Today we delve deeper into the dynamic world of industrious children’s author, Janeen Brian. She’s releasing more books per month than I’ve had pie floaters  and I hear that one of her poems, “What did you learn at school today?” is being published in The School Magazine’s Blast Off this month. Does this lady never slow down? Let’s find out…

Q Who is Janeen Brian? Describe your writerly-self for us and the thing that sets you apart from other Aussie children’s authors.

The introspective part of me used to struggle in earlier days, because I had no pre-formed vision or identity of myself as a writer. I knew little about writing. Yet I quite liked to write. I knew little about books. Yet I liked to read. I’d never known about how to deconstruct, analyse or evaluate writing or reading and I can’t remember getting much of a grounding of it in high school, but I’m sure I must’ve. In my later years I tentatively did a TAFE correspondence writing course and dipped my toe in a weekend writing workshop.

Although I did write for adults and enjoyed it, (short stories and poems), I discovered it was really where my heart was. I felt better connected with a children’s readership. People say that when they read my work, they see pictures in their head and that pleases me, because I try to write pictorially. They say my work reads aloud well. That pleases me because I like the music of language and the sensory world of words. Reviewers often make the comment that I ‘know what children want’ and that pleases me because it’s what I strive for.

I also write a lot of poetry, enjoying the capture of a particular moment to provide a shortcut to the emotions.

Perhaps poems, picture books and short fiction is where I fit best.

Q You are an experienced writer covering many styles and formats, including TV scripts. What is your favourite style of writing, why and does it result in your best work?

I am experienced in that I’m been writing for about 30 years and of those, 23 years have been fulltime, but I never stop learning and trying to improve. I’m sure I’m not the only author who says that! But I enjoy different styles and formats because it challenges me, and I find different aspects to my writing emerging that may have remained untapped. During my writing life, I’ve tried to seize any writing opportunity and that included writing eleven scripts for Here’s Humphrey, a pre-schoolers program. While I loved the content and age group, I felt that ultimately the fast-paced nature of scriptwriting for the media wasn’t quite me. When the show drastically changed format, I wasn’t asked to write any more scripts, so perhaps the producer felt the same! I like researching and have written much non-fiction. When I write information articles or books, I try to write simply, so children grasp concepts, and also hopefully in a visual or anecdotal style, so information is more readily absorbed. I do this, because I don’t absorb facts very easily! As mentioned in the earlier question, I think I do my best work with shorter pieces, though I’m very proud to have written several novels and to have had them accepted and published.

Q At what stage in life did you realise you wanted to write? What, whom persuaded you to continue? Was it always this way or did you aspire to be something different as a kid?

Nothing struck me on the head to get writing! In Year Three at school, I decided to be a teacher and followed that course into Primary school teaching at eighteen. Later, around the time I had two young daughters, I simply dabbled in writing for my own enjoyment. I’d never been a closet writer or held dreams of one day writing. I simply began to write every now and then; mainly poems for my girls or to give away as gifts. Then, on becoming a single mum, I began to use my writing to earn extra money; penning small articles in magazines. I was also asked to write some scripts for a children’s theatre company, which was a big ask as I’d had no training or real understanding of the constructs of theatre. But I did it. I think one show was a flop but the others were okay. So, I beavered away, joined the SA Writers’ Centre, met a kind, experienced author who became my mentor and life-long friend, and who provided much needed encouragement and practical advice. Then I was lucky enough to have books/readers accepted by an educational publisher, which I think gave me good training in crafting to a brief and culling floppy, useless words.

Q How have your refined your craft? Did you study, if so where, and do you feel this has attributed significantly to your work?

I was persistent, imposing on myself all sorts of disciplines, real or imaginary to keep the writing muscles working and the financial side viable. I attended writers’ courses, but never attended University. My only tertiary training was the two-year teacher-training course. I read books on writing, obtaining my first loads from libraries, then purchasing more and more myself, all the time reading and trying to improve my writing. At that time, there was no computers or websites, no online blogs or author chat lines. I stuck to my simple, personal credo, If it’s to be, it’s up to me. Joining and meeting with a group of South Australian, published children’s writers and illustrators, called Ekidnas, helped me and my writing immensely. It wasn’t a critique group, more a support group, providing encouragement and networking opportunities in the days prior to email (doesn’t that sound amazing?). Now we meet approximately four times a year, but have an Ekidna website of our own, which is updated weekly and highlights our members’ achievements and activities. Quite impressive!

Q You are a published author of several titles. What are they? Which are you most proud of? Do you have any you would rather forget?

By May, 2013, I’ll have more than 78 books published, some educational, the rest being trade published. I also have poems in fourteen anthologies. Here’s the website for titles: wwwjaneenbrian.com. One of the easiest books I ever wrote was a picture book called Where does Thursday go?, illustrated by Stephen Michael King and published by Margaret Hamilton. The words simply fell onto the page. The book won an Honour Award in the CBCA picture book awards, and a Notable in the Early Childhood Awards in the same year. It then went on to be published in USA and UK as well as being translated into thirteen languages. I call it my heart book, because the idea was triggered by my then six-year-old daughter, Natalie, and I was able to dedicate the final book to her first son, my first grandchild, Liam. I still love the story, the language and the superb illustrations.

Want to find out what’s on the drafting table for Janeen? See what’s in store tomorrow in Part Two of our chat with one of Adelaide’s finest children’s writers.

Emma Jacks is a schoolgirl. She’s also a special agent in the Under 12s division of the super-secret organisation called SHINE. Codename — EJ12. Mission —stop the evil plans of the nefarious organisation known as SHADOW.

EJ12: Girl Hero is a series of kids’ books by Susannah McFarlane. My nine-year-old daughter Nykita loves these books. She has read, re-read and re-read again the first 14 books, and is eagerly awaiting the arrival of the latest in the series — Big Brother.

Not only has Nykita been re-reading these books, she’s been getting me to read them to her as well. She loves being read to and says she often discovers new things in a book when it is read to her out loud. So far, I’ve read the first five books to her:

• Hot & Cold
• Jump Start
• In The Dark
• Rocky Road
• Choc Shock

I’ve got to admit that I was less than enamoured with the books when we started. The first few are very formulaic — not only in story structure but also in character development. In each instalment, Emma overcomes a personal fear/problem thanks to the SHINE mission she is assigned to. There is also a lot of repetition from one book to the next. Each book contains back-story explanations so that it can be read in isolation. Great in terms of marketing. Not so great if you’re reading one book after the other in quick succession. If I have to read one more rundown of how the SHINE mission transport tube works, I may very well scream.

I also thought the editing was a little below par, with certain words being overused and often showing up multiple times in the one paragraph. It’s not something that Nykita noticed, but I found it rather awkward for reading out loud.

Having said all this, the books have started to grow on me. I’ve gotten to know the characters and have become invested in their adventures. And book 5, Choc Shock, has broken the formula a little. It also introduces my favourite villain thus far — the chocolate obsessed, French pastry chef, Madame Ombre. (I love reading her dialogue, as I get to do a really bad French accent!)

The books do have a great sense of fun and adventure. I particularly like the playful codenames that many of the grown-up agents have. The scientist, for example, is called IQ400.

Perhaps the best thing about the books is that Emma Jacks is a wonderfully positive role model for young girls. She faces ordinary, everyday problems (from mean girls at school to a lack of self confidence) as well as fantastical spy problems. But she always manages to work her way through them, usually with a little help from her friends.

After book 5, Nykita and I have taken a break to read some other books (more on them later). But I’ve got to say, I am actually looking forward to reading the next instalment of EJ12’s adventures — On The Ball.

Oh, and there’s a rather cool website for EJ12 fans — check it out!

Catch ya later,  George

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I have never felt so exposed by a picture book as I did when I first laid eyes on Meet…Ned Kelly. The piercing stare of Australia’s most infamous bush ranger peering from the slit of his armoured headgear sliced through to the very marrow of my bones, anchoring the outlaw’s stare there as if to say, Want to find out more? I did.

I’m not one to wallow in history for too long; but I do find it compelling discovering new threads that help me appreciate how the fabric of a nation, its people and their culture is woven together.

Random House’s new Meet…series allows young readers to be similarly fascinated by picture books that tell exciting true stories of the real women and men of Australia’s past. And what more exciting a character than Ned Kelly?

Prolific children’s author, Janeen Brian, introduces children to one of the best known, ill-understood, and extraordinary tales of early Australian history, that of Ned Kelly. The sometimes misleading mystic and romance of bushranging is forsaken in favour of a straight forward, chronological telling of the facts of Ned’s life beginning with his not-so-easy childhood and ending with his untimely death in the Old Melbourne Goal in 1880.

However the story is anything but dull and lifeless. Brian leads us through Ned’s brief life with an objective clarity told in simple and effective bush ballad style verse. Each stanza is suffused with sufficient detail to allow us to develop a strong sense of Ned’s character and the treacherous times he occupied, featuring often unbalanced and corrupt systems of justice.

Ned is portrayed as a fair, brave young man but one who often found himself on the wrong side of the law mostly by misfortune, poor judgement, and ill-luck. His recurring stints in goal and unpopularity with the police ensured he and his family were regular targets for prosecution. The gaoling of his mother in 1878 was the catalyst for the birth of the Kelly Gang.

The gang escaped capture numerous times thanks to Ned’s long standing reputation amongst good friends, but following betrayal and the final calamitous showdown at Glenrowan Inn in 1880, not even Ned’s genius iron-clad armour could protect him from his ultimate fate.

It’s a stirring tale brought to life with the help of Matt Adam’s almost surreal illustrations that echo the lines and textures of a number of classic Australian painters and therefore add a rich authenticity to each scene. The font used throughout and for the timeline on the end pages reflects the feel of a wanted poster, many on which Ned’s name no doubt appeared.

I feel I better understand this young man, so vilified by the injustice of the day, after meeting him ‘face to face’ in Brian’s historic picture book. And I cannot imagine a more brilliant nor dynamic way for primary aged readers to explore our rich historic past.

Keep an eye out for my next post where we meet author Janeen Brian face to face and explore more about the author behind Meet Ned Kelly.

Random House Books Australia March 2013

Jackie French, author of Dinosaurs Love Cheese & The Girl from Snowy River

Tell us about your latest creation…

Dinosaurs Love Cheese: for every child who loves dinosaurs — and cheese.

