Books I've read: The Field Guide to the North American Teenager

 

This is another book I came across on the Libby app when I was searching for something to read after finishing my last Libby book.  It looked fun and quirky, so I gave it a whirl.

And it is fun and quirky, so I'm glad I picked it.

Norris, a black French Canadian, is forced to move to Austin Texas when his mother gets a good job at the university there.  With American television shows the only guide he has to life South of the border, Norris goes into this venture with a large chip on is shoulder.  He's quite determined not to enjoy this at all.

When a guidance counsellor gives him a notebook to write down his feelings and observations, she probably didn't expect Norris to begin cataloguing the people around him as if they were wildlife.  But that's what he does, keeping himself aloof from his peers while he observes and places everyone in their category.

There are the jocks with their hairy armpits, the cheerleaders who move in pony-tailed flocks, the loners who seem to make being alone look like an art and the manic pixie dream girl who might just be the one who gets Norris to put down his notebook and pen and pay attention.

Yet somehow, Norris gets dragged into life with these people and despite himself, starts to get to know them.  And when he does, he discovers that behind his casually-given labels are actual people with their own unique thoughts and feelings and opinions.  People he might actually want to be friends with.  Or maybe even date?

I enjoyed this book because Norris is a deliciously snarky and cynical narrator.  He's also kind of an asshole for most of the book.  He's so certain he's going to hate this new experience, he goes in without any kind of openness to the new experiences he's going to have.  He already has friends in Canada, so why does he need any here?  He doesn't give anyone a chance to prove themselves different once he's labeled them and cataloged the behavior in his notebook.

I always find it fascinating when a character you dislike from the start manages to hold your attention through an entire book.  And this book did just that.

So I'd recommend it despite that.

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


Norris Kaplan is clever, cynical, and quite possibly too smart for his own good. A Black French Canadian, he knows from watching American sitcoms that those three things don’t bode well when you are moving to Austin, Texas.

Plunked into a new high school and sweating a ridiculous amount from the oppressive Texas heat, Norris finds himself cataloging everyone he the Cheerleaders, the Jocks, the Loners, and even the Manic Pixie Dream Girl. Making a ton of friends has never been a priority for him, and this way he can at least amuse himself until it’s time to go back to Canada, where he belongs.

Yet against all odds, those labels soon become actual people to Norris…like loner Liam, who makes it his mission to befriend Norris, or Madison the beta cheerleader, who is so nice that it has to be a trap. Not to mention Aarti the Manic Pixie Dream Girl, who might, in fact, be a real love interest in the making.

But the night of the prom, Norris screws everything up royally. As he tries to pick up the pieces, he realizes it might be time to stop hiding behind his snarky opinions and start living his life—along with the people who have found their way into his heart.

Weekly Goals 8-12-25

 It's going to be a crazy week this week and keeping on top of everything is going to be a struggle.  

Late on Friday afternoon I discovered we have to get an extra concert on sale for next year by Tuesday morning.  Which wouldn't be that difficult except the orchestra we're working with on this one has completely different pricing to ours which means I need to build a new seating plan to reflect this.  And I've never done that in our ticketing system - it looks complicated.  So, I think that's most of Monday taken up.

And on Tuesday I go on tour for the rest of the week which will mean trying to squeeze a work-day around travel and setting up for performances and running the front of house for said performances.  Plus meetings with various venue managers and ticketing staff in each town.  I think I'm tired just thinking about it...  Not quite sure how I'm going to fit the things I need to do for myself around all that, but we'll give it a crack.

There are gyms in most of the towns we're traveling to, but I'm not sure how convenient to the hotels they are, so I think I might end up going on walks instead of going to the gym this week.  Fingers crossed the weather is good!

So, my goal this week is to just try to get through the week and to have some fun if I can.

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 6-12-25

 

It's the end of the week so what am I celebrating?

It's the weekend!

It's been another busy and often frustrating week, so I'm looking forward to a little downtime.  I have nothing planned for this weekend, so I intend to get just that!

Agents must be trying to clear out their query boxes ahead of the holidays because I've had a few more rejections this week.  I'm beginning to wonder if this book isn't as good as I think it is...  

I haven't done much writing this week either.  I've even missed my daily flash fiction story a couple of times, which is frustrating.  But this time of year is always crazy, so I should give myself a break.

Next week I'm on tour with the orchestra so will have to try and squeeze in time for everything I want to do around travel and performances.  I suspect just finding time to exercise might be a struggle.

What are you celebrating this week?

IWSG - December

It's the first Wednesday of the month, so you know what time it is... 

Huge thanks to the hosts for the December 3 posting of the IWSG: Tara Tyler, Ronel Janse van Vuuren, Pat Garcia, Liza, and Natalie Aguirre!

This month's question is very seasonally appropriate:

As a writer, what was one of the coolest/best gifts you ever received?

I think the best gift I ever received was from my partner, who is scary good at gift giving.  One year he got me a license for Scrivener and it has completely changed the way I write.  I've never gone back to Word or any other writing software since I started using Scrivener.

I know I probably only use a fraction of the things Scrivener can do.  I've never done a tutorial or watched a video to find out more about how to use it.  I probably should, but I'm pretty happy just using it the way I do.

Other than that, I don't think I've been given many other writing-related gifts.  Notebooks, of course, but I don't tend to use those so much for actual writing, more for things like jotting down agent names when I come across them and they're not open for queries yet.  Or for work related stuff.

I don't talk a lot about writing with most people I know, so it's probably not a really well known thing that I write.  Which means people probably don't know to give me writing-related gifts.  And these days, everyone has so much stuff, in my family we prefer to give each other experiences for gifts - tickets to shows, Film Society memberships, orchestra subscriptions - that kind of thing.

What's the best writing-related gift you've ever received?

Weekly Goals 1-12-25

 It's getting close to the end of the year and I'm starting to feel the pressure around that.  Especially since I'm going on tour with the orchestra for six days next week.  Leaves me with only five days in the office when I get back before we go on break.  Ack!  I have a lot to do this week!  And then, to top off an already stressful weekend, there was a fire in the building where I work and now we have to work from home today.  I hate working from home and am really not set up to do it efficiently.

At least this week isn't as crazy as last week.  Apart from Film Society tonight and a concert on Friday that I'm working, I'm actually home most nights.

So, my goal this week is to get all the urgent work done that needs doing before the break.  Most importantly, getting the ticket builds in to the main ticketing providers.  The smaller ones are less pressure because for the most part, we do them ourselves and they can be turned around in an hour or two.

