Kathryn's Inbox

Fans of my novel Cats, Scarves and Liars will already be familiar with this beautiful work of art that decorates the four corners of Hurtle Square, on the intersection of Halifax and Pultney Streets, which spells out The Forest of Dreams .

Okay, hands up! Who remembers that classic Bond film that opens with our beloved employee of Her Majesty's Secret Service singlehandedly shooting half a dozen powerful Russian spies before returning to headquarters where he encounters the plainish yet intelligent Moneypenny who is, of course, completely smitten with Bond, despite the fact that she's not really his type and their relationship is strictly professional. Of course, Moneypenny swoons when she sees Bond who--wait for it--stares at her, laughs and makes some vomiting noises before shouting, "Spew, Moneypenny wants me!" and running out of the room in complete and utter terror. Of course, you have not seen that Bond film. Because such a thing would never happen. Bond is the ultimate fantasy of an alpha male. He's tough, smart and--perhaps this is the most important bit--Bond has class. Bond is also not real, which may explain why some men have difficulty following his example. It never ceases...

In fiction, the course of true love never runs smoothly, not even when the heroine and her hero are on their honeymoon. In This Girl , the third and final book in the Slammed series,   Will and Layken's honeymoon is spent talking, kissing and occasionally bickering, while Will tells Layken his side of the story about how they first met and those excruciating, heart wrenching few months when circumstance forced them to be apart. There are a few surprise confessions, but overall this one is everything that it promises to be--a retelling of Slammed from Will's perspective. I enjoyed reading this one, though I suspect that I probably would have enjoyed it more had I waited for a while and not read it so soon after I had read Slammed and Point of Retreat-- I think that I have definitely had my fill now of the characters and their story! Still, Hoover is very clever, and very much an artist, I think, in the way that she incorporates performance poetry into her writing. The...

Welcome friends, readers, followers and guests to another great Writers on Wednesday post. This week I am chatting with Australian author Maggie Christensen ... Tell me a bit about yourself … I began teaching primary school in Scotland and emigrated to Australia in my mid-twenties lured by ads of a semi-naked man in gown and mortarboard and the slogan ‘Come teach in the Sun’ I’m still looking for that guy! When I drew close to retirement from a career in education, I started to write the sort of books I enjoy reading – books which feature mature women facing life-changing events with a dollop of romance included and the inevitable HEA. I’m often asked why a Scot living on the Sunshine Coast set a series of books on the Oregon Coast in the USA. I’ve already written two novels in my Oregon Coast Series – The Sand Dollar and The Dreamcatcher . It all began over 30 years ago when I was working in Higher Education and took a forced transfer to teach in a count...

I am going to be brave and admit that, initially, when I read the first few sections of this book it did not really appeal to me. Because of the era that this book is set in--1999--it initially came across as very dated. Also, to me, Rainbow Rowell's books have been a bit hit and miss, I loved Fangirl , but I had difficulty relating to Landline and opted not to review the book on this blog after I finished it. I was worried that Attachments was going to follow the same path, but I was soon pleasantly surprised by how I soon got caught up in the story of Lincoln, a shy IT professional who works at a newspaper monitoring emails and the way that he admires Beth, a movie critic, who he has never spoken to, and who has her own relationship troubles with the irresponsible and (perhaps) unintentionally self-centred Chris. Attachments proved itself to be a solid and surprising romance that centred around some fairly shy and introverted characters, whose problems proved easy to...

Some more bright and colourful seats (and a colourful pavement) on Pirie Street

One of the most surprising--and successful--literary phenomenons to emerge from the twentieth century is, without a doubt V.C. Andrews. A wheelchair bound and softy spoken artist who lived with her mother, who had a penchant for writing shocking yet sympathetic novels that featured taboo subjects, V.C. Andrews found a second career as a best-selling author during what was to be the final--and perhaps happiest--decade of her life. But what followed her death was equally surprising--her books had become so popular, and so loved by readers--that they continue to be written and released twenty-nine years after her death with the assistance of a ghostwriter. Ghostwriter Andrew Neiderman (a successful author of horror and romantic suspense in his own right,) has written anywhere between 69 and 74 of the novels released following the death of V.C. Andrews (the true author of Garden of Shadows and the final three books in the Casteel series, remains hotly debated by fans.) Many of the...

