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  My upcoming YA column for the Weekend Australian profiles four new novels by Australian women. One of the books I selected for the column is Frankie and Joely (UQP) by Nova Weetman. Nova gives some fascinating insights into her work in the following interview. What’s your background in books, Nova? My first YA novel The […]

Riley, a non-religious, self-proclaimed “bad girl” is being sent to Spirit Ranch Holiday Camp by her father and she cannot imagine how she will survive. Riley is determined to maintain her rebellious and hostile attitude at camp, keeping herself isolated from her peers. In spite of herself, Riley begins to form connections with a few other “outcast” campers, including equally hostile and angry

November is National Novel Writing Month. I've never participated. Write 50,000 words in a month? It could be done, I guess, if you didn't read, talk to your spouse, play with your kids, cook, work, etc. At least from my point of view.

There's a project under submission right now, though. And if it sells, it may mean the equivalent of NaNoWriMo. 70,000 words to be written over the course of two months. That's cranking it.

When you are working under contract, it's always hard to know whether to be satisified, whether you've done enough. At one end, you know you need to have a book. But during the course of a single day, you know you can't write that whole book. You can only write a piece of it. So it's learning how to write enough each day that at the end, it all wraps up. Even when you account for sick days and bad days, holidays and crazy days, days when you spend your time polishing what you've written before and your word count actually goes down.

I've managed this before. But it's still daunting to think about.