The Girl From Snowy River: World War I is over, but it still haunts the mountains. Flinty McAlpine lost a brother when the Snowy River men marched away. The man she loves won’t talk to her. But on a rock in the mist she meets a ‘ghost’ from the future,  crippled in Vietnam:  a man who needs to speak about the war that none of his friends will discuss with him, as much as she needs to hear. The second in the saga of Australia that began with A Waltz for Matilda.

Where are you from / where do you call home?

The Araluen Valley (NSW Southern Tablelands), cliffs streaked with eagle droppings, a wombat under the bedroom,  the sugar gliders eating the blossom from 800 fruit trees, an a possum who snores above my study.

When you were a kid, what did you want to become?  An author?

Always — no matter what — a story teller

What do you consider to be your best work? Why?

Pennies for Hitler, Diary of a Wombat, a Waltz for Matilda: all somehow achieved much more than I could have given them..

Describe your writing environment to us – your writing room, desk, etc.; is it ordered or chaotic?

20,000 books, 200 wombats, wood, glass, pottery (gifts, not chosen), 3 wombat skulls, a table of seeds, another of manuscripts, a desk of scribbled notes, an apple core, two coffee mugs, a spider called Bruce, and the possum with sleep apnoea.

When you’re not writing, who/what do you like to read?

Atwood, Pratchett, Haldeman, Trillin, Steingarten, plus about 500 more.

What was the defining book(s) of your childhood/schooling?

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley), at age 7. Didn’t notice the sex scenes, just the realisation that ‘life will not always be like this.’ Great Dialogues of Plato, ditto: Socrates  the youth of Athens to ask questions, unlike both home and school.

If you were a literary character, who would you be?

Every writer includes aspects of themselves in each book they write.

Apart from books, what do you do in your spare time (surprise us!)?

Can sharpen a chain saw, load a musket, milk an echidna, grow a five course dinner, but am functionally innumerate, dyslexic, and can’t spell hipop…hypop..that big grey animal from Africa.

What is your favourite food and favourite drink?

Fresh bread and tomato salad with new olive oil, cold water, apple pie with hazelnut pastry, Jonathon  and Cornish Aromatic apples, but mostly: lots!

Who is your hero? Why?

Socrates: the unexamined life is not worth living; and integrity.

Crystal ball time – what is the biggest challenge for the future of books and reading?

Withering attention spans.

Follow Jackie:

Website URL: http://www.jackiefrench.com

Hugh Lunn, author of The Big Book of Lunn

Tell us about your latest creation…

The Big Book of Lunn contains the biggest selling book ever about an Australian childhood: “Over the Top with Jim” — plus the sequel about young love in the 1960s: “Head Over Heels”.

Where are you from / where do you call home?

Born in Brisbane and live here. Spent 7 years overseas aged 23-30 as a journalist and foreign correspondent. Lived in Hong Kong, Vietnam (during War), London, Indonesia, West Papua. Went into “Red China” in 1965!

When you were a kid, what did you want to become?  An author?

A radio announcer — but my voice was too husky. But now, whenever I walk into a shop or talk in a cafe people say I know that ‘voice’ from hearing me interviewed about my books.

What do you consider to be your best work? Why?

“Over the Top with Jim” because it made enough money over the last 24 years for me to become a full-time author. Readers tell me my Vietnam and Rupert books are my best. My favourite is “The Great Fletch”.

Describe your writing environment to us – your writing room, desk, etc.; is it ordered or chaotic?

I have a huge desk with a return with a set of shelves for books and papers behind. The third bedroom; the back toilet and the large room under the house are full of my files and MSs and future book
options… and my 30 years of journalism.

When you’re not writing, who/what do you like to read?

George Orwell, because I aspire to write as clearly as him and to make such acute observations on the people I write about. Plus books about medicine and the human condition.

What was the defining book(s) of your childhood/schooling?

Poems mainly. Horatius Defends the Bridge was the first before I was five. And later Byron, Marvel, Pope, Tennyson etc. Browning was my favourite.

If you were a literary character, who would you be?

Winston Smith from Orwell’s 1984. In fact, sometimes I think I am Winston Smith! Because he wrote down what was really going on.

Apart from books, what do you do in your spare time (surprise us!)?

I collect songs for my “State of Origin — the Musical”.

What is your favourite food and favourite drink?

A steak at Moo-Moos Wine Bar and Grill in Brisbane. A Bundaberg ginger beer.

Who is your hero? Why?

Queesnland scientist Michael Good because he gave up his job running the Queensland Institute of Medical Research to try to find a cure for rheumatic fever and malaria which kill so many people in the world. And he’s on track with both.

Crystal ball time – what is the biggest challenge for the future of books and reading?

Writing books that makes people laugh and cry.

Follow Hugh:

Website URL: http://www.hughlunn.com.au

Buy the physical book here…

Jennifer Skiff, author of The Divinity of Dogs: True Stories of Miracles Inspired by Man’s Best Friend

Tell us about your latest creation…

The Divinity of Dogs is a book of stories where people describe the moment they learned something profound about life from an experience with a dog. It is also part memoir, including stories where dogs have helped me through different trials in my life.

Where are you from / where do you call home?

Home is where my dogs are.  I live in Perth, Australia and on an island in Maine, in the United States.

When you were a kid, what did you want to become?  An author?

When I was 12 years-old I asked my Dad for an electric typewriter.  I’ve always wanted to be a writer.

What do you consider to be your best work? Why?

The Divinity of Dogs is clearly my best work to date.  Writing it was a deeply personal experience. I cried throughout the process. By all accounts from the reviews, it’s having a similar effect on readers.  They are moved by the writing.  It’s a wonderful feeling as an author to share your journey and to have others embrace it.

Describe your writing environment to us – your writing room, desk, etc.; is it ordered or chaotic?

In Perth, my studio feels like a tree house – lots of windows overlooking life. In Maine, my studio is nestled in the woods in the middle of a wildlife corridor. I can’t write unless everything around me is clean and tidy.  I write best when I can only see words and nature.

When you’re not writing, who/what do you like to read?

True Crime.  Ann Rule.

What was the defining book(s) of your childhood/schooling?

I was most moved by the works of Charles Dickens.

If you were a literary character, who would you be?

Heathcliffe from Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights.  I am Heathcliffe.

Apart from books, what do you do in your spare time (surprise us!)?

Mow lawns.  Play with dogs.  Raise money and awareness for animal charities.

What is your favourite food and favourite drink?

Salt and Vinegar Potato Chips. Zacapa Rum/Coke Zero with half a lime. Preferably together, on a boat.

Who is your hero? Why?

I have many heroes. I admire every person in this world who has a compassionate heart and works toward positive change to make the lives of others better.

Crystal ball time – what is the biggest challenge for the future of books and reading?

People love to read and write and always will.  The challenge, for all of us, will be to adapt to the ever-changing forms of publication and to embrace the change.

Follow Jennifer:

Website URL: http://www.jenniferskiff.com/
Facebook Page #1 URL: https://www.facebook.com/thedivinityofdogs
Facebook Page #2 URL: https://www.facebook.com/jenniferskiffauthor
Twitter URL: https://twitter.com/JenniferSkiff

Buy the physical book here…

Granta‘s theme ‘Betrayal’ offers scope for many things, from love to war, from politics to survival, and more. As usual, the pieces included come from authors around the world and their contributions are unexpected, innovative and excellent.

Janine di Giovanni, who has reported on wars for more than twenty years, begins ‘Seven Days in Syria’ with her baby son, whose tiny nails she finds herself unable to cut. She charts this same sense of vulnerability in the lives of the Syrian people as she sees the effects of war gradually seep into their lives. Her account is personal and vivid. “There is no template for war“, she writes,  only the agony, the uncertainty and the fear, which is constant.

Karen Russell, too, writes of the effects of war but she weaves a sort of magic into her fictional story. Beverly, a professional masseuse, begins therapeutic massage on an Iraqi war veteran whose body tattoo is a “skin mural” of the war-landscape on the day his friend was killed. “Healing is a magical art” said a pamphlet which attracted Beverly to her career, and her ability to empathise with a customer and to use her massage skills to feel and relax the tensions expressed in the physical body is remarkable. But her expert physical work with this particular customer has inexplicable results, the tattoo does strange things, and there are unexpected psychological effects for both of them.

As well as reportage and stories, Granta includes photography and poetry. Darcy Padilla’s photographs of ‘Julie’ chart a life affected by poverty, abuse and AIDS but they show happiness, partnerships and children as part of her struggle to survive. And John Burnside’s poem, ‘Postscript’, echoes some of Robert Frost’s well-known lines and offers a modern perspective on an evening in snowy woods. It tells of a passing moment in which a search for a mobile phone signal prompts musings on the ephemeral nature of beauty, a cup of tea, a welcoming home and “no promises to keep“. And the only path is the one back to the car.

Mohsin Hamid tells of a young boy’s text-message based love affair with a local girl who has the ambition, it is suggested, of sleeping her way to a better life. Samantha Harvey’s small-scale apocalypse-survival scenario set on a fictional island could well be a true story. André Aciman documents an editor’s experience with a young woman writer with whom he begins a strangely satisfying relationship. Neither of them seem fully able to commit themselves but perhaps it is just his reading of the situation, or perhaps he is just a man who cannot make big decisions. The result? I will not spoil the story by revealing it.

Colin Robinson learns about group loyalty and Paddleball. Ben Marcus imagines a dystopia in which group and family loyalties are tested. Lauren Wilkinson writes of the fatal attraction of guns. And Jennifer Vanderbes writes of a lone woman fire-mapper in the forests of New Mexico whose isolated life is briefly disrupted by a male forestry worker  with whom she shares friendship and memories. Both, it turns out, have reasons for choosing to work with fire.

Callan Wink’s ‘One More Last Stand’, introduces us to a man who participates in historical re-enactments of General Custer’s last stand but who is inclined to tell tall tales to tourists and to fraternize with the ‘enemy’. It can also be read on the Granta web site at http://www.granta.com/ , along with other material not included in this quarter’s magazine.

Granta 122: Betrayal  is excellent reading and a fine addition to Granta’s long tradition of fostering new writing.

Copyright © Ann Skea 2013
Website and Ted Hughes pages: http://ann.skea.com/
Sylvia Plath, Ariel and the Tarot: http://ann.skea.com/Arielindex.html

The longlist for the 2013 ALS Gold Medal has been announced.

