Hitmakers

Hitmakers (2004) Post 378

Hitmakers has ties with another of my books; The Ducktators. In this one, Flip Chase's sensible friend Berry and her hapless cousin Aidan try to untangle what they think is an advertising conspiracy. It starts when Cousin Tyla, whom Berry and Aidan are babysitting, asks a simple question and the pair find themselves realising it can't be answered. Berry begins making a list of questions. How can a book be a 'best seller' when it's only just released? How can anyone forecast Misty Ice's brand new single will be a top seller when it was released today? How can 'everyone' be wearing the new Pitchdark fashion range 'this autumn' when it's still summer? More and more questions offer themselves, and as Berry slowly puts together the truth, she makes a groundbreaking discovery about popularity and advertising. No one knows what's going on, and even if you tell them they don't... care.

I'm really fond of this book. It's one of just a few I've written over the years in a fit of annoyance or indignation or pure puzzlement. In this story, some of the things Berry and Aidan ask are things I wanted to know. Berry's experience with having her letter to the paper printed and so abridged the whole point was left out is based on something that happened to me. Thirteen years later, CDs may be out-dated and TV shows have moved on, but the questions remain... 

ABOUT THE BLOG

Sally is Sally Odgers; author, manuscript assessor, editor, anthologist and reader. She runs http://www.affordablemanuscriptassessments.com and Prints Charming Books. (Sally is me, by the way, and I am lots of other things too, but these are the relevant ones for now.)

The goal for 2017 was to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. If you're an author, an aspiring author, a reader or just someone who enjoys windows into worlds, you might find this fun. The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist. 2017 is now behind us, but I ran out of year before running out of books, so the blog will continue for at least the next month or so.

Planet Fall

Planetfall (2009) Post 377

Planetfall  is one of the second set of Spacesports stories. In this one Prof, Jek, Nonny and Zita, Gold Team Junior, have done so well at 3D they have won a new shuttle for the team; The Nova Gold. They're about to fly off with Doc, their coach, to a match, but Kilkwitz, as ever, has to put his oar in. He sneaks into the shuttle and plays about with the coordinates, setting them to something different to make the team miss their match.

To his horror, someone comes to check the shuttle and he is locked in and has to hide in the cargo hatch. The shuttle takes off, but Doc notes the hatch seems to be leaking. The team goes to check, and discovers Klikwitz, who accidentally opens the hatch. He falls out onto a planet. The team, using 3D skills, dives after him. Since Klikwitz is Earthborn, and always boasting about it, they rely on him to explain how they can survive on a planet... Good luck with that, Team. Klick left Earth as a baby!

ABOUT THE BLOG

Sally is Sally Odgers; author, manuscript assessor, editor, anthologist and reader. She runs http://www.affordablemanuscriptassessments.com and Prints Charming Books. (Sally is me, by the way, and I am lots of other things too, but these are the relevant ones for now.)

The goal for 2017 was to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. If you're an author, an aspiring author, a reader or just someone who enjoys windows into worlds, you might find this fun. The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist. 2017 is now behind us, but I ran out of year before running out of books, so the blog will continue for at least the next month or so.

Tropical Dreams

Tropical Dreams (2004) Post 376

Tropical Dreams is a fantasy set in Queensland. I can't find a copy of the cover, but if I ever do, I'll put it up. This is the story of the  Santacaterina family; Kim, who is fifteen, Hal, thirteen or so, and Junee, who is ten. They have just moved to Frangipani to live in Dad's dream house, bought with his redundancy money. Dad now works part time as a groundsman, Mum is a book illustrator and Gran lives next door in the granny flat. The kids have issues; Mum thinks everything needs to be done by hand, Dad preaches responsibility and consequences, and Gran wears cardigans and pearls. These are parents who never forbid anything outright, but who reason, explain and suggest until Kim and co find themselves obeying just to make it stop.
When the story opens, the three kids are unexpectedly in charge of three toddlers... Mum, Dad and Gran. In flashback, we find out the regression began on Tuesday, when Mum, Dad and Gran started acting like teenagers. On Wednesday, they were little kids, and now they're babies. Suddenly tossed into a responsible caretaker role, Kim, Hal and Junee are at their wits' end! How did this happen? Was it Mum's interest in hypnosis and regression? Gran's aloe vera? Dad's idea of a joke?

