Myke Bartlett's Blog, page 148
July 26, 2012
FIRE IN THE SEA: The Soundtrack
As anyone who's listened to my podcasts will know, music plays a large part in my writing. I was very excited by the launch of Spotify in Australia, as I knew it would give me the chance to share a soundtrack for Fire in the Sea.
While working on a book, I often start by creating a playlist that captures the feel of the piece. I think music has always been my chief inspiration. I’ve always been striving to capture that strange effect a good song can have on you — that sense of possibility and memory and hope and beautiful despair.
For Fire in the Sea, I tried to choose songs I thought Sadie (or her parents) might listen to, but also songs that spoke to me about heat and dust and blue skies and heartbreak.
The key track for me was Wye Oak’s Civilian, from the album of the same name. There’s something in that line ‘I still keep my baby teeth in my bedside table, with my jewellery’ that spoke to me of that space between childhood and adulthood; of things that we can’t quite bring to let go, even as they gather dust.
Anyway, here’s a selection from a much larger list. Hope you enjoy it!
July 24, 2012
FIRE IN THE SEA arrives: reviews and where to buy a copy (updated)
Today is the big day: Fire In The Sea is now in shops all across Australia. I'm very excited about seeing it on shelves and equally thrilled (and terrified) that real people will soon have a chance to read it. I'll write more about this later in the week, but for now, here's a bit of a catch up.
Praise for Fire in the Sea:
‘Fire In the Sea is an awesome scary/funny/actiony/gory combo of myth and modern day Perth. I do like a bit of ancient evil!' Leanne Hall, author of This Is Shyness
‘Bartlett has created an exciting alternative world of gods and demons, but it is Sadie with whom the reader engages and who makes Fire In the Sea so credible.' The Age
‘Imagine John Marsden and Suzanne Collins co-wrote a Narnian story. That’s the closest approximation I can make for the entirely unique story, tone, and feel of Fire in the Sea…It’s been too long since I was excited about a debut book. It’s been too long since there was a strong, new, male voice in the Australian YA scene. It’s been too long since I felt confident in recommending a book to an older teen (particularly male) audience. Thank you, Myke Bartlett and Text Publishing.’
SLV Centre for Youth Literature blog
‘It’s fast paced and exciting, violent at times but emotionally rich and interesting at others…A timely reminder that sometimes when stepping out of your comfort zone you get a rewarding surprise.’
Fairfieldbooks On Kids blog
‘I really shouldn’t be so surprised that another Text Prize novel is incredible, but I am. ‘Fire in the Sea’ is a fantastic new addition to the Aussie young adult paranormal scene – set in the beautiful (if lamentably dull) city of Perth, and featuring everything from sea sirens to crazy reincarnated boys. Myke Bartlett has written a parade of paranormal creatures and a thrilling sea-depths mystery … I, for one, hope that this is just the first of many more novels from an interesting new Aussie YA voice. 5/5’
Alpha Reader blog
‘A thrilling adventure with a Katniss Everdeen-style heroine…this is one showdown you won’t forget in a hurry!’
Dolly Magazine
‘Fire in the Sea is a fantastic, action-packed adventure, blending the Australian setting of Perth with ancient mythology – definitely a book to check out if you’re a fan of Australian YA or paranormal stories.’
Vegan YA Nerds
‘Part romance, part fantasy and part adventure, the story races along.’
Magpies
Reviews
A few lucky people have already thumbed a copy and have kindly shared their thoughts. So far, the reviews have been wonderful. Here's a full list to date: (I've marked those that are a bit spoilery.)
Centre For Youth Literature: Read Alert
ALPHA Reader (a bit spoilery, but nothing too revealing)
Vegan YA Nerds (a few spoilers here... or plot details, whatever you want to call them)
There are a few other reviews over at the Good Reads page. I encourage you to sign up (you can use your Facebook log in) and let us know what you think!
