A new novel emerges from NaNoWriMo 2012

I am ecstatic! Thanks to the discipline of NaNoWriMo, I now have a brand new novel called Let Angels Fly. Sure, it's only first draft, but I started on 1st November with 'Chapter 1' and I ended up yesterday with 'The End'.

I can't describe the sense of euphoria and satisfaction that I feel.

However, I woke up today feeling a little lost. So ... I am now researching and plotting an outline for my THIRD book. :-)

I'll let the new book settle for a while, then begin the long process of editing.

Thanks NaNoWriMo. Thanks Office of Letters and Light. See you all again in November 2013.

End of a journey – start of a new one

For the last few months, I have travelled down a pathway that has been quite difficult. Ill health besieged me, and stifled my ability to write or edit. However, today 1^st November, is the start of NaNoWriMo – the national novel writing month. As I did last year, I will join over 300,000 other writers around the world for a collaborative, supportive, nurturing, and wonderful feast of creativity.

Over the last few months, I have witnessed the best and the worst of human behaviour. I have endured disappointment, betrayal, and felt the sharp sting of injustice. Today I am going to try to turn the corner and once again breath fresh air, see the silver lining, and enjoy my life.

Good luck to all my NaNoWriMo buddies, and also my writing group – YON Beyond – members who are also participating.

 

Book Review - 'Finding Veronica' by Louise Forster

'Finding Veronica' by Louise Forster

This book is refreshingly original, both in story and in writing style.

I felt so at home with the honest Australian characters - from the two main protagonists, to the dear little old ladies for whom butter wouldn't melt in their mouths. We all know people just like the characters in Finding Veronica. They were real, warts and all, quirky, oddball and sometimes, flawed.

I also resonated with the Australian accents, vernacular, and colloquialisms. The author, Louise Forster, has skillfully taken a slice of everyday life, and put it down on paper.

Forster has captured the eccentricities of everyday characters in a small country town, and created cameo appearances for almost everyone; from the local volunteer fireman, to the undertaker, and the CWA. She has then woven them through a rollicking good yarn full of intrigue, mystery and romance.

Louise Forster

The two main characters, Jennifer and Cal, are extremely likeable and the reader has no trouble feeling for them during the ups and downs of their relationship.

But best of all, this book is funny! Laugh out loud funny! I really enjoyed its originality, the wonderful characters, and the writer's ability to create a sense of fun.

'Finding Veronica' is available at Amazon.

Nora Ephron - thanks for the fun

Some of my favourite movies are romantic comedies – sometimes called chick flicks. Today, the world lost one of the best writers of movies in this genre. Nora Ephron left this world, but has left a legacy of her wonderful writing, and a legion of fans who will never tire of watching her craft play out across the movie screens, with such wonderful actors as Meryl Streep, Billy Crystal, Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.

As a lover of the genre that Nora did so well, I feel very sad. But her philosophy on writing, and on life, show how writing, and reading, was an intrinsic part of her life.

"Reading is everything. Reading makes me feel like I've accomplished something, learned something, become a better person. Reading makes me smarter. Reading gives me something to talk about later on. Reading is the unbelievably healthy way my attention deficit disorder medicates itself. Reading is escape, and the opposite of escape; it's a way to make contact with reality after a day of making things up, and it's a way of making contact with someone else's imagination after a day that's all too real. Reading is grist. Reading is bliss.” ~ Nora Ephron

Thank you Nora, for some of my favourite films. You will be missed.

Julie and Julia

Silkwood

Heartburn

When Harry met Sally

Sleepless in Seattle

You've got mail

Rejection letters piling up? You’re in good company.

“The best revenge is massive success”  -  Frank Sinatra

The publishing industry is fickle. Like fashion, it fluctuates according to the perceived market. What was in vogue yesterday may well be a no go area tomorrow.

So, how do first time authors get published? We are at the mercy of the massive, multi-billion dollar publishing industry; we are faced with the juggernaut of e-books and self-publishing which is proving very popular; we have to first get through the publishing house gate-keepers – the Agents.

Well, take heart. Look at this brief and far from complete list of some of the biggest selling authors of all time. They suffered rejection, humiliation and despair, before finally breaking through and getting their first book into print.

Stephen King’s first book, Carrie, was rejected thirty times before finally getting published. He apparently threw the manuscript in the waste bin, but his wife extricated it and made him keep sending it out.

Margaret Mitchell received thirty-eight rejections for the classic Gone With the Wind.

James Joyce was not a good commercial bet with the publishers, receiving twenty-two rejections, and when he was finally taken on, they would only print 1250.

Australian author Matthew Reilly was so sick of being rejected that he opted for self-publishing. Apparently he talked book shop owners into putting his book in the front window alongside all the big names. Talk about making your own luck!

Even J. K. Rowling apparently received twelve rejections for the first Harry Potter book. Can you believe that?

Other great authors such as John le Carré was told his first book was no good, and John Grisham’s A Time to Kill was rejected by twelve publishers and sixteen agents before being picked up.

So, I like Frank Sinatra’s idea. Don’t give up, and when you DO get published, be as successful as the above great authors. As the famous saying goes,  Nolite te bastardes carborundorum – don’t let the bastards grind you down.

Unlocking the past – the joys of Research

Turning family history into a novel – a challenging path to take.

I have just finished writing my historical novel, Stone of Heaven and Earth. This story is largely based on the real lives of my grandparents in China, and spans the years 1914 to 1929. I never met my Grandfather, but remember being told their story as a child. Their life together was one of the highest of highs, and abysmal tragedy.

I was able to draw on two memoirs written by my mother and my aunt. I also had a couple of letters, but the actual details were lost over the years.
Before I could start writing, I needed to know some details so that I could bring to life the characters of my story. It took me many, many hours, but I remember a rush of warmth flowing through me when I found my Grandmother and her sister’s name in the passenger list in the Brisbane Courier dated 22 June 1914. No one in the family knew the name of the ship they left Brisbane on. I felt like I had dug up a long forgotten treasure chest when I discovered the ship was the Tasman from the KMP Line, captained by Captain Lucardie. From that moment on, I felt like I was holding my Grandmother’s hand and she was leading me along the journey.

I went with her in my mind. I heard her voice, saw her eyes and her smile. Shed tears with her, and fell in love with my Grandfather with her.

A month spent in China retracing, as best I could, their footsteps, helped me to understand why they loved China, a very exotic land, especially a hundred years ago.
As I walked along the Bund in Shanghai, I knew that my Grandfather had walked there too, on his way to work at the Customs House which still stands proud on the Bund. In my story, I have both my Grandmother and Grandfather walking along that very place, talking to each other, falling in love.

My Grandfather, Oliver Clark, holding my mother aged nearly two

Jack and Annie, Oliver and Darl about 1915

At one stage of the writing process, I felt that the research was distracting me from the job at hand, but I know that I now have an intimate knowledge of the lives and times of these special people. The internet pointed me in the direction of Professor Robert Bickers at the Bristol University in England. He has done a major study of the Chinese Maritime Customs Service, my Grandfather’s employer. He sent me the service record of my Grandfather, and even searched for his tombstone, but alas it does not now exist.

Research has given me back my Grandparents, who I am sure are both very happy with my story, as I can feel them with me, and they are smiling.

Passenger list for Misses Houston, KPM Line 'Tasman' 20th June 1914

Dining Room of the Astor House Hotel

The Shanghai Bund, circa 1915. The Customs House is centre of picture, with a clock tower and flag flying

Map showing the foreign concessions in Shanghai

Shanghai, 1912