My Classic Bookshelf.

Recently, the world heard of the sad news that author Iain Banks has only months to live and this piece by author Val McDermid actually brought tears to my eyes. It wasn’t all that long ago that one of Australia’s favourite authors, Bryce Courtenay, died of cancer. It not only got me thinking on how short life really is, but also about the legacy we leave behind.

For writers our legacy is our writing; our books. Our stories can move people, get people talking, feel the need to read more of what we have to say, and perhaps even inspire them to tell their own stories. If we’re really lucky our stories will live on in film and on stage and even be talked about for generations to come. In a world where time is a valuable commodity; people are reading more than ever before. We may pass through this life only once, yet if done well, our stories can last a lifetime.

As I read some tweets written regarding Iain Banks, there was one other thing that struck me as part of a writer’s legacy and that was admiration by his fans. It wasn’t just his work they will always remember, but also actually meeting him. They considered themselves fortunate to have met their favourite author. Having had this social interaction will ensure his fans will remain with him long after he’s gone.

Interacting with our readers helps bring the author-reader relationship even closer. People remember those who are friendly and helpful towards others. It is believed that the way books sell more than any other is through word of mouth. Kristen Lamb fairly recently posted about the importance of writers building a rapport and community with their readers. In this selfish world, it is the little things such as common courtesy and politeness that people are remembered for. If we combine our efforts with producing good books, we can guarantee ourselves a loyal readership.

What do you hope will be your legacy? Are you making the most of your time? What steps are you taking towards building your community?

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Image by Debbie Johansson.

Recently Lance Armstrong admitted to taking performance enhancing drugs.  For some ten years he told the world he wasn’t, and that’s a long time to tell a lie.  The trouble is a lie begets a lie; they can spiral out of control and the longer a lie is told the liar begins to believe it, just as other people do.  With situations like that of Lance Armstrong, people love to hear that with plenty of hard work and despite the odds, they too, can become successful.  We therefore believe that if they can do it, so can we.  We want to believe that anything is possible – we want to believe in that lie.

Authors have also been known to lie; after all telling lies is part of our profession.  After winning the Miles Franklin Award in 1995, for her novel The Hand that Signed the Paper, Helen Demidenko (also known as Helen Darville) was discovered to have made false claims of Ukrainian ethnicity.  The novel was then described as a ‘literary hoax’.  Norma Khouri, author of the best-selling book in 2003, Forbidden Love, was later exposed as a fraud and the film Forbidden Lies is a remarkable documentary exposing that lie.  If you haven’t already watched it, I recommend it, because just when you think Norma’s lies couldn’t get any bigger, she just digs herself an even bigger hole.  Liars thrive on the attention.

Telling fibs usually comes down to two things:– (1) If the lie sounds plausible, and (2) how convincing the person telling the lie makes it sound.  This is why studying body language can be a helpful resource in detecting liars as well as becoming aware of our own subconscious messages.  Let’s face it – we’ve all lied or stretched the truth at one time or another.  It just comes down to a matter of how far we are willing to go.

How good a liar are you? Are you good at spotting a liar? What are your thoughts on some of the really big liars?

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Image courtesy FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Bullies act out in this way for attention in order to feel better about themselves, or to gain some element of control of their victims.  Bullies feel powerful and we all know that ‘absolute power corrupts absolutely’.  When it comes to bullying, girls tend to use techniques such as name calling, social exclusion and spread rumours.  Such tactics can be quite cunning, thus making it difficult to recognise.

But what if one of the bullies is your best friend?  We’ve been brought up in a society where we believe that bullies want to harm us either physically or emotionally; the complete opposite of what our friends are for.  Such situations can not only make the victim feel hurt, but also betrayed, used, belittled and lose their trust in others. Their self-esteem is shattered.  Girls who bully their friends are not really ‘friends’ at all; they are shallow, but their victims accept such behaviour because they are ‘friends’.  Friends who bully may have no concept of the true meaning of friendship.

The inspiration behind one of my WIPs comes from my own experience of being bullied at school, and yes, one of them was my ‘best’ friend. As writers we need to delve deeper into our thoughts and emotions and discover what makes us tick.  Perhaps this is what’s really meant from that old rule of ‘write what you know’.

Recently Kristen Lamb posted on her blog that writers should make the pages cry.  In order for readers to connect with our characters, we may need to dig up painful memories.  We need to open old wounds and let them bleed upon the page.  I’ve been reading a lot lately that writing is more about the journey, rather than the destination.  That journey may uncover ghosts from our past, but we owe it to our readers as well as ourselves to go along with the ride.

Have you been bullied by a friend? As a writer are you ‘writing what you know’? Are you more interested in the journey or the destination?

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Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

As February concentrates on the language of love, what better way than to celebrate with three of the best ghostly love stories?