The longlisted titles are:

• Lola Bensky (Lily Brett, Hamish Hamilton)
• Darkness on the Edge of Town (Jessie Cole, Fourth Estate)
• Questions of Travel (Michelle de Kretser, A&U)
• Montebello (Robert Drewe, Hamish Hamilton)
• The Engagement (Chloe Hooper, Hamish Hamilton)
• Cumulus: Collected Poems (Robert Gray, John Leonard Press)
• Like a House on Fire (Cate Kennedy, Scribe)
• Lost Voices (Christopher Koch, Fourth Estate)
• The Mountain (Drusilla Modjeska, Vintage)
• The History of Books (Gerald Murnane, Giramondo)
• The Fine Colour of Rust (P A O’Reilly, HarperCollins)
• The Light Between Oceans (M S Stedman, Vintage).

Technology-induced complete loss of zen means only one thing: retreating to the stationery cupboard and re-reading some fave books. I’m too time poor to revisit whole books, especially after spending over six hours yesterday trying to get a PDF to a readable stage on my iPad Mini. It’s an issue I blogged (read: ranted) about yesterday and which I still haven’t been able to, for the record, resolve.

My happy-place happy medium then will have to be McSweeney’s, Dave Eggers’ genius of an online journal. It will specifically have to be the following four entries.

The Ultimate Guide to Writing Better Than You Normally Do

The title itself guarantees that every doubt-wracked writer will click on the link in the hope of finding snippets of writing-tip gold. And horrifying, vaguely hysterical chuckling-inducing gold snippets it indeed contains, not least:

Think of your laptop as a machine like the one at the gym where you open and close your inner thighs in front of everyone, exposing both your insecurities and your genitals. Because that is what writing is all about.

For the record, I wrote this blog wearing pants. Many thanks to Judi for making me aware of this guide’s existence.

Interviews With Hamsters

McSweeney’s has truly mastered the Onion-like art of delivery hilarity completely deadpan. Case in point, realistic-sound interviews with hamsters:

There’s really only so long that a hamster can sleep each day, you know? […] I like to groom myself, and others, of course. But I’ve often got a spare ten minutes and once you’ve read the newspaper lining the cage, you’ve got to do something with your time, right?

and

It’s the one time that I get to think, just for myself. Between the repetitive motions and the squeak of the bearings, my mind just kind of goes blank, and I don’t worry so much about everyday things: will we get fed, where is the cat, has someone pooped in my corner, you know? Stuff like that.

From The Complete Guide to the Care and Training of the Writer in Your Life

I discovered this one only recently thanks (or rather, no thanks) to McSweeney’s dangerous rabbit hole of Suggested Reads, which lurks just below the end of its stellar articles. It yields such gems as:

The arrival of a baby can be a joyous experience for the entire family. However, [… writers] can find it difficult when a new member enters the ‘writer’s group’, especially if the new member is perceived as being of higher status or as a drain on writing time and resources. Never leave the writer alone with the baby. Ever.

I’m Comic Sans, Asshole

Then there’s my favourite favourite, I’m Comic Sans, Asshole (belated warning, there’s a bit of coarse language and innuendo contained within these entries).

It opens with:

Listen up. I know the [sh%t] you’ve been saying behind my back. You think I’m stupid. You think I’m immature. You think I’m a malformed, pathetic excuse for a font. Well think again, nerdhole, because I’m Comic Sans, and I’m the best thing to happen to typography since Johannes [f&%king] Gutenberg.

It subsequently moves on to oneliners such as:

‘While Gotham is at the science fair, I’m banging the prom queen behind the woodshop.’ and ‘I am a sans serif Superman and my only kryptonite is pretentious buzzkills like you.’

Happy (but hopefully Comic Sans-free) Monday, everyone.

I was never the highest jumper or the fastest sprinter at school, and standing in the middle of a netball court surrounded by a pack of short-nailed, indomitable girls with only a thin bib between them and my trembling heart filled me with terror. No, sport and I don’t really gel well. I lacked that flame of desire to cross the line first; unlike Jack, the newest hero of Scholastic’s Mates-Great Aussie Yarns series.

Christine Bongers’ freshly released, Drongoes, is a magic little yarn about confronting fears, surmounting obstacles like Corby Park Hill, true grit and above all friendship, and is faintly reminiscent of the classic fable, the Hare and the Tortoise in so much as the unexpected outcome leaves us with an immense and satisfying sense of victor victorious.

It’s Jack’s last year to beat ego-inflated Rocket Robson in the Year Five cross-country race at the athletics carnival. It’s also his best mate, asthma-stricken, Eric’s chance to simply finish the race. All of Eric’s previous attempts have been thwarted by over-anxious intentions and Eric’s inability to breathe.

Eric however excels at best-mateship and together, he and Jack embark on a determined training program consisting mostly of encouragement, patience and the ubiquitous presence of a flock of spangled drongoes.

In true slow and steady style, they compete against Rocket Robson against all odds, with surprisingly hilarious and touching results.

I’ve been a fan of this ripper series for some years now. The short, Aussie flavoured stories showcase some of Australia’s finest and funniest children’s writers. Christine Bongers’ contribution is no exception.

There are dozens of little things I liked about Drongoes: the title for one – the re-emergence of a classic slice of Aussie vernacular, the strong undercurrent of mateship, the timely message that pride (and too many pies) comes before a fall, and the subtle reference to Eric’s ethnicity and Jack’s personality through their nicknames; Puff the Magic Dragon and Drongo. But it was the ultimate act of selflessness on Jack’s part that made me want to stand up and whoop along with the cheering crowd in the end. I actually shed a tear or two instead!

What I love about this series is how each powerful storyline is supported by equally fabulous illustrations, in this case aptly provided by Dan McGuiness. Each page is smothered in pictures, with complimentarily themed page borders and interesting fonts; perfect for magnetising the interest of 6 – 8 year olds taking up chapter books for the first time. The explanatory text at the end is a lovely informative bonus.

I still don’t have much time or talent for sport. But I do adore spangled drongoes, who fortunately frequent my backyard too. What Drongoes did for me was to bring the two unexpectedly and effortlessly together so that the resulting spark almost ignited that flame to jump up and race off into the sunset – almost.

A genuine winner.

Scholastic Mates Series 2013

Oh sweet mother of dog, can anyone help me work out how to download and open a goddamn PDF book on my iPad Mini? I bought the book. The default reader is Overdrive, but Overdrive doesn’t support PDFs and won’t download the file. I cannae work out how to download and open the book via another reader. (Adobe PDF Reader for iPad, Kindle, iBooks, etc.) Gah, ebook format wars and incompatibility make Fi very angry.

If the above Facebook post slash cry for help hasn’t already alerted you to this fact, I should probably spell it out for you: This blog post has been typed in anger.

I held off buying an ereader for this precise reason until just a few weeks ago. I wanted the format wars to be over and for the dust from them to be settled. I wanted to be able to purchase and read a book with just a couple of clicks and plenty of ease, with the biggest decision I had to make being which book to purchase. I didn’t want to spend hours researching and troubleshooting downloads and formats and getting increasingly exasperated and incensed.

This is not how I should be spending my Sunday afternoon.

The ultimate irony is that the book I’m trying to download—Beth Kanter and Allison H Fine‘s The Networked Nonprofit—isn’t even a book I want to read for fun. I mean no offence by that—I’m sure it’s a rollicking read. More importantly it’s a book I absolutely must, must, must read and reference for my university study (and it does contain, I’m sure, and by pure virtue of currently being inaccessible to me, the key to my entire thesis).

I should preface the rest of this rant with a note that this is not the fault of Booku, the ebook retail site that complements Boomerang Books. In fact, although Booku doesn’t support PDF files on iPad Minis, it had the clearest, most concise, most communicationally designed (that’s a technical term) help information I was able to find. If it weren’t for Booku, I’d still be googling and randomly attempting to download apps and readers and who knows what else (and no, I’m not just saying that because I technically work for them). I also feel the need to specify that it’s not an Apple product thing. It’s an ebook format war thing. Every ereading device currently available comes with quirks and cons.

The issue is that downloading a book to any device shouldn’t have to be this hard. This format war stuff needs to be sorted the f$%k out.

I can’t recount the steps I took to get my PDF onto my iPad, partly because I don’t want to bore you and mostly because I can’t remember the myriad, seemingly unending, largely fruitless steps I took. I should also admit that although I’ve now got the book open and readable on my Macbook Pro, I still haven’t managed to do it on my iPad Mini (it appears that I can only download the Adobe Digital Editions to the former, because it’s not an app, which kind of defeats the purpose of me specifically purchasing an iPad Mini to be an ereader). If you’ve got any advice on how to do this, I’m all eyes and ears.

Sigh.

Who knows, maybe half of what I’ve typed here today is incorrect. But I don’t apologise for that—this ebook stuff is unnecessarily confusing. Because here’s the rub: I don’t care what format my ebook is in. Nor should I even have to know. As the producers and distributors of this product, the publishers and retailers should be across that. And they should be making it as easy as possibly for me, the enduser, to simply decided on my purchase and download it with ease. That’s how the interwebs work these days.

There’s a reason why iTunes and Amazon’s (particularly with the latter’s oh-so-dangerous, impulse buy-encouraging one-click functionality) are dominating the sales spaces, and it’s not because they’re behemoths. It’s because they’ve made it easy for people to get the things they’re after. I’m actually reasonably tech savvy and interested in ebooks (it is, after all, central to my work and industry). If I can’t work it out, what hope is there for the lay reader who just wants to enjoy some Sunday afternoon Vampire Academy (I’m eagerly awaiting the arriving of my just-released The Indigo Spell)?

To be blunt (not that I haven’t already been), I resent having to have about 17 different ereading apps downloaded to my ereading device and playing which-one-will-work roulette every time I want to read a book. I resent not being able to use the ereader of my choice, instead being dictated to by the format that it may or may not support. I also resent having my ebooks spread across various apps—I imagine there’ll be a time when I lose my s$%t trying to find a book I know I own but can’t remember its format and, subsequently, in which app’s library it will happen to be stored.

I’m sure downloading Kanter’s book didn’t and doesn’t need to be this hard. But I didn’t know the steps and I shouldn’t have had to. They should be intuitive and the process should be seamless. It shouldn’t have involved me having to first find and then type in my stupid Adobe ID multiple times. (As a side note, Adobe also forced me to give the company my birthday, which enraged me no end. The only reason they need such information is to gather marketing data on me is that they will use against me or sell on to a third party. It’s not ok, Adobe. You knowing my age doesn’t affect whether I can get a goddamn PDF downloaded and opened on my device.)

Nor should the process have had to involve me becoming an expert of what kinds of ereading apps are available and which formats they support. For the record none of the ones I looked at—Goodreader, Stanza, Kindle, iBooks, Overdrive, and Bluefire—and especially not the last two, are intuitive titles that people would think to use as search terms. Where is the generically named ‘ebook reader’ app? Where is the ereader that’s easy to find, intuitive to use, and that reads all formats?