Buying the book
If you're wanting to get your hands on a copy, here are a few possibilities:
In Australia
Your local bookstore. Support your friendly neighbourhood bookseller. (Readings, Gleebooks, Collins, New Edition, Dymocks). They should be able to easily get in a copy if they don't already have one. (But why don't they already have one?)Text Publishing website. Shipping is free and quick, I'm told. eBook available.Your local bookstore. Really, support your local bookseller. That way they might get in more copies, which means browsers will be able to stumble across them.Readings Books. Shipping is free. (They also have real, brick and mortar stores.) eBook available.Penguin Books website.Or, if you're really into this internet shopping thing, there's Borders or Angus & Robertson.Your local bookstore. Have I mentioned this? Let them know you've read some great reviews!If your favourite bookstore does have it in stock, let me know and I'll add it to the list.
Outside Australia
Text Publishing website. Shipping is free worldwide and quick, I'm told. eBook available.Amazon US or Amazon UK. The Kindle version is available to download. Seems a bit cheaper at the US site.Your local bookstore. They should be able to order in a copy if you give them the ISBN: 9781921922749KoboGoogle BooksI'll update the list if I find others that I've missed.
At this stage, word of mouth is crucial to the book's success. If you enjoy the book, please let others know. Buy it as a birthday present. For several birthday presents. For Christmas presents. Instead of Easter Eggs.
If you've found yourself a copy, send me a pic! I'd love to put together a gallery.
cheers!
Myke
FIRE IN THE SEA arrives: reviews, more reviews and where to buy a copy
Today is the big day: Fire In The Sea is now in shops all across Australia. I'm very excited about seeing it on shelves and equally thrilled (and terrified) that real people will soon have a chance to read it. I'll write more about this later in the week, but for now, here's a bit of a catch up.
Praise for Fire in the Sea:
‘Imagine John Marsden and Suzanne Collins co-wrote a Narnian story. That’s the closest approximation I can make for the entirely unique story, tone, and feel of Fire in the Sea…It’s been too long since I was excited about a debut book. It’s been too long since there was a strong, new, male voice in the Australian YA scene. It’s been too long since I felt confident in recommending a book to an older teen (particularly male) audience. Thank you, Myke Bartlett and Text Publishing.’
SLV Centre for Youth Literature blog
‘It’s fast paced and exciting, violent at times but emotionally rich and interesting at others…A timely reminder that sometimes when stepping out of your comfort zone you get a rewarding surprise.’
Fairfieldbooks On Kids blog
‘I really shouldn’t be so surprised that another Text Prize novel is incredible, but I am. ‘Fire in the Sea’ is a fantastic new addition to the Aussie young adult paranormal scene – set in the beautiful (if lamentably dull) city of Perth, and featuring everything from sea sirens to crazy reincarnated boys. Myke Bartlett has written a parade of paranormal creatures and a thrilling sea-depths mystery … I, for one, hope that this is just the first of many more novels from an interesting new Aussie YA voice. 5/5’
Alpha Reader blog
Reviews
A few lucky people have already thumbed a copy and have kindly shared their thoughts. So far, the reviews have been wonderful. Here's a full list to date: (I've marked those that are a bit spoilery.)
Centre For Youth Literature: Read Alert
ALPHA Reader (a bit spoilery, but nothing too revealing)
Vegan YA Nerds (a few spoilers here... or plot details, whatever you want to call them)
There are a few other reviews over at the Good Reads page. I encourage you to sign up (you can use your Facebook log in) and let us know what you think!
Buying the book
If you're wanting to get your hands on a copy, here are a few possibilities:
In Australia
Your local bookstore. Support your friendly neighbourhood bookseller. (Readings, Gleebooks, Collins, New Edition). They should be able to easily get in a copy if they don't already have one. (But why don't they already have one?)Text Publishing website. Shipping is free and quick, I'm told. eBook available.Your local bookstore. Really, support your local bookseller. That way they might get in more copies, which means browsers will be able to stumble across them.Readings Books. Shipping is free. (They also have real, brick and mortar stores.) eBook available.Penguin Books website.Or, if you're really into this internet shopping thing, there's Borders or Angus & Robertson.Your local bookstore. Have I mentioned this? Let them know you've read some great reviews!If your favourite bookstore does have it in stock, let me know and I'll add it to the list.
