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Welcome to Writers on Wednesday. This week I am chatting with Melbourne based children's author, Cameron White ... Tell me a bit about yourself … I ’ m a Jack of all trades who ’ s taken a bit of a roundabout path to writing. I wrote at school, but chickened out of interviewing for RMIT ’ s Professional Writing and Editing , which I wanted to do. I studied design and architecture, but graduated at a time when a large percentage of Melbourne architects were being laid off. I took the plunge and studied Professional Writing and Editing, ostensibly to become an architecture writer, but that hasn ’ t quite happened. I did discover the crafts of fiction writing and editing, which hasn ’ t helped me figure out what I want to be when I grow up. Tell us about your most recently published book? Winter ’ s Book is a children ’ s picture book about a girl whose father goes away to write a book about animals in Japan, leaving her alone with her imagination. And a pet (Gui...

With a successful youth suicide the central theme of the novel, readers are left in no doubt that Jay Asher's bestselling novel Thirteen Reasons Why (stylised as TH1RTEEN R3ASONS WHY ,) is going to be uncomfortable and possible provocative reading. Clay Jenson, a mild mannered, high achieving high school student has just arrived home and found a package waiting for him that contains eight cassettes. On the tapes are thirteen stories, recorded by Hannah Baker, one of Clay's classmates who committed suicide a few weeks previously. The thirteen stories explain why she has chosen to take her own life. The novel follows a duel narrative--Hannah tells her story and we also read Clay's reaction to each of the tapes. (Note: the novel was originally published in 2007 when cassettes, though old technology, were still possible to access.)  Thirteen Reasons Why was not easy reading and I think that the book is all the better for that. It is difficult not to feel for Hannah as...

I would like to to wish all of you peace, joy and a very Merry Christmas. Thank you for following, I'll be back with more great posts tomorrow

Welcome back to Writers on Wednesday. This week, I am chatting with a fabulous author of short stories, Rebecca Burns ... Tell us a bit about yourself …  I am a married mum from the UK, with a young family, and write every minute I have spare! I write short stories – I love the technicality of short pieces of prose; the way that readers are dropped into a moment in a character’s life, the way a wider world beyond the text is glimpsed but not fully realised. The best short stories I have read have left me with a longing to know more about a character and I hope to achieve this in my own writing. Tell us about your most recently published book?  The Settling Earth is my second collection of short stories, published by Odyssey Books. I’m really excited about this collection – I find the subject matter fascinating. It centres on the experience of British settlers in New Zealand, trying to forge a new life for themselves at the end of the nineteenth c...

Penned and published well before that other tear jerking novel that shot John Green to international fame, Looking For Alaska  is a well written tale about life and loss. Miles Halter has always been a bit of a loner, but that changes when he starts his junior year at a boarding school in Alabama. There, he meets and makes friends with an eccentric group of kids that includes the charismatic, boundary pushing Alaska Young. When Alaska passes away very suddenly, Miles and the others struggle to make sense of her death and eventually find closure. And that is really it. But the magic of this novel is in the author's depiction of teenage life--insecurities, teenage pranks, first loves and the false believe that others may hold the answers to life's biggest questions. I thoroughly enjoyed this one. I find myself crying in some places and laughing away at others (the male stripper prank is a real highlight.) The pacing and structure is a bit different from other books in the...

It is Christmas time once again. While Rundle Mall may have copped a lot of flack for not having enough pretty decorations, the central part of the Adelaide CBD has been given a Christmas make over. A number of trees have been decorated with ribbons (like the one above,) as have a number of bicycle racks. Outside the markets are some cute little Christmas trees, while a large Christmas tree sits at the northern end of Victoria Square. 

In the neighbourhood where I grew up, there is a small church that is connected with a kindergarten and a child care centre and a few other community based programmes. Every year at Christmas time, they put on a concert for the families of the children who use their services and the whole thing is kind of a big deal. One of the highlights of the concert is the nativity play, which is acted out entirely by four year olds. Or, to be more realistic about it, the play is the highlight of the show if you happen to be one of the lucky kids who was chosen for a part, or if you're the parent or grandparent of one of those kids. When my oldest brother, Ben, was four he was chosen to play the part of a tree (don't ask). My next brother (and the middle kid of the family,) Damien, got to play a donkey. So, given family tradition, coupled with the fact that I was probably the shyest four year old that you would ever meet (or not, if I could hide behind mum's/dad's/grandma's le...

Franny is J.D. Salinger's short story about a young woman seeking spiritual enlightenment that is usually published alongside Salinger's novella Zooey in a single volume titled Franny and Zooey . I decided to re-read Franny recently (not a huge task, as the story is approximately twenty-eight pages long,) after discovering that originally, it was published as a short story, a whole two years before Salinger published Zooey . I wanted to get a real sense of this one without it being eclipsed by the longer (and arguably more interesting,) Zooey. Franny feels both very old and dated, yet oddly relevant to the modern world. Franny is suffering from a crisis of self. Although coming from a relatively privileged background, she is seeking deeper truths. Or, it is entirely possible, she is simply having a mental breakdown. In any case, she is questioning everything about her existence and the world around her, she is feeling ill and the whole experience is more or less ruin...

Comic Source: garfield.com

Cityglitter is a bit of fun, lighthearted reading with likeable characters and an amusing set-up. Twenty-something Christelle is living the good life in Sydney, she has a good job and invitations to a number of A-list events. And then her annoying little sister Trixie turns up uninvited and threatens to spill Christelle's secret--that she and Trixie are half-human and half-fairy. Can Christelle keep her identity a secret? Can she stop the naughty Trixie from meddling with her life? And what will happen if Christelle's boss, the very sexy Jasper, do if he finds out the truth about Christelle? As I said, this one is a bit of fun, lighthearted reading. I read the bulk of this on in one sitting and found myself quite amused by some of Trixie's antics, particularly what she did with the nasty Lillian and the New York snow globe. There were a couple of unexpected plot twists in there, in particular the true identity of one character. But this really is not a book that wa...

