Robin Storey's Blog, page 5
April 2, 2020
The Long And Faraway Gone Lou Berney Review
The Long and Faraway Gone by Lou Berney was published in 2015 by William Morrow.
It is a superbly written novel which could be classified as crime or suspense, as it is a combination of both.
But I’m choosing to label it as suspense for purely prosaic reasons – I don’t have any novels in the suspense category on this blog.
This novel won the 2016 Edgar Award, as well as numerous others, for best paperback original and was nominated for the 2015 LA Times Book Prize.
Here is what some of the reviewers had to say:‘The Long and Faraway Gone is that rare literary gem-a dark, quintessentially cool noir novel that is both deeply poignant, and very funny.’ (Huffington Post)
‘Berney's novel is most truly a thoughtful exploration of memory and what it means to be a survivor. Elegiac and wistful, it is a lyrical mystery...with a deep, wounded heart. Read it.' (Kirkus Reviews)
‘Edgar Award finalist Berney will raise a lump in the throats of many of his readers with this sorrowful account of two people's efforts to come to terms with devastating trauma.’ (Publishers Weekly)The Long And Faraway Gone Synopsis
In the summer of 1986, two tragedies rocked Oklahoma City.
Six movie-theatre employees were killed in an armed robbery, while one inexplicably survived.
Then, a teenage girl vanished from the annual State Fair. Neither crime was ever solved.
Twenty-five years later, a private investigator in Vegas, Wyatt’s latest inquiry takes him back to a past he’s tried to escape.
He is dragged deeper into the harrowing mystery of the movie house robbery that left six of his friends dead.
Like Wyatt, Julianna struggles with the past; with the day her beautiful older sister Genevieve disappeared.
When Julianna discovers that one of the original suspects has resurfaced, she’ll stop at nothing to find answers.
Fate has brought these damaged souls together but will their shared passion and obsession heal them?
Or will it push them closer to the edge?
Even if they find the truth, will it set them free, or ultimately destroy them?
You can certainly see that Berney's ability to create the cliff-hanger is unquestionably good. This book is the type that finds you still reading at 2 in the morning.
You've been warned.
The novel is written from the alternating perspectives of the two main characters, Wyatt and Julianna, as each embarks on his/ her journey into the past.
They are both complex characters and it takes the whole book to get to know them.
However, from the start, you feel empathy with both of them; they have their flaws, but have been irrevocably scarred by their past traumas.
Each has a burning question they need to answer:
Wyatt’s is, ‘Why am I still here and all the others gone?’ And Julianna’s is, ‘What happened to Genevieve?”
Although this is very much a character-driven novel, it’s not at the expense of the plot.
Berney draws you in with the story and by various plot twists, maintains suspense and tension throughout the book.
He juggles three crime story lines at the same time and weaves them all adeptly through the narrative.
It’s multi-layered and intense, with an emotional depth not usual in your average crime/suspense novel.
But Berney has a light touch; his writing flows and it’s easy to read.
For example: Wyatt is thinking of his friends killed in the robbery.
Wyatt didn’t know which side of grief was worse. The feeling that these people had always been in his life and were now gone, or the feeling that they’d never really been there at all.
And Julianna, after a patient, Mrs Bender, has complimented her on her looks.
You should have seen my big sister, Mrs Bender.
After twenty-six years, that was still Julianna’s reaction whenever someone told her she was pretty…You should have seen my big sister, you want to talk about beautiful.Lou Berney's Sense Of HumourThere’s a vein of humour throughout the book:
‘A free society,’ O’Malley said, ‘cannot legislate cleavage.’
‘I couldn’t do it (zip all the way up) even if I wanted to,’ Karlene said. ‘My boobs are too big.’ She demonstrated: zip up, zip down, zip up, zip down.
O’Malley, Wyatt and Grubb watched. After a minute, Janella behind the candy case grabbed the soda gun and hosed them down with water.
Highlighted by witty repartee:
Gavin looked around the office. ‘Not what I pictured.’
‘You pictured seedy,’ Wyatt said. ‘A bottle of cheap booze in the desk drawer.’
‘I pictured paintings.’ Gavin dropped his bulk into the chair across from Wyatt. ‘Pretentious fruity shit. French impressionists, parasols in the park.’
‘Says the guy wearing a tie with unicorns on it.’
Gavin picked up the end of his tie and looked at it. ‘They’re racehorses.’
‘Some fruity-looking racehorses.’
While there is some resolution at the end, there are other questions left hanging in the air.
Not everybody likes untidy endings, but in my opinion, it adds to the realism of the book.
After all, that’s often how it is in real life.
It also makes the book stay with you after you’ve read it, as you wonder about the unresolved parts and perhaps make up your own conclusions.
Berney has the knack of making the characters get under your skin.
You find yourself thinking about them as if they are real people after you’ve finished the book.
Just as an aside, I borrowed this book from my local library and in two places, there were significant mistakes.
‘Genevieve’ was written when it should have been ‘Julianna.’
A previous borrower had kindly crossed out ‘Genevieve’, and written ‘Julianna’ in pen underneath it, in lovely flowing handwriting.
I imagined a retired English teacher, still with her eagle proofreading eye, tut-tutting as she crossed out the word, restraining herself from slashing it with her red pen.
Author Lou Berney [image error]Lou Berney Author Of The Long And Faraway Gone
Lou Berney was born in 1964 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, in the US, where he currently lives.
His father was an alcoholic and his mother worked full time, raising their three children virtually on her own.
Lou had two older sisters who instilled in him a love of reading books from a young age.
In the bio on his website https://www.louberney.com/bio he says he was fired from nine jobs between the ages of 12 and 19.
He obviously found his calling soon afterwards, as he completed an MFA at Oklahoma City University, where he now teaches the graduate creative writing program.
Berney has written television pilots and screenplays and has had a number of short stories published.
He has also written a book of short stories called, The Road to Bobby Joe and Other Stories.
He’s the author of three other books, all critically acclaimed and award-winning:
Gutshot Straight and Whiplash River, both comedic thrillers.
And November Road, a thriller and love story set against the backdrop of the JFK Assassination.
November Road, published in 2018, won numerous awards and accolades, and is the book that has catapulted him into the literary limelight.
I read it a while ago and it is undoubtedly one of the best novels I have read.
In this interview on the Keenly Kristen website Berney talks about his writing process.
‘What I love most about writing is that moment – it might come early in the process, it might come late – when a character really comes alive, when he or she starts doing and saying things I don’t expect. For me, that’s the real magic in the process, that characters can actually surprise me.’
Berney's Writing ChallengesWhen asked what his biggest challenge was, he said,
’My biggest challenge is forcing myself to sit down and write when the writing isn’t going well. There are plenty of days, during the year or year and a half it takes me to write a novel, when I want to do anything but write. I mean, I’d rather go to the dentist and have a cavity filled, absolutely.’
I can identify with both those scenarios!
Berney says he is currently working on a psychological thriller about marriage.
Plenty of material to work on there – and I’ll be looking out for it.
In this video Berney discusses another of his books, November Road.
The following short video is about the Indiana Writer's Conference, which has nothing to do with this book, but I just love the statements Berney makes about himself.
The Long And Faraway Gone Review Conclusion
This is a book that has everything:
Suspense, action, crime, compelling characters and heart.
And wonderful writing. What more could you want?
To see more reviews by Robin Storey, click here to read Fiction Reviews, or click here to read Non Fiction Reviews.
The post The Long And Faraway Gone Lou Berney Review by Robin Storey appeared first on Robin Storey.
March 30, 2020
What Is A Ghostwriter?
If you asked the average person in the street, ‘What is a ghostwriter?’ they’d probably look at you blankly.
Certainly that’s the reaction I get when I tell people I’m a ghostwriter.
Part of the reason for this lack of public awareness is that ghostwriters, by the very nature of their work, have to fly under the radar.
They are commissioned to write for a flat fee, but receive no credit for their work.
Once it’s published, the client is attributed as the author and there is usually a non-disclosure clause in the contract, meaning the ghostwriter is forbidden to disclose his or her authorship.
Occasionally the client is happy for the ghostwriter to receive some recognition.
