Christine Bongers's Blog, page 20

Books for Xmas 2009

For those whose tastes run to the literary, the crime novel to die for this Christmas is Peter Temple's Truth. The fictional underbelly of the Victorian police, dry as the crackle of eucalypt leaves in the moment before the fireball hits.

A stripped-down, elegant and elliptical story of hard men and violence on both sides of the law, where Truth is a lovely little grey who "won at her second start, won three from twelve, always game, never gave up. She sickened and died in hours, buckled and...

The unravelling

I'm at a loose end. Pull it and I'll start to unravel.

The revisions are done, the publishing Gods temporarily appeased after taking my second-born.

Henry Hoey Hobson has left home, whisked away on secret publisher's business to an unknown location, a brutal boot camp where a merciless editor will whip his scrawny arse into shape.

He'll come back eventually, bulging in a tough bag, splattered with copy editor squiggles. Sporting black marks on his once-spotless pages. Missing adverbs I didn't...

The write stuff

Most aspiring novelists are advised to write about what they know. Which isn't all that helpful when your protagonist is spread-eagled on an inter-stellar operating table about to be dissected by a laser-driven hive mind.

So in the interests of being helpful, let me offer this small piece of advice.

Write about what you love.

This is not based on sentiment. The only thing that keeps most of us going in the knock-down, drawn-out, occasionally exhilirating, often frustrating, seemingly endless...

It's only words …

When I took my first baby steps as a writer of fiction, it was the good folk at the Qld Writers Centre who held my hand and picked me up when I stumbled and fell.

They encouraged me to walk unassisted, and then to run. They clapped when I did cartwheels over my first book contract, and my second.

So what do you say to an organisation that has been with you every step of your writing journey?

You say, thanks. Publicly. You urge anyone with an interest in writing to do themselves a favour and...

False starts

I am not going to bang on about this, but it needs to be said.

Do not start your story in the wrong place.

Do not start with background, preamble, and densely-packed description.

Do not do as I did, and tell your publisher (who quite likes your opening chapter) that 'It gets really good in Chapter Two' (because eventually one of you will realise that perhaps that's where your story should have started).

Do not ever type the words The End until you have perfected the beginning.

So please, go back...

Pinning back those ears

As a newbie in the world of publishing, I enjoy hanging on the words of the wise, and spending time with older hands who are happy to roll back their sleeves and show me their scars.

I have learned much at the knee of Veny Armanno (QWC's Year of the Novel), Kim Wilkins (Year of the Edit) and Nick Earls, whose generosity in inducting Brisbane's debut authors into the world of publishing was stretched to capacity this year.

My education continues, online, following writer's websites (a few of...