Well it's been a long time that I've been thinking about doing something different to blogging (let's face it, my blog has become more and more sporadic with time). Twitter looks like it's dying (and if it doesn't literally disappear, it has changed. I really don't think the strategy is to completely destroy it. I [...]
Author: Jenny May Ackland
Writer, podcaster, teacher. Interested in many things. Failed knitter, big reader. I love talking about books.
Brendan Cowell (writer, poet, screenwriter and actor — Love My Way’s Tom) speaks with Kate Mildenhall @ The First Time; Once Upon a Time at Bennington College and Succession
While I wait for the next episode of Once Upon a Time at Bennington College to drop (it's due 20 October, but Donna Tartt's 'people' have sent cease and desist letters to podcaster Lili Anolik and her people, so I'm fossicking about and listening to other stuff. I'm also stalled in the last episode of [...]
Once Upon a Time… at Bennington College
This is my new obsession, a podcast about what it was like to be at the college Donna Tartt went to, which was also the college Bret Easton Ellis went to, and Jonathan Lethem. I've listened to the first episode, loved it. Lili Anolik has written a lot of journalism about Hollywood and LA (I [...]
The new George
This is incredible this book. I'm up to Gooseberries by Chekhov, have read it once and the accompanying text but have gone back to the beginning to re-read. I've done this also with the first story In the Cart (also by Chekhov), The Singers (Turgenev) and Master and Man (Tolstoy). What a gift this book [...]
When writers… critique
So there's been a bit of a thing on Twitter about Sally Rooney's next book (yeah, yeah I'm not tweeting but I'm still reading). The flurry of responses has been about a 'review' of Rooney's upcoming book, Beautiful World, Where Are You. I put review in scare quotes because some people say it's not really [...]
Writing the natural world
https://www.youtube.com/embed/881LXo0kAWs Grindavik, Iceland This is a fantastic article I came across yesterday morning, from The New Yorker's little morning blast. I find I'm reaching for this - and The Monthly one, and something called POST from The Saturday Paper. This one, Chasing the Lava Flow in Iceland. by Heidi Julavits, is a treat.
Hello 2021
Long time, no type. I'd put all my blog posts into some sort of hidden folder and just now reinstated them. I plan to get back to a bit of blogging because why not, also we're in a pandemic and nostalgia is a real pull right now. I don't know how much time I'll have, [...]
HELLO 2018
I'm having some trouble with my website here. A wonderful wonderful designer is doing things with it to make it better but I managed to muck it up a bit by fiddling. So bear with me/us as I/we get it how I want it. But for now. A list: I am reading Bruce Pascoe's [...]
The next Bad Diaries Salon – 6 Dec 2017
This is a free event, and unticketed. Just rock up (but if you could RSVP on the link below that would be great. Also if you could like or follow the page that would be great too.) Love to see you there. I'll be MC'ing as five writers read from their early terrible diaries, to [...]
Newstead Short Story Tattoo
Last Wednesday, I went away for a few days to Taradale, to write. It was a productive time, if only because I made some decisions about book 3, wrote a few words, read (one of the new Black Inc Writers on Writers volumes, Erik Jensen on Kate Jennings; and Seamus Heaney's translation of Beowulf, [...]
Perth #REGRETS
Well it was a fabulous night. We all read from our diaries. Because of the rule that we don't record on the night and try to create that safe, intimate space, I won't talk about what others read. I will say that all were funny, brilliant and thoughtful. There was some tragedy, delivered in mocking [...]
The Bad Diaries Salon #TRIPS
We had the second salon last night to the theme of TRIPS. It was held at Abbotsford Convent, at Cam's Kiosk, which was a great venue for this type of event. We started mingling and chatting at 6.30pm. First reader started a little after 7, and we were finished by about 8.45pm. It was interesting [...]
The Bad Diaries Salons
This is a new thing, happening in Melbourne and elsewhere. On twitter one day I put the question out whether there were any writers with their old (bad) diaries - you know, the excruciating ones from childhood, teen-hood and early adulthood. Where it was all about the self, the indignities and mistakes. Pages filled with [...]
FESTIVAL TIME
1. Bendigo Writers Festival is on this weekend. I'm seeing a stream of tweets in my feed. Looks like some good sessions, but what I've really noticed are the staging and flower arrangements. Gorgeous. One day I'll get up there for the festival. 2. And on aesthetics, here is an article from today about [...]
Willy Lit Fest 2017
It was a good couple of days. Saturday I saw Leah Kaminsky, Rachael Guy and Andy Jackson talking poetry, the body, chronic illness and disability. It was interesting and moving. All smart people with brilliant things to say, and all gorgeous readers of their own - and other - work. Then it was my [...]
Willy Literary Festival 2017
I've never been to this festival (talk about being a bad Melburnian writer) but it's on next weekend and I am doing two things and really excited about being there. First is The Age of Experience on Saturday 17 June, 3.30-4.30pm where Christy Collins, Paul Dalgarno and I talk to Jane Rawson about being debut [...]
Writers Under the Influence
Are you a scotch drinker or whiskey fiend? Neither? I am somewhat on the wagon these days but I do have a partiality to an occasional snifter of Laphroaig. I have been invited to appear at a series called Writers Under the Influence, at funky Northcote Buck Mulligan's Bar on Wednesday 7 June at 7.30pm. Buck [...]
First real proper lit festival appearance locked in
I'm a bit excited because I have a booking for next year, for a literary festival. I don't want to say too much about it in case it's too early (let's face it, it's too early) but I'm pleased partly because it came from a pitch that started last year (or earlier this year, I [...]
