Mailbox Monday: August edition

Normally I do my monthly Mailbox Monday post on the last Monday of the month and I had every intention of doing that in August too. Instead my son was very motivated and wanted to finish putting the new desk I had bought together. So now the desk area has gone from this:

to this:

Note the strategically placed stool under the right wing which was designed to stop the printer hitting the floor in case the whole right hand side collapsed at any point. Please do not notice all the crap in the background which is all part of my current cleanup campaign.

For all that I wasn't all that enthused about doing this right then, I do think he did a great job as he basically did it all himself, especially for an almost 13 year old. I will have to get my brother in law to tighten everything up but other than that it is all good, especially as we have since worked out a way to get the computer tower in the cupboard and the door closed!

I am not sure I like the desk itself though. I was hoping to end up with more space, but it feels more crowded than the old one did and it is harder for me to watch TV and be on the computer at the same time. Maybe it will just take me a little while to get used to it.

Anyway, here are the books that came into my house during August:

Bought

Bitten and Stolen by Kelley Armstrong - bought both of these at the author signing I attended!

Spy Glass and Sea Glass by Maria V Snyder - ditto! You can read about both of these author events by clicking on the link.

Thief of Lives by Lucy Sussex - this is the third of the Twelve Planets series that is being released by Twelfth Planet Press. Click on the link to read my reviews of the first two books in the series. I have already pre-ordered the next three books that are due out later this year.

Netgalley


I promise that I am doing my best to curb my addiction to Netgalley. So far I haven't requested any new galleys for the last week or so which is a step in the right direction. I think so at least!

Viper's Kiss by Shannon Curtis - Shannon was an author who participated on a couple of panels that I attended at ARRC11 and she seemed really nice, so I thought I would try her book.

Sex, Gossip and Rock & Roll by Nicola Marsh - another "she seemed really nice so I thought I would try her book" but this time it is because I sometimes chat to this author on Twitter.

The Game of Love by Jeanette Murray - after reading Jaci Burton's The Perfect Play I seem to have developed a taste for sports romances with hot covers!

Until There Was You by Kristan Higgins - I have recently started reading Higgins. One book was really good, the other was not. I hope this one falls into the former category.

The Legacy by Katherine Webb - I am in the mood for something a bit different so this might fit the bill.

Everything Beautiful Began After by Simon Van Booy - I have heard nothing but good things about this author's books so my turn to find out what the fuss is about.

The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Philippe Sendker - I actually don't remember what prompted me to request this one. I think it just sounded really good!

The Lantern by Deborah Lawrenson - with comparisons being made to The Thirteenth Tale, this seemed like a likely gothicky read that I would enjoy!

Muffled Drum by Erastes - this is m/m romance with an unusual setting that I have heard lots and lots of good things about!

The Time in Between by Maria Duenas - the setting and description sound like a book I would enjoy.

Boomerang Bride by Fiona Lowe  - Boomerang = Aussie = good reason to try it and see!

The Printmaker's Daughter by Katherine Govier - I was sent a pitch about this book and it sounded fascinated so I was really pleased to get it.

How to Eat a Cupcake: A Novel by Meg Donohue - this one has future Weekend Cooking post written all over it!

Jane Austen Made Me do it anthology edited by Laurel Ann Nattress - there are a few authors included in this anthology that I already read so I was happy to request it. We are also going to have an event over at Historical Tapestry nearer to the release date of this book.

For Review

Virtuoso and Lady Sophia's Christmas Wish by Grace Burrowes - I recently read and really enjoyed Grace Burrowes first book, The Heir so I eagerly accepted these two books! Now I just need to read the second book.

Foal's Bread by Gillian Mears - I am going to be participating in an Aussie blogger readalong of this book during October.

The Kitchen Counter Cooking School by Kathleen Flinn - Another future Weekend Cooking post.

Won

I very nearly forgot the books I had won.

We had to fill in our national census forms on August 9, so I got home from work and opened the front door to look for the form and was surprised to see a box there. I opened it up and was very surprised to see that it was a box full of books that I didn't realise I had won! There are 50 (yes I said 50!) different Loveswept Romances in the box! I haven't actually catalogued them, or worked out where they are going to go yet, but I will!

Mailbox Monday is on tour and for September it is being hosted at Amused by Books. Head over there to share your links, or to see what everyone else has posted about this week.

Sunday Salon: Feeding my soul at MWF

Earlier this week I went to a corporate lunch where they had an inspirational speaker come in and talk whilst we ate good food (seriously good dessert!). The man that spoke to us this time was a former police pathologist who had been involved in the aftermath of lots of different tragedies around the world helping with the terrible task of trying to identify bodies - events like the 2002 Bali bombings, the 2004 tsunami and more. At first when we read his bio we were a bit worried about what he would talk about. It turned out to be an incredibly inspiring speech. From his work in Thailand after the tsunami, he ended up starting a charity to help orphans and that charity continues to grow and grow and grow. When he talked there was barely a dry eye in the house (and the majority of the crowd were men in suits).

There were three things that he said that really stuck with me. The first was "Hope is not a plan" meaning you actually have to do something, you can't hope it will get done. The second was "You can't change what has happened but you can change what happens next" and the third was that we need to be doing things that feed our souls. My instant reaction to this last point was to think of really big things - like travel to Europe etc.

