I was at a writers conference last weekend and one or two publishers mentioned the fact they were after novels featuring mixed media or compiled via a mix of emails or text or similar. Are You Sleeping by Kathleen Barber would have made those publishers very happy because, not only is it about something very topical (ie. podcasts and true crimes), it includes tweets, online forum chats and podcast transcripts.
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.
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