I’m taking the easy way out for today’s Lovin’ Life Link-up post. I’ve been working in my day job since returning from the Romance Writers of Australia conference and – although I took the time to devour two books in two nights – my creativity has faltered. So today I’m doing one of those ‘taking stock’ posts and just sharing a range of crap leaping to mind. And yes, you’re welcome.
Last week I mentioned I was attending the Romance Writers of Australia annual conference. It possibly surprised some given that I don’t write romance, and don’t really write (anything other than blog posts and book reviews) full stop.
However, as I’ve explained in the past…. I. LOVE. TO. WRITE. I love words. I love phrases. I love the whir and click as a sentence falls neatly into place. And hanging with people who ‘get’ that is a wonderful thing.
I enjoyed this book far more than I expected. Which is weird because – in reality – I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect from this book. The backcover blurb didn’t really give me any insight into the ‘type’ of novel I was going to be reading. I’m not sure that should matter and (thankfully) as it happened, it didn’t.
Some of you may recall the post I wrote earlier this year about ‘why I don’t read romance novels’. The timing was ironic because no sooner had I hit ‘publish’ when I won a registration to the Australian Romance Readers’ Association convention in Melbourne.
Although I still had to pay accommodation and flights (and am again a mortgage-holder) I decided to go, and am so glad I did. The people I met were unbelievably friendly and it was wonderful to hang with people as passionate about reading and writing as moi.
Although I enjoyed this book it needed to be a little bit ‘more’ for me. It started really well and author Haylen Beck built a lot of suspense early on. But the pacing felt a little off and it was almost as if there was a rush to get to the end… while the plot simultaneously fizzled out a little. The book however, did have a lot of potential and grabbed my attention enough that I was forced to read it in a night.
Goodreads bills this as Roxane Weary #1, so it’s already a good sign that this debut novel by Kirsten Lepionka will be the first of many. Or at least several. It’s also ideal to start a new series at the beginning…. something I’ve occasionally not done and my enjoyment of subsequent books has suffered as a result (Emma Viskic’s And Fire Came Down / Resurrection Bay, I’m looking at you!)
I am one of the few book-lovers who has not read Emma Viskic’s award-winning Resurrection Bay. In fact, other than the fact its lead character was deaf, I knew little about it. I’m also not sure why I haven’t gotten around to reading it, other than constantly having a full-reading plate. But… because I knew its predecessor was so well-received I jumped at the chance to read Viskic’s second book, And Fire Came Down, without realising it was a sequel, and – in retrospect – it might have made sense to start at the beginning.
My first ‘real’ job after University involved working in child protection and youth justice. I worked with kids and their families, though mostly the kids and young offenders themselves.
When this book came up for review and I read the blurb it seemed kinda obvious that there was going to be an underlying theme of abuse and I wasn’t too sure I wanted to go back to that world. Not because I found it too traumatic or it offered a trigger of sorts (though warning: it may for some), but because it was just something I left behind a career or three ago.
However, Australian author Meredith Jaffe handles the issue of child sexual abuse with a very light and deft touch. In fact, it’s really mostly spoken of in its aftermath.
I’ve talked about perfectionism A LOT on this blog. Not to mention my own perfectionist tendencies. In fact, when I attempted to find an old post to link here, I found so many I figured I’d just link to the many MANY posts I’ve written.
However… flicking back through them, along with a new realisation has made me think about the notion of perfectionism – not to mention my own behaviour – quite differently.
Follow me!