‘Isn’t saying that copyright laws are turning our children into criminals the same as saying arson laws are turning our children into pyromaniacs?’ is just one of the salient, incisive quotes about music piracy in Chris Ruen’s just released book, Freeloading: How Our Insatiable Appetite For Free Content Starves Creativity.

If the title hasn’t already given it away, the book is an examination of society’s penchant for expecting free music and the often-invisible flow-on effects. Some of its key areas of examination are the moral and ethical dilemmas faced (or, frighteningly, not faced) relating to freeloading as well as the industry’s (unsuccessful, cautionary tale) response to freeloading. Indeed, ‘To pay or not to pay? It is the existential crisis of the digital age,’ writes Ruen, as the internet ‘refashions reality’.

Ruen is a New York-based freelance writer whose work has appeared in the gold-stamp-approval publications of The New York Times and Slate. Freeloading is painstakingly researched and contains interview transcripts and reproduced letters from industry greats who offer insight into the issues far more authoritative and more measured than those we find on internet forums.

Though his stance is clear—stealing music is stealing music, however you want to try to absolve yourself of your culpability—Ruen’s approach is balanced and comprehensive; the eminently readable (if occasionally thesis-like) book’s final pages contain footnotes to his research and quotes.

As befits a book focusing on gamechanging technology and our uses of it, Ruen’s first chapter commences with Steve Jobs unveiling the iPad, a device and its constituents the normally free-for-all enthusiast Chris Anderson proclaimed to be industry-saving and that ‘show media in a context worth paying for’.

Whether that’s eventuating remains to be proven or disproven, but Freeloading examines many of the key dust-ups and moments in the industry over the last 20-or-so years, notably the recent SOPA bill and Metallica versus Napster. The book examines the alternative models and revenue streams artists and companies are exploring such as subscription and streaming services, DIY, and 360 contracts. Most of all, it examines the cultural and ethical minefields of illegal downloading, firmly affirming the necessity of ‘user pays’ (as outlined in this industry insider quote):

If you find meaning and beauty from a musician’s work and you want them to continue creating it—then you are obliged to support them. If you like the idea of record stores […]—then you are obliged to support them. If you’re consistently doing one without the other, then on some level you, not Metallica, are the asshole. Out of basic politeness, I (probably) won’t say any of this to your face and neither will your friends, your record store clerk, or your favourite band. But it is the truth.

Hindsight’s a beautiful thing, and history has shown us that record labels didn’t handle Napster and its copycats well. Adam Farrell from Matador sums it up this way in Freeloading:

The thing the music industry did—the mistake was to reapply the rules. They thought it was a new format and they could take it over and make money from it, but all they did was create this global game of whack-a-mole. I think the biggest mistake was taking 25 million people [who] were actively engaged in music and dispersing them. They let loose a virus, in a way.

What’s unclear—and what Ruen’s book reminds us—is what the labels should have done. In a chapter entitled ‘Angry Armchair Quarterbacks’, Ruen quotes and industry insider as saying, ‘“If the industry had only made a deal with Napster …” Everyone’s got an answer for how to change the record industry, but I’m not sure what they think they would do.’

Another industry exec flags the double standards when it comes to musicians making money from their music:

… photographers expect to be compensated for their work, filmmakers expect to be compensated—for some reason musicians are supposed to work for free and if they object to this then they’re greedy and letting commerce overwhelm their art or something?

I had the (mis)fortune of working for Australia’s largest entertainment retailer throughout my undergraduate university studies, and I saw firsthand the way the industry struggled with (and failed to) address the sudden and explosive arrival of illegal downloading and filesharing. It was a fraught time and a fraught topic, incensing those of us who actually worked in the industry and who saw and experienced firsthand its effects. One of the most galling aspects was people’s so-what shruggery.

The questions and answers tended to be then and tend to continue to be:

Newspapers are dying? Well, shit happens. New musicians have a harder time building sustainable careers than ever before? A starving artist is a good artist. How will writers make great works if no on will pay them? That’s their problem, not mine. Who says artists deserve to make money anyway? Can we perceive the dire circumstances of P2P technology and fine ways to lessen its damages? You can’t find technology. No, sit down, enjoy the spectacle with the rest of us.

It’s no small irony and shackled by a weird case of resigned déjà vu that I am now living through the same Sisyphean issues in my own industry. My hope is that the publishing industry finds a way around people’s entrenched it-should-be-free perception, but also learns from the music industry’s whopping mistakes—quashing the filesharing creates more issues, but it’s also necessary to find a way to monetise the model and to collaborate.

As the Marshal McLuhan quote with which Ruen opens the book states: ‘If we understand the revolutionary transformations caused by new media, we can anticipate and control them; but if we continue in our self-induced subliminal trance, we will be their slaves’. I can’t help but think the publishing industry should be closely reading Freeloading and other analyses of the music industry’s (at least partially self-inflicted) fate.

Robert Smith? — the man with the question mark in his name. He’s an academic, he’s an author, he’s an editor and he’s a Doctor Who fan. His books include Braaaiiinnnsss: From Academics to Zombies, Modelling Disease Ecology with Mathematics and Who Is The Doctor (co-written with Graeme Burk). And most recently, he’s edited the mammoth essay anthology, Outside In: 160 New Perspectives on 160 Classic Doctor Who Stories by 160 Writers. Robert was kind enough to stop by and answer a few questions for me…

How did Outside In come about?

It really started with the “say something different” idea.

I was editing the Doctor Who Ratings Guide one day when I was reading a review of “The Seeds of Doom” by Mike Morris (the one that ended up in the book). It was such a radical take on the story that I wondered if I could find equally radical takes on all the stories. The DWRG has almost 8000 reviews, so at first I figured I could just trawl through that and surely find at least one review per story that said something different?

Sadly, the short answer was no. While there were a few that fit the bill, I quickly realised that there was no way I could fulfil this mandate just from my own website. So I started to look further afield.

And then I had the wild thought of doing 160 different writers. It had never been done before; indeed, I’d been responsible for the most diverse collection of Doctor Who essays already: Time Unincorporated 2, which had about 48 writers. This was tripling it, which seemed kind of foolish… but I also liked the challenge it presented. (I have a PhD in mathematics, so I can kind of hold this sort of complexity in my head.)

Meanwhile, I also heard on the grapevine that Arnold Blumberg was setting up a new press (ATB Publishing). Arnold was a bit unconvinced, because things on his end were really only in the planning stages. And I ended up running far ahead of the business side of things, so it felt a bit as though we were making things up as we went along. But having a definitive goal probably helped to force everything to come together.

“160 New Perspectives on 160 Classic Doctor Who Stories by 160 Writers”. Was it difficult to wrangle so many writers?

Yes and no. At first, I didn’t think I’d be able to pull it off, so I had several writers on standby to contribute further pieces. But then word of mouth helped, as good writers were able to recommend other good writers and then I got into the groove of recruiting people. Conventions helped a lot, because I just walked around with a sheet of paper with the last 20 or so stories on it and asked people if they had any radical takes on the stories in question. Almost everyone did!

I did find several brilliant pieces, but couldn’t locate the writers. I chased one guy through all the Coronation St forums for his review of “The Dominators”, but then the trail went cold, so I had to look elsewhere. Fortunately, my convention asking led to Bill Evensen’s hilarious take on the story — still my favourite piece in the collection — so it worked out in the end.

But it was also a bit of a wild ride. One of the authors demanded I not change even a single comma, not even the typo we both agreed was there. Another never sent my personal copy of the DVD back to me. I also got a bit of a reputation as a hard-sell after (entirely accurate) rumours spread that I was cracking the whip on several pieces that weren’t up to scratch. Stephanie Blumberg — the boss’s wife, incidentally! — sent me her “Silver Nemesis” piece with such fear in the email I thought she was going to have a meltdown. (Luckily, I loved it outright, so she needn’t have worried.)

But one of the things I’m so proud of is just how many new voices there are. For so many people, this is their first published work and I think that’s hugely important. So much of Doctor Who output, from the TV series to Big Finish, is jobs for the boys, with the powers that be recruiting the same old names on the entirely reasonable grounds that they can trust them to produce good stuff. I really wanted to break that cycle, which required a lot of work on my part, but the payoff was enormous.

Did you have any trouble finding writers to cover all the stories?

Finding writers was both a pleasure and an incredible challenge. I ran out of my own contacts after about 50 people, which put me in a bit of a bind. So I spent ages trawling the internet for good reviews, often striking gold on the 1,900th entry in Google. When you’ve spent two days searching for a review of “The Mutants” that doesn’t say the same old thing, the pleasure when you find exactly what you’re looking for is immense. I think I shouted for joy when I stumbled upon Philip Sandifer’s piece, never having heard of his blog before (although it’s now fairly famous).

And as I started to recruit more original writers, I simply asked them for recommendations. So it spread virally, which is something I know more than a little about, thanks to my day job. (There are a surprising number of siblings in the list, as well as a number of husband and wife teams.) The only time I sat down and thought about specific names was when I looked through the table of contents of Chicks Dig Time Lords for names of good writers. The rest was very organic.

It was actually Graeme Burk who suggested I recruit a majority of original pieces. Originally I was going to do mostly reprints, because I was worried about the budget. But then I came up with the charity idea and that helped focus things: I realised that one of the strengths of the book was that, as a group, we were much stronger than as individuals. Given that everyone — myself, Arnold and all the writers bar two whom I won’t name — donated their fees to charity, it meant we were working for something bigger than just another Doctor Who non-fiction guide.

A lot of the book’s genesis thus coasted on goodwill. I was especially pleased that the professional writers involved were happy to donate to charity, even though this is their livelihood. And some of these were just brilliant: Andrew Cartmel’s letter to me regarding “Talons of Weng-Chiang” made me laugh out loud, while David Howe stepped up very late in the day with a sweet piece on “The Mythmakers” and a photo to boot.

And then Anthony Wilson — one of the unsung heroes of Doctor Who nonfiction writing — came along and proofread the book and told me to throw away about 15 pieces and get the authors to rework about as many again. He grasped the concept of the book intuitively and had enough distance to simply tell me “no” on a number of occasions. Some of the best pieces in the book — Piers Beckley’s Shakespearen play, Stuart Milne’s letter to the reader, Stuart Douglas’s alien flow chart — are a direct result of Anthony. The only credit I give myself on this is that I wasn’t precious about anything and deferred to his judgement entirely!

