Here’s what they had to say:
‘Sara Foster overtly appropriates the tone, atmosphere and themes of classics from Wuthering Heights to Rebecca, delivering a modern gothic that has the charm and suspense of Susan Hill’s ghost stories.’
Click here to see the rest of the reviews so far for Beneath the Shadows.col-md-2
I’m the guest blogger all week on the Random House Australia blog site: http://randomhouseaustralia.wordpress.com/ So far I’ve written about my heroine, Grace; why the North Yorkshire moors was the perfect setting for a novel; and about losing the plot (and why bad words aren’t necessarily a bad thing).col-md-2
I have been writing about the experience of being a book editor and a writer on Ah, the Possibilities, a fabulous blog site run by Sarah, a lovely fellow West Aussie. Check out what I had to say here: http://www.ahthepossibilities.com/2011/01/drumroll-sara-foster-author.htmlcol-md-2
I was thrilled to be asked to put 5 gratefuls on Anita’s blog – it’s a blog I read regularly and I love Anita’s creativity and positivity. See what I was grateful for here: http://anitaheissblog.blogspot.com/col-md-2
And you can read my answers here: Sara Foster answers ten terrifying questions
BTW If you can’t click on the link, click on the post title first, and then you should be able to follow it. I’m working on getting this resolved.col-md-2
One auction may have finished, but there’s still the opportunity to win heaps of amazing prizes for writers and readers at www.writersonrafts.com.
The brainchild of Rebecca Sparrow and the Queensland Writers Centre, authors involved include Kate Morton, Morris Gleitzman, Di Morrissey, Nick Earls, Tara Moss, Mem Fox, John Birmingham, Jessica Rudd, PM Newton, Anita Heiss, Caroline Overington, Emily Maguire, Jessica Adams, Lisa Heidke, Marcus Zusak, Allison Rushby, Mia Freedman, John Bauer, Kylie Ladd, Wendy Orr and Fleur McDonald, to name but a few!
On offer from me are signed books, and I’ll also provide one winner with editorial feedback on the first 5000 words and synopsis of their script. Go to the website for full details of prizes on offer, including the chance to be part of the Ultimate Girly High Tea.
Winners drawn on 25 February. For just $5 a ticket it’s not to be missed.col-md-2
The Writers for Auction Flood Appeal raised a superb $19,981.39. Well done to everyone involved, particularly the four amazing organisers – Fleur McDonald, Emily Gale, Katrina Germein, and Kate Gordon. And thank you to everyone who bid on my books, which went for $100 – Anjanette, I will make sure you get them post haste!!col-md-2
Why does inspiration never strike at a time when I can write it down?
I blame my children for this – they’ll end up blaming me for almost everything when they’re older so I might as well get in first. Except that, in this case, it’s true.
Having recently had the luxury of nearly a whole week to do nothing but write, courtesy of my lovely husband who subjected himself full time to the 3 cherubs, I have discovered that I get the best ideas in the most uninspiring places. Places where there are no pens. And even if there were, it would be impossible to write anything down.
The first day inspiration struck in the shower. I was washing my face and the solution to a major plot problem that had been niggling me for months suddenly and perfectly appeared. Short of inscribing myself with shampoo, there was no way to make a note of the idea. But I’ve learned that if I don’t write it down, I won’t remember it later. So I had to chant it in my head – Dan gets run over, Dan gets run over – while I jumped out and dried myself. My mental monologue was interspersed with shouted directions at the children: ‘Your headband’s in the doll’s cradle’ – Dan gets run over – ‘Your shoes are in the fridge’ (don’t ask) – Dan gets run over. I’m just lucky that, when I got to my study, I didn’t end up writing in my notebook: Dan runs over a doll with the fridge.
The next day we were at the Disney Live concert surrounded by a million mini Cinderellas and my two year old needed to go to the toilet. While I was holding her on the toilet seat, more inspiration struck. This time a brilliant plot twist that I knew would make the book impossible to put down at the critical halfway mark. ‘Please hurry, darling,’ I begged, desperate to get out of there and back to my notebook and pen. ‘But Mummy,’ she piped up, ‘I shouldn’t rush. I need to get it all out.’ Of course my oft-repeated advice, which was never remembered if she was in the middle of jumping on the trampoline, was thrown back at me the one time when rushing would have been very welcome.