Outside Australia
Text Publishing website. Shipping is free worldwide and quick, I'm told. eBook available.Amazon US or Amazon UK. The Kindle version is available to download. Seems a bit cheaper at the US site.Your local bookstore. They should be able to order in a copy if you give them the ISBN: 9781921922749KoboGoogle BooksI'll update the list if I find others that I've missed.
At this stage, word of mouth is crucial to the book's success. If you enjoy the book, please let others know. Buy it as a birthday present. For several birthday presents. For Christmas presents. Instead of Easter Eggs.
If you've found yourself a copy, send me a pic! I'd love to put together a gallery.
cheers!
Myke
July 11, 2012
Another great review for FIRE IN THE SEA
Imagine John Marsden and Suzanne Collins cowrote a Narnian story. That’s the closest approximation I can make for the entirely unique story, tone, and feel of Fire in the Sea.
Melbourne's Centre for Youth Literature have posted a review of Fire In The Sea and it's an extremely positive one. You can find it at link below. Fingers crossed the good feedback continues!
July 2, 2012
Good Reads and early reviews
With three weeks to go now until Fire in the Sea hits the shops, reviews are starting to pop up online. It's a strange and stressful time really. Having spent the last year secretly working on the book with my editor, it feels very odd that other people will soon get to have opinions about how good it is. Obviously, I've already had a taste of this with my podcast novels. Then, it was genuinely exciting when a new comment or review would pop up. The support of the podcasting community made the stress of writing, recording and podcasting those early novels an exhilarating experience. The good reviews gave me the confidence I needed to believe I actually could write books (writers are in constant need of confidence boosts), while the bad ones... well, they'd clearly missed the point. You can't please everyone.
It's true, of course, that you tend to remember the bad reviews more easily than the good. I still remember one that complained that the characters seemed to spend all their time smoking and drinking. Which was true. Salmon and Dusk probably should have come with a health warning. But I always felt able to shrug off those reviews. As consumers, we all have opinions that are utterly valid, but are (generally) informed by a narrow range of interests. I've drunk a lot of wine in my time, for example, but it's not really my area of expertise. I'm not a fan of white wine or sparkling. I prefer a heavy red. If someone asked me to recommend a good white or pink or bubbly, I'm not going to be much help. As such, I have lots of opinions on wine but I'm never going to be a wine critic. (I've sat at tables with wine critics and been at once impressed, appalled and bemused. Strange people.)
These days, it's my day job to be a critic. I've reviewed films and music for over a decade now and, while I have my own preferences and obsessions, I'm aware that Myke the critic has to take a wider view than Myke the consumer. Criticism is about cultural context, I think, and about considering the wide and diverse tastes of your audience when reviewing an artwork. It's about analysing what a work is trying to do, how successful it is and where it belongs in its genre/canon/artform, rather than just saying "I liked it."
Obviously, I still have my own preferences as a critic. I'll cut something a lot of slack if it's fun. If something is setting out to be an entertainment, and succeeds at that, then I'll avert my eyes from the cracks. Similarly, if something is setting out to do something genuinely different or over-reaching itself, then I'll avert my eyes.
What all this means, of course, is that I'm more than a little nervous that Fire In The Sea is currently in the hands of critics. These are people who will be trying to find a place for it in a wide body of literature. These are people who will decide how the book is approached, how it will be remembered and, crucially, how many copies it will sell!