What is it about Doctor Who that inspired you to take on such a huge project?

It’s the sheer diversity of talent in fandom that continues to inspire me. Go to any gathering of Doctor Who fans, even when you don’t know anyone there, and you’ll hear fascinating opinions, vociferous disagreements and new insights on decades-old stories. You hear this at conventions, at pubs and on the internet. It continually amazes me just how thoughtful and articulate Doctor Who fans can be.

So that really made my job easy. The technical accomplishment of 160 writers was a cute gimmick, but what really makes the book shine is the fact that everyone’s saying something different. (Sometimes very  different: the other proofreader, Paul Simpson, complained that Lindy Orthia’s intense academic dissection of “Ghost Light” gave him whiplash after Sean Twist’s hilarious within-text take on “Battlefield”.) It meant I really just had to sit back and watch everyone bring their A-game to the table. That made it a joy to assemble and then edit.

You’ve written about Doctor Who, zombies and even Justin Bieber. What’s next?

I’m going to create a mathematical model of a Monoid invasion. You heard it here first.

Thank you Robert. That was a rather lengthy interview, so I won’t add anything beyond…

Catch ya later,  George

PS. Follow me on Twitter

Check out my DVD blog, Viewing Clutter.

Latest Post: DVD Giveaway  — Doctor Who: The Reign of Terror

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So, begins the opening statement of Schroder, and it is prefaced by the E.E.Cummings poem “here is the deepest secret nobody knows“. This sounds tantalizing, especially when you know from the cover blurb that Meadow is the narrator’s six-year-old daughter and that he has abducted her. As far as he is concerned this is not a premeditated abduction, not really, he just decided on a “spontaneous trip“,  and failed to return Meadow to his estranged wife after a parental visit. Now that the law has caught up with him, he has been persuaded to write down everything that happened.

Yet, the first thing he tells us is how, as a child, he lied about his own life in order to win a major competition, and, in the process, he gave himself a false identity which he then chose to keep. By his own account, Eric Schroder, alias Kennedy, is a liar and a fraud, a man who neglects his elderly father, has forged qualifications for his c.v., has deceived his wife and her family for years and, now, has run off with his child. He is also researching ‘pauses’ and he adds footnotes to his document in order, one assumes, to impress us with his essential seriousness and intelligence.

With his glib account of his failings, his protestations of love for his estranges wife, and his hints of childhood trauma documented in interspersed fragments describing a childhood escape, with his father, from Communist East Germany, Eric Kennedy comes across as a self-serving sociopath. Whether this is what the author, Amity Gaige, intended, I don’t know, but I quickly began to lose patience with her narrator.

So why did I go on reading? I don’t know. But that’s what sociopaths do – they draw you in, tell you just enough to make their actions sound plausible and justified, and play on your emotions to keep you hooked.

Yes, by the time I got to the end of Eric’s story I did feel sorry for the things which happened to him in his childhood. I did think that maybe they might explain why he had chosen a different identity and had made up a different childhood for himself. And I did understand how he came to live a lie. I also understood how he loved Meadow and how he justified his own actions once he and Meadow were evading the law.. But I couldn’t forgive him for never phoning Meadow’s mother – the wife he said he loved so much – to let her know that their child was safe and well. And I couldn’t forgive his self-indulgence or his casual parenting, which ultimately put Meadow’s life in danger. Given his lifelong skill at weaving stories and convincing people of his essential.honesty, I wouldn’t trust this narrative to be completely true, either. And  I  certainly would never advise his wife to take him back.

In Shroeder, Amity Gaig has created a character who is so persuasive and convincing that you begin to believe in him, although you know you shouldn’t. Bit in the end it is her skill at evoking tender emotions, the complexity of family relationships,  the joys and the worries of parenthood, and the thrill and danger of unexpected  adventures, which makes his narrative compelling.

Copyright © Ann Skea 2013
Website and Ted Hughes pages: http://ann.skea.com/
Sylvia Plath, Ariel and the Tarot: http://ann.skea.com/Arielindex.html

The inaugural Stella Prize longlist was announced today, something met with much frisson (at least it was in my one-person household). The announcement has been a long time coming, both because Australian female authors have traditionally been overlooked when it comes to literary prizes and because it’s taken some time for the Stella Prize to go from indignation-inspired idea to inception.

The prize, just in case you’ve not yet heard of it, is (as the artfully designed, communication design-strong Stella Prize website helpfully tells us up front on its homepage) ‘a major new literary award for Australian women’s writing’. That’s writing by female authors, not necessarily but not excluding writing for women, often categorised and dismissed as ‘chick lit’.

‘The Stella’, as it’s no doubt known to those of us Aussies who consider it our god-given and reflexive right to colloquialise anything and everything, was named after Stella Maria Miles Franklin (AKA the author of My Brilliant Career). Its bounty is $50,000 and it’s open—hurrah, because other prizes’ either-or-ness I find frustratingly prohibitive—to works of both fiction and non-fiction.

We’ve come to the awkward bit of the blog where I must confess that I’ve read just one of the esteemed nominated titles. Romy Ash’s Floundering and Michelle de Kretser’s Questions of Travel have been on my must-buy and must-read list for a good while, but the other longlisted titles raised an I’m-out-of-the-literary-loop feelings of inadequacy in me. Most of the books I haven’t heard of; the others are probably too clever and too highbrow for me to even attempt to read.

Still, the selection reflects a diversity of titles and showcases some of Australia’s most talented female writers. It also contains a little bit of something for everybody. For what it’s worth, I can highly recommend Robin de Crespigny‘s The People Smuggler, a humanity-packed creative non-fiction telling of the preconceived notion-busting, forced-by-desperate-circumstances side to a people smuggler.

Having miraculously survived Saddam Hussein’s torturous prisons, Ali Al Jenabi (now dubbed the ‘Oskar Schindler of Asia’) had to flee Iraq. What followed was years of furtive, hand-to-mouth living, the necessary discovery of the world of fake passports and illegal border crossings and, eventually, people smuggling. The latter came about because Ali was ripped off by a people smuggler and had to find a way to both get his family to safety and to earn enough money to get them aboard a safe boat.

I blogged more in depth about the book some months back so won’t repeat its tale or my impressions of it here (you can read the blog here if you’re keen). Suffice to say, it’s comprehensive, compelling, and will turn your impression of what kind of person a people smuggler is on its head.

If The People Smuggler is any indication of the strength of the titles on the Stella Prize longlist, this is an excellent inaugural award-nominated field. The shortlist will be announced on Wednesday 20 March, with the award itself announced and bestowed on one of the authors on Tuesday 16 April.

*Thanks to Naomi Woodley for alerting me to the fact that the list had come out.

I may have already mentioned that 2013 is the 50^th anniversary of a little TV show called Doctor Who. Every year there seems to be more and more books related to the series being published, and this year is seeing a Doctor Who publishing explosion. In addition to all the official licensed books, there are also quite a lot of unlicensed publications about the show.

Perhaps the most well known of these unofficial Doctor Who books is Chicks Dig Time Lords: A Celebration of Doctor Who By The Women Who Love It. And that title says it all, really — it’s a collection of essays about the series by women. It was a hugely popular book and it won a HUGO award in 2011 for Best Related Work. In fact, it has been so successful, that it spawned two other books — Chicks Unravel Time: Women Journey Through Every Season of Doctor Who and Queers Dig Time Lords: A Celebration of Doctor Who by the LGBTQ Fans Who Love It.

The three above books are all from Mad Norwegian Press, who have also published a six-book series of guides to the classic series (About Time) as well as a history of the series, guides to the novels and even a fanzine archive. And Running Through Corridors: Rob and Toby’s Marathon Watch of Doctor Who. The two authors are Doctor Who fans who have had some official connection to the series. Robert Shearman, of course, wrote “Dalek” for the first season of the revived series in 2005. Toby Hadoke is a comedian who has had much success with his one-man show, Moths Ate My Doctor Who Scarf. He has also been a moderator on many a Doctor Who DVD commentary. Rob and Toby are also friends. And the two of them embarked on the mammoth task of watching every episode of Doctor Who, two eps a day, every day, from the show’s start in 1963 to David Tennant’s final episode in 2010. They have chronicled their epic viewing as a set of literary conversations in a series of books. Volume 1: The 60s is out, with Volumes 2 and 3 coming soon.

But there are many other books out there.

Behind the Sofa: Celebrity Memories Of Doctor Who
Contributors include Bill Oddie, Neil Gaiman, Jonathan Ross and Rhys Thomas, along with loads of other writers, comedians, actors and even politicians. 100% of the book royalties, proceeds and net profit are being donated to Alzheimer’s Research UK.

Outside In: 160 New Perspectives on 160 Classic Doctor Who Stories by 160 Writers
Each story from the classic series has an essay from a different writer. The thing about this book is that every author had to find a unique approach to the story s/he was writing about. So you have everything from scripts to letters to Shakespearean verse. I’ve got an essay in this book — it’s about the William Hartnell story “The Reign of Terror”, and I’ve written it as a Sherlock Holmes mystery.

There are many more books out there — from Triumph of a Time Lord: Regenerating Doctor Who in the Twenty-first Century to Dining with the Doctor: The Unauthorized Whovian Cookbook. And there are many more due to make an appearance later this year, including a few that I’ve written for. [For a quick roundup of my writing about Doctor Who, check out my personal blog.)

It seems like the publishing world is obsessed with Doctor Who at the moment. And I rather like that.

Catch ya later,  George

PS. Follow me on Twitter

Check out my DVD blog, Viewing Clutter.

Latest Post: DVD Giveaway  — Doctor Who: The Reign of Terror

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Tara Eglington, author of How to Keep a Boy From Kissing You

Tell us about your latest creation…

How to Keep a Boy From Kissing You is the story of 16 year old Aurora Skye, who is a little like a modern day version of Jane Austen’s Emma – she thinks she knows everything about love and dating, when really her experience is entirely theoretical and often far off base. She runs a program called the Find a Prince Program and she’s constantly getting herself and her friends into the most ridiculous situations in the process of finding them their Potential Princes.

At the same time, she’s dealing with her dad, the NAD (New Age Dad) who’s in the midst of an existential crisis that began after Aurora’s mum left four years ago and her pesky next door neighbour Hayden Paris, who doesn’t believe that Cupid needs Aurora’s assistance. He’s also been witness to many of Aurora’s very embarrassing moments – which seem to happen every time she tries to keep a boy from kissing her (she’s saving her first kiss for her Potential Prince).

