SBPA Publishing Awards 2012 (Singapore)

Hey Singaporean authors! I'm excited to tell you that The Singapore Book Publishers Association (SPBA) is launching its inaugural Publishing Awards in 2012. The award aims to raise profile and showcase high standard of publishing in Singapore. The awards, launched at the SBPA Gala Dinner held on October 28 2011, will be open to all local, regional and international publishers based in Singapore.

There will be six categories for the 2012 awards:
Best novel
Best debut work (any genre)
Best nonfiction title
Best cover design
Best ebook
Best window display or retail campaign

Eligibility
Titles must be published between April 1, 2011 and April 30, 2012.

Wanna enter?
Entry forms for the award will be available on the SBPA website from April 2012. Winners will be announced at the next SPBA Gala Dinner in November 2012. To learn more about SBPA Publishing Awards 2012, please visit http://www.singaporebookpublishers.sg/sbpaawards-submissions.html.

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The Dig: Zoe and Zeus by Audrey Hart

Title: The Dig: Zoe and Zeus	Loved it	Graded
Author: Audrey Hart
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Backlit Fiction
Elements: Greek mythology
Series: Book 1 of the Zoe and Zeus trilogy

Zoe Calder has always been an outsider. Stashed away in boarding schools since her parents died, Zoe buries herself in the study of ancient worlds. Her greatest thrill is spending her summers with her archeologist aunt and uncle on digs around the world. And one day, while investigating a newly unearthed temple in Crete, Zoe discovers a luminous artifact that transports her to ancient Greece.

As Zoe quickly learns, the Olympian Gods are real, living people—humans with mysterious powers… Powers that Zoe quickly realizes she has come to possess, as well. However, when the people of ancient Greece mistake Zoe for an Olympian, the Gods must restore the balance of the ancient world… No matter what.

Zoe is forced to play a confusing and dangerous game as Hera rallies the gods against her—all except for Zeus, the beautiful, winged young god who risks everything to save her.

Out of time and out of her element, teenager Zoe Calder finds herself in ancient Greece, battling against the power of the Olympians and the vengeance of a scorned goddess—all for the strange and mysterious boy she has come to love.

THE DIG is promoted as an Indiana Jones adventure about Zoe, who is transported back in time into Ancient Greece. I was just thinking how cool it would be for a mere human to fall in love with either Apollo or Hermes, you know, someone who's not Hades and voila! Here's someone who falls in love with the god himself, Zeus.

I expected Zeus to be slightly crazy, or even imposing, but unfortunately he seems to be of the same batch of heroes that Henry from THE GODDESS TEST was from: just too good to be true. As the leader of the god, he just lacks in leadership, and lets other lesser gods step all over him. Granted, Mount Olympus and the gods are touted as the popular clique in high school, and Zeus as the soulful jock who falls in love with a mere outsider.

All of that I would have been fine with, had Zoe and Zeus even have any chemistry.

As a narrator, Zoe was at her best when she was talking about her experiences with her aunt and uncle. I could feel how fond she was of them, and how strong a bond they had, and so it was odd how this wasn't used more. Her glee at achieving in learning how her powers worked was infectious, and I was hopeful that I would see her actually mastering it over the gods.

The gods weren't fleshed out enough, and the climax was not effective in providing a small setback or letting Zoe achieve part of her goal. I only realised it was the climax by the time it was over. The last two chapters of the book did make up for it, but it felt abrupt.

Zoe came across as bitter about her human life, and I was looking forward to her changing things. I suppose that's going to be in the other two books. There was a lot of backstory and telling rather than showing. One of it was being told that Zoe wanted to go home, and another was telling me that Zoe loved Zeus. Their interactions felt more platonic than romantic, resulting in Zoe seeming more like she wanted to fall in love, rather than genuinely falling in love with Zeus.

I would love to see more of what happened in the last two chapters, and less of the inner monologue. THE DIG had a premise that I knew I would enjoy, and it's disappointing to find that I didn't.

Contest: Win an ebook of Raven by Nuayma Jeggels

Nuayma Jeggels is here with a guest post about her book, Raven, and she's offered to give away 6 ebooks of Raven. Open internationally. Go forth and enter!

A girl, a coma, a Plague, and an empty grave.

When Shardaie wakes up, she doesn’t know who she is, why she can’t understand emotions, why she has been unconscious for nearly nine of her thirteen years, or why the dead just won’t stay dead.

The only clue to her past is a locket, but the Plague, which finally stretches its unnatural hand to her village, forces her to leave and to learn to protect herself. But everything has a cost: the protection against the undead reveals a secret that Shardaie and her classmates just don’t want to accept, and at the end, Shardaie realises that some secrets shouldn’t be revealed.

Secrets have the power to destroy, and the power to change her view on humanity for ever.

Shardaie was lying on her side on the floor, nose nearly pressed against the struggling lizard. Her violet eyes slowly blinked, watching as the creature waved its limbs and tried its best to get up and crawl away. Watching, but not understanding. She inhaled deeply, then released the breath as she muttered, “What are you feeling?”

