Saturday, May 24, 2008

Baby Shark's High Plains Redemption by Robert Fate



I first discovered Robert Fate via a Spinetingler review and have been enjoying the series since. In this latest installment Kristin and her partner Otis are at work on a strange case that seems to throw a curve ball at every turn.

In this latest installment Fate peels back the psychological layers. Kristin's identity as Baby Shark was forged during a brutal rape and the murder of her father. Since then she's taken revenge on her attackers and discovered a new life as a private investigator.

In her development as a private investigator she's learnt many skills-most of them concerned with how to kill a man in different ways. What I enjoyed most was the personal conflict as she tries to reconcile the person she was with the person she has become. She questions if she is different to the people she is hunting. She is starting to realise that the choices she made means it is becoming impossible for her to live any sort of a normal life. Although I wonder if she would want to anyway. Normal is way overrated.

While the core of this latest installment has heart, Fate still keeps the thrills and spills coming as the action pumps across the page. Well worth reading and if you haven't discovered Robert Fate before, go back to the beginning. Here's what I had to say about the previous book.

Labels: Baby Shark, Book rave, Robert Fate

Posted by Amra Pajalic :: 12:43 PM :: 0 comments

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Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Meme About Various Things-Common theme is ME

The tag: (from http://josephinedamian.blogspot.com/)

1. The rules of the game get posted at the beginning.
2. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
3. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5-6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read the player’s blog.
4. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

A Meme about Various Things

What were you doing ten years ago?

Ten years ago I was a newly wed and because I married at 19 everyone assumed I was braindead. I was working in some crappy office jobs (I still work in crappy office jobs so nothing’s changed there) and because I was unstimulated I decided to do further study. For some insane reason I thought shorthand was the way to go (I think my reasoning was that I’d further my administration career-mmm, maybe I was braindead) and it was awful. The only good thing that came out of it was that I decided to study something I liked and began the Diploma of Arts in Professional Writing and Editing which is directly responsible for my writing career taking off.

What are five things on your to-do list for today (not in any particular order)?

Weed my garden bed
Write a couple of pages of my next project
Do a blog post
Buy some groceries
Take my Mum to the hairdresser

What are some snacks you enjoy?

Tasty cheese in white bread, popcorn, chocolate biscuits, bakery goods, bread,

What are five places where you have lived?

St Albans, Melbourne, Australia
Bosanska Gradiska, Bosnia and Hercegovina
Northcote, Melbourne, Australia
Thornbury, Melbourne, Australia
Marrickville, Sydney

What are five jobs you have had?

Selling lollies door to door, waitress, secretary, administration officer, receptionist (if you think these last three are basically the same thing-you’d be right)

What were the last five books you read?

Like Water for Chocolate by Lara Esquivel

Before I Die by Jenny Downham

Marley and Me by John Grogan

Nine Letters Long by J.C. Burke

Grave Sight by Charlaine Harris

What are five web sites you visit daily (in no particular order)?

http://josephinedamian.blogspot.com/
http://pubrants.blogspot.com/
http://sandrablabber.blogspot.com/
http://www.megcabot.com/diary/
http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/


Tag 5 People
Nope-if you want to do it, go for it.

Labels: Meme

Posted by Amra Pajalic :: 6:31 AM :: 1 comments

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Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Books that changed your life as a child, and made you cringe as an adult!

I attended a session with Neil Gaiman at the Children's Council of Literature conference (for those of you who don't know Neil Gaiman of the writer of Stardust Movie Fame). There were a few intersting things that came from this that keep circling my brain.

One of them was that he recently attended a Science Fiction and Horror Conference in China and that only recently China has approved of this type of literature. After realising that they are the biggest producer of items, but never the inventor of such items, they did a survey of all inventors in different countries. One of the things they discovered was that the thing that most they had in common was that they were readers of Science Fiction and Horror.

That is such an interesting fact that I haven't been able to get it out of my mind. I can understand it. By reading this type of literature you're literally stepping outside of your realm of experience and teaching your brain to do the same. It makes me think about the power of literature to influence and shape people.

As a writer I don't feel comfortable sharing my lofty ideals with writing and you just have to focus on the entertainment factor otherwise you sound like a wanker, but in reality there are books that changed my life, that shifted my perspective and made me change. And I hope that my book can do that to someone. (See how wanky that sounds.)

Anyway the other thing he talked about was how readers influence the book. We insert all the little details between the lines on the page and make it come to life. This is why sometimes when we re-read a book that profoundly affected us as a child we're confused because the words on the page don't match up what's in our head.

