‘A Haunting in Venice’, kids reading to canines, and ‘rucking’ for self-care

The book giveaway this week is 'The Memory Librarian' by Janelle Monae.

Sorry to leave you on a cliff-hanger last week, but I didn’t want to pre-empt the official announcement and potentially get myself into trouble.

I’ve been awarded a Varuna Residential Fellowship for 2024 to work on my crime fiction novel-in-progress, Welfare Queens!

I’ve been dreaming of going to Varuna for years. It’s a lovely big house in the Blue Mountains that hosts writers on retreats to give them the time and space away from their ordinary lives to concentrate on their projects. Apart from the excitement of visiting such a beautiful place, securing a fellowship at Varuna is a seriously weighty addition to a writer’s resume.

When I received the email, I was sitting in a café and writing on my laptop. I had a bit of a freak-out while trying not to disturb nearby fellow customers.

In a strange twist, one of the other writers on the list of 33 recipients for 2024, Toni Jordan, was the first ever reader of the beginning of Welfare Queens eight years ago when I attended a novel-writing workshop she was teaching. At the time, I thought Welfare Queens was a short story. She suggested it was a much longer tale. I’ve treasured her words of encouragement in the years since. If you ever get a chance to learn from Toni, jump at it! I found her to be an excellent teacher and an equally excellent person.

This novel idea has waited a long while in the wings, so it’s extra gratifying that it’s starting to come to fruition. Sure, it might miss out on making its way into a book (by a traditional publisher, at least), but it’s starting to look like a real possibility. It’s giving me an extra boost ahead of burrowing into all the rewriting and editing I need to do to make it worthy of publishing.

That’s all for now. Have a week full of sunshine and success!

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News

1.     Recently, my trainer has been big on getting us to warm up by walking around the block wearing ankle and wrist weights. I’m a big fan – I enjoy strolling around outdoors when the weather is reasonable, plus by the time I get absorbed catching up on everyone’s news and gossip, I forget I’m carrying a bit of extra weight. So, I was pleased to see this article recommending the activity – dubbed ‘rucking’. It’s also inspired me, now the weather’s nice, to get back to something I used to do – walking to the library (around 45 minutes’ journey) carrying my laptop in my backpack. I’ve been lazy in recent years and driven there, but rucking there would be an easy way to incorporate more exercise into my day.

2.     On the look-out for positive news, I came across this story of a program where primary-schoolers read to dogs to encourage literacy skills. Kids who might otherwise refuse to go to school look forward to the days when the dog visits and it’s not only improving their reading skills, but other areas of their learning as well. Apart from the educational outcomes, yay for helping kids enjoy school and relate to animals. A win all round.

Reviews

1.     Pretty much everyone who’s read snippets of my crime fiction manuscript has said ‘Hey, have you read Other Houses by Paddy O’Reilly?’. I figured I’d better check it out and now, having read it, I can certainly see the similarities to my writing. Like my story, the main character is a female coming from a background of poverty. Both my and O’Reilly’s main characters have female sidekicks who feature strongly in the narrative and they’re trying to solve a mystery that the authorities aren’t interested in investigating. Other Houses is also quite different from my manuscript in that although it has some comical moments, mine is a much lighter story overall. Other Houses also features multiple points of views and isn’t so much a who-dunnit as a where-will-we-end-up? The main character, Lily, works as a cleaner in Melbourne and is trying to claw her way towards a middle-class life, or at least the appearance of it, for the sake of her daughter, Jewelee. Her efforts seem to be working, until her kind ex-junkie partner Janks goes missing. Will she work out where he’s gone and stop the life she’s carefully built from unravelling? This novel is fantastic, although if you’re looking for a lighthearted read, you might want to look elsewhere.

2.     I have huge respect for Stephen King and his writing – especially his ability to make the incredible believable and tell a cracking story without his ego getting in the way and leading him to add too-clever flourishes. I was intrigued to read his response to AI in The Atlantic. I can’t help but feel his opinion boils down to ‘I’m old – this won’t affect me much’. From his point of view, fair enough, but what of other writers? We don’t know how long it will take AI to cross over from pale imitation of real authors to being able to emulate the heart and creativity present in stories crafted by humans. Maybe it never will, but there’s that sliver of doubt.

3.     Back in high school, I went through a massive Agatha Christie phase. I borrowed as many of her novels as I could from the local library. My tastes ran more to the Miss Marple mysteries, but I read a few Poirot ones as well. So, when I saw the trailer for A Haunting in Venice a while ago, I was pumped. I was especially looking forward to the spooky vibe of it and the fact it’s set in Venice – one of my favourite cities. This movie delivered what I was after. There are scary moments, but it’s not to the level of a horror movie, and the solution to the mystery left me satisfied. Essentially the famous detective Hercule Poirot, who has retired from solving mysteries, is lured by an old friend to a haunted mansion in Venice. His friend challenges him to debunk a particularly believable psychic medium and solve the murder of a young woman who died in the mansion (or was it suicide?). The setting here is perfectly atmospheric and Tina Fey as Poirot’s old friend, author Ariadne Oliver, added a fun counterpoint to Poirot’s disbelieving stodginess. If you enjoy the mystery genre even a smidge, I reckon you’ll like this one.

What I’m Feelin’ Right Now

• Berry-hued work-out gear

• Rose-flavoured drinks

• Finding a big umbrella to sit under and/or banana lounge to rest on and pretending I’m on holiday

• Saddle-style handbags

• Recipes for savoury oatmeal

• A pale-yellow manicure

• Thick small gold hoop earrings

• ‘Calm Down’ by Rema and Selena Gomez

• Eagerly awaiting the day maxi dresses swing out of fashion again

Giveaway

Last week’s giveaway, Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, was won by Georgina Scambler. Fab stuff! Georgina, I’ve emailed you.

This week’s giveaway is The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories Of Dirty Computer by Janelle Monae. Fill your name and email address in here to enter.

Playlist of the Week

All loved-up in a garden of hanging plants and creeping vines: