THIS PAGE IS FOR ME TO TELL YOU ABOUT MY LITTLE BOOK. IT IS PUBLISHED BY MYSELF BUT HAS ONLY ‘PREVIOUSLY ACCEPTED FOR PUBLICATION’ PIECES IN IT. THE STORIES ARE LITERARY FICTION
TWO STORIES IN THE VOLUME HAVE BEEN HIGHLY COMMENDED IN THE QUEENSLAND ART COUNCIL NEW REGIONAL WRITERS AWARD.
ALL HAVE BEEN ACCEPTED BY ONLINE AND PRINT JOURNALS BEFORE BEING GATHERED INTO THIS COLLECTION
Photo: Courtesy Dennis Andrews – taken at Mareeba Wetlands
BULK WHOLESALE PURCHASES ARE AVAILABLE - EMAIL ME: DIANEPITHIE(AT) GMAIL.COM (SAVE POSTAGE AND REDUCE UNIT COST TO GROUPS)
BUY A TOTE BAG FOR YOUR BOOKS:
HERE ARE SOME COMMENTS BY EDITORS WHO HAVE ACCEPTED MY WORK:
1) THE LAST DANCE -
The little episode of the children dances is poetry in and of itself
2) COONANGELBAH -
It is a great story
3) WAITING FOR ROSS
I LOVE YOUR STORY, AND I BELIEVE PHILIP (philip k dick) WOULD HAVE, TOO
4) LEAPING BONES -
Congratulations on being daring and taking chances with your writing. HONEST AND STRONG
Here is a book review in the ‘Cairns Post’ newspaper http://www.cairns.com.au/article/2010/03/25/102131_cairns-book-reviews.html
What is this book about? Here is an in-depth interview by Fiona Sewell on the ABC. I enjoyed it because she asked serious questions and made ‘me’ come out. It was ‘live’ and honest. I did no preparation for it so the conversation was ‘organic’.
Fiona says
I admire anyone who can spin a yarn and tell a good story. Local writer Diane Andrews has written many short stories and she’s put them together in a book. It’s called ‘The Speed of Darke’, and let me tell you, there is a dark edge to her writing.”
‘The Speed of Darke’ is available at Angus and Robertson in Earlville Shopping Centre - Cairns, or directly from the printer. Copies can also be purchased at ‘Apostrophe Bookshop’ in the Pier Market Place at the Marlin Marina in Cairns. You can also email me on dianepithie @ gmail. com to buy a copy. I intend to add new pieces to the book as they are accepted for publication. This is the beauty of Print-On-Demand.
This is what Vereno (Dr Veny) Armanno said about piece ‘The Speed Of Darke, which is included in the volume
Diane Andrews work was highly commended in a past QAC competition and it is easy to see why. She writes with a firm confidence in her characters and her story, and this helps to propel the reader very easily from page to page. Her characters are engaging and have depth, thair back-stories are credible and the various jeopardies they find themselves in help push the plot further and further. The fictional and magical world Diane Andrews writes about seems to contain a fully realised internal logic. The ‘Speed of Darke’ is an absorbing tale, with much darkness and complexity of character. It is a sequel to earlier ‘When Merlin Woke’, however in the pages Diane Andrews has entered here, there is no need to have read the first book in order to appreciate the second.
The lead is a strongly written female character and the scenes of violence and sexuality are compelling without being gratuitous. Highly commended
Judge, Queensland Arts Council Regional Writers Award
This is what online literary critic Robert Schneider said of my writing:
Your writing is brilliant and more than a tad courageous. Pieces like “Darke” invite lampooning. Notwithstanding my remarks professing not to comprehend it very well on a deeper level, simply on the surface level it was most enjoyable as a fantasy piece. Thus, having had to read it twice, not unlike Mr. Redwood, was no chore whatsoever.
Those who can, write; those who can’t, review. I’m afraid that whatever intellectual prowess I do possess tends more towards the analytical direction than to the creative. My one and only story is a thinly-veiled childhood memoir, with much of the dialogue and ambience having been “plagiarized from life.” If it is even decent, that is the sole reason. I never intend to write another piece of fiction. As it is said, “If you can’t sing: don’t!”
You, on the other hand, have all the necessary ingredients to be a first-rate professional writer. Your writing per se is impeccable; your imagination and imagery, wonderfully vivid.
Robert Schneider
Stephen Theaker of Theaker’s Quarterly Fiction described it as:
‘The Speed of Darke’ is one part White’s ‘The Once and Future King’, another part Wilder’s ‘The Skin of Our Teeth’; yet another part Condon’s ‘The Manchurian Candidate’; with more than a healthy dose of Virginia Woolf and James Joyce thrown into the mix to muddy the literary waters: “Someone has blundered!” into Finnegan’s Wake.
I was interviewed in the Cairns Post, which was made into a feature article in the Wednesday Lifestyle Supplement ‘CAIRNSEYE’- on the 14/5/09. The article is available as a PDF by emailing me on dianepithie@ gmail.com. Here is the link to the CAIRNS EYE MAGAZINE
and here is the actual interview
CLICK ME TO READ ONE OF THE STORIES
At the August meeting of a Cairns Book Club someone read ‘Playing Around’ out loud. It was so well recieved that I was asked to do a reading of another piece ‘Powerlines’, at the September meeting. This is like being ‘headhunted’ - so I was chuffed. It went over well, nerves and all.