Don't look down.

Murder on the Ballarat Train opens with exactly what the title promises and we find the lovely Miss Fisher heroically coming to the rescue when the occupants first class carriage of the train that she and Dot are travelling on are poisoned with chloroform. The reasons that the occupants of the train would be poisoned are not clear at first and neither is why there is no one willing to claim a young girl who was travelling on the train. But in true style, Miss Phryne Fisher gets to the bottom of the mystery, uncovering a sordid secret along the way. Miss Fisher books are pure fun and there is never any need to analyse them too much. That said, I rather enjoyed this one and it was nice, now that I am up to the third book, to revisit characters who are starting to feel like old friends. Highly recommended.

Welcome back to Writers on Wednesday. This week I am putting my questions to Keith Austin, author of Grymm, Snow, White, and Jago ... Tell us a bit about yourself … Well, I’m from East London originally (so a Cockney born and bred) but I’ve lived and travelled all over the world. I’ve been living in Australia for the past 20 years. I have been a journalist for 37 years and have wanted to be a published author since I was about 11. Tell us about your most recently published book? JAGO is the horror story of two street urchins – Demelza Cotton and Jago Quinn - in 19 th century London who find an iridescent, rainbow-coloured lizard and what happens to them when certain rogue elements want to take it off them. Those rogue elements include the underworld crime figures the Cray twins and the mysterious Adamina Wollondilly and her army of Eyeballers. Then it turns out the lizard isn’t exactly what it seems. Tell us about the first time you were published? I ...

This is a street performer that I snapped in Rundle Mall back in about September. The concept was simple--members of the public were invited to paint a short message or picture, on or around the performer, whatever they deemed appropriate. 

The Art of Effective Dreaming is about Fay, a public servant from Canberra who finds her life incredibly dull, but lives a deeper and richer second life through her dreams about a fantasy world.  I enjoyed reading this one, though I am finding it very difficult to write about. Perhaps in many respects, the novel is just fine as it is and it is really a journey that interested readers need to make for themselves. Or perhaps that is just a cop out. Anyway, the writing is very clever, with its shifting narratives (real world Fay is told through first person narrative, while fantasy world Fay is told through third person,) and it is interesting how the focus shifts further and further away from Fay's mundane real world and deeply into her fantasy world where she becomes far more interested in the people and things that are around her.  I would be very interested to know what other readers make of this one. Recommended.

Anyone who grew up in Australia in the late 1980s/early 1990s, should remember this! For those of you who don't, this clip featuring The Black Cat was a regular feature on Play School.  PS--Contrary to the title of the clip, the cat is not named Barbara. However, the song was performed by Barbara Frawley.

Devastation Road was a novel that caught me completely by surprise. When I picked it up, I expected quite a different book to the complex--and better--story that was told. The setting is Europe in the spring of 1945. Owen has lost his memory, though he knows his name and that he can remember joining the British army while the second world war was in its early stages. Now a war that he cannot remember has been won and he knows that he needs to find his way home. Meanwhile, his two unlikely travelling companions have their own tragic stories and their own reasons for making the journey across Europe--Irena is a Polish Jew, who fell pregnant after being raped and wants to hand the child to its father and leave it there, and Janek is a teenage boy who wants to be reunited with his family, who were captured by German soldiers. In their own way, each of the characters shows how Europe was changed--and left devastated--by the second world war. This is a story of people who are displaced a...

