Christine Bongers's Blog, page 14

My Clayton's Notable Books (Older Readers) for 2011

The CBCA 2011 Notable Books have been released (click here for the full list), so it's now safe for me to publish my own Clayton's Notables for Older Readers.

AJ Betts – Wavelength A must-read for stressed out Year Twelve students

Laura Buzo – Good Oil Ahhh, first love, don't we all remember that?

Cath Crowley – Graffiti Moon A lyrical adventure proving that Art and Poetry are not too cool for school

Cassandra Golds – The Three Loves of Persimmon An exquisite fable for those who believe in love, magic and talking cabbages

Kirsty Eagar – Saltwater Vampires Aussie vampire fiction with bite – a clever re-imagining of the story behind the wreck of the Batavia

Anthony Eaton – Daywards The highly-anticipated final instalment in a landmark Australian speculative fiction trilogy

Jackie French – A Waltz for Matilda Absorbing drama set against the backdrop of the shearer's strike, federation, suffragette movement and war

Steven Herrick – SLICE Sixteen year old Darcy suffers from premature enunciation; his mouth runs ahead of his brain. Just delicious.

Leanne Hall – This is Shyness A weird and wonderful night on the prowl with Wolfboy and Wildgirl

Sonya Hartnett – The Midnight Zoo Talking animals and gypsy children create a moving fable about war and freedom

Nette Hilton – The Innocents Deadly secrets in 1950s Australia. A rewarding read for mature readers.

Joanne Horniman – About a Girl A beautiful, wistful story about love between two teenage girls.

Belinda Jeffrey – Big River, Little Fish All the makings of an Australian classic, set against the 1956 flooding of the Murray.

Kathryn Lomer – What Now, Tilda B? A heartening story of finding a purpose washing up on the shores of your life.

Melina Marchetta – The Piper's Son Heart-wrenchingly real; a lovingly crafted story of grief and redemption from an outstanding Australian writer

Foz Meadows – Solace and Grief Supernatural fantasy set in Sydney's underworld introducing a vampire saviour and other members of the Rare.

Kirsty Murray – India Dark Based on a true story of exploitation and mutiny in a troupe of child stars touring India in 1909.

Tim Pegler -Five Parts Dead Dan has dodged death five times, but his mates haven't been so lucky. Supernatural thriller with dual time-line making for addictive reading for teens.

Nicole Pluss – Scout Fascinating historical fiction based on a young English girl's experiences setting sail to the colonies.

Michael Pryor – Laws of Magic 5: Moment of Truth The latest enthralling episode in a phenomenal steam-punk adventure series.

James Roy – Anonymity Jones When life falls apart for this sixteen year old, should she hang on, get out or get even? Tough choices for our resourceful, headstrong heroine.

Karen Tayleur – Six Guaranteed to keep you reading. Six teenagers. Five seatbelts. One after-party. And a twist in the tale.

Fiona Wood – Six Impossible Things Fresh and funny tale of love and loneliness in Year Ten.

Richard Yaxley – Drink the Air A beautiful and moving story set in Hervey Bay about love and loss in high school.

[PS: I was given less than a month to come up with a CBCA Clayton's shortlist for 2011 (which stays strictly Secret Squirrel until tonight's Qld CBCA function at St Aidens), so I didn't get to read all 95 novels entered in the Older Readers category. So please feel free to add any other Notables published in 2010 that you have discovered for yourself.]

Swimming in inspiration

Funny, what inspires us as writers.

I've never been much of a swimmer myself. I can manage a stately breast stroke in a flowered bathing cap, but it just isn't my thing, if you know what I mean.

I grew up on a farm, in the middle of a drought, and was ten years old before our gully filled for the first time.

I nearly drowned in the Biloela pool in primary school, trying to swim its breadth with my eyes squeezed shut against the unfamiliar chemicals. I listed to the right  and ended up swimming an elongated dog's leg before finally touching, exhausted, at the deep end.

Infrequent trips to the placid waters of Yeppoon and Tannum Sands didn't teach me that much. Though I remember the excitement of my brother nearly drowning and afterwards discovering a tiny fish, still alive, in his Speedos.

It surprises me still that I grew up to marry a man with salt water in his veins, a man who is grounded in water. It surprises me even more that our children can swim and that I loved them enough to spend a large chunk of the past 18 years poolside.

But what surprises me the most is how much I've grown to love the friendships and sense of community surrounding our little neighbourhood swim club.

For the past nine years, every Spring and Summer, we've put out the lane ropes on a Saturday afternoon, gossiped with our friends and cheered our littlies on as they strove for personal best times in their races against the stop watch.