The lizard’s eyes flitted this way and that way, and when Shardaie realised that the world had to look just too big for it, she rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling. What was it feeling? She spread out her legs and her arms, trying to see the room from the lizard’s perspective.

Window, too far away. She started to wave her arms. Floor, too wide. She started to wave her legs. Walls, nearly never-ending. Her stomach clenched, a sheen of sweat covered her brow. Shardaie blinked, and as she stopped moving, she thought, that didn’t help. She still didn’t understand what she was feeling.

Shardaie looked back at the lizard, but only found an empty space bathed in sunlight. She rolled onto her side, in the direction of her bedroom doorway, and watched as her guest scuttled away, its broken tail twitching occasionally. “Go,” she whispered, remembering the words a girl had once said to a different lizard, “be free.”

Then she pulled herself up, but when she straightened, she accidentally knocked her arm against the edge of the windowsill. Shardaie noticed the sudden prickling sensation in her flesh, and when she raised her arm, brow twitching as her eyes narrowed, she took note of the scratch and the thin line of blood that stood out vividly against her pale skin.

Wasn’t she supposed to be doing something? she thought as she tilted her head to the left and then to the right continuously, she was supposed to react, wasn’t she? Her arm lowered to her side. She looked up and licked her lips, thinking about the girl, who loved to speak to lizards, before turning to stare at the floor.

Shardaie began with her face: she started to arch her eyebrows and then opened and closed her mouth. Her calves twitched, so she started to shake her legs, but that turned into a hopping-on-the-spot. She tried her best to re-enact a scene she had witnessed a while ago, of a little child noticing a wound, but when she spun around, arms flapping in the air, she realised that she wasn’t alone.

Celio, her red-haired guardian, stood in the doorway, his hand on the doorknob. He cocked his head and then frowned at her. “What are you doing?”

Shardaie immediately stood still and smacked her lips. She looked at her arm, then raised it and replied, “I’m reacting.”

Celio looked at her arm, then glanced over his shoulder to address someone before turning back to her. “Give me a moment, child,” he turned around, but kept his gaze on her face, “keep your arm clean.”

Shardaie nodded at the suddenly empty doorway, turned around, marched up to her bed and sat down. She wriggled around for a moment, but sat still and stared ahead. Her eyes blinked. Her fingers twitched occasionally. A lock of her hair fell down to caress her nose. She looked at her arm and then raised it before sitting upright and staring at the doorway once more.

Stomp, stomp, stomp announced Celio’s presence, but Shardaie didn’t move and didn’t look away from the doorway. Celio walked into the room and sat down beside her, then took her raised arm and started to wipe a wet cloth over the scratch. Shardaie watched him work, watched how he bowed his head and slowly turned his wrist, but when he was done and he turned to her as though he was expecting something, she remained silent for a while before saying, “Thank you, sir.”

Celio nodded, looked away and studied his cloth. “Everything’s all right now.” He smiled at Shardaie, placed a hand on her shoulder and stood up. “It’s time for dinner. Come.”

Shardaie didn’t follow him, even when he made a beckoning motion with his hand, and when he had left the room, she looked back at her arm and thought. The prickling sensation was still there, but it was fainter. She looked at the doorway that both Celio and the lizard had used, then crawled across her bed and threw her blanket over her body and her head.

Her stomach clenched. Her bottom lip trembled. Shardaie closed her eyes, and as she felt her breath flutter across her upper lip, she started to wave her legs and her arms. Nothing. How was everything all right? Shardaie continued to wave her limbs. She still couldn’t understand what she was feeling …

Want more? What are you waiting for?

The Iron Knight Blog Tour: An Interview with Julie Kagawa

Hi Julie! Thanks so much for being here again. The popularity of your series seems to have exploded since the first book. Now, The Iron Knight won the RITA Award, you're a New York Times Bestseller, and you have fans all across the globe. How has the road to reach this point been?

Oh, goodness. Thrilling, exhausting, exciting, terrifying, you name it. Its been a wild, crazy journey, and I'm just extremely grateful for everyone who allowed me to get this far. To all those people, readers, fans, editors, agents, everyone-thank you from the bottom of my heart.

How sweet! I bet you get asked this a lot - Puck or Ash? Why or why not?

I have to go with Ash, because I love my dark, brooding bad boys. But I adore Puck as well, and the books wouldn't be the same without him.

As a Puck fan myself, I agree. The series definitely won;t be as good without him. With Meghan having to choose between two equally wonderful people... Out of all four books which has been your favorite to write?

I think my favorite to write was The Iron Queen, because that's when everything came together; the last battle, Meghan's destiny, her and Ash's fate, all the loose threads that wove together as this was the final fight. And it was satisfying seeing Meghan's story finally come to a close. Everything worked out, with the exception of her and Ash, of course, but that's where The Iron Knight comes in. ;-)

!!! You mean Ash and Meghan might finally get their happy ending? Great to know. What about our dear Puck, inquiring minds want to know?

Readers, do you have anything you want to ask Julie? What do you think Puck's fate will be like?