Yesterday though, I was sitting in my first session for the day at Melbourne Writer's Festival, and I came to the realisation that just by spending the day at Melbourne Writer's Festival I was feeding my soul!

Given the length of the introduction, I am thinking that this is going to be a very long post! Here is my account of how I fed my soul!

My first session of the morning was with In Conversation with Ann Patchett, author of books like Bel Canto and most recently State of Wonder. Now like last week, I went to see Patchett even though I wasn't particularly enamoured by the one book of hers that I had read. I had however really enjoyed listening to several interviews with Patchett and knew if nothing else  I would be amused as I listened to her, and I was right!

After a bit of Aussie celebrity name dropping, Patchett started to talk about the inspiration behind her newest book, State of Wonder, a book which is about an adult meeting a former teacher who was influential in their lives, and yet often those same students are invisible in the memories of the teacher. Patchett says that the book is a mix of mystery, adventure, science and fiction (not science fiction) and loss.

Some of the interesting things that she touched on:

• Patchett is very interested in chapter structure. She likes to have the reader wanting to read to the end of the chapter, and then just one more chapter etc.
• She is cold-hearted about her own work (which she credits as being a legacy from her years as a journalist). You must do what is best for the work, not necessarily for you.
• Her research trip to the Amazon including insects and snakes
• The difference between writing a novel and a memoir and how writing the memoir about her friendship with her best friend was cathartic
• She has known since a very early age that she wanted to be a writer - no question of doing anything else for her.
• The bookshop that she is about to open in Nashville (She doesn't want to live in a city with no bookshops). She did say that she wasn't likely to be working in the shop. Rather, she will be at home handcrafting the merchandise.

One of the more interesting parts of the discussion was the idea that as an author she has just one story to tell - the story from her heart and the further away from the heart you get the more that the author will struggle. She can dress it up with different settings and characters, but her books are mostly are about a group of strangers getting stuck in an unusual situation and forming a family. She also has common themes that she likes to explore. Two examples - race and the intersection between wealth and poverty. It was interesting to hear her talk about being able to write in the voices of different ethnicities, which she says can be done as long as you do it right, but also that she writes the individuals as individuals not as a representative of entire nationalities.

This was a fun session and Ms Patchett was really very charming and funny! I am glad I went, and now I want to give her books another go!

The second session I attended was Slow Travel

In Tom Trumble's Unholy Pilgrims he travels across Spain on foot, while Ken Haley's Europe@2.4km/h finds him traversing the continent in his wheelchair. They talk to Jane Sullivan about what you see when you take the slow road.

Once upon a time I used to read a lot of travelogues or books about starting a new life in a new country but it's not quite so common for me anymore (although not too long ago I did read Lunch in Paris).

Tom Trumble decided to walk Camino de Santiago because he was hoping for a bit of inspiration in terms of what he was going to do with his life. He walked 800km from France to Santiago de Compostela in Spain with a friend, meeting up with many other pilgrims along the way, and as most Australians are reputed to do along the way spending lots of time drinking! He stayed in the alberques that line the route and that bought with it the joys and otherwise of sharing space with others - Tom talked about finding the snoring particularly difficult to deal with. Contrary to what he initially expected, the worst part of the trek was the 250km section of flat terrain, where people begin to internalise more and as a result lots of interesting things happen. He talked about some of his fellow pilgrims and their pilgrimage as everyone does it for their own reasons.

Ken Haley is a paraplegic who was piqued by curiosity to discover more about the identity of Europeans and really discovered that for most Europeans they are still predominantly French or Spanish or whatever and that being European is still a somewhat distant concept. Of course, being in a wheelchair brings its own sets of difficulties - things like not being able to find many wheelchair friendly hotels in Paris for example.

Both talked about the devastation of losing some of their source documents (journals, photos etc), the road to getting published and their next projects. Tom talked about the fact that the experience of the pilgrimage didn't change him, but writing the book about it certain did! His next book is about a trip he made to Timor, and Ken's is another traverse of Europe with different start and end points!

Have to say, I am surprised that I could read any of my notes for this session as the venue was completely blacked out and so I couldn't see what I was writing!

After a long and chatty lunch with Lisa (thanks again Lisa - getting to know you a little has been one of the highlights of my festival experience!), a wander through the art gallery and some reading time, it was time for my next session.

My one disappointment of the day was the cancellation of the In Conversation with Shaun Tan session. The Ann Patchett session and his session were the two that I had built my day around, but these things couldn't be helped. The session I chose to attend instead was In  Conversation with Arnold Zable - a Melbourne author that I have been intending to read for a long time.

After beginning with the acknowledgement to the traditional land owners and the acknowledgement of the empty chair for PEN (which I mention because it didn't happen in all of the session I went to) the session started with Arnold Zable talking a little about his own background as a second generation Australian -  a child of Polish Jewish immigrants. His mother was often left distraught by the past and it affected her whole life. She left home not realising that she would never see her family again and Zable's father lost his entire family. Zable's background often informs his characters and stories, particularly in the composite characters that people his stories.

