyanseagulls.wordpress.com </span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05076006887550581100noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2567291111846886104.post-39070885940648228832013-11-11T03:06:00.001-08:002013-11-11T03:20:34.765-08:00Speculative fiction we recently splurged onI went to the Bloody Parchment event at Book Lounge in Cape Town and spent way too much money on books. I think it was worth it though. I got the following:<br />
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<b>The Sandman Volume 1</b><br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1401225756/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1401225756&linkCode=as2&tag=wordsmack-20"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=1401225756&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=wordsmack-20" width="130" /></a><br />
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Neil Gaiman's <i>The Sandman</i> series has got to be the definitive graphic novel series of all time. I have only (embarrassingly) recently gotten into them, but I would recommend them to any adventurous reader who likes to be challenged (and who doesn't mind a few scary dreams).<br />
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<b>Something Wicked Volume 2</b><br />
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<img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=wordsmack-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1401225756" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CSMHO9I/ref=as_li_tf_il?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00CSMHO9I&linkCode=as2&tag=wordsmack-20"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B00CSMHO9I&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=wordsmack-20" width="131" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=wordsmack-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00CSMHO9I" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
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Acclaimed as South Africa's best speculative science fiction and horror anthology, this book contains some incredible stories by some big names in South Africa - including our own <a href="http://cyanseagulls.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Abi Godsell</a>. If you'd like to see an author's career take off, buy this book and be there at the beginning.<br />
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<b>The Root Cellar and Other Stories</b><br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00D3KQ0G2/ref=as_li_tf_il?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00D3KQ0G2&linkCode=as2&tag=wordsmack-20"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B00D3KQ0G2&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=wordsmack-20" width="131" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=wordsmack-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00D3KQ0G2" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
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The Bloody Parchment competition is going from strength to strength every year and this anthology combines the best of the most recent horror short stories coming out of South Africa. Go read it if you want to be creeped out of your socks.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05076006887550581100noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2567291111846886104.post-18195081444600635052013-10-30T01:31:00.000-07:002013-10-31T07:40:04.321-07:003 Horror Reads for HalloweenIn the spirit of Halloween and the SA Horrorfest Bloody Parchment event tonight, we've asked horror writer Mico Pisanti to give us three great books that are guaranteed to get your creeps on. Also, you can click on the images to get your horror fix sent straight to your ereader/door.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr-mOQ1CGTSoAgcVmdQ0wHBIAIaqagRP_bqv6fUD6YRV0UBXuPjpH5i7CXy0KxkY8-N3_CiG610dbSV2_sTDatRYF8x4XCi5r5nehMxPXd-rNvMvCSXcGoYvH4JtAICWqhqWSvbxmfjeh9/s1600/20130922_130559.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr-mOQ1CGTSoAgcVmdQ0wHBIAIaqagRP_bqv6fUD6YRV0UBXuPjpH5i7CXy0KxkY8-N3_CiG610dbSV2_sTDatRYF8x4XCi5r5nehMxPXd-rNvMvCSXcGoYvH4JtAICWqhqWSvbxmfjeh9/s200/20130922_130559.jpg" width="150" /></a><br />
This is Mico, and here are his reads:<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000OI0G1Q/ref=as_li_tf_il?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B000OI0G1Q&linkCode=as2&tag=wordsmack-20" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B000OI0G1Q&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=wordsmack-20" width="130" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=wordsmack-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000OI0G1Q" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><b><u>The Road by Cormack McCarthy</u></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">The Road is so stark, so dark and so minimalistic that the reader can hear </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">the empty footsteps of the unnamed father and son who walk through an </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">apocalyptic world of an unspecified cataclysm. This slim novel has so much </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">weight, that you can literally hear it clunk when you put it down. And yet </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">you as the reader cannot look away, cannot stop following these two bleak </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">characters as they walk along the other constant in this book, the </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">road....it is beautiful and terrible...and scary. A masterpiece.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><b><u>Birdman by Mo Hayder</u></b></span><br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007Z3QRU2/ref=as_li_tf_il?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B007Z3QRU2&linkCode=as2&tag=wordsmack-20" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B007Z3QRU2&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=wordsmack-20" width="133" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=wordsmack-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B007Z3QRU2" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Birdman introduces the world to Detective Jack Caffrey and his drive to find </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">a killer who sows live birds into the chests of young women's corpses. This </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">is more than a crime novel, Mo Hayder has the power of true horror on her </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">side. She knows how to get under one's skin and not only to raise </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">gooseflesh, but to raise hell in the dark recess of the mind. She is a true </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">horror writer thinly disguised as a crime writer.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><b><u>Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King</u></b></span><br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003YUC3YE/ref=as_li_tf_il?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B003YUC3YE&linkCode=as2&tag=wordsmack-20" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B003YUC3YE&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=wordsmack-20" width="110" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=wordsmack-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B003YUC3YE" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Stephen King returns the favour to crime fiction by writing about a long </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">marriage between a husband and a wife, Bob and Darcy Anderson. In it he </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">explores the way people can be married to one another and never truly know </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">each other. One night while Bob is away on business, Darcy rummages through </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Bob's belongings for batteries, and she stumbles across a pornographic </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">magazine of sadomasochism. It is the first step to Darcy discovering she has </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">been married to a serial killer for nearly thirty years. This is a truly </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">frightening story, as it shows that there are rabbit holes in life which we </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">all can fall down into, and this changes everything we thought to be real </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">and solid. Creeping dread at its best.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Mico Pisanti's work has appeared in <i>Something Wicked</i> and <i>Bloody Parchment</i> and his </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">sci-fi/horror series <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GBVE68O/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00GBVE68O&linkCode=as2&tag=wordsmack-20">The Folds: Miss Universe</a><img src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=wordsmack-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00GBVE68O" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" /></i> is out now on Amazon.
