Emily Paull

1. Writing and Publishing are pursuits that require extraordinary patience. Writing your book takes as long as it takes. You cannot rush it. You can be disciplined, and have a plan, and work to your deadline if you have one, but in the end, you and your book have to be 'ready' before they will find their place on a shelf. Your first draft might take you two years, or it might only be four months. You might have to write sixteen drafts, not counting any redrafting that is going to take place after someone agrees to publish you. It is extremely rare that you will be able to write something, polish it once and then have someone offer you a publishing deal . (If this does happen to you, well done, and what is your secret please?) Likewise, pitching your book to agents and publishers takes time; time spent preparing submissions and writing synopses, researching who and where to send things to, and then waiting for responses. In short, you are going to have to be patient. Try ...

Anyone who knows me knows that I am all about the historical fiction these days, and if it contains a duel narrative, even better. No one does this genre better than the three Kates; Morton, Forsyth and Atkinson. It is Kate Morton's work which is most strongly called to mind by the book for today's review, and I'm not just saying that because of the similarities between the cover of this book and the cover of The Clockmaker's Daughter .  They even have similar titles! So today, I'll be talking about the book that I spend most of my weekend curled up reading, namely The Botanist's Daughter  by Kayte Nunn. Kayte Nunn is the author of two previous novels, but The Botanist's Daughter  is her first foray into the historical fiction genre. The novel is a dual narrative historical fiction (again, something Kate Morton does incredibly well), following the story of Anna, a young woman who inherits her grandmother's house in Sydney, and the story of Elizabeth,...

When mathematician, Germaine Johnson, gets a job at the Deepdene Council answering calls on the Senior Citizens Helpline, she has no idea what she's gotten herself in to. Right away, she finds herself in the middle of a clash between the local golf course and the Senior Citizens Centre, and when she's given a special project by the mayor herself, she throws herself into sorting out the Senior Citizens Committee, and their troublemaking President, Celia Brown. Germaine is more comfortable with numbers and spreadsheets than she is with people, but she soon finds herself having to navigate a number of new relationships in order to get along at her new job. Whether it's with Eva, the co worker who spends more time worrying about keeping up the supply of biscuits in the staff room than actually answering calls; with Jack, the IT consultant who wears shorts and keeps asking Germaine to have lunch; with Jin Jin, a Japanese student who lives in Germaine's building; or wit...

Text Publishing, 2018 A stunning literary mystery set between 1938 New York and 1986 Brisbane.  Standing in line for an exhibit on the life and work of novelist, Inga Karlsson, Caddie Walker meets a woman who seems to know more than is possible to know about Karlsson’s famous lost work. Caddie begins a quest for answers- who is this woman? What is her connection to Inga? And does she know who murdered Inga and her publisher all those years ago?  Her research leads her to Jamie Ganivet, a rare books dealer who gave up on Karlsson scholarship after a run in with Professor Philip Carmichael, who just happens to be Caddie’s ex boyfriend.  Told in alternating chapters, including Caddie’s present and Inga’s past, The Fragments is a fascinating mystery that defies genre, and will delight book lovers everywhere.  Toni Jordan is one of my favourite authors of all time. I remember my Mum coming home one day in 2008 (my final year of high school, and the year I began s...