The weather gods indulged us for this book signing, so being outside chatting with people was a real pleasure. Kim, true to form, was all smiles. And after seeing the book both on the counter and in the new releases section, who could blame her?
Thank you so much to those of you who were able to join us for the launch of Kim Lock’s Peace, Love and Khaki Socks! It was a festive night full of smiles. Author Heather Taylor Johnson did a stellar job launching the book and the audience was wonderfully supportive.
Heather Taylor Johnson launching Peace, Love and Khaki Socks
Kim spoke beautifully about her journey to publication. Her Freudian slip, saying that she had a few people to ‘spank’ rather than to ‘thank’ lifted the already celebratory mood even further.
Kim’s lovely speech
The audience
After the speeches, Kim proceeded to sign copies of her book and talk to the many people who had come to support her, while the rest of us filled our glasses, mingled and danced…
Ready to sign!
For a small publisher, events like this launch are so important because we want to connect with our readership. We want you to feel celebrated! We want you to feel that our success is due to your support. Without readers and book buyers like you, we wouldn’t be here. Thank you!
Enjoying the launch!
Raising a glass for Kim
Babies and toddlers celebrated too.
Kim was all smiles.
It was great night! Now that the book has been officially launched in Adelaide, we have our sights set on the Darwin launch on Friday 10 May 2013. Kim’s schedule is packed for the coming months. Check out our Appearances page for further details.
If you love Kim’s book, please don’t forget to tell others about it. Word of mouth is a very powerful way to reach all the readers this book deserves. You could even write a review or simply give it a star rating on Goodreads or Amazon. We really appreciate our readers!
We are so proud to announce the first six reviews of Kim Lock’s Peace, Love and Khaki Socks and they are overwhelmingly positive.
Daystarz: 5 of 5
One word. LOVE. I love this book. It is warm, genuine and emotive. It is real. It is entirely believable…This is so much more than just a book about pregnancy – it’s also a story about a woman’s search for validation and empowerment.
Peace, Love and Khaki Socks is simply adorable. It definitely makes my best books of 2013 list. An excellent debut novel from a promising Australian author. I will be keeping a keen eye out for Ms Locks next literary venture.
The novel’s strength is the very personal journey the reader takes alongside Amy as she weighs up conventional First World medical procedures with the almost Cavewoman-style natural homebirthing. It is a suspenseful ride with her as she battles conventions, the expectations of others as well as a category three tropical cyclone to boot.
Another feature is the brilliant imagery used to describe the setting of Darwin, Australia’s most northern capital. Sweaty, humid, monsoonal, oppressively hot complete with blood-sucking insects, Darwin seems to magnify the drama associated with the intricacies of the female reproductive process. An stirring story of a girl becoming an independent woman.
Sally from Oz: B – Great. I really enjoyed reading it.
I really don’t know where to start when it comes to saying how much I loved and related to PEACE, LOVE AND KHAKI SOCKS… I found myself laughing out loud at many of the events in the story…
This was one of those books that once you picked it up then it was not willingly getting put down until finished. A very good debut, now officially waiting for book two.
This Charming Mum: 4 of 5 stars
It is a funny and entertaining story – not unlike some of the rural/’outsider’ romance novels so popular in contemporary Australian publishing – but it also has a very serious point to make about the way we treat pregnancy and birth in the hospital system.
Drawing parallels with a fierce cyclone that hits the city when Amy is nine months gone, the book suggests we could do with a bit more reverence towards Mother Nature.
The prose style is relaxed and friendly (for want of a better word!). It left me feeling as though I’d been hearing a friend’s birth story over coffee… The final chapters, as Amy lurches from ecstasy to agony during a long labour and birth, are moving and joyful. Keep the tissues handy!
The Raven’s Parlour Bookstore: 4 3/4 stars of 5
This is the debut novel from Lyndoch based author, Kim Lock … and it’s a cracker!
Full of humour, warmth, honesty and raw emotion, it’s a journey of Amy’s right to make the choices she feels best suit her and her baby.
1girl2manybooks: 7 of 10 stars
Amy and Dylan’s relationship is fantastic – from the way they both react to the surprise pregnancy to the way they are at odds over her decision to homebirth. Because it is Amy’s decision, she gives little regard to Dylan’s feelings whatsoever which I get. It’s her body, she has to do it.
Obviously I think this book will resonate with supporters of homebirthing and particularly those who have had one themselves.
March has been and gone in the blink of an eye. As always, Adelaide Writers’ Week was a literary delight and the MidnightSun team spent most of the week getting inspired by brilliant writers from around the globe.
Adelaide Writers’ Week
Adelaide Writers’ Week
Adelaide Writers’ Week
We have been gearing up for the launch of Kim Lock’s Peace, Love and Khaki Socks and the book is selling like hotcakes through the website.
Peace, Love and Khaki Socks
Zanesh Catkin appeared on 891 ABC Adelaide on Tuesday 26 March 2013 to talk to Peter Goers about Pangamonium. You can hear an edited version here.