Which isn't to say that I value their opinions any more highly than I do those comments on the podcasts. Not at all. I have been absolutely delighted with the first couple of reviews that have popped up on Good Reads. Each good review there means as much to me as a few hundred words in a newspaper. Absolutely. I do a little happy dance each time a new one shows up. But this time around, more so than the podcasts, I'm aware that the criteria for success and failure are sharply defined. If the book sells, there will be more. Good reviews from critics will help it sell. Without them, we've got an uphill struggle.
Of course, critical thumbs up aren't the "be all and end all" these days. Sites like Good Reads can be just as effective in helping a book succeed. Word of mouth and groundswell support can be just as effective. If you read the book and you like the book, please post a review on Good Reads, update Facebook with a few good words, tweet 140 characters of praise! Fire in the Sea is my first book to arrive in paperback by traditional means. I've got plenty more stories to tell and I'd like the chance to share them. I'm hoping you (and those critic folks) enjoy the book enough to keep reading.
Fire in the Sea on Good Reads
June 25, 2012
FIRE IN THE SEA: Detailed Synopsis
It's a month today until the launch of Fire in The Sea, and Text Publishing have released a more detailed synopsis, which you can find below. Not long to go now!
Sadie is sixteen and bored with life in Perth. Lazing around on the beach with her twin cousins and best friend Tom has become the monotonous routine of her summer holidays. When two menacing figures emerge from the sea and attack an old man, Sadie’s attempt to save him leads to a mysterious inheritance.
Sadie wracks her brain to make sense of the strange occurrences that are taking place. Did the creature in her backyard really have horns? Is she being followed, or is she just paranoid? Sadie goes in search for answers, despite her grandfather’s disapproval. She meets a young man named Jake, who seems oddly out of place, and is persuaded to help him. After an unexplained murder and a near-death experience, Sadie finds herself caught up in an ancient conflict.
Sadie and her friends must help to prevent the final battle that threatens to destroy the city and those she loves. An ancient relic holds the key, but will Sadie and Jake find it before it’s too late?
Fire in the Sea is available to order (with free worldwide shipping) from Text Publishing.
It can also be ordered from Penguin Australia or in Kindle format from Amazon.
June 6, 2012
RAY BRADBURY: A Tribute
In celebration of the great author Ray Bradbury's life, Dumbo Feather have made available a tribute I wrote for them last year (Issue 29). You read it at the link below. Bradbury has been a great inspiration to me, if not a direct influence. His book Something Wicked This Way Comes was a revelation to me. I didn't know words could create something so magical, so tactile, so fantastic and so true. His advice about writing is probably all the advice a writer every needs: "if you want to be a writer, you have to write. Every day. Whether you feel like it or not."
He’s most often described as a science fiction writer, but it’s a label that seems to miss the point. As Bradbury himself has said, there’s little science to his storytelling. His stories peel back the prosaic to reveal an improbable, extraordinary world; one we always hoped might exist, somewhere in the periphery. This is what a magician does, after all; they trick us into believing the impossible is real.
Ray Bradury, Magician at Dumbo Feather
May 27, 2012
Emerging Writers' Festival: Building an Audience
Yesterday I took part in a panel, alongside some very talented folk, to speak about my experiences building a audience. I was supposed to speak for five minutes. In the end, I spoke for 10 and still ran out of time. There's probably a lesson here about timing yourself beforehand, but I'm choosing to ignore it. An adapted version of my speech can be found below:
This is the story of how I built an audience and found a publishing deal. Or, more accurately, it’s the story of how I failed to build an audience but still found a publishing deal.
I always used to think that writing was like sitting in a dark room, talking to yourself. I was wrong.
Writing is a conversation, where you have to work very hard to hear your audience.
Like most writers, I suspect, I started writing because life let me down. When I was younger, I was bored and restless; when I was older, I was disappointed and miserable. Writing was escape.
I never asked myself the crucial question: who would want to read any of this? (To me, the answer was obvious: everyone.) I thought, write what I want to and I’d see the fans roll in.
