What about Weather Child… NOW?
As any of you that have been following my blog know, since my very first blog post (here), I have been, passionately advocating the publishing of the novel Weather Child by Philippa J. Ballantine, a brilliant “new” author out of New Zealand. New is a relative term considering Ms. Ballantine has previously been published by Dragon Moon Press.
You can find Ms. Ballantine’s first book Chasing the Bard and the even better sequel (imho) Digital Magic on their website located at http://www.dragonmoonpress.com . Dragon Moon also publishes the wonderful books of Tee Morris (both the amazing Billibub Baddings and the superlative Morevi series) and the, as yet unread (but sure to be enjoyed), Valerie Griswold-Ford’s Horseman series and the soon to be released Crescent by Phil Rossi (truly the best space/horror I’ve heard in an eon).
But back to Weather Child. As a short recap, Weather Child is an amazing novel set during the first third of the twentieth century in Wellington, New Zealand. It involves more than a fair amount of history, combined with a wonderful fantasy element unlike anything I’ve ever read, or heard, before. Currently Weather Child is available ONLY as a podcast. You can download it directly from the author’s website at http://weatherchild.com, from iTunes, or from Podiobooks and I strongly suggest you do so. (Really, just go do it. Now. I’ll wait.)
Why don’t I just go purchase a copy of Weather Child and quit writing about it? Simple. I can’t. As in, others have taken that decision out of my hands. Ms. Ballantine has stated previously that she had shopped Weather Child to some large house publishers here in the U.S. and was refused on the basis that the story took place in New Zealand, AND that most American citizens are so closed minded that they would find a story taking place in such an unknown locale uninteresting (well, maybe it wasn’t stated exactly like that).
Fortunately, good things do indeed come to those that persevere. Last week Ms. Ballantine was awarded a contract for two books with Ace publishing, a subsidiary of Penguin Books. The first book contracted for is the highly anticipated Geist, and the second will be the sequel to the same. There is the possibility of more books with Ace if the first two sale well. You can read more about this wonderful turn of events on the author’s website at http://www.pjballantine.com.
Now, what does this have to do with Weather Child? (As if you haven’t guessed.) I am simply hoping that perhaps the third book for Ace might be Weather Child. I am more than confident that Geist will be a big enough seller for Ace to continue their partnership with Ms. Ballantine, but lets all make sure this happens.
Here we have another of the authors that have been so generous in providing us with free fiction over the years. It really does seem like publishers are starting to take notice of this “podcasting thing”. Although not confirmed, Ms. Ballantine (paraphrased from a recent tweeted conversation) does believe that the fan base she has developed through podcasting helped in gaining the notice of Ace. Let’s make sure we return the favor, and in so doing enable her to keep writing the stories we love to hear and read. Keep subscribing to the authors you love. Numbers help. Keep working on driving up those numbers for the ‘cast you’ve decided to champion at #podcastchallenge (how are you doing on the challenge?). AND ABOVE ALL ELSE, buy the books if and when they’re published. Heck, buy several, give them as gifts.
I really believe that if we do this, I’ll get my wish of Weather Child on my nightstand. And you do want to make the Allfather happy, don’t you?
View from Valhalla 