Zable's stories are often of the dislocated either emotionally like his mother who was broken by her past and his father who became something other than he was in order to support his family and only went back to his Yiddish poetry at the age of 70, or physically as in the case of refugees. 

Both Zable and the chair of the session , Julian Burnside QC, are passionate advocates for refugees and this was clear, especially when they talked about one of the survivors of the Siev X which was a people smuggling boat which sank back in 2001 with the loss of more than 350 lives - an event which became politicised in a shameful way in my opinion.

I loved the language that was used during this session  - Burnside talked of eloquent and elegant episodes and emotional truths and Zable talked of the joy of storytelling, the art of weaving different threads together to create stories, about scene construction, about story telling being a very sensual experience, the role of music for the author and reader and more.

The final session of the day for me was The Connected Book:

Now that we've accepted the ereader, it's time to look at some of the creative possibilities afforded by digital texts. Publisher ofBooksquare.com Kassia Krozser (US), author of digital fiction Inanimate Alice, Kate Pullinger (Canada), and founder of online digital library LibriVox Hugh McGuire (Canada) discuss what multilayered media, text enriched with images, sound and interactive features might soon do to revolutionise a bookshelf near you. Chaired by if:book's Simon Groth.

I wasn't 100% sure of what to really expect from this session - maybe more discussion of digital reading than there was, but as the blurb said it was really starting from the point that ereading is here, so where to from here. The auditorium was actually pretty full and there was an interesting mix of ages in the crowd.

A lot of the discussion was about reading whilst connected online. For example, Kate Pullinger talked about her online projects including Inanimate Alice, where the text lies at the heart of the project but then there is also music, animation, games etc as well as the inevitable hyperlinks to follow. The author is still telling a story and values language, good writing and the power of text, but also takes advantage of the very visual nature of current culture.

One of the guests, Hugh McGuire, runs a press that creates books from blogs, and so there was an interesting discussion held about what is a book. How does a blog compare to a book with suggestions including that a book tends to be complete whereas a blog is more of a living thing that can change direction and focus very quickly, at one point being compared more to a magazine.

I think the overall thing that I got from this session is that really there are so many possibilities for where the future of the connected book is going including:

• the role of social media in not only sharing stories but also building relationships between readers and authors, between readers and other readers (that sense of community that is so often talked about online)
• picking and choosing what works best out of the technology available. For example, do apps work for books - depends on the book and the app. It won't work for every book out there.
• books have always been a collaborative effort. The future will offer the potential for different collaborations.
• authors may have to rethink how it is that they are compensated for their work. It may be that the traditional royalties system is not what works in an increasingly connected world. One advantage that we have for connected books happening now is that consumers are used to paying for purchases online thanks to the music industry having gone through a lot of pain a few years ago as it went digital.

Some of the questions from the floor included

• is it readers who are driving the demand for connectedness or is it the technology?
• is fan fiction a type of connectedness?
• will this connectedness change the way that we think in future generations (deep thinking compared to new hyperlinked fed thinking)?
• while a story will remain at the heart of literature should there be other terms used to describe this type of work other than a book.

One of the things that the speakers touched on was that the reason we have a vibrant literary environment is that writing is accessible to the vast majority of people. At the very least all you need is a pencil and some paper, and that accessibility is not going to change in the immediate future!

So there you have it! I am already looking forward to next year's festival!

Weekend Cooking: Memorable Meals

Josie and Nico feast on mussels and fries. They lick their fingers, they toss shells into the bowl, they sop sauce with the hearty crusts of bread. When they are done the waitress brings a tangy green salad and a cheese plate, and more bread, this time filled with walnuts and cranberries.

From page 54 of French Lessons by Ellen Sussman

Reading this passage took me back in time. The year was 1997, I was living in Sheffield in the UK, and I was on a work social club trip that was visiting France and Belgium for the weekend. The main reason was to visit the Christmas markets in Antwerp but along the way we also visited some of the Commonwealth war grave sites (very emotional).

We were based in Lille for the weekend. One of the descriptions that I had read talked about Lille being an industrial city so I wasn't expecting much, but I had discounted the fact that this was France we are talking about and so was very pleasantly surprised at how pretty the town centre was, particularly compared to Sheffield!

I remember drinking gluwein as we wandered around the Christmas markets in Belgium, and buying a really groovy glass blown Christmas tree that you hung different coloured baubles on (I wonder what happened to that. Must have left it behind when I came home I think).

I clearly remember both dinners that we had in Lille, which is kind of strange given how long ago it is! One of them wasn't quite so good. We (the ex and I) went to a Moroccan place for dinner and the ex embarrassed me. Maybe that is why I remember it? We were looking at the menu and the waiter was talking to us in French and the ex says why can't he speak to me in English. Umm....because you are in France (there are many reasons why he is an ex!).

Better memories are of the other dinner. We wandered around the city and found a bistro type establishment.
It was as if that night, in Lille, was the perfect place to have a dinner of moules mariniere with pommes de frites and lots of bread. I have never really been tempted to try and recreate that meal at all!

It was a really cold night. Despite that we went on the ferris wheel that was in a town square and looked out over the city! All in all it was a good night - a night that lives on in my memories.

I thought I would share one more passage from this book (from page 160). I am not sure why so many of the passages that I share in Weekend Cooking that have a French flavour are about pastries! Just the way it is I guess.