I borrowed the surname from a teacher at the Distance Ed camp I attended. Junee is named after the town in NSW. 

ABOUT THE BLOG

Sally is Sally Odgers; author, manuscript assessor, editor, anthologist and reader. She runs http://www.affordablemanuscriptassessments.com and Prints Charming Books. (Sally is me, by the way, and I am lots of other things too, but these are the relevant ones for now.)

The goal for 2017 was to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. If you're an author, an aspiring author, a reader or just someone who enjoys windows into worlds, you might find this fun. The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist. 2017 is now behind us, but I ran out of year before running out of books, so the blog will continue for at least the next month or so.

Millie and the Horses

Millie and the Horses (1999) Post 375

Millie and the Horses is one of three Olympic Mascot stories that features Millie the echidna. In this one, the horses of the equestrian team are not happy, and Millie is called on to sort out the problem. I remember this one chiefly because the illustrator, who had tight guidelines to work under, found it difficult to illustrate Millie in the same picture as horses because of the size difference. We solved the problem by letting her perch on top of hay bales etc. I asked him what he liked drawing best, and he confessed to loving rocks. Therefore, I wrote the story called Syd Goes to Platypus Rock!

ABOUT THE BLOG

Sally is Sally Odgers; author, manuscript assessor, editor, anthologist and reader. She runs http://www.affordablemanuscriptassessments.com and Prints Charming Books. (Sally is me, by the way, and I am lots of other things too, but these are the relevant ones for now.)

The goal for 2017 was to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. If you're an author, an aspiring author, a reader or just someone who enjoys windows into worlds, you might find this fun. The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist. 2017 is now behind us, but I ran out of year before running out of books, so the blog will continue for at least the next month or so.

Blinky Bill in The School Inspector Pays a Visit

Blinky Bill in The School Inspector Pays a Visit (1992) Post 374

Blinky Bill in The School Inspector Pays a Visit is a cheerful little hardback . In this story, Blinky and his friends find Miss Magpie, their teacher, less tolerant than usual. Mr Wombat explains she'd worried because the school inspector is coming. Blinky hatches a plan to make the visit go badly so as to get a new teacher. From a rotten apple attracting wasps to deliberately getting sums wrong to painting their friends... literally, the Greenpatch children play up. Miss Magpie resigns. Inspector Dingo tries to get a new teacher, but the reputation of the Greenpatch young is so bad they all refuse. Finally he finds someone willing to take the class in hand... Mrs Snake. Blinky is horriified. It's Wombo to the rescue with a plan to fix things, but will Blinky eat humble pie before Mrs Snake eats roasssst koala?

ABOUT THE BLOG

Sally is Sally Odgers; author, manuscript assessor, editor, anthologist and reader. She runs http://www.affordablemanuscriptassessments.com and Prints Charming Books. (Sally is me, by the way, and I am lots of other things too, but these are the relevant ones for now.)

The goal for 2017 was to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. If you're an author, an aspiring author, a reader or just someone who enjoys windows into worlds, you might find this fun. The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist. 2017 is now behind us, but I ran out of year before running out of books, so the blog will continue for at least the next month or so.

Trouble on Nova

Trouble on Nova (2007) Post 373

Trouble on Nova  is one of the second series of Spacesports. Zita Tarantella is part of an influx of shipborn arriving on Space Station Nova to make up for a perceived skill shortage. The stationers aren't pleased, and Doc, the already harried and overworked scientist who is also a 3D player, issues warnings that the station infrastructure can't accommodate so many new people and proposes training the existing workers instead.
The mayor insists Doc must fix everything. Thus, Doc has no time to play 3D with his son Prof and his friend Jek. Prof and Jek rescue Zita from a protest rally and befriend her. While the protests escalate, Klikwitz, the mayor's nephew, makes a pest of himself, spying and carrying tales. Prof discovers Zita has skills learned on her ship-home that make her a natural at 3D and proposes he, Jek and Zita need only one more player to transform themselves into a junior team. But... can they train themselves? And what about the annoying Klikwitz? They resolve to push on anyway...
This story challenges a few beliefs and assumptions. Does it REALLY take many years to learn a skill? Can a leader really make grand decisions and then force other people to implement them? Is it wise to take up an offer without research? Will being nice to an unpleasant person really make him, or her, into a nicer person?

