Tuesday Stuff and Items

1) We are preparing a A Very Onion Christmas Gift Guide for y'all and should have it up in the next day or two. In the meantime, here's an awesome one the Mothership prepared earlier

Jingle bells, jingle bells!

2) Guardian of the Dead by Karen Healey has been nominated for the William C Morris Debut Award in the USA. Go Karen! Go Ellie!

Jingle All the way!

3) There was birthday cake. And it was good. A flourless orange cake - with strawberries... and cream.

Oh!

4) The Guardian is doing a series of posts on Seasons Readings. They've mentioned Rumer Godden and Raymond Briggs, so already we approve. Here is a refresher on Onion reading habits of the Christmas period.

What fun it is to read...

5) In a one-horse open sleigh!

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.

Top Ten 2010 Happenings in the House

It seems everyone is making lists (and checking them twice) of Top Ten books of 2010. Regular readers will know that if we tried to do a Top Ten list of books for 2010, we'd probably end up with a list of eleventy-million titles rather than ten, and we have decided instead to make a list of the Top Ten things that happened in the House this year.

So we polled the Onions to find their highlights of the year. Herewith, in no particular order, the Top Ten* Happenings in the House of Onion in 2010:

1)

Watching Mr Badger come to life. Every time I read the end of Book One I shed a little tear - not because it's sad, but because he's just such a sweetheart.

2)

The occasion: Safety and fire-drill training with a visiting, smooth-headed, fierce-looking 'expert'.

The moment: The way he stopped short our playful explanations of what we would do if there was a fire in the building.

The highlight: Watching each of us wooshing out the test-fire with the fire extinguisher.

The Onion: Man, that was satisfying.

3)

When the printer monster took up residence in the office next door...

4)
The office doorbell sounds. The office manager calls the editor to say a parcel has arrived from the printer. The editor gallops downstairs and carefully removes the packaging.** And behold! The Museum of Thieves advances are revealed! Oh beautiful little hardback, wilt thou be mine?

5)

Ed note: In the fine tradition of flouting the rules of our poll, one Onion could not contain themselves to listing only one highlight, so we have accommodatingly squeezedthemallintogether to make them look like one BIG highlight.

Winning Publisher of the Year! So much to celebrate about the CBCA shortlist! And speaking of celebrations, our 20th Anniversary! Learning the phrase: piled UV. Applying the piled UV process to the cover of Museum of Thieves.*** Seeing Kim Gamble's illustrations shine in the C format of Great Big Enormous Tashi. That rather excitement-making moment when an author (and her book) we'd just signed up hit the front page of the Sydney Morning Herald and A Current Affair. We're looking at you, Rebecca James and Beautiful Malice. Welcoming into the House the wonderful team at Nosy Crow. The snort-inducingly hilarious Alien Onion post about cover design.

6)
That time the Cake-maker Extraordinaire made those macrons. I remember it as though it were yesterday.

7)
The occasion: a video-conference covers meeting with the team from the Mothership in August.
The moment: our CEO bounces into the meeting just as we are about to discuss a range of cover designs.
The highlight: 'Wait! Wait!' says CEO. 'Before we start, has anyone else seen Hamlet? I just saw an advance copy. It's spectacular!'
The Onion: *glows with quiet pride*

8)

Two dates were always bound to collide - the long-awaited occasion of us winning a record-breaking raft of CBCA short-listings this year upstaged by the arrival of an Onion grandbaby - now a voracious reader already at 3 months ...

9)

The Museum of Thieves book launch, down in Hobart, in the old and spooky Bond Store at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. Hundreds of children. Lovely speeches. Stunningly beautiful *hardcover* copies of the book. And a delightful and delicious lunch afterwards at Sandy Bay.

10)

Highlights, so many to mention! But it's hard to go past Boori Monty Pryor's traditional Shake a Leg dance lesson, complete with gum leaves and singing, in the board room. The Onions ranged from very reluctant to very enthusiastic, but all got into the spirit of it!

11)

The scene: 6pm. A cramped hotel room in which two editors and an author are beautifying before the big 20th Anniversary bash. The peace is shattered by loud shrieks coming through the wall.
Ed 1: What's that?
Ed 2: *giggles*
Author: No way.
Ed 1 opens the door to corridor. Sounds get much louder.
Author: What if she's being murdered? Do you think we should knock?
Eds 1 & 2: NOOO!
Author: But what if we read in the paper tomorrow that some poor woman was murdered in this hotel and no one did anything.
Eds 1 & 2: That's a chance we're willing to take.

