General News
7 December, 2022
Local author launches latest novel
NOORAT has taken centre stage in local author Mickey Martin’s latest novel, Obsidian Souls, which launched in Terang over the weekend.
NOORAT has taken centre stage in local author Mickey Martin’s latest novel, Obsidian Souls, which launched in Terang over the weekend.
The Glenormiston native penned the latest novel in her Victorian Collection, a series of four novels published through MMH Press.
The first novel in the series, Soul Keepers of Glenormiston South, released in 2021 and was primarily based in Glenormiston.
The sequel, Obsidian Souls, has made its way to Noorat and features a range of iconic locations.
Ms Martin launched the book in Terang over the weekend at the Wheatsheaf Hotel surrounded by friends, family and readers.
“Even though it is a follow on book from Soul Keepers of Glenormiston South, it is a completely separate story,” she said.
“I suppose with Soul Keepers I was tackling some gentle environmental issues and giving basic messages about what more we can do.
“What I went with in Obsidian Souls is more centred on prejudice and cultural differences, and how we need to support each other no matter what.
“It is a book about inclusivity and working together to save the world; there’s drama and tension – I don’t want to ever give readers a boring book.”
Ms Martin said the decision to keep the series in the south west in the first two novels before venturing to Melbourne in the final two instalments of the series was in part based on the impression a side character in the first book had made on readers.
“The Victorian Collection was supposed to only be three novels, but I was diving in to horror-paranormal direction for the third instalment and all the better readers who read Soul Keepers said they wanted to see more from the character ‘Maxwell Black’,” she said.
“I also just wasn’t ready to leave home, my heart is here and I grew up here, so Noorat was a natural fit.
“We, as locals, know Glenormiston South and Noorat are a spitting distance apart but with Obsidian Souls I wanted to keep it in Noorat.
“Terang is also a setting in Obsidian Souls, which includes a scene at the Wheatsheaf Hotel.”
Glenormiston artist Jess Fowler again collaborated with Ms Martin, designing the cover for both books released in the collection to date.
“I wanted to have an ode to the cover of Soul Keepers of Glenormiston South,” she said.
“What struck me was some of the imagery in the novel of these beautiful wings, which I felt needed to be included on the cover.
“It’s a beautifully written book by Mickey, and I wanted to capture that.”
Obsidian Souls is now available from Earth Tree on Keilambete, which just opened in Johnstone Court in Terang, as well as Collins Booksellers or online at Kindle and Amazon.