An exciting announcement today saw Immortal Mistake short-listed for the young adult published fiction category of the CALEB prize. Surprising and thrilling, it is always humbling to have one’s work recognised alongside other quality stories crafted by skilled wordsmiths, especially fellow YA short listed, Jenny Glazebrook, and Rosanne Hawke. These are two talented writers and you should seriously check out their work, if you haven’t already.
I’m grateful to Omega Writers for this opportunity and congratulate all authors who made submissions, and applaud those who have been short-listed across the different divisions. It will be an exciting moment when category winners are announced in September. Stay tuned! 😊
Like any civilised book launch, as part of the programme I will always read an excerpt from the new release. Easy right? I mean, it’s just picking the right place and pressing go, yes? Well, until I was involved in recordings for an audio book, I would have agreed. Nothing to worry about. But that was then. This is now … (Cue ominous music …)
Photo: Jill Wellington from Pixabay
Last year we began the machinations of producing Immortal Mistake as an audio book. Despite this process not turning out quite as expected, with a couple family emergencies thrown in for good measure, it was an excellent learning opportunity to really explore the nuances of storytelling.
Fast forward to the Immortal Mistake book launch and imagine me standing up with novel poised to the scene of focus. Eyes of attendees are homed, awaiting their first taste of the story. I launch in, and then realise there are multiple characters in this scene. And I haven’t paused to think about how I’m going to represent them. Sweet high pitch? Growly low pitch? Deeper than the previous character? And here they are again. Was that the low-pitched, softly spoken voice, or the more abrasive, pointed one? Conundrum!
Through the audio book work, I had become acutely aware of the need for consistency throughout the reading—from start of book to end—and how important it is to pre-plan how each character will be vocally represented and then keeping this consistent scene-after-scene. I had not given this a milli-second of thought before starting, for it had never been an issue in the past. But like I said, this is now …
For this reason I now have heightened respect for the talent of my parents, who feature in my earliest childhood memories of bedtime stories with me and my siblings. Night-after-night, they could get bold and bouncy T-t-tigger the T-t-tiger who looooves to b-b-bounce with just the right resonance, pitch and pace, whilst hesitant and worried Piglet was easily recognised before a page could be sighted. Pace and pitch were adjusted to suit mood and motion, so when the little chick is trying to find it’s mother, we didn’t need to guess which character was speaking. All around we delighted in those storytelling moments.
In reflection, this is more of a skill than I’d previous considered. (You know, back then.) Maybe I should ask Mum and Dad for some professional development before my next audio book attempt. 😉
Everyone likes a good party, and what better kind of party than one to celebrate a newly released book! Maybe that’s not everyone’s idea of fun. Some might even thing book launches can be a little dull, but I think it’s one of the best kinds of parties! So, last weekend a bunch of people gathered for frivolity and fun to officially launch Immortal Mistake and the re-release of Integrate (2nd Edn).
Those who have read Immortal Mistake will understand the significance of the Jelly Belly theme—and those who don’t should grab a copy and get reading, lol. 😉 There were temporary glow-in-the-dark spider tattoos to claim and games that included “find your word match”, model making, graffiti art, and more.
Themes from the book were segues for each aspect of the party, while reviews and readings (more on that later) set the tone. One activity even sparked a spontaneous Conga line (of two … okay, that one didn’t quite take off). All up, it was a great afternoon that left me feeling grateful for those who made it such a special occasion.
I’ll finish with a partial quote from an online review of the novel, with a link to the full review. 😊❤️
Rennie Parker has not had an easy life …
The story draws you in and you will find yourself willing Rennie to use all his street and computer smarts to save his own life, and that of his family …
This is a full-on, engrossing science fiction story, set in a realistic scenario, with themes of family violence, substance abuse, youth crime, mind control, complex bioethics including violence, as well as challenging family relationships, self-acceptance and self-worth.
It’s been a while coming, but finally it’s launch day for my new novel Immortal Mistake …😊
A DANGEROUS WEB OF ACCELERATED CLONING AND MIS-IDENTITY
When teenager Rennard (Rennie) Parker discovers a high-tech vault buried in his backyard, a bionic stranger pulls him into a world of forced experimentation that erases 24 hours of memories. Along with his half-brother, Blaine Colton, Rennie becomes embroiled in a complex cloning and child trafficking nightmare, one where feelings and memories can be extracted like digital files and sentience, consciousness and knowledge can be implanted.