Dozens of trophies crowd our kids' shelves including one for "Most Attentive and Best Behaved" and another for "The Esther Williams Award for Best Technique".

My own trophy shelf is bare, but for one – awarded for debating, in 1977 – until now.

Because now I too have a swimming trophy. Awarded last Saturday at my last Swim Club meeting after nine fun-filled years. My youngest is moving on, so we will too, leaving the Club to the up-and-coming young families.

They'll miss me on the megaphone, they say. I know I'll miss them. But I'll have something special to remember them by ….

My first ever swimming trophy and farewell gift with an inscription that reads "love KGASC"…

And I do.

Because without all those Saturdays poolside with the Kelvin Grove Amateur Swim Club, I would never have written my children's novel Henry Hoey Hobson about a boy who nearly drowns in the turbulent waters of Year Seven.

So thanks KGASC for the inspiration. It's funny where we writers find it, isn't it?

My week just got better

I've just spent the best part of a week unable to walk up or down stairs.

Quadriceps that once functioned perfectly adequately for a woman of my years, have let me down, shamefully.

Despite the general consensus of family and friends, I refuse to blame it on last week's indoor netball game.

I admit that I may well be the oldest member of the team (the oldest member of the comp, some unkindly suggest), and I may have played only the one season since 1973, but by golly, I'm still up for it.

Those sweet young things we played were barely half our age, but I only fell over the once. The scrape on my elbow hardly bled at all and my left knee didn't turn green for days.

But old and cunning has its advantages over young and beautiful.

Unlike the SYTs on the other team, we didn't have any makeup to sweat off, we weren't there to pick up, and we didn't have the rest of our lives to win a game of netball; every mature netballer knows that every game could be her last.

I was feeling pretty good afterward, despite my fall. So good in fact, that the very next day I offered to stand in for a fellow indoor netballer at her group Pilates class.

Clearly she knew something I didn't.

The instructor had biceps like ham hocks and little understanding of the special needs of the more mature indoor netballer.

An hour later I wobbled out on trembling legs, in such a state that a friend who has survived breast cancer asked if I needed a hand.

I've been keeping a low profile since. Walking the dog slowly hoping to regain full use of my legs.

But today, I rose without groaning, felt an unaccustomed spring in my step, ran up the stairs, just to prove that I could, and turned on the computer to hear via the lovely Jim Roy that HENRY HOEY HOBSON had made the Victorian CBCA Clayton's Shortlist for Younger Readers.

So chuffed was I that I did a little dance (just because I could). Happy too, that Jim's latest novel ANONYMITY JONES made the list for Older Readers, along with fellow Woolshed Press author Nette Hilton for THE INNOCENTS.

If you'd like to see the Victorian Clayton's judges' hot tips on which books could be contenders for the REAL Children's Book Council Shortlist to be announced on April 12, click here.

Meantime, I can die happy.

I've won an indoor netball game (I did mention we won, didn't I? 29-20. Against those spritely young things) AND I've shared a (Clayton's) shortlist with the likes of  Michael Gerard Bauer and Glenda Millard.)

Oh yes, my week has definitely got better.

I ♥ my job

For the next nine days don't expect too much from me.

I'll be feeding my kids Weet Bix for dinner, letting the unopened mail topple from my desk, pushing all other deadlines back as far they'll go (and praying they don't snap back in my face).

I'll be busy, on the couch, on the bus, at the airport, reading books. Lots and lots and lots of books.

All part of the fun of being a Queensland Clayton's Judge for the CBCA Book Awards this year. Ninety-five books have been entered in the Older Readers Category and I have to choose just six by March 11….

It's a bit like lining up 95 fabulous people that you like and/or love for different and complex reasons, then taking the hands of just six and pulling them forward for special acknowledgement. With so many fabulous books to choose from, I think I'll just have to post my own Claytons Notables List as well the Shortlist…

The REAL CBCA Shortlist and Notable Books for 2011 will be announced nation-wide at noon on April 12.

I'm planning to put my fingers in my ears, squeeze my eyes shut, and avoid facebook, so that I can stand up in all innocence and ignorance at CBCA's Qld Shortlist function that night and wax lyrical about the six books published last year that I loved best.

They'll be the books that I clasped to my chest, then pressed onto friends and family. The books that made me laugh, made me cry, made me think, and made me happy to be a reader and proud to be a writer in a country that produces books and writers like these.

So if you need me in the next nine days, you know where to find me.

Triple H makes the Readers Cup!

