Friday stuff and items

1) IS THIS ABOUT MY ATTIC WIFE? Texts from Jane Eye. Too too perfect.


2) Harry Potter and the Ten Years Later. Oh dear. So funny. Not for childers.


3) Todays learning: 'strait and narrow' versus 'straight and narrow'.


4) Have you been keeping up with The Lizzie Bennet Diaries? We are. And we met Bing Lee!


5) Advances! Pretty pretty advances to gloat over.

Aurealis Awards - Spotted in the House

On Saturday night at a sparkling Sydney event, the winners of the 2011 Aurealis Awards were announced. And we are delighted to reveal that today's courier package contained two fabulously shiny items. LOOK! Aurealis Awards in the wild!*

And lo, there was much rejoicing in the House.

CHILDREN'S FICTION 

(told primarily through words)

City of Lies by Lian Tanner

YOUNG ADULT NOVEL
Only Ever Always by Penni Russon

Like Lian, [insert loud cries of joy].  

As per Penni, colour us chuffed.

Susan Wardle, co-convenor of the awards, said 

'The winners represent the best of Australian fantasy, horror and science fiction writing in 2011 as judged by a panel of their peers.  This year's winners join the likes of Sara Douglass, Garth Nix, Isobelle Carmody, Trudi Canavan, Shaun Tan and Sean Williams, all of whom are multiple Aurealis Award winners.'

One hundred HURRAHS for Penni! 

One hundred HURRAHS  for Lian!

And if you slip on over to Adventures of a Bookonaut, Sean's wonderful summary of how the evening unfolded may have you thinking you were actually there.

* Well, when we say 'in the wild' here, we may actually mean 'on the filing cabinet.'

 

Spotted in the House

A whole host of brand-spanking-new advances!

One of these books is a funny, thought-provoking fable.

One of these books HAS A PUFFY COVER!*

One of these books is a collaboration between an amazing artist and one of our very own (very talented) Onions!

One of these books is a compelling time-slip tale that is made of pure, pure awesome.

One of these books is the fourth in a much-loved, fabulously charming series.

One of these books is a cake.**

* It's also a funny, cheerful, perfect read-aloud picture book for the very young, but, you know, PUFFY COVER.

**A sesame chiffon cake, if you please.

Baby, it's cold outside

How cold and wet it is. There may be hail, and even snow not very far away.

The House is full of semi-folded umbrellas, and newspapers soaking up the rain from the umbrellas, and people wearing fingerless gloves circumnavigating the umbrellas and newspapers.

But there are heartwarming glimmers amid the gloom.

Some are in the shape of Troubletwisters e-cards,

... an Onion's special warming winter wardrobe*,

... and some brand new winter reading.

Look at the glow cast on that table! There's nothing like a special finish to brighten up a winter's day in lieu of actual sunshine**.

POD, by Stephen Wallenfels
The Paradise Trap, by Catherine Jinks
The Shattering, by Karen Healey
Sensitive Creatures, by Mandy Ord

Meanwhile, certain peripatetic Onions enjoy a very different view.

*The Onion would like to dedicate her new unicorn jumper to Margo Lanagan.
**Pleasingly, but somewhat inconveniently for the integrity of this post, the sun has just decided to appear over the House. But it's still cold.

Spotted in the House

It's been a bumper month for exciting advances!

The Wilful Eye (Tales from the Tower Volume One)* Isobelle Carmody and Nan McNab (eds)

Head Spinners by Thalia Kalkipsakis

Liar by Justine Larbalestier

The Golden Day* by Ursula Dubosarsky

Yellowcake* by Margo Lanagan

The photo really doesn't do justice to the beauty of these books. There are matt finishes, and special gold PMS colours, and there is a DOG WEARING GLASSES.

And all five of these books were written by women.

Today is International Women's Day, so we'd just like to take a moment to celebrate the many wonderful women in publishing - authors, publishers, editors, designers, publicists, marketing, sales, proofreaders, typesetters and printers, just for a start.

