Couple of bits of news. First, a thank you to AOBIBLIOPHILE for passing the torch to Burn Bright and naming us in the Versatile Blogger Awards. We will pass the torch in due course.

And an even more huge thank you to my colleagues Margo Lanagan, Isobelle Carmody and Lauren Kate who all gave some wonderful quotes for the Burn Bright cover and pre-release material. Each one of them had to find time in their extraordinarily busy schedules to read the book and write a quote. I know what that means and I’m profoundly grateful to them.

The final cover is here in all it’s glory! Astred Hicks (art design) is a Goddess.

The postman brought me the most exciting parcel today. My proofs for Burn Bright and the glossy presenters that are being used in the marketing of the book. I’m so squeehee happy I can’t sit still.  I began writing this book in 2003 and the process has been slow and done with the utmost love. Seeing this today felt like a birthday or sorts. Or maybe akin to a baby’s ultrasound 🙂

This is a major shout out to my web design company, Austin Designworks, who have relaunched their own website. You can read my testimonials over there but it pretty obvious how much I LOVE them!

Just a quick shout out to Peace From Pieces for listing this site as Blog-a-licious!

And a big hello to all those GoodReads members who are listing Burn Bright as a ‘to-read’ book. We love you!

Catherine Geaney

Thought it time to officially welcome all our new staff to Burn Bright. In the last few months we’ve had several new writers come on board, namely Cels Jansink, Max Smith (UK) and Mandy Wrangles. Digital artist Catherine Geaney (Ir) has also come back to help us out with some great downloadable button emblems for the gangs of Ixion, which you can find under Extras. Catherine (or Cj, as we know her) will be designing different pieces for us on and off, to complement the iphone apps and wallpapers that Random House are working on.

You can read all our new staff bios in the Staff section, and the slant of their blogs in the Columns section.

Cels Jansink

Max Smith

Mandy Wrangles

In book news, Burn Bright has gone off to be turned into page proofs and some advance copies should be ready in the next few weeks. Meanwhile, I’ve begun work on the Angel Arias (bk 2) and am enjoying exploring Ruzalia’s island, before Naif and I head back to Grave and face her past.