AUsome
Sophie Cunningham
November 18
Contracts have been signed so now the cat is out of the bag. Picador/Pan MacMillan have signed up Jessica Au and will publish her first novel, Cargo, in late 2010 or early 2011. Readers of Spike will already be familiar with Jessica Au's skill with words, the exhaustive range of her interests and her general fabulousness. Indeed her only serious fault is that she does not like lolcats. I wanted to take the opportunity to publicly congratulate her. It's no mean feat for an emerging, un-agented writer to get a publisher as quickly as Jessica did and to have done so is testimony to her talents. And yes, I've read Cargo, and yes, it's very good. We wish her every success - but not SO MUCH success that she ends up leaving us.
Below I've posted a picture of Jess's response to me writing this post.
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Comments
18 Nov 09 at 12:10
Bloody great, Jess. Congratulations.
...18 Nov 09 at 12:13
Yip Yip Jess! We're so very mightily happy and can't wait to see the book (can't believe you showed it to SC first!). You rock.
...18 Nov 09 at 12:17
That's so brilliant! Congratulations Jess. Ausome indeed. Can't wait to read it.
...18 Nov 09 at 12:18
Aw thanks Sophie (and everyone)!! I'm seriously chuffed flattered and beetroot red! Thanks also to Sophie for all her support during this and for putting up with my fretting.
I do not like LOLcats, and I never will. But this from Ampersand Duck's blog was kind of funny: http://icanhascheezburger.com/2009/11/14/funny-pictures-a-turn-in-de-box/
...18 Nov 09 at 12:24
Wow, Jess. Terrific news! Can't wait to read it! An awesome awesome awesome effort.
...18 Nov 09 at 12:25
Big congratulations to JA. Obviously a huge achievement for such a young writer, and an encouragement to all the rest out there. Don't quit your day job though, we all love reading Spike.
...18 Nov 09 at 12:57
Hey hey, fantastic! Congratulations!
...18 Nov 09 at 13:11
Jess, perhaps you might prefer average cats? http://averagecats.com/
And well done.
...18 Nov 09 at 14:35
Can I just say for the record that I'm not sure I get the lolcat thing either. They remind me of those posters you saw in the seventies of a monkey smoking a joint or something...
But good for you Jessica
...18 Nov 09 at 14:46
Wonderful - another rogue LOLcat hater.
Thanks again all! And Sam - even if that was a possibility, frankly I love this job too much to quit.
...18 Nov 09 at 15:18
again, well done JAU. Mufasa would be proud.
...19 Nov 09 at 11:38
Jess, you ROCK. Needless to say, it came as no surprise to any of us who know you and your writing... It's just the start. I'm taking bets on future Miles's (no pressure okay ;-)
...19 Nov 09 at 12:13
Just saw this now. Congratulations, Jess -- and can't wait to read the book.
...19 Nov 09 at 13:28
Jess, it's happened! I remember reading you in Voiceworks years ago (before I came to Melbourne) and I hoped then you were writing a novel... Yes! I'm so happy for you, and I'm really looking forward to reading it.
...19 Nov 09 at 14:36
that's really excellent news.
& making it even better, people now get to write things like 'ausome'.
...21 Nov 09 at 21:35
How au-inspiring. Au can only hope that this is the beginning and end of these auful jokes. Despite the inaudinate amount of enjoyment I seem to be getting from it.
Congratulations!!
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