Dash and Dingo: In Search of the Tasmanian Tiger is now available from The Book Depository, for those who live outside the US and like free global shipping!

You can buy it here.

When you write a book, you look for inspiration everywhere. You may hang up pictures of people who look like your characters, or you may have even chosen a specific 'model'. You research, and fill up pages with notes or trivia about the characters and their lives that may not even make any kind of appearance in the story whatsoever. And then there's the soundtrack.

( Put the needle on it )

I'm a guest of the lovely Sarah today over at Desert Island Keepers, where I'm blogging about my love of adventure stories!

Come and visit us here!

Come visit Catt and I, as we blab on Jessewave's blog about collaborating, Dash and Dingo, and who really is responsible for the smut (it's Catt).

The controversy over the last week or so about the Lambda Awards has made me, quite frankly, want to scream when I have seen some of the reactions.

Instead, my friend M. Jules Aedin and I penned a response, if you're so interested, which you can find at Wave's blog here.

You can currently buy it here. Amazon links, etc, to follow.

( Click me for an excerpt! )

Even sadder in motion picture footage.

I am currently working on the edits for Dash and Dingo: In Search of the Tasmanian Tiger, and I suddenly realised that today is the the 73rd anniversary of the death of the last 'known' thylacine.



Benjamin died, alone, in her cage at the Hobart Zoo. Not only is it depressing that she was the last known or documented of her species, that was wiped out by the government and overzealous farmers, but she also died of neglect. To think that the last thylacine was locked out of its sleeping hut and died of exposure shows how little care was taken of such a precious animal.

I'd like to think we are better now in conserving species, but one only has to read news reports from all over the world to realise that the thylacine is in a long line of extinct animals.

Anyway, vale Benjamin!

Just letting you all know, I have an official site now!

http://seankennedybooks.com

It's looking a bit barebones at the moment, thanks to my low-skillz, but it's nice to have my own address.

This journal will still be updating as usual, or you can subscribe to the blog on the site.

Just found out today that the date for the release of Dash and Dingo has been set for September 28th! That's a hell of a lot sooner than I expected, and now the nerves have begun in earnest!

It is now on the 'coming soon' page at Dreamspinner, and the blurb has been released along with the date:




Stodgy British archivist Henry Percival-Smythe slaves away in the dusty basement of Ealing College in 1933, the only bright spot in his life his obsession with a strange Australian mammal, the thylacine. It has been hunted to the edge of extinction, and Henry would love nothing more than to help the rare creature survive.

Then a human whirlwind spins through his door. Jack "Dingo" Chambers is also on the hunt for the so-called "Tasmanian Tiger," although his reasons are far more altruistic. Banding together, Dingo and the newly nicknamed Dash travel halfway around the globe in their quest to save the thylacine from becoming a footnote in the pages of biological history.

While they search high and low, traverse the wilds, and fight the deadliest of all creatures—man—Dash and Dingo will face danger and discover another fierce passion within themselves: a desire for each other...

Today Catt and I just received the cover for Dash and Dingo. Do you want a peek?

Tah-dah!




I cannot express how happy I am with it. It was done by Paul Richmond, and looks absolutely fantastic.

Still not sure of the exact release date, but will keep you posted.

Why, I believe it's my journal. I almost didn't recognise it, because I haven't seen it in so long.

So what I mean to say is, erm, sorry.

Kris had a very good post at Wave's blog about author blogging proclivities. You can read it here. Apparently readers like us writers to keep in contact and let you know what we're up to.

So this is a catch-up post, in the hope that I'll be much more proficient at blogging from hereon in. I've become too lazy and accustomed to Twittering, where I can tell you much more interesting things like the fact I'm craving plum pudding and custard at the moment.