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Check out the <a href="http://bloodyparchment.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Bloody Parchment</a> event tonight - featuring big-name local writers offering their strange tales on the night.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span>Wordsmackedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16965123820466250445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2567291111846886104.post-78208018654255059652013-10-28T02:16:00.002-07:002013-10-31T07:33:42.270-07:00New sci-fi horror short story series coming soon!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Get your comfy armchair and ereader ready, Wordsmack Publishers is publishing Mico Pisanti's <em style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GBVE68O/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00GBVE68O&linkCode=as2&tag=wordsmack-20%22%3EThe%20Folds:%20Miss%20Universe%3C/a%3E%3Cimg%20src=%22http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=wordsmack-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00GBVE68O%22%20width=%221%22%20height=%221%22%20border=%220%22%20alt=%22%22%20style=%22border:none%20!important;%20margin:0px%20!important;%22%20/%3E" target="_blank">The Folds</a></em>, this week on Amazon. </div>
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<b>About the book:</b></div>
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After a devastating chemical war, the scarred survivors of Earth are subjects of global corporations that keep their beer spiked with Prozac and free speech a distant memory. At the most glamorous event of the post-war world, Miss Universe, celebrities and the beautiful strut around as if there is no secret resistance, no mysterious movement called The Folds, and most importantly, no horrific once-aborted army of children being created by the current powers-in-command. In the first book of the The Folds series, Mico Pisanti horrifies us with a future scarred by chemical warfare and too-powerful corporations.</div>
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When The Folds calls, will you answer?</div>
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<b>About the author:</b></div>
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Mico Pisanti lives and works in Johannesburg and believes every word he writes. The inspiration behind <i>The Folds</i> is the everyday mundane juxtaposed with a vision of the future which isn’t as far-fetched as it may seem.</div>
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He is such a boring person, that the only way he gets excitement in his life is by imagining the things he writes about in his head. </div>
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His previous work has been pubished in <i>Something Wicked </i>and <i>Bloody Parchment.</i></div>
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Be sure to buy <em style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Folds</em> on <a href="http://www.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GBVE68O/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00GBVE68O&linkCode=as2&tag=wordsmack-20%22%3EThe%20Folds:%20Miss%20Universe%3C/a%3E%3Cimg%20src=%22http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=wordsmack-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00GBVE68O%22%20width=%221%22%20height=%221%22%20border=%220%22%20alt=%22%22%20style=%22border:none%20!important;%20margin:0px%20!important;%22%20/%3E" target="_blank">Amazon</a>.<br />
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Thank you to Louisa Pieters of Fool Moon Design for the great cover design. </div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05076006887550581100noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2567291111846886104.post-10021730072690025362013-10-22T01:05:00.000-07:002013-10-22T03:09:30.175-07:00For the love of airships<br />
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Hallo my pretties,</div>
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Instead of dealing with super-serious publishing issues today, I thought instead we should look at lots and lots of pictures of blimps/airships/zeppelins. It's been a long year, ok?</div>
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[Sci-fi/fantasy 101: blimps are beloved items in genre fiction writing. The steampunk kids get especially excited about them. In real life, they fell (blazing) out of favour after the Hindenburg disaster in 1937. In steampunk it forms part of a time when machines were noisy and demanded to be seen, when top hats and leather and corsets were worn by complicated characters.]</div>
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"I included blimps in my dystopian book <i><a href="http://wordsmacked.blogspot.com/2013/10/cover-reveal-idea-war-volume-1-by-abi.html" target="_blank">Idea War: Volume 1</a></i>, because they're the ultimate symbols of of power," says writer Abi Godsell. "They're not aerodynamic, they don't use the laws of physics - it's about flight by brute force."</div>