ABOUT THE BLOG

Sally is Sally Odgers; author, manuscript assessor, editor, anthologist and reader. She runs http://www.affordablemanuscriptassessments.com and Prints Charming Books. (Sally is me, by the way, and I am lots of other things too, but these are the relevant ones for now.)

The goal for 2017 was to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. If you're an author, an aspiring author, a reader or just someone who enjoys windows into worlds, you might find this fun. The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist. 2017 is now behind us, but I ran out of year before running out of books, so the blog will continue for at least the next month or so.

Monster Planet

Monster Planet (2007) Post 372

Monster Planet  is one of the arkies series. Pace, Singer, Merlinna and Lyam land on a new planet and are attacked by a monster. They're fighting back when someone unexpectedly comes to the rescue. To their surprise, Noko and his friends are human... boys just a few years older than the arkies. The live in a stockade, with sharpened stakes to protect themselves from the monsters. The stockaders, as they call themselves, invite the arkies to stay on, but the arkies are uneasy. It turns out that the stockaders are renegade arkies who've disabled their ship brain. They're doing unkind experiments on the monsters, and they've captured Farla Fettleman of EarthNet. The arkies have to work out how to deal with the situation, and how (and if) to rescue Farla... 

ABOUT THE BLOG

Sally is Sally Odgers; author, manuscript assessor, editor, anthologist and reader. She runs http://www.affordablemanuscriptassessments.com and Prints Charming Books. (Sally is me, by the way, and I am lots of other things too, but these are the relevant ones for now.)

The goal for 2017 was to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. If you're an author, an aspiring author, a reader or just someone who enjoys windows into worlds, you might find this fun. The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist. 2017 is now behind us, but I ran out of year before running out of books, so the blog will continue for at least the next month or so. 

The Courting of Eileen

The Courting of Eileen (2018) Post 371

The Courting of Eileen is my first  published title for 2018. This is a story in the Fairy in the Bed series, and is an example of something I wrote because I wanted to know what happened. 
At the end of Floribunda and the Best Men, Hamish McTavish, one of the men of the title, who had a spare brother, struck a handshake deal with Kieran Shamrock, who had a spare sister...  So, the big brothers agreed Sean and Eileen were ideally suited to one another, but what do Sean and Eileen think? The Courting of Eileen is about what happened when they met. Being a sensible pair, they decided not to turn down an idea just because it came from their brothers... but that didn't mean they were going to start any nonsense with horseshoes and charms. 
I particularly love the cover of this one. I suggested a cow, because Eileen, being a leprechaun colleen, keeps cows. If you look to Sean's left, you can see I got one!
To see more about this adults-only story, or to buy it, click here 
To see where and how it fits in the ongoing series (all of which do stand alone) go to Lark's home page.

ABOUT THE BLOG

Sally is Sally Odgers; author, manuscript assessor, editor, anthologist and reader. She runs http://www.affordablemanuscriptassessments.com and Prints Charming Books. (Sally is me, by the way, and I am lots of other things too, but these are the relevant ones for now.)

The goal for 2017 was to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. If you're an author, an aspiring author, a reader or just someone who enjoys windows into worlds, you might find this fun. The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist. 2017 is now behind us, but I ran out of year before running out of books, so the blog will continue for at least the next month or so. 

Fog Planet

Fog Planet (2007) Post 370

Fog Planet was the first of the Arkies series, introducing Pace (who narrates this story), Singer, Lyam and Merlinna, ArkMa and the EarthNet agents, Farla and Tench. 

In this story, the arkies land on a planet covered in a perpetual fog. ArkMa, the sentient ship's computer of Ark3, is disinclined to land, but eventually gives in. Once on the surface, the arkies find a bleak, grey world with no variation in vegetation. Nevertheless, they explore. Because of the conditions, Pace uses his MatCon (matter converter) far more than usual, and, to his bewilderment, drains the battery. Because it generally charges via solar and wind power, he is at a loss. The EarthNet agents turn up, intent on capturing the arkies and repatriating them to Earth... in a nice school that has bars in the windows. And there's something out there in the fog...