Author Kim Lock and author/editor/publisher Anna Solding were invited to speak about the editing process to an attentive audience at the SA Writers’ Centre on Thursday 28 March 2013. Thank you to the Writers’ Centre for inviting us.
SA Writers’ Centre
SA Writers’ Centre Editing Event
February is hot as always in Adelaide but that hasn’t stopped us from working hard. Peace, Love and Khaki Socks is at the printer and it will still be a while before you can see it. However, to keep you entertained while you’re waiting for the book itself, we have created this gorgeous little promo. Hope you enjoy it!
Welcome back to a fresh new year!
MidnightSun has plenty of exciting things planned for 2013, but none more exciting than the publication of our next novel Peace, Love and Khaki Socks in time for Mother’s Day in May. Set in Darwin during cyclone season, this heartfelt novel gets under the skin of the army culture to the heart of how life can turn out for a young woman finding herself pregnant and unsure of how to handle it. With quirky dialogue and acute observations, Peace, Love and Khaki Socks will be guaranteed to draw you in from the first page.
Peace, Love and Khaki Socks
One sultry October morning in Darwin, hemp-wearing army wife Amy Silva grips a trembling fist around two pink lines on a plastic stick. Struggling to come to terms with her rampant fertility, disillusioned with a haughty obstetrician, and infuriated by an inordinate amount of peeing, Amy finds solace in a decision to homebirth. After all, it worked for the cavewomen, right? But as a tropical cyclone threatens to whip down the main street, Amy finds herself facing more than biology.
Peace, Love and Khaki Socks explores what it is to be a woman, an expectant mother, a lover and a friend in a patriarchy. Sometimes horrifying, sometimes hilarious and always honest, this unforgettable story is one woman’s struggle to turn the ordinary into something extraordinary.
The book will be launched by Heather Taylor Johnson at the SA Writers’ Centre in Adelaide on Friday 26 April 2013, from 7pm. All welcome, but please RSVP to Anna at editor[@]midnightsunpublishing.com for catering purposes. It will be a night to remember so don’t miss it!
Peace, Love and Khaki Socks will be available in good bookshops from early May 2013. It’s a perfect Mother’s Day present for someone you care about, be it your own mother or a friend who is expecting her first baby, and make sure to grab yourself a copy too.
This first year has flown by for MidnightSun Publishing. We have made our fair share of mistakes, such as getting review copies out too late to important reviewers, and we have had lower visibility in the Eastern states than we would have liked. However, for the most part this year has been an absolute triumph. For our books, our writers and, most importantly, our readers. Both Zanesh and Anna have been overwhelmed by the positive reactions to their books. They have thoroughly enjoyed reading all the insightful reviews and discussing their work with readers, at functions and in book shops. To end the year on a high, both books were mentioned in InDaily’s list of good reads for the year, as suggested by their reviewers. A couple of days later The Hum of Concrete also appeared in The Advertiser’s Best in Print for 2012 as a Standout Debut. 
And just when we thought that it couldn’t get much better than that, The Hum of Concrete is placed in the window display at Dymocks in Rundle Mall. 
The team at MidnightSun couldn’t be happier with how the year has turned out and we are looking forward to new challenges in 2013, the first of which will be to launch Kim Lock’s Peace, Love and Khaki Socks into the world in time for Mother’s Day. We wish you all a safe and happy holiday and look forward to seeing you back here in January 2013.
Here are some of the MidnightSun highlights of 2012:
February: Simon Hackett, founder of Internode, launches the company to great fanfare.
March: Sean Williams launches our first novel, Anna Solding’s acclaimed novel The Hum of Concrete at Adelaide Writers’ Week.
April: Anna has a successful book signing at Dillon’s Bookshop on The Parade and a Meet-the-Author session at Mostly Books.
May: Anna is interviewed on Radio Adelaide.
July: Patrick Allington launches Pangamonium by Zanesh Catkin.
August: Zanesh is interviewed on Radio Adelaide and invited to speak to students at the University of Adelaide. Anna is invited to sit on a panel about the future of publishing as well as conduct a workshop at the Salisbury Writers’ Festival.
September: Both Pangamonium and The Hum of Concrete are launched at Melbourne Writers’ Festival.
October: Anna is invited to speak to university students at Flinders University.
November: Zanesh and Anna speak about queer themes in their books at the Feast Festival.
December: Both books are mentioned in Best of the Year sections for books in InDaily and The Hum of Concrete is also mentioned in The Advertiser. Feels like a perfect end to the year!
The MidnightSun authors have been very busy over the last couple of months. Anna was invited to talk to students and staff at The University of Adelaide in September.
Anna talking with students at the University of Adelaide
She decided to talk about her writing, her PhD experience and her publishing venture in equal measure.
A couple of weeks later, Anna was invited to talk to Arts and Education students at Lincoln College about careers opportunities. It was a great night which generated some interesting questions and discussion.
Next stop was Flinders University for a talk about ‘Writers and Their Worlds’.
