Shortlisting of Elemental, WA Premier’s Book Awards

Voting open to all West Australians. Go, Amanda!

looking up/looking down

elemental_COVERThis week I was thrilled to learn that Elemental has been shortlisted for the WA Premier’s Book Awards in the Fiction category. My little red-haired gutting girl is proud to be in the company of these stellar titles:

All the Birds, Singing by Evie Wyld (Random House Australia)
Coal Creek by Alex Miller (Allen & Unwin)
Eyrie by Tim Winton (Penguin Group Australia)
The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt by Tracy Farr (Fremantle Press)
The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan (Random House Australia)

You can read the full press release here.

The six shortlisted titles are also eligible for the People’s Choice Award. You can vote for your favouritehere (WA residents only, and voting closes 29 August).

I was also thrilled to see that the shortlist in a new category, WA Emerging Writers, includes writer friends Dawn Barker for Fractured (you can…

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Crime Master Class with Felicity Young

Ingrid’s better than I am at posting what I’ve been up to recently – thanks Ingrid!

Ingrid Rickersey

Felicity Young, author of several successful crime novels and recent resident writer at Matty Furphy House (Fellowship of Australian Writers) ran a workshop for budding crime writers on the 28th June.

Crime writer: Felicity Young Crime writer:
Felicity Young

A few crime writing tips fromFelicity.

  • Draw a plot arc to show major events in your story
  • Draw a character arc for each main character, showing crisis,change of heart etc
  • Summarise scenes or chapters on palm cards and lay them out, experimenting with the order of events ( or use Scrivener). You can colour code the cards indicating character’s POV.
  • Solving sodoku puzzles in between writing May help with plotting
  • Research for accuracy
  • Keep a disciplined writing routine
  • Make sure your writing environment is comfortable so you can look forward to settling down to work
  • You don’t have to write what you know provided you can interview someone who does.
  • Carry…

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20 Proven Benefits of Being an Avid Reader

Great article here about reading – courtesy of my mate Tyson Adams.

Tyson Adams

This fMRI scan reveals distinctive increases in brain activity during close reading across multiple brain regions, with strength of activation shown in red for horizontal cross sections of the brain. This fMRI scan reveals distinctive increases in brain activity during close reading across multiple brain regions, with strength of activation shown in red for horizontal cross sections of the brain.

If TV is the lard developing, heart attacking inducing, entertainment form, then reading is the brain workout. I’ve previously posted about how reading is good for the brain, but science is keen on finding out more, so there is always new research that brings up cool findings. I’m reposting an interesting article I found (here) that lists some benefits from reading with links to the research, proving that reading is good for you.

ENHANCES THE SENSES

Merely reading a word reflecting a colour or a scent immediately fires up the corresponding section of the brain, which empathises with written experiences as if they actually happened to the audience. Researchers believe this might very well help sharpen the…

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Suffragette Jewellery

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Suffragette Jewellery

‘White for purity, green for hope and purple for dignity …’ the colours devised by Mrs Pethick-Lawrence in 1908 to symbolise the cause of the militant suffragettes. Marching suffragettes, or those attending meetings, would most likely have worn eye-catching sashes, medallions and motoring scarves made up of these colours. If a woman wanted to be more discreet however, she might have preferred to convey her sentiments by wearing a necklace, broach, or pin displaying these colours. This was a cunning way of attracting like-minded women (at a party, for example) while hiding one’s beliefs from the anti-suffragettes.

The more expensive items of jewellery might have consisted of amethysts, seed pearls garnets and emeralds. Paste jewellery would also have been worn provided the colours were accurate – personal wealth or lack of it, played no part in the cause.

Whatever the quality, suffragette jewellery is quite hard to find these days, and since starting my Dody McCleland series I have been on a quest for the genuine article. I am delighted to announce that on a recent trip to London (I think) I finally found the real thing.

The broach consists of a Siberian amethyst set with natural seed pearls and demantoid green garnets (See pic), circa 1908. Had it been any younger I would have been suspicious. For as well as being the Suffragette colours, purple green and white were apparently Queen Alexandra’s favourite colours, and incorporated into many forms of jewellery as homage to her during her reign.

So, there is only a small window of time when jewellery such as this can be seen as deliberately manufactured for the suffragettes: 1908, when Pethick-Lawrence first voiced the significance of the colours, to 1914, when the suffragettes ceased their activities. It looks as if my piece just fits into that window.