This is when you will see on the cover or inside title page, the name of the client as the author and then underneath it ‘with’ and the ghostwriter’s name.
Sometimes the ghostwriter can be credited in the acknowledgments as an editor, contributor or research assistant.
Here's an example of a book I ghostwrote and was accredited for.
You can hire a ghostwriter for any type of writing, from blog posts, business articles and speeches to memoirs, non-fiction books and novels.
It’s a much more common practice than is acknowledged and there are many reasons why people hire a professional writer rather than do it themselves.
Firstly, they may have a low standard of education or no talent for writing.
If you don’t enjoy writing, it’s a drudge and it shows in the quality of the work.
Secondly, English is not their first language and they are not confident enough in its use to write anything of substance
Thirdly, they don’t have the time or the energy.
This is often the case with business executives, who can’t take the time from their busy schedules to write.
Many business owners are aware of the advantage of writing a book on the subject of their expertise.
It establishes them as an expert in their field and gives them something tangible to sell or give away at conferences and seminars.
Some people, like promoter Mike Koenigs, have developed entire businesses that teach business people how to write, or get books ghostwritten for them.
That’s a matter of personal opinion. Some people think it’s unethical to be credited as the author of a book when someone else wrote it.
However, ghostwriting is legal and has been practised for centuries, not only for books but also for other creative arts.
Mozart was paid to ghostwrite music for wealthy patrons and there are pop music ghostwriters who write songs in the style of the accredited musician.
In the visual arts, it is not unusual for projects to be credited to a single artist when there have been many contributors.
Andy Warhol did this for his silk screen artwork.
It’s very common for celebrities in all fields, from sportsmen and politicians to actors, to hire ghostwriters to write their memoirs or autobiographies.
If you’ve ever read one, unless the person is an author themselves, there’s a good chance it was ghostwritten.
Although most contracts stipulate that the ghostwriter receives no royalties from the sale of the book, this is open to negotiation.
In the case of memoirs of famous people that are expected to sell well, the ghostwriter may be able to negotiate a smaller fee in return for a percentage of the royalties.
A ghostwriter doesn’t need any formal qualifications, though some will have degrees in communication, journalism or creative writing.
A ghostwriter’s most valuable asset is experience in interviewing and writing.
Many have experience in freelance writing, which is a good basis for the skills needed to produce quality work.
Asking the right questions of the client and from reliable sources to obtain relevant information and being able to write on a variety of topics.
Creative writing skills are also important,not only for novel writing, but also for writing memoirs and life stories.
The same storytelling concepts that you use to write a compelling novel also make for a captivating life story.
How Long Does It Take To Have A Book Ghostwritten?
The process of having your book ghostwritten can take anywhere from a few months to a couple of years, depending on how long the book will be and how much research the writer needs to do.
Once you’ve agreed on the terms of the contract, the ghostwriter will create an outline and synopsis of the book to indicate that they understand your requirements.
They will then use a variety of methods to obtain the necessary information, depending on the type of book it is. For example:
1. Interviewing you and other relevant people
2. Research from relevant agencies
3. Historical documents and;
4. Books already published.
Once they start writing, the ghostwriter will usually send you regular excerpts of the work in progress, so you can make comments and suggest changes.
When the ghostwriter has finished the final draft, they will submit it to you for a final review and approval.
This depends on what your plans are for the book.
Some people who commission life stories only want them written for the immediate family and not for general publication.
However, most people who hire a ghostwriter want their book published.
Unless this is included in the contract, the ghostwriter does not help you to publish the book - that’s up to you.
Often the ghostwriter can help you get started by referring you to publishers or literary agents they know, or professionals who can help you if you intend to self-publish.
Sometimes the ghostwriter is willing, for an extra charge, to arrange the publishing for you. (This is a service that I offer).
Once your book is published, regardless of how you do it, you own the copyright and receive all the royalties from sales.
And after that, comes the real hard work, and that's promoting your book. Click the link to get a good overview of the process and some tips to follow.
A simple internet search is the best way to start.
Type the word ‘ghostwriter’ and then the area you live in into your search engine and see what comes up.
Ghostwriters tend to specialize in different fields.
For example, some only write business material, others may only write fiction or memoirs and life stories, so you need to find someone who writes in your niche.
If you can’t find a ghostwriter in your local area, try further afield.
Although it’s nice to meet your ghostwriter in person, it’s not necessary in these times of video calls with apps such as Skype and Zoom.
Be careful of sites such as Upworks and Fiverr - while the prices quoted by ghostwriters are cheap, you get what you pay for.
For a full length 250 page book, a reputable ghostwriter will not charge any less than $15,000 and it will often be a lot more, depending on how much research and interviewing is required.
A good place to start in your search for professional, high quality ghostwriters is the Association of Ghostwriters.
A local one for Australians is Life Stories Australia.
Book a Free, No-Obligation Consultation Today!
Click the button below to find out more about having your story ghostwritten and to book an appointment with me.
book now
Most ghostwriters are happy to meet you in person or by video for an obligation-free interview so you can both ascertain whether you are a good fit for each other.
You will likely be spending months in regular contact so you need to be able to communicate well and work together.
So if you’re thinking of hiring a ghostwriter, take the plunge.
Seeing the book you’ve had in your head for so long, finally in print in your hand, will be one of the most fulfilling experiences of your life.
The post What Is A Ghostwriter? by Robin Storey appeared first on Robin Storey.
March 2, 2020
The Wife And The Widow Christian White Review
The Wife and the Widow by Christian White, published in 2019 by Affirm Press, is one of the most engrossing and interesting crime books I have read in a while.
Interesting because he uses a literary device I’ve never seen used before to execute a twist at the end.
If I tell you what it is, I’ll have to shoot you, because it’s a spoiler.
The Wife And The Widow By Christian White [image error] Rave Reviews For The Wife And The WidowAs mentioned in one of the reviews below, not everyone will be a fan of the ending, but you’ll keep reading regardless:
'The author does a vivid job of creating real characters and captures the alternately calm and claustrophobic feeling of island life. Some readers will find the twists fair and others, infuriating, but no doubt all will hang on to discover the ending.’ (Kirkus Reviews)
‘White is a master of the art of misdirection. Just when you think you have worked things out, he pulls back the curtain to reveal his cunning sleight of hand… Prepare to be dazzled.' (Sydney Morning Herald)
‘White delivers a shocking, excellently executed twist that will have readers re-examining their assumptions.’ (Booklist)The Wife And The Widow Synopsis
Set against the backdrop of an eerie island town in the dead of winter, The Wife and The Widow is an unsettling thriller told from two perspectives:
Kate, a widow whose grief is compounded by what she learns about her dead husband’s secret life;
And Abby, an island local whose world is turned upside when she’s forced to confront the evidence of her husband’s guilt.
But nothing on this island is quite as it seems.
Only when these women come together can they discover the whole story about the men in their lives.
The Wife and the Widow takes you to a cliff edge and asks the question: how well do we really know the people we love?
Christian White's Writing StyleAs mentioned in the synopsis, the book is told from two perspectives; Kate, the widow, and Abby, the wife, and this is done in alternating chapters.
The author hooks us in from the start, with Kate’s husband missing.
His use of alternating chapters ramps up the suspense, and White is a master of the end-of-chapter hook. For example:
Kate has found a box in the attic of her holiday home which could reveal secrets:
She then climbed behind the wheel of her car, locked the doors and opened the box.
Abby is about to shine a light on an important clue to a murder:
She took hold of the pull string light switch in the middle of the garage, and took three deep breaths.
Kate’s father-in-law, Fisher has some bad news.
‘Dammit, Fisher,’ Kate said. ‘What’s happened?’
You can see how you would have to keep reading to find out the answers to those questions.
In fact, when I got to the end-of-chapter hook about the box, I was tired and wanted to go to sleep.
I found myself screaming silently, ‘What’s in the damn box?
Don’t make me read another chapter before I find out!’
But of course, I had to.
A Taut And Pacy Style With An Eerie Island SettingThe writing style is taut and pacy, and the setting of Belport Island, a fictional island off the coast of Victoria, Australia, creates a tense and forbidding backdrop to the action.
