New novel in the works! My novel is being published in March by Cloud Ink Press – watch this space 🙂

One of my favourite authors is the Australian writer Margo Lanagan. Here’s a quote from her: ‘I write a lot of stories with babies, children and young people in them, because I’m interested in the way people piece together their world for the first time. As we grow, we try to work out what’s happening and why, to interpret other people’s intentions. We also have fresher perceptions of atmospheres, weather, physical, social and interpersonal events, because quite often it’s the first time we’ve encountered them.’

I’m very proud that my latest YA title Ursa has now been launched at the Storylines Margaret Mahy Day. Head of Publishing Linsay Knight at Walker Books had this to say:

“Working with last year’s winner, Tina Shaw, has  been an absolute delight. Her standout entry Ursa shone from the outset. And her unstinting work ethic and desire to deliver the strongest book possible has made our blossoming relationship with her a real pleasure. Ursa is a book for our times and a tour de force for Tina. Everyone at Walker Books congratulates her and celebrates the launch of this extraordinary book with her.”

Am very excited to see the ARC of my YA novel Ursa that’s due to be released early next year by Walker Books. This is what the full cover looks like.

I find the decision by Whitcoulls to not stock my new YA title ‘Make a Hard Fist’ – as it’s possibly too confronting and therefore a hard sell – to be a disturbing trend for New Zealand publishing. So does this mean that Whitcoulls are actually dictating the terms of what we publish in New Zealand? If they don’t take a title because it’s a hard sell, then publishers here (as we’ve seen) will be selling books that are tending towards the bland end of the spectrum, the safe approach, presumably to sell less confrontational books more easily to Whitcoulls. So, what about Patrick Ness, as an example – will Whitcoulls not sell his books because they are confronting? No, because he is an overseas author, and thus accessing a larger market segment than boring old Whitcoulls. What can you do? Go into Whitcoulls and order my book!

To see in the New Year, I’ve been reading the marvellous and thought-provoking memoir by Tim Winton: The boy behind the curtain. Am particularly enjoying his muscular descriptive passages that bring the Aussie landscape to life, such as driving across the Nullarbor Plain:

‘That morning I drove past salt pans and vast eucalyptus woodlands into monochrome treelessness. The overcast sky spilled to earth, its blotchy greys hard to distinguish from the cloudy puffs of knee-high scrub stretching windblown and insubstantial to the horizon. The gunmetal two-lane ribboned out changeless until the afternoon surprise of Madura Pass when there was a sudden decline as the Hampton Tableland gave way to the hypnotic Roe Plains. Down on the flats it was all sky. It was like travelling across the seabed, which is more or less what that land is. Everything looked scoured, as if one giant swell had just receded and another was about to come surging in. The only thing separating me from Elsewhere, it felt, was this low, dun-coloured shelf I was pelting across. I drove until I ran out of daylight and when I climbed down onto the dirt I felt stoned.’