"Will you buy me a pastry, monsieur?" Chantal asks, and that's the first stall they come to, a baker's table, with pastries laid out in delectable rows - croissants, brioches, pains aux amandes, pains au chocolat, eclairs, palmiers.

"What would you like?" he asks, turning to Chantal. It feels surprisingly intimate, this simple act.

She looks for a moment and then points.

"Deux palmiers s'il vous plait," he says to the baker. There is no hesitation in his voice - he doesn't sound like the tourist who's unsure if he's said it right. Usually when he speaks French, his voice is too soft and he is asked to repeat himself.. Simple, he thinks. It's just a question of confidence.

Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads and is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs.

The Stella Prize launch

Tonight I went to the launch of The Stella Prize at Fed Square in Melbourne. You would be forgiven for asking what that might be but you wouldn't be alone as it is actually a new prize that has been announced with the plan being that the inaugural prize will be awarded next year.

Modelled after the successful Orange Prize in the UK, the Stella is an "annual literary prize for women It will raise the profile of women’s writing, and will reward one writer with a $50,000 prize. The shortlisted and winning books will be widely publicised and marketed in order to bring readers to the work of Australian women writers. In short, the Stella Prize will celebrate and recognise Australian women’s writing, encourage a future generation of women writers, and significantly increase the readership for books by women." (definition from The Stella Prize website). My understanding is that the prize is not restricted to fiction works, but I am not 100% sure about that as the word fiction was mentioned a few times tonight.

Like the Miles Franklin award, The Stella Prize is named after one of the most famous Australian authors - Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin - who wrote under the more masculine sounding Miles Franklin name and authored books like My Brilliant Career.

The driving factor behind the creation of this award at this point in time was the fact that this year, for the second year out the last three (2009 to 2011), there was no female author on the shortlist of the Miles Franklin award, which may not be the richest prize in Australian literature, but it is certainly right up there in terms of prestige.

If that was the only basis for creating an award, I would probably question the thinking. The key question for me is not so much so much why didn't any women make the shortlist, so much as did any of the books written by female authors deserve to make the shortlist? To be honest, I can't tell you one way or the other because I haven't actually read any of the long listed books in the two years concerned. The idea of which book is best is such a subjective thing anyway.

However, when you add this with the discussions that were held earlier in the year in relation to the lack of reviews of books by females in major publications, the lack of female reviewers in those same publications and the other statistics which show that even now women don't have equality, then there is obviously a need for a prize like this. And for me, that is the major key - is there equality? Not special treatment, not anything more - just equality. I also work in a sector (social and community services) where it has been confirmed that wages are lower than they should be and that a major reason for this is that the majority of the workers in that sector are female.

The differentiation between special treatment and equality is an emotive one. Just last weekend I had a discussion with someone I know who got quite riled up at the idea of needing a prize like this because in his opinion it seemed as though it is special treatment that women are looking for. And the thing is, this person is normally a mild-mannered bloke. If we can't convince reasonable, intelligent men like him that there are definitely still blatant inequalities then it is going to take a lot of convincing for society as a whole.

One of the things that is very interesting to me about the reviewer question is the fact that I would say that probably more than 95% of the reviews that I read online are by women. When I go to author events, the crowd is predominantly women. The statistics suggest that women read more, purchase more books etc etc. Will the importance of how many reviews by women or about women's books are written for the major newspapers diminish as the online world continues to expand. I can't remember the last time I read a review in a newspaper, or even on a newspaper website, mainly because they don't usually review the kind of books that I like to read!

But here's the major reason why I will be supporting the Stella prize when it is announced next year. Of all the major prizes (i.e. Booker, Pulitzer etc), the Orange Prize lists are the ones that I consistently find really enjoyable books on. If more of those books that I love to read get more recognition, and especially when those books are by Australian women I can't help but be excited at the prospect of the longlists and the shortlists being released. Who knows,. maybe some of the excellent genre fiction around might also make it onto one of these lists one day!

If you are interested, below is the speech that Sophie Cunningham, one of the women involved in creating The Stella Prize, gave recently at the Melbourne Writers Festival, talking about Why We Still Need Feminism. It makes for very interesting and challenging listening.





A special thanks to Lisa from ANZ Litlovers who invited me to attend the launch with her!

I've been typealyzed

The first day of spring (yay!) seems like as good a time as any to have some blog related fun!

The above is the result that I got when I added my URL to Typealyzer where it analyses what kind of writing it is that I do! In order to analyse, it looks at whatever posts you have showing on your blog. Given that at the moment I am showing my "woe is me" post from last week and memories of birthday cakes past I would say that the evidence on feeling is pretty much correct. Having said that the statements about avoiding conflicts and confrontation are totally true!

Here are my results:

ESFP - The Performers
The entertaining and friendly type. They are especially attuned to pleasure and beauty and like to fill their surroundings with soft fabrics, bright colors and sweet smells. They live in the present moment and don´t like to plan ahead - they are always in risk of exhausting themselves.
The enjoy work that makes them able to help other people in a concrete and visible way. They tend to avoid conflicts and rarely initiate confrontation - qualities that can make it hard for them in management positions.

Thanks to Kerrie from Mysteries in Paradise who posted after she was typealyzed!