It’s isolated, deserted of holidaymakers in winter when the book takes place, and the weather is bleak and miserable.
White does description well.
Just enough to create atmosphere and authenticity without overdoing it, and he has a nice turn of phrase:
To the north, the town spread out like barnacles on the overturned belly of a whale.
The Sky Winder, a famously dull roller coaster, stood still and silent, its scaffolding like a giant, jagged ribcage.
The waves and salty air had stained the walls of the building pale green, and its roof was Jackson Pollocked with bird shit.
White's characterization is excellent.
I felt empathy with both the main characters as they changed and developed throughout the book.
The minor characters are also well fleshed out; if a little clichéd in places.
There are lots of subtleties within the plot, and when you come to the final twist, I guarantee it will make you stop and think back over the story to see how the author has set it up.
Unfortunately for White, now he’s used it once, we’re awake to him.
He won’t be able to do it again and surprise us.
Christian White Author of The Wife And The Widow
Christian White is an Australian author who lives in Melbourne.
His debut novel, Nowhere Child, won the 2017 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript, and was subsequently published to international acclaim.
His ‘overnight success’ in the literary world took 15 years and four previous novels that never saw the light of day.
Christian's first profession was as a screenwriter.
He co-created the television series Carnivores, currently in development.
And he also co-wrote Relic, a psychological horror feature film to be produced by Carver Films.
He’s had a variety of occupations, from driving a food cart on a golf course to editing videos for an adult film company.
Occupations which eminently qualify him to be an author. Every life experience is grist to the writer’s mill.
Like many authors, he was a voracious reader as a child and began writing stories.
As he grew older, crime thrillers became his favourite genre, but it took him a while to realise that it was the genre he should be writing in.
‘It seems very obvious now to write what you enjoy reading, but it took me a long time to figure that out.' Click here to read the full interview in Booktopia
What stalled him initially was a lack of faith in his ability - in particular, to write the clever twists necessary in a thriller.
But once he started, he proved himself spectacularly wrong.
So You Want To Be A Writer Podcast [image error]Valerie Khoo and Allison Tait Interview Christian
Click the image above to listen to an interview with Christian by Valerie Khoo and Allison Tait on the podcast So You Want To Be A Writer.
Christian White Podcast On Better ReadingClick below to listen to an interview with Christian by Cheryl Akle on the Better Reading podcast
[image error]Better Reading Podcast With Christian White
The Wife And The Widow ConclusionWhile I haven’t read Nowhere Child yet, many reviewers claim that The Wife and the Widow is even better.
If you like dark, twisty thrillers with an ending you will definitely not guess, I thoroughly recommend this book.
The Wife And The Widow [image error] Buy On Amazon Now! Other Books By Christian WhiteThe Nowhere Child [image error]To see more reviews by Robin Storey, click here to read Fiction Reviews, or click here to read Non Fiction Reviews.
The post The Wife And The Widow Christian White Review by Robin Storey appeared first on Robin Storey.
February 4, 2020
My Sister The Serial Killer Oyinkan Braithwaite Review
My Sister The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite, has to be in the running for one of the most commanding titles in contemporary fiction.
There can be no doubt of the genre and subject matter of the book.
This crime novel, published in 2018 by Doubleday in the US and Atlantic Books in the UK has won numerous awards, including the 2019 LA Times Award for the Best Crime Thriller and the 2019 Capital Crime Debut Author of the Year.
It was also longlisted for the 2019 Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2019.
The book has won superlatives from a number of critics:
'A bombshell of a book... Sharp, explosive, hilarious.’ (New York Times)
‘Glittering and funny... A stiletto slipped between the ribs and through the left ventricle of the heart.' (Financial Times)
‘Braithwaite's blazing debut is as sharp as a knife...bitingly funny and brilliantly executed, with not a single word out of place.’ (Publisher's Weekly)My Sister The Serial Killer Synopsis
When Korede's dinner is interrupted one night by a distress call from her younger sister, Ayoola, she knows what's expected of her: bleach, rubber gloves, nerves of steel and a strong stomach.
This'll be the third boyfriend Ayoola has dispatched in ‘self-defence,’ and the third mess that she has left Korede to clear away.
Korede should probably go to the police for the good of the menfolk of Nigeria, but she loves her sister and, as they say, family always comes first.
Until, that is, Ayoola starts dating the doctor at the hospital where Korede works as a nurse.
Korede's long been in love with him, and isn't prepared to see him wind up with a knife in his back.
But to save one would mean sacrificing the other.
In many books the setting is often as real as the characters, but interestingly, in this book, I didn’t get much of a sense of place.
It is set in Lagos, the largest city in Nigeria, but the way it was described, Lagos could have been any city in the world.
The story, too, could have taken place anywhere in the world, though there were occasional references to Nigerian customs.
For example, certain expressions used, the fact that the family had a housegirl and at one point, the sisters’ father tried to sell Ayoola to a business associate.
But none of those factors played a major role in the story, so the setting was more a backdrop to the narrative than a necessary part of it.
Oyinkan Braithwaite's Writing StyleAs the reviews say, the author’s writing style is sharp and incisive, laced throughout with biting humour.
Here is the very short first chapter, guaranteed to hook you, if the title didn’t.
Ayoola summons me with these words—Korede, I killed him.
I had hoped I would never hear those words again.
The book is written in Korede’s voice, and the picture we get of Ayoola is of a self-centred, egotistical, manipulative woman, without empathy.
In other words, a psychopath.
But despite her awareness of her sister’s flaws, Korede falls under her spell, and does whatever Ayoola asks—until she gets to the point that she doesn’t.
You can’t help feeling sorry for Korede – constantly overshadowed by her sister, who is also the favourite of their parents.
And then, the final straw—having the man she is in love with stolen by Ayoola from under her nose.
Her tone fluctuates from self-deprecation to resignation to anger:
‘I can’t pinpoint the exact moment I realized that Ayoola was beautiful and I was…not.’
The book is easy to read and the chapters are short, which keeps you turning the pages.
There never seemed to be much point in masking my imperfections. It’s as futile as using air freshener when you use the toilet—it just inevitably ends up smelling like perfumed shit.
Ayoola lives in a world where things must always go her way. It’s a law as certain as gravity.Oyinkan Braithwaite [image error]
Oyinkan Braithwaite Author Of My Sister The Serial Killer
The author was born in 1988 and lives in Lagos, Nigeria. She is a graduate of Creative Writing and Law from Kingston University and now freelances as a writer and graphic designer.
She has had poetry and short stories published and My Sister The Serial Killer is her debut novel.
On the blog She Reads, she reveals her inspiration for the story.
‘The creature, the black widow spider, was the first inspiration. I found this idea that the female would eat the males if she was hungry and they happened to be close to be quite funny. It was funny because the males weren’t supposed to be prey. The fact that nature had this dynamic was interesting and so the concept stuck with me.
'I also wanted to use the story as an opportunity to explore my feelings and society’s feelings toward beauty and perfection’
The book was her way of writing herself out of a creative block.
After her short story The Driver was shortlisted for the 2016 Commonwealth Short Story Prize, literary agent Clare Alexander saw her submission and asked her if she had anything else.
‘That was very exciting for me,’ Braithwaite recalls in an interview with The Guardian
‘but I didn’t have anything that I wanted to give them.
So I let a year go by where I kept convincing myself I was going to write something fantastic, and I couldn’t.’
Then, as she approached her 30th birthday, Braithwaite told herself to stop being ridiculous. ‘Forget about the great novel, just write something for yourself that’s fun.’
So after a month of feverish writing, My Sister The Serial Killer was completed. ‘I was a bit mad in that month,’ she said.
There was no way she could have foreseen the success of the book, which has been a best seller world-wide and has been optioned for film.
In case you’re wondering, the book is not based on real life experience. In an interview on Crime Reads
Braithwaite says she has two sisters, neither of whom is a serial killer.
‘At first one of my sisters liked to tell people that she was the inspiration for the novel. But it wasn’t long before her tune changed—she did not find it as entertaining that, when asked which of my sisters was the Serial Killer, those who knew us a little, guessed that it was her.'Humour In Context
Although her book has an undercurrent of dark comedy, Braithwaite says she didn’t set out to write a humorous book.