Immortal Mistake provides an amazing balance of science fiction with a story of a boy, a casualty of family abuse and neglect, child safety services, foster homes and searching for a place to belong, in a story that is ultimately hopeful. This gritty, science-fiction thriller set in Brisbane, Australia, propels Rennie on a high octane rollercoaster ride of his life where the non-stop thrills are accompanied by plenty of spills as he searches for identity, belonging, love and his place in a confusing world that couldn’t be more complicated.
Coinciding with the release of child trafficking feature movie Sound of Freedom and mounting community concern about youth crime in Australia, the release of this story couldn’t have been timelier. An edge of your seat page-turner available from all good booksellers or online from wombatrhiza.com.au.
An immortal quest. An unreachable memory. An impossible choice.
Unless you’re living under a rock, you’ll know Sound of Freedom feature film starring Jim Caviezel has hit cinema screens at a blockbuster rate. Worldwide, an estimated 21 million people are trafficked for profit today, yielding an estimated profit of US$150 billion (yes, BILLION!). That includes wealthy and industrialised countries like Australia.
“Australia linked to human trafficking?” you might ask. A 2022 report released by the Australian Federal Police revealed human trafficking and slavery statistics had increased to the highest ever reported. Child trafficking represented around 7% of those figures—and that’s only Australian statistics.
This largely hidden crime of child trafficking is a key plot element of my new novel Immortal Mistake. You may wonder why I would write about this issue in a young adult novel (along with youth crime, domestic violence, substance abuse, neglect … yep, there’s a lot in it). To be honest, I didn’t set out with this purpose, but the thread kept growing until it become a integral key to the story. Now, five years after finalising that first draft, it’s increasingly apparent how relevant the themes in this novel are.
Photo Credit: Pixabay, Stefan Keller
Human trade is a wide-scale problem that crosses international boundaries, with Australia one of many destination countries for trafficked victims. It’s a brutal issue and it was difficult to write about, especially in an age-appropriate manner. Although Immortal Mistake is science fiction, there are real scientific entities commoditising human products from children in research, whether freshly/live harvested organs (as explored in previous posts) and extracts etc through abortion or child trafficking. That is before venturing down the more seditious road of ritualistic and other abuses known to occur (which the book does not broach, but I believe the movie exposes aspects of this perverse industry).
Again, though fictional and angled to a different purpose, one of the villains in the novel justifies their technological uses with a flippant dismissal of the children being “unwanted waste”. It’s perverse and angering, and yet, it’s how some yet-to-be-born children (right up to birth, and even two weeks beyond in some places) can be viewed. In a way this parallels the conflicted situational and subjective (relative) moral criteria our society can apply to define when a person achieves a state of value, or not, as a means of rationalising ethically challenging issues.
Photo Credit: Pixabay, PublicDomainPictures
I haven’t yet watched Sound of Freedom, but I understand cinema attendees have been left sombre and silent after viewing this confronting film based on the life of Tim Ballard, who is to this day rescuing trafficked children. This same reaction is reflected in a scene in the novel where the truth of what Rennie has accidentally discovered is fully unveiled. It’s a reality so removed from many of our lives, I suspect we struggle to even imagine it, let alone grasp the gravity of what that means for the life of millions in our world.
In no way is trafficking an easy issue with easy solutions, but I hope after reading this novel or watching the movie we do not have a sombre/reflective moment and then just move on. The only way to expel darkness is by bringing it to the light. Acknowledgement, conversations, public support and advocacy for those without a voice are crucial. There are also many organisations that are active in rescuing children from this living hell, which we can get behind. Feel free to drop some recommendations in the comments below so others who may not know can get onboard. Let’s not forget the unseen ones.
An exciting announcement today saw Immortal Mistake short-listed for the young adult published fiction category of the CALEB prize. Surprising and thrilling, it is always humbling to have one’s work recognised alongside other quality stories crafted by skilled wordsmiths, especially fellow YA short listed, Jenny Glazebrook, and Rosanne Hawke. These are two talented writers and you should seriously check out their work, if you haven’t already.
I’ll finish with a partial quote from an online review of the novel, with a link to the full review. 😊❤️
When teenager Rennard (Rennie) Parker discovers a high-tech vault buried in his backyard, a bionic stranger pulls him into a world of forced experimentation that erases 24 hours of memories. Along with his half-brother, Blaine Colton, Rennie becomes embroiled in a complex cloning and child trafficking nightmare, one where feelings and memories can be extracted like digital files and sentience, consciousness and knowledge can be implanted.
