Kathryn's Inbox

Set in the lead up to the London riots of 2011, Before the Fire is an intelligent and believable coming of age story about an eighteen year old boy who is grieving for his best mate. Kieran, better known by his nickname, Stick, believes that his life is finally starting to take a turn for the better. He has suffered a few traumas during his childhood--the death of his sister and his parents divorcing soon after. Stick lives with his mum, who has OCD and who is reluctant to admit that there is a problem. His dad, meanwhile, has remarried and he and his new wife have two daughters. It is not difficult to see why Stick is resentful of his situation, though his parents are presented as being basically okay people (despite their failings,) and who most definitely care about their son. Anyway, Stick and his best mate Mac have organised a trip to Spain, where they are planning to live and work, and Stick is thoroughly looking forward to the change and to leaving Manchester behind. But on...

Welcome back to Writers on Wednesday. This week I am chatting with Adelaide author, Lynette Washington ... Tell me a bit about yourself … I’m a short story writer, teacher, editor, reviewer and mother. Tell us about your most recently published book? My latest book (as editor) is a short story collection called Breaking Beauty . It is a collection of 28 stories by 27 writers, all on the theme of beauty. We asked the writers to write about beauty, but we didn’t expect that they would be so brutal with the idea! In the end, what I learnt was that beauty rarely exists without a dark side, a grubby underbelly.  The stories are so diverse and tackle the theme from so many different angles that it’s a real insight into the complexity of the idea of beauty – which I think is one of the (sometimes dangerous) obsessions of our time. Tell us about the first time you were published? I got started late in life. My first (significant) publication was the ...

I have to admit, I was very reluctant to read  The Rosie Project.    In fact, it ended up staying at the bottom of my to-read pile for thirteen months. When you write a book review blog, writing reviews of books that have received a lot of hype, and that everyone seemed to love, can often prove difficult. It's easy to end up looking like a pretentious dickhead if it turns out that you're that one reader who hates it, and it's just as easy to look like a sheep who is following a collective oohing and ahhing if you love it. And if you're ambivalent, well someone who loves it is going to try and convince you that you should love it. Consequently, I ended up reading The Rosie Project  only after I was stuck at home with a virus and had exhausted most of my to-read pile. (Don Tillman would be shocked by my methods, I'm sure.) By the time I was three pages in, I realised that I was probably going to be joining the collective oohing and ahhing. There is no esc...

Located in North Adelaide since 2012, this statue is titled Simpson and his Donkey and pays tribute to medical personnel who served the Australian Army Medical Corps.  It was surrounded by a beautiful array of petunias when I photographed it in mid-March 2015. 

As well as being a contender for the novel with the longest title that I have ever read, Me Being Me is Exactly as Insane as You Being You is probably one of the stranger YA novels that I have read this year. Told completely in lists, we learn the story of Darren Jacobs, a young man who is, well, having a little bit of a rough time. His parents have divorced, his brother has left for college, his best mate has just moved away and then he is hit with a bombshell. His dad is gay. Darren loves his dad and wants for his dad to be happy, but he is also at an awkward age, where his childhood is not quite over yet and the adult world, and the way that adults handle their relationships, seems quite frightening, strange and occasionally stupid. Enter an unexpected road trip with Zoey, a fascinating but eccentric girl from his school, and Darren soon finds himself discovering a newfound sense of independence and self-acceptance. This one was enjoyable enough and funny in places, though I...

Lest We Forget.

When we were kids, my brothers and I used to find these old Bugs Bunny comics like the one featured above floating around our local secondhand shops all the time. Many were bought, read and traded with other neighbourhood kids, a few fell apart and I think I may still have one or two packed in a box somewhere. I remember the covers better than the comics themselves, though they must have been enjoyable enough if we kept buying them. I cannot recall ever seeing a brand new one, or buying one from the Galactic Trading Post (a comic shop in Twin Street, Adelaide, where my uncle worked in the late 1980s and early 1990s,) so it is probable that they stopped printing them in Australia well before then. If anyone has any information on these old comics, feel free to share in the comments section. 