She points out that the humour comes as much from context as from the characters.
‘At the time, I didn’t want to be submerged in darkness for the period of time that it would take me to complete the story, so I treated the heavy topics with a light touch.
And my characters are very matter of fact about the things that take place.
One minute they are cleaning blood, the next they are discussing marriage. I think the humor comes out of this contrast.’
If you want to hear the author herself talking, here’s a short radio interview with her.
For more author interviews, see below.
Interview With Oyinkan Braithwaite At Sydney Writers Festival
Click the image above to listen to an interview with Oyinkan by Rebecca Harkins-Cross at The Sydney Writer's Festival.
Oyinkan Braithwaite Kill Your Darlings InterviewClick below to read an interview with Okinyan Braithwaite on Kill Your Darlings
[image error]Kill Your Darlings Interview With Okinyan Braithwaite
My Sister The Serial Killer ConclusionIf you like fast-paced stories with strong female characters and dark humour, I thoroughly recommend this book.
It’s certainly one of the most original crime novels I’ve read.
And hopefully not the last from Oyinkan Braithwaite.
To see more reviews by Robin Storey, click here to read Fiction Reviews, or click here to read Non Fiction Reviews.
The post My Sister The Serial Killer Oyinkan Braithwaite Review by Robin Storey appeared first on Robin Storey.
January 5, 2020
The Glass Castle Jeannette Walls Review
I recently read The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, after seeing it mentioned frequently in readers’ lists of favourite memoirs.
Much as I love fiction, I also enjoy a good memoir, and have written one of my own, Making The Breast Of It.
It lived up to all the hype – it’s one of the most moving and unforgettable memoirs I have read.
After its publication in 2005, The Glass Castle remained on the New York Times bestseller list for more than six years and has received rave reviews:
‘Walls has a God-given knack for spinning a yarn, and The Glass Castle is nothing short of spectacular.’ (Entertainment Weekly)
‘Just read the first pages of The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, and I defy you not to go on. It's funny, and sad, and quirky, and loving. I was incredibly touched by it.' (Dominick Dunne, author)
‘The Glass Castle is the kind of story that keeps you awake long after the rest of the house has fallen asleep.’ (Vogue)
The Glass Castle refers to the home Rex had promised to build his family – a house in the desert with glass walls and ceiling, powered by solar cells on the roof.
He’d even drawn up the blueprints.
All they had to do was find gold with the prospector he’d invented so he’d have the money to build it.
Of course, this was a fantasy that was never going to come true.
And part of the author’s coming of age is the gradual realisation of this.
It’s the story of the author’s upbringing with her three siblings and her bohemian parents.
Rex, a brilliant, charismatic man who was also an alcoholic and would disappear for days when on a bender.
And Rose Mary, her mother, an artist who suffered bouts of depression and was incapable of facing up to the responsibilities of motherhood.
‘Why spend the afternoon making a meal that will be gone in an hour,’ she'd ask us, ‘when in the same amount of time, I can do a painting that will last forever?’
I’ve read plenty of memoirs about dysfunctional families before, but this one really takes the cake.
And if there was no cake they’d steal it.
It was common for the children to forage in rubbish bins at school for their lunch, because their father had drunk all the grocery money and their mother refused to go out to work.
And they endured many circumstances far worse.
The family lived a nomadic existence in the south-west desert towns of the US.
They moved as soon as the rent was overdue or Rex had a brush with the law or an employer.
The family often camped out or living in derelict houses.
Rex and Rose Mary took laissez-faire parenting to the extreme.
They believed that suffering and hardship were good for children.
It helped build character and independence – so the children were left to bring themselves up.
This forged close bonds amongst them all and after Lori, the eldest, escaped to New York as a teenager, the others all followed suit when they were old enough.
The story traces their journey into adulthood and their parents following them years later to New York, so they could, as Rex says, ‘be a family again.’
‘Why not?’ Mom said, ‘Being homeless is an adventure.’
Amazingly, the Walls children turned out to be well-adjusted, responsible citizens with good careers.
Although Maureen, the youngest, has grappled with mental health issues.
Although the book is dark in parts, as you’d imagine with the subject matter, The Glass Castle is ultimately an uplifting story of hope, resilience and unconditional love.
Despite the psychological and emotional trauma inflicted on the Walls children by their parents, the bonds between them were unbreakable.
Although the story itself is extraordinary, much of the success of the book is due to the author’s voice and writing style.
It’s matter-of-fact and clear-eyed, with not an ounce of self-pity or bitterness.
A source of wonder for many readers, including myself, as she has plenty to be bitter about.
The opening sentence is one of the most compelling I’ve read in a long time:
‘I was sitting in a taxi, wondering if I had overdressed for the evening, when I looked out the window and saw Mom rooting through a Dumpster.’
How could you not keep reading?
With such a book it would be easy to overdo the emotion.
But time and perspective has given the author a degree of detachment, which adds to, rather than subtracts from, the emotional punch.
Walls lets the situations speak for themselves.
On her tenth birthday, her father asks her what she wants most in the world.
‘Do you think you could maybe stop drinking?’’
Dad said nothing. He was staring down at the cement patio, and when he turned to me, his eyes had a wounded look, like a dog who’s been kicked. ‘You must be awfully ashamed of your old man,’ he said.
‘No,’ I said quickly. ‘It’s just that I think Mum would be happier. Plus we’d have the extra money.’
‘You don’t have to explain,’ Dad said His voice was barely a whisper. He stood up and walked into the yard and sat down under the orange trees. I followed and sat next to him. I was going to take his hand, but before I could reach for it, he said,….’If you don’t mind, honey, I think I’d like to sit here by myself for a while.’
Heart-Rending Moments And Humour TooWhen Walls discovers that their father has stolen her and Lori’s escape money from their piggy bank, she goes to tell Lori.
I went into the living room and stood beside her, trying to think what to say. She was working on a poster that said ‘Tammy!’ in Day-Glo colours. After a moment she looked up.
‘What?” she said.
Lori could tell by my face there was something wrong. She stood up so abruptly that she knocked over a bottle of india ink, and ran into the bedroom. I braced myself, expecting to hear a scream, but there was only silence and then a small, broken whimpering.
There’s a lot of light relief, with humour woven throughout - always wry and tongue-in-cheek.
Their mother buys a piano, but they can’t get it into the house. So it stays in the back yard.
Mom would go outside and play the piano when the mood took her. ‘Most pianists never get the chance to play outdoors,’ she said, ‘and now the whole neighbourhood can enjoy the music too.’
And after Lori injures herself:
‘Just remember,’ Mom said after examining the blisters, ‘what doesn’t kill you will make you stronger.’
‘If that was true, I’d be Hercules by now,’ Lori said.
And sometimes it makes you cringe:
At the age of 12, Walls confronts her mother.
‘We haven’t had anything to eat but popcorn for three days,’ I said.
‘You’re always so negative,’ she said. ’ You remind me of my mother - criticize, criticize, criticize.’
Jeannette Walls [image error]Jeannette Walls - Author of The Glass Castle
After Walls moved to New York at 17, she talked her way into the prestigious Barnard College.
She graduated with honours and became a well-known journalist and gossip columnist.
Now living a respectable, middle-class existence and mixing with people of status and influence, she never mentioned her upbringing to her colleagues and friends, afraid that she’d be ostracised.
‘I just thought, if they knew who I was, the game would be up. I was this white trash kid reporting on the world's most famous, powerful people.’
After she married her second husband John Taylor, also a writer, in 2002, he gently teased the memoir out of her and persuaded her to write it.
‘I thought it was so important to hide this thing in my life that I was so afraid of,’ Walls says in an interview on Bustle.
‘It was such a mistake…one of the many things I’ve learned since telling my story is how many people walk around hiding their past.
Thinking they’re damaged or inferior because they have this wacky past.’
She was unprepared for the overwhelming success of the memoir.
Also the positive, empathic reaction of readers, including those she thought would shun her if they knew the truth.
Her father died in 1994, well before she wrote the memoir, but her mother Rose Mary is still alive and no longer homeless.
