As I write this, most of Perth have spent the last couple of days checking for updates on the BOM website, looking to see how Tropical Cyclone Narelle is travelling, and if it’s headed right for us or not. It seems like maybe, in the metro areas, we’ll get a drenching but it won’t be as bad as originally thought. Here’s hoping.
(Coincidentally, we just had the 16th anniversary of the 2010 “Storm of the Decade” in which golf ball sized hailstones caught everyone by surprise and somehow my car managed to escape unscathed despite being parked outside in the deluge.)
As much as a rainy weekend under a blanket with a book sounds very enticing indeed, I must admit that the idea of a month’s worth of rain in a day and 140km p/h winds does make me feel a little anxious.
Yep, that’s right. I am officially on submission.
I took March off from sticking to my regular writing routine, and it was a good thing too, because I found myself working a bit more than usual at my day job in the library. Of course, this almost guaranteed that inspiration would strike… and strike it did. After I attended a workshop at the State Library of WA run by Dr Amanda Curtin called ‘Seeds of Story’ I found myself filled with the urge to work on my family history projects and to begin researching for my feminist Western. Ideas have been coming to me as I fall asleep, while I am driving, and basically any time that it’s inconvenient for me to write them down. I’ve had to start leaving notebooks in all my bags, in my car, and on my bedside table.
Historical Voices: An ANZAC author talk with Emily Paull and Melinda Tognini at South Perth Community Hall (Wednesday April 22nd, 6.00-7.30pm) Free, but bookings essential
Join me and my fellow History Writer, Melinda Tognini, as we talk about writing and researching wartime stories, both fictional and factual.
March has been a really great reading month, both in quantity and in quality. I have had a few four and five star reads, which is excellent, though I did realise that we are three months in to the year and I have hardly read any historical fiction! Who am I, and what have I done with me?
Not having a current writing project on the go for most of the month freed up some more reading time on the weekend, but I think I could have read even more if I didn’t have other things to do on my non working days, such as go to author talks and workshops, or crochet whilst watching all four seasons of Ugly Betty. (As a big fan of Apple TV’s Shrinking, I just followed Michael Urie from one show to another.) If I can keep myself from watching too much TV in April, I may even be able to get myself back on track with my reading goals… imagine!
Am I where I need to be to finish these goals by the end of 2026? Hell no. But I’ve decided that there’s no point getting angry with myself over these completely arbitrary goals. No one asked me to try to do these reading challenges in the first place, and reading is supposed to be fun.
My how to read more tip for this month is both for the benefit of those of you reading this and a reminder to myself. It’s this: create yourself a reading bubble.
I noticed that I wasn’t reading much on my lunch breaks at work because I was too aware of what was going on outside the tearoom. I could hear fun conversations, I knew what problems people were trying to solve, and I couldn’t force myself to ignore them. The same qualities that mean I like diving into historical records keep me from being able to read in a room where other people I know are talking - I am nosy, and I like knowing things.
Or to put it another way…
So what is the solution?
My friends, get yourself some over ear headphones. Big ones. Colourful ones that can easily be seen so that anyone who enters the lunchroom, or walks past your table at the cafe, or dares think about asking you what’s for dinner will see that you are in your reading bubble. They will at least think twice.
In ear headphones or ear buds will not do the trick for this. Not only will people not see them and talk to you anyway, but they don’t give that lovely cosy seal over your ears that make other conversations sound like they are very far away. You want to feel like you have been put inside a bubble, essentially - hence the name.
The other day, I didn’t even have my headphones plugged in, and I definitely wasn’t listening to music. But I had those pillows over my ears and I was not available to anyone or anything other than my book.
If you want to level it up and go full public transport mode, try adding a pair of sunglasses. I have not tried this yet and hope I don’t have to.
Have you got any other tips for reading more? I’d love to hear them.
I am cheating a little here, because as you can see, I have not actually finished this book yet. In my defence, my library hold on the new ML Stedman came in so I had to drop everything. I was very absorbed in that book.
The Secret Place is the fourth novel in the Dublin Murder Squad series by Irish crime writer, Tana French. Rather than having a central detective as a through-line for the series, the Squad itself is the recurring element, and the lead detective/ narrator/ main character in each novel has usually been a background character in the novel that came before. The first book, In the Woods features Rob Ryan whose offsider is Cassie Maddox, who is the main investigator in book two, The Likeness and so on. Both Rob and Cassie are nowhere to be seen by the time you reach The Secret Place, but you feel as if you know the world well enough anyway. Stephen Moran, who has been working on cold cases, is presented with the opportunity to make the jump to the murder squad when Holly Mackey (daughter of book three’s main detective, Frank, who works missing persons) turns up at the precinct with information pertaining to the murder of a high school student the year before. As Stephen has a rapport with Holly, he leverages his way into the investigation, working alongside Antoinette Conway - a woman who has had to work doubly hard to get to where she is in the pecking order and is definitely not going to let anyone take that away from her.
The novel is told in alternating chapters from Moran’s point of view as he investigates the case in real time, and in third person perspective following Holly and her three friends the year earlier, recounting events leading up to the death of Chris Harper. Each time Chris is mentioned, the omniscient narrator finds a way to drop in to conversation how many months he has left to live as a way of orienting the readers. I find the use of first person interesting, as readers are given not only the facts of the investigation but also some of the thoughts and mind tricks that the detective is using, including needing to pretend not to be bothered when teenage girls flirt with him in order to get answers to his questions. Moran - and therefore the reader - are very aware of how uncomfortable it can be to be a young male detective having to question teenage girls.
These novels can sometimes have a sense of the uncanny to them, and don’t always have straightforward solutions to their crimes, so I am looking forward to seeing how this turns out, particularly as someone has just mentioned that Holly and her gang may have been into witchcraft.
I’ve been loving this short but sweet podcast hosted by Robert Watkins of Ultimo Press which asks authors “Are you a serious book person?”
While we are talking about podcasts, The Book Deal recently caught up with Catherine Milne from HarperCollins and writers, you don’t want to miss the insights into pitching and the business of publishing that she drops in this one
After my session at the Kalamunda Readers’ Festival on Saturday, I dropped in to Kalamunda Antiques, Books and Collectables and had myself a merry time browsing their wares. There’s a great selection of second hand books but also vintage kitchenware, furniture, porcelain dolls, knitting needles, artwork… around every turn there seemed to be more treasure. A day in the hills with a bit of a browse and then a coffee sounds delightful, don’t you think? I will be back.
Last but not least, Fremantle Press have moved into their new home at the SEC Substation building on Parry Street! They’re fundraising at the moment to turn this home into a bustling creative hub, and there’s a campaign with matched donations so your dollar stretches even further when you pitch in. (It’s also their 50th Anniversary in April so Happy Birthday, FP!)
That’s all from me this month; the rain is beating down on my window and I have a book to finish. Batten down the hatches, stay safe and dry, and I will speak to you all at the end of next month. Til then, I hope you have something wonderful to read, and if you don’t, I have it on good authority that there are less than 100 books to sell until I sell out the first print run of The Distance Between Dreams. You can get yours from your local bookshop, or direct from Fremantle Press, and I’d love it if you would.
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