Emily Paull

The launch of my second novel, a self-published ebook, was a quiet affair; the slipping into the world of an illegitimate child, as compared to the celebratory racquet of my first: a print book with a traditional publisher.   With my ebook Sea Dog Hotel an unshakable sense of failure prevailed, of it being second rate. It seemed strange. It was strange. My novel was in the ether. I had nothing concrete, nothing to hold. I was dealing with the abstract. It all started in 2006 when I began work on the manuscript, which was to become known as Sea Dog Hotel, a work of fiction of 78,000 words. Initially work on the manuscript was erratic, snatches of time in between working on my first novel and other commitments.  In 2010 I finally had the space to give it more fuller attention, plus I had the help of an editor courtesy of my then agent who always reassured me that they would present it to a publisher when I was happy for them to do so.  For a year and a half the...

Happiness is counting your blessings while other people are tallying up their misfortunes- or at least that's what you will discover in the electronic pages of local author, Marlish Glorie's, new book. Yes, that's right... this is an ebook.  Dun dun DUUUUUUN Sea Dog Hotel  begins with the classic structure of strangers arriving in town, but Nyacoppin is no ordinary down.  Situated in the middle of the West Australian salt lakes, it boasts a population of 80 people.  It's biggest business is the Sea Dog Hotel and it is this building that has brought the nomads to town.  Grace, who turns 21 on the day the story begins, has become her mother's keeper since the death of her father three years prior, because of her mother's lingering and inexplicable mental illness- a condition that causes her to get the jitters and renders her unable to drive.  At first Grace resents being forced to accompany her mother to this nowhere town, but slowly, she learns to lo...

The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt Tracy Farr Fremantle Press, 2013 And now the review... I began this novel not knowing what to expect.  Postured like a history, was I in for two hundred pages of a fictionalised life story, or was I going to be swashbuckled and romanced?  I wasn't sure; but this was part of the draw.  Reading a book in a vacuum in this way is like discovering a new trend.  For a moment, it is just yours, your new secret love. That's right.  I think I am a little bit in love with Lena Gaunt. On the back cover she is described as a musician, and octogenarian and a junkie, all of which are true.  In the early chapters of the book, Dame Lena is invited to play her theremin in a festival in Perth's hills.  She seems conceited, a little deluded, and rather cranky, judging the other musicians around her and the young people that she works with.  She is affronted by a negative review, and dismissive of Mo, the young filmmaker...

I was reading an essay yesterday in which the author was talking about forms of metaphor, and suddenly it occurred to me that since I have finished university, my vocabulary has been shrinking.  I no longer feel comfortable enough with words like "synecdoche" to use them in every day conversation.  This is a horrifying thought. Although there is something to be said of being able to talk to other people without making it sound too obvious that you're smarter than they are, I am an English major with an Honours degree, and the less word power I have at my disposal, the less easily it is I can remember that fact.  It's like being a kinder-gardener and accidentally walking into one of the bigger classes.  The sense is acute: you do not belong.  Except that I do belong.  I was not always a kinder-gardener.  Someone has reverse aged me with some sort of machine.  Someone has taken my words. Vocabulary is like any skill.  If you don't practice,...

Barracuda Christos Tsiolkas Allen and Unwin 9781743317310 While many readers I have met say they are put off by the confronting nature of Christos Tsiolkas's previous novel, The Slap, I think that the ability to manipulate language in a way that shocks, and a way that communicates the desperation and heartbreak of a situation, is perhaps Tsiolkas's superpower.  There are words in his books which I no longer permit myself to say aloud, but it is this taboo I have placed on my own language which helps me understand the strength of emotion which the words convey.  (I am, of course, referring to the C-word, which I will refrain from using in this blog post.)  Because Barracuda is a very emotional book.  It is about not getting the thing you want most in the world.  It is about reaching rock bottom.  It is the very opposite of a a fairy tale.  It is, for some, real life. Danny Kelly is a swimmer who has the potential to be great.  After he i...