Perhaps oddly, I never sent my work off to publishers or agents. I was more interested in finding a shortcut that would allow me to connect with an audience. There were two reasons for this. One, cowardice — I was terrified of letting anyone qualified get anywhere near my manuscript. Two, arrogance — I was convinced my work was good enough to win an audience if I could just get them exposed to it.
To me, technology seemed like the shortcut I was looking for.
In 2002, I went looking for my audience. I didn’t really know what I had to offer them, but I was sure they’d like it. I was writing a book, so decided I’d put it up online — on a website I’d set up — at the rate of one chapter a week.
It was a case if, I wrote it, they would come.
And come they did. All three of them.
I didn’t get a publishing deal.
In 2005, I tried again. This time, blogs were everywhere, so I started blogging a book. People — at least a dozen of them — began reading it. Some left comments. For the first time, writing became a genuine conversation. Not a terribly balanced one, perhaps. I was still doing most of the talking. But I began understanding a couple of things — who my audience were and what they wanted (from my writing and from me as a writer.)
I didn’t get a publishing deal.
One year later, I started a new conversation. This new book would be written at about a chapter a week, and then I’d record a reading of it and upload it to the web as a podcast. The book would be hosted at Podiobooks.com, a new site set up to create a community of podcasting authors.
There was something about the nature of podcasting — essentially, reading a book to strangers, that encouraged backchat. People told me which bits they liked, which bits they didn’t, with an astonishing frankness. Being more interested in applause than artistic integrity, I tried to make sure I put in more of the bits they liked as I went along. That seemed to work. The audience grew as the book progressed. Instead of ten listeners, I soon had ten thousand. The finished result was, in some ways, the work of a committee. It looked very different to the book it might have been if I was still just talking to myself. I have no doubt it was better for that.
What I discovered, however, was that maintaining a conversation takes at least as much work as making sure you’ve got something to talk about. There are blog posts to write, emails to respond to, tweets to compose. Because the internet isn’t a library, it’s a shouting match, where the loudest, the most enthusiastic and the most consistent win the game.
I’m not built for that kind of conversation. I can’t stand here and tell you how great I am. (Even with notes.) And I’m kind of lazy. And, you know, I’d rather be spending that time actually writing. I loved the communication and the discussion, if not the rallying of troops. I loved getting to know my audience — and getting to understand how and why they connected with my work.
If I'm honest, the book (How to Disappear Completely) was aimed at an audience I assumed would be a bit, well… geeky. (Much like myself.) It was an urban fantasy adventure tale, which wasn’t exactly the florid, character-led high literature I’d imagined myself writing. As it turned out, I enjoyed writing that sort of story so much that I’ve stuck with it ever since. Essentially, my audience led me to my genre, rather than the other way around.
In the process of podcasting, I learned a few lessons. Most of them, I ignored.
I should point out that none of this got me a publishing deal.
What it did was make me listen harder for an audience. And to think about an audience before I put fingers to keyboard.
This all coalesced when I was handed a poster promoting the Text Prize (at the 2010 Emerging Writers’ Festival, fact fans). It was a gift. The book that became Fire in the Sea was the first thing I’d ever written where I could already hear the other side of that conversation. As a result, I knew how to make the book work and I knew that it would work. I wasn’t writing for me. The audience came first.
This time, I did get a publishing deal.
FIRE IN THE SEA will be published 25 July 2012 by Text Publishing.
May 15, 2012
The Woman In Black and other ghostly tales
Hammer Horror's take on The Woman In Black is released in Australian cinemas this Thursday (May 17). It was a film I'd really been looking forward to, as I'm a big fan of the 1989 telemovie. I first saw it when it was shown on Australian TV in the early 90s and it really stayed with me. (Notice I avoided saying it haunted me.)
