Alison Ripley Cubitt's Blog, page 6

Awesome Indies 5* Review of Revolution Earth

So grateful to Awesome Indies for their review: http://awesomeindies.net/eco-terrorists-vs-corporate-thugs-review-of-revolution-earth-by-lambert-nagle/

Across the Mekong River

Across the Mekong River is the story of a refugee family from Laos, who had to flee to the refugee camps in Thailand when the Vietnam war ended. The Communist regime hunted down their own people and killed those who fought on the side of the Americans. It is only thanks to their sponsorship by an American soldier that the family are permitted to resettle in America.

The story centres on daughter Nao’s struggles to bridge two opposing cultures. Her Hmong family believe women are subservient to men, whereas all Nao wants to do is to go to college and lead an independent life. Nao so desperately wants to fit in at school she calls herself Laura and hides this from her parents.

It is not exclusively written from Nao’s point-of-view as author Elaine Russell gives a voice to Nao’s mother Yer and her father Pao. Yer’s tale is of a paradise lost. Her beautiful homeland – a land of ‘gentle streams and green forests, ‘ has been invaded by a succession of foreigners – Thai, Khmer, French then Japanese. Pao, the patriarch in the family, left his fields to take up arms against the communists in the Vietnam War.

Nao, Pao and Yer are convincing characters who speak believable dialogue. Written in a compelling and convincing style, the author gives voice to all those displaced people who find themselves adrift in a newly adopted homeland, struggling to adapt to a new language and culture. Across the Mekong River is really the story of America.

Carrot Cake for Comic Relief

Dame Edna was all set for a lovely retirement of book clubs and chardonnay in Moonee Ponds, Melbourne, when she got the call from the dame of baking himself, Paul Hollywood. If Dame Edna can steal the show for the Great British Comic Relief Bakeoff then sure as hell, I can make carrot cake.

But baking does require the decorative skills of a good plasterer – or of a woman who loves the colour wisteria so much she matches her hair with her icing. And sadly these are skills I have never mastered. In fact presentation just doesn’t come easily at all to someone who hated art class so much that I used to cry until the ordeal was over.

But then there is the science and precision bit in baking, which I can do when pushed. But it’s the requirement for exact measurements that puzzles me most when reading American cookbooks, as measurements are given by volume, not weight. Even Dame Martha Stewart does this, and she’s such a perfectionist she probably stencils the insides of her rubbish bin. Yet how much exactly is a cup of grated carrot? Surely that depends on how tightly you pack the cup?

This recipe, adapted from Julee Rosso & Sheila Lukins The Silver Palate Cookbook, is given in volume and weight measurements.

CARROT CAKE

360g/3 cups unbleached flour

360g/3 cups granulated sugar

375 ml 1 ½ cups rice bran oil or a similar flavourless vegetable oil

1tsp salt

1tbs baking soda

1tbs ground cinnamon

4 large eggs, lightly beaten

1tbs vanilla extract

180gm/ 1 ½ cups walnut pieces

180gm/ 1 ½ cups shredded coconut

180 gm/ 1 ½ cups grated carrot

100gm/ ¾ cup unsweetened and drained tinned pineapple

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to 165C/350F (fan assisted). Grease two 8-inch springform pans.

2. Sift dry ingredients into food mixer bowl. Add oil, eggs and vanilla. Beat well. Fold in walnuts, coconut, carrots and pineapple with large metal spoon.

3. Divide mixture evenly and pour into the prepared pans. Bake for 50 minutes, until the cake has pulled away from sides and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.

4. Cool on a cake rack for at least two hours. Fill cake and frost the sides with cream-cheese frosting. Then decorate the hell out of it, if you’re the arty type.

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

8 oz cream cheese

6 tbs butter at room temperature

360g/3 cups icing/confectioners’ sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

juice of ½ a lemon

1. In the food mixer, beat together the butter and cream cheese until smooth.

2. Slowly sift in icing sugar and continue to beat until mixture is smooth and without lumps.

3. Add the lemon juice and vanilla.

So what could possibly go wrong? Plenty – as I found out when I went to put the frosting on. The cake kept sliding off as the layers were different sizes. So I slapped on more of the frosting to hold the two layers together. Then I bunged the cake in the fridge to try to see if that would help cement it together. It worked – until I had to get the cake out and cut it. As it had serious subsidence, I fobbed it off on the family, who were far too polite to say anything about it’s leaning tower of Pisa tendencies.

