The land of the Night Beach …
night beach
Something Wicked + Giveaway
Jenny of Supernatural Snark invited me over to do an interview in which we talk about all things supernatural and spooky. It’s part of a month long event called Something Wicked Comes.
There is also a Night Beach GIVEAWAY for those of you who are in the States. Thanks to Jenny on both counts, especially for the fantastic questions.
In less than a week
I’ll be here (except I won’t be doing any of that yoga stretchy stuff). Woo hoo!
The same place where Kane went in Night Beach … What’s that? You want me to bore you witless with the blog equivalent of a slide night when I get back? Okay.
Australian Book Review
Pam Macintyre has reviewed Night Beach in Australian Book Review.
Eagar is in fine control of her Gothic material. The tone is brooding rather than frightening, moody rather than suspenseful, and gives the reader space to interpret the way the world tilts for Abbie … the characters, the powerful ocean setting, the descriptions of surfing, the exposure of a particular masculinity, the exploration of the creative impulse, and Abbie’s journey from uncertainty to acceptance, produce some fine writing indeed.
Inky’s shortlist
Night Beach made the Centre for Youth Literature’s shortlist for the Gold Inky – yay! See if you can pick it in the line-up.
Hopefully you guys feel inspired to read all of these books, and you will love them equally, but then vote for me.
Just kidding. Kind of.
But! To vote you must be between 12 and 20 years of age, not just young at heart, and you can do it here before the 14th of October.
Qld Literary Awards
You know, the ones that are now sans Premier. Night Beach has been shortlisted for the Young Adult category, so that’s nice to know. Congratulations also to Margo Lanagan, Vikki Wakefield, Neil Grant and Judith Clarke, and to their beautiful books.
Giveaway winners
Ahoy there! A big thank you to all who participated in the Night Beach giveaway. Your tips and advice were hugely appreciated. And now it’s time to announce the winners (and I’m a day late in doing this, so my apologies if you’ve been waiting to find out).
The winner of the International giveaway is Katrina P.
The winner of the Australian giveaway is Alison C.
I will be emailing you ladies for further details.
More soon and thanks once again!
Night Beach Giveaway, Aussie and International
So! Today’s the 27th, which is our pre-appointed date for a GIVEAWAY. And those of you who’ve been here before and have highly tuned powers of perception will have no doubt noticed that something’s a leeetle bit different. Hopefully you’re thinking, I love what you’ve done with the place. Because, yes, I’ve had a web makeover. You are all so cutting edge with your iPhones and other thingys that it was decided this should be a responsive website, which apparently means it changes size like magic.
It’s pretty plain right now, but when I have time I can play with it. Dress it up with waves, or sand, or chandeliers, as the fancy takes me.
And the whole thing’s got me thinking about what an author website should do anyway. Which is where you guys and the Giveaway come in. More
Reviews and a favour to ask of you
There’s a lot going on at the moment, and I must be feeling a wee bit stressed, because I’ve had the sudden urge to number things.
1. Two more reviews have come in for Night Beach.
Book’d Out: Night Beach is a novel that got under my skin, complex, breathtaking and compelling, I can only insist you experience it for yourself. This is a story that stays with you, haunts you and despite its young adult label deserves an adult audience.
Spellbound by Books: I’ve read everything she’s written so far, and this is by far my most favourite read.
Thanks to both Shellyrae and Melissa for taking the time to read the book.
2. And due to a late scratching, I’m going to be blogging all this month at Inside A Dog – the Centre for Youth Literature’s website for readers. The CYL have been phenomenally good to me, inviting me to Reading Matters last year, and taking me to Geelong, and now this. And my only response to date has been to steal their Facebook photos. So I’m going to try really hard to be a good Writer in Residence for them.
3. Which leads me to the favour. If you’ve got a chance, I will love you forever if you visit me over there and leave a comment or ask a question, or get involved in the GIVEAWAY I’ll be running. (It’s a separate giveaway to the one that’s happening here on the 27th of May).
Okay, that’s all for now. Have a great day. This is what I’ll be listening to:
Night Beach is out today!
Remember how I said I was going to blog more about the book? Well, I’m going to cheat instead. Alpha Reader has just posted an interview I did with her, which includes a lot of the paintings mentioned in the story, and she’s done a much better job than I’ll ever do. So if you’d like to read it, please click here (and you can read AR’s review here).
(I thought I’d follow her example by sprinkling a few images around to zhush things up a little – all NB inspired, of course):
There’s also a review in Australian Bookseller + Publisher (who I don’t think have ever reviewed my stuff before, so thanks Meg Whelan!):
Dark and seductive, Night Beach will leave you breathless. A thrilling and suspenseful combination of the real and the supernatural, this is not a novel to read alone at night! Kirsty Eagar paints a detailed picture of the claustrophobic surfing town, full of complex and intriguing characters. Highly imaginative and lushly described, it’s an enthralling world that will captivate readers just as it possesses Abbie. Eagar’s novel takes ideas with a usually positive portrayal, such as the ocean, art and love, and subverts them, capturing their darker underside and the dangers of obsession. This is a great book for older young-adult readers. Fans of Eagar’s Raw Blue—which won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for young adult fiction—will love her latest supernatural thriller.
And there are a few reviews out in the blogging community already. So a huge THANK YOU, as always, to you guys for taking the time to read and respond. (I should say, too – I know about reviews when they get passed on to me, either by the reviewer, or by Penguin, or someone in the know, so if you’d like to see yours mentioned, get in touch).
And my editor, who knows me very well, sent me a link to this one by Trin in the Wind because it’s sort of everything that I was trying to do with the story (which I know doesn’t mean that everybody’s going to feel that way about it, but it’s still nice that one person did!)
I also really like Trin’s instructions for reading the book:
1. Read at night
2. Read at night while it’s raining
3. Read at night while it’s raining and you’re home alone
4. Let yourself go.
Finally, there’s a GIVEAWAY to come, which will kick off on the 27th of May. Yes, a bit delayed, but 27 is a good number, and you can fill that time in by thinking about whether you prefer chandeliers or moons.
Have a great day, peoples!