Ghost

What might start off as a romantic movie soon turns to tragedy when Sam Wheat (Patrick Swayze) is shot and killed.  Finding himself between worlds, his only hope is ‘medium’ Oda Mae Brown (Whoopi Goldberg). Spirits are said to inhabit our world because they have some unfinished business to attend to, and following this assumption, Sam wants to see justice done. By doing so, he also wishes to ensure the safety of his girlfriend, Molly (Demi Moore).  The movie gets a bit weird and creepy when Sam inhabits Oda Mae Brown’s body in order to touch Molly again, but the audience gets it – it’s Sam’s last and only chance of physically being with Molly.

If not for Oda Mae Brown, Sam would be stuck between worlds and Molly could have been stuck being with Sam’s murderer.  Thank heavens for Whoopi!

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir

Young widow, Lucy Muir rents a house near the beach only to discover it is haunted by the ghost of Captain Daniel Gregg.  He and Lucy soon strike up a relationship, and he allows her to write up his memoir. The memoir is published and helps Lucy out of her financial difficulties.  She then meets a writer of children’s books, who she then begins dating.  It is during this point that Captain Daniel Gregg sees the futility of his relationship with Lucy.  In a completely selfless act, he tells Lucy as she sleeps that he was nothing but a dream.  He wants Lucy to find happiness with a ‘real’ man, however, this leaves nothing but heartache for Lucy.

Certainly, we need to suspend our disbelief in the idea of falling in love with a ghost, but this story demonstrates that ghosts are not always ‘evil’ spirits.

Wuthering Heights

I think we all know this story; the passionate love between childhood sweethearts Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff.  At my book club some years ago, it was a unanimous decision that we disliked Catherine for her selfishness and the way she treated Heathcliff.  Together with her brother, her treatment of him helped bring out his dark side.  When she dies, her ghost torments him.  Some critics believe that her ghostly actions were not meant out of love, but of rage.  This is certainly an opinion that is in the minority, as over the years, the idea of Catherine and Heathcliff being eternally in love proves to be the popular choice.

In the book, at her deathbed, Heathcliff asks Catherine if she would like to live with her soul in the grave.  ‘Wild, spirited Cathy’ clearly does not.

What is your favourite ‘ghostly romance’? Could you love a ghost? Do you believe Catherine haunted Heathcliff out of revenge or for love? Do you think Whoopi saved Ghost?

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Images copyright Paramount Pictures, 20th Century Fox & United Artists.

Apparently, slow blogging has been around for a while.  I have only just discovered it, thanks to author Anne. R. Allen.  She wrote about The Slow Blog Manifesto and she makes some very convincing arguments on why writers should take it up.  The emphasis for slow blogging is on quality and not quantity.  This makes perfect sense, because as writers, our readers judge us by our content.  If we write something that grabs the readers’ attention, they’ll want to come back for more and this goes for our blog posts as well as our stories.  For the most part though, our time is better spent focusing on our stories.

Following my post on 5Ways to Bring back the Muse, I read another post by Anne about the overwhelmingly high expectations upon writers these days.  Once again, this is where slow blogging makes sense.  Time is important to readers and writers alike, and if you feel pressured into producing a high quantity of blog posts, not only will you as a writer feel burnt out, but readers will be inundated with too much in their inbox.

Other writers are beginning to explore slow blogging and questioning how often should fiction writers blog.  Author Jody Hedlund has also entered the debate on whether Blogging is a Time-Suck for Writers, and asking Do Agents and Editors Expect Novelists to Blog?

Blogging is a great way for writers to practice their art and connect with readers, yet everyone is different; what works for one does not necessarily work for others.  While some may thrive on being constantly on the go, others like myself, are not one of them.  Perhaps it’s the perfectionist in me, which is what makes slow blogging so appealing.

So, now that we have entered a new year, I will be taking slow blogging to heart.  I’ll be blogging on the first Monday of every month.  Blogging will slow right down in order for me to concentrate on my priorities, which is complete my last year of studies and work on my various writing projects.

Ideas about blogging has changed and putting the emphasis back on what’s important – our writing.  This is what we as writers do best after all.

Have you discovered slow blogging? Have you suffered from blogging ‘burn-out’? Are you a writer who blogs or a blogger who writes? As readers, do you see blogging as a good way to connect with writers?

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Image of Galapagos Tortoise by Debbie Johansson.

At Christmas time in Australia, I grew up watching British and American television shows, playing happy families experiencing a white Christmas.  Sweltering through an Aussie summer, this always represented an idealised version of our reality.

I spent a childhood growing up with the traditional British Christmas lunch of turkey with baked veggies followed by a Christmas pudding with custard (of-course, the best part of the pudding was always looking for the coins)!  My mother would sweat away the day in the confines of the kitchen, while we would all leave the table to spend the afternoon in the backyard pool or napping it all off.  This is more a representation of a typical Australian Christmas; although these days, the traditional Christmas lunch is gradually being replaced with a good ol’ Aussie barbeque.

Living in a multicultural society, Australia celebrates Christmas with a blend of traditional and modern.  Some people celebrate Christmas by spending the day on the beach, or having a picnic lunch in the park.  My husband’s family Christmas was always cold meats and salad, swimming and backyard cricket – fairly different to what I grew up with.  I learnt many years ago, before my son’s first Christmas, to adopt the Swedish tradition of opening up presents on Christmas Eve – which makes waking up on Christmas morning a heck of a lot easier!

Now with the Christmas/New Year holidays upon us once again, I wish you all a Happy Christmas and my best wishes for the New Year.  In keeping with the holiday season, I will also be taking a break and will be back on 7 January, 2013.

How do you celebrate Christmas?

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Free image by Simon Howden courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

As part of the national year of reading, the First Tuesday Book Club on the ABC, compiled a list of the top fifty Aussie Books to Read Before you Die.  There were a few surprises, but I guess there were no real surprises for the book that came in at number 1.  And I was so thrilled to see that one of my own favourites came in at number ten.

So with the end of a year celebrating the world of books, I thought it only appropriate to share a link from the guys at Horrible Histories in honour of aBook.  Happy reading!

How many books have you read during the National Year of Reading? Are you surprised by some of Australia’s favourite books? Are you encouraged to read some of the books on the Top 50 list? Have you happily embraced e-books?

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The setting for my work in progress is the year 1985, where my protagonist is undertaking her final year at high school.  She experiences shame, anger, fear, peer pressure, first love – in other words, plenty of teenage angst!  I needed to listen to the music of the time in order to help reflect her feelings, as well as help set the tone for the novel.  It has certainly been a lot of fun learning about her (as well as taking a trip down memory lane)!

Here are just some of the songs in my character’s tapedeck:-

The Eurythmics – Would I Lie to You?

Models – Out of Mind, Out of Sight

Tears for Fears – Shout

What fun ways have you gone about discovering your protagonist? Do you have a playlist for your novel? Do you listen to music while you write or prefer the sound of silence? Do you enjoy listening to music from the 80’s?

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The setting for some of my stories is based within the Blue Mountains, a National Park, west of Sydney.  I lived there for a number of years with my young family before moving to our current location in the country.  The Australian bush is vast and home to many mysteries, making it an ideal setting for stories.

The Three Sisters are a favourite tourist destination within the Blue Mountains, a unique rock formation, at Echo Point, Katoomba.  People have been known to climb them, but due to their cultural significance to Aborigines, some restrictions have taken place.  Women would give birth in a cave near Echo Point while men would watch the third sister for a sign that the birth had occurred.  It is believed that this third sister is sacred.

When I was a child, I loved reading the story of The Three Sisters.  My copy was a Little Golden Book, which I still have to this day.  This week, I thought I’d share with you this legend.  It is a story of family, love, loss, magic and monsters.

Once, a wise medicine man named Tyawan, was good at imitating the lyre bird and it was rumoured that he could change himself into one if he wanted by using his magic shin-bone.  He had three daughters, named Meenhi, Wimlah and Gunnedoo.

One day as he left the girls alone while he hunted, a rock fell over a cliff, waking a bunyip from his 100 year sleep.   Seeing the girls, the bunyip went after them.  Tyawan arrived back in time to point his magic shin-bone at the girls and turned them into stone.  The bunyip chased Tyawan, who turned himself into a lyre-bird, but in his efforts to get away, his magic shin-bone became lost.

The bunyip returned to his cave, but to this day, Tyawan continues to search for his magic shin-bone to turn himself and his three daughters into human form once again.

What was your favourite book to read when you were a child? Do you have a favourite legend? Have you ever visited a place that you only ever read about?

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Image of the Three Sisters, Katoomba by Debbie Johansson

During my late teens and into my early twenties, I had the feeling that someone was watching me.  Either my imagination was getting the better of me or I was completely paranoid.

To get to work, I used to park my car at the nearby station car park and catch the train into Sydney.  Coming home from work one afternoon, I discovered a note on my windscreen.  Thinking it was a flyer, I grabbed it and went to sit in my car.  Upon reading it, I soon discovered that it was a note addressed to me from a complete stranger.

Someone was indeed watching me.  The fear was real.  The situation wasn’t helped that during this time my parents would go away on trips, leaving me alone for weeks on end.  I dreaded those nights alone in a big house, with one elderly neighbour my only call for backup.  On the other side of our house was a large park, dimly lit.  It was no wonder I made a habit of looking out the windows regularly and investigated every noise the house ever made.

My reality has since become perfect fodder for a novel.

Do you ever get the feeling that you are being watched or perhaps even followed? Do you like being home alone at night? Are you participating in NaNoWriMo? Do you write what you know?

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Free image by Salvatore Vuono courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net