Contemporary Ireland and folklore combine in The Enchanted Island  a fun and eccentric new novel by Ellie O'Neill, author of Reluctantly Charmed.  Maeve O'Brien is a nice girl who does a bit of a nasty (or more to the point, selfish,) thing and finds herself kicked out of her flat and sent back to live with her widowed mother. And if that was not bad enough, her work is sending her off to the dreary island of Hy Brasil to finalise some boring paperwork. But nothing on Hy Brasil is as it seems and Maeve's welcome to the island is less than warm ... The Enchanted Island is a perfect fit for readers looking for something light, romantic and fun. In many respects, Maeve O'Brien reminded me of a slightly wicked version of Rebecca Bloomwood from Sophie Kinsella's brilliant Shopaholic novels, though through her time on the island Maeve learns her lesson well. The mixture of ancient myth and contemporary Ireland work well--I loved O'Neill's interpretation o...

Every year in Adelaide, in the days following the Christmas Pageant, the road and pavements are covered randomly with these colourful creations. As they wait for the Pageant to begin, the children are supplied with chalk and are given a free run to decorate the local roads and pavements. It's a great way to relieve boredom and to make the city colourful in the lead up to Christmas! This photograph was taken shortly after the 2014 Christmas Pageant, outside the Supreme Court building on King William Street. I can't wait to see what colourful designs will be there after the 2015 Christmas Pageant. 

Does this happen to anyone else?

Hi everyone and welcome to the final stop on The Enchanted Island Blog tour. I've been following the tour closely and there have been some excellent posts, and now I'm massively, massively excited because it's my turn. Today I'll be chatting with Ellie about her new book, Hy Brasil the success of Reluctantly Charmed and some lovely surfers ... Hi Ellie and welcome back to Kathryn’s Inbox. When we last spoke, you were preparing for the release of your debut novel Reluctantly Charmed , which went on to be the fourth highest selling Australian debut novel of 2014. (And congratulations on that, by the way.) Were you blown away by the success of Reluctantly Charmed , or were you quietly confident all along … ? Blown away is putting it mildly!   I couldn’t believe it.   To put it in context, this was a book that had taken me years to get published, had been rejected countless times and had been recommended by one particular agent that it should be thrown on the s...

After enjoying Slammed so much, I could not resist picking up a copy of the sequel and finding out what was in store for Layken and Will. Would they get their happy ever after, or were there bound to be many bumps along the way. The answer is, of course, the latter. Switching narrators from Layken to Will, the novel examines the difficulty the pair have developing a relationship when they are both college students and full time guardians to their respective younger brothers. And there might just be a manipulative former girlfriend in there as well. Eddie and Gavin are back, with some heavy duty problems of their own and Kel and Caulder have a new friend in the form of their precocious neighbour Kiersten who I found to completely butterflyingly annoying. (Sorry.)  Anyway, this one is a sweet and enjoyable follow up to a book that completely took me by surprise,. Though it never quite hits the same heights as Slammed, it was an enjoyable enough, clean romantic read and ...

Hi everyone! Adelaide author Sean Williams was kind enough to take some time out and answer a few questions from me recently, which resulted in a brilliant interview. Check it out below!  Congratulations on the publication of Hollowgirl (or Fall as it is known in Australia). Can you tell us readers a little bit about what to expect from this, the third and final novel in the Twinmaker trilogy? Thanks, Kathryn. I’m hugely excited to have reached the end of this series--not because I’m over it, but because the ending was one I’d been looking forward to writing for years. Fall brings together a lot of threads left dangling for a long time, at least one of them from the opening of book one, Jump . (To whit: not until this book do we meet the real Libby.) Generally, I like to know where a story finishes before I start, so I’ve always known that this book would contain the all-stops- out fun of copied people, artificial reality, and rampaging AIs. Plus friends reunited, tra...

Fancy a seat? This colourful pair of wooden benches (who are accompanied by a beautifully decorated pavement,) live just outside the Adelaide City Council headquarters on Pirie Street (next door the Town Hall.) 

And did the Great Pumpkin show up this year? In all seriousness, I love the way that Marcie gets this one wrong and suffers a severe reprimand from an already embarrassed and humiliated Linus, who has yet again missed out on seeing the Great Pumpkin. Basically a metaphor for a false belief based on greed, Linus believes that the Great Pumpkin will supposedly rise up one Halloween and deliver presents to all the children in the world.