Nathan Luff's Blog, page 6

My Return …

Just like Voldemort (but less evil and less nose-less and generally less creepy) I have been gathering my powers set to return to the world of writing.

 

The baby Harry Potter decimated Voldemort much as my own son decimated any time available for writing but fear not for the time has come. With the aid of my loyal supporters (coffee and chocolate) I have been using the brief 9-3 school window to create something new. Something shiny.

And soon … world domination will be mine! *

So stay tuned but not too tuned because the publishing industry does move at its own pace after all.

With Luff,

Nathan

 

 

*world domination not guaranteed but seems likely

CBCA Shortlist Predictions

Congratulations to all the CBCA Shortlisted books for 2019. I had the pleasure of predicting the shortlist for the recent NSW CBCA Branch AAA event.

It was great to talk about my favourite books published last year (in the Younger Readers category). I thought I would share with you the books I mentioned on my list – keep in mind that I could not read every book published so there are many wonderful books I’m sure I missed. Not to brag but of my selection, three of the books I mentioned made it onto the shortlist, so clearly I know what I’m talking about, or I’m a psychic.

 

Here are the books I selected and a brief reason why I picked them.

 

The Slightly Alarming Tale of the Whispering Wars by Jaclyn Moriarty

This book was funny yet dramatic – totally engaging page-turning stuff. I love the way Jaclyn Moriarty writes and here, with the dual narrative, you get two excellent characters telling the story and bickering with each other. A great companion piece (but also stand-alone) to The Inconvenient Adventures of Bronte Mettlestone. Highly recommended.

 

The Boy From Earth by Darrel Pitt

This book set in space was lots of silly fun, involving countless aliens and space escapades. The book is elevated by an engaging narrative and strong story arc.  Plus it made me laugh. I love the synopsis: Twelve-year-old Bobby Baxter’s not the bravest kid on Earth. His list of things that scare him is up to number 689, and includes lightning, crowds, spiders, alien abductions, crocodiles, falling from great heights, falling from small heights and eggs. So when he learns that he’s the first Earthling ever chosen to attend the Galactic Space Academy, light years away from home, he’s terrified and just wants to go home to his Dad and his pet snail, Roger.

 

Finch by Penny Matthews

Well written drama that also has mysterious elements that draw in the reader. I found the characters and the family tensions to be completely believable. The story was compelling and lingered in my mind.

 

The Peacock Detectives by Carly Nugent

This was a sneaky extra book I added to my list – I really enjoyed the voice of the first person narrative and being inside her head. The book tackles some pretty hefty themes but has a gentle approach.

 

Lenny’s Guide to Everything by Karen Foxlee

This was also another sneaky addition because I knew it would be under consideration  in the older readers category, still I think strong readers in primary school would love this book – I know I would have when I was in primary school. Bit of a tear jerker though.

 

Brindabella by Ursula Dubosarsky with illustrations by Andrew Joyner

Beautifully written book about the relationship between a boy and a kangaroo he rescues. Told from the human perspective and then the animal perspective. Lyrical yet economic prose. Stays with you …

 

Limelight by Solli Raphael

At 12, Solli Raphael was the youngest winner of the Australian Poetry Slam. Videos of his poetry slam performances have gone viral and he is a super star. This book is both a guide to writing poetry, expressing yourself and performing, as well as being a collection of poetry with a strong social and environmental focus. The writing, being that of a 12 year old, speaks to young readers and it says: you can do this too; you can express yourself through words, through poetry, through music, through art. Very inspiring.

 

Missing by Sue Whiting

I loved this book and was very surprised to see it missing from the notable list. I was hooked from page 1 and almost read the whole thing in one sitting. Sue Whiting was inspired by the alarming number of people in Australia who go missing every year, and especially by the idea of what it does to the people left behind with no closure about what happened …  this book features two timeframes juxtaposed together – the moment Madeleine’s mother goes missing, and then over a hundred days later when her dad drags her to Panama in a last attempt to find her. A wonderful read.