Readers Imbibing Peril VI

For the Northern Hemisphere peeps summer is coming to an end, fall is about to set in and so the mind of Carl from Stainless Steel Droppings turns to the creepy, gothic and mysterious and he announces the annual Readers Imbibing Peril challenge (RIP for short). For us, today is the first day of spring and so we should in theory be thinking of sunshine and warmth coming our way! Luckily for me I am not a seasonal reader and therefore I can still join in on the spooky fun!

The purpose of the R.I.P. Challenge is to enjoy books that could be classified as:

Mystery.
Suspense.
Thriller.
Dark Fantasy.
Gothic.
Horror. Supernatural.

and there are a number of different perils that you can participate in.

I am planning on participating in Peril of the Short Story as I have at least three different short story books sitting on my shelves at the moment that might fit this collection.

This year there are going to be three readalongs - Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman, Storm Front by Jim Butcher and The Lantern by Deborah Lawrenson. I am definitely participating in the first and the last and I am a strong maybe for the second book! You can find out all the details of the various readalongs here.

Finally, I will also be undertaking Peril the First - read 4 books that you feel meet the RIP criteria

My possible reads include but is not limited to:

White Time by Margo Lanagan
Out of the Deep I Cry by Julia Spencer-Fleming
Tail of the Blue Bird by Nii Ayikwei Parkes
The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Vaughan
Awakened by Kristin Cast and PC Cast
The Legacy by Katherine Webb
Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear
The Lantern by Deborah Lawrenson
Zombies vs Unicorns anthology
Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris

Library Loot: August 31 to September 4

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!

My library loot looks bigger than usual this week. I promise you that it is only because I went to the library a day earlier than I normally do...or at least that is what I am telling myself!

Here's my loot for this week:

Wildflower Hill by Kim Freeman - I have seen a lot of really good reviews of this book and got to the point of feeling as though I was letting the country down by not reading this Australian set book written by an Australian author.

Too Hot to Touch by Louisa Edwards - I do enjoy sending the boy in to pick up books with covers like this. The look on his face is priceless.

The Soldier by Grace Burrowes - Really enjoyed the first book in this trilogy, and then got the third book fro the publisher which means I really need to get on and read the second book!

Animal Magnetism by Jill Shalvis - While I wait for the third Lucky Harbor book to come out I thought I would try one of Jill Shalvis' other series

Big Cherry Holler by Adriana Trigiani - the follow up book to Big Stone Gap.

Every Secret Thing by Emma Cole - yes, again.

Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold - I am intending to read the Miles Vorkosigan series. I have been given a list of the series in internal chronological order which is how I am intending to read it, although I have seen other lists that give a different order. Hate it when it isn't clear what order books should be read in.

Valley of Grace by Marion Halligan - requested this one after the MWF session I went to last Friday.

Teenage Dream by Katy Perry - It feels as though I have been on the hold list for this one for months and months!

Claire has the Mr Linky this week so head on over and share your loot!

Teaser Tuesday: French Lessons by Ellen Sussman

Paris really seems to be calling me at the moment. The last two books I have finished have both been set in the City of Lights and have used the city really well to the point of making me wish I could go there. Add to that, today an author posted a picture of the apartment she is going to be living in for a few months, and someone I know having just come back, and I have a palpable longing to be there. Unfortunately, that is not going to happen for many years yet, so I will just have to be satisfied with reading more about the city or perhaps going to get crepes from the local creperie or buying a baguette and some cheese or something.

My teaser today comes from page 86 of French Lessons by Ellen Sussman. I am sure that you will be able to guess where they are!

All of Paris is spread before her, from the heights of Sacre-Coeur, down along the banks of the Seine, out to the farthest reaches of each arrondissement. The clouds swirl around her, at eye level, and every once in a while the city disappears and she's heaven-bound. Then a gust of wind pushes away the cloud and like magic, Paris sits at her feet.

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Miz B at Should Be Reading. Head on over to find out all about it, and how to join in!

MWF - Native Titles

Today I headed in to the city to go to my second Melbourne Writers Festival event for this year. Next Saturday I am spending all day at the festival so I suspect my next Sunday Salon post will also be about the festival.

The session I attended today was called Native Titles:

Can fiction reveal the truth of the earliest encounters between Indigenous and settler Australians more honestly than conventional history? Three award-winning novelists, Kate Grenville (The Lieutenant), Kim Scott (That Deadman Dance) and Rohan Wilson (The Roving Party) consider approaches to the relationships at the heart of our nation. With Stephen Romei.

Kim Scott

The reasons why I chose to attend this session are that I have read and enjoyed both of Kate Grenville's historical fiction novels which are set during the earliest days of British colonisation of Australia and her latest novel, Sarah Thornhill, has recently been released. I am really interested in hearing more from Kim Scott. His book, That Deadman Dance, has been very successful in terms of literary prizes including winning the Miles Franklin award this year and I intend to read it at some point, although I am not sure when that will be as my library still doesn't have it on the catalogue at all. I think I am going to have ask them to buy it. Again I walked away from the session thinking that I needed to read all of the books that were discussed, including Rohan Wilson's The Roving Party which sounds fascinating.