Bayside Local Authors Expo
On Sunday I was on a panel at a local writers' expo, hosted by the fantastic Beaumaris Library. Also on my panel were Jane Sullivan (wearing her two hats: white for writer, black for critic/reviewer), Olga Lorenzo (fellow Allen & Unwin stable-mate) and Lorraine Campbell (author of The Butterfly Enigma, and other titles). Our [...]
Battling on with Sir Salman
I am in the final stages of Midnight's Children and what a struggle it is. This is not a novel that will give itself over to me in any way. Just when I think I'm getting a grip, it slips away from me, like one of the frequent snake motifs scattered through the book, or [...]
Read #1: The God of Small Things
I finished my first Reading India book last night, Arundhati Roy's first - and only - published novel, The God of Small Things. It's a book I had tried once before to read, and not gotten through the first twenty or so pages. This time, because of my challenge, I persisted. And for a long [...]
Plans for 2016
As I said before, this is my Year of Reading India. The rules are I don't buy any new local or overseas fiction, with the following exceptions: my friend's book, coming out this year some time books that fit into my written by an Indian author/set in India/about India books that are necessary for my reading [...]
Signing off, festively yours
It's that time of year to go quiet, but before I do, here are my top 5 reads for 2015: A Little Life, Hanya Hanagihara The Wonder Lover, Malcolm Knox A Strangeness in My Mind, Orhan Pamuk H is for Hawk, Helen Macdonald All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr Yes, they are [...]
Reading plans for 2016 – the Year of Reading India
While I was in Ubud recently, I decided that next year will be my Year of Reading India. I plan for 2016 to be the beginning of a new type of reading approach for me. Why India? Because I have a bunch of books written by Indian authors already, including a few of Salman Rushdie's [...]
Reading catch-up, almost end of 2015
But I will squeeze a few more books in by the end of the year. Last book I listed was Pamuk's A Strangeness in My Mind, which was book 44. Then, I went to Ubud. In my suitcase I took one bottle of champagne, and several books, including Lucy Treloar's Salt Creek; Hanya Yanagihara's A [...]
2, 2 and 2 at Amanda Curtin’s blog
The lovely Amanda Curtin (who I met at the recent Ubud Writers Festival) asked me if I'd participate in a series she runs on her blog, looking up looking down. The idea is you write about 2 things that inspired your book, 2 places connected with the book (geographical or metaphysical) and 2 favourite 'anythings' somehow connected [...]
5 influential books
Culture Street asked me to write about five books that influenced me, including one from childhood. This was a fantastic exercise as it made me really think hard about which books - among many many - had some sort of influence that I could trace. I had 100 words limit to spend on each, they [...]
Back from my fishing trip aka The Ubud Writers and Readers Festival 2015
It was really good and while the added six days were kind of not good, they were also good. Good. Here are some photos from my launch, which was held at the divine Sri Ratih Cottages in Ubud, which was also where I stayed. It was really fun doing a launch with a different format. First, [...]
Stuck fishing in Bali
Hope to be back early next week.
Gone fishing
Reading catch-up: Orhan Pamuk’s A Strangeness in My Mind
Book 44 for the year is A Strangeness in My Mind. I love Orhan Pamuk's novels but I haven't read them all because not all are, well, accessible. The ones I've tried and not finished: My Name is Red and The Black Book. The ones I have, and have loved them all: Snow, The Museum of [...]
Just me, Toni & Salman
So check out the link below. I'll wait here for you to come back. Radio National Books & Arts Daily I was very excited when I got a message from Kate Evans of Books+Arts and Books+ on Radio National to let me know my interview with her would be broadcast this morning. I listened 'live' and was [...]
My first author Q&A for The Secret Son
My publicist at Allen & Unwin was approached by a reviewer, who'd read my book and reviewed it on her website. Would I consider answering some questions, about the book and how I wrote it? Oh, yes I would! The questions were fantastic, and it's made me realise that after so long with a book, so [...]
The Fishermen, by Chigozie Obioma
Book 42: I finished this earlier today and did so with tears in my eyes. None rolled, but they were there. I found it moving, at the end, and also found that it seemed perfectly paced, the last quarter of the book. I felt doom, I felt apprehension and I felt admiration. It's a fine [...]
The Secret Son, review in The Australian newspaper
Was very happy to see this review of The Secret Son (alongside Leah Kaminsky's first novel The Waiting Room) in the paper over the weekend. An author dreams of reviews, and they don't always happen, small or big, positive or negative. They don't always happen quickly, and they don't always happen at all. With 400 new [...]
How good is this?
Am catching up with an old school friend on Monday (she lives in Sydney, me in Melbourne). She texted confirmation for our coffee and then included a link to an article in which she shared her response to my book with her readers. She also tweeted about it. She didn't have to do any of this, and [...]
Sunday reading catch up including PURITY by Jonathan Franzen
But first, looky here: This is what I saw in The Age Sunday Life magazine this morning. Nice! This is what I cooked last night. I don't think anyone can make a better spaghetti marinara than me. Romeo's in Toorak? I think not. TIAMO in Carlton? Pffft. * Yesterday I spent a lot of the day [...]
Chigozie Obioma and the case for ‘audacious prose’
This week, Chigozie Obioma's debut novel The Fishermen was short-listed for the Man Booker Prize. Obioma was already on my radar, first because I'd been hearing about the book, and then because I booked into a workshop he's running at the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival next month. I booked into it so fast, it was like [...]
Book launch for THE SECRET SON
Last Wednesday night I had my book launch party at Bella Union in Melbourne. It was a fantastic night, I couldn't be happier with how it went. We had a belly dancer and drummer: My book was graciously and intelligently launched by AS Patrić. He said lovely things about it and it was quite overwhelming. He read [...]