12)

And, of course, there was cake...

* When we say Top Ten here, we mean... well, almost eleventy-million.

** When we say carefully here, we mean carefully in the manner of a small child opening presents on Christmas morning.

*** We understand that those of you who don't know what piled UV is will be none the wiser, even after following our link to the page on our website. So let us explain. No, let us sum up. Piled UV is a whole lot of spot gloss on a matt laminated cover, piles of it, in fact. Still uncertain? Well the only thing to do is get your hands on a real live copy of Lian Tanner's Museum of Thieves and see how Sebastian Ciaffglione's gorgeous cover illustration positively glows with glossiness. That, my friends, is a whole lot of gloss in one spot. (Not so) commonly known as: piled UV.

Hello, Nosy Crow!

What? What? Nosy Crow? What in the world is Nosy Crow?

Is it a bird? Yes!

And is it the very model of a modern children's publisher? Yes!

And is their name, like them, irreverent, cheeky, short, snappy and memorable? Yes!

And are they our new partners in crime?*Yes!

And, most importantly, do they like cake? Yes! Yes! Yes!

So, hello, Nosy Crow! *waves over the oceans*

Something tells us we're going to get along just fine...

* When we say crime here, we mean children's books and apps (obvs).

Todays post is brought to you by the number 2 (or 3)

It seems that we're hurtling with frightening speed towards the season of togetherness. You know what we mean - it's the season of school holidays, and of taking food round to someone else's house to cook it on their BBQ; the season of gathering round the TV to watch the start of the Sydney to Hobart, and of forcing your family to listen to the Boxing Day test as you drive to the beach. It's the season of gathering with your colleagues at any inn that has room.

So in that spirit, we thought we'd celebrate some of our favourite literary collaborators.

Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

Writing one chapter apiece, Rachel and David created Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist and Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List. This Christmas they bring us the utterly adorable and excruciatingly funny Dash and Lily's Book of Dares. Perhaps just a few key phrases will pique your interest: finding love in a 2nd-hand bookshop, make-your-own muppets, Christmas in New York, a gay Jewish dancepop/indie/punk band called 'Silly Rabbi, Tricks Are for Yids'... We could go on, but really just get hold of a copy - it's a complete delight. And look at that amazing cover by our very own LW. We're so proud to be Rachel and David's home in Oz.

Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake
You know it's a match made in heaven when you can write a list of adjectives that apply equally well to either the words or the illustrations: exuberant, inventive, playful, funny, occasionally gross, often poignant. Whoever first paired these two for The Enormous Crocodile was a genius. It's well worth spending time exploring Quentin Blake's gorgeous website. Keep an eye out for the anecdote about how the BFG came to be wearing Roald Dahl's sandals.

Penni Russon and Kate Constable
They've written just one book together. But we love Dear Swoosie hard that we're secretly hoping they'll find something else to work on. Given that both Penni and Kate have talked about how much they enjoyed the process, the signs are hopeful!

Terry Denton and Andy Griffiths

Take a swash of Griffiths and add a dash of Denton and the result is hilariously entertaining chaos. This cheeky pair do like to egg each other on with flat cats on mats, big fat cows going KAPOW!, a whole lot of crazy Just-ness and bad, bad books that make us afraid. Very afraid. While adult readers might sometimes go eeeew, the younger readers gobble these books right up.

Roland Harvey and Alison Lester

There was moonlight at the paddock, and silver brumbies on the roam, the night the mare from Currawong Creek soared away. Horses! Ponies! Brumbies! Secrets! Trick riding! Holidays! Rescue operations! Friendship! Alison Lester's wonderful stories of the adventures of horse-crazy Bonnie & Sam are complemented beautifully by Roland Harvey's wonderful watercolour illustrations. And with four books all in one big collection Horse Crazy! is whole lot of happy for every young horse-lover.

AA Milne and EH Shepard*

To any devotee of the original EH Shepard drawings of Pooh and Piglet, Rabbit & Owl and all the other denizens of the Hundred Aker Wood, any other depiction of the characters is an affront. Pooh IS the delicate line drawing as surely as he is coming down the stairs now, bump, bump, bump on the back of his head, behind Christopher Robin. Actually, perhaps the true collaboration is between EH Shepard and Christopher Robin - the map of the wood does have inscribed at the bottom: DRAWN BY ME AND MR SHEPARD HELPD.