The day after that, the ideas came while I was driving on the freeway. No way to jot things down at one hundred kilometres an hour and I’m sure it wasn’t quite the emergency that the stopping lanes were designed to accommodate.
Later, I realised that the reason I keep finding inspiration in unlikely places is because they are quiet places, places where the kids are either absent or silent – shower, toilet, car.
I wonder whether this means that the ideas are there all the time but I just don’t hear them, drowned out as they are by the four year old yelling at the two year old, ‘She took my Barbie,’ and the baby delighting in his new found ability to shout Mum-mum-mum at the top of his voice.
So my New Year’s Resolution is this: to somehow build a quiet moment into every day. The girls received a cubbyhouse for Christmas so perhaps I need to rig up some kind of lock on it – not to lock them in but as a place for me to hide! I know I won’t be lucky enough to dream up a new story idea, solve a plot problem or come up with an unexpected twist in every quiet moment, but the important thing is, I’ll be ready, pen and paper in hand, if the ideas do choose to come.
Natasha Lester lives in Western Australia and is the author of What is Left Over, After, winner of the TAG Hungerford Prize, published in 2010 by Fremantle Press. Check out her website, www.natashalester.com.au, or visit her blog, While the Kids are Sleeping.col-md-2
I am currently reading one of the longest, most talked about books of last year on my smallest new device. Jonathan Frantzen’s Freedom is over two thousand pages long on my iPhone, and it is the first book I have ever downloaded to it. The writing is way too small, and with a wayward swish of the finger I sometimes find myself back on the title page. However, over the last few weeks it has been easy to snatch reading time on car journeys, while waiting in queues for changing rooms, and in the darkness of an aeroplane with a sleeping toddler lying across my lap. And when we all shared a hotel room, hubby and child could go to sleep, and I could still carry on reading in the dark. Hurray!
Since I always want more time to read, it has been great to have such a flexible and portable way of accessing a book. But the rise of the e-book has brought with it some very serious concerns. Bookstores are struggling to maintain a viable market share; publishers are worried about maintaining control of rights; and authors are concerned about impacts on sales and royalty rates. Meanwhile, what is happening to the art of reading itself? Because that cold, hard little phone screen doesn’t encourage me to savour each word in the same way a softly turning page might give me pause. With an e-book you no longer hold a complete work in your hands (does this make the story itself less tangible?). Instead, you can simply switch your book off – or, when you are in the middle of a particularly moving passage, a message pops up over the top reminding you that your battery is dying.
No, I might venture into e-books now and again, but I desperately need their printed older brothers and sisters to survive too. Let’s hope they can eventually be friends and work together.
Watching the King’s Speech last week served as a great reminder of how quickly things change. All those nervous comments about broadcasting being rather dangerous and distasteful seem so innocent now. And yet, back then, how long would it have taken to get word out about the terrible flooding in Queensland, and all the help needed? In fact, technology has been an incredible ally in the past week, and it’s been inspiring to watch everyone supporting each other.
I’d love to hear what other people think about the rise of e-books. In the meantime, happy reading everybody, in whatever form it takes!
To donate to the Queensland flood appeal, go to http://www.qld.gov.au/floods/donate.html, or check out some fantastic fundraising initiatives set up by writers:
Authors for Queensland: http://authorsforqueensland.wordpress.com/ Signed copies of Come Back to Me and Beneath the Shadows are on there, as well as a fantastic array of signed books, and other writing and reading related services and ideas. You can even bid to get a character named after you in upcoming novels!
Writers on Rafts – Rebecca Sparrow and the Queensland Writers Centre are putting this together, offering more chances to win an amazing host of writing/reading prizes for a small entry fee. Details to follow soon, but you can read about it now on Rebecca’s blog.
PS Look out for the lovely Natasha Lester, my very first guest blogger and author of the fabulous What is Left Over, After, who’ll be featured here next week.
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