After my own baking comedy of errors, I’m grateful to all those willing contestants, prepared to make complete tits of themselves on national television.

The final of the Great Comic Relief Bakeoff is on Wednesday 4th March and if you’re in the UK why not sling them some money, as Comic Relief is a great cause. Text £5 to– BAKE (70005).

Creativity in Tandem – Interview for The Woolf

Our interview on creative collaboration for the Zurich literary journal The Woolf. @Sean Cubitt

Creativity in Tandem. @lambertnagle @readthewoolf http://ow.ly/JLhaN

LOCATION, LOCUTION: Kiwi-Brit author team produce first in eco-thriller series spanning continents where they’ve lived

Alison Ripley Cubitt:

Thanks to JJ Marsh for featuring us in The Displaced Nation where we discuss creating a sense of place.

Originally posted on The Displaced Nation:

Today we welcome JJ Marsh back to the Displaced Nation for this month’s “Location, Locution.” If you are new to the site, JJ, who is a crime series writer (see her bio below), talks to fellow fiction writers about their methods for portraying place in their works. We’re excited that her guest today is the better half of a husband-wife team who have composed an eco-thriller that takes place all over the world, including places where they’ve been expats.

—ML Awanohara

Lambert Nagle is the pen name of co-authors Alison Ripley Cubitt and Sean Cubitt. They write thrillers set in sunny climes.

Sean’s day job is Professor of Film and Television, Goldsmiths, University of London. He has been published by leading academic publishers.

Alison worked in TV and film production for companies including the BBC and Walt Disney but her passion has always been for writing. She is…

View original 1,130 more words

Bad News for Writers – Sitting is Killing You

I’m a smug over-exerciser who got her come-uppance at the GP surgery when I was told that my cholesterol had shot up. How could this be? I cycle, go to the gym and ride a horse! But it’s what I do the rest of the time that’s the problem…..So I’m handing you over to healthcare professional, Rona Morgan, to find out what I and my fellow writers may be doing wrong….

Perhaps you’ve heard – “Sitting is the new smoking”. Is this another scaremongering headline or is it reality and what are the implications for writers?

Prime suspects

The three top causes of an unhealthy lifespan are tobacco use, dietary pattern and physical inactivity. There are other causes of course, but it is striking that the top three are largely within our own control.

For most writers, the third, physical inactivity comes, as they say, with the territory. Consider, as well, all the other times during the modern day when we are not physically active – driving or sitting on public transport, watching television, reading, sitting in restaurants, cafes etc. – it all counts as sitting. As an occasional writer and avid computer user myself, I know only too well the problems that arise from sitting in one place for too long. These range from neck, shoulder and back pain to a spreading derrière due to inactivity as well as mindless munching “to help me think”. But who knew, until now, that it was also deadly? I wonder how many professional writers are aware of the risks they are facing just doing their jobs in the seeming safety of their own homes or offices? It even has a name: “sitting disease”, coined by Dr. James Levine of the Mayo Clinic. Levine claims “Excessive sitting is a lethal activity.”

Inactivity has been linked to a plethora of diseases such as Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and early death. It is no coincidence that obesity carries the same disease risks, but the eye-opener is that you don’t necessarily have to be obese to increase your risk of disease and death, just inactive. You may even have heard the terms “skinny fat”, where normal-weight individuals may be unhealthy if they carry a lot of internal body fat and little muscle. More bad news – a short exercise session a day won’t mitigate the damage done by sitting too long.

The plot thickens

Here’s why: When you are sitting, your muscles are not burning fat and blood flows more slowly, potentially allowing fatty acids to accumulate and cause blockages. The muscles are also not responding to insulin produced by the pancreas and so more and more is produced, leading to insulin resistance and diabetes. Excess insulin encourages cell growth and may be a cause of many cancers, whereas activity produces antioxidants to kill cell-damaging free radicals. Prolonged sitting has been linked to high blood pressure and sedentary individuals are more than twice as likely to have cardio-vascular disease than the least sedentary individuals.