The focus of the panel today was discussion of the portrayal of the settlement of Australia by the British and the representation of the indigenous story. I found the composition of the panel itself to be quite interesting. Kim Scott is a member of the Noongar people, an indigenous Australian tribe and is writing from the indigenous viewpoint. He stressed the importance of indigenous Australians having a voice and how important this will be in the continuing healing process which would include being able to look back to find strength and sustenance from their own stories. Kate Grenville is a white Australian who can trace her family back to settlement and places an important emphasis on the fact that whilst she has Aboriginal characters in her works she does not, and she will not, enter the Aboriginal characters internal world.. Finally, Rohan Wilson is a white Australian who does write from an indigenous perspective in his novel. Part of the reason for this is that, unlike other states like WA where Kim Scott comes from, there seems to be no indigenous voice in Tasmania and he hoped to at least start a conversation about the issues, and he has had positive feedback from the indigenous community despite his own doubts as to the correctness of choosing this voice.

Once again, the session was very interesting. Each of the authors started with a reading from their latest book and then it was on with the questions, starting with why does the story of settlement and first contact need to be told and what are the advantages of using fiction.

Kate Grenville

Kate Grenville talked about coming to the realisation that her own forebears may well have been involved in many of the events that happened in the early days of the colony, particularly in relation to the taking up of land along the Hawkesbury River which would by definition have resulted in the displacement of the native Aboriginal tribes at the time, and yet in all the historical records of the time, there was no mention at all of them. She originally planned to tell her ancestor's story through non-fiction, but instead it became a fictionalised representation of the first contact story. When asked if she was done with the historical setting that started in The Secret River continued in The Lieutenant and now concludes the trilogy with Sarah Thornhill, Grenville did agree that there was a chance that there is more to come from her pen within this setting.

One of the themes that was touched on many times throughout the panel was the idea of the silence that is in the historical record. Kim Scott expanded on this idea by saying that he wanted to rewrite the history to give voice and agency to his previously silenced ancestors and to also emphasise more the shared history that we all have. For Rohan, the idea of the profound silence of minorities such as indigenous and women in the historical record was a motivating factor as well.

As a fan of the historical fiction genre, I was intrigued by the discussion that were held about the role of fiction in telling the story of history. At one point, Kim Scott talked about history itself being a narrative, and therefore we see limited viewpoints including who are the good guys and who are the villains ( which to my mind reflects the well known adage that history is written by the winners).  He said that fiction can attempt to create a narrative sensibility that informs story and gets readers to move in consciousness as well by creating a relationship between reader and writer and using that as a basis for illuminations. It was interesting to me that there were several times where I saw correlations between this session and the last one I attended, and this was one of those moments.

Kate's answer to this question was that she takes elements of what is real and shapes it to create a believable bigger story, illuminating human nature and a moment in space and time.

Rohan Wilson

The question of historical accuracy is one that often comes up for readers of historical fiction and each of the authors had examples of readers identifying errors. Rohan Wilson did however have a different perspective on the issue of accuracy. He agreed that it is important but he is more than happy to bend and shape the story as he wants. He is not a history writer, and fiction is not history. When he is writing it is about characters and story, aiming to create characters that can be represented in such as way that reader's disbelief is suspended. Personally I wonder if this is a differentiation that you might also be able to draw between the historical fiction genre itself and literary fiction with a historical setting, but I think it is something that I need to ponder a bit more yet.

Also touched on is how the past could shape the future, and the idea that we can work towards a better relationship in relation to the many issues that are still very real for indigenous Australians because really the story is not over yet. Definitely food for thought.

There was quite a bit more that was covered during the session, but I think that those were most of the main points!

It was heartening to see how full the festival bookshop was both before I went into my session and after it and the signing queue for Jonathan Franzen was huge! I had to leave pretty much straight away because I was on babysitting duties but I am looking forward to spending a bit of time browsing the shelves next week! I was also very pleased to meet up with Lisa from ANZ Litlovers blog and I am looking forward to having a bit of a longer chat with her later in the festival! You can read Lisa's take on this session here.

My next session is on Friday afternoon, and I am contemplating asking the boss for half a day off so that I can squeeze in at least one extra session on that day and then all day Saturday as well!

Weekend Cooking: AWW Birthday Cakes

I am not 100% sure why but I have been spending a lot of time lately thinking about birthday cakes, especially in the context of those people who make amazing theme cakes. My sister is one of those people. Over the years she has made my son a Spiderman cake and a Lightning McQueen cake and for her children and those of her friends there have been Dorothy the Dinosaur cakes, giraffes and most recently a Dolly Varden cake.

Not too long ago we were talking about this. When I think back over my childhood I can only really recall one cake - my aunt made me a pink Dolly Varden cake when I was quite young. Between us we also remembered that there was a farmyard scene cake which featured a chocolate log in a sea of green icing and lots of animals. We are not sure if that was for my birthday or for someone else. I think it was in summer, so not my birthday, but I am not 100% sure. What I do remember is making myself sick by gorging on the green icing that covered the cake board.