My broach would be in excellent condition if not for a missing seed pearl. Of course I like to think the pearl was knocked out during one of the suffragette’s infamous scuffles with the police. Taking that theory a few steps further, perhaps Violet was wearing it when she almost lost her life in A Dissection of Murder — what do you think?

 

 

The Book Q&A

Thanks to Angela Savage for tagging me for The Book Q&A. You can read Angela’s answers here: http://wp.me/pO4Z-CM Anyone can take part so consider yourself tagged.

What are you reading right now? The Bedlam detective by Stephen Gallagher.

Sir Owain’s sanity has been in question ever since a disastrous Amazonian adventure killed his family and colleagues. However, when two local children are found brutally slain, Lancaster claims that the same dark forces that devastated his expedition have followed him home…

I can’t believe I have never come across this author before, well maybe I can because up to now he’s mainly written horror novels and TV scripts, including Dr Who. This is a highly imaginative historical mystery with undertones of Conan Doyle’s The Lost World. The Characters are all wonderfully drawn especially the likable protagonist Sebastian Becket special investigator for the Master of Lunacy. I’m about 3/4 of the way through this book and unless the ending goes seriously wrong will probably give it a 5 star review.51h16cguYsL._AA160_

Do you have any idea what you’ll read when your done with that? Off to the snow on Saturday and have downloaded Stef Penny’s The Tenderness of Wolves for that added wintry feel. I also have the new Kathy Reich’s book Bones of the Lost, Peter Robinson’s Children of the Revolution and Tracy Chevalier’s The last Runaway, all waiting for the press of a button. I love my kindle.

What 5 books have you always wanted to read but haven’t got round to? Fanciable books pop up all the time.  I like my mysteries to be a bit off centre so I’m adding Mari Strachan’s debut The Earth Hums in B-Flat to my list after reading Margot Kinberg’s recommendation. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed books 1&3 in Angela Savage’s Jane Keeyney series and hope to read book 2 in the not too distant future.  The same goes for David Whish Wilson’s first novel The Summons. Many of the books I want to read are actually re-reads, classics I read as a teenager but would like to read again through adult eyes. The first of these that pops into my mind is Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. Oh yes, and War and Peace.

What magazines do you have in your bathroom/lounge right now? I’m not much of a magazine reader but I do have a stack of Red Herrings (UK Crime Writer’s Association journal) next to the loo.

What’s the worst book you’ve ever read? Life’s is too short and there are too many good books out there to waste time reading what I don’t like. The last one I hurled across the room in disgust was JK Rowlings Cuckoos Calling. It was when I discovered the protagonist’s name was Cormoran Strike and his side-kick was Robin. I mean, really …

What book seemed really popular but you didn’t like? The Hobbit – didn’t finish.

What’s the one book you always recommend to just about everyone? Changes all the time. At the moment I’d say Bird Song by Sebastian Faulks.

What are your three favourite poems? Birches Robert Frost, The Road Less Traveled, Robert Frost, No Man is an Island John Donne and plenty more, especially Shakespeare’s sonnets.

Where do you usually get your books? I buy from a bookshop whenever the opportunity presents, but living in rural Australia it’s far easier to download from Amazon for my Kindle.

Where do you usually read your books? Waiting rooms, aeroplanes, bed, at my desk, on the cross-trainer. Anywhere and everywhere.

When you were little, did you have any particular reading habits? Many books were deemed ‘unsuitable’ at my Catholic boarding school and we used to hide our books under the floorboards in the dormitory. I once read a copy of The Exorcist disguised as a dictionary. Another time I found a very ‘rude’ book (anything that mentions breasts when you are 9 is deemed rude) called Calamity Jane torn up in a compost heap. I cello-taped it together and read it aloud to my giggling dormitory by torchlight after lights out.

What’s the last thing you stayed up half the night reading because it was so good you couldn’t put it down? I’m not a night person, but the last book I stayed in bed reading all morning – ignoring all work that needed to be done – was Amanda Curtin’s fabulous book Elemental.

Have you ever ‘faked’ reading a book? Maybe at Uni, can’t remember.

Have you ever bought a book just because you liked the cover? No

What book changed your life? Stephen King’s On Writing. I think the reason it changed my life is self explanatory.