Writing wise, I'm still sitting on the new book.  I think I'll take it away on holiday with me and do my read through at the beach house.  There's bound to be at least one wet day where doing that might be a good way to fill the time.

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 28-11-25

 

It's the end of the week so what am I celebrating?

It's the weekend!

It has been a stupidly busy week, one of those weeks where not only is work busy, but I've had things on every night after work as well.  I've barely seen my family!

But it has been fun.  I saw a local production of the musical Amelie which was really good.  Wonderful to see a full house too!  I went to a fundraiser dinner supporting one of my favorite organizations - Everybody Eats.  It's a restaurant where you pay what you can and uses supermarket waste to make delicious, hearty three-course meals for anyone who comes along.  It's such an important idea and gives people who otherwise could never eat out, the opportunity to experience a restaurant and be served.

No rejections this week, which makes a nice change.  I suspect there will be a raft of them in the next few weeks as everyone tries to clear out their query boxes ahead of Christmas.  But I'm prepared for that.

I have a lovely weekend ahead, catching up with friends and trying to get the house into some kind of order.

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've Read: with Love Echo Park

 

I've always liked books that full immerse you in a specific time or place, and the blurb on this one made me think this was going to be one of those books.

It wasn't.

It's set in Echo Park,  a neighborhood in LA that was once home to the Cuban community.  Now, many of the Cuban families have moved out, taking their businesses with them, or allowing them to be bought by larger companies.

Clary is the granddaughter of one of the original business owners, and one of the few that remains open and thriving in the community.  Having grown up helping in the shop, she's become a talented florist and is being given more and more responsibility for coming up with creative ideas for weddings and other events.

Next door is a bike shop, one of the other neighborhood businesses that's still running.  As long as she can remember, Clary and the bike store owner's son, Emilio, have been at each others' throats.  Emilio is supposed to take over the bike shop once he finishes with school, but in a weak moment, he admits to Clary that he's desperate to escape Echo Park and travel.

With summer vacation ahead of her, Clary expects to spend her time working in the shop, hanging out with her friends and enjoying time with her large extended family.  But just how extended that might become is a bombshell she did not expect to have dropped in her lap.

Clary's summer ends up being spent discovering all she can about the history of Echo Park and its beautiful murals, negotiating a relationship with a sister she never knew she had, and discovering more about Emilio, the boy who's always been next door, but she's never really seen.

I enjoyed all the cultural references in this book and the things that make Clary's Cuban heritage something she's proud of.  Yet, I never really felt like I knew a lot about Echo Park as a neighborhood or what made it special.  I wanted to feel more present in the place and be able to see it through Clary's eyes.  

I think maybe the book tried to cram too much in.  Between the newfound sibling, the shop failing and Clary's attempts to save it, the romance and the very important friendship between Clary and her best friend, there was a lot going on and I feel like the thing the author really wanted to showcase - Echo Park - got a little lost in the mix.

But it was still an enjoyable enough read.  Just not exactly what I'd hoped for.

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

From the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow, this novel follows two Cuban teens in LA’s Echo Park neighborhood who clash over their visions for the future, the secrets between their families…and the sparks flying between them.

Seventeen-year-old Clary is set to inherit her family’s florist shop, La Rosa Blanca—one of the last remnants of the Cuban business district that once thrived in Los Angeles’s Echo Park neighborhood. Clary knows Echo Park is where she’ll leave a legacy, and nothing is more important to her than keeping the area’s unique history alive. Besides Clary’s florist shop, there’s only one other business left founded by Cuban immigrants fleeing Castro’s regime in the sixties and seventies. And Emilio, who’s supposed to take over Avalos Bicycle Works one day, is more flight risk than dependable successor. While others might find Emilio appealing, Clary can see him itching to leave now that he’s graduated, and she’ll never be charmed by a guy who doesn’t care if one more Echo Park business fades away. But then Clary is caught off guard when an unexpected visitor delivers a shocking message from someone she thought she’d left behind. Meanwhile, Emilio realizes leaving home won’t be so easy—and Clary, who has always been next door, is who he confides in. As the summer days unfold, they find there’s something stronger than local history tying them together.

Weekly Goals 24-11-25

 It's one of those busy weeks where I have stuff on every night as well as a very full schedule at work.  I feel like I'm not going to have time for anything much else.  This is why I always try to finish writing projects ahead of the holidays.  Life gets crazy around this time of year, and adding the stress of trying to find time to write is something I don't need.

Sp, this week is one without any specific goals.  I just want to get through it, enjoy the stuff I have on and come out the other side.

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 21-11-25

 

It's the end of the week so what am I celebrating?

It's the weekend!

It's been a busy week, so I'm grateful for a couple of days to myself.  I'm planning to see Wicked: for Good too, which I'm looking forward to.

Only one rejection for A Stranger to Kindness this week.  It's been almost exactly a year since I finished writing that book.  Can't quite believe I've actually finished another one since.

I haven't gone back to look at the new book again.  I have about four weeks of work left before the holidays, so I'm going to leave it until I'm on my break to read through and start revisions.

I've been having gynecological issues for years now, and finally this week, I saw a doctor who actually believes me about how dreadful this is and has set things rolling to get the surgery I should have had five years ago.  It's not going to be fun, but once I recover, I believe this is going to change my life completely.

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've read: Elena Vanishing

 

This is another of the books I stumbled upon on the Libby app when I finished something else I was reading.  It's a memoir, written by a mother and daughter team about the daughter's struggle with anorexia. I read a lot of books like this in the late '80s and early '90s, but it's been a long time since I read a new anorexia book.

Elena is kind of the perfect child.  An over-achiever who has her goal of being a nurse firmly entrenched and does everything she can to ensure she gets there.  She's studies hard, volunteers at the hospital and makes sure every minute of her day is used productively.  The only thing that isn't perfect, is her body and when she turns her determination, focus and over-achieving nature to that, she's as successful at losing weight as she is at everything else.

When the book starts, Elena is already deep in the throes of anorexia.  It started when she was away at boarding school, out of sight of her parents, so by the time she goes back to living with them again, the behaviors and the secrecy surrounding them are well entrenched.  Lying is a constant thing, telling her parents she's eating elsewhere as a way to avoid family mealtimes at home.  

The problem is, not eating is starting to make Elena sick.

When she complains of chest pains, her mother takes her to a doctor and the extent of her weightloss and the effects of her binging and purging become coming to light.  She's shipped back to the States to a hospital specializing in eating disorders, but this. is only the beginning of the journey for Elena.

