25/02: Mak hits the UK
Mak hits the UK.
The fourth novel in my Mak Vanderwall series, HIT, will hit the UK next week, published through John Blake's exciting new MaxCrime imprint with Maxim Jakubowski. Jakubowski - a writer, critic, founder of Murder One bookshop (the UK's first specialist crime and mystery bookstore) and now a publisher - is a fan of the series, saying Mak is 'a Sydney female PI with grit and attitude, and dare I say modelled on Tara herself. This is Sara Paretsky and Sue Grafton for a younger generation...'
So why the UK, now? In the past, my agent Selwa Anthony had difficulty negotiating with UK publishers because they wanted the Aus/NZ rights included in contracts. Apparently this is a common problem for Australian writers, and has been a Commonwealth tradition of sorts, although arguably an illogical one. (The UK and Australia do not exactly share geographical intimacy.) As many will know, HarperCollins Australia took a major gamble on me back in 1999, publishing my first novel Fetish when I was a twenty-five year old publishing unknown, with only a Scarlet Stiletto Young Writers Award under my belt. After successfully bringing Mak to Aussie and New Zealand readers for the past decade, I simply refuse to break my contract and hand Mak's local rights (and sales $) to a UK publisher.
Lee Tulloch launches The Black Russian, by Lenny Bartulin.
The Black Russian was recently launched by author Lee Tulloch at Lesley McKay's independent bookshop in Woollahra. Both Lee and Lenny are salon regulars and wonderful writers, and the opportunity to have them both at the microphone in one evening was positively irresistible for this little bibliophile. The setting for this event was most fitting, as Lenny worked for 7 years at the very same bookshop as an unpacker. He recently quit, however (Sorry fans), saying it 'got a bit tough working in a bookshop when people would walk past my book.'
At the launch, Lenny's agent Sophie Hamley explained that she found the manuscript for his debut A Deadly Business in her slush pile. The rest, as they say, is history. Or BiblioMysteries, actually.
Sophie accurately described Lenny as 'that rarest of creatures - An extroverted author.' I would add that he is an extroverted author with a penchant for accents. He broke into an American-esque 'film noir' accent at the launch. He did the same during his reading from The Maltese Falcon at Literary Salon 4 - Dashiell Hammett and Dorothy Porter, and his reading from A Deadly Business at Crime Time at the Justice and Police Museum in 2008, where we first met...
» Read more on 'Lee Tulloch launches The Black Russian, by Lenny Bartulin.'
The Writing Space of Musician Ben Lee
The call to 'Show Me Your Writing Desk' has given us a voyeuristic peek at the private writing rooms of Leigh Redhead, John Birmingham, Sarah Wilson, Jack Heath, Will Elliot, Dominic Knight, James Bradley, Tracey O' Hara, Rhys Muldoon, Emma Tom, Lee Tulloch, Maggie Alderson, Kathy Charles and Nick Earls, among others. We've seen anarchic, we've seen neat. We've been welcomed into cramped, temporary writing rooms as well as writing spaces that are blissfully organised and purpose-built. Further adding to the theory that there is no 'right' writing space, so long as it works for the writer, The Book Post presents the writing space of musician Ben Lee.
Like many writers, the Aria winning musician 'absolutely' prefers to create from home. 'Especially with the new baby. Plus I get to keep more money from the recording budget. I'm not blowing it at someone elses studio.' Lee's home studio features white flowers, family photographs, notebooks, computer, and naturally, a plethora of guitars and musical instruments. The space is decorated with 'bits and pieces'. 'My wife (Iona Skye) bought the Bahamas poster on ebay,' he explains. 'There is a Noise Addict album cover and a picture of Lakshmi, and a drawing my step-daughter did of a fish that says "don't litter if you love a sea critter".
Do not adjust your computer. These photos arrived mysteriously reversed. Note the large jar of SWEHSAC (Cashews).
Check out The Rebirth of Venus, and Lee's latest with Noise Addict, created with 'everything recorded quickly, in my bedroom, with lots of stupid arbitrary rules like no mic-stands.' Lee says, 'The songs were all written by me except 'Lasagna', which I wrote with my step-daughter, Kate.'
Happy writing, (and listening.) May the muse be with you...
15/02: Bibliophile Porn, Part XI
Bibliophile Porn, Part XI.
Today's bibliophile porn is far too literal. My flimsy excuse for posting Nympho Librarian is two-fold:
#1. Book covers can be amusing - sometimes intentionally, sometimes unintentionally. There are a fair few odd covers on this page (link to my foreign editions). The Russian edition with the Avengers hat and the Sydney Opera House? Really? Who knows, perhaps the tome above is a highly literary tale of one librarian's search for personal fulfilment - Anais Nin, style.
#2. My second excuse is this: Our Nympho Librarian is proof that no matter what you are writing, it simply can not be more outrageous than what has already been penned. So go for it. And see if someone tries to stop you before it goes to the printers.
I have often questioned scenes and scenarios in my novels during the course of my writing, wondered if I was going 'too far', and would finally receive that dreaded call - 'It's about Chapter 24. You simply can't do that to a character. Take it out or we aren't publishing.' The call has never come.
