Emily Paull

After Darkness Christine Piper Allen and Unwin (Australia) As the first Vogel winner in two years, Christine Piper has the weight of high expectations on her shoulders.  2013 famously saw no Vogel Award given to any entrant, judge Geordie Williamson justifying this decision on the grounds that no entry was of high enough standard to fit in with the award's terms and conditions.  Since the early 1980s, the Vogel has been a prize which searches for excellence among Australia's unpublished writers.  It was the award which gave us Tim Winton in 1982, when his book An Open Swimmer  shared the award with another writer.  A few years later it gave us Kate Grenville's Lillian's Story .  And now we have After Darkness.   In 1942, Dr Tomakazu Ibaraki is taken from his place of work in Broome and transported to an internment camp for enemy aliens at Lovedale, South Australia.  In Lovedale camp, Ibaraki-sensei's loyalty will be tested- as will his ...

Frog Music Emma Donaghue Picador Australia 9781447249771 In the summer of 1876 in San Francisco, the people are gripped by two terrible plagues.  The first, a terrible heatwave, has tempers and temperatures rising.  The second- small pox-  is much more deadly.  In Chinatown, Blanche Beunon and her lover Arthur Deneve live in blissful ignorance in a boarding house Blanche has bought with money she has earned from dancing at the House of Mirrors, a bordello catering to expensive tastes.  Blanche, Arthur and Arthurs bosom friend Ernest are all former circus performers from a famous travelling show in Paris, but they have emigrated to America, Arthur having sustained an injury to his back which prevents him from working.  Blanche is happy to support the men; she loves her job and she loves her man.  Everything is perfect. And then, the cross-dressing frog catcher, Jenny Bonnet knocks Blanche over in the street one day. Jenny is the kind of woman w...

A Tour of My Bookshelves I was recently offered a wonderful piece of advice, originally spoken by the film director and comedian John Waters. N.B. John Waters used slightly different language (unsuitable for this blog) The first thing I do when I visit someone’s home is to look at their bookshelves.  I love to see what other people read: it gives a great insight into their personalities.  It’s like looking at what artwork they choose to have on the walls: a very good indicator of another person’s tastes. It can also act as a great conversation starter. Thank you Emily, for inviting me to share my bookshelves.  It won’t take long: I have a limited ration of books in my apartment in Indonesia as most of them are in storage in the UK.  You’ll be pleased I’m not taking you through all of those: there are hundreds of them.  I have a horrible medical condition that prevents me from ever throwing a book away.  I g...

As I write this, I am propped up in bed with the beginnings of a pretty nasty head cold, and a virulent case of book limbo. You could call it post-project blues if you want, too. Last Saturday, I finished the latest draft of my novel-length project, and I was ecstatic for all of about five minutes until I realised that I am completely un-confident in its readiness for the big wide world.  Actually, let me rephrase that.  I'm completely un-confident in my readiness for the big wide world.  But deadlines loom.  It's prize-entering season, with the deadline for the 2015 Vogel award racing towards me like a freight train and the deadline for the TAG Hungerford not far behind it.  I've got some other avenues open to me to, but connections are all well and good so long as the material is worth it's salt.  And maybe, just maybe, it's not. Sheldon: Would you like some advice? Leonard: Sure, why not. Sheldon: Then now would be the perfect time to launch a bl...

Let Her Go Dawn Barker Hachette Publishing 9780733632228 Publication date: July 2014 Dawn Barker's debut novel of 2013, Fractured , was a breakaway hit, beloved by book clubs and reluctant readers alike.  Naturally, there is a lot of excitement surrounding the release of her follow up, Let Her Go.   Like Fractured, Let Her Go  explores a complicated moral and psychological grey area from multiple perspectives, allowing the reader to decide who they are in agreement with.  The book follows two step sisters, Zoe and Nadia, as they negotiate the emotional battlefield of a surrogate pregnancy. When Zoe discovers that, due to lingering health issues, she is unable to conceive a child of her own, she is upset, and confides in her step sister Nadia who has three children of her own.  To Zoe, Nadia has the perfect life, although Nadia would not be so quick to agree with her.  Nadia's husband is often busy with work, and uninvolved with the children, though...

