Books I've Read: All Our Shimmering Skies

I've added Australian author Trent Dalton to my list of favoriite authors.  He has a way of writing brutal stories beautifully.  And I am so there for it.

All the Shimmering Skies is set in Darwin, in the far north of Australia before and during World War II. The main character is a young girl called Molly Hook and in the first chapter, her mother dies, leaving her to grow up with her drunken father and uncle who run the family boneyard.  Before she dies, Mollly's mother told her to always look to the sky, to trust it.  Molly takes this to heart and through all the indignities she suffers, never stops believing in the sky and its gifts. 

Believing the family is cursed, as the Japanese bomb Darwin, Molly takes her trusty gravedigging spade and heads into the outback in search of a mythical man known as Longcoat Bob.  Supposedly he is theone who cursed the family, so Molly is going to ask him to lift the curse.  Along with Molly comes Greta, a razor-tongued actress and sometimes lover of her evil uncle Aubrey.  And on the way they pick up a fallen Japanese pilot, Yukio.

This unlikely trio journey through some of Australia's most unforgiving land as they follow a fever-dream map scrawled by Molly's grandfather on a battered gold pan.  Unbeknownst to them, Uncle Aubrey is on their tail, furious and hungry for the vast stores of gold Molly's grandfather told tales of after his own venture into the bush.

The people Molly and her travelling companions come across on their jorney are some of the worst people you could imagine, yet somehow, this scrappy band of three, guided by Molly's unwavering belief in the sky, manage to elude the worst scenarios.

The story in this book is often horrific and brutal, but it's written in such a poetic and beautiful way it doesn't feel heavy.  And the landscape is described so well it feels like perhaps the most important character in the story.  I enjoyed it immensely!

If you like beautiful writing that doesn't forget it's supposed to be telling a story (I've read too many books that are beuatifully written, but say nothing) this one is very recommended.

But don't just listen to me.  Here's the blurb:

The bestselling author of Boy Swallows Universe, Trent Dalton returns with All Our Shimmering Skies - a glorious novel destined to become another Australian classic. Darwin, 1942, and as Japanese bombs rain down, motherless Molly Hook, the gravedigger's daughter, turns once again to the sky for guidance. She carries a stone heart inside a duffel bag next to the map that leads to Longcoat Bob, the deep-country sorcerer who put a curse on her family. By her side are the most unlikely travelling companions: Greta, a razor-tongued actress and Yukio, a fallen Japanese fighter pilot. Run, Molly, run, says the daytime sky. Run to the vine forests. Run to northern Australia's wild and magical monsoon lands. Run to friendship. Run to love. Run. Because the graverobber's coming, Molly, and the night-time sky is coming with him. So run, Molly, run.

All Our Shimmering Skies is a story about gifts that fall from the sky, curses we dig from the earth and the secrets we bury inside ourselves. It is an odyssey of true love and grave danger, of darkness and light, of bones and blue skies; a buoyant, beautiful and magical novel abrim with warmth, wit and wonder; and a love letter to Australia and the art of looking up.

Weekly Goals 14-9-26

 It's going to be another busy week at work, so once again, I'm keeping my goals very limited.  I had a very relaxing weekend this week, which was very much needed, so I'm not going to add pressure to muyself this week and plan a whole lot of writing stuff.   I am missing it though.  I haven't had time for my daily flash fiction for a couple of months now, let alone anythng more substantial.  I've done a little editing on Street Smarts, but that's pretty much it.

I'd like to do more, but it's just not realistic right now, with both my jobs beong so busy.  Things will quiet down in a few weeks and onc that happens, I'm sure I'll be back at it!

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 11-9-26

 

 It's the end of the week so it's time to celebrate the small things!

So what am I celebrating this week?

It's the weekend!

And I'm actually going to get one this week!  Well, apart from teaching at the gym tomorrow, but I'm not really counting that.

I don't have much in the way of plans either, which is nice.  I'm hoping to do some reading because it feels like weeks since I had the chance to really sit down and get stuck into a book.  I might go to a movie too, if there is anything on I want to see.  The possibilities are endless!

Whatever I do, I want to relax a little because it's been a busy week at work and next week will be even busier when we open sales to our members.  We've had a big bump in people buying memberships, so I think it's going to be another busy few weeks.

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've Read: I Hope You Get this Message

I picked this one up at the library because it sounded interesting.  I always like a ook with a ticking clock, and what ticks louder than a potential alien planet promising to destroy the world?  But to be honest, that part of the story is fairly minor in this book.  It's very much in the background and influences the eahviour of the charaters and those around them, but it isn't delved into in any great detail.

The three main characters are very different.  Cate is super responsible and together because she's grown up with a single mother who suffers from mental illness.  She knows very little about her father, but when, in a manic episode, her mother tells her to take a letter to him, Cate is determined to do just that.

