Celebrate the Small Things 18-4-25

It's the end of the week, so it's time to Celebrate the Small Things.

What am I celebrating this week?

Holidays!

It's Easter, so we have a four-day weekend, plus, because it's ANZAC day on Friday next week, I only had to take three days of leave to get a 10 day break.  Nice, huh?

I'm not going anywhere, but I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to get a good way through the new book, so my plan is to try and write at least 5,000 words a day over this break and get a good way in.  I had initially thought I'd be able to finish the whole thing, but realizing I went the wrong way in about Chapter Two means I'm not as far in as I thought.

But it's fine.  I'll fix that chapter up and get things moving in the right direction, then I'll see if anything I've already written can be salvaged. I'm pretty sure some of it can.  Just probably not all of it.  And if I can get 40-50K written over the next week or so, that will be fantastic.  I'll be right in the story then.

I'm also hoping to send off my first few queries for A Stranger to Kindness over the next week, so please keep your fingers crossed for that.  I feel so protective of Harley and Wolfe, I can't bear to think of them being rejected.

Oh, and that exciting thing I alluded to that I couldn't talk about?  Turned out to be nothing.  Just another disappointment in a week that's been a little disappointing on numerous fronts.  But this is a celebrate post, so I'm not going into that....

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've Read: The History of Love

 

I found this one in the bookshelf in our office breakroom.  Because we run a Writers progamme as part of our Festival, we often have books given to us at work and when they've been read, they end up in the library in the Whare Kai.  Plus, other people (myself included) often offload books they've read into those shelves if they're not ones they want to keep at home. Anyway, this one looked interesting enough, and I needed something to read, so I picked it up.

It was one of those books that have a variety of POVs, all linked by a single thing - in this case, an obscure book called The History of Love.  

There's Leo, an old Polish man who has had one great love in his life and his love was so huge, it spilled over into a book he wrote to contain his emotions. Both the book and the woman are long gone now, and Leo is in New York, trying to prove to himself he's still alive.  At least for one more day.

Also in New York is Alma, a fourteen-year-old girl whose father has died, leaving her mother desperately lonely.  When they met, her father gave her mother a copy of a book called The History of Love, in Spanish.  when a stranger writes and asks her mother to translate the book into English, Alma decides the man asking for this must be her mother's next soulmate.

As the various characters in this book circle closer and closer to the truth about The History of Love, all their lives might be changed forever.

I enjoyed this book.  It was well written and the various different relationships revealed themselves quietly.  It wasn't something completely absorbing or mind-blowing, but it was interesting enough to keep me reading.  It was also quite sad, or maybe, melancholy would be a better word.  It left me with a bit of an ache in my heart for all the lost opportunities the characters had.

So I'd recommend this one.  It's not right up there among my favourite books of the year, but I did enjoy it .

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

Fourteen-year-old Alma Singer is trying to find a cure for her mother's loneliness. Believing she might discover it in an old book her mother is lovingly translating, she sets out in search of its author.

Across New York an old man called Leo Gursky is trying to survive a little bit longer. He spends his days dreaming of the lost love who, sixty years ago in Poland, inspired him to write a book. And although he doesn't know it yet, that book also survived: crossing oceans and generations, and changing lives...

Weekly Goals 14-4-25

I didn't do a lot of writing over the weekend, but I think I figured out that I've gone the wrong way with this book.  I thought originally I needed something dramatic to happen to get Devon out of her house, but was convinced by a bunch of other people that a slow fade would work.

Maybe in real life.

In fiction, I think you need more and certainly, the slow fade isn't working for this book. It's taking far too long for me to get the characters to the place they need to be and I feel like a lot of what I've written is really boring.  So I'm going to go back and figure out where I need to add the dramatic bit that forces Devon's change, then I'll be able to get this book on track.

Very glad I've figured that out now because I have the whole of next week off to write and was really planning to get this book done in that week.  Not sure I'll manage that now, but I should be able to get a good way into it anyway.

So that's my goal this week.  To figure out where I went wrong and to fix it before I move on further into the story.

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 11-4-25

It's the end of the week, so it's time to Celebrate the Small Things.

What am I celebrating this week?

It's the weekend!

It's been a busy week and I'm tired.  I haven't been feeling all that great either, so am looking forward to maybe getting a little time to rest.  I've had this weird lip thing going on, where my lips have suddenly got really dry and cracked and no lip balm seems to help.  I finally went to the doctor and was given some cream to use, but I suspect it's just steroid cream and will clear things up for as long as I use it, but won't actually fix the problem.  But maybe that's me being cynical...

