It’s exciting to add that Miscellaneous Voices is part of the timetable. James Bradley will be the keynote speaker, then he, Penni, Damon and I (Karen) will be in discussion about matters relating to the writing (and reading) that is to be found online. The rest of the day is also full of fantastic talent, so do come along. It will be great.

New Voices is on Saturday 31st July at St Margarets Hall, Pitt St, Eltham.

The official release date is April 1st, 2010. Pre-order opportunities will open shortly.

The book launch will be on Wednesday 14th April at Readings Bookshop, 309 Lygon St, Carlton, Melbourne from 6-8pm.

Further details will be posted as they are set.

This is a project that I’ve been wanting to begin for some time now and I’m very excited about it. If you are a blogger, or know of a blogger who fits the guidelines then, please, consider sending your work to us or help by spreading the word!

I shall be posting updates on the project as they occur.

Also, to celebrate the occasion, I’m selling Surprise! with free postage for the month of October.

I’m looking forward to what the next few months bring.

It has been reviewed online in several places by:

* Susan and Meredith at Reading Upside Down and
* Adele at Persnickety Snark and
* Nicole at Planning With Kids

Also Miscellaneous Press will be part of The Page Parlour at the Emerging Writers’ Festival (on top of author Karen’s other hosting duties).

What is it, you ask?

The Page Parlour will feature over forty stall holders selling everything from posters to mooks, from zines to literary journals. This is the only place to stock up your bookshelf. This is your chance to get the latest issue of a favourite or discover something completely new; an opportunity to network and meet, to trade, to buy and browse the work of some of Australia’s best zinesters, independent publishers and wordsmiths all together in one atrium.

You won’t find this stuff in Borders, or if you do, it will be somewhere to the back of the magazine stand, on its side behind outdated issues of American political magazines. {Source}

Details:
The Atrium
Federation Square
Sunday 31st May
12 noon – 5pm
FREE

Come down – I would love to meet you.

This is a thrilling opportunity and opens up the potential for Surprise! to be stocked in so many more stores than I could manage to visit or contact and I thank them for their faith and support.Retailers wanting to order Surprise!, please see this page.

Thank you.

Yesterday I picked up from the printers my lovely posters and new business cards. I will take a picture of these and post up as soon as I remember where I’ve put my camera.

Like most things in life, this site could not have been made possible without the help of some lovely people: in this particular case I would like to publicly thank Snoskred, Lani and Leanne for helping me with my still burgeoning technical skills and giving me a hand ‘behind the scenes’. I do appreciate it.

Unlike my other site, Miscellaneous Press was created as a more ‘professional front’ for Surprise! So if you’ve come here looking for further embarrassing, despondent, or downright silly anecdotes about my personal life, you’ll just have to go over to Miscellaneous Mum. There’s plenty to go around there.

But if you want to know about Surprise! ? About it’s genesis, where to buy a copy, how you can contact me, where to next, where you can see me talk about it and writing in general, then this is the place to be.

I hope you like it.

If you’d like to be kept up-to-date with all the latest, why don’t you subscribe to the feed? Or join the Twitter gang.

As part of Miscellaneous Press’ launch today, I am very proud to unveil Surprise!’s front cover.

I don’t think Kim will disagree with me here when I say that the cover, and the two pages which follow, were the ones which caused us the most head-scratching and to-and-fro-ing over emails and phone-calls.

We had several other cover ideas but they did not eventuate for certain reasons. This final one was actually originally to be the title page, but from the moment I saw this sketch, both here and in the flesh when Kim came to show me the drafts, I just loved its simplicity and warmth.

Kim and I agreed from the start that the cover would either have all of the main characters present, or none. Because in Surprise! each character is as important as the other, so to highlight or prioritise one over the other just did not seem fair. In this respect, I am happy each gets their time in the ’spotlight’, and so may I take this opportunity to introduce, going from left to right:

Hamish, Alice, Meg and Thomas.

Once you’ve read the book, I think you will love each as much as I do.