Spring Reading

I haven't done much reading this year - and that's something I really want to change over the next few months.

So, I've begun reading 'One-In-A-Million Boy' by Monika Wood. It's an ARC copy book my late-Grandmother's cousin gave me (as her daughter is in the publishing industry and gets them through her work) and once she reads them, well, she accumulates them in her garage. Now, she knows I love these books, she gives them to me to read and collect. I'm enjoying this one so far as it's based in one of my favourite parts of the world: Maine, USA. I've only seen pictures of the place, but I think it's a pretty place to base a book or a movie.

Then, I'd like to read 'The Shining' and 'Doctor Sleep' - in that order; as Sai King has been working hard on a lot of work since his accident. Nothin' like almost dying to get the creative juices running again, right? Well, I know how it feels - being a person who lives with Epilepsy and has almost died a few times from this condition myself! 

So, there's some of the books I'm hoping to get my nose into during the warmer Spring months. I'm not making any promises on how fast I'll be reading them, but they'll be read at the pace my brain wants me to read them. 

I'm also still editing 'The Tour Guide' and working on other written works like 'Angel Love' too. So, there's still a bit of work on my plate with books - written and from my own collection. 

So, do tell, what are you planning on reading over the next few months as the seasons either become warmer or cooler? I'd love to know. Until my next post, happy reading!

Busy Reading And Editing

Life has been busy lately. 

I've gotten 'ALERT! Epilepsy' tattooed to my right arm and removed my bracelet - that was on Tuesday - and that's itchy and healing now. 

I've been organising my house for another donation run at the charity store - I did one two days ago.

And I've been editing and fixing up 'The Tour Guide' this week too! So great that this book has finally taken off of its own accord and really become a great little gem... well, you know, I think so anyway. I've yet to leave it alone and let it slow cook on its own and then go back and see what kind of mess I've made of it.

But the best thing I've done this week is score some great classic novels! Ruth Park is a favourite New Zealand writer who really opened my eyes to fantasy and time travel with the book 'Playing Beatie Bow'. So, when I spotted 'Serpent's Delight', 'Dear Heart and Gentle People' and 'One-A-Pecker, Two-A-Pecker', I knew I had to have them! They'd be wonderful to add to not only 'Playing Beatie Bow' but to my hardcover edition of 'Harp In The South'... so I took them and two other books by two other authors. 

The first one is 'A Town Like Alice' by Nevil Shute, which I've seen the movie of and adore! Then, there's 'The House of God' by Samuel Shem. Now, I've never owned a copy of the former, and never heard of the latter, but I'm glad I picked up both of these to add to the ever-growing collection. 

What have you added to your collection lately which you can't wait to get your nose between the pages of? For me, I just can't choose - there's too many choices of great books! Until my next post, happy reading! 

Out of the Comfort Zone!

I know! I know! I haven't been here... how lazy am I? Nah. I'm not lazy, I've been working on 'The Tour Guide'. It's nice little book, with a nice little story, and a nice little ending in it.

But really, when you're writing a story like this, you have to put in some adventure, some out-of-the-comfort-zone shit which will keep your reader turning them pages and glued to your story.

Okay... 'The Tour Guide' is a time-traveling story which is based in our present time. 

It's based in my home town of Brisbane.

All of this is comfort zone stuff. It's a place and time I know... this is great. This gets people pulled in and comfortable with who I am, where I'm from, what I love about my city and where I was born.

Now - BAM! - I get in and throw a curve ball and get you all wondering what in the hell I was smoking when I wrote that paragraph!

GOTCHA!

This is right where I can either keep you in this story or lose you in the next three sentences.

Yep, it's as easy as that!

With the comfort zone, a writer can't throw a really out-there uncomfortable thing at the readers and expect them to just swallow that huge massive blue pill (or red pill - I've forgotten which was which) and jump down the rabbit hole after that jittery white rabbit who's always late for whatever he's going for. 

Nope... ya gotta ease them readers into your stuff... otherwise they'll ease on down the road and throw your book as far as they can to get away from your work. 

Yes, you'll lose them; and you'll never get them back.

In my Flash Fiction, I find that sometimes getting people into an ordinary situation first is best... then throwing that curveball right at the end is what will keep them coming back for more. 

Then, you'll have more of a chance that your audience will adapt to other writing you've had a go at. 

The comfort zone is always a difficult thing to adapt your audience to. If you don't know how they'll react to your work when you've been writing comedy the whole time and then suddenly write a horror piece, you're better off trying out something which sounds like the movie 'House' (a horror comedy) and see how they take it. IF they enjoy the horror more than the comedy, that's when you jump and do more horror.

For me, I'm always trying out new writing styles. I've been able to pull off horror, comedy, sci-fi, paranormal, and now romance. I had to learn the last one from a few romance writers; I'm not really that great at writing romance... it's just not the first thing I write when it comes to fiction. It's really outside my comfort zone.

So, there ya go. The comfort zone in writing. I'm a writer and I have gone outside my comfort zone many times... and then I've been told by people I never go outside my comfort zone as a person - but really they don't know if I do or not. Until my next post, happy reading. 

'A Hundred Small Lessons' by Ashley Hay

Elsie fell down. This sweet, lovely lady fell down and couldn't get back up, so spent a day or so on the floor of her living room watching the sun pass over the carpet; watching the colours of the day change and how the light changed throughout the house for a while - something she hadn't noticed before - until the police kicked down her door and the paramedics zoomed her off to hospital.

But she never came back home.

This was the sad part - and a sad reality for a lot of elderly people. They are taken to hospital; and from there, they are shuffled off to a home by their family; a family who think they're doing the right thing. 
While she's in the home, Elsie's two children, Don and Elaine empty out her house. Don is a sentimental man who often stops to peruse and remember the good times over photographs, wonder over others and packs things carefully. Elaine just goes through the place like a bull in a china shop and throws out things she doesn't think is important (whether it is or not doesn't interest her - just getting rid of the 'junk' is the main thing).

However, when Don takes the boxes of things to Elsie's new home, he discovers he's picked up the wrong one and finds that everything he's given her are things she hates. The blue mug that was on the counter near the sink was Elsie's favourite... and all the photos in the box in the ceiling (did he check there? No, he didn't) were the ones she loved the most. And why did he bring this vase? It's hideous. It was then, he realised he should have had her right there.

But the house has been sold to a lovely couple who are young: Lucy Kiss and her husband Ben, with their sweet little boy, Tom. While Ben is in his hometown of Brisbane, Lucy has found this humid city of large, purple-flowering trees is strange and unusual to her. She doesn't like it that it rains so much, she doesn't know her way around as much as she does in Sydney, and the old house they bought still has the old-fashioned fittings of the 1960's. 

Lucy is finding things from the life of Elsie, things she thinks the older woman would want back at some point; but she never gets around to contacting the previous owner. She starts drinking out the blue mug she found behind the front door (why was it there?). The photos in the ceiling were beautiful, but who were they of? And does she really like Brisbane really?


I've read Australian books before - even Brisbane-based books - and for a good part of the time, I've loved them. However, as the small chapters moved on, I found it harder and harder to read them. This is a very melancholy book to read - which isn't really my thing, but it's nice to get into one of them once in a while - but I found this book very depressing. It started off sounding lovely, sweet and pretty. It had all the right turns of phrase, and made me want to read more. Then, something in it change, and I found it was becoming harder and harder to read, and I simply lost interest in it. This is why this is an Unfinished Read.