Ellie Marney's Blog, page 19

#LoveOzYAbookclub June 2017 title selection

Hi team! May proved to be one of the busiest months on record for me, but now we’re in June! Phew! And we have a great new book to read, which is good, because I really want to spend some time flopping around and reading. I reckon I’ve earned it.

The title for June 2017 is INTO THE RIVER by Ted Dawe.

I know, I know – the author is a New Zealander, which makes this book not strictly ‘OzYA’. But I’m more than willing to extend the OzYA umbrella to cover our neighbours across the water. Plus, I think any book that was banned, then re-released with a ‘Parental Advisory’ sticker, has to be worth a study.

Apart from its original banning by the NZ government, I knew very little about the contents of INTO THE RIVER. But here’s a brief synopsis:

“When Te Arepa Santos is dragged into the river by a giant eel, something happens that will change the course of his whole life. The boy who struggles to the bank is not the same one who plunged in, moments earlier. He has brushed against the spirit world, and there is a price to be paid; an utu to be exacted. Years later, far from the protection of whanau and ancestral land he finds new enemies. This time, with no-one to save him, there is a decision to be made…he can wait on the bank, or leap forward into the river.”

I’m very curious about this book, and about what the fuss was all about. I know that Ted Dawe’s previous work, THUNDER ROAD, was awarded Best First Book and Best Senior Book in the NZ Post’s Children’s and Young Adults Book Awards (and also looks like a book I’d really want to read). All I knew about the censorship issues around INTO THE RIVER was that it was published, challenged (by Family First, a Christian-minority political party active in NZ – and Australia), sent to the censor, passed, and was then challenged again. That time, it failed to pass the NZ Film and Literature Review Board. The book was subsequently banned, and all copies were pulled from shelves and libraries.

It was the first time a book had ever been banned in New Zealand. I was shocked that this could happen in a country so close to home – I even wrote about it. I’m not a fan of censorship (even though there are books in the world that I find icky, like AMERICAN PSYCHO and Amish romance), and I couldn’t quite believe that a minority Christian influence could dictate to the general public what they could and couldn’t read. Ted Dawe wrote an article about it for the Guardian here, in which he said, ‘As we blunder into the new millennium we need a literature that is prepared to roll its sleeves up, to get dirty, to be fierce but compassionate, to say the unsayable’.

I’m looking forward to sinking my teeth into INTO THE RIVER, and I hope you are, too – and I’m really looking forward to the conversation around it. Ted Dawe has been in touch to say he’s excited that we’re tackling his book. Let me know what you think about this month’s title choice here in Comments, or at the #LoveOzYAbookclub Facebook thread. You can order INTO THE RIVER – now it’s been un-banned – through Boomerang Books, and use the ‘loveoz’ code to receive free shipping.

Happy reading!

 

xxEllie

#LoveOzYAbookclub May 2017 discussion post – A SINGLE STONE (Meg McKinlay)

It would seem to be a bit of an oxymoron, but there’s a lot of same-yness in fantasy/spec fiction, particularly the work pitched to younger audiences. Stories of magic, and dragons, and evil forces, and objects of power, and lots of characters who seem to have slightly elvish features, or be carrying swords or crossbows or wands… Perhaps it’s the comfortable familiarity of these worlds after repeated re-visiting, or perhaps the Western legends of Excalibur and so on are just the ones that resonate hard with Western audiences because we grew up with them, but many of the landscapes in fantasy are distinctly Tolkien-esque, or of the King Arthur variety. Which is fine – I read and loved Harry Potter like everybody else. But it’s a treat to occasionally come across a story that doesn’t borrow from any of those tropes. It’s like a palate cleanser.

A SINGLE STONE (see the US cover on the right) has almost a Margaret Atwood feel – but I think that’s more to do with the fact that any story focusing on matriarchal social mechanics or on the concerns of women is automatically shunted into the Atwood basket. What I would compare it to more properly is Margo Lanagan’s work. It’s stylistically different, but like Lanagan, Meg McKinlay seems to have a gift for inventing utterly original and believable worlds. That uniqueness is what sets it apart.

A SINGLE STONE was rewarded for its originality when it won a whole bunch of awards – it won the 2016 Prime Minister’s Literary Award, the 2015 Queensland Literary Award, the 2015 Aurealis Award, was an Honour book for the 2016 CBCA Book of the Year, and many more. It was given a starred review by Kirkus, who called it: ‘A beautiful, sparkling gem’.

I also think A SINGLE STONE was rewarded for being pitched well – it seems to ride neatly on a very delicate ledge between Middle Grade fiction and YA fiction, which means it can be recommended to readers crossing over from the former into the latter (this feat seems to be more acceptable than riding the ledge between YA fiction and Adult fiction, for instance). I’m just very glad that Meg McKinlay’s lovely brain went spinning, and conjured up something so female-focused, so unusual and special. A SINGLE STONE is a rare gift.