Official publication day for The Secret Son
Even though my book has been in shops for a few days now, today is the official pub date. My dad flew in from Perth, where he's almost at the end of a drive-Australia trip with his wife. He's come for my launch. A friend has come from New Zealand to be here for my [...]
Happening
My book is in all good book shops. My book is quite comfortable, in a stack, as a pillow. My book is very beautiful and quite nice to read too. My book wants to be in your house, in your bookcase. My book has the most beautiful cover. Did I say that? My book is [...]
QUICKSAND Steve Toltz
Let me say first, I have A Fraction of a Whole, I've had it for years, but I haven't read it. Yet. I will, because now I know how Steve Toltz writes, I will be eating up all his words. Book number 35 for the year was Quicksand, ah what to say about it. It's [...]
Wuthering Heights. It’s a love-hate thing.
Thursday was Emily Brontë's birthday and she would have turned 197. Her pièce de résistance Wuthering Heights was probably the first (and only?) piece of classic literature that I connected to with such visceral, anguished, teenagery love, and now regard with no less admiration, but it's tempered with a more mature writerly and readerly respect. As a teenager I wrong-loved [...]
Dancing in the Dark
I am a bit obsessed with Karl Ove Knausgaard, and am almost finished the fourth book in his My Struggle series. This volume covers him leaving home after school and going to teach in a small town in northern Norway. He hasn't done any training but it doesn't matter, apparently post-secondary school kids can teach. We [...]
Another book giveaway
Goodreads is hosting another Allen & Unwin book give-away of my novel, THE SECRET SON. Twenty more copies are now up for grabs, so head there if you'd like to be in it. Competition is open until 16 August (AUS and NZ only). But hey, good luck! Enter here.
The glorious Tilda Swinton
There's always been a lot to admire about Tilda Swinton. And now there's this as well. A wonderfully moving speech, about the light and dark of Art, and how it feeds the soul, how it lets us know we have souls, how in many ways, it is the stuff of life. Paintings, writing, music. Discovering [...]
Monday musings
Melbourne is very cold at the moment so I'm sitting propped in bed, 'working'. And as usual I have a bunch of pages open in my Mozilla browser. I'm always envious of anybody who has gotten to see The Museum of Innocence in Istanbul. I know I'll get there, and I've known about it since it opened. [...]
Book give-away | THE SECRET SON
The ace people at Allen & Unwin are giving away 5 advance reading copies of my book THE SECRET SON, on Goodreads. Click on THIS LINK to go to the page to enter. I can't give any better instructions than that. I've forgotten my Goodreads password, which isn't a good look. Competition is open until 19 July, and Australian and [...]
What I’ve been reading, what I stopped reading, what I want to be reading
But first, congratulations to Sofie Laguna for her Miles Franklin win, for THE EYE OF THE SHEEP. You can read more about that here at Allen & Unwin's website. I found out that Sofie had no idea she was going to win, in fact had been told not to expect a win, so what a triumph, and [...]
Things of interest (to me anyway)
Once more I have a raft of open browser windows across the top of my screen. I haven't made much progress on the footy scarf I'm knitting for my husband's boy. Luckily I told him it would probably be ready for next season. The reason why I'm going slowly with this project is mainly because [...]
Wednesday wrap with lettuce
Today the most important thing I'll do is go here: Kate has been talking about this place for ages, on twitter, and while I have done three drive bys in an effort to get a gelato, it just hasn't worked out. I couldn't see the shop, there were no parks available, and so on. But today [...]
When you think a book is merde but it’s a best-seller
It's not often I abandon a book knowing I will never try it again. I often put books down, but I know I'll go back to them. I'm enjoying them, but it's like eating too much of the same thing , you want something different on the tongue. [beat] I know I should be kinder [...]
So there’s this
Allen & Unwin just tweeted this. How is the beauty? And I was so happy to see the bee. Just the week before I'd seen another book with bees on the cover and thought wistfully 'I wish I had a bee on my cover' and then forgot about it. And there it is. Meant to bee. [...]
Saturday links
Melbourne's evening skies at the moment are so gorgeous. I think that what are lot of us are doing with the internet, with twitter, blogs etc, is curating. We are collecting links to articles of interest, stories, pictures, as well as trying to collect people of like mind, making connections with people. It really is a [...]
Wednesday catch-up
Well, I can barely catch my own breath at the moment. It's all things proofing at my house, and looking at blurbs. My wonderful editor has sent me the proofed pages, and while they are quite 'clean' (dig the lingo, baby), I want to go through carefully. It's the last chance. My reading continues apace. That never [...]
Game of Thrones Saturday
Because I am trying to post here twice a week (and probably failing at it) and because I am pretty lazy, here are two things that I found in my facebook feed today. If you are up to date with GoT: watch and enjoy most uproariously. If you are not up to date, or haven't [...]
The Secret Son update – the cover
Last night I saw the cover design for my book. I was standing on Princes Bridge, at about 5.30pm, with a photographer, doing a few extra shots. The sky was full-on moody and the wind was wildish. It looked liked this: I was taking a few snaps on my phone, in between Mark doing his, and [...]
FALLEN
Today's post is dedicated to the 22nd book I've read this year, Fallen, a memoir, by Rochelle Siemienowicz (HURRAH, that is the first time I've been able to spell Rochelle's surname, without looking. And funnily enough, my spell check has offered 'Microeconomics' instead.) I was always going to read this book, because: DISCLOSURE, I know Rochelle in [...]