When her friend’s love lives don’t seem to be going to plan, Aurora is forced to take her program to the next level and signs up to be part of the school play, Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. Unfortunately she’s cast as Beatrice, opposite Hayden Paris’s Benedict – and they’re scripted to kiss! Aurora launches a full scale operation to save her first kiss, help her friends achieve their happily ever afters and protect the vulnerable NAD from the crazy interpretive dance teacher who’s seemingly stolen his heart.

I wanted to write a book that you could curl up with if you were having a bad day and then find yourself laughing on every page. I hope I’ve achieved that.

Where are you from / where do you call home?

I grew up in Byron Bay, which I still consider to be one of the most beautiful places in the world. I went to a creative arts high school, which definitely helped inspire me with confidence in respects to expressing myself in a creative way. My
upbringing also influenced my writing in terms of some of the themes in ’How to Keep a Boy From Kissing You’ – the NAD (New Age Dad) and the interpretive dance classes that Aurora is forced to participate in are very close to the alternative aspects that define the region. Nevertheless, I still love Byron and spent part of my time writing the sequel to How to
Keep a Boy from Kissing you (How to Convince a Boy to Kiss You) whilst on holiday at my family home up there. I now call Sydney home.

When you were a kid, what did you want to become?  An author?

I thought ’Pirate’ was a legitimate profession. I spent a lot of my time making pretend gold chests and coins out of paper. That along with the fact that I thought I’d grow up and have a vault of money to swim in like Scrooge McDuck from Duck Tales, makes me worry that I was a rather materialistic child!

My father tells me at age 11 I told him very matter of fact that I was going to be an author and write books from my house in Maui. I now write books, but the house in Maui is yet to materialise (I’ve given up on the vault of money!)

What do you consider to be your best work? Why?

Aurora and her story ‘How to Keep a Boy from Kissing You’ will always hold a very special place in my heart. I wrote the book when I was 21, just because I wanted to tell a story. I hid the fact I wrote a book for a very long time, because most
people are very quick to tell you the miniscule odds of getting something published. However I always believed in the worth of the story and having the chance to share it with young girls (and the young at heart) has meant this time has been one of the happiest of my life. That said, I’ve immensely enjoyed the sequel and hope all my readers will too.

Describe your writing environment to us – your writing room, desk, etc.; is it ordered or chaotic?

I write in my little studio, surrounded by posters of very romantic scenes (i.e. Tiffany ads and Pre-Raphaelite artwork) signs proclaiming ‘love’ and many candles. Very Aurora-esque room. However I also write after work in the office – I’m a firm believer that a writer can and should be able to work wherever. I’ve learnt to be able to focus even if there are conversations being shouted around me.

When you’re not writing, who/what do you like to read?

I pretty much read just about every YA novel out there when I was growing up, and writing within this genre I try to stay aware of what’s going on in the market. When I’m writing however I tend to read non fiction – things like specific
histories like Colour by Victoria Finlay or Beauty by Umberto Eco. I also read alot of poetry, because it tends to reflect upon the whole gamut of human emotion and triggers certain thought processes for a writer.

What was the defining book(s) of your childhood/schooling?

Anything by L.M Montgomery. Anne of Green Gables and her other novels were a huge part of my adolescence. I loved her characters fiercely and the summer of my fifteenth year was spent finding and reading every work she had ever
written. There is such a beauty to the worlds that she created. There are shades of Anne and Gilbert in Aurora and Hayden – Aurora’s fierce dislike of Hayden hints at how attracted she really is to him, as did Anne’s for Gilbert and both characters are huge romantics with big hearts.

If you were a literary character, who would you be?

Anne of Green Gables! She gets to marry the gorgeous Gilbert Blythe, so enough said. Plus, she has the most optimistic, lovely view on the world. Every stranger is a potential kindred spirit to her. I like that notion.

Apart from books, what do you do in your spare time (surprise us!)?

I adore going to the theatre. I would love to have the chance to write for theatre one day. There’s something magical about seeing the written words of a script brought to life so vividly and often so unexpectedly by the actors that is tremendously affecting. Johanna Murray Smith just blows me away as a playwright – I am both in awe and immensely envious of her ability to write such hilarious yet immensely emotional stories. Other hobbies include adding to my jewellery collection, planning hypothetical luxury holidays and a worrying addiction to Pinterest.

What is your favourite food and favourite drink?

Food – dark chocolate strawberry Lindt – far too many pieces get consumed whilst I’m writing. Favourite drink? If I’m being saintly its fruit smoothies, if I’m being sinful its magaritas.

Who is your hero? Why?

There are too many to name. Anyone who takes a risk and puts themselves out there as creative professional, whether that’s as a writer, film maker, jewellery designer or musician.

Crystal ball time – what is the biggest challenge for the future of books and reading?

The transition from traditional print form to e-books is what is really shaking things up for the industry, along with the availability of cheap books from overseas websites – the traditional local bookstore is finding it tough times to survive.

E books can be opportunities for readers to discover new authors because its less of a risk price wise to buy something new. If someone enjoys an authors work, they may then buy the entire backlist and become a new fan. That’s a boon for the author.

However I do believe that there will always be people who prefer the print form (I am one of them) and we just have to ensure that we support our booksellers by buying locally.

Follow Tara:

Facebook Page URL: https://www.facebook.com/findaprince

Buy the physical book here…

Felicity Young, author of Antidote to Murder

Tell us about your latest creation…

Antidote to Murder is book 2 of my Dody McCleland historical mystery series. The series is set in Edwardian London
and features Dody McCleland, Britain’s first female autopsy surgeon. In this book Dody is accused of conducting a criminal abortion, for which the penalty is death.

Where are you from / where do you call home?

Not sure where I am from! Born in Germany, educated in the UK and lived all over the world! Home these days is Gidgegannup, WA.

When you were a kid, what did you want to become?  An author?

All sorts of things! The arts (writing, the stage) was the biggest attraction, but I didn’t think I would be able to support myself that way and so chose the safer option of nursing – which I thoroughly enjoyed. The Arts came later, so I like to think I had the best of both worlds.

What do you consider to be your best work? Why?

My present series - naturally! Seriously though, I love writing about the Edwardian period and hope my passion for it is reflected in the writing.

Describe your writing environment to us – your writing room, desk, etc.; is it ordered or chaotic?

I write at a large cluttered desk in my bedroom. The desk faces a window that has a stunning view of our rural property. My little dog is usually sitting at my feet or, as he is now, snoring softly from my bed.

When you’re not writing, who/what do you like to read?

I guess you could call me an eclectic reader who leans towards crime. I’m currently reading Peter Robinson’s latest and before that it was Stephen Fry’s bios. I also enjoy contemporary literary but don’t read too many classics these days -
had enough of those at school and uni.

What was the defining book(s) of your childhood/schooling?

So many, where to start? The classic fairy tales, Beatrix Potter, Water Babies, C.S Lewis,Black Beauty, Hiedi, Anne of Green Gables etc progressing to the Willard price Adventure books, Alistair McClaine. Hammod Innes then Graham
Greene, Morris West etc when I became an angsty teenager.

If you were a literary character, who would you be?

Hmmm, that’s a hard one. The Scarlet Pimpernel perhaps? Risking my life for a worthy cause?

Apart from books, what do you do in your spare time (surprise us!)?

Look after the menagerie, the farm, my organic veg patch, breed rare catfish, play the piano and fight bushfires with our local volunteer bushfire brigade.

What is your favourite food and favourite drink?

That’s an easy one - Oysters, champagne, and chocolate. Also very partial to spicy (vegetarian) food.

Who is your hero? Why?

Any member of my immediate family is a hero to me. They are all individuals in their own right with admirable, unique,
characteristics that I try to learn from.

Crystal ball time – what is the biggest challenge for the future of books and reading?

The tension between the traditional forms of publishing versus the new digital age. I hope the two forms can evolve in a way that is beneficial to both.

Follow Felicity:

Website URL: www.felicityyoung.com
Facebook Page URL: https://www.facebook.com/felicity.young.10

Buy the physical book here…

My youngest daughter just got given a copy of Neil Gaiman’s new picture book, Chu’s Day, for her birthday. I loved it so much, that I had to write about it immediately.

Neil Gaiman is no stranger to books in which text and graphics combine to tell a story. After all, he made his name writing comics and graphic novels such a Sandman and Books of Magic. And he’s gone on to write illustrated children’s books such as The Dangerous Alphabet (illustrated by Gris Grimly) and the wonderful The Wolves in the Walls (illustrated by Dave McKean). But I think this must be his first book for much younger kids (please shout me down and correct me in the comments section, if I’m wrong about this).

Chu’s Day is a story about a little panda with a big sneeze. And it is a charming book. It is cute; it is clever; it is simple; and is utterly delightful.

Gaimen’s text is superb with its play on words and sounds. Chu’s Day sounds like Tuesday, but also alludes to the sound of a sneeze — Aaaachooooooooo! But just as Gaiman knows well how to use words, he also knows how to not use them. So many picture books are overly wordy, with the text and pictures telling the reader exactly the same thing. Not so with this book. Gaiman holds back, allowing the pictures to add to the story — to show the reader things that are not said. Nowhere does the text actually describe the outcome of Chu’s big sneeze — that is all done with the illustrations. This allows preschoolers to discover important elements of the story for themselves (without having to have all the revelations read to them).

And the illustrations by Adam Rex are BEAUTIFUL! There is so much to look at on every page. The detail, particularly in the library and the circus, is glorious. You could ignore the words and just stare at these pictures for ages.

I’m being very effusive about this book, but it is everything a good young children’s picture book should be — engaging text; gorgeous illustrations; and a touch of wit to keep the parents amused.

Catch ya later,  George

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There are few more pleasant surprises than finding out that the woman some have labeled ‘most powerful woman in the world’ and the ‘librarian’ to it is being interviewed by your favourite interviewer.

The woman in question is Wikimedia’s Executive Director, Sue Gardner. Her interviewer was none other than Richard Fidler. Gardner was in town for a conference and we (and by ‘we’, I mean the State Library of Queensland and the ABC) were fortunate enough to snarfoo her for side talk.

Fidler opened by saying that he’d grown up with the weighty, doorstop tomes of Encyclopaedia Britannica; how large, by comparison, is Wikipedia? Somewhere in the vicinity of 24 million articles, and still growing, was Gardner’s answer. Wikipedia also has a hefty (but, as we discovered by the end of the conversation, entirely achievable) ambition to bring the ‘sum total of all human knowledge’ to everyone, everywhere, in their own language.