In point form, this is what I've been doing lately:

* stressing about the hard drive

* working on the steampunk novel, which I think pretty much is locked in as being called Wings of Equity

* stressing about the hard drive

* getting excited as the sketches for the cover of Dash and Dingo are being done. It looks great, and the artist is Paul Richmond, who did the fantastic cover for Jane Seville's Zero At the Bone

* working on my submission for the Dreamspinner Christmas Anthology

* formulating ideas with Catt for the sequel to Dash and Dingo, which has the working title Dash and Dingo and the Sword of Something Something. Obviously that needs more work

Anywho, this month when you buy directly from Dreamspinner you can be entered to win an iTouch. If you win, you have to give it to me. Because I really want it. And technology has been so bad to me lately, there should be some reward.

Aren't you glad I updated?

Hey everybody! My interview by the wonderful Wave has just gone live.

So if you want to hear me blather on about Cheeseymite scrolls, upcoming projects, and see what the Melbourne Cheesestick actually looks like, click here!

So once again I disappear from the nets, but I swear it was for a reason.

Mainly, my laptop blowing up. And the status of all my works-in-progress now being in limbo.

The reason why I chose this particular laptop was because it had this sooper-dooper supposedly-infallible secondary hard drive which would mean if you had a problem you could boot up the computer from this drive and all your stuff would be safe.

But I am cursed when it comes to technology, because both drives failed simultaneously, which meant all my backed-up work disappeared as well.

So I am now awaiting anxiously for system restore disks to be sent from Compaq. And I was waiting. Waiting. Waiting. Finally I called them and discovered that the order had somehow miraculously disappeared from their database and they had never sent them out. So I am waiting again.

I am hoping against hope that I will be able to rescue my files. I know if I can't, I'll just have to start over again, and get over it. But I rather wouldn't.

I am a very sad panda right now.

So, this steampunk novella that I was writing in order to tide me over between books?

It woke me up at 5.51 this morning and whispered in my ear, "Yeah, not gonna happen. I want to be one of the big kids."

There are too many ideas, characters and events to be contained in a short format. I mean, I've already written 13 000 words, and the main characters have only just met for the first time!

I hate finding it so difficult to write a short story. I guess it just means I'm a verbose bastard.

Just letting you know, the Tigers and Devils competition is now closed, and I am in the process of contacting the winners now.

And of course, the answer to Simon's nemesis was Jasper Brunswick.

One bad thing about trying to make a name for yourself in this industry is feeling that you're never producing enough. A book may only take a few days to read, but it takes far more than that to write! Although it never gets tired hearing lovely people saying lovely things about your book, if they like it, they always ask, "What's next?"

Which throws me into a panic. Especially because I have so many works in progress that are only just started. I have more ideas than time at the moment. So, I currently have three novels and two novellas started - I am sure there are other writers out there who have many more. The problem is none of them are near the finishing stage - which could mean a long lag between the next release, and a possible glut of them all at the same time!

I never thought when I first submitted Tigers and Devils that I would have two novels published in the same year. But as I was working on TaD I was also working on my collaboration with Catt Ford, and both books are coming out within seven months of each other. Which is great - believe me! A year ago I never thought this would have happened.

But it's in my nature to be a worrywart. So, never content to rest on my laurels, I have to be panicking about what is to come, and how long until it does.

You still have until Sunday to enter my competition and win some Tigers and Devils memorabilia!

You can find the details and enter here.

All hail the king of the procrastinators!

I have been meaning to do this for some time. Well, ever since Tigers and Devils was released.

Want to have a personally signed Tigers and Devils postcard? And a magnet? This could be your week!

There are twelve prizes up for offer:

* 1st prize - an ebook (PDF format) version of Tigers and Devils, a personally signed postcard and a fridge magnet.

* 2nd prize - an ebook (PDF format) version of my short story Ports of Call, a personally signed postcard and a fridge magnet.

* 10 runner up prizes of a personally signed postcard and a fridge magnet.

All you have to do is reply to this entry with your email address (entries are screened) - twelve winners will be randomly selected and then contacted via their email for their home address. I promise not to use your address for evil purposes. Much.

And you just have to answer one question - in Tigers and Devils, who is Simon's arch nemesis?

If you don't know, because you haven't read the book (and why haven't you?), the answer can be found here.

Good luck! Entries close Sunday June 21st.

Just signed the contract for the new book, so here is another visual representation of what the book is primarily about.