Boy, Snow, Bird Helen Oyeyemi 9781447254225 Picador Helen Oyeyemi is a novelist you may or may not be familiar with.  She was listed as one of Granta's Best Young British novelists in its most recent incarnation, and was a guest at the 2010 Perth Writers Festival, on the back of publication of her book, White is for Witching .  Oyeyemi's previous novels also include The Icarus Girl and Mr Fox.   This novel, her first since being listed by Granta, is perhaps her most ambitious yet; Boy, Snow, Bird  is an updated version of the Snow White  myth which uses different cultural understandings of the fairy tale and of womanhood to tell a story of belonging in mid twentieth century America. It begins with Boy Novak, a fair skinned, fair haired New Yorker who escapes from her brutal rat-catcher father, Frank, to a place called Flax Hill, Massachussetts (because it is the furthest stop away from home that the bus will take her.)  Arriving in Flax Hill is like ...

It's really easy to create a protagonist who you can love.  After all, they are often the germ for the story.  J.K. Rowling is often quoted as saying that Harry Potter just walked into her brain one day, fully formed, while she was minding her own business on the train.  And your protagonist is fun to think up interior lives for, to flesh out and make real.  This is very important because if your reader doesn't give a hoot about your main character, you can assume a fair chance of them not finishing the book. But I'm not here to talk about main characters today.  I'm here to talk about villains. The book that I am working on right now features two villains. The first is a forty seven year old man named Robert Willis who owns a successful cigarette factory (or two, or three, depending on where you're up to).  I have always imagined him looking a little like the man who plays the boss in television's Monk.   Robert was a fairly intuitive chara...

Easter is probably one of the most exciting holidays for me because it's a largely no-fuss affair at our house, none of the shops are open, and it's perfectly okay to consume your own body weight in chocolate.  HOORAY! I won't be getting any extra days off from work this year, as I already get Friday through Sunday off anyway, but it will be nice to stay at home instead of running errands.  I'm planning on sinking my teeth into a few books as well as a few chocolate bunnies. Long weekends have always signified reading binges to me... On top of this, I am almost finished with the eighth draft of my book!  I'm starting to get a little antsy about it, because this is usually around about the time in a rewrite where I decide that I am no good at this, and I start planning my next draft.  I think I'm hiding behind these redrafts though, and when I am honest with myself, this draft is the strongest yet.  So it's off to a lovely friend for proof reading...

Lost and Found Brooke Davis Hachette, Australia 978073363275 Publication due in July 2014 Once in every so often, I have the privilege as a reader to discover a book that changes the way I see the world, even if it is only ever so slight a change. Lost and Found  is one such book. I heard the buzz surrounding this book long before I even read it.  Brooke Davis, author of this forthcoming release, is a Perth bookseller and tutored Creative Writing at Curtin University, where she did her PhD.  The book, Lost and Found , was written as part of her doctorate.  Her journey to publication is nothing short of a fairytale. Lost and Found  begins with a dead dog.  One of the three narrators, seven year old Millie Bird, becomes obsessed with death and dying.  She starts a book of dead things, never knowing that less than thirty entries away she will be including her father in the list.  As a seven year old, Millie struggles to understand the gr...

The Book Chain Meme is hosted by Annabel Smith and Emma Chapman. April's book is: Burial Rites! 1) Burial Rites by Hannah Kent A fabulous novel set in Iceland in 1829, told from the point of view of real-life 'criminal' Agnes Magnusdottir, which ends (as is historically accurate) with her execution.... which leads me to.... 2) Tess of the D'Urbervilles  by Thomas Hardy After Tess is raped by the dastardly Alec d'Urberville, whom she is sent to claim kinship with, her life is set on a tragic path.  Like Agnes, she is driven to murder, and while her crimes are excusable to the reader who has grown to love her, Tess must face the consequences for her actions in the end. 3) One Day by David Nicholls In 2008, Nicholls adapted a screenplay for the BBC's version of Tess of the D'Urbervilles .  Nicholls is most well known for his novel One Day  which tracks the lives of Dex and Em on the same day each year throughout their lives as they al...

So a reader pointed it out to me today that I am to be held responsible for the almost nuclear proliferation of unread books accumulating in her house.  I'd say that I'm sorry for that but I'm actually kind of proud! And I thought that in a show of solidarity, I would do a post about all the books in MY room that I haven't read yet... So here goes: Lately I've been getting into literary magazines... I've been trying to get a short story or two published and the best way to do that is to get familiar with the market, as well as supporting the magazines so they can stay open.  That one on top is a new one which I was introduced to at work, and if you look closely you might see the latest issue of Island Magazine, which was my birthday gift to myself.  It's the first issue in which Geordie Williamson was fiction editor.  When I grow up, I want to be Geordie, right down to that beautiful voice.... Can you tell I really love African liter...