Jacqueline's comments (member since Jul 23, 2008)

Jacqueline's comments from the Aussie Readers group.

Question for the managers, posted here because I can't figure out where else to ask. I have a book in the process of being launched in north Queensland. I don't want abuse this group by indulging in extravagant promos, but it would be nice to mention the name and date of the launch (in Cairns).

How do I go about that?

Well done for finishing it, Victoris. I just can't see it as a 'great' novel. Sure there are some good aspects, but they are overwhelmed by the rest.
On the other hand, it is a great bit of history. A primitive tribal epic which provides insight into the thoughts of Bronze age man. It really is unique.
But if you read the Odyssey - that really is a novel, and a good one too. Difficult to see it coming from the same pen as the Iliad, and I'm happy to agree with the scholars who say it was written by a woman.

Right now I'm finishing up The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie. It's good fun, with an interesting plot and exotic locations. I'm not going to give it any stars yet - it is good enough to stay on my shelf, and I will have a better idea of its quality when I re-read it (probably next year).

Books like this make me very jealous. I know if I submitted anything like it to agents, reviewers, publishers it would get dumped in the trash straight away. And if I persuaded a publisher to take it seriously, I can imagine the editor's demands for more action, for dead bodies by the end of page one, for a 1-2 page 'hook' at the beginning, for explicit statements of this or that character's feelings at a particular moment. I would be accused of wholesale information dumping, and of 'telling not showing' on every page...

It's enough to make you scream in frustration.

Rosalie - do give us some info on these wonderful people. I can think of one American cover artist who would certainly like to have them on file.

www.jacquelinegeorgewriter.com

Favourite Australian author? Me? Or is that an outrageous self-promotion? I'd better say Tim Winton for 'Cloudstreet' - good stuff.

I would never pick up a book soley because it was 'Australian', or had an Australian author. I'm thinking about the ideal profile for an author to be talked about by our literati. I shan't write them down because they sound so catty - LOL! I read books because I expect them to be good, no matter what passport they were written under.

We are lucky enough to have an international language and that means that our writers do not have a captive home market. Even our online bookshops seem to to be no more than a front for the big boys in America. I recently bought a book from an Australian online site even though it was a touch more expensive than buying the same thing from the States. It arrived still in its American packaging and took a month to reach me...

My biggest market is by far the US, and Australian publishers (and agents) struck me as being impenetrable. Oh well!