News

 
  2005 2006 2007 2008 2009      
   
Oct 2011 Tamara will be attending a reception at Buckingham Palace at the command of Her Majesty the Queen and His Royal Highness, Prince Philip.   The reception is for prominent Australians living and working in the UK, prior to Her Majesty's tour of Australia at the end of October.   Also invited are Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan, Rolf Harris and Clive James.
   
Nov 2009 26th - Legacy on sale in Tesco stores. Legacy would make a brilliant Christmas present.   If you would like signed compliments slips to accompany your gifts, please send me your address and I will post them free of charge.
June 2009 24th - talk at Crawley Library, starting at 7:30  
  29th - workshop on characterisation at Hastings Writers Group  
April 2009 Legacy release dates:

Australia in hardback and trade paperback on 14th May
UK in hardback on 14th May
UK in paperback on 6th August

(Please check out the extract on the Legacy page)
 
Matilda's Last Waltz 'La Derniere valse de Mathilda' has now sold over 150,000 copies in the French language.
 
Summer Lightning - 'Eclair d'ete' -  is being sponsored by Qantas.

Negotiations underway for Dreamscapes.
   
October - December 2008

Itinerary for my promotional tour of Australia between 20th October and 9th December 2008. While I'll be visiting Australia to see  family and do research I'm happy to do book signings, meet the author sessions or evening talks while there.
   
20th to 28th Oct Could fit in a couple of events in the Perth, Fremantle, Bunbury area
23rd Oct West Leederville Craft and Literary Fair
24th Oct Bookshop visits Dymocks Freo, Dymocks
30th Oct to 3rd Nov Passing through Maitland – Singleton – Muswellbrook – Tamworth – Armidale – Glen Innes – Stanthorpe – Warwick – Brisbane.
6th Nov Maleny Library 10-10.30 a.m.  Mothers and Children Talk
10th Nov Caloundra Library 10.00 a.m.     Beerwah Library 2.30 p.m.  
11th Nov Maroochydore Library 6.00 p.m.
12th Nov Noosa Library 6.00 p.m.
13th Nov Bookshop visits in Sunshine Plaza
17th to 26th Nov Passing through Warwick – Gooniwindi – Moree – Narrabri – Gunnedah – Coolah – Mudgee – Bathurst – Cowra – Cootamundra – Wagga Wagga – Albury – Cooma – Canberra – Goulburn – Parramatta.
18th Nov Camden Library 6.30 p.m.  Wine and cheese
21st Nov Griffith Library, Cowra 5.00 p.m.
24th Nov Albury Library a.m.
25th Nov Goulburn Library 10.30 a.m.
27th Nov Tasmania. (I'll be based in Devonport where I grew up but visiting Hobart and Launceston.  In the past I've enjoyed television, radio and newspaper interviews here.)
3rd Dec Devonport Library 2.30 p.m.
   
August 2008 Australia

16th and 17th - book signing Dymocks Stand, Melbourne Literary Festival
20th - Collins Bookstore, Bairnsdale - book signing, followed by a talk at 6pm
21st - Sale - book signing, followed by a talk
22nd - Warragul and Traralgon - book signing, followed by a talk
23rd - Romantic Writers of Australia cocktail party in Melbourne
 
   
   
June 2008 I'm thrilled to report that Lands Beyond The Sea is one of the six finalists in the Romance Writers of Australia Romantic Book of the Year 2008 award. The winner will be announced at an awards dinner in Melbourne on 23rd August 2008.

 
   
February 2008 De Kern in Holland are to release Matilda's Last Waltz in paperback at the same time as A Kingdom for the Brave.
They also plan to release Undercurrents and Summer Lightning in a paperback omnibus edition in Summer, 2009.
   
  A Kingdom for the Brave is released in hardback  6th March UK.
A Kingdom for the Brave is released in paperback 4th September UK
A Kingdom for the Brave is released in hardback approx 11th May Australia
Lands Beyond the Sea is released in paperback approx 11th May Australia
   
Also in 2007 Lands Beyond the Sea sold to:-
Doubleday Australia trade paperback, run of 10,000
Family Bookclub, Sweden
Large Print UK
German Bookclub
Weltbild Reader Edition hard-back, due for publication 2008
Slovakia
Holland
Finland (due for publication 2009)

Summer Lightning sold to :-
Hungary Readers Digest
Czech Republic
France

Dreamscapes sold to :-
Finland

Matilda's Last Waltz
Sold to Croatia
French reprint 5,000 copies
   
November 2007

Hungary have bought the rights to Queen's Flight (written under the name of Tamara Lee) to serialise it for six weeks in one of their leading magazines.   This is the second time Queen's Flight has been serialised.   Sweden took up the option two years ago.   It just goes to show that although I haven't written a thriller for many years and Queen's Flight is long out of print, there is still life in everything one writes!
 