 

How to Win a Noble Prize by Barry Marshall with Lorna Hendry. Illustration by Bernard Caleo.

This book was written by noble prize winner, Dr Barry Marshall (with the help of experienced author Lorna Hendry), an Australian scientist who received a noble prize (along with Robin Warren) for important work with gut bacteria. The book is very episodic and there is not a lot in the way of drama, but it is compelling regardless because unlike a non fiction book or wiki page, in this book you get to meet these amazing humans who have shaped the world we live in (the main character goes back in time to have conversations with these people and ask their advice on how to win a noble prize). I was very ignorant of many of the scientists featured and I loved learning more about them. Plus I love how it promotes STEM for young girls.

 

Swallow’s Dance by Wendy Orr

I never read Dragonfly Song, which came before this, but I believe it is similar in terms of setting and writing style. This book is a stand-along companion piece set in the Minoan Bronze age, 1625 BC, in the Crete region. It is written in prose and free verse. The world is totally fascinating … believing in many gods, appeasing those gods, making sacrifices, reading omens and acting on them … and of course there are the different gender and class structures in play. Wendy Orr’s research and detail make it a really rich story.

 

CBCA NSW Anticipate! Appreciate! Applaud!

Tuesday 26th March in Sydney, come hear a bunch of interesting people (me included) talk about books!! It’s the CBCA Short List Professional Development Conference 2019. Get on it teachers and teacher librarians! More info here.

 

Hello, it’s me …

Do you have Adele in your head now? Maybe Lionel Ritchie? Get them out immediately! It’s not them here, it’s me, Nathan Luff, your favourite author …

It has been a while since my last post, so firstly, let me tell you that I am indeed well and not accidentally locked in the bathroom of a person I’ve just met moments after arriving in a foreign city (that did happen to me once, but that’s another story). The other good news, is that for the first time in six years I have some dedicated writing time and I’m progressing well with something new. How exciting! It’s something very different from my previous 2 books and I think it’s best to not say too much. I would love to tell you more, but talking about a book is like checking on a cake in the oven too early – it can make it sink. What I can tell you though is the following:

It has words, lots of them
There is danger, and mystery, and adventure, and laundry

I bet you can’t wait! Well, contain yourselves. I’ve still got to write the ending. Endings are so hard. Do you think it’s okay if the world suddenly explodes but then they wake up to realise it was all a dream? That’s what I’ve got for the moment, but it might change.

 

Well nice to chat. Send my love to your cat if you have one (I love cats).

Thai-riffic! receives Awgie Nomination

Each year the Awgie Awards are presented by the Australian Writers’ Guild to the best scripts for film, television, theatre and radio. This year (2018) I’m very excited that my adaptation of Oliver Phommavanh’s book Thai-riffic! is nominated in the Theatre for Young Audiences category.

It was such a wonderful experience working with Oliver and The Theatre Division to bring this story to the stage and it is always lovely to have your efforts recognised by people in the industry.

You can check out a full list of nominations here:

I love awards. As a kid I made my own Logie and Academy Award out of plaster of Paris. I painted them gold but I wasn’t fooling anyone; they were wonky, the bases fell off and, let’s be honest, I’m a much better writer (thankfully) than I am a sculptor. It would be nice to win a fair dinkum award I can display somewhere but the competition in this category is very daunting, so I might just have to buy me some more plaster of Paris just in cased I need to improvise.

 

Same Same But Different

The Challenge of Adapting Thai-riffic! for the stage

With the world premiere of Thai-riffic! (the play I adapted from Oliver Phommavanh’s bestselling book) only a week away, I thought it might be nice to talk about the challenges of the adaptation process.

Adapting things is heaps of fun but it’s not always easy. On one hand, it is a huge relief that some other person has done all the hard work of creating the story world and the characters (thanks Oliver!!) but on the other hand, an author doesn’t write a book thinking it will become a play, so they create all these characters and settings and scenes that can’t possibly all fit into the play version (thanks Oliver!!). The playwright needs to be true to the source material, whilst also making it work for the new medium.

