Happy Birthday, Marianne De Pierres!
Originally published at tansyrr.com. You can comment here or there.
Marianne De Pierres turns 50 today, which seems incredible. Surely she moves too fast for birthdays to catch up with her? Marianne is one of my favourite people, and an absolute inspiration to me. When I first met her and Rowena in 1999, they were writers just at the beginning of their careers, and yet already had amassed a wealth of knowledge and know-how. I will always be grateful that they seized on me and treated me like a peer, when I would have considered myself lucky to have them as mentors.
Marianne’s career has just exploded in the twelve years or so I have known her, and there is nothing random about it. Sure, getting actual publishing contracts relies at least as much on luck as skill, especially at the beginning, but I have never seen anyone make the most of writing career opportunities as Marianne! She writes enough for three people (quite literally) and has made a name for herself writing mostly science fiction in a time when Australian SF has become something of an endangered species. She writes powerful female characters and deals with feminist themes in novels that nevertheless preserve mainstream appeal and popularity.
She has made a home for herself at media conventions, which famously have little interest in authors of books. She makes friends everywhere she goes, simply because she is so very interested in people, and stuff, and her energy is so very infectious.
In short, Marianne is magic. I totally want to be her when I grow up. And while popping over to one of her blogs such as Burn Bright to wish her happy birthday would be a fantastic thing to do, I am sure that picking up one of her books this week would be an even better thing to do.
You can choose from:
The Parrish Plessis books, sexy post-apocalyptic Australian SF, with a heroine who would eat all those tattooed, leather-clad urban fantasy chicks for breakfast.
The Sentients of Orion series, space opera centred around female characters and themes.
Glitter Rose, a boutique quartet of short stories that are a little bit SFnal, a little bit fantasy, and all beautiful, available in a gorgeous mini-hardback edition as well as an e-book from Twelfth Planet Press
The Tara Sharp series (under the name Marianne Delacourt), fun crime novels in the tradition of Janet Evanovich
AND
Most importantly, get on to your local bookshop now to pre-order Burn Bright, a paranormal YA novel with hints of SF. This book is dark and strange, and interrogates the paranormal YA traditions, while also being a high-paced, deeply emotional read. I am so excited it’s finally hitting the shelves!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MARIANNE!!!!