The book follows her through her last year of high school and her attempts to go to college to get her nursing degree.  She goes through treatment after treatment, yet the voice in her head is stronger than any therapy and she finds herself at its mercy again and again, her face back in a toilet bowl and her body on the verge of collapse time and time again.

This was a particularly harrowing book because of how often Elena failed to get better.  Most other anorexia books I've read almost make the doctors saints in the way they get their patients through their treatment and back to health.  The doctors here fail as often as Elena does, and with each failure, she becomes more resitant to treatment or any kind of help.

I wouldn't say I enjoyed this one, but having lived for over 30 years with a friend who suffers from an eating disorder and has failed treatment more times than I can count, I feel like this is a very realistic look at what it feels like to be locked into a disease that's literally consuming you.  So if you're into that...

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

Seventeen-year-old Elena is vanishing. Every day means renewed determination, so every day means fewer calories. This is the story of a girl whose armor against anxiety becomes artillery against herself as she battles on both sides of a lose-lose war in a struggle with anorexia.

Told entirely from Elena's perspective over a five-year period and co-written with her mother, award-winning author Clare B. Dunkle, Elena's memoir is a fascinating and intimate look at a deadly disease, and a must read for anyone who knows someone suffering from an eating disorder.

Weekly Goals 17-11-25

 We had our staff Christmas party yesterday and it made me realize how little time there is left until the end of the year.  And how much I work I have to get done before then.  So, I'm going to need to really get going on some of that stuff because I'm away on tour with the orchestra for a week as well, and I'm not sure I'll get much work done over that period.  At least, not the kind of desk work I'm talking about here.  I'll be dong other work which is just as important, but it's not going get the stuff I need to get done for 2026 done.

I need to think a bit about what I want to give people for Christmas presents this year.  I don't have a ton of money and I usually try to make my gifts anyway, but I'm not sure how much time I'm going to have to do that this year.  Maybe I'll just bake for everyone...

I'm going to try and keep up my flash fiction writing this week and continue not to look at the new book.  I think agents must be trying to clear out their query boxes ahead of the holidays because I've had quite a slew of rejections for Stranger over the last week.

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 14-11-25

 

It's the end of the week so what am I celebrating?

It's the weekend!

It's felt like a long week, so I'm glad.  Even though I have some work stuff on tomorrow.

I've done a lot of teaching this week.  One of the other instructors is sick, so I've covered a bunch of her classes on top of teaching my own.  Plus, the weather has finally been good enough to ride my bike to work most days.  So I'm celebrating all that extra exercise.

I still haven't touched the new book.  I'm thinking I might leave it until the holidays now.  Then I'll have a nice long stretch of time to read through and make notes.

I've been writing flash fiction most days.  Just 1000 words, to a prompt, but it's keeping my imagination and my writing muscles in good order.

I saw Bugonia and it's definitely one of the best films I've seen in a long time.  Great acting and genuinely surprising storytelling.  You really didn't know where the story was going to go next and that's so unusual these days.

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've Read: Okay for Now

 

I finished the book I had loaded to my Libby app and needed something else to read, so I browsed around a bit and found this one that looked like it could be interesting.  Within about five minutes of starting, I knew I was in good hands with this one.  It's as voicey as all hell and I was in Doug's pocket from page two or three.

It's set in the late sixties, during the Vietnam War.  Doug is in junior high in New York, loves the Yankees and his prize possession is a cap that was given to him by Joe Pepitone when he came to throw a ball around with some of the kids on the school team.   Unfortunately, Doug has two older brothers and the one who still lives at home - the other is in Vietnam - is kind of jerk and bullies him mercilessly.  So it's no big surprise when this brother finds the cap, steals it, then passes it on for cash.

This is the very efficient set up for the story which actually begins when Doug's father loses his job and they're forced to move to a small upstate town where he's found work at a factory.  A tough bully of a man, he doesn't take any of his family's feelings into account when he uproots them from their home and takes them to a dump of a house in the sticks.

Dough doesn't think he'll ever fit in there.  Everyone looks at him suspiciously, especially after a wave of petty crime sweeps the town and all eyes are on his older brother as the perpetrator.  But then Doug meets Lil outside the library and she doesn't seem to care that he's a weird outsider.  And inside the library he discovers a book of paintings by James Audubon than make his feel things he's never felt before.

With the support of the few new friends he makes in his new home, Doug begins building a life for himself, discovering he has talents he never suspected he possessed, finding the strength to stand up to his abusive father and to cope with living with his oldest brother who comes back from the war a very different man.

I really enjoyed this book.  Doug is exactly the kind of scrappy underdog character I love and his way of talking about the world he lives in and the people around him is both touching and hilarious at times.  He's a character you can't help but root for,  even when you want to scream at him not to do things you know he's going to do because he's a fourteen-year-old boy.  The supporting characters are all really well drawn too, even really incidental ones like the old guy who Doug delivers groceries to and needs his lightbulbs changed every week.

So I'd recommend this one.

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

Midwesterner Gary D. Schmidt won Newbery Honor awards for Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boys and The Wednesday Wars, two coming-of-age novels about unlikely friends finding a bond. Okay For Now, his latest novel, explores another seemingly improbable alliance, this one between new outsider in town Doug Swieteck and Lil Spicer, the savvy spitfire daughter of his deli owner boss. With her challenging assistance, Doug discovers new sides of himself. Along the way, he also readjusts his relationship with his abusive father, his school peers, and his older brother, a newly returned war victim of Vietnam.

Weekly Goals 10-11-25

 I have been very good and I haven't been near the new book.  Things keep occurring to me about it at odd times, but rather than dive back into the draft and implement them, I just make a note of what I'm thinking and I'll look at them all after I do my read-through of the draft in a couple of weeks.

In the meantime, I'm keeping my writing muscles in good working order by writing flash fiction most days and kind of tootling about with the book for younger readers (maybe) that I'm playing with.  And I'm reading.  I'm reading a lot.

This week my goals are to try and write a flash fiction piece every day, to finish reading at least two, maybe three books and to review a few more chapters for people in my crit group.  I'm also reading through an older manuscript to see if I think it might be ready to send to my publisher.   And still sending out queries for A Stranger to Kindness.

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 7-11-25

 

It's the end of the week so what am I celebrating?

It's the weekend!

My partner is housesitting up the coast for a few weeks, so I'm going to go up and spend the weekend by the beach.  It's probably not quite swimming weather yet, but it does look like tomorrow is going to be gorgeous day, so you never know.