Anna with Steve Evans at ‘Writers and Their Worlds’
Anna chose to speak about her Swedish background and show photos of the many places that have inspired her writing.
Anna with Lord Mayor Stephen Yarwood
In October, Zanesh and Anna were invited to the Town Hall to celebrate the Feast Festival turning sixteen. It was a lovely evening, were they were treated to delicious finger foods and were rubbing shoulders with the Feast director Kerry Ireland as well as lord major Stephen Yarwood, who gratefully received copies of The Hum of Concrete and Pangamonium.
At very short notice, Anna was asked to step in and run a workshop at The University of Adelaide. Considering the situation, it went very well indeed with smiles all around, both from participants and Anna.
Anna Solding and Zanesh Catkin at the Feast Festival
Next was the major Feast event. As we had no idea what to expect, we were happy that the tent wasn’t completely empty. It would have been nice to see a few more unfamiliar faces in the crowd but at the same time it can sometimes be easier to talk to an audience that knows the work. Thank you so much to all the readers who came along!
Part of our supportive audience
We got the impression that those who attended had a good time and perhaps even learned a thing or two.
Anna had been asked to run a workshop at the SA Writers’ Centre in November and the theme she chose was ‘Polished to Perfection’. After three hours of intense work shopping, everyone came away brimming with knowledge and ideas for how to improve their manuscripts. Using both her experience as a writer and as a publisher, Anna managed to touch on topics such as the synopsis, the blurb and how to fine-tune your manuscript by looking at essential elements such as character, plot, viewpoint, style and theme. For those who missed out: there might very well be more workshops next year, so keep an eye on our website for details.
We are also very excited to announce that Zanesh’s Pangamonium has been favourably reviewed by one of the top reviewers on Amazon. Read the entire review here. ‘This book is all wonderful fun…this is a superb Gulliver’s Travels for our time!’ Grady Harp. Couldn’t agree more!
Work with Kim Lock’s Peace, Love and Khaki Socks is also in full swing. The Adelaide launch date will be Friday 26 April 2013. As MidnightSun Publishing likes to party, we’ll drink, dance and be merry from 7pm at the SA Writers’ Centre. You are invited!
We can’t believe that November is here and Christmas is approaching. In Adelaide, Father Christmas has arrived with the Pageant and now there are only a few more opportunities to meet our writers before they take a well-earned rest.
Intersex and Male Lactation – A Conversation
Zanesh Catkin and Anna Solding will be talking about queer aspects of their work in a session titled ‘Intersex and Male Lactation – A Conversation’ at the Adelaide Feast Festival on Sunday 18 Nov 3.30-4.30pm at the ANZ Hub Precinct, The Garden Lounge at Light Square. Would be great to see you there!
Here is a great little YouTube video: Pangamonium author in near-nude TV exclusive. Go on, you know you want to see it… It will make you smile.
Zanesh has also edited his launch speech so those who couldn’t be there on the night, can still get an idea of the fun that was had. Check it out here.
Over the past month we have been busy booking Zanesh, Anna and Kim into talks at libraries next year, so keep an eye out for further details, especially in regional South Australia.
Last week, we attended the inaugural Independent Publishers Conference in Melbourne, which was a brilliant day organised by the Small Press Network (formerly known as SPUNC). We learned plenty about distribution, the importance of booksellers and also made some new contacts. Already looking forward to next year. Thanks SPN for that!
So October has come around and MidnightSun Publishing has been really busy promoting and marketing as well as consolidating, reading manuscripts and making decisions about our next publication.
It is with great honour and excitement we can now announce that Kim Lock’s Peace, Love and Khaki Socks will be published in May 2013. It’s a foray into more commercial territory with a story about a young woman who falls pregnant unexpectedly. It has fun, quirky dialogue and the Darwin setting creates a dramatic backdrop when a cyclone draws close. A must-read for next year!
In the upcoming issue of Good Reading Magazine, Anna Solding’s The Hum of Concrete is featured as a Book Bite, with the entire first chapter as well as a author profile printed over a spread in the magazine. Go out and buy the November issue and see for yourselves how fantastic it looks!
We have also heard rumours that Pangamonium was in the window at Imprints bookshop in Adelaide last week, which is great news. Several book clubs are currently reading Pangamonium and the fan mail has started to drop in regularly. We are expecting Pangamonium to develop a cult following by readers of satire and comic fiction. It has already been compared to John Kennedy Toole’s classic A Confederacy of Dunces.
This week, Thursday 18 October, Anna will be speaking at the ‘Writers and their World’ seminar at Flinders University in Adelaide. She will be talking about her Swedish background and what inspires her writing. It’s open to the public so please feel free to come along to the Noel Stockdale room at the library at 12 noon. There will be books for sale and Anna will sign them for you if you wish.
Zanesh and Anna will be speaking about queer aspects of their books at the Feast Festival in Adelaide on Sunday 18 November from 3.30pm at the Garden Lounge, Light Square. If you are in Adelaide, please come along to hear what they have to say. Books will be for sale and both writers will be signing copies after the session.