 Lands Beyond the Sea has now been bought by Cappelens in Norway, and by a publisher in The Baltic States

30 November, 2007 

I will be presenting prizes for the Catherine Cookson Short Story Competition which is run every year by the Hastings Writers.   Catherine Cookson was their founder, and it is a great honour to be asked to judge the entries again this year.

7 November, 2007   7.30 pm

The Lecture Hall, The English Language Centre, Salisbury Road, Hove

Tamara will be speaking to The Forum Society on "Life in Australia".
   
October 2007

October 2007 Writing Magazine - asked by Jane Wenham-Jones to add my thoughts to her Help page.

11th October, 2007  7.00pm

Book presentation and art exhibition - Wustenrot-Beratungsstelle Tulln
Frauentorgasse 87, 3430 Tulln, Austria

Tamara McKinley will be presenting her books, including Lands Beyond the Sea, along with the artist, Peter Schneider, who will be exhibiting his paintings.  The evening will be introduced by Dr Susanne Riess-Passer, former Vice Chancellor of Austria.
   
June 2007 On the 23rd June, Lands Beyond The Sea will be officially launched at a party in Alfriston, where there will be champagne, a didgeridoo player, fire dancer and African drums to entertain the guests. As long as the weather behaves itself this should be a great evening. 

View photographs of the launch party
   
May 2007 On the 19th May, between noon and 4pm I'll be attending the launch of 'Wannabe A Writer?' by Jane Wenham-Jones at Borders Bookshop, Charing Cross road, London. I've contributed to 'Wannabe A Writer?' and will be available to sign copies of the book and my own novels.
   
  Lands Beyond The Sea now published in Australia in Trade Paperback.
   
  A Kingdom For The Brave is in the final stages and will be going to the printers shortly. The third part of the Oceania Trilogy has a working title of Legacy. Having completed the Prologue I have now started the first chapter.
   
February 2007 A new year and another book.  A Kingdom for the Brave is the second part of the Oceania trilogy and is currently with my publisher.
 

 

March 2007 - Lands Beyond the Sea released by Hodder in the UK.

May 2007 - Lands Beyond the Sea to be released by Headline in Australia.

June 2007 - Lands Beyond the Sea to be released in paperback in UK by Hodder.

 
  March 2008 - A Kingdom for the Brave to be released in UK by Hodder.

The Oceania Trilogy will also be released in Germany from 2008.

 
   
December 2006 Apologies for not updating this page, but work and technical difficulties got in the way. 

Thank you to everyone who has visited my website.  I have replied to all the e-mails you sent, but some of the e-mails remained undelivered, so if you didn't get a reply, please be assured I did try.  It is lovely to hear from my readers, and to know you are enjoying my books - after all, if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be doing a job I love, so thank you.

2006 was spent working on Lands Beyond the Sea.  It is the first part of the Oceania Trilogy which covers the history of Australia from Dreamtime to the end of WW1.  At the end of 2006 I went to Australia to do some research and visit the family for Christmas.  My trip to Broome was amazing, and I hope soon to incorporate what I've learnt into a book.  There are so many stories to be told in that part of Australia, and as an author I just can't resist.

 
May 2006 Harper Collins is running a competition to find the most-loved family saga. If you loved Matilda's Last Waltz, published in 2000, it would be great if you could nominate it for the competition. All you have to do is put your nomination in an e-mail to fiona.mcintosh@harpercollins.co.uk. Please head your e-mail Elizabeth Elgin Nomination. The closing date is 12th May, so there's still time to cast your vote.

Thank you for your support.

 
March 2006 Moving to Hodder.   Sara Kinsella at Hodder has offered a very good two-book deal for 'Land Beyond the Sea' and a further novel.   'Land Beyond the Sea' is about the colonisation of Australia seen through fictional eyes.

 
February 2006 Spent a week in Cornwall researching the next novel. Mousehole, pronounced Muzzle by the Cornish, will feature largely in this new story, especially the hilltop church of St. Pol. I chose Mousehole because it has one of the oldest stone quays in Cornwall.
January 2006 Women's Day Magazine chose 'Dreamscapes' as their Australia Day story. The tightly-edited piece was spread over two pages.

 
Dreamscapes published in trade paperback in Australia

 
   
November 2005 Dreamscapes published in hardback in the UK

 
September 2005 Dreamscapes published in hardback in Sweden