Unfortunately, I have gym tuition on Sunday morning, so I'll have to come back into town for that which means I don't get to spend Sunday up there too.  But to be honest, that's probably not such a bad thing - I'll need to get some stuff done around the house and coming home on Sunday will let me do that.  I can pretty much guarantee that even if I ask my son to clean the house, it won't get done.  Plus, I have some writing work I'd like to get done too.

It's been an okay week.  Nothing too exciting has happened.  I did go and see the Spinal Tap sequel which I enjoyed very much.  Probably not quite as much as I enjoyed the first one, but I was only 13 when I saw that, and like so many other people, I wasn't 100% sure if what I was seeing was a documentary or not.  It seemed far too silly to be real, but at the same time, at 13, I didn't know much about the music industry or documentary, so...

Not much to write home about really...  What are you celebrating this week

IWSG- November

 It's the first Wednesday of the month so it's time for the Insecure Writers Support Group.

Our IWSG hosts this month are Jennifer Lane, Jenni Enzor, Renee Scattergood, Rebecca Douglass, Lynn Bradshaw, and Melissa Maygrove!

This month's question is a goodie!

When you began writing, what did you imagine your life as a writer would be like? Were you right, or has this experience presented you with some surprises along the way?

When I first started writing seriously, I was a teenager.  A young teenager.  I pictured myself getting published and becoming a bestseller before I was 20, my films being made into successful movies and my life in the lap of luxury beginning.

Guess what?

It didn't happen.

This was back in the days before email, so sending off a manuscript, especially from Australia or New Zealand, was a massive undertaking.  Paper weighs a lot and the decision had to be made whether to send the package by air or sea.  I entered contests, sent manuscripts direct to publishers and surprise, surprise, I never heard anything back.  I got a bit discouraged and stopped writing for a while, but by the time I was in college, I was back at it.

And I never really stopped.

Fast forward to the early 2000s and things changed.  I joined an online writing group and suddenly had a fabulous group of critique partners and a community of other authors who were also striving to be published.  They pushed me to be a better writer, encouraged me to branch out and write things outside of my comfort zone.  I wrote and published a large number of short stories with this group encouraging me, and when a bunch of us decided we were ready to move onto novels, we started a new group to focus on that.

We queried and consoled one another as the rejections rolled in, rejoiced together when someone got a partial or full request, and celebrated hard when one after another, people started getting what we all dreamed of: agent representation and publishing contracts.

Yet, despite having published six novels to date, my writing career looks nothing like what I imagined as a teenager.

I'm not a bestseller.   My books get great reviews, but very few people buy them.  If I get enough money in a quarterly royalty check to buy a coffee, it's cause for celebration.  Hollywood isn't beating down my door to adapt my books.  And I'm sure not living in the lap of luxury. 

I have two day jobs to keep afloat and have to squeeze writing time out of what little leisure time that leaves me. I had an agent for a few years, but lost that partnership when she left the agency.  So, I'm back in the query trenches, hoping for an opportunity to publish the next book with a publisher with greater reach than the one I'm currently with.

So, I guess it's safe to say my writing career is nothing like what I expected.  There's been a lot more disappointments than highlights, a lot more rejection than I ever thought I'd face and a lot less personal connection with people in the publishing industry.

But despite all that, I keep writing.  I keep querying.  I keep publishing.  I keep hoping that one day I'll get that one 'yes' that will transform my writing career into what 14-year-old me always beleived it would be.

Weekly Goals 3-11-25

 It's weird to finish a draft and suddenly not have a project to work on, but that's where I am right now.  I have to keep resisting the urge to dive back into my draft and make changes I know I need to make.  But I also know there's no point doing that because when I go back to it in a few weeks, I'll find multiple things I need to change and changes I make now might not make it through anyway.

So I'll wait.

I'll write some short stories.  I'll play around with the MG story I've been moonlighting with.  I'll read.  I'll read a lot.  I'll go to the movies without feeling guilty about not writing in that time.  I'll do reviews for my crit group.  And if anyone needs a beta read, this would be a good time to ask me.  I'll have time.

I'll do some marketing stuff for Standing Too Close which must be getting close to its print release.  I'll send more queries for A Stranger to Kindness (without that one word in the synopsis).

What I won't do is think about Arlo and Devon.

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 31-10-25

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 my anniversary.  My partner and I met at a Halloween party 28 years ago.  And believe me, it does not feel like it has been that long.  But then, I also just went to see our son's final performance before he graduates university with a music degree, so the timing tracks.

I finished the new book this week.  Or, to be more accurate, I finished my first draft of the new book.  I'm not sure if it's any good...  To try and tidy up some of the dangling plot threads I (or Arlo, to be perfectly honest) wrote a very long essay about one of the most difficult challenges he's faced.  So, now the book is made up of Arlo's journal, a section where Devon takes over the journal, and now this essay as well.  I'm not certain it's going to work, but I'll leave it alone for a few weeks and come back to it and see what I think then.

I now have quite an expanse of free time on my hands.  I do have another book I've been playing with - it's ostensibly a middle grade story, but I suspect it might actually be an adult book with a child protagonist.   I kind of need to figure that part out.  I figure I'll tinker away at that while I'm letting Arlo's story rest for a bit.

I got a personalised rejection from an agent this week - the very first one - and it was illuminating.  I wish I had received it earlier, because it indicates that there is a single word in my synopsis that might be the reason why I've been racking up rejections like a champ.  I've changed that word out now, and I'll send a few more queries this weekend and see if I have a different result.

And that's about it for celebrations this week.  Apart from the fact I won some movie tickets in a competition.  Which is cool.  Guess I'll be going to see Bugonia this weekend...

What cool things are you celebrating?

Books I've Read; Chosen Family

 

I was sent this one by NetGalley, so thanks, NetGalley.

It's an Australian book, set in Sydney and follows a friendship between two girls/women across decades.  The story is told in a non-linear way, so we get hints of the future while still following the girls' early years in the past.

Eve and Nell meet at the age of twelve.  Eve is new to school and instantly attracts attention because of her super-short hair.  Nell, who has always been kind of an outcast, is fascinated by this newcomer who seems utterly unafraid of anything.  They soon become best friends, but there is always something more underlying that friendship.  

During high school, that "something" becomes more palpable and leads to the pair breaking apart, something that is devastating to Eve who finishes high school friendless, struggling to understand herself and her sexuality.  

At university, she reinvents herself, finds her crowd amongst the queer community and finally begins to live the life she's always known she deserves.   So it's a shock when Nell appears at a party she's throwing, still the same as she always has been.  The friendship re-kindles, but that underlying "something" is still there.