She lives in her own cottage on the farm in Virginia where Walls and her husband now live.
Perhaps Rose Mary discovered that homelessness is not such an adventure when you’re in your eighties.
‘They had a more interesting life, they had experiences nobody else had, so why in the world complain?
In this video of Walls, which also features her mother, she talks about the book.
[image error]The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls Youtube Video
The Glass Castle MovieIn 2017, The Glass Castle movie was made, starring Woody Harrelson as Rex Walls, Naomi Watts as Rose Mary and Brie Larson as Jeannette.
I haven’t seen it yet, but it’s on my list.
It’s had mixed reviews, but Walls herself said she loved the movie and that Woody Harrelson nailed the portrayal of her father, right down to his body language.
Click here to watch the movie trailer.
Walls has also written three other books.
Dish: The Inside Story on the World, about the role of gossip in our society.
The Silver Star: The story of “Bean” Holladay and her sister, Liz, whose artistic mother, Charlotte, takes off to find herself.
And the award-winning Half Broke Horses: A True Life Novel, based on the life of her grandmother.
Click below to listen to a podcast interview with Jeanette Walls on The Cinema Files
[image error]The Cinema Files Jeannette Walls Podcast Interview The Glass Castle
The Glass Castle Review ConclusionThe Glass Castle is one of those books that will stay with you long after you’ve read it.
Besides being so bizarre that you wonder how it could be true, it’s also sad, inspiring, funny and haunting.
The New York Times Review sums it up:
"The Glass Castle" falls short of being art, but it's a very good memoir. At one point, describing her early literary tastes, Walls mentions that "my favorite books all involved people dealing with hardships." And she has succeeded in doing what most writers set out to do -- to write the kind of book they themselves most want to read.The Glass Castle [image error] Buy On Amazon Now! Other Books By Jeannette WallsThe Silver Star [image error] Dish
To see more reviews by Robin Storey, click here to read Fiction Reviews, or click here to read Non Fiction Reviews.
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December 4, 2019
The Chain Adrian McKinty Review
Adrian McKinty’s novel The Chain is an international bestseller. It’s a call-in-sick-to-work-and put-your-phone-on-silent type of book.
There’s nothing I enjoy more than a crime thriller that keeps me on the edge of the couch (as I’m usually lying down when I read).
When you have cover reviews for your book from the likes of Stephen King, Dennis Lehane and Don Winslow, you know you're on a winner.
‘This nightmarish story is incredibly propulsive and original. You won't shake it for a long time’
‘Diabolical, unnerving, and gives a whole new meaning to the word "relentless"’
‘Nothing short of Jaws for parents’
The Chain has an irresistibly intriguing premise.
What if your child was kidnapped and the only way to get her back was to kidnap another child?
Knowing that your child would be murdered if you didn’t, would you go ahead and turn yourself into a criminal?
The novel starts with protagonist Rachel Klein, a divorced, suburban mum dropping her 13 year old daughter Kylie off at the school bus stop.
Then she gets the call that changes her life.
A woman has Kylie bound and gagged in her back seat and the only way Rachel will ever see her again is to pay a ransom – and kidnap another child.
The caller is a mother herself, whose son has also been abducted, and if Rachel doesn’t do exactly as she’s told, both children will die.
She has now become part of The Chain, a terrifying scheme masterminded by faceless, nameless manipulators.
What a genius of a story idea! It puts the protagonist in an impossible moral dilemma – damned if she does, damned if she doesn’t.
We follow Rachel’s struggle with this quandary, as she finally decides that her daughter’s life is more important than anything else.
She then has to rustle up the ransom money and somehow find it within herself to do something that she finds morally reprehensible – kidnap a child.
This is the first part of the story. The second part ramps up the tension further when Rachel decides to find out who’s behind The Chain, with the aim of breaking and destroying it.
She is helped by her brother-in-law Pete, an ex-marine engineering officer, currently unemployed and an opiate addict, which presents its own set of problems.
The story gallops along at a breathless pace to an explosive climax. Even though this is a dark story, there’s resolution and a satisfying ending.
You can’t help but feel empathy for Rachel, who has already had some hardships before being dealt this one.
While reading the book, I often found myself wondering what I would do in the same situation – and being very thankful I didn’t have to make that decision.
The book is written in the present tense, which is not to everyone’s taste. I think it works well for thrillers because you’re right there, as if the drama is unfolding before you.
Some chapters are also written from Kylie’s point of view.
She's locked up in a basement, not knowing if she will ever see her mother again, or even get out alive.
The writing is taut and pacy, the description succinct:
Rachel and Pete sit on the cold deck behind the house.
Atlantic breakers. A sickle moon. The chilly, indifferent winter constellations.
Pete is waiting for her decision.
She finishes her Scotch and hugs herself.
‘We have to do it,’ she says.
Many of the chapters, particularly when the action is ramping up, are short – a cheap trick employed by thriller authors to keep you up reading way past your bedtime.
‘Just one more chapter’ becomes, ‘Yikes! It’s 1 a.m.!’
There are occasional flashes of humour to lighten the mood:
‘Come on,’ she says teasingly,’ Is that a pistol in your pocket or are you just…oh, it is a pistol.’
And Rachel describing her ex-husband’s new girlfriend:
'Tammy is tall and pretty with boring blue eyes.'Adrian McKinty [image error]
Adrian McKinty - Author of The Chain
McKinty, an Irish-born author who lives in Australia (so we can claim him as ours) got the idea for the book from a time he was living in Mexico City and working on a different book.
He learned about exchange killings – where a person offers to swap themselves for a kidnapped family member while the ransom is raised.
This got him thinking about the chain letters he’d received at schoo. Those of us of a certain age remember them well.
They always contained a threat. That something diabolical would happen if you didn’t pass it on.
Though as McKinty grew up in the 70s and 80s in Northern Ireland I suspect his chain letters may have been more frightening than the average primary school prank.
Combining the two concepts formed the seeds of the story for The Chain. McKinty studied philosophy at Oxford and was interested in the morality behind his idea.
‘I wanted to take a person who breaks all these codes of morals. In every conceivable code of moral philosophy, she does the wrong thing,” he said in an interview in The Guardian.
‘It’s the wrong thing to do and yet our instinct as a reader is, I’d do it too. We’d all do this even though it’s horrible.”
There’s a lovely story behind the publication of The Chain that will warm the cockles of your heart.
McKinty was already an author of renown, having published an award-winning series of crime books about Northern Irish detective Sean Duffy, set in Belfast during The Troubles.
Though the books attracted rave reviews and critical acclaim, he couldn’t make a living from them.
He had a family to support, his wife was working full time, and he’d taken up bartending and Uber driving to make ends meet.
The crunch came when he and his family were evicted from their home and he and his children were standing in front of the house.
‘All their little stuff was just sitting there on the pavement and I was thinking to myself “Oh God Adrian, what have you done with your life?” I’d been a teacher, with a good income.
I thought, “You’ve been off on this bloody ego trip, you’re going to get yourself a job, quit this writing, go back to teaching and call it a day for a couple of years.’”
Then, just like all good thrillers, the call came that changed everything.
Best-selling American author Don Winslow had met McKinty briefly at a conference years earlier and read on his blog about his decision to quit writing.
‘It was really upsetting to me to see how he was being treated,’ Winslow says now. ‘Someone with Adrian’s talent should be able – at the very least – to make a living wage at what they want to do.’
Winslow was of the opinion that McKinty’s publishers had failed him, with little support, terrible covers and no marketing or publicity.
He had been in a similar position to McKinty, ready to give up his writing career, and his agent George Salerno refused to let him quit, helping him to turn his life around.
Despite the fact that Salerno had never met McKinty, Winslow asked him if he would work his charms on him.
Early one morning, just after McKinty had arrived home from an Uber shift, he received a call. ‘Don tells me you’re giving up writing,’ Salerno said.
They discussed his situation and McKinty told him about his Belfast books.
‘Have you ever thought about setting a book in America?’ Salerno asked.
It just so happened he had. He told Salerno about his idea for The Chain and Salerno was enthusiastic. He even offered to wire $10 000 into McKinty’s bank account so he could start it straight away.