Hoping to get some writing done this weekend.  I'm a little stuck right now on how to get Arlo and Devon together.  I mean, I know how they meet and why and everything - I've even written that section - I just can't seem to get Devon there.  From where I am, I still think it's another two chapters.  And I think that's too long.

But I'll figure it out.  I always do in the end.  Unless I trunk the book, but I don't feel like I'm at that point with this one quite yet.  And next week's easter and I have 10 days to immerse myself in the book and figure it out.

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've Loved: Boy Swallows Universe

 

I can't believe I didn't discover this book sooner; it's so up my alley it's not funny!  The writing is glorious, the story is edge-of-your-seat gripping and the characters are absolutely unforgettable.

The book follows the exploits of one Eli Bell, starting when he's around twelve,and finishing up when he's on the threshold of adulthood.  Eli is a sensitive, observant kid, prone to crying, yet tough as nails at the same time.

He has to be.  His mother is a junkie, his father a drunk he barely knows, his stepfather deals drugs and his brother chooses to be mute (sound familiar??).  And his babysitter is the legendary crook and prison-escape artist, Slim Halliday.

Growing up with Slim's stories of goodness, crime and derring-do, Eli has a nose for a good story and an over-developed sense of right and wrong.

But life isn't kind to Eli and his family, especially when his stepfather crosses the drug kingpin in town and gets himself disappeared, his mother thrown in jail and Eli himself mutilated.  But true to his adventurous spirit, even losing a finger doesn't slow Eli down.  It might take years for the opportunity to take Tytus Broz down, but he will be taken down.

And in the meantime, there are other adventures to be had, from falling for the crime writer at the local paper to breaking into a prison to spend Christmas with his mother.

I loved this book.  Eli is such a delightful character, even when he's in some stupidly awful situations.  And the relationship he has with his silent, possibly magical older brother is beautiful.  You know what a sucker I am for a good brother relationship...  The depiction of Brisbane's criminal underworld in the 1980s is perfectly drawn in its gritty, slightly shabby and worn-out criminality.

And the writing is gorgeous.  As a wannbe reporter, Eli's editor tells him he's too flowery, too focused on the details, and the author is just as focused on the details - to great effect.  There's some gorgeous language in this book, even though it's as tough and gritty as the streets the Bell boys grow up on.

So yeah.  I loved it.

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

A novel of love, crime, magic, fate and coming of age, set in Brisbane's violent working class suburban fringe - from one of Australia's most exciting new writers.

Brisbane, 1983: A lost father, a mute brother, a mum in jail, a heroin dealer for a stepfather and a notorious crime for a babysitter. It's not as if Eli's life isn't complicated enough already. He's just trying to follow his heart, learning what it takes to be a good man, but life just keeps throwing obstacles in the way - not least of which is Tytus Broz, legendary Brisbane drug dealer.

But if Eli's life is about to get a whole lot more serious. He's about to fall in love. And, oh yeah, he has to break into Boggo Road Gaol on Christmas Day, to save his mum.

A story of brotherhood, true love and the most unlikely of friendships, Boy Swallows Universe will be the most heartbreaking, joyous and exhilarating novel you will read all year.

Weekly Goals 7-4-25

 I got all the edits done on Standing Too Close over the weekend, so that's gone back to my publisher.  I expect it will be a few weeks before I get the next round.

So this week, it's back to the new book.  I finished chapter seven this weekend, and I feel like it's still going to be another two or three chapters before Devon and Arlo meet.  Is that too far into the book?  I think I'll be at around 20K by then, which feels like it might be too far.  But I guess we'll see.  Writing a book from start to finish is weird...

I have a function to cater for work this week which will be a nice change from being in front of my computer all day.  Looking forward to that.

And that's really it for goals this week.  What are yours?

Celebrate the Small Things 4-4-25

 

It's the end of the week, so it's time to Celebrate the Small Things.

What am I celebrating this week?

It's the weekend!

I got edits through from my publisher for Standing Too Close, so that's going to be my weekend.  I flicked through them yesterday and there's nothing too major that needs to be done.  I started yesterday, but didn't finish, so I plan to try and get that done today.  Then reward myself by going to a movie.

Oh, and Standing Too Close will release on 8 August.  Cover reveal to come...

It's so weird going back into that book.  A Stranger To Kindness was born out of writing that book, and I've spent so long working on that one now, Standing Too Close feels very, very long ago.  But apparently it made my editor cry, so that's something!  I do remember there's a scene in there that made me cry when I wrote it which has never happened to me before.

Something else potentially exciting happened this week, but I can't talk about it yet.  So I'll just tease you with that much.  Again, more to come...

What are you celebrating this week?