Throughout the years, Nell and Eve will continue to be drawn to one another, to love one another and to hurt one another.  Their friendship is the bedrock of their lives, but it isn't as solid and sturdy as they'd like to think it is.

Eve is often unnecessarily cruel to Nell, who takes this cruelty without questioning it.  As the more outgoing of the pair, she's brash and often thoughtless and headstrong in her decision making.  Her idea is always the best idea....even when it isn't.

And Nell never really grows up from the twelve-year-old she once was, so pathetically grateful to finally have a friend she'll do anything at all to keep her close.

I enjoyed this book even though the characters often frustrated me in their inability to just talk about the things that constantly simmered under the surface.  So many of the things that hurt each of them could so easily have been fixed if they'd just talked to each other about their feelings.  But I guess, the things that matter most are always the hardest things to talk about.

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

Books about friendship are not often described as love stories, but this is one.
At the age of twelve, Nell has accepted that hers will likely be a friendless existence. She's not interested in boys or makeup or competing to see who can eat the least - so fitting in at her all-girls' school feels impossible.

But then, a new girl arrives at school.

Eve has short hair like a boy's, a wicked sense of humour and an unshakable confidence that she will find her place in the world. And the moment they meet, Nell begins to rethink the whole friendless existence thing.

As they grow into themselves, Nell and Eve will love each other and hurt each other - through the chlorine-scented savagery of adolescence; long, drunken nights in share houses and gay bars; the highs and lows of parenthood.

And always, despite unspoken feelings and sexual confusion, they will choose each other. Again, and again. As friends, as lovers, as family.

Weekly Goals 27-10-25

 I missed my Friday post because I was in Auckland for work and didn't think about it when I got back.  First time in a long time I've missed a day.  Oops!  But never mind.

Goals this week...  Well, the main one is to try and finish the new book.  I'm taking a couple of days off work to write and hopefully that will be what it takes to actually finish the draft.  I know there's a lot of stuff I need to go back and fix and revise and tidy up, but if I can get to the end, it'll be an achievement.

This book has been an interesting one for me in terms of figuring out if I actually have a process for writing books because I've done a bunch of things differently and they haven't worked for me at all.  I started off trying to write the book linearly - from start to finish - and it didn't work.  It took me far too long to hit the plot points I needed to hit, even when I tried writing the story in two different ways.  Didn't help that I also started writing from Devon's POV which turned out was the wrong one.

Then, I didn't write an ending early on in the piece, which I usually do.  I actually didn't have any real idea for the ending other than the fact Devon and Arlo are still friends at the end, even after everything they have to go through.  And not having an ending to aim for, meant all these little things I dropped into the story along the way didn't necessarily have a purpose, but still needed to be wrapped up.

Which is why I think I'm struggling with the ending.  It's not what I expected it to be and is a much bigger, more climactic ending than I ever intended it to be, and involves characters I didn't expect to be more than distant memories for Arlo.  Yet, I feel like what happens is 100% true to his character and there isn't really any other way it could go.

We shall see how it ends up.  And then, how my critique group respond to it.

What are your goals this week?

Books I've read: I Kissed Shara Wheeler

 

I picked this one up at the library because I thought the cover looked like one of those old pulp lesbian novels they used to sell in wire racks at the back of drugstores (yeah, I'm old).  Then I realized I've read other books by this author and sort of enjoyed them, so decided it was coming home with me.  It's been a while since I read a whole book over a weekend, but this one was a quick, fun read and I breezed through it.

Just a few weeks before graduation, Sarah Wheeler, queen of the senior class at the strictly religious Willowgrove Academy, disappears.  And before she does, she kisses her arch rival for valedictorian, Chloe.  Chloe has long been an outsider at Willowbank.  She's from California and only moved to the small town a few years back, a curiosity because she has two moms.

Shara's disappearance doesn't seem to be ringing alarm bells for anyone else, but Chloe needs answers. What did that kiss mean?  And where the heck is Shara?  Desperate to try and figure it out, she breaks into Shara's house and searches her room.  While she's there, the bad boy next door, Rory, breaks in too.  Turns out, Sarah kissed him too in the hours before fleeing prom.

Soon Chloe, Rory and Shara's boyfriend Smith find themselves on an unlikely scavenger hunt, uncovering clues Shara has left all over town.  Thrown together with these two boys she barely knows, Chloe finds herself going places and seeing things about the town she lives in she's never seen before.  Not to mention discovering things about people she never expected.  Including herself.

I had fun reading this book, but I found the ending a little disappointing.  Once Shara's mystery is solved, the rest of the book just seems to fizzle out even though there are still some more revelations to be had before the final page.  I think this is because the real Shara is way less interesting than the Shara we see through Chloe's eyes.  Not to mention entirely unrealistic.

But up until that point, I found this a fun mystery with a couple of interesting characters and enough action and intrigue to keep me turning the pages.

So, I'd recommend this if you're looking for something quick to read over a weekend.

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

Chloe Green is so close to winning. After her moms moved her from SoCal to Alabama for high school, she’s spent the past four years dodging gossipy classmates and a puritanical administration at Willowgrove Christian Academy. The thing that’s kept her going: winning valedictorian. Her only rival: prom queen Shara Wheeler, the principal’s perfect progeny.

But a month before graduation, Shara kisses Chloe and vanishes.

On a furious hunt for answers, Chloe discovers she’s not the only one Shara kissed. There’s also Smith, Shara’s longtime quarterback sweetheart, and Rory, Shara’s bad boy neighbor with a crush. The three have nothing in common except Shara and the annoyingly cryptic notes she left behind, but together they must untangle Shara’s trail of clues and find her. It’ll be worth it, if Chloe can drag Shara back before graduation to beat her fair-and-square.

Thrown into an unlikely alliance, chasing a ghost through parties, break-ins, puzzles, and secrets revealed on monogrammed stationery, Chloe starts to suspect there might be more to this small town than she thought. And maybe—probably not, but maybe—more to Shara, too.

Fierce, funny, and frank, Casey McQuiston's I Kissed Shara Wheeler is about breaking the rules, getting messy, and finding love in unexpected places.

Weekly Goals 20-10-25

 I did some more writing yesterday and got through to the end of the mammoth chapter.  It's over 5K, so I may need to break it up somehow.  I also think I need to give Devon more to do.  But that's all stuff for the next draft.  I'll just write myself a note and move on.

