Published - Blog Posts
Rashmi Patil / Yesugade ( Volume 1) Photographed by Amit Mali Abstract Portrait
Officially a published writer on Vocal Media! Hopefully the first piece of many to come! I originally wrote this for the Outdoor Shots challenge, but decided to spend more time polishing the ending. There’s no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.
20 years ago, I self-published my sketchbook: “Wang-Dang-Doodle!” This was the drawing I used for the cover art.. Recently, I agreed to sell the drawing to a local Original Art collector/friend.. So, I thought I’d better make some decent scans of it, first. Hard for me to believe how quickly all of that time has passed!
I was fortunate this past weekend, to win a couple of nice items at Heritage Auctions.. Here’s one of them: a large mixed media painting, by Daniel Torres - the great Spanish illustrator/comic-book artist! This illustration was published in the December ‘89 issue of PLAYBOY Magazine, to accompany excerpts of “The Killing Man”; Mickey Spillane’s 12th MIKE HAMMER novel!
A 16 year-old pinup drawing that served as my entry into this week’s 'Illustration Friday' contest, themed around the word: “DOG”.. The initial layout sketch was provided by my good friend and fellow Layout buddy: David Pietila. “Soopermutt” was a character featured in issues of the “Animal Adventures” comic-book, published in the 1950′s by ‘Timor Publications’..
A pair of freelance illustration jobs by artist/friend: Dave Stevens.. The 2nd one has been widely published, but has been rarely seen in it’s original context. These were ads for BOSS Audio products that appeared in GUITAR WORLD magazine, back in 1985. It took me years to locate the "Feedback Monster" version in the bad olde pre-eBay days! Fortunately, Toronto had a number of good Used Books stores that carried back-issues of old mags.. Dave famously drew himself into the "Sampler Safari" one, as "Professor D. Sampler".. He’s sporting the jodphur pants that he'd already made famous in his ROCKETEER comic stories.. Intriguing to me, are the mail-in offers for larger 18" x 24" posters of these ads? I've never seen one. And it makes me wonder how many were printed, and if any of them are still around?
A Belated HAPPY HALLOWE’EN !!
They recently staged a "Hallowe'en" -themed Art Show at the studio I work at.. I decided to contribute a couple of old EC Fanzine illustrations that I did many years ago.. Sadly, I no longer own the pen-and-ink originals.. But I'd always wanted to color these; and the Art Show finally gave me the chance to do so! Both images feature all 3 of EC Comics' famed "GhouLunatics" characters, along with a lot of other creepy and gory stuff!
Just saw that Lauren Bacall passed away at the age of 89.. One of the grand dames of Cinema, and a genuine favorite of mine! Back when I published my sketchbook in 2003, I included an illo featuring Ms. Bacall that was intended as an homage to Milt Caniff's late-great "MISS LACE" comic-strip.. Seeing as Lauren was a legitimate Pin-Up Queen back during WW2, it seemed completely appropriate?..
An 'IRON MAN' illo I did back in 2002.. Based (of course) on the beautiful renderings of this character by genius comic-book artist: Jack Kirby! A man who never said "No!" to foreshortening!!
Jumble.
Thought we had kissed hello
In that moment of bliss
Sunny day, starry night
Deja Vu played once more
The Twilight had caught the sun's glare
Beaming with cries of happiness
The tunnel wasn't lost or confusing
Along alley way of fun had developed
Brand new muses were on sight
Drinks with oranges dazzle the tongue
Mouths that speaks of poetry
Words have been stuck. Jumble.
I am being published!
I sold a book.
I've actually sold two books.
Here's the official write-up from trade magazine, Books+Publishing;
Hachette Australia has acquired ANZ rights to a middle-grade novel, The Year the Maps Changed, and a yet to be titled YA novel by literary agent Danielle Binks. The two-book deal was negotiated by Binks’ employer, Jacinta di Mase Management.
Binks’ debut middle-grade novel, is set in the Victorian coastal town of Sorrento in 1999 during the events of ‘Operation Safe Haven’, when the Australian government welcomed some 6000 Kosovar refugees into ‘safe havens’ around the country, including the Quarantine Station on Point Nepean, on the Mornington Peninsula. The novel takes place over one year in 12-year-old Winifred’s life ‘when everything’s already changing at home, and then the outside world seems to come crashing in’.
Commissioning editor Kate Stevens said, ‘I’m absolutely delighted to be working with Danielle, who is not only a brilliant writer but also has an acute understanding of her audience and a whole lot of love for the #LoveOzYA and #LoveOzMG movements. The Year the Maps Changed is about the bonds of family and the power of compassion … I can’t wait to get it into the hands of readers around the country, I know they’re going to love it like I do.’
The Year the Maps Changed will be published in June 2020 and Binks’ YA novel is tentatively set for 2021.
So yeah - that happened! And one reason updating the blog with the news slipped my mind, was probably because for the last two-weeks I have been in the thick of my first round of structural edits ... which is a thing that is happening now, because I have a book coming out next year!
And also because between structural edits, I've been brainstorming and writing in fits & bursts for this other idea of mine ... the YA novel. Which is also going to be an actual thing you can buy and sit on your bookshelf one day or read on your e-reader or - I dunno! - listen to on audiobook, *maybe*! This all blows my mind.
Because - here's the thing ... Last week I stumbled across this old interview with me, from 2012 over at The Writer's Burrow. I talk about how coming runner-up in the John Marsden Prize the year before, kinda changed my whole life. I didn't know how true that was, until I connected a few dots. Like how the John Marsden Prize is now called the The John Marsden & Hachette Australia Prize (still with Express Media!) and I have just signed a two-book deal with Hachette Children's.
Back in 2011 I didn't win a writing-award. But I got runner-up and received praise for one of the first short-stories I ever wrote and shared with the wider world - beyond anonymous FanFiction or a private Word Doc on my computer. I got to tell John Marsden - one of my all-time favourite Australian YA authors - that Checkers changed my life and was my favourite book of his. And he told me that I'd come *so close* to winning, and that he hoped I'd keep writing.
I did. And now here we are.
You can buy my book next year, and the next one the year after that!What a world. What a funny, old world.
I have been vividly inactive,,,, but now I have an important thing I am very invested in and excited about!
I won Newfound Org’s 2019 Prose Chapbook Prize ^^^
And Things From the Creek Bed We Could Have Been is my debut collection of surreal short stories from this independent press and it’s out for preorder now in both ebook and print here!
https://newfound.org/product-category/print/chapbooks/prose/claire-oleson/
I’m very proud of this work and so delighted it’s found a home with a press that makes beautiful and hand-bound books.Consider taking a glance if you’ve got a moment or an interest in learning about Magritte or fish guts or Cerberus or gender thank youuuu.
Why are the peaches in the river and how are they about divorce? Gonna have to find out.
Also consider reblogging to support an independent writer and press in one fell swoop, thanks so much!