Anna and Barbara Fienberg and Kim Gamble**

Tashi is brave. Tashi is bold. Tashi is the best. He's not just the stories, and he's not just the pictures - he lives in the combination. Anna, Barbara and Kim have collaborated on 18 books over 15 years. And now there's this glorious great big enormous bind up. Just in time for Christmas - well fancy that!

* It has recently come to our attention that one of the Onions has not read Winnie the Pooh. Yes, you read that right. It's true, one of the Onions has not read Winnie the Pooh. Inconceivable! She has been duly chastised and we have extracted a promise that she will rectify this situation poste haste. However, in a curious turn of events it seems that while she is unfamiliar with the genius of the actual book, she does know all the words to this version of House at Pooh Corner.

** Okay, so technically that's three people, but two of them have the same last name, so that evens it out. That, my friends, is irrefutable logic.

A Visit to the Mothership

Last week, most of the editorial Onions paid a visit to the Mothership for a day of learning, broadening, listening, discussing,* doing, gossiping and eating.

We were excited to see this :

But we were almost more excited to see these:

Big thanks to all the presenters, and to AH for organising a terrific day!

* When we say discussing here, imagine, if you will, a large group of eager editors having robust opinions about a whole range of editorial matters pertaining to structure, tone, content, voice, punctuation, grammar and, ahem, adverbs. So perhaps less like quiet industrious editing, and more like editing as a team sport.

Welcome to the World!

On Monday, while we in the House were quietly editing, Penni Russon went and had a baby. That's a good Monday's work, Penni. Well done. And a big welcome to little Avery Miles.

Avery's just beginning his first page, so in celebration we'd like to share some of our favourite first pages from books for new people.

1) Noni the Pony by Alison Lester

2) Brian Banana Duck Sunshine Yellow by Chris McKimmie

3) Monkey Red Monkey Blue by Nicki Greenberg

4) Mannie and the Long Brave Day by Martine Murray and Sally Rippin

5) Go Baby Go! by Sally Rippin and Ann James

Friday stuff and Items

1) Fresh from the triumph of the launch of Hamlet, Nicki Greenberg has another brand new book - but this one is for an age group who may not yet have familiarised themselves with the works of Mr William Shakespeare. Or perhaps they have...

Monkey Blue & Monkey Red are two cheeky monkeys who have sneakily not gone to bed - and decided to have a wild midnight feast instead! And with the help of an over enthusiastic chameleon, oh what a mess they make!

Monkey Red Monkey Blue is to be launched by the irrepressible Mr Terry Denton (famed for many wonderful books of his own AND our beautiful banner illustration) at the Fairfield Library on Monday 22 November at 11 am (right after story time). So if you have a little monkey of your own - come along and join in the fun. You can rsvp over at Fairfieldbooks On Kids.

2) The ever-eloquent Penni Russon is doing a spot of major multi-tasking at the moment. She's putting the finishing touches on the final draft of her new novel, teaching Creative Writing at Melbourne Uni, blogging at Eglantine's Cake, waiting for the imminent arrival of her third child AND answering questions for the Voiceworks crew over at their blog Virgule.

3) Scott Westerfeld is standing up for steampunk against all those grown-ups who are scared of its genre* cooties. As usual, he is funny and articulate - and also has some very clever readers who make cool things. In further celebration of steampunk - feast your eyes on these amazing cakes and awesome weddings.

* I think in Oz, we'd probably call them genre germs, which has a certain alliterative appeal.

Three Things about Daisy Blue

Fair readers, we know that you know that we Onions love a list.

So when an opportunity arises for us to make one (or more), we leap on it. And it just so happens that one of those opportunities has arisen.

Three Things about Daisy Blue (Girlfriend Fiction 20)

by Kate Gordon is the final book in our wonderful Girlfriend Fiction series. That’s 20 books, people. 20! And look at this handy list we prepared earlier of all the books and extracts for each one.

But back to Daisy Blue - a girl who, like us, loves a list. So here is a list of three things about Daisy Blue:

1. Daisy Blue does not like keeping a diary.
2. Daisy Blue loves fashion, movies, TV, celebrity gossip, being skinny, her best friend Jazz and Robbie Chandler.
3. Daisy Blue does not like politics, homework or nerds.
4. Daisy Blue does not want to go to Bali.*

And here is a list of three things about Paulina M. Gifford:

1. Paulina M. Gifford wants to be a historian, but not a celebrity TV historian, because TV rather demeans the seriousness of true historical endeavour.
2. Paulina M. Gifford loves to travel and is eager to go to Bali to experience the delights of a country rich in religious, historical and cultural significance.
3. Paulina M. Gifford’s mother has made Paulina promise to look after Daisy Blue while they are in Bali together.
4. Paulina M. Gifford is not happy about this situation, but she knows that conceding to her mother's wishes is a sensible course of action.**