So this week's goal is to keep going.  I'm so close to the end of this book I can smell it.

I'm going to Auckland for work at the end of the week which will be fun.  I rather stupidly didn't think about adding on a day or so after the work stuff to catch up with friends, but I'll do that next time.  There will be plenty of next time.

Long weekend this weekend too, and I'm hoping to take an extra couple of days after it so I will be able to finish the book.

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 17-10-25

 

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!

It's been another busy week at work and on top of that, I've had a lot of other things on as well.  The Jazz Festival is happening and I went to two gigs on Thursday night with my old colleagues.  Which was fun.   Except I didn't get to bed until almost 1am.   Friday?  Not so much fun.

I've had three rejections for A Stranger to Kindness this week.  Seems excessive, really.  Not quite sure why I keep persisting when it's becoming pretty clear nobody wants my beautiful mute foster kid story.  And if they don't want that one, I'm not sure they're going to like my new book any more,  Homeless, lame rent-boys don't strike me as being high on agents' lists of desirable subject matter.

Hoping to get some writing done this weekend.  Next weekend is a long one and I'm hoping to tack on a couple extra days after it to try and finish my book.  Especially since I'm traveling with the orchestra next week and won't get to start my weekend until Sunday.

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've Loved: Lola in the Mirror

 

After loving Boy Swallows Universe when I read it earlier this year,  I decided I needed to read more books by Trent Dalton.  This one didn't disappoint.

It's about a homeless girl whose mother has kept her on the run as long as she can remember.  To keep her safe, she's never been told her real name.  The threat of violence is real and has hung over them the whole time they've been running from town to town, city to settlement.  Now, almost eighteen and determined to become a world-famous artist despite her background, the girl and her mother live in a junkyard near the river in Brisbane.  To keep themselves afloat, both help distribute drugs for the city's feared drug lord, Flora Box.

When the mother drowns in the midst of undertaking an heroic act, the girl is set adrift, the one person anchoring her to the world gone.  In the aftermath, she begins to discover things about herself that change the portrait she's drawn of both her mother and the person she thinks she's becoming.   The one person who can talk to her and offer some guidance is Lola, the mysterious woman in the red dress who appears in a mirror the girl salvaged somewhere.  Lola seems to have all the answers when the world keeps throwing up more and more difficult questions.

Questions about love, morality, identity, violence and revenge.

I loved this book.  It's tough and gritty and violent, but also beautiful and sensitive.  The girl with no name has an artist's eye and her perspective on the grimmer sides of life are often beautiful, even when laced with the pragmatism of survival.  Somehow, throughout a life spent on the run, living in cars or tents, answering to a different name every few weeks, she's managed to maintain a love for life and a belief in the inherent goodness of people.

Before each chapter is a gorgeous illustration which is described on the following page like an artwork in a gallery catalogue, referencing the way the girl narrates her life like a documentarian making a film about the artist's life.

I highly recommend this book.  It's exciting, fast paced, beautifully lyrical in places and filled to the brim with characters you won't easily forget.

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

'Mirror, mirror, on the grass, what's my future? What's my past?' A girl and her mother are on the lam. They've been running for sixteen years, from police and the monster they left in the kitchen with the knife in his throat. They've found themselves a home inside an orange 1987 Toyota HiAce van with four flat tyres parked in a scrapyard by the edge of the Brisbane River – just two of the 100,000 Australians sleeping rough every night. The girl has no name because names are dangerous when you're on the run. But the girl has a dream. Visions in black ink and living colour. A vision of a life as a groundbreaking artist of international acclaim. A life outside the grip of the Brisbane underworld drug queen 'Lady' Flora Box. A life of love with the boy in the brown suit who's waiting for her in the middle of the bridge that stretches across a flooding and deadly river. A life far beyond the bullet that has her name on it. And now that the storm clouds are rising, there's only one person who can help make her dreams come true. That person's name is Lola and she carries all the answers. But to find Lola, the girl with no name must first do one of the hardest things we can sometimes ever do. She must look in the mirror. A big, moving, blackly funny, violent, heartbreaking and beautiful novel of love, fate, life and death and all the things we see when we look in the mirror. All of the past, all of the present, and all of our possible futures. 'Mirror, mirror, please don't lie. Tell me who you are. Tell me who am I.'

Weekly Goals 13-10-25

 I got some writing done over the weekend and I'm feeling like I'm getting very, very close to wrapping up this story.  This last chapter's going to be a doozy though.  It's already over 3K and I have a bunch more to write.  Guess it makes up for some of the earlier ones that are just a single sentence.

So, my goal this week is to keep writing.  Try to get to the end of this giant chapter and finish the book.  I'm still trying to figure out a few things, but I think they'll come clear to me as I write.

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 10-10-25

 

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 boy do I need it!  It has been another crazy week at work and I'm tired.  Even with one less teaching shift at the gym.

I got a couple more rejections for A Stranger to Kindness.  Both of these were from very early queries I sent and had pretty much written off as no-response-means-no.  

The concert we had on Thursday was magical.  A sold-out house which is always nice, and an absolutely delightful soloist/conductor from Finland.

Haven't had a chance to write this week, but plan to over the weekend.  I read through what I wrote last week and I'm pretty happy with it.  If I managed to take a couple of extra days off around Labour weekend, I should be able to finish this draft.

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've read: Breathing Underwater

 

I came across this one when I was browsing the Libby app for something to read while I ate lunch since I'd finished my earlier read.  It sounded like something I'd be interested in, and did not disappoint.

Freya has visited her grandparents on their remote island home every summer she can remember.  She and her brother Joe became different people on the island, exploring, swimming, fishing and mixing with the summer people who come to camp.

But this year is different.  Last summer Joe drowned in a boating accident and life just hasn't been the same since.  Not only is there a huge hole in her life where Joe used to be, but her parents have been squabbling and the family are moving out of the home they've lived in forever to get away from the painful memories.

Freya isn't sure how being back on the island without Joe will feel, but it's her favorite place in the world and doesn't want to lose that as well.

At first it's strange for her.  Memories of Joe assault her at every turn.  She even feels like she sees him here and there, but rather than being scared or saddened by it, Freya is calmed by his ghostly presence.  As the summer crawls by in a series of picnics, parties on the beach, swims and burgeoning new friendships with this year's summer people, Freya begins to open up to the possibility that life may not be as bleak as she was beginning to think.  