Long time, no blog
Melbourne has been particularly beautiful over recent days. Last week I went to Rickett's Point to get some author photos done. This is how gorgeous it was: The photographer had said 'Let's wait for a dark, stormy day, get some moody clouds.' Well, Melbourne [shakes fist at sky] you aren't behaving. I am, apparently, one of [...]
Reading, reading and more reading. And some editing.
My edits are done. Again. So next stage will be proof pages and seeing some cover artwork. Fingers crossed for that. It's been school holidays and while Term 2 has started today, I'm not teaching until Thursday, and then it's only a couple of sessions in the middle of the day. Easy. I've been reading, [...]
All things goshawk
So a little while ago I was all things Karl Ove Knausgaard. That hasn't changed, in fact I finished his book three and have book four waiting. It's very thick and heavy, with a teen Karl Ove on the cover. Also, here is an interesting article I saw during the week, on what it means when [...]
Saturday catch up
It's been a while since I posted. I have just finished a full-on week of teaching, as well as getting my edited manuscript back to Allen & Unwin. Am tidying my work space and getting things under control after a three-week frenzy with lots of teaching and lots of editing. Celebrating tonight with some French bubbly, [...]
Yaşar Kemal (1923-2015)
Yaşar Kemal was one of Turkey's leading authors, before anyone had heard of Orhan Pamuk. He was also the first Turkish author I read. It was Kemal's Wind from the Plain trilogy that I loved. I read the first book in 1999, during one of my times living in Istanbul. There was an English-language bookshop on Divan [...]
To be published later this year: my novel The Secret Son*
Someone gave me a push to write a new post here, with my news in a more highlighted fashion. I mentioned it earlier before I left on my trip, but this 'someone' I think wants me to make more of it. It's not my natural inclination to fanfare but here goes. Some of you will know [...]
Gone fishing
Leaving Friday for my trip but wanted to close the blog down now, as I have a lot to do before I go. Like googling directions and printing them out. Making sure I have enough boots packed. And hats. When I come back in mid Feb I have a first meeting with my new [...]
Getting ready to fly the old coop
Friday week I jet off (read: become paralysed stuffed in small almost-reclining seat within long metal tube) to London and beyond. My preparations have consisted of making sure I have warm clothes to take and even more importantly, comfortable shoes (remember the LA-NYC Blister Saga?) My blister saga was caused last time by me flying [...]
Not a review – UNDER THE SKIN by Michel Faber
Well, my first book is read for 2015. Started it yesterday, finished it today (but before that had read a couple of pages of the next Karl Ove (number 2) as well as continuing with a re-read of John Irving's The Water Method Man - must be the fourth time I've read that book). But I've [...]
Well, hello 2015
It's a massive understatement to say I'm looking forward to 2015, but I am because: 1. Something is happening with my book and I'll be able share I hope soon. It's coming, I promise. I PROMISE. 2. but not too soonish because I'm going travelling in a couple of weeks, and it looks something like this: London, Budapest, [...]
Goodbye 2014, you’ve been pretty amazing
EDITED: to include Donna Tartt's THE GOLDFINCH. Below I mention the risk of not recording what I've read through the year. This year, Tartt's book divided readers, quite violently. Some people were in critic James Wood's camp - surly haters all - but there were others who loved it, including me. I read it twice. The first [...]
Not a review: books of strange, new things
For my final book post for the year, I have chosen recent local fiction (plus one non-local interloper) to present. These are all VERY exciting novels, especially for this reader who usually sticks to The Real. Annabel Smith's THE ARK Paddy O'Reilly's THE WONDERS Jane Rawson's A WRONG TURN AT THE OFFICE OF UNMADE LISTS [...]
Not a review, on How to Be Both by Ali Smith
This year I've tested out a couple of book clubs, run by local bookshops. I have a fairly non-existent history with book groups. I went along once to a friend's meeting. I hadn't finished the book, and felt incredibly inarticulate. I don't know whether finishing the book would have made any difference, to be honest. One [...]
I do not pretend that I have led a blameless life
Ned Kelly It's always interested me that Ned Kelly was executed on this day, just an hour before the official time of remembrance for all those who died or suffered in war. As Remembrance Day marks the end of World War I (which came 38 years after Kelly was hung) it could be coincidence; it probably is. We have come to [...]
What I’ve been reading
I've been reading a lot lately, probably because I'm not writing en ce moment (more about that later, or soon, I hope. There are a couple of reasons for it and one is that my daughter is up against her Year 12 exams, beginning Cup Day, so maman has been in attendance, on the couch [...]
Interview with author Annabel Smith about her new book THE ARK (and some other stuff)
Let me tell you a bit about writer Annabel Smith. I first 'met' her on twitter, and then I met her for real earlier this year when I went to Perth for the writers festival. I think I went galloping down to her in one of the tiered venues, after she was on a panel, [...]
Dave Eggers | Closing at MWF14
Look how gorgeous the sky is through the glass of whatever it is they are calling that space now. ¤ I know, I know, I'm late with this but better late than... you know. Eggers opened with reading a piece, something he's been playing with, that he's never read before, that he thinks might become [...]
Salman ‘Let’s drop the Sir shit’ Rushdie, at MWF 2014 (28 August)
Rushdie, sans zoom Almost done with my catch-up posts. I went to see Salman Rushdie speak at what I call Dallas Brooks Hall but which I think now has another name. I can't move with the times which is why it's always 'Spencer Street Station', 'Telstra Dome' and 'Kardinia Park'. I had a good [...]
Friday wrap, with lettuce
Ouf how time is pressing against me, with lots of things clamouring for my attention. Once I worked in a place where a (wonderful) graphic designer used to call out to the room "priority conflict!" when deadlines were ticking closer and she had heaps to do and now it's what I feel like shouting too, [...]