The EarthNet agents have their own agenda throughout the series. They want to prevent the arkies from exploring fresh planets. They pay lip-service to leaving planets pristine, but their real motive is purely political and financial. If they can close down the arkie program, there will be more funding for their own space stations!

ABOUT THE BLOG

Sally is Sally Odgers; author, manuscript assessor, editor, anthologist and reader. She runs http://www.affordablemanuscriptassessments.com and Prints Charming Books. (Sally is me, by the way, and I am lots of other things too, but these are the relevant ones for now.)

The goal for 2017 was to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. If you're an author, an aspiring author, a reader or just someone who enjoys windows into worlds, you might find this fun. The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist. 2017 is now behind us, but I ran out of year before running out of books, so the blog will continue for at least the next month or so. 

Team Song

Team Song (2007) Post 369

Team Song is one of the Spacesports series set on Space Station Nova. Unlike most of the others, this is a normal narrative novel rather than a graphic novel and thus was much easier to write. Having read the ms again (can't locate a copy of the book), I noticed some interesting things. Back in the day, there was a rather notorious poetry contest scam going around. It might still be about, but I haven't heard of it in a while. There was free entry, and in due course, writers would get notification that they'd reached the semi-finals. They'd then be offered a range of opportunities, all of which cost them rather than paying them. It wasn't illegal, because the contest DID exist, but because everyone "won" it was clearly a way of scamming. At about the time I wrote this story, I'd noticed a local writer had "won" something and had a picture in the paper, and a write-up. Clearly, this writer had no idea of the notoriety of this contest. Because this group targets young people, I decided to do something about it indirectly. Thus TEAM SONG was born. 

In the story, shipborn twins Janna and Jaff have been living on the station for two years, ever since their father married a stationer. On their ship, they'd been quite high-profile in music. Janna is a singer and Jaff a flautist, and they perform as a duo. On Nova, music is much less important, because everyone is mad about the sport 3D. Urged by their stepmother, Janna and Jaff tried out for the team. Janna was chosen but Jaff washed out in the early stages. Janna still loves music, but has much less time to practise. When Jaff hears of a music competition run by a star gypsy agency, he sends in a tape of himself and Janna, and is informed they're through to the semi-final. Their prize is an audition and a chance at the grand prize of a tour. Unfortunately for Jaff, the audition conflicts with Janna's practice for a high-profile match. 
Pav, the team captain, suggests the best way for the twins to attend is for the whole team to go AWOL. This they do, but to Jaff's dismay Tarza Rhyma, the woman who auditions them, is clearly telling lies. She gushes over the tape he sent, but doesn't even realise they're a duo. She asks them to perform the same song as on the tape. When the suspicious Janna starts singing a totally different song, and Rhyma doesn't comment, it is clear to even Jaff that there's something very wrong. When the twins decline her suggestion they should pay for publicity and costumes, she says Jaff is under contract because he accepted the audition.

At this point, Brig Meriweather, the Gold Team coach, emerges from hiding with the rest of the team. He is shipborn too, and he recognises Rhyma and sends her off with a flea in her ear, exposing her lies; mostly that the twins couldn't tour because they're nowhere near sixteen, and that nothing minors sign is binding. He even finds a way for Jaff's and Janna's musical talent to get some legitimate exposure.

I have no idea if this story has ever made a reader think twice about a scam competition but hey- I tried. As for the name Tarza Rhyma, you can blame the (legitimate) fanstory.com site for that. That's a writing site where I learned about some interesting poetry forms... including the Terza Rhymer!

ABOUT THE BLOG

Sally is Sally Odgers; author, manuscript assessor, editor, anthologist and reader. She runs http://www.affordablemanuscriptassessments.com and Prints Charming Books. (Sally is me, by the way, and I am lots of other things too, but these are the relevant ones for now.)

The goal for 2017 was to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. If you're an author, an aspiring author, a reader or just someone who enjoys windows into worlds, you might find this fun. The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist. 2017 is now behind us, but I ran out of year before running out of books, so the blog will continue for at least the next month or so.