Happy reading, and writing....
PS Sadly, the above is possibly a fake cover, like the delicious examples of faux romance novels here at Longmire. If this Nympho really exists, however, please direct me to a copy.
14/02: A Tale of First Love
A Tale of First Love.
On Valentine's Day - the annual zenith of romantic notions for some - I offer this amusing tale of romantic awakening and failed first love, complete with Air Supply ballads, skateboarding and love dragons. It is an embarrassing confessional, really. This story was published in the anthology Some Girls Do - My Life As A Teenager to raise funds for SISTER2Sister- a mentor program for disadvantaged teenage girls.
This is the story of the summer my hormones first got the better of me....
* I FOUND my first glimpse of love during the long sunny days of an Indian summer in the quiet suburbs of the Canadian town of my birth.
It was the summer of 1986 and the world as I knew it was an idyllic paradise. The air was clean, the trees had not been cut down, and there was no such thing as September 11, AIDS, spam, mobile phones, the war in Iraq or Paris Hilton.
I was blissfully unaware of the issues of debt and poverty, so much so that in a school essay that year I described my lower-middle-class family as being wealthy, much to the horror of my mother who tried to explain that she did stock take after hours at cut-rate department store Zellers and my sister and I wore hand-me-down clothes with patches on the knees and elbows precisely because we were not what people called wealthy.
I had no idea that in some other place people might have more than we did or, in fact, much less. It seemed there was not a care in the world.
Then I had to go and discover boys.
I was one of those girls who did everything early. By all accounts I was born with a full head of hair and legs that hung over the edge of the bed in the maternity ward, pretty much fully formed into my current self, probably with a martini in one hand.
I took my first steps at nine months, was a connoisseur of Stephen King horror novels by 10 years, and stole a Playgirl magazine and taped the centrefold up in the girls' toilets by11.
I guess it was no surprise then that I first fell in love at 12; or, more accurately, fell in puppy love....
Things You Shouldn't Say To Writers, Part II.
"Where can I download your E-book for free?"
Yes. Actual question.
Evidently, recent research suggests writers are charitable self-sustaining organisms who exist solely to provide free entertainment and/or edification for the masses. Also, books write themselves. Thus, you may wish to download works for free and lend any book you enjoy to five thousand of your closest friends without ever suggesting anyone actually purchase a copy.
If you disagree with the above statements, you are probably a writer.
For more things you shouldn't say to writers, check out Things You Shouldn't Say To Writers, Part I.
Happy reading,
PS You can get your 'Angry Writer' T-shirt here. It is guaranteed to reduce all questions from potential readers - even the good ones.
Flesh, A Short Story by Jack Heath
The following short story, Flesh, is a short prequel to The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells. Flesh was written and read by award-winning author and ACT Young Australian of the Year Jack Heath at Literary Salon 5 - Piñol and Wells, the latest of my informal book gatherings this past Sunday. At Salon 5 we examined the H.G. Wells classic, The Island of Dr. Moreau and Albert Sánchez Piñol's contemporary novel Cold Skin, each set on remote islands and exploring issues of human nature, 'inhumanity', and inter-species relationships.
Jack Heath is the award-winning author of four action-adventure books: The Lab (2006), Remote Control (2007), Money Run (2008), and Third Transmission (2009). His fifth book will be released this year. Jack started writing The Lab when he was 13 years old and had a publishing contract at 18. He's 23 now, but 'all the older writers still make fun of him', he jokes. In my opinion he is one of Australia's most interesting young writers.
* In The Island of Dr. Moreau, Moreau is obsessed with exploring 'the extreme limits of plasticity in a living form'. His work on the island is dedicated to moulding animals into 'humans' through a long and excruciating process of live vivisection. He refers to this surgery as a 'humanizing process'.
Montgomery, a failed medical student from England, is his assistant.
Flesh
by Jack Heath
'Where were we?' Moreau asks.
I find myself unable to recollect exactly which stage of the process we were up to. This vivisection has been complex, to say the least; the laboratory is littered with so many bloodied instruments that I can scarcely recall which was last in the doctor's hands. But soon he says, 'Ah! The brain!' and picks up a gleaming bone-saw.
The beast on the operating table snuffles quietly. It is asleep, for the moment, and unaware of what is happening to it. One could be forgiven for thinking it human, it is so close to finished – the fangs have been filed away, the bones broken and reset into primate shapes, the fur shaved off and the skin cauterised so it won't return....
The Three Desks of James Phelan.
With all this talk of writing spaces, we've heard a great deal about alternate writing desks (Kathy Charles and her pug, for example) hot-desking (Hot-Desking With Tom Cho) and now, multiple desks...
Do you have a different desk for each of your writing tasks?
James Phelan does. He is a novelist, PhD Lit candidate at Swinburne University of Technology, and fellow bibliophile. His novels include Fox Hunt (Hachette 2006), Patriot Act (2007), Blood Oil (2008), and Liquid Gold (2009), and I was one of the authors to feature in his first book Literati: Australian Contemporary Literary Figures Discuss Fear, Frustrations and Fame (John Wiley & Sons 2005). So with all this writing going on, just how many desks does one young, prolific author need?