In addition, muscle degeneration due to inactivity leads to weak abdominal muscles, back pain, disk damage, neck pain, tight hips and weak gluteal (butt) muscles. All of these will limit mobility and increase the risk of falls as well as inability to carry out every day activities.



If that were not enough, know that reduced blood circulation present during inactivity leads to brain fog, reduced brain function and low mood. Not very helpful when you need three more chapters by the end of the week!

Why should we care?

We know that, statistically, people are living longer. For many though, life expectancy is increasing but healthy life span is decreasing. In other words, we are living longer but living less healthily, particularly in later life when many of us are succumbing metabolic syndrome (high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes) and perhaps to disability (that is, not able to complete all every day tasks). The impact on individuals is more medical treatment, more medicines and lower quality of life as well as increased risk of early death. The impact on health care systems and national budgets is profound. It is estimated that the current cost to UK’s health service of diabetes (Types 1 and 2) is £14bn per annum for England and Wales. A staggering 10% of the NHS budget is spent on diabetes and 10% of hospital beds are occupied by diabetes patients. This is predicted to increase. Factor in the cost of the other two leading causes of unhealthy life – cardiovascular disease (£9 bn in 2006 ) and smoking (£5.2bn in 2005/6 ) and the NHS starts to look unsustainable.

This is not an anti-smoking rant (but as a health professional, I would urge you stop – it’s the single best thing you can do to improve your health) and you probably know how to eat healthy whole food (if you don’t there are countless websites out there expounding it’s virtues), so let’s focus on activity, or rather inactivity, the bane of most writers.

Rewrite your future (pun intended)

The Romans, who named January after their forward- and backward-facing god, Janus, often took stock of their past behaviors and vowed to make improvements in the year ahead; hence the custom of New Year resolutions. Feeding yourself more wholesome foods and putting your body into motion can lead to immediate benefits, such as better mood and mental clarity, improved sleep, more energy, less pain and stress, and a greater overall sense of well- being.

If you were only allowed one car in your lifetime, my bet is you would look after it diligently – servicing regularly, cleaning and feeding it quality fuel. Well, listen up! You do only get one vehicle for life and you are living in it! Nurture it. In the normal course of life, it will start to go wrong and wear out but neglect will only increase the pace of decline. Unused, it will rust and seize up like an unused motor vehicle.

And now for the good news…..

There are things you can do to halt the seemingly inevitable decline into dysfunction. Here are my suggestions:

• Early morning walk or jog

I find that a morning walk helps clear the mind after the fog of sleeping but also is a most creative time. I get lots of ideas while walking and compose stuff in my head. A smartphone is useful for dictating ideas as you walk as they are easily forgotten once the walk is over. A small notepad and pencil are just as effective. Walking can also be a form of meditation, assuming you can find somewhere safe and quiet to walk, not a busy road. So even if ideas don’t come, use the time to “clear the decks” for the day ahead. Let your surroundings inspire you and wallow in nature, enjoying the smells, sights and sounds around you. I met a man recently who was jogging but had stopped and was staring into a tree. He commented that it was only a tiny bird but made a lot of noise. I told him that I had just seen a kingfisher and he looked at me earnestly and said “Do you know, I have been jogging in this park for 10 years and I have only just started noticing things”. Open your eyes and your ears and be inspired!

Instead of meeting your publisher or pal for coffee, have a walking meeting – it will be more focused, productive and efficient.

• Take regular breaks

Sitting too long makes you stiff, tightens muscles and causes poor posture; all of which can lead to physical dysfunction. Taking regular breaks is a good way to keep everything moving. For writers this may be tricky if you are in full flow but try setting the alarm on your smartphone (or kitchen timer) for 50 mins past the hour, every hour. After 50 minutes, stop, get up, walk around, drink water or make a cup of tea and stretch. Can’t spare 10 minutes? Then consider this: often a short break improves the quality of work done in the following 45 minutes. Bonus – if you are having trouble focusing, you only need to focus for 45 minutes! Research has shown that we retain more of what we learn at the beginning and end of a study session, so having multiple short sessions instead of a long one means greater retention or productivity. If you are learning a language (good for our mental health), give it a try.