I had that experience with a book I re-read that I loved. The book was Easy Connections by Liz Berry. I feel embarrassed confessing this because I respect public libraries so much, but this was the book I stole from my high school library. Now when I think about this story as an adult it's quite off. A 17 year old meets a rock star, who rapes her, she falls pregnant, hides out from him while he pursues and eventually blackmails/bullies her into a relationship.

But as a young adult that whole love angle was so enthralling. I think it's because your idea of love are about that possessive/obsessive love that is bigger than oneself. That's why I loved Wuthering Heights at this age too, and have wanted to re-read it for years but something has stopped me. As an adult we know that sort of love is unhealthy and gross, not something to aspire to, but as a teenager it's what I dreamt about.

I think also the whole rape angle is about obsession with sex at that stage. You're so curious and obsessed with it, while at the same time grossed out and scared by it, and this sort of expression of sex captures that conflict perfectly. Or maybe I'm just full of shit and it's because I was a young idiot who didn't know any better.

Anyway I thought about this book as an adult and felt the urge to re-read it. So I searched my whole house trying to find it and realised that somewhere along the way I'd purged it. This is when I vowed not to purge any books again. I was going to track it down and buy it when a friend said-Stop. Do a google search. You might be disappointed. So I did, and I was.

It still doesn't change that this book served it's purpose for me as a teenager, but it makes me wary about re-reading other books. I've got all of the Anne of Green Gables series and remember how much I loved her book. When I was re-reading my diary I found all this quotes attributed to LMM and it took me weeks to figure out that I was quoting Lucy Maud Montgomery.

I also remember reading Forever by Judy Blume and being so influenced by the book that I vowed to hold onto my virginity until after high school and not be desperate to grow up too fast. Kept the vow too. I've got Judy Blume, but I've been scared about re-reading her. Not wanting to spoil the images in my head for what is really there.

While intellectually I know that it won't spoil it because those books served a purpose at a particular time in my life, it still does spoil it. You analyse the books as an adult and find them wanting. You critique the writing and cringe. And you lose some of the magic in life.

Has anyone else had this experience with a book from childhood? And should I re-read the other books on my list, or stay away?

Labels: Literature, Neil Gaiman, Teenage years

Posted by Amra Pajalic :: 9:07 PM :: 6 comments

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Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Meme

Well Sandra Ruttan just tagged me to do a meme. The way the meme works is:

1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open it to page 123
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people, and acknowledge who tagged you (and I understand that etiquette calls for you to avoid "tagging" someone else who has already been sent the meme, if possible).

The book nearest to me is Chenxi and the Foreigner by Sally Rippin which is on my to be read pile. The page 123 paragraph is:

"Anyway, it's good to see you're catching up on your Chinese history, dear... would you smell this sauce, doesn't it smell fantastic? Shall I open a bottle of wine?"

The people I tag are: Gabrielle Luthy, Simmone Howell , Jamie Ford, Lee, and Josephine Damian .

Labels: Meme

Posted by Amra Pajalic :: 8:29 AM :: 2 comments

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Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Before I die by Jenny Downham

I just read this book and am in complete awe of the author's talent. I saw this book in the bookstore and was intrigued by the title and it's placing in the young adult section. I started thinking-is this really written from the perspective of a dying person, a dying young person. I picked it up and read the first few sentences for the blurb (I don't like to know too much about a novel before I read it) and it confirmed my initial suspicion. I simply had to read it.

Downham is amazing. She has a beautiful, lyrical voice that cuts to the heart of the matter. It's heartfelt without being melodramatic. As I was reading I was laughing, crying, and laughing again. Even though it's a tough subject matter, it's an incredibly uplifting book. A book that makes you feel more alive than you ever have, a book that makes you reflect on your life and the purpose of it. I'm preparing for bed now but I'm feeling full of optimism about tomorrow, about the promise that it holds and the things I want to achieve.

I tried to research the author and found this article and this review. I cannot emphasise enough how great this book is. If you're looking for a read that will shake you from the complacency of life and make you take stock, make you feel, and make you want to bow down in awe at someone's talent, then Before I Die by Jenny Downham is a must read.

Labels: Book rave

Posted by Amra Pajalic :: 8:37 PM :: 4 comments

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Sunday, April 20, 2008

The begining

It happened this morning. I stirred awake at about 7 o'clock with images for my next project. Which kind of sucked cause I didn't get to sleep until 1 o'clock this morning. I tried to go back to sleep but after tossing and turning for nearly an hour 1 got up and handwrote three pages. Mind you they were crap pages, stilted and jerky, but it's a start. I'm only working 1 day this week so I'll really be able to immerse myself in the new project. I find it takes a while for the momentum to build and the most important thing is consistency.