Season of Shadow and Light by Australian author Jenn J McLeod is almost certain to delight fans and new readers alike. Featuring a cast of strong female characters this novel examines the concept of nature versus nurture and questions under what circumstances is it acceptable to break a promise. The novel opens with Paige, a wife and mother who has lived a seemingly privileged life in a wealthy, upper-middle class suburb of Sydney. She has a wealthy husband, a wonderful daughter and her much-loved stepmother, Alice, lives in the house next door. However, there has been some dark moments in Paige's life of late--her son was stillborn and she has suffered a stroke, which has robbed her of her sense of taste and smell. Added to that is the discovery of a betrayal by her husband and it is completely understandable while Paige may not be feeling the best. She decided that a break is needed and with Alice and Paige's daughter, Matilda, in tow, she takes a road trip that leads...

Welcome back to Writers on Wednesday. This week I am chatting with prolific Australian author, Rosanne Dingli ... Tell me a bit about yourself … Kathryn, I’ve been writing professionally for more than 30 years, with stints as journalist, columnist, reviewer, editor-in-chief, literary editor and more, working with academic, traditional, and commercial publishers of books, magazines, and newspapers. I have also taught and lectured in Creative Writing at ECU, TAFE, and at writing organizations in Western Australia. So I can say that I understand publishing and writing, how they work, and how fast the changes have taken place – especially since 2009. I understand what new writers need, so I have facilitated a great number of workshops, and have given talks specifically aimed at emerging authors. I am not only an author. I also edit, typeset, and format and design books for new authors. This side-line is interesting and absorbing, and I sometimes prefer the work, bec...

At the time of writing this post, Weightless by Sarah Bannan is my favourite read of 2015. The novel offers readers an unflinching look at the nature of bullying, mental illness and how easily the tables can be turned. Do two wrongs ever make a right? Was bullying really the cause of a high student's suicide, or just one of many unpleasant experiences that contributed to Carolyn Lessing's decision to take her own life? Did the system fail Carolyn, or did she fail herself? Set in a high school in Alabama, Weightless is hauntingly narrated by a group of Juniors who refer to themselves as a collective "we." They live in a town with a two major interests, religion and football, though mostly they spend their time praying that the school football team will win. (In many parts of America high school football teams can be a huge income earner for the school.) Anyway, the kids at the school have known each other since birth. No new kids ever arrive here. The current c...

At Christies Beach, they certainly know how to decorate a Stobie pole. (For the benefit of anyone who lives overseas or interstate, in South Australia we don't have wooden poles to hold up overhead cables. Instead, we use what is known as a Stobie pole and they are made from a combination of cement and steel.) This painted pole is located directly across the road from the high school (and may, technically at least be in Christie Downs, not Christies Beach,) and makes a nice contrast to the usual bland Stobie pole. 

British romance author Phillipa Ashley has veered into new territory with The First Time We Met , volume one of a steamy new trilogy set at Oxford University. Lauren Cusack is the daughter of a US Senator and has decided to study abroad for a short while to help mend her broken heart. Her plans take a surprising turn when she meets roguish English aristocrat Alexander Hunt and a steamy, but heartbreaking relationship begins. What had the potential to be a fun, guilty pleasure read was let down by a clunky, clumsy narrative and a heroine who seemed more arrogant and ignorant than naive. Sadly, this one was not a winner for me, though some of the love scenes are scorching hot. Not really recommended.

Echoes of Dollanganger, I suspect will be best remembered by fans for it's epilogue which describes a surprising turn of events--the return from the dead of a major character from Flowers in the Attic. (And yes, that character is a Foxworth.) Picking up where the previous novel in the Diaries series leaves off, ghostwriter Andrew Neiderman reunites readers with Kristen Masterwood, a heroine with blonde hair, cerulean blue eyes and a mysterious link to the Foxworth family. Kristen also has in her possession a diary that belonged to Christopher Dollanganger and is reading about his time locked away in the attic by his mother and grandmother ... As was the case in Secrets of Foxworth (read my review here)  the strongest scenes are the diary entries. This novel tells the second half of the story, where the children suffer the most cruelty, where Christopher's relationship with Cathy is challenged and when the surviving children plan their escape. Christopher's storyte...