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Perfect, in other words, as a symbol of tyranny in her book.</div>
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But, without further ado:</div>
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These pics can all be found at <a href="http://www.deviantart.com/">http://www.deviantart.com</a> (click on the pic for more):</div>
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<a href="http://www.deviantart.com/art/Airship-Of-Doom-387098027" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCWfpHjgHVXP-sVqEs3Mh2Y6kY5Yq6yk4g4Ixb2uwQlPR5gzDDz7Ya6ESWTdJSyMr2mg4njacg1uHgp_tPGUs0ia0nsBq8345au3hQVENkmdgVCz1mkHxIOfnFTjUsYCZ3jaGNBLcemFBz/s400/Koshelkov.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.spikedmcgrath.com/blog/airships-of-oberon/" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="376" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyXPknAoiYvb3JSUu43WFD6Tb9lWBaIKyfQNv_LRnpS6z-1jcAMEw_hqCZfvpeCUQGrOyGE5hbLFhV-KU31lTxLx1BD9c_tQ3Ak_RrcxT3OrsdGnzR0fezEfpBkl8vo465t48g8tgTSSXi/s400/d25196b176852550bb9b3f2fffaec14b-d50hhpy.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.deviantart.com/art/The-Airship-Battle-142478797" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLINS3q9_6CofK-tyjjmEhmjKNfTxm1hrNkTNGEPJyEk2l5eATgNdbvpAo-SfYzEbWdHAFo_6e15ZXxJ4-2XYVY5AnVFgXxq_LLkK_bApY3Mz2y7Den1XwEiWtrQrm9Cyoay6rTD7IfrY3/s400/the_airship_battle_by_spikedmcgrath-d2cttcd.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.deviantart.com/art/ZEPPELIN-53606190" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLW17Bl_WTMQrLPM5Jfvmcny-T6jyWDWjAf7UtjWA_sLBTd4wwGPVOU-PKNFjg1rCUCz3xxT3VsNr-ki3vrnuuNk-_1kLMoJMZ3P39j20R0P-_IhlND9hC47Y6TcsibI0KRYV5lk_ntm5w/s320/ZEPPELIN_by_CHERDAK.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.deviantart.com/art/Airship-307771643" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjftb69BV90B5-qICX3cLSo3wAa0vxr5utaxGH5hm9BlN_eS16PM6AP_qRjKWi8MtxwO3LxvG6Zf5qT5VhZ7hjAakEkflhe1cs2ZEXLuyaRA0ehcnEwvuGLZFufiqYkzhSv6mN_zDOi2xXZ/s400/airship_by_snowskadi-d538m4b.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>
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Annnd the one that killed it for all others: The Hindenburg cruising past the Empire State building in NY:</div>
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/26/realestate/26scapes.html?_r=0" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="229" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSoaTjVj9tZWxHIGCcNBQtR-9iYdxj9WdZ_UuOE-88c81EPeUv2sGnQhETec_rQjHvapKoSlshX-PcOsLpVpwEoOj1lsYQN6Oeuiv11MyPiDO7ELoRYq50kI9FDiSM3_oZaDPfaQf-b4S8/s320/tumblr_muo7uwcAud1rg617uo1_1280.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
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Now, if you still haven't had enough, follow me on <a href="http://www.pinterest.com/leanifii" target="_blank">Pinterest</a> for more.</div>
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Wordsmackedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16965123820466250445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2567291111846886104.post-9318679031643840792013-10-15T08:07:00.000-07:002013-10-16T06:32:50.460-07:00Cover reveal: Idea War: Volume 1 by Abi Godsell
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><b>Finally something new in the Young Adult genre! </b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Wordsmack Publishers is super excited to reveal the cover
for Abi Godsell’s <i>Idea War: Volume 1</i>,
which will be published on online platforms in November. The cover was done by Fool Moon Design's Louisa Pieters. </span></div>
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<a href="http://www.word-smack.com/#!news/nws1/BD6AF971-94EF-4D85-B734-50E5E656B299/cover-reveal%3A-idea-war-volume-1" target=”_blank” imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghCHkjMK9hwm9VT7Icbd2V2nkkOsCWJwyjfOwrbwDhkUQsnnh44av-_VEEO5czPv-3ezOASiGXltWwK66AcJ44uomnXHkn2yER96fE8v3bJlL48ZN4tsOCOEXy7s_butE1JE0ohJLoKFE/s320/Idea+War+final.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The cover is designed
to appeal to the young adult market and includes a local reference – the
duiker, a small antelope – as a symbol of the main character’s resistance to a
foreign oppressor. Classic science fiction fans won’t be disappointed either as