One of the most influential publications when it came to kids birthday cakes, particularly during the 1980s had to be the Australian Women's Weekly's Children's Birthday Cake book. I would go so far as to say that the whole Australian Women's Weekly series would have proved pretty influential in the kitchens of Australia as a whole at the time. I know when I first started being interested in buying cookbooks I always gravitated towards these books. As an aside, is the Australian Women's Weekly is one of the big magazines published here, but it is only published monthly!

There was the original version of this book and then there was an updated version of the book published in 2002 with all new designs. There was, however, such a degree of sentimentality associated with the first version that this year they reprinted it!

The selection of cakes in both versions of the books vary from simple to jaw-droppingly complicated! I do wonder if there are people out there who have made some of the cakes but they do look amazing! One of the simple ones that we made years ago now (from the new book) was a lamington choo-choo - pretty simple to make really, it's just about putting it all together.

One of the cakes in the new version of the book is a Merry-go round cake which the editor helpfully suggests is "not difficult - it is however time consuming". (It looks difficult to me I have to say!).

Of the recipes in the old book, one I have seen people reminisce about quite a lot is the swimming pool cake, where you make the cake and then cut out a section out of the top and fill it with jelly to make it look like a pool and add in small people and beach balls to make the scene complete. I do question the choice of green jelly for the water, but I guess we don't really have blue jelly!

There are a couple of cakes that I don't necessarily think would work for me. For example, in the older book there is a fluffy duck, complete with yellow buttercream frosting (okay so far), popcorn, and potato chips (crisps) for the beak. Not sure that the combination works for me, but it would be impressive to see it carried into the room at a birthday party.

There are many different cakes which are presented in the books with themes varying from sport to numbers, from fairy tales to ideas using cupcakes. There are always step by step pictures showing how you get the shape of the cake that you are after and there are several patterns included in each of the book to assist with getting your cake just right. Some of these look a lot like putting a puzzle together, but I am sure that seeing the excitement on the faces of the recipients makes all the hard work worthwhile.

Whilst the books are labelled as kid's birthday cake books, there are a number that could be used for adults as well. There is a party pinata cake that looks totally awesome if anyone wants to make it for me next year! You take a pre-prepared round buttercake  and then put lots of Smarties/M&Ms, chocolate coins and other lollies on top of it. Then cover that with a chocolate shell that you have made by coating the inside of an appropriately sized metal bowl and then covering the outside of the chocolate "bowl" with more M&Ms and Smarties. According to the image, you need a new hammer to get into the cake, which could be lots of fun at a party!

As far as I know the AWW cookbooks are available in other countries around the world, but I am not exactly sure where!

My plan for this post was to scan in a few of the images for your enjoyment! However, it seems as though I have no idea how to use my scanner, so that might have to wait until another day!

Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads and is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs.

MWF: The Glue of Good Fiction

I was lucky enough to attend my first Melbourne Writers Festival event for this year today! I was a little bit cheeky and made the trip up to Fed Square during my lunch break, listened to the session and then rushed back to work afterwards. Then I had to leave early to pick up my car from the mechanics for the second day straight (long story) so it was a good day in terms of numbers of hours actually spent at work!

I haven't been to the Festival at all for a couple of years and the year I did go I just bought a couple of session tickets, but this year I have gone all out and bought a Paperback Pass which entitled me to 5 events and 2 free Friday events. Some time in the next couple of years I am hoping to start volunteering instead of just attending.

Here's the summary blurb of the session I attended:

As Sartre may have put it, drama is other people. Gail Jones, Elizabeth Stead, Jane Smiley and Marion Halligan discuss how relationships lie at the heart of their fiction, and how we cope with others - family, lovers, enemies, colleagues, neighbours, strangers. Chaired by Enza Gandolfo.

Jane Smiley

My main reason for wanting to attend this session was to hear something from Jane Smiley. There are other opportunities to hear her speak during the Festival, but none that suited my timetable and so when I saw her name on the list on a Friday session (that would cost me nothing) it was a no brainer. It's actually a bit weird that I wanted to hear her speak in the first place as I have only really had any exposure to one of her books and that was an abridged audio version of A Thousand Acres which I absolutely loathed. Apparently it was enough though! You will hear a similar tale when I talk about going to see Ann Patchett too. Didn't really like the book of hers that I had read, but still really wanted to see her festival session.


The other three authors on the panel are Australian authors and I haven't read any of them. I walked out of the session wanting to read something from all of them! I can see I am going to have to exercise a lot of restraint when it comes to requesting books from the library and/or buying them as a result of attending the festival. I am especially interested in picking up Marion Halligan's short story collection Shooting the Fox as one of the short stories that she talked about today sounds like a really fun read!

Marian Halligan

Each of the authors started by talking about what it is that they write about in the context of the session. For Marion Halligan this meant birth, death, love and betrayal and just about everything in between which means that she mostly writes domestic details. Jane Smiley indicated that she began by writing about children, and then that kind of grew into human/human relationship, human/animal relationship, political relations! To summarise, she said "Show me a relationship and I will write it".  Gail Jones thought that the focus of her work was time and memory and how relationships reach back into the past, especially how the dead are profoundly present in the lives of people especially during the period of grief. Finally, Elizabeth Stead indicated that she liked to write about people who are a little left of centre, a little disturbed, a little bit different. In effect she writes about loneliness which could well be interpreted as the lack of relationship.