Ugly Love , the eighth novel from bestselling New Adult author Colleen Hoover, is a tale about the ugly side of sexual desire, juxtaposed against the healing and redemptive nature of romantic love. Tate Collins is a nursing student, new to San Francisco and too busy for a relationship. Miles Archer is a pilot with few friends and a tormented past that no one is allowed to ask about. Initially the pair cannot stand one another, but the sexual tension between them is obvious. The pair soon strike up a friends with benefits arrangement, but when emotions get in the way, things soon become ugly ... I think by now, most readers know what to expect from a Colleen Hoover novel--tainted pasts, sexual tension and a dash of good, old fashioned melodrama. Ugly Love has all of this in abundance, though the nice girl heroine, Tate Collins, seemed to me to fall a little flat. Miles' backstory, told in short, poetic chapters, tugs at the heartstrings--it is a story of a forbidden teenage ...

This canine shutterbug is getting into the Christmas spirit. The bronze sculpture is one of four "dog paparazzi" to decorate the lower ground floor of Adelaide Central Plaza. I took this (slightly fuzzy) picture back in 2013. I wonder if he has his Christmas hat on again this year?

I know that I shared this clip last Christmas, but I just could not resist sharing again this year. Not only is a lot of fun and very retro, but it also makes a subtle but valid point about the over-commercialisation of Christmas. 

Eleven, almost twelve, years have passed since I first sent a manuscript to a publisher. I was twenty-one years old and about to start my Honours year at university. Lovingly, I printed off the first three chapters of my manuscript, bundled them together and caught a bus to the post office, where I sent my manuscript, along with an envelope and return postage. It was mailed to Penguin Books in Victoria. Eight weeks later, Penguin returned the manuscript to me, along with a rejection slip and a lovely, short note telling me that they hoped that this decision would not deter me from continuing to write, as the editor who saw my work thought that I showed real promise.  From there, I had three choices. Submit elsewhere, wait until I had written something else and submit that instead, or pay a good couple of thousand dollars to a vanity press. Publishing, or at least the submission of manuscripts, was always a bit slow with the digital age. It was not until a few years ago tha...

Time for another brilliant Writers on Wednesday interview. This week, I am chatting with novelist Tracy M. Joyce, author of the wonderful The Chronicles of Altaica series ... Tell us a bit about yourself … I grew up on a farm in Glenburn, a small rural community in Victoria, Australia.   I am the youngest of three children.   Like all farm kids we worked hard, but had the kind of adventures you can only have if you grow up in the country.   I suspect many of them make it into my writing.   We lived in a rambling farmhouse with my grandparents as well as my parents and siblings.   Both my grandparents were avid readers and encouraged this in me.   Story telling seemed to follow naturally. Currently I live in Melbourne, with my husband, two cats and a very lazy greyhound. Tell us about your most recently published book? Altaica is epic fantasy, aimed at teens through to adults. I recommend approx. 15 yo and upwards because it d...

The second novel in Aussie author Kylie's Scott's Stage Dive series is a sexy, sweet and occasionally hilarious romance about a bad boy rock and roll star and his very unlikely love. Anne Rollins is a nice girl who will sacrifice almost anything for her family and friends, particularly her best friend Skye, who has just bailed and left her in a lot of debt. Mal, drummer for band Stage Dive, is a impulsive and reckless, but he might just have a heart of gold. A chance meeting at a party leads Mal to learning about Anne's debts (caused by a manipulative flatmate who has bailed,) and he offers her some sage advice about standing up for herself. Later, Mal comes up with a surprising proposal for Anne. If she agrees to pretend to be his girlfriend for a month, he'll pay all of her debts ... I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this one. Obviously, it's a kinky book. And there is some damn fine kink in there. But more surprising is that there is a real layer of ...

Cue excited squeal! I am pleased to announce that my sixth novel, Everybody Hates Abigail , has just been published and is now available for sale. The blurb reads: Abigail Carter may be daughter of a chart-topping rock star who is taking the world by storm, but that does not mean that her life is interesting in any way, shape or form. Expelled from a prestigious Adelaide boarding school, Abigail is sent to live with her aunt and uncle in Maripaninga Valley, South Australia's most boring small town. There, Abigail spends her days fighting with her classmates and wondering why the star of the local football team wants to date her. When one of her classmates disappears under mysterious circumstances Abigail begins to discover that there may be more to Maripaninga Valley than she realised and that the truth about Rose DuBois' disappearance may be closer than she first thought ... Everybody Hates Abigail is available in paper and kindle formats from Amazon and as an e...

Source: Garfield.com I just could not resist sharing this delightful Garfield Christmas themed comic. The simple, innocent comedy of this one makes it one of my favourites. 

I have to confess, one of my favourite pages on facebook is Sunshine and Inspiration. Today, I am lucky enough to have the creator of the page, author Juliet M. Sampson here to tell us a bit more about the page ... ‘ Spread sunshine and inspiration.’ Juliet M Sampson Everyone needs inspiration as we all experience the highs and lows that life throws at us. Throughout my childhood I loved reading books that shared inspirational quotes about believing in yourself and having a positive attitude to life. My love of this flowed over into writing my own quotes and poems. As I grew older I observed and admired others and the ways they lived their lives, following their dreams and reaching their goals. Being a primary teacher as well as an author, I have learnt about the way young children behave. They have a great zest and love for life and most of them are willing to give anything a go. This attitude to life is inspiring as children exhibit pure joy.   Inspira...