Short bio
Raised on a diet of Spielberg, Lucas and Disney, Astrid Scholte knew she wanted to be surrounded by all things fantastical from a young age. She’s spent the last fifteen years working in film, animation and television as both an artist and manager. Career highlights include working on James Cameron’s Avatar, Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin and is currently working on Marvel and Disney's Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur. She is currently part of The Force and helps movies get made. She lives in Melbourne, Australia, with her fiancé and two cats, Lilo and Mickey.
Her debut YA novel, Four Dead Queens, was an international bestseller and has won numerous awards. Her second novel, The Vanishing Deep, was released on the 3rd of March 2020 with Allen & Unwin and Penguin Random House. Her latest book, League of Liars, is out now.
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You can find her posting about books, cats and Disney on Twitter and Instagram @AstridScholte
Longer bio
Astrid Scholte has loved telling stories for as long as she can remember, writing her first "novel" at age 5. Her desire to be surrounded by all things fantastical led her to pursue a career in the visual effects and animation industry. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Film, Media and Theatre and a Bachelor of Digital Media from the University of New South Wales and the College of Fine Arts in Sydney.
She has spent fifteen years working in visual effects and animation production as both an artist and an artist manager. Career highlights include working on James Cameron's Avatar, Steven Spielberg's The Adventures of Tintin and Marvel and Disney's Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur. She is currently part of The Force and helps movies get made.
She is also a traditionally trained oil painter and enjoys painting her favorite fictional characters. She lives in Australia with her two Burmese cats and partner, among her ever-growing mountain of Disneyland memorabilia.
Four Dead Queens was her debut novel and was released by Putnam (Penguin Random House) on the 26th of February 2019 and with Allen & Unwin on the 4th of March. It has been released to numerous foreign territories and is an international bestseller. Four Dead Queens was shortlisted for the CBCA Book of the Year, Older Readers Award and won the Davitt Award for Best YA Crime Novel, 2020 and WAYRBA. It also won the Script Pipeline Award for 2020 Idea Contest TV award and was the runner up of the ScreenCraft Cinematic Book Competition (2021). The Vanishing Deep was shortlisted for Best Fantasy Novel for the 2020 Aurealis Awards for Excellence in Speculative Fiction and the Bookbound prize. LEAGUE OF LIARS is out now!
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Publicists:
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Film/TV Rights:
Represented by Gravity Squared Entertainment
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Media
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Four Dead Queens
Publisher: Putnam/Penguin Random House
Release date: 26th of February 2019 (USA) 4th of March 2019 (ANZ with Allen & Unwin)
Seventeen-year-old Keralie Corrington may seem harmless, but she’s, in fact, one of Quadara’s most skilled thieves and a liar. Varin, on the other hand, is an honest, upstanding citizen of Quadara’s most enlightened region, Eonia. He runs afoul of Keralie when she steals a package from him, putting his life in danger. When Varin attempts to retrieve the package, he and Keralie both find themselves entangled in a conspiracy that leaves all four of Quadara’s queens dead.
With no other choices and on the run from Keralie’s former employer, the two decide to join forces, endeavoring to discover who has killed the queens and save their own lives in the process. When their reluctant partnership blooms into a tenuous romance, they must overcome their own dark secrets in hopes of a future together that seemed impossible just days before. But first they have to stay alive and untangle the secrets behind the nation’s four dead queens.
An enthralling fast-paced murder mystery where competing agendas collide with deadly consequences, Four Dead Queens heralds the arrival of an exciting new YA talent.
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Awards:
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Selected for the 2022 Farniente Award
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Winner of the West Australian Young Readers' Book Award, Older Readers (2021)
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Shortlisted for the 2021 YABBA Award (Fiction for Years 7-9)
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Winner of the 2020 Script Pipeline TV Series Pitch Idea.
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Runner up in the 2021 ScreenCraft Cinematic Book Competition (2021)
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Winner of the Davitt Award for Best Young Adult Crime Novel (2020)
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Shortlisted for the CBCA Book of the Year, Older Readers award (2020)
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The Colorado Blue Spruce Young Adult Book Award 2020 Nominee
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An Apple Books best YA books of the month pick (2019)
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2019 Semi Final nominee for Best Young Adult and Science Fiction Goodreads Choice Award (2019)
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2019 Bookshimmy nominee for Best Standalone and Best Plot Twist (2019)
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The Vanishing Deep
Publisher: Putnam/Penguin Random House
(ANZ with Allen & Unwin)
Release date: 3rd of March 2020
Bestselling author Astrid Scholte, returns with a thrilling adventure in which the dead can be revived…for a price.
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Seventeen-year-old Tempe was born into a world of water. When the Great Waves destroyed her planet five hundred years ago, its people had to learn to survive living on the water, but the ruins of the cities below still called. Tempe dives daily, scavenging the ruins of a bygone era, searching for anything of value to trade for Notes. It isn’t food or clothing that she wants to buy, but her dead sister’s life. For a price, the research facility on the island of Palindromena will revive the dearly departed for twenty-four hours before returning them to death. It isn’t a heartfelt reunion that Tempe is after; she wants answers. Elysea died keeping a terrible secret, one that has ignited an unquenchable fury in Tempe: Her beloved sister was responsible for the death of their parents. Tempe wants to know why.
But once revived, Elysea has other plans. She doesn’t want to spend her last day in a cold room accounting for a crime she insists she didn’t commit. Elysea wants her freedom and one final glimpse at the life that was stolen from her. She persuades Tempe to break her out of the facility, and they embark on a dangerous journey to discover the truth about their parents’ death and mend their broken bond. But they’re pursued every step of the way by two Palindromena employees desperate to find them before Elysea’s time is up–and before the secret behind the revival process and the true cost of restored life is revealed.
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Awards:
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Shortlisted for Best Fantasy Novel for the 2020 Aurealis Awards for Excellence in Speculative Fiction.
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Apple Books Spring's Most Anticipated 2020
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Semi Final Bookshimmy nominee for Best Standalone (2020)
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Semi Final Bookshimmy nominee for Best Fantasy/Sci Fi (2020)
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