‘Hemingway Keeper’ Michael Katakis talks to Laura Jean McKay
The Wheeler Centre has a fabulous program of events throughout the year, including the occasional 'lunch time treat' such as yesterday's chat with writer and photographer Michael Katakis, and author Laura Jean McKay. The name of the event was 'Hemingway's Keeper' and it caught my eye, bien sur. I have a love for Hemingway that [...]
Helen Garner’s opening at the 2014 Melbourne Writers Festival
I went along to the Melbourne Town Hall to see Helen Garner talking to Romana Koval. it was a buzzy night, lots of people, and I'd booked my ticket using the 'select seat yourself' button, instead of the 'best available.' This meant I got a ticket in the first row and as I walked [...]
Shacks (and one non-shack), Werribee South
This post is for Sarah, who posted some shacky stuff here and here.
MWF14 catch-up post MORNING READ W/ THUY ON, & Philip Hensher
Thuy On with novelist Mark Henshaw I first met Thuy when The Big Issue published my story 'Dead Man's Cake' last year. I perched awkwardly at the team's table in the Optic bar after the launch. To be fair, they called me over, and I was introduced to everyone else. Thuy said she really liked [...]
RAIMOND GAITA TALKS WITH MARIA TUMARKIN
I've just finished Romulus, My Father. Many people have told me it was a wonderful read, and as time went on, it seemed more and more were telling me this, so it seemed timely that I went and saw Raimond Gaita in conversation. I picked up this ticket (and one for Philip Henser that morning) [...]
MWF14 – MEG WOLITZER & JOAN LONDON
MEG WOLITZER TALKS TO JANE SULLIVAN, Saturday 23 August Sullivan introduced Wolitzer, an author whose book The Interestings has been on my list for a long time, saying she's written seven novels, and is admired and enjoyed in equal measure. Wolitzer grew up with a mother who wrote, and still writes in her eighties, her [...]
Melbourne Writers Festival 2014, let’s call it an Early Friday wrap, with lettuce
Well it's upon us, and has been for a week now. But it really cranks up for me tomorrow. Thus far the highlights have been Meg Wolitzer (last Saturday), Joan London (last night) and Salman Rushdie (tonight). I'm not going to be able to do what I did last year, which was post long recounts [...]
A day in bed a week
Edith Sitwell said something like a woman needs a day in bed a week. I've been trying this out (when practicable) and yesterday I had a day. I read (Patti Smith's memoir about her and Robert Mapplethorpe's relationship, Just Kids) and looked at my phone, and read, and looked at my phone. Went to to [...]
Qaisra Shahraz @ Readings Hawthorn PEN event
My friend Athi and I went along to see my twitter friend Qaisra earlier this month, to hear her speak about her work. Qaisra has been very warm and friendly on twitter, and when I read last year that she was Australia-bound for the Byron Bay Writers Festival, I thought I might make the trip [...]
Helen Garner at Nunawading Library, 23 July
The Friends of the Nunawading Library (FONL) work to make funds available to community libraries in the area to invite guest speakers along to talk to readers. A few weeks ago it was Helen G, and I headed along with my dad to listen to her. Helen is my dad's second cousin but this time [...]
The Writer as Editor, with Christina Thompson, Alice Pung & blow-in Gideon Haigh
Chris Wallace-Crabbe moderated this panel, and the first note I have written was something he said: Editing is almost everything. He introduced the panel, saying they'd asked Gideon along even though he wasn't on the program. Christina spoke for a while, giving her background. She worked for Peter Craven on Scripsi, the lit mag he [...]
Alex Miller & Helen Garner at Mildura, 18 July 2014
I saw Helen Garner at two events in the last week. It's a bit exciting because before that, I'd never seen her and I'm not sure I'd even heard her voice. So it was interesting. This session at Mildura was billed as a reading, and both writers read. Apparently they arm wrestled (really?) and Helen [...]
Ssssh, don’t tell anyone. Let’s keep it secret.
I'm serious. I was in two minds about blogging about the Mildura Writers Festival. (Some print material had the apostrophe, some didn't. I'm making a call and going without. Just because then I don't have to slow down to put it in.) Imagine I'm whispering all of the following to you. We're in a cafe, [...]
Friday wrap w/ lettuce
Well, what news have I other than that my sleeping time is being sucked by the Tour de France and I am finding myself wanting to cook and eat Franch food? Not much other than I've been reading (nothing stops me reading). So how heinous are these book covers? Wuthering Heights (like Lolita) has so [...]
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
Finished this last night. It is wonderful. I'd been hearing about it for quite a while (you know when you hear about books. Other books I hear about, and have yet to read are Claire Messud The Woman Upstairs, Louise Erdich's The Round House (I think, I've got it written down somewhere) and AM Homes's [...]
Voice/POV workshop with Robert Gott
Yesterday I trammed up to the Wheeler Centre, for another Writers Victoria workshop. During the round-the-table intros, I described myself as a workshop junkie. It is true. But I find that it's interesting to meet other writers, to meet facilitators/teachers, to hear what people are working on (I made a note while listening to people's [...]
Friday wrap w/ lettuce
First up, it's bookstores. You know those posts that go around with amazing bookstores. Funnily enough, the one I really dig in this list is the first, and most traditional-looking shop: City Lights Bookshop, San Francisco. Here's the post so you can look at them all yourself. An article from The Millions on the art [...]
Flashback to 30 June, 2005 ‘What’s beside my bed’
This is from my journal about three years before I started to realise if I didn't start taking my ideas about fiction writing seriously, nothing would ever happen with it. I still circled it for a few more years (the mention of Edward Said means I was doing my thesis reading and therefore all energies [...]