And here is a list of three things about Kate Gordon:

1. Kate Gordon was a library monitor and a canteen monitor at high school.
2. Kate Gordon has three tattoos.
3. Kate Gordon has climbed a volcano.
4. Kate Gordon has made a list of her favourite YA novels for 2010.***

And here are three BIG cheers for Kate's debut novel Three Things about Daisy Blue:

1. Hooray!
2. Hurrah!
3. Woohoot!
4. HUZZAH!****

* Oops, that seems to be a whole lot more than three things about Daisy Blue.

** Okay, so we seem to be resistant to the idea of three as a number of list items. But of course, we already knew this about ourselves.

*** Please note that we borrowed most of these list items from Kate's list of 28 things. Clearly we are showing great restraint by stopping at four.

**** Very resistant.

Cheesecake surprise

Guinea Pig Thursday made a welcome return today with this interesting specimen:

It looked like a cheesecake...

It smelled like a cheesecake...

It tasted like a cheesecake...

BUT IT WAS MADE FROM TOFU. SURPRISE!

It was made from tofu, and IT WAS DELICIOUS.

It was creamy and soft, and delicate of flavour, and we're talking about it in the past tense because it's all been eaten up.

The Cake-maker Virtuoso tells us that it did also contain cream cheese and other traditional cheesecake ingredients, so it wasn't a purebred tofudebeest.

We are in awe of her talents. Anyone wishing to attempt to replicate her feat should get hold of a copy of Okashi: Sweet Treats made with love.

Arigato, Cake-maker Virtuoso! Totemo oishikatta desu.

A bit of shush, please, we have an announcement...

Margo Lanagan is a superstar!

The World Fantasy Awards are the most prestigious awards in the speculative fiction genre. And Margo Lanagan now has four of them. Count them. Four.

What a good idea - let's count them then, shall we?

1. The 2005 World Fantasy Award for Best Short Story

for 'Singing My Sister Down' which, as we have noted before, has a very special place in our hearts.

2. The 2005 World Fantasy Award for Best Collection

for Black Juice.

3. The 2009 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel

for Tender Morsels.

And 4! 4! 4! 4!

4. The 2010 World Fantasy Award for Best Novella

for Sea-Hearts.

Sea-Hearts was first published in X6 - A Novellanthology, edited by Keith Stevenson. It's a tender and beautiful selkie story, quivering with love, magics and heartbreak. As Margo says, it is 'soaked in tears and sea-water'.

OUTSTANDING! Congratulations, Margo. Huge congratulations.

But wait, there's more. Well, there will be. Margo is currently hard at work transforming the Sea-Hearts novella into a novel. We are so excited about this we can barely breathe. In fact, the only thing keeping us breathing is this gorgeous cover for Yellowcake which is Margo's next collection of short stories.*

* So so spooky and beautiful. And, yes, there's a little bit of waiting for this one too, because it's not published until March, but March is not far away, people. After all, it's almost Christmas time. Oh, dear, did we say that out loud?

Fictions on the Field III

It's that time of year again. Celebrities are mingling with sports stars under canvas. Bart Cummings's eyebrows are featuring prominently in the media. Punters are listening to their gut feelings and wearing see-through ponchos to keep out the monsoon.

And a few lonely Onions are keeping the House fires burning, and studying the form guide...

Horses you would bet on if the 2010 Melbourne Cup were:

a historical romance set in Florence in the late 14th Century

• Mr Medici
• Monaco Consul
• Bucaletti
• Profound Beauty

a Zane Grey novel

• Shoot Out
• Maluckyday
• Americain

one of the Billabong books

• Linton

a Herald Sun article about the scourge of binge-drinking teens

• Shocking

one of the much-admired articles in Playboy

• Illustrious Blue

a Socratic dialogue by a Classical Greek philosopher

• So You Think

the long-awaited sequel to a beloved Maurice Sendak picture book

• Once Were Wild

a biography of Mao Tse-tung

• Red Ruler

a memoir of a 19th-century weaver from the Outer Hebrides of Scotland who specialised in luxury woolen cloth woven with subtle flecks of colour

• Harris Tweed

So, pack your gumboots in your handbag, fill your champagne flutes, keep your umbrellas out of other peoples eyes - and have a lovely Melbourne Cup.