futuristic technology and quality writing combines to create a great read.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Find Abi on:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Twitter: </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://twitter.com/Cyanseagull"><span style="color: #386eff; font-family: Helvetica;">https://twitter.com/Cyanseagull</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Blog: </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://cyanseagulls.wordpress.com/"><span style="color: #386eff; font-family: Helvetica;">http://cyanseagulls.wordpress.com</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Facebook: </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/AbiGodsell"><span style="color: #386eff; font-family: Helvetica;">https://www.facebook.com/AbiGodsell</span></a></span></div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05076006887550581100noreply@blogger.com0Johannesburg, South Africa-26.2041028 28.047305100000017-26.432114300000002 27.724581600000018 -25.9760913 28.370028600000015tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2567291111846886104.post-66897877289796558602013-10-08T05:48:00.002-07:002013-10-16T06:31:05.049-07:00How I rate and review books on Goodreads<br />
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Recently there has been a big furore about reviews: fake, real, paid for honest reviews, paid for fake reviews and the whole attacking/commenting on authors saga. But what if you just really love to read and to tell your friends and followers about worthwhile books? </div>
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/21283-louise" target=”_blank” imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="202" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvvuFqLW1uAO4pGIVOMh7NlnDBNSVFT8PlgX-YqudkmkX1WKQIZ0HFOgvkm8E1P7PcCG7iBpV1bx5jsDqIH9m1xm9M4PygZztRPzxt-rtlkr1sQ71FQKj3zPzeZdD8hsdwk67R37hmFBk/s320/Screen+Shot+2013-10-08+at+14.41.54.png" width="320" /></a></div>
On Goodreads, I'm one of the top reviewers in <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/top_reviewers?country=ZA&duration=a" target="_blank">South Africa </a> (16th over all at the moment). Because I hate reading the whole plot in reviews, I keep mine very short. However, I often go back to my old reviews and ratings and wonder whether I should change them. I also often wonder how my ratings will hold up in a few years. </div>
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The way I rate books is very subjective - and I don't think a lot of people can say their's are not. When I review and rate a book I really do try to focus just on the book itself - language, readablility and plot. But it is <i>also</i> influenced by an author's other works, what else I read recently, other books in the genre and obviously my mood. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCj-mmBf6p3lQX7OB_mcc-4sJaQo29tAkhRov_subRE_YASJXbx_XLsXpR7EthzuXOOeScHBvnhWdTNzxfkrAcDBJXLhpDlSS72OfbShHnpptIgdXIQbvaM-4rlUrxJB0uN8zAY3ecorA/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-10-08+at+14.42.38.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCj-mmBf6p3lQX7OB_mcc-4sJaQo29tAkhRov_subRE_YASJXbx_XLsXpR7EthzuXOOeScHBvnhWdTNzxfkrAcDBJXLhpDlSS72OfbShHnpptIgdXIQbvaM-4rlUrxJB0uN8zAY3ecorA/s320/Screen+Shot+2013-10-08+at+14.42.38.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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I've also recently started using <a href="http://booklikes.com/" target="_blank">Booklikes</a>, but it's still quite new and a bit harder to use at the moment.<br />
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How do you rate books? </div>
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Please remember to review <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18587174-a-grain-of-sand" target="_blank">A Grain of Sand</a>. </div>
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<br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05076006887550581100noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2567291111846886104.post-73516028706194056302013-10-01T02:15:00.001-07:002013-10-22T02:50:55.216-07:00Amazon and the pricing of eBooksIt's a contentious issue on the web - Amazon getting it's grubby paws all over the prices of our ebooks.<br />
Pricing is an art. Do I think my readers deserve or are interested to pay more than $1.99 for a short story of around 30 pages? No. But as we're based in South Africa, that's exactly what's happening.<br />
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The price I'm charged for Charles Cilliers's <i>A Grain of Sand</i>:<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/A-Grain-Sand-Charles-Cilliers-ebook/dp/B00FFAXJBW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1381930027&sr=8-1&keywords=a+grain+of+sand+charles" target=”_blank” style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisW8Jd8vbHoSDKJ9xahs2ftQ09_hIeS5j7lAfhg1QSXqUPL20aC3Jfk7738Cb1maLyzR6kXMqx3gUO2uAIZAVqOI0nNjosiJm2X2nV6AA7ZVuK_ktnUudxScoSV6aA1eI4ze9kRBJL1qLr/s320/blog1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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The price a UK/US-based buyer is charged:</div>