Bits & pieces
READING At the moment I have a lot of books partially read, and plenty unread, but that doesn't stop me bringing more into the house. I bought Wild Things by Brigid Delaney earlier this week, one of those 'how has she done this?' purchases, as well as Jennifer Egan's A Visit From the Goon Squad [...]
Melbourne Jewish Writers Festival 2014
On Saturday night I went to the gala opening of the inaugural MJWF, held at the Glen Eira Town Hall. Hosted by comedian Rachel Berger, and with appearances by some of the featured writers from the festival, it was a fun entrée to the next days of the festival (sessions ran yesterday and continue today.) [...]
Friday wrap, w/ lettuce
This very quickly because I'm busy, man. 1. This is a fun, yet poignant, article on [not] being a famous writer, and how humbling the biz can be. Please turn to the chapter on obscurity... 2. I am all about Larry Brooks and his storyfixing en ce moment. Doesn't matter if you are a [...]
Going Global, ASA Seminar held Wed 14 May, Melbourne
Anne Beilby, Rights Manager at Text Publishing.I went along to this not quite sure what it was about (my fault, no one else's.) But I knew two things:1. Anne Beilby from Text Publishing was the speaker and 2. she is a guru when it comes to all things to do with publishing rights.Actually I knew [...]
Annabel Smith’s Friday Faves
Author Annabel Smith asked me if I'd appear on her Friday Faves regular feature over at her blog. She invites bookish people to share one of their favourite books and explain a bit about the book and their connection to it. it's a terrific feature and I was really happy to be asked. I have [...]
Catch-up post: what I’ve been reading
I want to share my thoughts on three recent reads.These are selected because I very much liked the first two, am confused by the third, but all of them I read straight through without stopping and picking something else up. This is odd for me these days so there was something about all of these [...]
Friday wrap, with lettuce
Here is a collection of the little bits and pieces that caught my eye on twitter and facebook recently. Starting with a picture that I loved: It's a garden in Wales. Look how beautiful it is. Then there were a couple of David Foster Wallace pieces. I admit to being a little obsessed with him, [...]
FINAL PWF2014 catch-up post. Bloody hell, it’s taken ages
Richard Flanagan's closing address ON LOVE STORIES Flanagan was introduced by the festival director Emily and he kissed her after her opening comments. When he did this he lifted his foot back and it was a very cute beginning to his talk on love. I confess I've only read one Richard Flanagan book, no make [...]
PWF14 catch-up post, Paper & Glass. On indigenous story-telling.
This is the second-last catch-up post for the festival. Sorry it's taking me so long, I just need to fit it in around all the other important things in my life like going to the opera and lying in bed during the day reading Game of Thrones. You know how it is. Oh, and writing. [...]
Friday wrap, with lettuce
Here are some of the things that caught my eye this week, or came under my nose. Article from The Atlantic on Vera Nabokov and her role in her husband's work. Often people talk about 'wanting a wife' or 'needing a wife' — I've said it myself — as if the only helpful function of a woman [...]
PWF catch-up: Saints & Sinners: Faith, Abuse & George Pell, with David Marr
Continuing my series of catch-up posts on the recent (and getting not-so-recent) Perth Writers Festival in March, this session was pretty amazing and anyone who's seen David Marr in full swing will know what I mean. Although I did once meet a man in a second-hand bookshop in Euroa who said he didn't like Marr. [...]
Sleepers Almanac No. 9
The Sleepers Almanac is being launched tonight. I have a poem in it, which is weird because I don't really write poetry. But I did write this one, and it got in. Come along tonight if you're in Melbourne and aren't so tightly diarised that you can go to something with two hours' notice. I [...]
Literary bits & pieces
This is quite good but the best quotation is the first one from Elizabeth Wurtzel. Never mind the bizarre photo accompanying it. You glance at it: something's not quite right. You look closely at it. Yep, it's weird. It’s really hard to be a writer. You have to be born with incredible amounts of talent. [...]
PWF2014 catch-up post. OK. This one is weird but IT WASN’T MY FAULT
So I see an event listed. It's free. It falls into a slot where I have nothing to see. It's in a location that I know, ie I don't need to look at the map to get there. And it's got 'culture' in the title. The Lucky Culture, with Nick Cater, columnist with The Australian [...]
PWF14 catch-up post, Intelligent Design with Margaret Drabble, Eleanor Catton and Jeet Thayil
INSERT NOTE HERE: THERE ARE SPOILERS IN THE COMMENT SECTION NOW, ABOUT THE LUMINARIES. JUST SAYING. The first note I have written here is: 'Margaret Drabble's pearls.' They were beautiful. I'm noticing pearls, and wearing them a bit more this year. A writerly friend and I have decided 2014 is 'the year of the [...]
PWF14 catch-up: Intelligent Design with Eleanor Catton, Margaret Drabble and Jeet Thayil
The first note I have written here is: 'Margaret Drabble's pearls.' They were beautiful. I'm noticing pearls, and wearing them a bit more this year. A writerly friend and I have decided 2014 is 'the year of the pearls.' We are trying to bring them back, and it was good to see Drabble is on [...]
PWF14 catch-up: Martin Amis talks to Tony Jones
The young Martin Amis with stepmother, author Elizabeth Jane Howard, and father, author Kingsley Amis. On the Saturday night I went to the Perth Concert Hall to see Martin Amis talk to Tony Jones. I walked there from my accommodations, sculled a champagne and then counted the number of Amis titles for sale at the [...]