Three.
'Ok, confession. I have three desks, for different parts of my writing life,' James explains.
#1. 'My PhD desk. I'm on 6 month leave at the moment to get my next novels done. I swear it's not normally that messy!' Note the white boards, filing cabinets and copious clutter, presently without enough space for even a laptop. Also featured are posters of his novel covers, erected to inspire further writing.
#2. 'My writing desk, where I do my novels and the occasional short story. That said, I start each morning at a local cafe where I type on the laptop or write up notes over a few strong coffees... so that's yet another desk. (Yep, he's a hot desker, too. And fellow caffeine addict.) Note the Vanity Fair magazine, multiple novels, pens, paper and small reading light. This area is without frills.
#3. 'My editing desk, aka the dining table. I like it because it's full of natural light, and I can really spread out.' James is one of those rare young authors to make plenteous hand-written notes. A sole plant placed in the centre of the table offers oxygen in times of intense editing.
Are you a multi-desker, or hot-desker? Do you rotate your writing areas like some rotate their linen, careful not to wear out any one spot? Or do you just have a different area for each of your writing tasks?
Tell us about it, and check back soon for I've Shown You Mine, Now Show Me Yours, Part XII.
Happy reading,
I've Shown You Mine, Now Show Me Yours, Part XI.
The call to 'Show Me Your Writing Desk' has so far given us a voyeuristic peek at the private writing rooms of a number of prolific authors. Part XI of our series features the desks of Leigh Redhead, James Massola and Ian McLean, proving once again, there is no 'right' place to write...
Left: The writing area of Leigh Redhead, creator of Simone Kirsch - 'ex-stripper, sex kitten, private investigator' - in the saucy novels Peepshow, Rubdown and Cherry Pie. 'It's actually my desk at the Hanoi school where I'm teaching English, History and ESL,' she explains. 'I get more writing done at school during free periods, recess and lunch than at home, probably because I'm not supposed to be writing, which makes it naughty and therefore fun.' Redhead finds the 'back to the wall position' helpful, as 'kids can't sneak up on me and discover the violence and depravity that lurks in kind, sweet, Miss Leigh's head.' (We went head to head at the Ned Kelly Awards Debate in 2008 and she won hands down with her persuasive debating and exotic dancing skills). Redhead's occupations have included stripper, lingerie waitress, masseuse, chef, and now arse-kicking crime author - in fishnets.
Middle: The desk of James Massola, writer and political reporter for the Canberra Times. The desk features headphones, keys, coffee cups, Senate estimates books, scraps of papers, dictionaries, post-it notes, and Odgers' guide to Senate practice. Notebooks betray the desk's utilitarian function: 'finding the next story'. On the wall can be found cartoons by Leunig, Pope and First Dog on the Moon, between phone lists for government and opposition. Keen eyes will also spot a Demons pen tin, a C3PO figurine, and Oscar Wilde's 'all art is quite useless' intro from The Picture of Dorian Gray. 'Political journalism is not high art as Wilde defined it, nor is it 'quite useless' - despite what some people say," James explains. 'I take being a reporter seriously. It's a privilege and the quote reminds me of that, and also to write well.' Note that the monitor on his desk shows an image of the desk. (Could the monitor in that image show a monitor showing that image showing a monitor showing...?)
Right: The writing desk of Ian McLean, who says he was 'fortunate enough to be presented with a unique piece of Australian television history to use as my writing space - the specially commissioned partnership desk made for Don Cash and Bill Harmon, co-producers of the cult Australian TV soap opera of the 1970s, Number 96.' The desk is a Ron Barossi design, in rosewood with pine trim. The desk divider is a set of built in drawers with filing cabinet. Both the Bill Harmon side of the desk and one of the bins show evidence of many a stubbed-out cigarette, another relic of Australian 70s showbiz. As a further piece of history, Ian explains that 'writer Nancy Cash, widow of Don Cash, used this desk to write her first novel for agent Selwa Anthony in the 90s' (Both Ian and I share the same agent.) Ian hopes the desk has some magic in it. "I have the dubious honor of being Selwa Anthony's longest serving client who's never earned her any money.' We are rooting for you, Ian. Success is just a novel away...
Quid pro quo. We've shown you ours, now show us yours in the comments below, and I'll continue to post the best on The Book Post....
Happy reading,
23/01: Bibliophile Porn, Part X
Bibliophile Porn, Part X - The Book Room.
Ah, the thousands of pages, the millions of words, (the inevitable paper cuts)! This 'Book Room' is the creation of a true bibliophile. I want this room. I want to read in this room. I want to know how this image was taken. And where. And by whom. And... Sadly this image was not credited online, so I don't know the origins or story behind it. Please, if you know about this room or image, comment below.
(I'll be shattered to find it is a figment of Photoshop...)
Update: Thanks to Janine, in the comments below, we have found the credit for this image. It is called 'House of Books', courtesy of Joana A. at JPG Mag. The books are apparently stapled right into the wall. Brilliant. Click on the link and let Joana know what you think of this striking image.