Fake News? Or Real News…

This year is flying and sometimes I just want to grab it and say slow down. Other times, I grab it by the shirt tails and hold on for my life!

Thankfully, writing is not just sitting in draughty garrets with guttering candles and quills worn to stubs and ideas fluttering to the floor like so much rubbish.

Good things come one’s way…

Firstly I’ve been invited to be  a panelist on two panels at the HNSA’s biennial conference in Melbourne in September.

The Historical Novel Society Australasia (HNSA) promotes the writing, reading and publication of historical fiction, especially in Australia and New Zealand, and its parent societies in the USA and UK are extremely well thought of in the book world, promoting an ‘authentic world which can enrich a reader’s understanding of real historical personages, eras and events.’

This is a huge honour for me as I am part of a line-up of the most stellar authors – Kate Forsyth, Elisabeth Storrs, Gillian Pollack, Juliet Marillier, Felicity Pulman to name just a few of many and I feel star-struck and tongue-tied.

The two panels with which I’m involved as follows:

  1. VENTURING FORTH: EXPLORING STORIES BEYOND NATIONAL BOUNDARIES AND AUSTRALASIAN HISTORY

Kelly Gardiner discusses with Robyn CadwalladerNatasha LesterPrue Batten and Elisabeth Storrs why some authors prefer to discover worlds beyond their native shores and ancestral history.

(This is such a very interesting exploration of writing journeys. I’ve given it some thought and feel I must mostly blame my fascination with the medieval era on university. But more about that at the conference perhaps…)

  1. EVERYTHING YOU WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT SELF-PUBLISHING* BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK

The self-publishing revolution has given authors the opportunity to reach readers directly and cut out the gatekeepers. Successful indie authors are creative producers, publishers, and publicists who run small businesses. In this interactive session, GS Johnston, Kathryn Gauci and Prue Batten are available to answer questions from those intending to venture into indie publishing, or Indies who want to learn more.

(And of course, this journey, the indie journey is the most exciting part of my life. I’ve likened the indie journey to riding a wave – hanging ten and hoping to the heavens that one doesn’t wipe out. It’s exhilarating, frightening and satisfying all in one.)

Readers are welcome at this conference and I suggest you check

www.hnsa.org.au

 and find panels that you would enjoy. Come along and be a part of it all!

But the HNSA is just one of the extraordinary things to come my way this year.

I’m also currently writing the last book in The Triptych ChronicleMichael. It’s my plan to have it available by November, but … time will tell. Also, not just content with writing one book, I have begun another fantasy called The Cabinet of Curiosities and which takes place in my already-existing fantasy world of Eirie. As with returning to my hist.fict characters, this is a journey back to old friends and I hope it will become the first in a trilogy because the world has reacted well to Eirie. The quartet of The Chronicles of Eirie has been in Amazon.co.uk’s Top 100 for nigh on seven years!

I’ve also had great fun writing a short story for Tales from a Carboot Sale, a fresh and bubbling anthology which will be published in the UK later this year to raise funds for cancer research. And that, my friends, is a cause dear to my heart because cancer entered my own family, late last year. A tough year…

AND FINALLY! BARGAINS TO BE HAD!!!

Tobias and Guillaume are running at a short-term sale-price of $US 1.99

And Gisborne: Book of Pawns is 99 cents.

Go to

 www.pruebatten.com

click on Books, click on the titles and then click on the Amazon link. You’ll have good reading on your Kindle in a blink! If you read the titles and enjoy them, please leave a review. I’d be so grateful. Reviews are vital for any book’s continuing success in the market place.