PWF14 catch-up: Fallen Women with Hannah Kent, Evie Wyld & Annabel Smith
What a line-up! This session started with Annabel-tech-guru-Smith encouraging the audience to live tweet, and gives us the panel members twitter handles. (@HannahFKent and @eviewyld if you're interested. Annabel's is @AnnabelSmithAUS.) Hannah spoke first about Agnes, the protagonist in her dark, evocative Burial Rites. Hannah said she wrestled with the idea of whether Agnes was [...]
PWF2014 catch-up: The Luminaries, Eleanor Catton speaks with Susan Wyndham
On the Saturday (22 Feb) I went to listen to Eleanor Catton talk with Susan Wyndham about The Luminaries. I think this was the day I wore my new navy skirt I had bought in the op-shop at Freo the day before, when we went to find the Eyrie building. This is a skirt which [...]
Monuments to Love, PWF session w/ Andrea Goldsmith & Aviva Tuffield
Novelist Andrea Goldsmith spoke with publisher and editor Aviva Tuffield (Affirm Press.) First up, Andrea gave a great explanation of her recent novel The Memory Trap. She introduced the characters and told the audience something about them. Andrea is a skilled presenter, no, really, she goes beyond skill into gift territory. She clearly enjoys it [...]
PWF Day 1, Publishers Seminar, Session 5. THE PITCH.
What we've all been waiting for, and on the day, the Pitch session was mentioned throughout, with info about how it would work. This is how it worked:People were invited to put their names into a box and we were told they'd be pulled at random, and possibly up to ten or so would be [...]
PWF Day 1, Sessions 3 & 4
SESSION 3, THE COMPETITIVE EDGEThis was a session with a panel as follows: Rose Michael, commissioning editor at Hardie-Grant; Robert Watkins, commissioning editor at Hachette Australia; Penny Hueston, senior editor at Text Publishing and Inga Simpson, author of Mr Wigg and Hachette/QWC Manuscript Development Program alumna.)The questions to spark this session's conversations were: What are today’s [...]
PWF catch-up, Day 1, Session 2, LOST in the AMAZON
This was the blurb for this session: Given the range of print and digital publication options available today, which is the best medium for your book? With Aviva Tuffield (publisher, Affirm Press), Michael Heyward (publisher, Text Publishing), Chris Allen (author, Momentum Books) and Terri-ann White (director, UWA Publishing). My notes: Terri-ann started by saying that 'we need more readers.' She asked for a [...]
PWF14 – Publishing Seminar Day 1, Session 1 (Thurs 20 Feb)
This was a great day. I've been to 'meet the publisher/editor/agent' before but this all-in-one session, featuring the DELIGHTFUL and COHESIVE and FUN team at Fremantle Press, was a joy to watch and listen to. MEET THE PRESS 'Narrated' by author Deb Fitzpatrick, we ran through the stages of publication, from manuscript submission to sales [...]
Perth Writers Festival and beyond
I'm back from the west and what a trip it was. I did a lot of driving, listening to writers, eating, swimming and walking. Fabulous stuff. I'll do a series of catch ups here over the next week, but for now I'm going back to bed with EYRIE to re-read after seeing what HAS to [...]
Gone fishing
Heading West today for some of the following: Also publishers, editors, other writers, readers. And that. Also maybe this: certainly this and for sure a drop or two from somewhere like here Back end of next week, chickens.
How Orhan does it
Manuscript page from Orhan Pamuk’s notebook for “The Black Book." “There is no constant formula. But I make it my business not to write two novels in the same mode. I try to change everything. This is why so many of my readers tell me, I liked this novel of yours, it’s a shame you [...]
The Luminaries, by Eleanor Catton
Is it possible for a book of 800+ pages to make you wait more than 500 pages for some feeling of it 'kicking in'? Yes Is it possible for a book to be almost stupefyingly boring for more than half of it, for it only to start to spin faster and faster on some centrifuge [...]
Friday wrap, with lettuce
It's hot in Melbourne again, and the heat combined with it being Friday and the end of the first full week of term for the school year will see us collapsing at home tonight for a meal with family and some tv. And probably cold beer. I leave you with some links of recent Good [...]
My piece in the current Kill Your Darlings journal
I've got a piece in the current KYD Journal called The Primordial Place: Me and Jardo by the Lake. It's about a trip to Lake Eyre I took in 1989 which coincided with the sour end of a long and unrequited crush. You can subscribe here, or purchase hard copies. I also believe there is [...]
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
It's a big image for a big book. I loved everything about The Goldfinch and for me it was the best read of last year and possibly for several years. There were only two things that bugged me. The first was disappointing, the second more of an irritation. 1. Boris's voice wasn't very good. For [...]
Some small thoughts on Wrecked, by Charlotte Roche
I have a note here I made a year or so ago while reading Charlotte Roche's Wrecked. Like her other book Wetlands, this is a confronting story (though not as much. I don't think I've read a more confronting book than Wetlands?) There is a tragedy at the heart of this book, and one detail [...]
Not a review – The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
I've been avoiding The Luminaries (I will get back to it, I will) by re-reading The Little Friend, and then I found myself avoiding that by reading The Virgin Suicides, which is an attractive slender thing, something tasty and distracting, but all too quickly over. Oh, how beautifully it's done. It's a book about death [...]
I do so love Bill Murray
As part of my education of my daughter, we watch lots and lots of movies together. She's seen all the good '80s ones, and all the bad. The comedies, the dramas and the horrors (think I scarred her recently with The Exorcist. Yes I am a liberal parent when it comes to movies and books.) [...]
