On Monday 2 March The Australian Publishers Association announced the 2020 ABIA longlist. The longlist introduces the titles, publishers and authors in the running for the 2020 ABIA. And what a list it is! Check it out below. 

MEDIA RELEASE

The debut literary crime novel by former ABC current affairs broadcaster Annette Marner, A New Name for the Colour Blue, is influenced by her decades of reporting on male violence towards women and girls. Set between Adelaide and the southern Flinders Ranges, it won the Adelaide Festival’s Unpublished Manuscript Award in 2018.

The girl is forbidden from making a sound, so the yellow bird sings

Media Release

The debut novel from Jennifer Rosner, The Yellow Bird Sings is a powerfully moving and utterly gripping tale that will be released on 25 February 2020.

On 11 February 2020, Jenny Quintana will release her second novel Our Dark Secret; an emotional and gripping tale of two girls, two deaths and two decades of silence.

Following the success of her debut novel, The Missing Girl, the anticipated second novel follows Elizabeth, a teenager in the late 1970s who was clever, overweight and the perfect victim for bullies.

A chance encounter with a mysterious girl in the summer of 1978 solidifies the collision of two fates when Rachel moved to town with her family at the start of the school year.

Reading slumps come and go, or at least they normally have done with me. Tiredness, distraction, busy times, lots of things can get in the road of a consistent and lifelong tendency to read anything and everything at any given opportunity, but in the last few months something really strange has happened in AustCrimeFiction central.

Totally lost interest.

Picked up a few books and discarded them. Went and sat in front of the sewing machine instead, or played an online game, or, something I NEVER EVER do, watched movies.

Cover reveal time, with the announcement from newly formed Corella Press (https://www.austlit.edu.au/corellapress) of their upcoming initial releases: BRIDGET'S LOCKET AND OTHER MYSTERIES by Waif Wander (aka Mary Fortune) and THE MILLWOOD MYSTERY by Jeannie Lockett.

These beautiful covers were created by Kathleen Jennings (https://www.kathleenjennings.com/) whose paper cut silhouettes are amazing.

Corella Press state on their website:

The Mentone Public Library are  showcasing local crime fiction author Alison Knight.

Time: 11am-1.30pm

Date: Saturday, 31 August 2019

Venue: Mentone Public Library

Address: Rear, 36 Florence Street, Mentone VIC 3194

Entry: Gold coin (for tea, coffee, biscuits)

Alison will be discussing her three crime novels:

1) Peter Stone
2) The Close
3) The Undiscovered Room and Other Stories

Young offenders, criminal histories:

Ngaio Marsh Award longlist revealed

An extraordinary literary tag-team is among several tales inspired by historic events to be named today on an eclectic longlist for the 2019 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel.

There's a bunch of reviews in the unpublished queue here that have never been pushed live for a number of reasons - many of them boring admin problems, some of them because the book hasn't exactly been to this reviewers taste and, believe it or not, I don't always like posting negative reviews, especially if I've struggled to find a positive about the book. I'd hasten to add - these are in the minority / most of them are because I've been flat out and haven't had a chance to verify / check the review content.