The launch party

On Thursday, Shadows was officially launched by the wonderful Marianne de Pierries at Riverbend Books and Tea House in Bulimba. The store looked beautiful, the staff were delightful, the food and wine was fantastic and I was surrounded by around 90 friends and family – all in great form.

It was an awesome night.

I was particularly excited to have my editor, the lovely Ali Arnold, come up from Melbourne for the evening and the equally lovely Steph Stepan, publicist extraordinaire here as well. Thanks again Steph for such a brilliant launch, and for all your hard work in getting the news about Shadows out to the world.

Special thanks to Marianne for taking the time to launch Shadows, and for your very kind words. (And congratulations to you on the success of the Night Creatures series and the recent option of the Tara Sharp series for TV).

While I’m on the thanks wagon, I’d like to again give a shout-out to my ‘test’ readers Rebecca Cram (Place), Michelle Reid, Elise Dunlop, Sarah Koch and Kate Bevan. And thanks to family who travelled from Darwin, Adelaide (and other parts of South Australia) and Victoria for the big night. Apologies again to the Victorian crowd, who I forgot to thank on the night.

A few important people weren’t there in person who I ‘d like to acknowledge: my agent Lyn Tranter and Text Publishing editor Mandy Brett, who (along with Ali Arnold) are the reason Shadows is now sitting in bookstores in Australia and New Zealand. There is more news to come on that front, so stay tuned… And Claudia Gray (author of the YA Evernight vampire series) for the cool quote for Shadows‘ cover.

A few words from Ali
As soon as Ali finished her generous speech on Thursday night, she said to me she forgot to say half of it and has given me the full version for inclusion here. I thought her words on the night were pretty wonderful, but am happy to post the rest here (of course I’m happy to post nice things about Shadows!):

When we read a book with a view to acquiring it, we hope for many things.
We hope for a good story and good writing and good pace. We hope we’ll
fall in love with one of the characters at least. We hope we’ll want to
read it to the end, with bleary 3-in-the-morning eyes.

And then sometimes we get something out of the box like Shadows.

We get a great story, writing that’s fresh and vivid, we get more pace
than you could ever ask for. And we get characters that we more than fall
in love with—we get characters who inspire people to contact us and say
things like: I wouldn’t mind meeting a forty-five-year-old version of
Rafa. Or: So, Rafa.. Or, more often: Whew, Rafa… (You’ll get the
impression that a lot of woman have read the book to date.) And in Gaby,
we have a leading woman who knows her own mind, who is vulnerable and
kickarse, who is loyal and feisty, who is a fighter in all senses of the
word, and who happens to look good in pair of skinny jeans.

But they’re not even the real reasons you’ll fall as in love with this
first book in the Rephaim series as I have.

Gaby and Rafa, in their blood-soaked clothes, in their crappy old kitchens
in their rundown bungalows, have a frisson on the page that’s almost
unbearable at times. In a good way. As one of our London agents said: Gaby
and Rafa—whoa! Think of the leads in old-time Hollywood films, and add a
few sword fights and a couple of steamy kissing scenes and you’ll have a
sense of what Shadows is, and why you’ll be turning its pages till three
in the morning. And now read it, because it’s better than that.

Alison Arnold, me and Marianne de Pierres

Stunning window display at Riverbend Books

Shadows display inside Riverbend Books (70 copies sold at the launch. Thanks people!)

Don’t forget, there are signed copies for sale at Riverbend Books, Mary Ryan Books (New Farm and Milton), Avid Reader (West End) and Dymocks (Indooroopilly and the CBD).

Thanks to everyone who was a part of this very special evening.

More pics on facebook

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About Me

I’m the author of the Rephaim series and The Undercurrent.

For my day job, I’m a writer-journalist-professional communicator, where my writing involves a lot less profanity.

I grew up in regional South Australia and now live in the Scenic Rim with my husband and a retired greyhound.

If you’re interested in how I came to land a publishing deal, you can read the short version in this post from August 2011. There’s a longer version (in a guest post) here.

Paula Weston

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