It is a daily pleasure to come to work in the House of Onion, chockful as it is with talented, brave, kind, visionary, committed, bright and funny women.

* And these three were designed by Zoe Sadokierski who is a woman in the habit of making us look good. Thank you, Zoe!

Spotted in the House

A late nomination for our Top Ten 2010 Happenings in the House list: that time an Oscar-shortlisted* author visited the House. We remember it as though it were yesterday. Possibly because, well, it was yesterday.

Shaun didn't have a big white beard and a red suit, but he did have a bag of goodies. So it was a little like Christmas morning.

And there was cake (of course).

So it was also a little like a birthday.

Christmas and birthday at once! What could be better?**

Come back any time, Mr Tan!

* Shaun Tan's gorgeous animated short film of The Lost Thing is shortlisted for an Academy Award nomination. Not quite a nomination, yet, but it's definitely finger-crossing time.
** Well, maybe quite a few things if 25 December is actually your birthday, because that's more like one-for-two than two-for-one.

Desktop Publishing

'I've learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he or she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.' - Maya Angelou

So true, Maya Angelou. So true.

We think you can also tell a bit about a person from what they keep on their desks.

Herewith, a photo essay from the House of Onion:

All this talk of desks has put us in mind to revisit the world's first unmanned flying desk set.*

*And as an added bonus, you'll know how to say 'world's first unmanned flying desk set' in Spanish, because we couldn't find a clip that didn't have subtitles. That should come in handy. But don't let it detract from the pathos of the moment. Oh Todd. Oh Neil. *sob*

Spotted in the house

The Tall Designer is on holiday.

Someone else, not quite so tall, is sitting in his chair.

Spotted in the House

I spy a lot of lovely things.

1)

Is this not just the most beautiful, the most sumptuous, the most mesmerising thing? Yesterday's arrival of the advance copies of Nicky Greenberg's extraordinary graphic adaptation of Hamlet was the cause of celebration, weeping, cheering and, we believe, a spot of mild inebriation.*

Hamlet is not out in the world until October, which is a criminally long time to wait. We suggest making a bee-line for Nicki's events at the Melbourne Writers Festival. It could be well worth your while. *cough* advance copies *cough*

2)

Noni the Pony** has galloped boldly into the House. We love Noni. She is so cute you just want to squeeze her.

So it's lucky we made a wee Noni toy, for petting and squeezing.

We know more about making books than making toys - so imagine our surprise when some of the production decisions that had to be made for the toy were quite familiar. Which leads us to write an uncomfortable letter:

Dear 806 pink, We still love you, but we have to confess that we have been dallying with another colour. PMS 158. PMS 158 is a beautiful orangey/brown. We hope you won't be too upset. You're still our go-to pink, but you just would have looked out of place on Noni's bum. With love and affection, Onions.

3)


A lemon and blueberry birthday bundt cake. Highly delicious.

4)

This is Mr Badger. Mr Badger ... on a badge.

But who is Mr Badger? Who is Mr Badger?

*Not actually in the House, that last one. There's never any mild inebriation in the House. *Double checks that the Friday wine is in the fridge.*

** FYI, it's rather fun to sing 'Noni the Pony' to the tune of 'Only the Lonely.' No really, try it.

Spotted in the House

Mr Chicken might be in Paris, but Lulu was in the House of Onion.

We love an office dog - even when we only get to borrow it very briefly. We're not sure what would happen if Lulu met Old Tom. It's probably for the best that Mr Hobbs is standing between them.


Mr Hobbs and Lulu weren't the only exciting things in the House yesterday. There were also...

MACARONS!

Chocolate and orange, and saffron and vanilla, and liquorice ones.

The Cake-maker Virtuoso is getting very accomplished at these, thanks to this lovely book and the benefactress who sent it along.

Magnifique!