It needs to be same same but different.

Above: the first read through of the script with the cast

Here are some of things we had to consider:

Characters

The joy of a book is that there are no budgetary restrictions when it comes to bringing the story to life – it’s all done with the imagination and it’s free. This is not the same for theatre or film. The Thai-riffic! play’s budget meant we could only afford to have 5 actors on stage so it was not possible to have all the characters that were in the book.

The good thing is that actors can play multiple roles, so we weren’t limited to only 5 characters; still, we were limited to how many main characters we could have. The biggest change from book to play is that Lengy’s brother no longer exists. Sorry, Lengy, you’re now an only child. In the early drafts we also took Lengy’s mother away – that’s pretty cruel removing a bother and a mother so we decided to add references to the mother to explain her continual absence, and then, in a stroke of genius (and thanks to the magic of video projection), we found a great way of bringing her back into the story. You’re welcome, Lengy. There were also too many kids in Lengy’s class, so we merged a lot of them into the character of Hayley. Rajiv, Mr Winfree and Grandma all made it into the play relatively unscathed.

Number of scenes and locations

Theatre shows for young audiences generally don’t go longer than 1 hour, which is mostly to allow the possibility of doing multiple shows a day. This becomes a limitation when it comes to re-telling a story that is 190 pages long. The story needs to be cut. Also, we can’t keep changing the set and moving to different locations – this takes up precious time and potentially lots of money in creating set pieces, so when deciding which scenes to have, we must also consider what are the most important locations featured in the book.

For Thai-riffic! we decided the two most important locations were the Thai-riffic! restaurant, and Lengy’s English classroom, so this is where most of the play is set. A lot of the scenes in the book that were featured in Lengy’s house, have been relocated to take place in the restaurant, and scenes within the school now take place in the English classroom. We still have a few other important settings – a discount store, the streets of Newtown, a rival restaurant, the takraw field and the location of the Songkram festival – and for these we are using projections to transport us. Projections cut down on both the time wasted in changing sets, and the costs of making them.

Interior Monologue

A challenge when adapting books to the stage or the screen, is in working out how to let the audience experience the main character’s inner thoughts. Thai-riffic! is written in first person narrative, so we always know what Lengy is thinking but in the play version, we are outside of Lengy’s head watching the action from the comfort (hopefully) of our theatre seats.

One of the ways we solved this problem was to make Lengy address the audience. We call this breaking the 4th wall. The action on stage kind of freezes around Lengy while he looks out and talks to us, letting us know important information, or sharing his humorous observations about what is happening. In films, the same effect might be achieved by having a voice over. I think it’s important not to overuse this device though as it takes us away from the action of what’s happening on stage.

 

So there you go, there are a few of the considerations that were made when adapting Thai-riffic! into a play. Make sure if you’re in Sydney that you head down to Darling Harbour for the world premiere. It runs from the 4th-8th of July. Tickets can be purchased through this link:

https://www.monkeybaa.com.au/shows/thai-riffic/

Thai-riffic! The Play

  Title: Thai-riffic! (play adapted from the novel by Oliver Phommavanh)

  Age group: 7+

  Producer: The Theatre Division

 Performance Dates: Monkey Baa: 4th-8th July 2017. Seymour Centre: 7-12th August 2017 

Synopsis:

Albert Lengviriyakul, or Lengy for short, is the son of Thai immigrants who own a restaurant with the cheesy name Thai-riffic! Lengy is starting high school and sees this as his opportunity to transform his image from the kid who lives in a restaurant to a cool and popular Aussie teen. When his teacher sets a group assignment that focuses on another culture it becomes apparent Lengy won’t be able to get away from his past as easily as he’d like.

Through a series of hilarious and heartfelt events involving bulk toilet paper, a purple curry and a trip to the Thai-New Year Sonkram Festival, Lengy sees his Thai background in a new light.

It’s 2017 and I’m still alive.