‘I’ll think about it,’ McKinty said.
‘No, go and write it now.’
So at 3 a.m. McKinty wrote the first 30 pages of The Chain, emailed it and went to bed. At 4.15 the phone rang.
‘Forget bartending. Forget driving a bloody Uber,’ Salerno said. ‘You’re writing this book.’
Adrian McKinty PodcastsClick below to listen to a podcast interview about The Chain from the Pat Kenny Show on Newstalk
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The Chain By Adrian McKinty Podcast
The Chain Review Conclusion
So he did. Two years later, he got a 6 figure book deal and a 7 figure deal for the movie rights from Paramount.
I’m sure he’s now got a decent roof over his head, he doesn’t have to contend with drunk patrons and rude passengers, and he can spend all day in his office dreaming up heroes and villians.
Don’t you just love a happy ending?
My final words on this book are: Get it. It's a great read.
Adrian McKinty has created an amazingly original story with a believable cast of characters that keeps you reading well into the A.M.
The Chain
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Buy On Amazon Now!
Other Books By Adrian McKintyThe Cold Cold Ground [image error] I Hear The Sirens In The Street
To see more reviews by Robin Storey, click the Fiction Link Here, or The Non Fiction Link Here
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November 3, 2019
Boy Swallows Universe
Click Image To Buy Book
IntroductionIf you’re an Aussie and a book lover, and haven’t heard about Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton, you’ve been living in a cave for the past year. Even if you’re not an Aussie, you may know about it, as it’s been an international success.
There have been many superlatives thrown around to describe this multiple award-winning Australian novel since its publication in July 2018.
‘A towering achievement.’
‘Goosebumps good.’
‘An instant classic..’
‘The most heartbreaking, joyous and exhilarating novel you will read all year.’
They’re all spot-on, but the one thing I find most intriguing about this book is that it ‘shatters genre boundaries,’ as one reviewer put it. It straddles so many different genres it defies classification – it’s a coming of age story, but it’s also a crime, suspense and thriller novel with a blend of romance and a touch of the supernatural.
However, I’m featuring Boy Swallows Universe in the Crime Fiction category, because crime and criminals are an integral part of the story.
The book is based on author Trent Dalton’s childhood in a working class suburb of Brisbane in the 1980s. Here’s the blurb:
Synopsis
Brisbane, 1983: A lost father, a mute brother, a mum in jail, a heroin dealer for a stepfather and a notorious crim for a babysitter. It's not as if Eli's life isn't complicated enough already. He's just trying to follow his heart, learning what it takes to be a good man, but life just keeps throwing obstacles in the way - not least of which is Tytus Broz, legendary Brisbane drug dealer.
But Eli's life is about to get a whole lot more serious. He's about to meet the father he doesn’t remember, break into Boggo Road Jail on Christmas Day to rescue his Mum, come face to face with the criminals who tore his world apart, and fall in love with the girl of his dreams.
And if that doesn’t sound intriguing enough, there’s the supernatural element. In fact, the book starts off with it:
Your end is a dead blue wren.
It’s a prediction made by Eli’s brother August, and one of the many mysteries that keep you reading the book. It’s not until the end that you find out what it means, and it’s a testament to Dalton’s skill that he weaves it into the story without losing credibility.
Then we follow Eli’s life as events unfold – his mother and stepfather go to jail for drug dealing, he and August go to live with their alcoholic father, Eli decides to rescue his Mum from jail, inspired by the experiences of his babysitter Slim, also a convicted murderer and jail escapee, his blossoming friendship with journalist Caitlyn Spies, and the growing realisation of something terrible and sinister taking place in his neighbourhood.
And all the while Eli is trying to figure out how to be a good person, while still loving people who’ve done bad things.
The book morphs seamlessly from crime to suspense to thriller. The characters are all beautifully portrayed and tug at your heartstrings, especially Eli and August. Even the baddies elicit some empathy.
Yet Dalton has the gift of restraint and never descends into sentimentality. Eli and August are wise beyond their years – they’ve had to be, with the sort of upbringing they’ve had, but I did wonder at times if they were a little bit too astute and savvy for their ages. But in the interests of literary licence and because I was enjoying the book, I accepted it and went with the flow.
By now, you’re probably thinking, ‘If this is based on real life, what sort of a life did the author have?’
[image error]Trent Dalton - Author of Boy Swallows Universe
In the many interviews Dalton has undertaken since Boy Swallows Universe was published, he is completely honest and upfront about his own experiences.
It’s true that his mother and stepfather were drug addicts and went to jail, and that he and his three older brothers went to live with their alcoholic father, who, incidentally, loved literature and was a voracious reader.
It’s also true that Dalton had a convicted murderer for a babysitter – Arthur ‘Slim’ Halliday, known as the Houdini of Boggo Road, as he escaped twice from that prison, though he was re-captured both times.
But many of the events later in the book are fictional and Dalton says that the book is a 50-50 mix of fact and fiction.
His mother, today a contented suburban grandmother in her late 60s, was the first to read the finished manuscript.
‘I told her, “Look, if you don’t like any of this, it goes straight in the bin, that’s it, don’t say another word,”’ Dalton says, in an interview with the Townsville Bulletin newspaper.
‘I was working away at work one day and she called my mobile and said, “Trent, it’s beautiful and I think so many people can get so much out of it.”’
‘That’s the greatest gift she could give me. I wanted to do it in the right way so I tried to change something pretty dark and terrible into something beautiful.’
I, for one, am glad his mother liked it. I’d hate to think of such a literary masterpiece being consigned to the rubbish bin.
Trent Dalton's Writing StyleNot only is it an engrossing story, but Dalton’s writing style is a delight. Many reviewers have referred to a magical element in his writing. His prose is lyrical and poetic, but at the same time simple and direct. Such as:
A yellow fluffy toilet mat the colour of a baby chick is soaked in piss in the corner beside a toilet brush leaning against the wall.
All the Vietnamese mums in Darra have the same look: big black hair in a bun so heavily treated it can bounce light beams, white powdery foundation on their cheeks and long black eyelashes that make them look permanently startled.
Teddy has big, black curly hair and olive skin and a thick black moustache, the kind Slim says are worn by men with big egos and small pricks.
There’s nothing pretentious about his writing, and I think this is why it’s one of those rare books to garner both popular and critical acclaim.
Another astonishing aspect of this book is that it’s Dalton’s debut novel.
However, as a journalist by profession he had already built up a devout following of readers from his feature articles for the Week-end Australian magazine. As he says in this interview on the Harper Collins blog.
‘I’m a journalist who has written thousands of words about the most harrowing stories about Australian life in the suburbs… tragedy, violence, trauma, upheaval, betrayal, death, destruction, families, abandonment, drugs, crime, hope and healing, no hope, no healing.’
I’m always interested in an author’s writing process and in Dalton’s case his journalistic background came to the fore.
The headline (or title) came first. Boy Swallows Universe. When those three words came to him, he was immediately energised and knew it had to be a book. Here he explains what it means: Houdini The Escapist.
‘It is essentially a way I have honestly tried to approach life: Just take it in. Don’t just write about one thing, take it all in. Take every last aspect, take all the dark, take all the light, take the whole universe in. That’s what the kid in the book is doing, just going for it. That can be dangerous, but I love when anyone does that, just owns it. That’s what helps us survive.’
Once he had the idea, it was a case of sitting down every night for a year after his two young daughters had gone to bed, and writing it, like a man possessed.
‘I’d go and write in my kids’ rumpus room among piles of Lego and princesses, along with a shelf of my favourite novels and my wall of Pearl Jam vinyl,’ he said in an interview with Perth Now.Robin's Musings
He writes these articles with a deft, light touch, yet they are full of emotional depth and compassion. I’ve been a fan of his journalism for ages and once I wrote to him to tell him. As an author myself, I know what a rush it is when someone tells you that your writing moved them in some way.
He’d written an article about a 12 year old girl from the outback leaving the family home to go to boarding school, and what a wrench it was for her and her family. But they had no choice; it was the only way she could get a secondary education.