There was much to muse over during and after the conversation, and I’ll not bore you by repeating everything here (besides, you can hear it firsthand via the podcast). Some points that stick out, though, are that Wikipedia has morphed from a site not accepted as a viable resource and one that few editors would admit contributing to, to one that we use multiple times daily and which people are including their contribution details of on their college applications and resumes.

Wikipedia is in some ways an accidental success. Jimmy Wales set it up to complement and feed into his real baby, Newmedia, an encyclopaedia populated through contributions from experts. That’s in stark contrast to Wikipedia’s egalitarian, anyone-can-edit ethos. Wales reportedly says that he ‘always knew’ Wikipedia would work, although Gardner earned chuckles from the audience by saying she thinks it’s possibly ‘revisionist history’ (albeit an entirely entitled one).

Wikipedia’s success and unlikely, common-people beginning actually kind of fits with knowledge publications’ habits and history. For example, The Surgeon of Crowthorne documents how of the most prolific and respected contributors to the inaugural Oxford English Dictionary was actually a man in Broadmoor, the worst of the worst lunatic asylums, for murder (not that I’m implying Wikipedia’s editors are of unsound mind or morals—more that editing competency and access are what counts).

Gardner was careful to stipulate that she’s not Wikipedia’s publisher. A publisher, she clarified, is ‘editorially responsible’ (and, one can extrapolate, sue-able for it). The machinations of Wikipedia are fascinating, including the challenges Gardner and her team face to consolidate and strengthen its work.

Most of the editors are educated males, which makes sense as they’re the most likely to have the time and resources to contribute, but which also lends itself to a skew in articles towards a male, western audience. How to get more women involved, as well as more people from developing nations, are challenges that Gardner is trying to tackle now.

Fidler then asked the question that had been puzzling me for the majority of their interview: If you’re not writing or editing the content, and if you’re not corralling the editors, what exactly do you do? It was, Gardner admits, a huge initial ‘trust fall’ to accept that she didn’t have editorial control—as a former editor and newsroom runner for CBS, she was used to running the show.

The internally devised rules and the democratic editing community overseeing them mean that Gardner can instead dedicate her time to developing new functionality (for example, Wikipedia’s about to release a WYSIWYG CMS, which I didn’t realise they didn’t already have) and working with lawyers.

It seems there are a bunch of people out there who aren’t keen on what’s been written about them and who aren’t afraid to loose some lawyers to try to get entries taken down. That’s not even starting on the contentious entries, including those of Barack ‘was he or wasn’t he born in the US’ Obama and Todd ‘legitimate rape’ Akin, which come with their own, specific and special challenges.

Gardner first came to know Wikipedia because her staff was complaining: ‘The interns re using Wikipedia. How do we stop them?’ She first truly came to respect its level of operation and its efforts to source and authenticate information when it was reporting the Virginia Tech Massacre. Wikipedia’s editors, she realised, were having the same conversations as bona fide journalists in newsrooms around the world: How many are dead? Has that been confirmed? Who’s confirmed it? And so on.

She also said something that stopped me in my note-taking tracks: We’ve had it all wrong for decades. Journalism isn’t a profession. It’s a function, a tool, a way of thinking, something reasonably smart people do as they try to investigate something.

It was Fidler who, despite earlier expressing well-founded incredulity at Wikipedia’s aim to bring information to anyone and everyone everywhere, ultimately led us to realise its reasonable, achievable, and important ambitions. He told a story of meeting a Chinese exchange student at a dinner party. When he and his co-diners raised the topic of Tiananmen Square and its cultural, world-changing ripple effects, the student thought they were joking. Having grown up in mainland China, she hadn’t known about the event at all. It’s sites such as Wikipedia, we shocked, goosebumped audience members realised, that will likely prove integral in disseminating information in future decades.

You can download and listen to Gardner and Fidler’s interview in full here.

Noel Mealey, author of The Icon Murders

Tell us about your latest creation…

The Icon Murders is a crime thriller, a tale of murder and of why people commit murder, and of the people who occupy our world, but are invisible to us, the ordinaery law abiding citizens. The story is about Syd Fielding, now  very senior in the WA police, who is accused by his best friends of multiple and brutal murders. Syd is emotionally scarred, a romantic man and a loyal friend. He has a flawed religious philosophy and a conscience that is flexible enough to accommodate violence. As he struggles to control his own inner voices, Syd must defend himself, without mercy to those who have set him up. After all, when right and wrong, good and bad, co-exist in every person … who deserves to live and who to die? It is a story about political corruption and evil, and a love story with a different ending.

Where are you from / where do you call home?

I live in an apartment in Brisbane, with my wife of 50 years. We travel a lot, and spend a lot of time in Phnom Penh, where we have a hotel in partnership with our daughter. The hotel is an endless  source of interesting characters.

When you were a kid, what did you want to become?  An author?

I always wanted to write, but circumstances demanded that I should not dream but should have a career that might bring in some income. Looking back now, I realise that sometimes one should follow childhood dreams. Easy to say from a distance.

What do you consider to be your best work? Why?

This is only my second book. I do believe that I have improved upon a very good debut novel. I have completed the third draft of my third book, and I am very excited about it. I have enjoyed immensely writing all  3 books, but this one is the tragicomedy that I always wanted to write

Describe your writing environment to us – your writing room, desk, etc.; is it ordered or chaotic?

I am an orderly person in my usual life, however when I’m writing (which is almost always these days)  I become obsessive and my concentration is entirely upon my characters and my story, to the
point where I forget to pay the bills and to take care of my basic every day living. I start at 8 am every day and spend the first few hours dealing with stuff concerning the hotel and my superannuation, and then straight into the writing until 6pm with a short time off for lunch and maybe a long walk sometimes to clear the head. I love it.

When you’re not writing, who/what do you like to read?

I’ve read a lot of crime. Lee Child, Nelson de Mille and much history and many historical novels. Before and while I was writing The Icon Murders, I read Graham Greene, Hemingway, Steinbeck and Dostoevsky. I think this combination has had a positive influence upon my writing this novel. Right now I’m reading Christopher Hitchens (“Arguably”) and hope to be able to write with his light touch.

What was the defining book(s) of your childhood/schooling?

In Grade 7 we studied Macbeth, and I’ve had a great love of Shakespeare’s plays ever since then. To this day, I have books that I’ve kept over the years, by Ion Idriess, and Rolf Boldrewood. Wonderful adventure stories with Australian flavour, and A.W Horning  and Jacques Weygand. Tom Sawyer was another favourite and is still on my bookshelf.

If you were a literary character, who would you be?

Whenever I read “A Farewell to France” by Noel Barber, I envy the main character, the young Astill (cannot remember his first name) for his carefree youth in the champagne district of France, and for the elegant style of living he managed during the war years in Paris.

Apart from books, what do you do in your spare time (surprise us!)?

I have the hotel in Phnom Penh. My wife and I helped to get it started two years ago, and that has been an incredible learning curve for all of us. We both play bridge and love to travel. About every 12 weeks we go to Cambodia and we seem to manage to get to Paris every so often, where we have a friend who gives us his apartment at an economical rent. Love that city.

What is your favourite food and favourite drink?

I like white wine, but I suppose I have to say that a single malt scotch is hard to beat. I get no great fun from going to expensive ( pretentious ?) restaurants and when we eat out it is to a smaller Italian, or a good fish and chips place. I like Thai food and find it hard to go past pie and peas. Right now I’m doing the 2:5 diet which is so easy.

Who is your hero? Why?

It would be Winston Churchill, despite his terrible record in Ireland and India and his supposed dislike of Australians. I think anyone who could lead England out of the tragedy of the WWII, and who
foresaw many of the problems that would beset the remainder of the century, is worth a bit of hero-worshiping. Besides anything else, he was a great writer, with an incredible command of the language and an elegant style that holds my attention.

Crystal ball time – what is the biggest challenge for the future of books and reading?

I believe that we will come to see electronic readers as being a positive influence. If, of course you are a bookshop owner, then that is a challenge to be overcome. Books have been written and read for centuries. Often for the enjoyment of the reader. I cannot see that this will ever change. TV has been absorbed; we are coming to grips with Kindle etc. I don’t see a problem except for the usual challenge that we must, as writers continue to challenge and entertain and/or educate our readers.

Follow Noel:

Facebook Page URL: https://www.facebook.com/NoelMealeyAuthor

Buy the physical book here…

Many of my generation (sadly not all) and those of the next, fortunately have not endured the atrocities of war like those seen during the Holocaust. That we are able to feel its impact, appreciate the drama and acknowledge its implications is the unique potency of a picture book. Margret Wild and Freya Blackwood exploit this power wondrously well.

The quiet unassuming cover of the Treasure Box magnetised me from the moment I was handed the book. The subdued colours, lone tree bereft of leaf and life, fragments of words adrift; all at conflict with the title, which promises something far brighter and more uplifting. I was a little unprepared for the subtle magnitude of the tale, again preoccupied by the end papers, comprising scraps of text which interestingly are taken from Sonya Hartnett’s and Morris Gleitzmann’s foreign editions of their own wartime tales of displacement and loss.

We join young Peter’s story after his home town is destroyed leaving the library in ruin. Books once housed there are transformed to nothing more substantial than bits of ash as ‘frail as butterflies.’ That is all but one; a book that by fortuitous happenstance had been taken home by Peter’s father before the bombing.

Peter’s father is intent on safe-guarding the book for the stories it contains; stories that tell the history of Peter’s people, of a past ‘rarer than rubies, more splendid than silver, greater than gold.’ The book is secured in an old iron box which forms part of the meagre possessions they flee with from their homeland.

Peter’s father does not survive the soul crushing exodus but instills in Peter tremendous tenacity and a promise to keep their ‘treasure safe’. Unable to continue with such a load but true to his word Peter buries the box under an ancient linden tree, to which he returns many years later. His single-handed courage and loyalty perpetuates the most valuable treasure of all – the gift of hope and love.

Margaret Wild’s eloquent sense of story and place transports the reader into the very heart and soul of Peter and his father. Her thoughtfully sparse narrative paradoxically permeates every inch of the page and ounce of our attention. Neither her words nor the illustrations compete for space in this book. They work in convincing unison, caressing the story along and guiding us skilfully through horrific, almost unimaginable situations like sleeping in ditches, and holding the hand of a dying father.

Freya Blackwood’s artwork is instantly recognisable, however is taken one step higher using collage and multi-layering to create a stunning subtle 3D effect. Characters literally appear to be trudging across the page, accompanied by the metaphoric charred fragments of the leaves of a million books. The story is further enriched with delicate contrasts and symbolism on each page, all in the haunting sepia coloured tones of despair and misery.

