I had an enquiry recently about how the names in my Ramose series should be pronounced. Amanda from black dog books thought it would be good to have a pronunciation guide like the one at the back of Dragonkeeper. It’s not as easy as that though. No one knows what the language of the ancient … Continued
A while back Jenny emailed me asking how I imagined the dragons in my Dragonkeeper books would look. I told her that I had been inspired by a Han dynasty painting of a dragon. I thought other readers might be interested to see it. It is quite different to the usual images of Chinese dragons … Continued
I haven’t mentioned this before, but black dog books have created a special “mini” website for the Dragonkeeper series. There is information about Chinese places and things that feature in Dragon Moon. You can download Dragonkeeper wallpaper for your computer or you can try and solve the puzzle that Ping has to solve in the … Continued
I got a bit of a shock when I received a copy of the French version of Dragonkeeper in the post yesterday. It took me a moment to realise what it was. That’s because the title is Liu et le Vieux Dragon or Liu and the Old Dragon. At first I thought it was someone … Continued
It was 26 degrees in Brisbane, it felt like I was in a different country. Even though there’s a drought, the sub-tropical vegetation still looks amazing to a southerner like me. My hotel was across the road from the Roma St Park which was gorgeous. Back in Melbourne it’s 15 degrees. But I’m not complaining, … Continued
I’m in Mooloolaba. I’ve just finished my final talk at the Voices on the Coast Literature Festival here. The University of the Sunshine Coast was a great location, a very modern campus with lots of space and some wildlife. It’s been a very busy couple of days talking to hundreds of school kids, with a … Continued
Next week I will be up in Queensland. It’s cold and raining here in Melbourne at the moment, so Queensland seems like a good place to be heading to. I hope to meet lots of readers up there. First I will be at the Voices on the Coast Youth Literature Festival speaking to heaps of … Continued
I’ve had some emails and blog comments from readers who are disappointed there won’t be another Dragonkeeper book. I think that three is a good number for a series, and I’m looking forward to writing something completely different. Lydia asked me if I could recommend any other books for her to read. I don’t read … Continued
Today I had my last book signing in Melbourne at the Mockingbird Bookshop in Mont Albert where I met lots of young readers (and some not so young!). Proprietor, Evelyn, gave me these lovely orchids. Aren’t they gorgeous? The arrangement is a work of art.
The launch of Dragon Moon went very well. Lots of people came, friends and family and readers who I hadn’t met before. Everyone seemed to think that the Chinese Museum was a great place to have the launch. There were some prizes and Lachlan, who comments on this blog, won one of them. The Chinese … Continued