This is a sweet, quiet book about grief and love and learning to accept both as natural parts of life.  The island setting is vividly evoked and becomes a central character in the story, much the same way Joe's memory is.  It's a good thing the island is so well drawn because many of the supporting characters are really just sketches and don't have enough depth or substance to really hang onto.  But this could have been intentional - when you're grieving, sometimes you can't risk getting close enough to other people to really see them as more than shadows.

So I'd recommend this one.  It's not full of drama or big moments, but I found it satisfying enough.

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

Freya has come to visit her grandparents who live on a remote island. Last year she visited them with her brother - but last year her brother died alone in a boating accident. Whilst back on the island, Freya finds a way, with the calming presence of her grandparents and the gentle care and attention of the people around her, to adjust to the fact that her brother has gone, and that life - and love - are still vibrantly in the air. A perfect coming of age for any young girl just tipping into teenhood.

Weekly Goals 6-10-25

 I had a really great writing day yesterday.  Wrote close to 3.5K words in a single afternoon.  It felt really good too.  I haven't read over what I wrote yet, so it may be trash, but I don't think so.  For the first time in weeks, I feel like I've found the right way to end this story.

So my goal this week is to keep up that momentum.  I don't think I'll find a day I can take off to write, unfortunately - we have concerts on Thursday and Saturday and the bookings for next year are through the roof - but I plan to use the weekend as best I can to keep going.

I'm back to only teaching two mornings a week at the gym from tis week, which gives me a little more time to do writing related stuff.  I might try to get some reviewing for my crit group done in the mornings to free up a little more time over the weekend.

There just aren't enough hours in the week.

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 3-10-25

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 boy do I need a weekend.  This week at work has been nuts, and next week is going to be even more so.  So many events so close together!

Only one rejection for A Stranger to Kindness this week.  

Caught up with a friend from my last job on Wednesday, which was great.

Haven't done any writing, but this week was my last week of teaching three morning classes in a row, so I'll have a little bit more time up my sleeve from now on.  Only a little, mind you...

What are you celebrating this week?

IWSG - October

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

The awesome co-hosts for the October 1 posting of the IWSG are Beth Camp, Crystal Collier, and Cathrina Constantine!

This month's question is a good one!

 

What is the most favorite thing you have written, published or not? And why?

My favorite thing I've written is the book I'm currently querying,  A Stranger to Kindness.  It's the hardest book I've ever written and took me over five years to complete because I had a complete crisis of confidence after writing about 15K and I ended up abandoning it for quite some time, wrote another book, then came back to it and found my way into the story and the characters in a way I hadn't been able to before.

I'm not usually someone who worries too much about plot in my books.  They tend to be more character driven and the plot kind of develops as I explore the characters and how they act and react to the people and situations around them.  In A Stranger to Kindness, the main character is very damaged and stuff most people can do without much thought is incredibly challenging for him.  And these challenges really drove the plot for me in this book, to the point where things happen to him that I wasn't expecting, but were, in retrospect, exactly what would happen to this kid.

I kind of love him.

But I don't just love Harley, the main character.  I also love his brother, Wolfe and the friend he makes at his new school, Meg.  Meg's not an entirely new character - she's the younger sister of the main character in Stumped - but she's a few years older now, and the sass she demonstrated as an eleven-year-old in that book, has developed into some real bad-assery in this one.

I love this book because I love the characters, but I also feel like it's a hugely satisfying story on many levels.  It's about trauma and family and love and finding a place to call home.  I think I managed to write a really satisfying arc for my characters and, like in the best stories, they're different at the end than they were at the start. 

I also think I did a pretty good job with the voice in this one.  Voice is something that comes pretty naturally to me, but finding a voice for a POV character who doesn't speak was a huge challenge for me.  My writing background is in theatre and film, so dialogue plays a massive part in my storytelling.  I think the crisis of confidence I faced in writing this book was based largely on the fact I couldn't lean on dialogue to do any heavy lifting here because Harley's mute for most of the book.

Unfortunately, you can't read this book yet because it's not published.  And if the number of rejections it's racking up is anything to go by, it may not be any time soon.  But if you're interested in my favorite of my published books, it's Stumped - the one in which Meg plays a small part.  

What's your favorite thing you've written?  Is it published?  I'd love to add it to my TBR pile if it is!

Weekly Goals 29-9-25

 I got some writing done over the weekend.  Not a huge amount, but some.  Unfortunately, I don't know what's going to happen now I've got my characters where they need to be.  I'm sure it will come clear once I start writing it (I hope), but I have to actually write it.  I keep thinking I can have a day off to write, but there's always too much going on at work to actually claw back those extra hours.

So, this week's goal is to try and get through this section.  Once I've written it, how the book ends will be clear.  And I'm pretty sure it's not going to be the happy ending Arlo might be thinking he's getting, the one where he gets everything he wants.  I feel like it'll be more bittersweet, but then, that's kind of my brand.

I think this week (or maybe next week) is my last week of teaching three mornings a week, which will be a nice change of pace.  Amazing what a difference just having one more free morning a week makes.

What are your goals for this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 26-9-25

  

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 daylight saving starts on Sunday, so summer can't be too far away, even if it still feels like winter.

It's been a very busy week at work so I haven't had any time to write.  I hope to get some done over the weekend, but I also have quite a lot to do over the weekend.  Grrrrr....  Why does life have to get in the way of the things I actually want to do?

I got three new rejections for A Stranger to Kindness this week.  Starting to feel like continuing to query is pointless, but I'll persist a few more weeks.  I keep reminding myself it only takes one person to fall in love with it and maybe I haven't found that person yet.

I can't think of anything else I want to celebrate this week, so I'll leave it there.  What are your end-of-week celebrations?

Books I've Read: People of the Book

 

I've read other books by Geraldine Brooks and enjoyed them, so when a colleague recommended this to me, I jumped at the chance to read it.

It's part historical, part fact and part mystery, everything tied together by a present-day framing story in which an expert in ancient texts tries to unravel the secrets held by a famed book.  The book in question is a Jewish haggadah that was found in Sarajevo after the conflict.  Unusual in that it was illustrated, something Jews rarely did, the book was rescued and hidden many times over the years since its creation in 15th century Spain.

As the modern-day researcher, an Australian, tries to discover more about the book and its origins from such things as a fragment of butterfly wing, a hair and a stain that could be either blood or wine, the stories behind each of these things unfolds before us, revealing details of people and cultures from the ghettos of Venice, to an emir's palace and many places in between.

In the modern day, the book plays out more like a thriller as the researcher's work is interrupted by fascists and those who believe the book is theirs, not something that belongs to the diversity of cultures represented in Sarajevo across centuries.  She soon finds herself dragged into the shady underworld of forgery and art theft where only her unique knowledge and skill might get her out.