Well hello all. It has been a long time since I have visited this blog space. Thanks for all the worried messages checking to make sure I was okay and not trapped under heavy furniture (this is me being sarcastic – I received no such messages!! What if I had been stuck under some heavy furniture? You should feel very bad for not checking on me).

I forgive you. In 2016 lots of important things were happening. Here is a list of some of them:

I started learning the tin whistle
I cut my toe nails. Twice.
I started teaching drama and music part time in schools
I sewed a Dugong costume
I chipped one of my front teeth. I call that tooth Chip. He is one of my new best friends.
I staged a musical production of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ at one of the schools I teach it. I wrote it with the students there and it was heaps of fun. We set it under the sea and there were lots of Sea Monkeys in it.
I dressed up as a French Horn.

 

But the big thing I did in 2016 was to write the play adaptation of Oliver Phommavanh’s book ‘Thai-riffic!’ We had a staged-reading of the work at the Riverside Theatres in Parramatta, with a great response from the audience. And the exciting news is that in 2017, you can see the full production of the show (produced by the wonderful Theatre Division people). Monkey Baa Theatre Company are presenting the opening season at their theatre in Darling Harbour –4th-8th July (School holiday time). Check out the details here:

http://www.monkeybaa.com.au/shows/thai-riffic/

 

And following that, Seymour Centre have programmed the play into their education season. 7th – 12th of of August. Find out all details here:

http://www.seymourcentre.com/events/event/thai-riffic/

 

From there, fingers crossed everyone will fall in love with it and will tour the country (fingers crossed).

 

And now that it is 2017 I am free to start a new writing project. I feel a new novel coming on … too soon to talk about it now. More to come …

 

 

Judging a Book by its Cover

So I know they say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover but sometimes it’s hard.

And there’s nothing better when you’re having a love affair with a book and it has a perfect cover. Sometimes before diving into the page I’m up to, I stroke the beautiful cover and tell the book how much I’ve missed it. Do you do that? No? Oh yeah, me neither …

So anyway I’ve been thinking about covers because I just read a really great young adult book that is part of a trilogy and I HATE the covers. I get so caught up in the story and then I close the book and see the cover and want to spew a little. I should really cover them in brown paper bags. I won’t name the books because I’m sure a lot of work went into the covers and hey, there are probably some people who do like them. It’s just lucky that someone recommended the books to me or I would never have started reading them. I think part of the problem is that the books don’t fit neatly into 1 genre and the genre they have chosen to represent on the cover is the least appealing of the 2 genre splices for me.

Tricky business covers … I do not envy those who have to create them.

Here though, for your viewing pleasure are some of my favourite book covers in my collection.

The first lot of covers are designed by artists Kai and Sunny for David Mitchell’s books:

 

These ones are from artist Shepard Fairey and we have prints of these framed on our wall I love them so much:

 

This book I read purely because I loved the cover. So simple but so appealing. The design is by Peter Mendelsund.

 

And finally, I noticed that this year the are reissuing a whole heap of Sonya Hartnett books with newly designed covers. Sonya Hartnett books always have great covers and I heard her say once at a writers’ festival that she likes to be very involved in the process of selecting covers. These new covers are very cool though I of course hate when they bring out cool new covers when you already own the books … makes you want to “accidentally” spill coffee over your original editions …

Hello? It’s me.

As my last blog post was in August of last year, I suddenly became worried that people might think something had happened to me. Perhaps I was trapped under a giant piece of furniture, thinking to myself, it’s okay, someone will notice I haven’t blogged in a while and they’ll come along to help me. Any day now … any day …

Thankfully I can confirm that I am in fact not trapped under any furniture (though it’s good to know that if this did happen, I wouldn’t be able to rely on my readers to save me). I am only trapped under the metaphorical weight of doing too many things. You would be surprised at how long it takes to procrastinate and do it well.

The good news is that I have a few projects bubbling away, and with any luck, some of them might see the light of day soon. Fingers crossed.

Ta ta.