MR CHEN GOES AUDIO
Great news! ‘Mr Chen’s Emporium’ is now available in a digital audio version with a superb narration by Cat Gould, who’s originally from Australia and now based in Oregon. Thanks, Cat, for doing such a wonderful job. The gentle Scottish accent that Cat has given Amy is exactly as I heard it in my head when I was writing the novel.
To listen to a sample of the audio version, just visit the link at the Audible Australian Audio bookstore and click on the icon below the cover.
AUSTRALIAN RURAL ROMANCE
Thanks to the hard work of Jennie Jones, author of 'The House on Burra Burra Lane', and her fabulous team of fellow writers - Jenn, Helene, Cathryn and Rachael, there's a great new resource on the internet called 'Australian Rural Romance' - a web page showcasing a selection of Australian authors with contemporary or historical novels published by Australian publishers. All these books combine romance elements with a rural setting.
View the latest covers, read the blurbs, click on links to the authors' websites and even find out where to buy the books. In addition, there are blog articles on a range of topics related to country life and writing rural fiction.
I'm thrilled to be among the authors featured on this web page. You can find it here: http://australianruralromance.com/. And below is my own particular Australian rural romance - the view from my place in the country. I just keep falling in love with it over and over again.
June 22, 2014
NEW EDITION OF 'THE JADE WIDOW'
Here's the new edition of 'The Jade Widow' which will appear in bookshops on May 1, 2014. Isn't the apricot cover gorgeous? It would make a perfect Mother's Day gift.
The book is a smaller size, ideal for carrying in a handbag or taking on holidays. It's also available in ebook format. As a bonus, you'll find the first chapter of 'A Place of Her Own' in the back!
Here's what the 'Australian Women's Weekly' said about 'The Jade Widow':
'O'Brien delivers accuracy and grace in this deftly written tale.'
More reviews here.
February 27, 2014
Book Giveaway Winners
Thank you to everyone who entered the competition (which closed on September 15) and congratulations to the three winners, who will each receive a signed copy of THE JADE WIDOW. The question was:
Why do you enjoy reading historical fiction?
The winners have kindly allowed me to reprint their entries below.
From Margaret Owen Ruckert comes a charming poem entitled 'Historical Fiction':
Where my great-grandmother
walks grandly off the page
in lace-up boots and steady eye
Where hatted men in woollen suits
debate the economy and despair of peace
Where words transport me to difficult times
for women especially, women sans voice
but a story to tell, by a writer who understands
From country NSW, Joyce writes:
'I enjoy historical stories that modern-day women can relate to.
We can identify with many of the issues facing your historical characters.'
From Steph D comes this verse about why she enjoys historical fiction:
A retreat into time,
a view of lives
so different
to mine.
To feel the romance
tragedy and strife,
To capture a glimpse
of another's life.
For only a moment
as I read sculptured lines
The past is transported
to live in my mind.
September 16, 2013
SURRENDER TO SUMMER 2 - A Sense of Place
'Soak up the summer sun while enjoying three heart-warming Australian bestsellers that transport you to a tiny coastal village in the 1950s, to a nostalgic waterside idyll, and to a dusty Gold Rush town in the 1870s.'
I'm delighted to let you know about a fabulous book released on December 2, 2014 - SURRENDER TO SUMMER 2. It's a one thousand and eighty-eight page (yes, 1088!) omnibus from Random House Australia, containing three full-length novels, each with a strong sense of place - Alison Booth's STILLWATER CREEK, Susan Duncan's BRINY CAFE and my own MR CHEN'S EMPORIUM.
SURRENDER TO SUMMER 2 would make the perfect Christmas gift.
Read more at the RHA website by clickinghere.
Deborah O'Brien
MR CHEN IN 'READER'S DIGEST SELECT EDITIONS'
Photo: Courtesy of Reader's Digest Australia. Design by Jacqui Duncan
I'm thrilled to announce that Mr Chen's Emporium has been included in the Reader's Digest Select Editions released in June 2013.
Select Editions are a Reader's Digest tradition, comprising four condensed novels in one beautifully bound volume, produced especially for subscribers.
I feel very honoured to be in the company of wonderful writers such as David Baldacci and Eowyn Ivey, author of 'The Snow Child'.
Read an interview about MR CHEN at the Reader's Digest Australia website, as well as an extract from the condensed book.
Cover image: Reader's Digest
THE JADE WIDOW REVEALED
For all those readers, who've been asking about 'The Jade Widow', here she is! Don't you just love the purple background? Very apt in terms of the storyline, as you'll discover when the book is released in early September by Random House Australia.
More about 'The Jade Widow' here, including a slideshow trailer using beautiful Victorian images from my friend's heirloom family scrapbook circa 1890.
REVIEWS FROM NEW ZEALAND
A big thank you to all those Kiwi readers who've emailed me with kind words about MR CHEN'S EMPORIUM. I've really appreciated your wonderful feedback.
Like California and Australia, New Zealand had its own Gold Rush which produced a rich and fascinating heritage. After gold was discovered in the mid-1860s at the evocatively named Gabriel's Gully, prospectors flocked to the Central Otago area and later to the West Coast of the South Island.
Here's a fragment from a lovely editorial review of MR CHEN'S EMPORIUM. Coincidentally, it comes from the heart of NZ Gold Rush country:
'Parallel worlds unfold out of the Australian past ... An easy read, ideal to curl up with on holiday or a rainy Sunday afternoon.'
Caroline Hunter in the OTAGO DAILY TIMES, March 9, 2013
Another great review, this time from THE OAMARU MAIL, 4 January, 2013:
'Gripping Aussie saga spans time'