It took me a long time to read this book - almost three weeks, which is unheard of for me.  I think I was perhaps too tired to fully absorb it at times and found I had to go back and re-read sections to catch myself up.  But I did enjoy it when I had the chance to read more than a couple of pages at a time.  I feel like it might be one I need to come back to again when I'm less busy and better able to focus.

In many ways, through telling the story of the haggadah, the book offers a history of European Judaism, showing the way the Jews were constantly moved on from the places they settled, the endless persecution and their determination to hold fast to their beliefs even when faced with dreadful punishment for practicing them.

I'd recommend this one for people who enjoy historical fiction.  The thriller aspect is there, but it's pretty understated and if you go into this expecting a thrilling ride, you might just be disappointed.

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

The "complex and moving" (The New Yorker) novel by Pulitzer Prize winner Geraldine Brooks follows a rare manuscript through centuries of exile and war.

Inspired by a true story, "People of the Book" is a novel of sweeping historical grandeur and intimate emotional intensity by an acclaimed and beloved author.

Called "a tour de force" by the San Francisco Chronicle, this ambitious, electrifying work traces the harrowing journey of the famed Sarajevo Haggadah, a beautifully illuminated Hebrew manuscript created in fifteenth-century Spain.

When it falls to Australian rare book expert Hanna Heath to conserve this priceless work, the tiny artifacts she discovers in its ancient binding—a butterfly wing fragment, wine stains, salt crystals, a white hair—only begin to unlock the book’s deep mysteries and unexpectedly plunges Hanna into the intrigues of fine art forgers and ultra-nationalist fanatics.

Weekly goals 22-9-25

 I did a bit of writing over the weekend although I ended up throwing away a chunk of what I did after I realized I was going in the wrong direction.  I finally figured out a way to end the book that will let me explore the dangling plot thread I was worried about.  At least, I hope this will be the way to finish the book.  I'm not quite sure yet what might happen when I let Devon and Arlo go there, but I guess I'll find out.

I might try to take Thursday off to write, depending on how busy it is.  I have eight hours of lieu time I need to use ASAP, so Thursday might be the day to do it.  I'd pick Friday, but we have an all staff meeting for two hours and I probably shouldn't miss that.

So my goal this week is to try and write this section and hit the end.  I think there are probably odd bits and pieces I'll need to add in revision later to make it work, but that's what revision is for, right?

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things

 

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!

It has been a long week and I am definitely in need of a break.  Especially since next week is going to be a crazy one.  I have nothing planned this weekend, which is a good thing because I just want to stay home and read and write and not think about work for a couple of days.

I haven't done any writing this week.  Not even my daily flash fiction which I've been so good about doing all year. I've taught some extra classes at the gym and between that and the amount of brain power learning my job is taking,  I just haven't had anything left for writing anything.

I've had two rejections for A Stranger to Kindness this week too.  At this point, I'm not quite sure why I keep sending out queries, but I'm not ready to give up on Harley and Wolfe and their story.  Even though no one seems to want it.

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've read: The Stars are Million Glittering Worlds

 

I first came across this book before it was published when the publisher approached me about interviewing the author for the arts magazine I was editing.  Timing wasn't kind to us and the interview didn't happen, but I did receive a copy of the book for a giveaway.  It sat on my desk, looking enticing and beautiful for several weeks, but I was afraid that if I took it home to read, I spill coffee on it or drop it in the bath.  So, it remained unread until my book club decided it was a good option for this month's read since there were multiple copies available through the Libby app. (If you don't have the Libby app, get it now - it's been life-changing).

I really enjoyed this book despite deciding by the end that I really didn't like any of the characters very much.

There are three main characters - Thea, Sarah and Chris - who meet at a backpacker's in Guatemala.  Sarah and Chris are loosely a couple, having met elsewhere in Central America and met up again in San Pedro, a little town on a lake.  Thea arrives later, determined to climb some of the nearby mountains - her father who was a keen mountaineer died recently, and climbing is a way for Thea to feel close to him again.

All three of these people are traveling to get away from their real lives, to escape reality, their families and past trauma.  While they keep moving, they can be someone else; perhaps better than the people they were at home.

When tragedy strikes, Thea spirals, her past racing to meet her once more.  Even staying away doesn't seem to keep the darkness from overwhelming her, so she decides to go home, travelling through Australia to get there.

She never makes it home - she falls into a relationship and quickly finds herself building a life in Tasmania.  A mostly comfortable life, with friends and activities to keep the grief that binds her and her partner at bay.

Until another tragedy strikes and Thea finds herself questioning everything, the unanswered questions surrounding the tragedy in Guatemala suddenly overwhelming once more.  But if she wants the truth about what really happened, she needs to confront her own truth and finally confront her own tragedy, the one that sent her running to the far side of the globe.

This book went in some very unexpected directions. I won't ruin it by telling you too much about those directions because a big part of what made it enjoyable were these changes of direction.  Yet despite them being unexpected, none of them were out of character for the people making those decisions.

Unfortunately, I didn't much like any of the characters, and by the end, I liked them all even less.  Which, I suspect, may have been the point.  But despite not liking them, the book was very readable and had some lovely descriptions and language sprinkled through it.  There were enough buried secrets to keep you reading on, desperate to find out exactly what made these people tick - just why they behaved in some of the ways they did.

So, I'd recommend this one.

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

A hypnotic novel about love, guilt and forgiveness. If you loved Everything is Beautiful and Everything Hurts by Josie Shapiro, you will adore The Stars Are a Million Glittering Worlds.

Thea, a young woman crushed by guilt, flees to Central America to escape her life in New Zealand.

In Guatemala, she meets the charismatic Chris and his partner, Sarah, and the three of them form a tight bond. While the rest of the world is caught in the grip of the global financial crisis, the three friends find a false reality in the backpacker party town of San Pedro. Surrounded by the dark volcanic beauty of the Guatemalan highlands, Thea starts to come to terms with her past. But everything changes when a tragedy occurs.

Knowing she has to leave Central America, but not ready to return home, Thea settles in Tasmania and into a new relationship. Bonded by grief, she and her partner make a life for themselves in Hobart. But years later, when tragedy strikes again, all Thea's old grief and guilt - together with unanswered questions - come to the surface. Against the backdrop of the pandemic and lockdowns, Thea begins to question the trust she has in her partner. She realises that if she wants to know the truth, she will need to come clean about her past.