• Wear a pedometer, activity monitor or smart watch.

Most people move far less than they perceive they do. The adage “What gets measured, gets managed” is undoubtedly true. Wearable technology is the big thing in health and fitness these days. In Australia, based on initial research, the Victoria health department is giving activity monitors to MS patients as a trial to track if increased activity improves the condition. These devices are also very motivating. Some even send you a reminder to move if you have been still for too long. Track your daily activity and note the trends.

• Improve your posture

We develop many bad movement habits through the types of repeated activities we do every day. Sitting at the computer, we hunch over the keyboard, shoulders at our ears, not moving. The result is tight neck and shoulders, sore wrists and lower back pain. These can be mitigated to a degree with a good chair and the appropriate desk. But no matter how ergonomic your workspace is, if you sit slumped at your desk all day, your body will show signs of tension and stress.

Sit upright and be gentle with the keyboard, tap it lightly, and release neck tension frequently.

• Better still, reduce sitting:

Reducing sitting by 3 hours a day can add 2 years to your life.

Here are some exercises you can do at your desk: http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-16622/6-exercises-you-can-do-at-your-desk-instead-of-just-sitting-all-day.html

Use a standing desk or put your computer on a higher shelf but it’s important to get the ergonomics right: you want your monitor to be at eye level and your keyboard to be at the height of your hands when your forearms are parallel to the ground. Movement is the key, so don’t stand all day either – mix it up with sitting and try to move around.

If you work at a laptop, get a separate keyboard and mouse or trackpad and an external monitor so you can separate the screen from your interfaces. It’s inexpensive and worth it to create the right set-up. Otherwise you are putting the monitor and the keyboard at the same level, and you will end up with neck issues. And don’t ignore aches and pains – they are warning that you need to adjust the way you are doing something.

Reduce sitting while watching television – do gentle stretches or yoga while catching up on your favourite serial.

Don’t be the Elephant in the room

As mentioned earlier, the benefits of physical activity are numerous:

• Improved focus and sharpened memory

• Increased energy

• Can prevent and combat health conditions including high blood pressure, stroke, metabolic syndrome, cardio-vascular disease, type 2 diabetes, some cancers, arthritis and falls

• Enhanced mood, reduce stress

• Can prevent cognitive decline

• Weight control

• Better quality sleep

• It can also be fun!

Still not convinced? Well, increased activity can boost creativity and boost productivity as well as improving libido. Now who doesn’t want those?

The many benefits of physical activity are a compelling reason to keep active if you have a sedentary occupation. The really good news is it is never too late to start. I recently met a wonderful lady (we call her “Super Betty”) who is most likely the oldest personal trainer in the world. She regularly conducts Aqua classes and other group classes for active ageing. Betty is 84 and started her own journey to active healthy living in her 70’s.

However focussed on your work you are or how productive you think you are being, please factor in time to move. As we get older it is so important to be able to carry out activities for everyday living such as shopping, laundry, cooking and personal hygiene. When you feel those joints stiffen as you sit for long spells, take it is a reminder that the old saying is so true: use it or lose it!!

A career banker, Rona Morgan won her own battle with creeping weight-gain along with her husband John (losing 50kg combined), and was inspired to leave banking and pursue her life-long interest in health and fitness full-time. She is now a certified Personal Trainer, Health Coach, Functional Ageing Specialist and writer. Her aim is help others age actively and as disgracefully as they please.

Before I Go to Sleep

Billed as a worldwide best-seller, Before I Go to Sleep had a lot to live up to. I was curious to understand why this book was so over-hyped and why it was considered to be worth developing as a film. The high concept amnesia plot element must have made it sufficiently commercial to warrant the attention of the film industry, but Memento it is not.

I was unable to suspend my disbelief at the plot flaws (of which there are many). It does rather insult the reader’s intelligence, especially those in the UK where the book is set. In other countries where you have to pay for healthcare, I suppose a former patient like Christine could get lost in the system, but in Britain we have the NHS. For a start, nobody leaving a secure unit would be discharged without an identity check on the caregiver: there would be a series of follow-ups and the patient’s GP would be integral to that care. Christine’s psychiatrist, Dr Nash displays a worrying lack of professionalism that at times made me want to give up on the book.