There were a number of other questions asked including about relationships being the vehicle for exploring character and actions, and also about the title of the session itself which prompted Marion Halligan to say that she didn't see relationships as glue as such.

Another aspect of relationship that Jane Smiley touched on was a triangular relationship between the narrator and the reader as well as the author and narrator which was an interesting concept.

There was some discussion about there not only being emotional relationships, but also spatial relationships - almost like if we put this thing next to that thing and see what happens which prompted Gail Jones to comment that there is likely a lot more randomness in stories than the reader suspects.

The last point that was explored before the session was opened up to questions from the floor was that relationship between characters and place with specific examples of Marion's novel Valley of Grace which is set in Paris featuring all French people, but written wholly in English and Gail's books which feature Sydney. Elizabeth Stead also mentioned that there have been times when she started with the place and the characters grew from there whereas the reader may expect the process to be the other way around.

Elizabeth Stead

One of the interesting parts of this discussion for me specifically in the context of the book I finished reading today  was about characters who are living displaced lives and how their lives are very much charged by loss and by memories of the past. The characters also bring other places to where they currently reside through their memories and how the past shapes their current lives.

Questions from the floor touched on the difference between men and women when it comes to reading about relationship and a craft question about showing versus telling in the context of relationships. The answers to this question were quite interesting with Jane Smiley talking about how time has to pass and the question being how which will dictate whether the author shows or tells. I really liked Gail Jones answer as well which was basically she never really liked the writing rule about showing and not telling but rather prefers to look at who the narrator is and deciding what they could reasonably know when it came to deciding how to tell that particular aspect of the story.

Gail Jones

I was really impressed with Gail Jones. I had heard of her work before, especially her book Sorry which made a big splash when it came out not so long ago. She is quietly spoken, but seems to be extremely intelligent and made some really interesting points during the session.

One of the quotes that she shared came from Henry James - Experience is never limited, and it is never complete; it is an immense sensibility, a kind of huge spider-web of the finest silken threads suspended in the chamber of consciousness, and catching every air-borne particle in its tissue.

My next MWF session is on Sunday, and then I will be spending all day there next Saturday! Can't wait.
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My first blog tour failure...

I don't know about you, but I have a certain process that I go through when I sign up for a specific date for a book review. I save a place holder post so I remember the date that has been agreed. I add the book to my list with the due date being the day before the review so that I know the book will get read in time and generally that works just fine.

So what didn't work this time in this almost foolproof system?

Well, I forgot to make sure that I had received the book until I went to organise the books I was going to read this week and realised that I didn't have it!  I have turned the house upside down in case I put it somewhere I don't normally. Previously when I haven't received a tour book I managed to buy the ebook but unfortunately it isn't available to Australians (grrrrr to geo restrictions) and the book isn't out here until October so I couldn't even go to the shops to pick it up.

So, it is with a very guilty conscience that I have to say sorry to TLC Booktours because for the first time since I started doing blog tours a couple of years ago I don't have a review ready for a book I have committed to read. It is doubly disappointing for me because the reason I signed up for this tour is that I really wanted to try out one of this author's books as I have really liked the sound of all his other ones.

This is a poor substitute I know, but here are the details of the book that I was supposed to read:

Lucy Derrick is a young woman of good breeding and poor finances. After the death of her beloved father, she is forced to maintain a shabby dignity as the unwanted boarder of her tyrannical uncle, fending off marriage to a local mill owner. But just as she is on the cusp of accepting a life of misery, events take a stunning turn when a handsome stranger—the poet and notorious rake Lord Byron—arrives at her house, stricken by what seems to be a curse, and with a cryptic message for Lucy. Suddenly her unfortunate circumstances are transformed in ways at once astonishing and seemingly impossible.

With the world undergoing an industrial transformation, and with England on the cusp of revolution, Lucy is drawn into a dangerous conspiracy in which her life, and her country’s future, are in the balance. Inexplicably finding herself at the center of cataclysmic events, Lucy is awakened to a world once unknown to her: where magic and mortals collide, and the forces of ancient nature and modern progress are at war for the soul of England . . . and the world. The key to victory may be connected to a cryptic volume whose powers of enchantment are unbounded.

Now, challenged by ruthless enemies with ancient powers at their command, Lucy must harness newfound mystical skills to prevent catastrophe and preserve humanity’s future. And enthralled by two exceptional men with designs on her heart, she must master her own desires to claim the destiny she deserves.

And now for the details of people who are way more organised than me and actually read the book!



Monday, August 1st: One Book Shy of a Full Shelf
Wednesday, August 3rd: A Chick Who Reads
Monday, August 8th: Fiction State of Mind
Wednesday, August 10th: In the Hammock
Thursday, August 11th: Unabridged Chick
Monday, August 15th: Bewitched Bookworms
Tuesday, August 16th: Life in the Thumb
Monday, August 22nd: Stiletto Storytime
Monday, August 22nd: Unabridged Chick author Q&A
Wednesday, August 24th: Books, Movies, and Chinese Food
Thursday, August 25th: Adventures of an Intrepid Reader
Thursday, August 25th: Historical Tapestry
Monday, August 29th: A Buckeye Girl Reads
Wednesday, August 31st: A Musing Reviews

And again.....sorry, sorry, sorry!