A huge thank you to all the hard-working librarians who have chosen Henry Hoey Hobson for this year's Readers Cup.

Four regions so far – Brisbane South, Brisbane North, Brisbane Bayside and Somerset/Lockyer – have put HHH on the list of books to be read in their regional competitions in June. Other regions will be declaring their lists in the coming weeks, so fingers crossed!

I'm really looking forward to presenting the cups and medallions to regional finalists in June  and being part of the State Finals to be held in conjunction with the Ipswich Literature Festival in September.

The Readers Cup promotes the love of literature to students in Years 6/7 and 8/9, so if your school hasn't yet signed up, click here to register. You have until the end of March to join the cool kids.

Happy Valentine's Day

After more than eighteen years together, here's my top ten things that I still love about you.

1. Astigmatism – (I'm still not convinced that I look quite as good in the mornings as you seem to think that I do…)

2. Romance – For knowing that the secret for a good sex life is to cook and wash up afterwards.

3. Honesty – The look on your face at the altar when I asked if you'd washed your hair.  'But it's clean,' you protested. 'I just got out of the pool.'

4. Courage – For fighting the good fight against skin cancer and wearing hats that make even the cat laugh.

5. Thoughtfulness – For tucking me in and telling me to go back to sleep when you have to leave early.

6. Helpfulness – For explaining the digestive tract to our thirteen year old… then agreeing to act as an in-text reference for "the tube that runs from mouth-hole to arse-hole."

7. Gilding the lily – For talking about me when I'm not there so that all  your workmates think that I'm really nice.

8. Realism – For being the designated driver 99 times out a hundred.

9. Sense of humour – For laughing when you find the beaglier stinking up your side of the bed every time you get back from a bike ride.

10. Consistency – For only ever wanting one thing for Valentine's Day (but letting me sleep in anyway).

Happy Valentine's Day xx

Two steps to Productivity for writers

1. Delete Spider Solitaire and Free Cell from computer.

2. Turn off the Internet.

That is all.

Blogstipated

I recently upbraided a family member for emitting a noxious odour, and Hubba Hubby was quick to pounce on my choice of verb.

'Light is emitted,' he informed me. 'Gas is expelled.'

Oh. Now I accept that this falls within his area of expertise, but I'm a bit of a verb nerd myself and I'm not used to being corrected in my specialty area, so I pressed him for more details.

'What about food? Can't that be expelled too?'

Apparently not, according to the expert in the family. It is disgorged.

But wait, there's more, if your delicate sensibilities can stand it. Urine and kidney stones are passed, faeces evacuated, pus discharged and suppurative wounds drained.

I found this clinically specific use of verbs oddly interesting, coinciding as it did, with one of the most prolonged periods of blogstipation and generalised creative blockage that I have experienced in years.

What verb, I wondered, could dispel this depressing circumstance?

For much of the summer I had tried rationalising it away as a function of school holidays, visitors, floods, loss of a treasured publisher, and pressure of work, family and other commitments.

That just seemed to make it worse. So I tried ignoring, denying, and finally, airing and venting.  None of that seemed to help either, so I lay awake at night, ruminating on a cure.

'I'm blogspitated,' I finally told my husband's back in the blackest part of the night.

'Try exercising and eating more fruit,' he mumbled, rolling onto his back and snoring some more.

Good advice, as it turns out. I'm now on a daily diet of plump and juicy words from brilliant writers and poets. I am flexing my atrophied writing muscles, straightening out stiff sentences, oiling up creaking clauses, massaging meaning into disheartened prose.

And the blockage is dissipating.

In the immortal words of writing mentor Dr Kim Wilkins: I might be writing crap, but at least I'm writing.

Happy Australia Day 2011

Got to be in it to win it

Fancy being immortalised in print by having a character named after you?

How about swanning along to the Ultimate Girly High Tea with the likes of international best-selling author Kate Morton, Rebecca Sparrow, Caroline Overington and others?

Or a chance to win signed book packs, a book club or school visit from your favourite author, or a manuscript appraisal from a top literary agent or publisher?

You can win all this and more by jumping onboard Writers on Rafts, a fund-raising initiative of the Qld Writers Centre to benefit the Qld Premier's Flood Relief Appeal.

More than 150 Australian authors including Morris Gleitzman, Melina Marchetta, Nick Earls, John Birmingham, Jessica Rudd, Tara Moss and Di Morrissey,  have donated prizes in every state in Australia.

I've already bought tickets for book packs and author visits for my kids' schools.

Click here for your chance to win all that and more while benefiting victims of this summer's disastrous floods.