Jesse also lives with a single mother who works her ass off to keep herself and her son afloat.  With money so tight, Jesse has taken to stealing so they have enough to eat and does whatever he can to bring in any extra cash.  So, when news of the alien invasion hits, he figures out a way to use the ensuing gpanic to his advantage.

And finally, Adeem is a crack computer programmer whose life was shattered when his sister came out and then ran away when their parents wouldn't accept it.  He can't forgive her for this and with the clock counting down to the end of the world, he's desperate to see her again.

Over the course of this book and these three distinct missions, the three characters collide and discover truths about themselves and those they love they would never have expected.

I aways find in books with multiple protagonists, there's one I like more than the others and in this book it was Jesse.  I found Cate annoying in many ways, especially in the way she treated her best friend.  And while I didnt have any real problem with Adeem, I didn't have an enormous amount of love for him either.

But the book isn't bad.  I liked that in a story about an alien threat, the place everyone was trying to get to was Roswell.  And that Roswell ended up having the answers they were looking for, even if they didn;t have anything to do with aliens.

So, while this book didn't really rock my world, it was a decent enough read.

But don;t just listen to me.  Here's the blurb:


Seven days. Seven days. The Earth might end in seven days.

When news stations start reporting that Earth has been contacted by a planet named Alma, the world is abuzz with rumors that the alien entity is giving mankind only few days to live before they hit the kill switch on civilization.

For high school truant Jesse Hewitt, though, nothing has ever felt permanent. Not the guys he hooks up with. Not the jobs his underpaid mom works so hard to hold down. Life has dealt him one bad blow after another — so what does it matter if it all ends now? Cate Collins, on the other hand, is desperate to use this time to find the father she’s never met, the man she grew up hearing wild stories about, most of which she didn’t believe. And then there’s Adeem Khan. While coding and computer programming have always come easily to him, forgiveness doesn’t. He can’t seem to forgive his sister for leaving, even though it’s his last chance.

With only seven days to face their truths and right their wrongs, Jesse, Cate, and Adeem’s paths collide even as their worlds are pulled apart.

Weekly Goals 7-9-26

 I'm still flat out, crazy busy at work, so this is going to be short and sweet.  I don't think I'll be coming up for air until the end of September, so I'll think more about writing and publishing and all those things then.

Until then, I'm in customer servicce mode.

what are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 4-9-26

 

 It's the end of the week so it's time to celebrate the small things!

So what am I celebrating this week?

It's the weekend!

Not that I'm going to get too much of one this week.  I'm so far behind on everything at work, I'm going to have to go in at least one day to catch up a bit or next week will probably be the end of me.

So, I'm not feeling like I have too much to celebrate this week.  I'm exhausted and have about three more weeks of insanity to look forward to before I can get even a few days off.

What are you celebrating this week?

IWSG - September 2026

 It's the first Wednesday in September, so it's time for the Insecure Writers Support Group!

Our wonderful co-hosts this month are: 

Kate Larkindale (that's me!), SE White, JS Pally, Olga Godim and Natalie Aguirre!

This month's question is an interesting one: 

Do you have a favorite character archetype you tend to gravitate toward in your writing?

I'm not sure any of my characters are archetypes, but I certainly find I have characters who fit into certain roles in a number of my books.  I often write from the POV of characters who are outcasts, whether they have been made that by other people, or if they have put themselves in that box.  I also seem to write a lot of characters who are reluctant or forced to be caregivers.

The first I can kind of understand.  I write primarily YA, so my characters are young people and when I was young, I felt constantly like an outcast.  My family moved a lot when I was a kid, so every couple of years I found myself in a new school, in a new country, with a bunch of new kids I knew nothing about.  Learning all those new sets of rules to try and fit in grew exhausting after a while, so instead of bending myself to their ways, I learned to embrace my difference and even to highlight it.

The reluctant caregiver I often write isn't so easily explained.  I actually have no idea where that comes from, but you'll certainly find them in my books whether it's as blatantly obvious as it is in Standing Too Close or Chasing the Taillights, or more subtle.

Another character type I seem to be drawn to is the confident best friend.  A lot of my MCs are kind of shy or socially awkward, but almost all of them have a bestie who's the complete opposite - the life of the party, the one who will stand up and tell the world what's what, who will grab the world by the horns and force it to bend to their will.  I think this is the person I've always wanted to be, but because of the whole moving thing and wanting fit in, I've always been far too much of a people-pleaser to be.

In the long run, I think every character has pieces of me in them and because of that, it's hard to pick a favourite.  

Do you have a character archetype you keep coming back to?  Is it something you enjoy writing, or do you just find yourself doing it without really thinking about it?