Christine is, of course, an unreliable narrator by the nature of her condition and we only see the other characters through her eyes. Someone that self-absorbed has no way to make light of her situation and although I felt sorry for her situation she didn’t really engage me as a character. I also found the amount of repetition tedious. Although billed as a psychological thriller, the middle section of the book lacked sufficient plot twists and turns and the only thrilling element kicked in at the end.

Not a bad effort for a first novel, but I’m still left scratching my head as to why this book gained so much attention. I received a free copy as part of the film tie-in promotion.

The Luminaries – It’s All in the Stars

The Luminaries – set in the era of the New Zealand gold rush is a great sprawling epic of a murder mystery, written by a dazzlingly talented, contemporary writer in the style of a Victorian novel.

I had a vested interest in finishing this book as Catton is writing about the history of the country I grew up in, a country that was settled by immigrants to a New World of which I (and the author) was one.

There is so much to admire in this hugely ambitious book, not least the complex structure. As the astrology is the key to understanding the overall circular structure, each of the twelve parts is prefaced by an astrological chart. At at the start of the book a character chart highlights the personality types in each sign of the zodiac. Then there is the interplay between the astrological chart with its twelve signs of the zodiac and the structure of the twelve parts themselves. Each one is half the length of the preceding one until the last chapter is barely more than a few paragraphs long.

The Luminaries is beautifully written and Catton has a sly sense of humour, particularly in her use of language that mimics the style of Wilkie Collins and Dickens. However, where Catton and Dickens do differ is in terms of characterisation. I was determined to finish this book, but by the time I’d read 75% of the book my favourite character had been killed off. And I realised that even by this late stage of the book I had very little emotional connection to the remaining characters. There were one or two I felt sorry for, but that’s different from actively wanting to find out what happens to them.

And then I had a moment of realisation as I thought about that circular structure. That must mean then that there wasn’t necessarily going to be a resolution. It turned out that I was right as I and many other readers were left with many unanswered questions. This, of course, may have been intentional. I’m afraid though that because I invested so much time reading this book, this unfinished business left me feeling rather let down. I did push on and finish it but didn’t feel at all moved by the end or indeed did I take away any deep or lasting themes.

Although I suspect this book, which has won a host of literary awards, will go on to be studied as an example of A Great New Zealand Novel, for me it was a four star rather than a five star read.

Writing Better Dialogue

Writing great dialogue is an art. To me, it has to be up to the same standard as screen dialogue. If you cover up the dialogue and can’t tell which character is speaking then the dialogue needs rewriting.

Some good advice in this piece:

Using odd syntax & some slang is better way to convey accent than spelling out phonetically suggests Rowena Macdonald http://www.glimmertrain.com/b95macdonald.html

Going Free on Amazon – with Zero Marketing

Here are the results of my little experiment for Revolution Earth:

Zero Marketing Day Results

Yesterday I conducted a little experiment. I’m running a BookBub ad today(UK only)and on Friday December 5th one in the US with Kindle Books & Tips. Because the BookBub rules state that your book has to be discounted at 12.00am PST (Pacific Standard Time)on the day of your promotion I decided to make it free a day earlier. It’s as well I did as in fact Amazon didn’t set it at free until an hour later – 0100 PST (0900 GMT).

I decided to see if I could get any downloads with no marketing from me just to see what happened.

266 downloads Amazon US,

17 Amazon UK,

4 Canada,

2 India.

None in Australia but that could have been because of the time difference as the promo starts at 12.00am PST (Pacific Standard Time) (8.00am UK time) and the evening by then in NZ and Australia.

What does this prove about marketing? Dunno. Maybe we just got lucky. Or it proves that there’s still an appetite for free books out there.

But one thing’s for sure, the Amazon algorithm doesn’t discriminate so for one heady moment a novel about crazy Kiwi eco-warriors who want to blow up an oil refinery in Australia was at number 1 Free in Political thrillers on the US Amazon site.

Whether you love or loathe Amazon, what it does do is give writers from other countries other than the US (to misquote former Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd who seemed to have made up this expression) a ‘fair suck of the sauce bottle.’