Och aye
So next is Perth Writers Festival. I've booked into lots of sessions. This is some of what I'm excited about: Lionel Shriver on literature and religion Martin Amis in conversation Richard Flanagan on love stories An all-day publishing thing on the novel, with a series of sessions. Can't wait for that one, including watching people [...]
Back into it
Am back from the beach and into the writing. Have a bit of urgency about it and today was stressful. I hate Word. I don't know how to drive it properly, with formatting and the editing feature, and I don't have time to work it out so I have to do it in a really [...]
Going fishing, again.
Well, not really but you get my drift. That man in the middle above is holding what *might* be a 'Pirate's Capriosca.' I like to think it is, because that's what we'll be drinking on the hot nights down the beach. Melbourne is staring down the fishing-rod of a run of hot days - tomorrow [...]
Tracing influences
TS Eliot said Mediocre writers borrow. Great writers steal. I have, on order, a book entitled Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative by Austin Kleon. I'm interested in the idea of stories being recycled but also in the idea of plagiarism (am writing a new manuscript which has plagiarism [...]
2014
I've got a problem. You're going to think I'm crazy but let me explain. My agent has read and loved my second novel manuscript. This is great, really good. I'm waiting for her editorial notes and I'll do another revision and then she'll send it to the publishers, the same ones who saw the first [...]
My 2013 reading wrap up
So everyone else is doing it, here's mine. These aren't all the books I read this year, but these are the ones I want to mention. The knock-out book for me: The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. Possibly my favourite book for the last few years. Biggest surprise of the year: Addition, Toni Jordan. This book [...]
Gone fishing
Back at the end of the week my pretties.
A year later
Was just going through my old posts and came across this one from 21 December last year. Great things It interests me that a year ago I had my first draft completed of my second novel manuscript (labelled VERSION1) and that I was trying to come up with a structure for it. What I was [...]
Messages from 2004 – no one is taking a punt any more
I have several large ring binder folders that are stuffed with clipped newspaper articles, book reviews, my handwritten notes from courses and other printed material, mainly pieces on writing that I've found online. Sometimes when my mind is too buzzy to settle on fiction when I'm in bed at night, before sleeping, I pull out [...]
Tracing influence
It's almost the end of the year but I've still got stuff to do. Teaching finishes this week — my final session is Thursday. But there's writing, always writing. I'm not complaining. It is the thing I most love to do and I feel really lucky to be able to do it, not just as [...]
Monday musings
Here are some things I've come across in my internet wanderings this morning: 1. A wonderful piece on Hilary Mantel. It's from last year but it gives you a lot of info about her as a person and a writer. Lots of bits in it resonate for me, but when she's talking about taking a [...]
Wagner’s The Ring Cycle
Brünnhilde Last night the Wheeler Centre hosted another event at The Capitol (I've been to a bunch of them lately around the city) and it was Julia Zemiro talking to a panel of people about Wagner's The Ring Cycle. (Panel being director Neil Armfield, foodie Maggie Beer, poet and writer and Australian Book Review Editor [...]
During the whilst
Over the next few days I'm really busy but was conscious I hadn't posted here for a week. So in the meantime, until I can get something else up, here are some snippets to keep you going. 1. I've just been browsing through Virginia Lloyd's website. Again. Yeah yeah, I know she's my agent but [...]
Sarah Drummond’s Salt Story
Photograph by Tracey Armstrong ABC South Coast This is a photo of my blog buddy Sarah Drummond who has a new book out about sea dogs (Bill, aka Salt above) and fisherwomen (aka, her own good self) working in the south-west Australian region of Albany. There's a partial interview with her, link below and also [...]
Ian McEwan: On making love work in fiction
If you watch one thing today, let it be this: On making love work in fiction Some quotations: novelists struggle constantly with trying to portray the concept of sustained happiness. There's always the danger that it will seem sentimental, or smug. Unreal. And I think only Tolstoy has truly achieved this "Anyway, literature loves difficulty, [...]
Tim Winton’s latest, EYRIE
Well, I devoured it, it would be fair to say. It took me about the same amount of time to read as Barracuda but the experience was so different. In my head, it was a kind of competition. First time I've read these two authors back-to-back. First time I've had it in my consciousness, some [...]
Daily Rituals by Mason Currey
What more fascinating thing to read about than how artists work? I bought a book about the daily rituals of a long list of writers and painters and it is wonderful to be able to browse details on how they approach(ed) their craft. Anthony Trollope — a writer I haven't read but whose books my [...]
Anna Funder – The Dymphna Clark Lecture, University of Melbourne. Last night.
Last night I went to see Anna Funder talk and her topic was "Reading My Mind - and Yours. A celebration of the act of the human imagination that is writing, and the act of the human imagination that is reading." She was softly spoken and utterly gorgeous. As my thick curly-headed friend and I [...]
Ramona Koval talking to Susan Sontag
Most writers... do their best work in their first twenty years of writing... Many exceptions, but I'd say that's by and large the case. What happens with writers is they start repeating themselves, and they have less experience, they stay home all the time. They just get bogged down in their private lives and then [...]
Words
Missing Persons WORDS. I want to talk about words. There are good ones (the solid old Anglo-Saxon ones, often single syllable, and very concrete, like rock, earth, tree, stone, bread, love, sky) and the 'bad ones',which for me are usually poly-syllabic, newer, or Latinate. Cerebral. Adverbial. Hemingway knew the worth of single words. His style [...]
A good week
Last week was a good one. On Tuesday I heard that a piece I submitted to Kill Your Darlings journal had been accepted. It's about a trip to Lake Eyre I made in 1989, and it's also about the sour-end of a one-way crush, flowing in the direction of me to him. Oh, unrequited crushing. [...]
SERAGLIO 