The story was so moving and poignant it brought tears to my eyes – not least because I went to boarding school myself at the age of 12. Different circumstances – I didn’t have to go, it was a choice, but that didn’t make it any the less harrowing.
I emailed Dalton, told him how much I’d enjoyed the article and ended with, ’You could make a rock cry. You should be writing a novel.’
What do you know, he took my advice and four years later there it was! So I’d like to think that in some small way I contributed to the book – I’m going to claim it regardless.
When I met him last year at the Brisbane Writers Festival, after taking my place in the very long queue to have my book signed, I told him about the email I’d sent. He looked up at me, concerned.
‘I hope I replied to you,’ he said.
I assured him he had, but that sums him up exactly – he’s Mr Nice Guy personified. He has an exuberant charm and treats everyone he meets as his best friend. If he were a dog, he’d be a Labrador – bouncy and affectionate. You’ll see what I mean if you listen to his interviews:Trent Dalton Podcasts[image error]
Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton Podcast Promotion
[image error]The Rise of Watchful Boy Trent Dalton ABC Podcast
Boy Swallows Universe Conclusion
Apparently I’m not the only Dalton groupie. Catherine Milne, head of fiction at publisher Harper Collins, had long been an admirer of Dalton’s feature journalism, and made a trip to Brisbane to ask him if he had a book in him.
‘I thought he would want to write non-fiction, but he surprised me when he said he wanted to write a novel,’ says Milne. ‘A week later he sent me his first draft chapter of Boy Swallows Universe and I acquired the book on the basis of that. I’m in awe of his writing talent, because apart from a little editing, that first chapter he sent me has hardly changed in the finished book.’
I don’t want to say, ‘the rest is history,’ because it’s such a cliché, but you get the drift. Boy Swallows Universe has won numerous awards, including a record four awards at the Australian Book Industry Awards in 2019. It’s also become an international bestseller, published in more than 28 languages.
The book is being adapted for the small screen, with acclaimed Australian actor, writer and director Joel Edgerton as producer. Dalton is currently writing his second novel, but is keeping the details close to his chest.I’ll let him have the final word.
Boy Swallows Universe, he says, is essentially a love story.
“Love, above all else, is threaded through this novel. I wanted to write about how it is possible to love someone who has killed. How it is possible to love someone who has hurt you deeply. How love is the closest thing we have to the truly profound.”
Boy Swallows Universe
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Buy On Amazon Now!
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July 9, 2018
Memoir Or Autobiography – What’s The Difference?
Much as I love reading fiction, I also enjoy a well-written memoir or autobiography. Many people think those terms are interchangeable, but there is a clear difference.
Memoir
A memoir is written about a specific time or event in the author’s life, which can span a few weeks to many years. For example: living in a foreign country, (A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle), coping with an illness (When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalinithi), the aftermath of a divorce (Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert) and overcoming an addiction (In My Skin by Kate Holden).
A memoir may also focus on a particular theme, for example : relationships (Five Men Who Broke My Heart by Susan Shapiro), coming of age (Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt), the quest for better health (Year of No Sugar by Eve. O. Schaub) and the pursuit of happiness (The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin).
Autobiography
An autobiography is the story of a person’s entire life written by the person themselves, which may encompass a variety of themes. Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela, Life by Keith Richards, Mao’s Last Dancer by Li Cunxin and The Story of My Life by Helen Keller are a few well known examples.
Everyone has a story
But you don’t have to be famous to write your memoir or autobiography. If you think your life story, or a portion of it, would be of interest to other people, you can write it and do one of two things – submit it to a traditional publisher and wait forever to get a response and probably a rejection, or publish it yourself and put it up for sale on Amazon and other book retail sites. Ten years ago this would not have been possible, but with the advent of e-books there’s been an explosion of memoirs and autobiographies in the market.
Find your niche
Before I wrote my memoir Making the Breast of it – Breast Cancer Stories of Humour and Joy, I researched breast cancer memoirs already published on Amazon. I found a sprinkling of humorous memoirs, but they were definitely in the minority, so I decided to make it my focus. Or rather, it was already decided for me; due to my way of looking at the world, it would have been impossible for me to write a memoir without a strong vein of humour.
And though I knew it would only appeal to a small, defined niche of readers (those who had experienced breast cancer) it didn’t deter me from writing it. Writing an account of my diagnosis and treatment, as well as my thoughts and emotions during the time, helped me to gain clarity and perspective on the whole experience. And if my memoir has an impact on other breast cancer survivors, even just to provide a few laughs or reassurance that they’re not the only ones who have weird thoughts in times of anxiety, even better.
You, too, can be immortal
Many people want to write their memoir or autobiography, but have no desire to publish it. They want a record of their life for posterity only; to be handed down through the family so that their children, grandchildren and future generations can get to know and understand their forbears and what life was like for them. Not only are you achieving a little piece of immortality, but memoirs and autobiographies are a useful historical tool for researchers and writers.
I remember when I was a child my grandmother telling me stories of her childhood, and later wishing I’d had the interest and initiative to write them down before she died. The same with my mother. So many anecdotes, facts and insights into living in past times lost forever.
History isn’t about dates or places or wars. It’s about the people who fill the spaces between them.
When reading accounts of past eras, I always find the minutiae of day to day living the most fascinating. This is why I tuned out of ancient history lessons at school. ‘Who cares about the dates of the Peloponnesian wars?’ I wanted to shout at my teacher, who, fittingly, seemed as ancient as those wars, ‘I want to know what it was like to live back then. What did they have for breakfast? What games did the children play? How did they wash their clothes? How old were the women when they married? What did they do for entertainment?’
(It would have been to no avail anyway – our ancient history textbook was a huge tome, crammed with tedious dates and wars and invasions, and only useful as a doorstop or whacking your neighbour when the teacher left the room).
Leaving a legacy
By writing your memoir or autobiography you're leaving a legacy of information for future generations. When researching past eras, you can always find facts and statistics, but nothing beats a personal account of what it was like to live in a certain era and insights into how changing society (because change is the one constant over the centuries), whether it be technological, economic or social, impacted not only on daily life but on prevailing attitudes and emotions.
Do you intend to write a memoir or autobiography one day? Or have you read an outstanding one you’d like to share with us?
I’ve love you to contribute your comments in the comments box below.
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April 6, 2018
Writing About What Hurts
Write hard and clear about what hurts.
I recently came upon this quote by Ernest Hemingway, the master of pithy advice for writers, and I found it very thought-provoking.
It’s a variation of the writing advice to ‘write what you know,’ which many authors have dismissed as being limiting. Some have changed it to ‘write what you want to know,’ which can be much more fun because you are able to research, find new information and expand your horizons.
Dig deep into your pain
But writing about what hurts is about plumbing the depths of your psyche, and it’s something every writer can do, as we all have been hurt in some way or another by people and events in our past. And sometimes not even people or events, sometimes it’s your own mind that can cause you pain.
John Green, acclaimed romance/young adult author of The Fault Is In Our Stars suffered from severe anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder, and after he recovered due to medication and therapy, he wrote Turtles All The Way Down, a novel about a young girl struggling against being at the mercy of her thoughts.
By digging deep into your own pain, you can not only write authentically, but also touch your readers emotionally. Because you can guarantee that whatever pain you are writing about, whether it be the death of a loved one, a relationship break-up or suffering a mental illness, there will be readers who have had the same experiences. And if they haven’t, they will feel as if they have if you write it well enough. And isn’t that the aim of every author – to have an impact on the reader, to make them feel?
Confront your demons
Crime/thriller author David Morrell, of Rambo fame, puts it another way. He says, ‘Write about what you fear most.’
It’s slightly differently semantically from Hemingway’s adage, but when you boil it down, what hurts us is often what we fear. Our natural reaction to pain is to fear it and avoid it wherever possible.
In this Killzone blog post, Writing About What You Know – Even When It Hurts, author P.J. Parrish recounts the time she was at a conference and heard Morrell give this advice. Immediately she was stunned and close to tears, because she realised that in her work in progress she’d been skirting around her demons, unwilling to confront them. Consequently, the manuscript felt too artificial and detached. So the next day she started writing from scratch, forcing herself to face the pain.