It's funny how the process starts. I've spent the last month getting watching tv shows. In some instances this involved 8 hours of tv watching straight, with my limbs aching from inactivity, but it works. The process of not forcing myself to write, of giving my brain some time off, makes me eager to dive back into writing.

And what was I watching you ask- Smallville. I watched Season 1-4 again and it was amazing, and interestingly I got sick of it toward the end. When you take time out from life and embrace escapism, there comes a point where you get eager to leap back into life, to do different types of activities and to embrace all the things you've been putting off because of fear. Well that's what happens to me anyway.

So I'm feeling pumped. Things that felt impossible a month ago are happening. I've dreamt for years about having a house and creating a vegie patch. Last year I couldn't move forward with any of my goals. I was working full time and had no energy for anything except getting through the days, but this year it's different. Hubby's been out in the garden every weekend, digging dirt, making planter boxes.




By the time Spring comes around in August this whole section will be ready for planting.



After ten years of living in flats and never having a garden, all this seemed impossible. We bought this house with this dream and it seemed for a while that it couldn't possibly happen, but it is. It won't happen overnight, but it's the series of small steps that bring it to life. And the more you achieve your goals, the easier it seems. So I'm feeling really positive and excited about the future.

My goal for this year wasn't just to achieve my writing goals, but my life goals and I'm on the way-thanks to hubby.

Labels: Garden, Life goals, Writing

Posted by Amra Pajalic :: 11:15 AM :: 0 comments

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Wednesday, April 16, 2008

The Good Daughter-rewrites complete

It's been a month since my last blog post. I've been head down re-writing The Good Daughter and finally submitted it to my publisher on Monday. I've probably re-written at least 50 % of the manuscript and I do feel that it's a much better work as a result and now the nerves are kicking in. I'll find out what my editor thinks of it. Her first read-through was a gentle affair where she was giving me general pointers and not focussing on the nitty-gritty. This time it will be different. Everything will be pulled apart and judged. I'll also know how far away it is from publication based on how much more work we need to do.

I was talking to someone earlier in the week and saying I can understand people who are overweight and lose the kilos, but have trouble reconciling their new look with how they feel inside. This is how I feel about my novel. For so long I've cut off thinking about publication and just focussed on writing for the sake of it, but now that my editor has the revised manuscript I feel exposed. It's actually going to get published. I feel naked at the thought of my editor reading and judging it, and imagining other readers just gives me shivers. I think it's like the feeling of stage fright. Most of the people that have read my work up until now have been friends and family, and in most instances I supplied photocopies. Now we'll see if I really stack up and if people will be willing to fork out their dough for my work.

The process of reworking the draft was really hard. I'd kind of fallen out of love with the manuscript and had started tentatively working on another project that captured my imagination. Then I had to put a stop to that and immerse myself back in my manuscript. I've also re-read it so many times it was really hard to approach it in a fresh way. Once I started re-writing and creating new scenes and blending new ideas with the words already on the page, I was fine. Now I'm still conflicted about my next project. I want to continue with the characters from this world, but have a few different ideas about how to approach and basically have to write it out and see what works for me.

I also have a big list of things to do after revision. I'd pushed them all out of my head and put all my time and attention on re-writing, now that it's time to revisit them I'm basically shitting my pants. I'll be doing so many things I've never done before and be pushed completely out of my comfort zone. As a writer you get used to the part of having to motivate myself. That it's all up to you and no one else, and usually I find this process liberating, but now it's daunting. There's no user guide, no manual, it's just a matter of figuring things out, trying things. While I am a pushy, determined person in my everyday life, there are things I have to do that are quite ballsy. Things like design workshops, give talks, design a website, etc. It's some scary stuff. Don't get me wrong, I'm really excited too, it's just that I'm a person who needs to be in control, who's a snail and does things at her own pace-but a lot of this stuff is going to be out of my control and I do have a habit of flogging myself if I don't do well.

But I'm done with the negatives-the positive things I have to focus on is that my dream is about to come true-I will have a novel published. And I can now start my next project. I love that process of discovering the story, of waking every day to a blank page just waiting to be filled, of the moment where things start coming from your head and you're in awe at the products of your imagination. Next week I'm only working one day-the joy of public holidays-and will have time start tackling my ambitious to do list.

Labels: The Good Daughter

Posted by Amra Pajalic :: 8:13 PM :: 2 comments

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