What writers wish they knew before they started writing
30 December 2021
Australian author Allison Tait recently asked sixteen local Children’s and Young Adult writers what they wish they’d known before commencing their publishing careers. There’s a lot of good stuff here, but this insight from Canberra based author Jack Heath, takes the cake:
I saw myself as a social commentator – but I realise now that I was a novelist. People didn’t like me, they liked my novels. I should have spent my time working on my books, rather than play-acting as a celebrity. In a broader sense, I should have focused on writing, rather than being a writer.
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What’s the average colour of your country?
29 December 2021
Data visualisations depicting the average colours of the world’s countries, based on aerial and satellite map images, put together by Erin Davis. There’s no missing Australia here, how unique is our average colour? Funny though, as I look out the window, I see no end of green presently (thanks La Nina).
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How to say no to alcohol when you don’t drink
29 December 2021
Right on cue for the festive season, how to say no to the offer of a drink, for those who don’t drink alcohol. It’s unfortunate though people feel they simply can’t say no thanks, and are compelled to make up an excuse: I’m driving, anyone? But why?
Consider that twenty-three percent of Australians over the age of fourteen don’t consume alcohol at all. And not all of these non-drinkers are underage or elderly either. People in their twenties are drinking less than their parents did when they were the same age, for a number of reasons.
Non-drinkers may be in a minority, but they are hardly an insignificant portion of the population. What’s with the pressure then to drink, if you don’t want to?
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New fiction novels for the new year, 2022
29 December 2021
There’s only days left to finish the titles on our 2021 to-be-read lists, before 2022 is upon us, bringing with it a huge line up of brand new fiction novels.
You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi, Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart, some historical fiction and fantasy in the form of Moon Witch, Spider King by Marlon James, and Love Marriage by Monica Ali, are among titles due for publication.
Cancel the streaming subscription, books are the only entertainment you need.
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Photos of Comet Leonard
23 December 2021
Comet Leonard is making a once in eighty-thousand year flyby of the Earth, lighting up, in a way, the festive season night sky. A hunt around on Twitter will turn up a mass of fantastic images of the comet, but here are a few of my favourites.
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The redemptive power of reading books
23 December 2021
Ally Colquitt, writing for The Guardian, on the part reading books played in her rehabilitation, while serving a prison sentence a few years ago.
This was the mindset I was in when I was alone in my cell at Silverwater Mulawa centre, awaiting “classo” (classification) – with a broken TV, no pen and paper, nothing to do except think. I noticed that the previous inmate had left a couple of library books on the table. I picked up an abandoned copy of Oscar Wilde’s The Ballad of Reading Gaol and began to read. I didn’t know the impact that poem would have on me, and how it would play a part in changing my world view and my life direction.
Colquitt argues those incarcerated should have greater access to books, and why not? Especially considering some of the publications sitting on the shelves in bookstores stand to be destroyed if not sold, wouldn’t it better if they could be of help to others?
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The Good Child, by S.C. Karakaltsas
23 December 2021
Tom’s a con artist. He might have been the big-wig at a major Australian financial institution, but he’s still a shyster. He’s fleeced thousands of people of their life savings and other assets. But he’s been found out, caught, and is due to have his day in court. Although not directly victim, two other women are caught up in Tom’s web of deception. His seventy-two year old mother, Lucille, and Quin, a former colleague who played a part in enabling Tom.
Lucille and Quin meet on a train bound for Melbourne. Both are en route to Tom’s trial, but at first neither realises who the other is. Lucille is devastated by Tom’s illicit activities. But that’s not all. She’s lost everything. She has no savings, no home, and on top of that, she feels responsible for everything that has happened. Perhaps if she had been less lenient on her son, not so overprotective, things might have turned out differently?
The Good Child (published by Karadie Publishing, 15 November 2021) is the fourth book from Melbourne based Australian author S.C. Karakaltsas. Told from the perspectives of Lucille and Quin, The Good Child poses the oft asked question, if you could say something to your younger self, warn them, tell them to turn left instead of right, would you try? But fanciful thinking is of little help. Both women need to find a way through this quagmire in the here and now.
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fiction, S.C. Karakaltsas, TBR list, writing
Red Rocket, a film by Sean Baker
22 December 2021
Red Rocket (trailer), is the latest feature of American independent filmmaker Sean Baker. Mikey (Simon Rex) is a down on his luck former porn actor in search of a new lease of life, though his previous line of work makes looking for a new job a little tricky. Casting for Red Rocket was unconventional to say the least, with the director sometimes approaching people on the street, asking if they’d like to take part.
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Martha Wells wins best novel prize in 2021 Hugo Awards
22 December 2021
Network Effect, by American speculative fiction author Martha Wells, won the best novel in the Hugo Awards for 2021. Established in 1953, the Hugos celebrate the best science fiction and fantasy written works – across a number of categories – of the past twelve months.
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Open Water, by Caleb Azumah Nelson
22 December 2021
Two people meet in a bar in London. Both are young, both are Black British, and both are artists. She is a dancer, he a photographer. The attraction is instant, and as the two spend ever more time together, their bond only grows. They also connect through shared experiences as people of colour in a place where they are in a minority. Although both were awarded scholarships to private British schools, both felt excluded, and unable to completely fit in.
Despite the passionate love they discover in each other, he hides a trauma, one he struggles to resolve. Partly, perhaps, because he still encounters the violence and fear he previously endured. Every day the two come face to face with racism and vilification on the streets of London. But his struggle, one he cannot articulate even to her, causes him to withdraw, to hide behind silence. She is devastated by the apparent rejection, left reeling and confused.
Open Water (published by Penguin Books Australia, February 2021) is the debut novel of London based British-Ghanaian author and photographer Caleb Azumah Nelson. Written in the second person, with prose that is sometimes described as poetic, Open Water is perhaps more of novella, weighing in at about one-hundred and sixty pages. But don’t make the mistake of thinking the word count detracts from the story’s impact.
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