Morrell says that his childhood was lived in constant fear. After his father died, his mother put him in an orphanage for a while and when she re-married, his stepfather turned out to be a bully who hated children, and there was constant fighting in the home. Consequently most of his books have been about fear and his characters’ struggles with it.
Degrees of fear
Crime author Patricia Cornwell describes the process of mining your fears as ‘exploring the catacombs and caves of your deepest fears.’ It sounds like pretty heavy stuff, but there are varying levels of fears. There are fears which are circumstantial but don’t affect your day to day life, such as fear of clowns, heights, closed spaces, spiders and many other phobias.
Then there are the big picture fears that lurk in the back of your mind, may cause you to worry on occasions or keep you awake some nights, and may or may not affect how you live your life – such as fear of nuclear attack, pollution, biological warfare, overpopulation.
Then there are the emotional fears, which do impact on your daily life, often on a subconscious level, such as fear of grief and loss, abandonment, failure, rejection, loneliness. I would also put fear of death in this category.
My fear of death
A few years ago, I was experiencing that very fear – caused by nothing in particular that I can remember, although there was probably a subconscious reason. It prompted me to write the short story A Peaceful Death, which features in my free e-book Comedy Shorts, about a man encountering the Angel of Death, who makes some unusual demands. It was a cathartic experience, helping me to confront my fear of death and put it into perspective.
That same fear raised its ugly head again after I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015 and I wrote about it in my memoir Making The Breast Of It – Breast Cancer Stories of Humour and Joy. I also had another fear to deal with – the fear of a poor attendance at my funeral, proving how illogical some fears are.
My three biggest fears
After reading David Morrell’s quote, I decided as an experiment to write down my three biggest fears. They are fear of losing a child, fear of losing my partner, fear of losing my mind and independence. (My mother had Alzheimer’s, so that fear has some rational basis). All loss related. And overriding all those fears, the fear of the pain of grief.
I hasten to add, though, that these fears don’t impact on my normal daily life or keep me awake at night; they just lurk in my subconscious. But I will now keep them in mind when thinking about and planning future novels – although interestingly, the fear of losing a child is an underlying theme in my current manuscript.
Make your fears universal
An important point for authors to remember, however, is that even though mining your own pain and fears for a novel can indeed be a cathartic experience, it’s not just a matter of letting it all out and bleeding on to the page. As P.J. Parrish says, you have to ‘take your specific and deeply personal emotions and make them feel universal.’
In other words, writing your fears and pain has to be done with skill and restraint, and is more effectively done with the benefit of hindsight. The passage of time brings clarity and perspective, which in turn results in more powerful writing.
Have your fears motivated your writing? Or have you read books in which it is obvious the author has used his/her own painful experiences to make for a compelling story?
I’d love you to join in the conversation in the comments box below.
The post Writing About What Hurts appeared first on Robin Storey.
March 9, 2018
Books into Movies – The Best and the Worst
With the 90th Academy Awards ceremony taking place a few days ago, movies are still a major topic of conversation. Going to the movies is one of my favourite pastimes. You can keep your Netflix – nothing beats seeing a movie on the big screen. I love the escapism of a couple of hours of being transported into another life in another world, and on the big screen with its magnified visual and sound effects, you can really immerse yourself in the experience.
Research with popcorn
In my blog post Taking the Guilt out of Guilty Pleasures I talk about going to the movies when I’m supposed to be writing, but the great thing about being an author is that I can justify it as research. Movies often give me ideas for plots or characters and I have learnt a lot about story construction and characterisation from watching them.
Over the last few years, a large number of the movies I’ve seen have either been based on true events or adapted from books. What’s happened to original screenplays? Maybe the movie studio moguls are playing it safe by sticking to the tried and true.
Everyone’s a critic
In any case, it always makes for interesting conversation, particularly around movies adapted from books – everyone has an opinion as to whether the movie was as good as/better/worse than the book.
However, comparing a movie to a book is like comparing apples to oranges. Many people, particularly if they loved the book, are disappointed when the movie strays from the original story. But they are two entirely different forms of creative expression, and adapting a movie from a book often means that bits have to be left out and other bits added in.
Book vs movie
Realistically a book and its movie adaptation should each be judged on its own merits, but it’s impossible not to compare them, even if just from the point of view of the impact each had on you. One thing I won’t do is read the book after I’ve seen the movie. When reading a book I like to see the characters and the story unfolding in my own imagination; once I’ve seen the movie, it will superimpose its images on my mind, which to me makes the book less enjoyable.
If I’m intending to read a certain book, I make a point of not seeing the movie until I’ve read it. That was why I was more than happy to go to the cinema to see The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo trilogy of movies. I knew there was no way I’d get around to reading the books, at over 600 pages each.
The worst movie adaptations
While researching opinions on the best and worst book to movie adaptations, I found that the main objections critics had in the ‘worst’ department was getting the main characters totally wrong, and not being faithful to the theme and/or the emotional essence of the book.
Here are some of the most commonly regarded failures as book to movie adaptations:
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Almost universally panned. Described by one critic as ‘taking a classic American novel of atonement and turning it into a romance/feminist tale.’
The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe. Many think that Tom Hanks was miscast in the leading role and the movie has been described as boring and shallow, with none of the satirical bite of the book.
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1974 and 2013 versions, but especially the latter). Baz Luhrmann’s 2013 version has been described as an ‘over-the-top extravaganza,’ a case of style over substance.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. According to many Douglas Adams fans, it was a gimmicky film lacking most of the wit, charm and heart of the book.
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. This movie has been criticised for leaving out the all-important spiritual element of the story and making the main character a whiny Miss Privilege, more annoying than inspiring.
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. This has been described as turning an original and moving story into an awkward, unsatisfying and melodramatic movie, lacking much of the science fiction that added to its richness.
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. The movie is criticised as being dull compared to the exciting, fast-paced book and a ‘lumbering mess.’ Many think Tom Hanks was miscast and much has been written about his strange hair style in this movie.
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. Not everyone was a fan of director Peter Jackson’s CGI in this movie. One critic described it as a ‘complex narrative about intimacy, family, and grief reduced to a redundant crime and punishment thriller, tarted up with gaudy supernatural visuals.’
There is one movie I’ve seen that stands out in my memory and that’s One Day, by David Nicholls. The book is about a young couple who, after a one night stand, go their separate ways, despite being very attracted to each other. The story follows them as they meet on the same day every year, on the anniversary of their meeting, to catch up with each other’s lives. The book is brilliant, full of humour and pathos, but to my mind the movie was stodgy and flat, with none of the sparkle and heart of the book.
There are others who agree with me, and the strangest part is that the author, who is an experienced screenwriter, wrote the screenplay. It suggests that sometimes the author may not necessarily be the best person to do their own adaptation; perhaps he was too close to it to do it justice.
The best movie adaptations
And now (drum roll) here are some of the best adaptations of books to movies, according to my Google search.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Who could argue with Gregory Peck as the heroic Atticus Finch? He won an Academy Award for his role and the movie won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris. And who could argue with Anthony Hopkins’ brilliant portrayal of Hannibal Lecter? A tense, creepy movie - I had nightmares for weeks after seeing it.
Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk. A mesmerizing movie – even the author applauded the adaptation.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey. I saw this movie eons ago but can still clearly recall the characters and some of the scenes. Kesey was quoted as saying that he hated the screenplay and Jack Nicholson, though allegedly never saw the movie.
Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh. As one critic said, ‘The subject matter is undeniably bleak, but the adaptation kept the humour and urgency of the original book.’
The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies by J.R.R. Tolkien. I’d be lynched if I didn’t include these. Although, to put my two cents worth in, I think some of the movies were too long. Come on, do you really need 10 minutes for a fight scene?
The Harry Potter series by J.K.Rowling. I only saw the first one, but fans say they’re all outstanding.
The Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King. One of his best-loved books, and a memorable movie with top actors. King himself loved the movie adaptation.
These are just the tip of the iceberg – I’m sure there are many more you’d like to add in the worst and best categories. Or maybe you disagree with some of the above ratings. Share your opinion in the comments box below.
The post Books into Movies – The Best and the Worst appeared first on Robin Storey.
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