A Dreamscape.

The music you heard on the home page, is from a very special soundtrack called Dreamscape, inspired by the Obernewtyn Chronicles, and created and performed by Adelaidethegirl. The soundtrack was showcased for the first time at the Masked Ball which celebrated the launch of the final book in the Obernewtyn Chronicles, The Red Queen, pictured below. Music from the soundtrack also features on the audio books of the Obernewtyn Chronicles

Below, Adelaide, costumed as The Mindstream, is pictured performing one of the songs at the Masked Ball. You can hear more music by Adelaidethegirl by following this link to her soundcloud account: https://soundcloud.com/adelaidethegirl-2

The Photograph above and most of the posed photographs in the gallery below were taken by George Stawicki who was the official cosplay photographer at The Masked Ball. If you would like to purchase any of the photographs on this site or from his vast gallery – hard copies are available at very reasonable prices, part of which will be donated by George to our mask charity fund- contact George by following this link: http://www.stawickiphotos.com/red_queen_event_photos100.html

Other photos were taken by Anne Spudvilas and Cat Sparks. You will be able to find links to their websites and photo caches on their introduction pages, when they are matched with their masks.

Adelaide was accompanied by two dancers performing a choreography prepared for the event by two of her fellow students from the Queensland Academy of Creative Industries. Phoebe Robinson and Natasha Rowe, pictured above and below, played tendrils of thought and memory to Adelaide’s Mindstream. Phoebe also made a mask for The Red Queen, which will be auctioned off as a memento of the occasion, along with a full signed set of the original hard cover Little Fur books.

The Red Queen thanks her musical minions, Adelaide, Natasha and Phoebe 🙂

Why a mask Mask auction?

Some years ago, when I knew there would be a masked ball in The Red Queen, I happened to be in Venice, and it struck me that I could buy a lot of white plaster masks and offer them to Australian Children’s book illustrators to decorate, and auction them at the ball for charity. I had always envisaged using the event to raise funds for a charity, but as time flowed on, finishing the book consumed me. Then, hot on the heels of its completion, the ball loomed. Organising it turned out to be a massive and life consuming task, which required me to put my PhD on hold and give over all other activities for some months.

I had already asked a whole lot of illustrators over a number of months to participate in the fund raising project and everyone I invited to take part said yes, save those traveling. Bruce Whatley actually managed to prepare an enticing mask and send it to me on the eve of setting off on the road less travelled with his wife Rosie. Month by month enticing, oddly shaped boxes which excited the local post office and me and my PA, Heather no end, arrived! I had never doubted that the masks would be wonderful. People in the world of Children’s Literature are generally givers rather than takers. But the quality of the work sent, and the effort and tender care that had gone into creating the masks took my breath away.

Realising I could not run a properly organised auction at the ball with so little time to spare, and wanting to give the wonderful masks and their generous talented makers their day in the sun, I decided to unveil the masks at the Masked Ball, and run the auction separately from a special website, over a two month period that would enable me to reveal each maker one at a time, with proper ceremony.

Below, illustrator and writer, Anne James is explains about the charities at the daytime component of the Masked Ball. High Tea with the Red Queen.

Below, artist and publisher Erica Wagner is onstage at the Masked Ball, speaking about the masks and their generous makers.

Here is my editor, the wonderful Nan Mc Nab, helping Ann James – both magnificently costumed and masked- as they dramatically display a few of the masks.

More about the Dreamscape CD

The song you heard on the home page was a little taste of Starve the Sea.

All of the tracks are

White
Like Breathing
Sea of Fire
Middle of the Night
Starve the Sea
Only Human
The Destroyer

Dreamscape was available for pre-purchase at the Masked Ball. It will be available again, (and to those who pre- purchased at the ball) after it is released officially during the Mask Auction, as a CD, or after the auction ends, as a CD or download from Obernewtyn.net (the Isobelle Carmody fansite.)

But, until the end of the auction, it will be available only on this site, and Adelaide will donate all proceeds from the sale of the CD to our two charities. For the duration of the auction, the CD’s will cost $20 each.

There will be a launch, and the date will be announced on the Latest News Blog on this website, but the CD is now available.

You can register to buy a CD in the link showing AdelaidetheGirl at the bottom of the sidebar on the homepage.