Written by Nigel Kneale (who also wrote seminal British genre telly such as Quatermass and The Stone Tape), it's a deeply atmospheric, chilling ghost story. A young lawyer, Arthur Kidd, is sent to a remote seaside town to tidy up a deceased estate. The estate in question includes a spooky old house built in the middle of a treacherous moor. The house is only accessible when the tide is out, so Kidd finds himself trapped on a tiny island with a malevolent spirit. While dealing with things that go bump in the night, he begins to unravel the grim mystery of the titular spook.
In the vein of the equally splendid M.R. James adaptations, it's a film that's more effective because little actually happens. We catch glimpses of The Woman In Black, but Kneale ensures she keeps her distance until we're already scared out of our wits. When she finally confronts Kidd, it's quite unbearably frightening.
Indeed, when I was a teacher, I taught a unit on Ghost Stories to a class of Year 11 girls. As part of the course, I showed them the film. I was worried they'd be a bit sniffy, given the film was 20 years old. Instead, they were entranced. At the scariest moment, I found myself confronted by a theatre full of 60 teenagers screaming "turn it off, turn it off!" Job done, I thought.
The latest adaptation, which I reviewed for The Weekly Review, is nowhere near as effective. It relies far more on starts and shocks than creeping dread. While this leads to a bit of bouncing about in one's seat, each new shock has less impact than the last. As a result, the viewer feels tricked, rather than genuinely terrified.
I don't know what it is about ghost stories that I find so powerful. I'm a thoroughly rational, sceptical bloke, really. But I think ghost stories appealed to my young mind because they were, in effect, about imagination (and memory) intruding on real life. They are, of course, set in the real world, but a version of it where the terrors we imagine in the shadows really do reach out to grab us.
As a boy, I spent hours in the local library, devouring real life tales of hauntings with absolute relish. Maybe I wanted (and, equally, feared) to believe that life could be more exciting. That it could have secrets.
This, I think, is a theme that runs through all my fiction. In Fire In The Sea, Sadie is a teenager growing up in the same small town that I grew up in, wishing life was more thrilling. In Salmon & Dusk, Theo goes to London, hoping to find a more interesting side of life. In both cases, the characters find what they're looking for.
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It's important to me that stories start somewhere recognisably real, before taking the reader somewhere unexpected. Ghost stories, by their nature, tend to start very close to home. Indeed, there's nothing more terrifying than the thought that, lying in bed, we might not be as alone in our dark room as we had thought.
If you're inspired to give ghostly tales a go, I'd skip the latest version of The Woman In Black. If you can track down the original (now out-of-print, sadly), do so. The BBC have also released two radio adaptations, the most recent of which was excellent. You could even read Susan Hill's original novel (although I think Kneale did a great job at extrapolating on its loose threads).
The BBC adaptations of M.R. James's Ghost Stories are, thankfully, much easier to find. Shock recently released the complete collection on DVD here in Australia. My review, again for The Weekly Review, can be found here.
April 23, 2012
Emerging Writers' Festival 2012
I'm very excited to be taking part in this year's Emerging Writers' Festival. It'll be the third year running I've been involved in some capacity. It's a great annual event for Melbourne writers, packed with workshops and talks and, yes, a fair amount of collegiate drinking. Given the isolation involved in being a writer, it's always wonderful to have an excuse to meet up with your rivals comrades.
From the festival website:
The Emerging Writers’ Festival is an independent arts organisation based in Melbourne’s Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas. We exist in order to promote the interests of emerging writers – to improve their opportunities for professional development as well as their engagement with the broader public.
Each year the Emerging Writers’ Festival brings writers, editors, publishers and literary performers together with the reading public for a festival that is fast becoming an essential part of Australia’s literary calendar.
This year, I'll be talking about:
Building an Audience, Sunday 3pm
It’s been said before – publishers love writers with a pre-existing platform. But what is that, and how do you go about creating one while remaining true to artistic integrity? Our panellists share their tips and tricks on how to build an audience. With Myke Bartlett, Sarah Howell, Katie Keys and Andrew Nette. Hosted by Writers’ Web
You can find more details at the Emerging Writers' Festival website.