Only the intensity of the treasure box itself, shown in vibrant red throughout, never fades. By Peter’s maturity, colour and prosperity have returned to his hometown. Even the library radiates with a glorious, golden yellow – hope restored.

I happened upon this picture book late last year, in spite of its 2013 publication date. I thought it was a most serendipitous discovery, but did not fully appreciate its immense value until I uncovered its contents. Truly one to treasure.

Penguin / Viking January 2013

Felicity Pulman, author of A Ring Through Time

Tell us about your latest creation…

A Ring Through Time is a ghostly romance set on Norfolk Island with a timeslip back to the brutal Second Penal Colony. Alice and Cormac are two star-crossed lovers whose ill-fated romance will haunt the future unless Allie can solve a family mystery and lay the ghosts of the past to rest.

Where are you from / where do you call home?

I was born in Zimbabwe but have lived in Sydney for more than 40 years. Home is close to the beach and to the bush and I love them both.

When you were a kid, what did you want to become?  An author?

I’ve written stories from the time I learned how to write – but never considered it a career option, it was just something I did – while dreaming about being a famous musician, or a brilliant surgeon – always something wonderful - until real life intruded! I was 40 by the time I started to take my writing seriously – a bit of a slow developer!

What do you consider to be your best work? Why?

I always love what I’m writing about; it becomes my whole world. I always find it hard to let go at the end, and I have to wait to fall in love all over again with the new book and its characters. I give every book my absolute best shot – and I hope I’m getting better with practice!

Describe your writing environment to us – your writing room, desk, etc.; is it ordered or chaotic?

I’ve colonised a spare bedroom for my study and its crammed with books (mostly for research purposes, my fiction lives elsewhere.)  I have two filing cabinets + cupboards and shelves jammed with old mss, photo albums (for research) papers, etc etc. I also have an altar decorated with semi-precious stones and objects that hold special significance for me. And a CD player. There’s a lovely view out of one window, but once I’m writing I might as well be living in a cupboard!

When you’re not writing, who/what do you like to read?

Because many of my books have a basis in history (medieval and Australian) I read historical fiction and non fiction. I’m also a crime addict and I love family sagas too. Standout Aus. authors for me include Helen Garner, Marcus Zusak’s Book Thief and Geraldine Brooks.

What was the defining book(s) of your childhood/schooling?

In my day there was little choice other than Enid Blyton.  I so loved The Magic Faraway Tree that I think I’m still writing versions of it!

If you were a literary character, who would you be?

Lisbeth Salander – I envy her strength, her courage, her freedom – but I might like to temper her prickles with the knowledge and caring of a Brother Cadfael.

Apart from books, what do you do in your spare time (surprise us!)?

I bush walk, body surf and snorkel at home and in exotic places like Indonesia, Fiji, Mozambique, Vanuatu and the Galapagos Islands. I’ve swum with manta rays, seals and penguins – it’s a magical world underwater.

What is your favourite food and favourite drink?

Smoked salmon and avocado accompanied by a glass or two of chardonnay (not trendy I know, but I’m now old enough to please myself!)

Who is your hero? Why?

I admire people who perfect their craft and use it for the benefit of others as opposed to their own self-glorification - someone like Victor Chang, for example.

Crystal ball time – what is the biggest challenge for the future of books and reading?

For authors (and probably publishers and booksellers too) I think the challenge will be to adapt to changing technology and new ways of telling stories. I hope the book per se will never die – but once people become used to reading and interacting with stories on line and using different aps, then it might well be said that ‘the author is dead’.

Follow Felicity:

Website URL: www.felicitypulman.com.au
Blog URL: www.felicitypulman.com.au/blog
Facebook Page URL: www.facebook.com/felicitypulman
Twitter URL: http://www.twitter.com/felicitypulman

Buy the physical book here…

Kate Summerscale’s book is more than just the story of a Victorian wife’s romantic indiscretions and a scandalous divorce case. It is a glimpse of a changing society. One in which a  woman’s sexuality could be discussed in terms of hysteria and insanity caused by disorders of the womb. One in which gynaecology and psychology were new medical disciplines and homeopathy, phrenology and hydropathy were accepted and resorted to by such eminent figures as the Brontes, George Eliot (Mary Evans), Darwin,  Dickens and even members of the Royal family. And one in which the new Court of Divorce and Matrimonial Causes was established, making divorce easier and less expensive to obtain on the grounds of adultery and (for women petitioners) one additional “matrimonial offence” (i.e. desertion, cruelty, bigamy, rape, sodomy or bestiality). The law was beginning to recognize a married woman’s rights and the need to protect her  property, but a husband could still claim custody of his children and, as in the Robinsons’ case, ownership of all his wife’s papers.

Isabella Robinson was an intelligent, well-read and imaginative woman. In 1844, as a thirty-one-year -old widow with one child, she married Henry Robinson, a successful civil engineer whose business building steam-ships and sugar-cane mills often took him overseas. Henry already had a mistress and two illegitimate children, and he proved to be, in Isabella’s words, an “uncongenial partner…uneducated, narrow-minded, harsh-tempered, selfish, proud“. He also persuaded her to hand him control of the money which had been settled on her by her father.

Isabella’s real misfortune was that like many lonely, romantically inclined women of her day, she was fatally inclined to foster romantic obsessions and to confide her most secret thoughts to her “secret friend” – her diary. How much of what she wrote there about her “wretchedest and wickedest hours” was romantic fiction, modeled on such books as Flaubert’s Madam Bovary, we will never know, but when her husband discovered the diary and read it he was incensed and determined to ruin the man Isabella had set her heart on. A Divorce Court judge, too, deemed it convincing enough to consider Henry’s petition for divorce for three months before pronouncing judgement.

The case was a public sensation and poor Isabella had to endure parts of her diary being read out in court and published in the newspapers. Fictional diaries were popular reading at the time but Isabella’s was, apparently, shocking fact. She was deemed by one newspaper editor to be either “as foul and abandoned a creature as ever wore woman’s shape” or to be a madwoman. And insanity was one plea open to Isabella in her own defence.

Summerscale’s research for this book sits lightly on a scandalous story but her endnotes show the care she has taken.  Like the well-known sequence of paintings ‘Past and Present’ by Leopold Egg, which depict the discovery and the sad results of a wife’s indiscretions, divorce was still a disaster for women and, too often, for their children as well. And although I never really warmed to Isabella in spite of her plight and the prolonged ordeal she underwent, Summerscale kept me reading to the end, when the result of the court case and the outcome for all those involved is revealed. I will not spoil the suspense by revealing what it was.

Buy the book here…

Copyright © Ann Skea 2013

Website and Ted Hughes pages: http://ann.skea.com/

Derek Pedley, author of Dead by Friday

Tell us about your latest creation…

Dead By Friday – how lust and greed led to murder in the suburbs - It’s the true story of two lovers who hire a hitman to kill their partners, but one of the lovers, Michelle Burgess, starts an affair with the hitman. It focuses on the 18-month period from when their affair began, through to the negotiation of two murder contracts outside a primary school, to the hitman eating one contract in a sandwich after it had been fulfilled. It also tells the story from the perspective of Michelle’s Burgess’s husband, Darren, the target of the second contract, who speaks publicly for the first time in this book.

I wanted to find out what made Michelle tick, so I commissioned respected forensic psychologist Dr Jack White to create a profile of Michelle Burgess and he delivers some genuine bombshells about her personality and her state of mind at the time of the murder.

The book is also intended to honour the memory of murder victim Carolyn Matthews, a wonderful woman whose life was overshadowed by the sordid and brutal plot that ended her life.

Where are you from / where do you call home?

I’m from Manjimup, a delightful timber town in Western Australia’s lower south west. I live in Adelaide’s far northern suburbs – the spiritual home of the Snowtown serial killers. It’s the second stint I’ve had in Adelaide – I came here for the weird crime in 1995 and liked it so much  I came back again in 2003 and stayed.

When you were a kid, what did you want to become?  An author?

I wanted to be an author from the age of 8. Somewhere along the way I decided this was beyond me. So I set my sights much, much lower and became a newspaper journalist instead.

What do you consider to be your best work? Why?

Dead By Friday is easily my best work. It’s an extraordinary story that several people had previously tried to pin down without success. When I started researching it, I had interview knockbacks from virtually all the key characters. A lot of people were badly traumatised by this murder and, unsurprisngly, no one wanted to talk. It took five years of persistence, patience and negotiations to change their minds, but it was absolutely worth it.

Describe your writing environment to us – your writing room, desk, etc.; is it ordered or chaotic?

A small study at home with an office desk, a laptop and a shelf crammed with true crime books. On the walls are a Ned Kelly Wanted poster, A framed newspaper article about Brenden Abbott and a poster with every single Simpsons character.

When you’re not writing, who/what do you like to read?

I read an unhealthy amount of true crime, but also love a good biography. I’ve rarely read fiction in recent years, but discovering GRR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire books last year was an absolute revelation. I immersed myself in the amazing world of Westeros and now live in constant fear that the fat old guy will die before he finishes writing the series.

What was the defining book(s) of your childhood/schooling?

I was a voracious reader as a kid, but there was nothing I read that I would describe as “defining”. In 1991, when I was a young cadet journalist, I read David Simon’s Homicide – A Year on the Killing Streets. Nothing before or since has inspired me as much as that book – the characters, the painstaking detail, the humour, the dialogue, the structure and above all, the writing.

If you were a literary character, who would you be?

Stumped on this one. Hannibal Lecter? He did have such fantastic manners and tastes.

Apart from books, what do you do in your spare time (surprise us!)?

Spare time – what a fantastic concept! I I waste time playing Call of Duty and in fact had to institute a one-year ban on it to ensure I got Dead By Friday written. Also a passionate West Coast Eagles fan and fantasy footy nut.

What is your favourite food and favourite drink?

I love a good seafood platter with a Heineken on the side.

Who is your hero? Why?

David Simon. I admire his writing talent and his ability to tell sprawling stories with great pathos, using very real and very complex characters. Sadly, he’s not written many books, but has promised that he will one day “put down the crack pipe of TV” and go back to books.

Crystal ball time – what is the biggest challenge for the future of books and reading?

Maintaining the quality of writing – and the trust of readers - amid the growing slushpile of eBooks.

Follow Derek:

Website URL: derekpedley.wordpress.com
Facebook Page URL: https://www.facebook.com/deadbyfridaybook

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