What is your favourite passage from a book? Don’t have any passages in my head but I will never forget the evocative first line of Isabelle Allende’s masterpiece House of Spirits: ‘Barrabas came to us by sea, the child Clara wrote…’

Who are your top five favourite authors? Kate Atkinson, James Lee Burke, Frances Fyfield, Minette Walters, Elly Griffiths –  and these are just the crime authors!

What book has no one heard about but should read? Not sure – any of the books below?

What 3 books are you an “evangelist” for? (can I make it 4?) The Book Shop on Jacaranda Street by Marlish Glorie, The Eye of Re by Patricia L. O’Neill, Blood Opal by Carole Sutton.

What are your favourite books by a first-time author? To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson, House of Spirits by Isabelle Allende, Rotten Gods by Greg Barron

What is your favourite classic book? Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Five other notable mentions? Red Badge of Courage Stephen Crane, The Loved One Evelyn Waugh, Tales of Mystery and Imagination Edgar Allan Poe, The Mayor of Casterbridge Thomas Hardy and dozens more!

THE RULES

1. Post these rules

2. Post a photo of your favourite book cover

3. Answer the questions above

4. Tag a few people to answer them too

5. Go to their blog/twitter and tell them you’ve tagged them

6. Make sure you tell the person who tagged you that you’ve taken part!

TAGGED, YOU’RE IT! #MarlishGlorie #P.L.O’Neill, #CaroleSutton,#AmandaCurtin,#GregBarron, #David Whish-Wilson

No Obligation to participate but it is quite fun and certainly gets you thinking!

Australian Women’s Weekly Review By Jennifer Byrne!

ANTIDOTE TO MURDER
BY FELICITY YOUNG, HARPERCOLLINS, $24.99.
This is number two in the Dr Dody McCleland mystery series by trained nurse and Western Australian sheep-farming mother of three, Felicity young. Well-heeled, 30-year-old spinster Dody is an assistant autopsy surgeon, the only medical position available to a woman in 1911, but gives her free time to a clinic for women set up in an empty building by a pioneering doctor. It is here and on the slab that young’s Crippin- cum-Sherlock Holmes underworld seeps out of the River Thames’ mist. Championing at the heels of the “rozzers” (cockney cops), our girl risks the gallows for the gap-toothed “dollymops” (prostitutes), the sickly babes in arms carried by gin-swigging mothers from cholera-struck dwellings and the simple scullery maids who are with child. And this is the crux of her tidy, well-knit read; the practice of birth control was illegal and uneducated attempts at abortion (washing soda) commonly resulted in nothing or, worse, death. Hell-bent on education, brave Dody wages her own dangerous war against an emerging era when sufragette sisters unhelpfully chanted, “Votes for women, chastity for men”, while the lurid stories in “shilling shockers” spelled fear.image003

Many thanks to Jennifer Byrne from the ABC’s First Tuesday Book Club.

Authors and exercise

Apparently my kids debated long and hard over the pros (loves gadgets) and cons ( inclined towards OCD  ) before giving me a Jawbone UP band https://jawbone.com/up  for my birthday. The UP band is a sophisticated pedometer/sleep/diet monitor you wear on your wrist, the results of which you analyse at your convenience on your smart phone. I love this little gadget, even though it has yielded some rather shocking revelations.

Writing is a health hazard – I’ve always known that – and I used to feel pretty virtuous about working out on the cross trainer every afternoon. This strenuous burst of activity surely made up for the fact that I had been lying in bed writing or sitting at my desk with barely a muscle twitch in anything but my 2 hyperactive writing fingers. But according to the Upband, one burst of activity during a largely sedentary day is just not good enough. Time to change my routine, I decided; ‘walk to work’ on the treadmill and ‘walk home ‘ every afternoon when my writing day is finished. That’s worked great. I now easily achieve the 10,000 plus recommended steps you’re supposed to do per day for a healthy  lifestyle.

And zero word count.

Yes, zero.

Once I’ve walked to work the last thing I seem to be able to do is sit down and write. The kitchen’s a mess and must be tidied. Better put that washing on. Let the chooks out. Pull those weeds. Is that water pipe squirting away our precious water? Better make some healthy soup for lunch now that I am leading such an exceedingly healthy lifestyle. The long and the short is I am so charged up with oxygen to the brain that I can’t seem to sit down, unless it’s to write emails or glance at facebook or twitter – I mean it’s taken weeks to update this blog, dammit!

So, the question for my author/editor friends is how do you write and manage a healthy lifestyle? I’d love to know how you do it. If you’re not too busy writing please leave a comment.

Time to walk home now…