I’m just popping in to let you know that I’ve written a new YA story.  It’s about how peer pressure can make things crazy, and it’s called The mother, the whip, and the burning tip of night smoke.

I’ve just sent it to a couple of magazines, so I’ll keep you posted on how it goes. Hopefully, someone wants to publish it.

When I write, I often like to look for pictures that remind me of the story I’m writing. The image below reminds me of my new short piece!

For the last few years, I’ve been part of the Redlands Redlitzer short story competitions. My role has been a judge and editor of stories written by children, young adults, and adults. Due to council budget cuts, the Redlands Libraries are only able to run the children’s section (and Bennett’s Real Estate have been kind enough to purchase the Trophies) this year.

On the weekend, I worked with three young people on their stories and was amazed at their talent and imagination. It’s an event that I love being involved in, and an initiative that I wholeheartedly support. I wish more libraries followed this model of story selection, story development, and production of an anthology.

Many thanks to the wonderful library staff, including Jo-Anne Kidman and Jan Webb, as well as my colleague’s Louise Cusack and Angela Sunde. Here’s a picture of me, Lou, and Angela, with one of the highly recommended young writers, Parris Smith.

Here at the Escape Club, we were really excited that one of our favourite Book Bloggers, Braiden from the Book Probe, got to meet up with one of our favourite and most reliable reviewers, Krista McKeeth (MDP: well, actually they are ALL my favourites, but Krista has been with me for a long time). They got to hang out for a bit and took this picture to send to us back home!

You can listen to and watch Marianne in a bunch of special videos and podcast. Check them out.

WORLDBUILDING with Sean Williams, Meg Mundell and John Birmingham along with Nalini from Dark Matter.

The Skiffy and Fanty show with Tansy Rayner Roberts, talking about Aussie spec fic.

Genre blending and bending with Mike Underwood, Rod Duncan, and Emma Newman from Angry Robot.

The Queensland Writer’s Centre asked me to talk about Author Branding

And why authors should be online

And a long chat with Alex Pierce on the award winning Galactic Chat podcast about my body or work.

Followed by an upcoming Peacemaker special with Dave Kearney from Scenes and Sequels.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Peacemaker Makes a Novel Game:

West Australian creative entrepreneurs combine forces

Bestselling Australian science fiction author Marianne de Pierres announced today that Stirfire Studios has optioned her PEACEMAKER series for adaptation as an interactive game.  The novels are published by Angry Robot books.

De Pierres’ books include the award-winning Sentients of Orion, Parrish Plessis, and Night Creatures series. ‘I’m thrilled to be working with Stirfire Studios on this project. They combine creative flair with technical excellence and a passion for what they do. Their most recent game, Freedom Fall, has been a spectacular success.’

Stirfire Studios, created in 2010, has elevated the status of indie-game development in Western Australia. The Studio won the first ever Western Australian Screen Award and was shortlisted in the Australian Game Development Awards with their title Freedom Fall. Stirfire creates visually beautiful games with lush gameplay and exciting new twists on familiar elements.

Stirfire Studios director, Garth Pendergrast, says that the company has a strong vision for the Peacemaker game. ‘We want to create an interactive novel focusing on story and character, imagined with our trademark rich artwork but with no trade-off in the game play. While we are inspired by recent games in the genre, we are designing a new engine to help the player tell their own story.’

Publicity enquiries: reception@curtisbrown.com.au and Stirfire Studios