This one was so weird that I just had to share it.

Denton Little's Deathdate is a deliciously dark and offbeat YA comedy/drama about coping with death at a young age ... or not. Set in the not-so-distant future, Denton Little lives in a world where everybody knows the exact date of their death, though they have no idea how it will happen. And seventeen-year-old Denton Little's death date is fast approaching, though not before he gets through a few firsts, such as his first hangover and his first and, somewhat awkward, love triangle. From there, the author creates a number of surprising twists and turns, including a strange virus (featuring a very unusual purple rash) and some almost-brushes-with-death with a yellow car. Although the premise was a little far-fetched, this novel was bloody amusing in all the right ways and I found myself happily suspending my disbelief throughout a number of odd twists and turns that will no doubt appeal to the target YA audience. Many of the characters felt very human and it was interes...

Welcome back to Writers on Wednesday. This week I am chatting with Adelaide based author, Susan Murphy ... Tell me a bit about yourself … I’m an author with HarperCollins Australia, mum to 3 fabulous ratbags, wife of 15 years, marriage celebrant, university student, teacher, Government employee and self-confessed chocolate addict. I’ve been found on numerous occasions hiding in the pantry while eating my stash. My life can be chaotic most of the time, but I don’t seem to be able to function when I’m standing still! I work 3 days a week in a Government department and conduct wedding ceremonies (and a range of other ceremonies) on weekends. For the last few years I’ve also been travelling the country teaching Ongoing Professional Development to marriage celebrants and doing a writing degree with the University of South Australia. I have an amazing little albino cockatiel who insists on being on my shoulder at every opportunity and a couple of gorgeous puppies,...

The moral and ethical implication of embryo donation are at the heart of Claiming Noah, the debut novel from Australian author Amanda Ortlepp. Catriona and James are keen to start a family. When an IVF treatment is successful, they decide to donate the remaining embryo. Childless couple Diana and Liam, meanwhile, have just received the news that they have been waiting for--after a lengthy wait, an embryo is available. Two boys are born, just a month apart. The lives of Catriona and Diana could not be more different. Diana happily settles into motherhood, while Catriona suffers a psychotic episode that sees her removed temporarily into psychosis. When Catriona returns from hospital, she notices some differences in Sebastian, her son. Meanwhile, Diana's son, Noah, is missing ... Claiming Noah is not so much driven by the mystery of who took baby Noah (that is fairly obvious,) but the implications that Catriona and James' decision to donate an embryo had on their lives, ...

Rhythm by Greg Johns  This large artwork has graced the Glenelg foreshore since 1978 and has survived many upgrades to the area. Titled rhythm, it is made of up a series of well-paced semi-circles and looks lovely with the beach in the background. In summertime, it is not unusual to see children playing on and around the artwork. 

Twice Upon a Time is a brilliant new anthology, featuring some very clever retellings of fairy tales, folklore and ancient myths and published by the Bearded Scribe Press. Fairytales, folklore and myths are, of course, tales designed to educate us on everything from the changing of the seasons, to morality tales on how to live right. Each story in Twice Upon a Time puts a new twist onto this old theme. The authors are as diverse as the stories (and their new settings,) themselves. There are some debut authors, along with some more established names. My personal favourites were Forbidden Fruit (a clever retelling of The Red Shoes, )   while The First Day of Winter was a wonderful re-imagining of The Selkie Bride (the latter already being one of my favourites from Clarissia Pinkola Estes' brilliant Women Who Run With the Wolves .) Another great highlight was Tarran Jones' All That Glitters, a retelling of Brothers Grimms The Silver Hands. At 706 pages (much the same s...