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/A-Grain-Sand-Charles-Cilliers-ebook/dp/B00FFAXJBW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1381930027&sr=8-1&keywords=a+grain+of+sand+charles" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="140" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKgB2zbnVRX6CaD8UMKMSbojnBJ6g3dY7N8zbu99KGdfN-GorljKeGaw6P4fzzJRSHsKC-9eHjnn2GmM9-GvSs1khHNBT80UkhhXU5iKGvTRMQPehc_al5qGo72w1dyLwDePjnAAW3fmwQ/s400/blog2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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The price it's listed at and applicable to US/UK buyers:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihN9HHJcMqSPOfcTmbgEMTnW-33yAmygF3_1gPoPvnDnCRjx6S3ml3olxX1O5HENVXZban50iJLChjuQtF5TYh-Rnx5NaZH6SROKAR5KnOUGzZ9nfThkSZRTc7ebE6cp_W6R4cFpbwrch8/s1600/blog4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="53" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihN9HHJcMqSPOfcTmbgEMTnW-33yAmygF3_1gPoPvnDnCRjx6S3ml3olxX1O5HENVXZban50iJLChjuQtF5TYh-Rnx5NaZH6SROKAR5KnOUGzZ9nfThkSZRTc7ebE6cp_W6R4cFpbwrch8/s400/blog4.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Look, I get it, if we want to list on Amazon, we abide by their rules. But it punishes local readers from a new market - one we're specifically trying to say to: "hey look, books are awesome, buy them online because they're cheaper there."<br />
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This is not a tax issue, by the way, that's a different story and we've paid our due. We're told explicitly that the price difference is because we're based in South Africa. And our royalties are based on the list price.<br />
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I've had a book blogger insist that Amazon won't ever raise it's prices above the listing price. Why not? Did they pinkie swear?<br />
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This issue is why it's absolutely important that Amazon doesn't become the only big player in the industry. If there's no real competition, ebook prices could go up to match those of physical books and leave behind a large section of the world's population that needs access to cheaper books.<br />
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Currently, <i>A Grain of Sand</i> is $1.99 on Kobo, click <a href="http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/A-Grain-of-Sand/book-R1aC9C6yYkKWkmc989HFvQ/page1.html" target="_blank">here</a> to buy it. Or if you have an email address in the UK or the US or are based there, buy it <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/A-Grain-of-Sand-ebook/dp/B00FFAXJBW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1380618878&sr=8-1&keywords=charles+cilliers+grain" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/A-Grain-of-Sand-ebook/dp/B00FFAXJBW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1380618369&sr=8-1&keywords=charles+cilliers" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
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</noscript>Wordsmackedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16965123820466250445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2567291111846886104.post-87555280378415496222013-09-27T02:44:00.000-07:002013-10-22T02:49:35.824-07:00A Grain of Sand - where can you get it? <div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Where can you buy our new short story and for how much?</div>
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<a href="http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/A-Grain-of-Sand/book-R1aC9C6yYkKWkmc989HFvQ/page1.html?s=yqH9Xbg8FEum9t9VQTmUpA&r=6" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="”_blank”"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYwuDewfJEX4-hridZtztZwOf7btqgJOOr-ShvSNJJbRksxN87wxjvXO7GSJ9WB4T4YXw5sMPpBlyVHsKS2sQPVgpHyyNnLStdujyJVjBTv8dGN64DNw6QebfoDZgzUHquqqRiFhOwaAE/s320/A+Grain+of+Sand_cover_RGB.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
Wordsmack's first short story, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FFAXJBW/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00FFAXJBW&linkCode=as2&tag=wordsmack-20">A Grain of Sand</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=wordsmack-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00FFAXJBW" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> is out. You can read my review on Goodreads <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/728902160" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
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For some reason this is still cheaper on <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/A-Grain-of-Sand-ebook/dp/B00FFAXJBW/ref=la_B001JS8MUC_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1380274585&sr=1-2" target="_blank">Amazon.co.uk</a> than on<a href="http://www.amazon.com/A-Grain-of-Sand-ebook/dp/B00FFAXJBW/ref=pd_ybh_1" target="_blank"> Amazon.com</a> - something to do with us being in South Africa. The cheapest option, however, is to buy it on <a href="http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/A-Grain-of-Sand/book-R1aC9C6yYkKWkmc989HFvQ/page1.html?s=6zuh74U-X0yy0rjJUESYKg&r=6" target="_blank">Kobo</a>, because Amazon makes the book more expensive because we are in South Africa.<br />
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</noscript>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05076006887550581100noreply@blogger.com0