February 2022 in Review

February got away from me so quickly that I’m over a week late to post a review of everything that happened. Why is the shortest month of the year also one of the most jam-packed with events!

Anyway, here’s what I got up to in the first month of the Noongar season of Bunuru.

Work

This month I completed the structural edit of a 100,000-word fantasy manuscript. Working on a structural edit is always so fun because it involves multiple reads and extensive notes and even when I’m not reading I’m constantly thinking about the manuscript. I’m so glad I got to work on this and I’m really grateful that the author trusted me with what is only the beginning of a massive project!

I also had my first mentoring session as a mentor! I was able to draw on the experience I’ve had with my own mentors to help my mentee set goals and create strategies to achieve those goals. We caught up for a coffee and a chat and time absolutely flew by. I’m really looking forward to our next session together.

I’ve also been busy with headshots for some incredible authors. Brett Adams and I had an awesome time in the Perth CBD chatting sci-fi and anime and killer movie scores. Keep an eye out for his book Blood and Ink coming out with Fremantle Press in July. For Ceinwen Langley’s shoot, we were going for a spooky gothic look and the paperbarks at Herdsman Lake were the perfect backdrop (although I got eaten alive by mosquitoes - note to self: wear long pants on wetland shoots!). Ceinwen’s latest book is The Misadventures of an Amateur Naturalist which you can read about and order on her website. And finally, I was so excited to be asked to help Holden Sheppard update his headshots in preparation for the release of his second novel The Brink due out in August. Preorders are open and you can find your local retailer on the Text Publishing website.

In addition to my usual editing and photography projects, in February I also appeared on a panel at GenreCon about editing genre fiction. Sally Asnicar, Kerry Davies and I talked about what editors do, when to look for an editor, how much you can expect to pay, and some of the special considerations we have in genre fiction (no it’s not all just spelling, grammar and punctuation!).
GenreCon moved from a hybrid format to an entirely online format this year using a cool program called GatherTown which allowed users to create avatars and have conversations in real-time with each other in between sessions. I had a lot of fun exploring all the secret areas the organisers had created between the sessions I went to. By far my favourite session, and this will come as no surprise to anyone, was the Strong Worlds. Beautiful Language. session featuring Maree Kimberley, Amie Koffman, Claire Coleman, Lauren Gawne and Marianne de Pierres talking about fictional languages.

Exploring the secret rooms in GatherTown between sessions. This was my favourite room! You had to enter through the fireplace at the bottom of the image.

And finally on the work front, it was of course the Writers Weekend at Perth Festival in the final weekend of February and I was lucky enough to have a stall for IPEd at the Fremantle Press Business of Being a Writer event. Laurie Ormund joined me to help talk to writers about what editors can do for them and we were lucky enough to be sat next to the lovely Sophie Minissale from Pulch Magazine.

Reading

With so much work going on, I haven’t had as much time to read as usual but one book I did review for The AU Review was Vanessa Len’s debut Only a Monster.

Only a Monster is a pacey, dark, compelling read. It’s YA at its very best.

Honestly, I can’t recommend this book highly enough. If you’re a YA Urban Fantasy fan, you’ve got to give this one a go.

This might be cheating a little bit but in other book news, my wonderful friend Michael Trant launched his second book, Wild Dogs, and it looks amazing! I was lucky enough to interview him for The AU Review and I got to attend his launch.

Wild Dogs is an action-packed thriller being hailed as Australia’s answer to Jack Reacher (and with a cover quote from Lee Child himself!).

In the drought-ridden rangelands of Western Australia, Gabe Ahern makes his living trapping wild dogs for local station owners. Still coming to terms with his wife’s death – and the part he played in it – the old bushman leads a solitary life. Until one morning, when he rescues a young Afghan man, Amin, from certain execution. Now, with a gang of people smugglers on his tail and the lives of Amin's family on the line, Gabe is drawn into a ruthless game of cat and mouse. His main opponent is Chase Fowler, a kangaroo hunter with bush skills as wily and sharp as his own. As the old dogger and roo-shooter go head to head, Gabe will need all his cunning to come out of this alive…

So if action thrillers are your thing, head on over to Penguin’s website to find your local bookseller to grab a copy!

Congratulations Mike! I’m so thrilled for you and the success of this book. Here’s to the next one!

Leisure

It’s been a busy month but I did make time for a few leisure activities. One of those activities was the weekly releases of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba’s second season, the Entertainment District Arc.

Based on the manga by Koyoharu Gotouge and produced by Ufotable, the series follows Tanjiro Kamado who trains to become a demon slayer after his family is brutally slaughtered and his younger sister Nezuko turned into a demon. As he goes, he must prove that Nezuko is not a danger to other humans and try to find a cure to make her human once more.

The Entertainment District Arc picks up where the movie Demon Slayer: Mugen Train left off. Tanjiro and his friends Zenitsu and Inosuke are recovering from the devastating losses of Mugen Train and begin obsessively training to become stronger. It’s while they’re training that the Sound Hashira, Tengen, (one of the top demon slayers) recruits them for a mission to save his missing wives who were investigating rumours of demons in the entertainment district.

This season had some of the best animation I’ve ever seen in an anime with fight sequences that were breathtakingly beautiful and cliffhangers to die for as they reached the climactic battle with the demon siblings Daki and Gyutaro. This anime just keeps going from strength to strength and now I must wait (im)patiently, for season three: The Swordsmith Village Arc, for which there is no release date yet. *cries desperately*

Another TV show that finished up it’s weekly releases in February was Disney’s The Book of Boba Fett. Though at times it was a bit slow, and there was a strange pivot in episodes 5 and 6 to the Mandalorian and Grogu (baby Yoda), I actually found the show mostly enjoyable. When taken lightly, it’s an interesting exploration of a planet dominated by crime lords and corruption. The first few episodes hold unmistakable anti-colonial ideology as Boba Fett is rescued and trained by the Tusken Raiders although a lot of this commentary seems to disappear as the series continues. I know a lot of Star Wars fans will be unhappy with the portrayal of Fett’s character as less amoral and more scrupulous but it was a nice easy watch at the end of a long week so I’m chalking this one up as enjoyable but not necessarily memorable.

And finally in my leisure time, I’ve been having fun watching BookTokers over on TikTok. @merrowchild is one of my favourites to watch and she has a great video (below) on how to break a reading slump…

@bumblebeezus’s video on genre speed dating gave me a good laugh…

And finally @queen_astraea isn’t a booktoker but her videos make me laugh every day and I look out for them obsessively. So if you need something light-hearted and fun, check her out.

And that’s it for my February round up. I’ll try and make sure March is on time! Have a good month, stay safe and I look forward to chatting with you about your thoughts on Only a Monster, Demon Slayer, Boba Fett, and anything else you’ve been reading and watching!