Anyway, that’s my opinion – but you might think differently. Please comment here below, or on the Facebook thread to let us know what you thought of A SINGLE STONE. All reviews and comments are welcome, but if you’re strapped for time, you’re also welcome to leave a 1-5 star review. Don’t be shy about telling us what you think!

I hope you enjoyed this month’s bookclub title, please stay tuned when I announce a very special new title for next month.

xxEllie

Process – NO LIMITS

I was inspired by Nicola Rendell for this post. Her blog post about the process letter she writes after each book felt really true. It’s a way to debrief, after the book is released and away, and you’re still coping with that weird Times New Roman-shaped hole in your heart that’s left when a book you wrote finally goes out to readers.

Although, this letter is a bit different – my book NO LIMITS isn’t yet out. But it soon will be: I’ve set the release date for August, and I intend to keep to that. The book is written, edited and ready to fly. So the tough part is mostly done. This letter is just a record of how the book came to be written and where I am in the pre-publication process and how it’s all going.

As far as writing goes, this book was one of the easiest ever. Writing NO LIMITS was more about me just stepping back and letting the characters talk and act and be the way they wanted to be – getting out of their way, basically. I had a similar feeling when I wrote the second book in the Every series, EVERY WORD: like I was channelling the characters, and they were taking me wherever they wanted to go.

I have a great photo of myself, collapsed on the floor of the house where I was on writer’s retreat – Amie Kaufman took the photo at about 1am, after I wrote the final lines of the book. I look like a puppet that’s had its strings cut, which was kind of true. The characters of NO LIMITS took over my brain and typing functions, and let me go when they were done. They knew their own minds. Especially Harris Derwent. That guy’s dialogue and actions just seemed to flow so easily and freely, it made me wonder whether I was a guy in another life.

I honestly think NO LIMITS is some of my best writing ever, but because the characters had such control, I don’t feel like I can take a lot of credit.

It also made editing really hard. Try as I might, I couldn’t see how I could alter the story, or tone it down, in a way that would have made it fit better with my publisher. I’d almost resigned myself to leaving it sitting in a drawer…until I realised I didn’t have to do that.

Self-publishing seemed like a scary idea (sometimes it still seems scary). But as I did more research about it, I started to think it made a lot of sense. I already had people emailing me, asking when they could read Harris’s story. So I knew there were keen readers out there. All I had to do was prep the book for publication and put it up online – right?

Well, it’s been a bit more complicated than that.

Self-publishing isn’t just about making the sure the manuscript is ready. You have to set yourself up as a publisher: things like ISBNs, and paperback trim sizes, and cover designs, and accounting, and marketing, and…a whole bunch of other stuff that never crosses your mind when you’re just the writer are now your business. And the responsibility is all on you – if the book takes off, hooray; if the book tanks, it’s on you. It’s your investment, and your win or loss. If you want a list of the pros and cons of self-publishing, you could go here to Chuck Wendig’s astute summation.

And although self-pub is quite commonplace these days, much of the information about it is dispersed across the internets – you have to find and sort and order it so it makes sense, especially if you’re an antipodean, because the Australian self-publishing experience sometimes varies from US standard. Add on the fact that the online publishing industry is constantly upgrading and changing (as fast as the tech, basically). You need to stay on your toes.

But I think I’m getting my head around it. I’m still less-than-expert at some things – I need to learn how to handle InDesign, for instance, so I can format my own pages – but I’m getting there. It can be daunting – I have frequent moments of nail-biting panic – but I’m gaining confidence.

I guess the most exciting and energising thing about the whole process is the fact that NO LIMITS is all mine. The crafting of the book, the decisions about the cover, the timing of release, the price and presentation… Everything about it is up to me. And I kinda love that.

At this stage of the process, I’m about to send out a brief to my cover designer. That’s a little bit terrifying, because you never quite know how a design artist might interpret your vision for the book. I hope they do Harris and Amita justice.

I’m also preparing to get the formatting done, starting up accounts on platforms like Amazon and Ingram Spark, and planning pre-release promotion. And I’m creating a newsletter for folks who are interested in getting regular updates about when my new books are coming, so that’s pretty exciting (I’ll let you know when that’s ready to go).

I hope you like NO LIMITS – hell, I hope you love it as much as I do. By August, you’ll have the paperback or the ebook version in your hot little hands. And I guess that’s when the fun starts J

xxEllie

 

#LoveOzYAbookclub – May 2017 title selection

 

If one tiny thing, one moment, could change the way you and your community lived – for better or worse – would you take it? Jena’s whole life is thrown into turmoil with such a question in A SINGLE STONE by Meg McKinlay, our bookclub title for this month.

Jena lives with her family in an isolated community that has developed and changed in peculiar ways. Cut off from the outside world centuries ago, the girls of the community are all trained from birth to serve the Mountain as tunellers and harvesters, collecting the valuable rock that keeps the community alive. Despite being one of the community’s best harvesters, a strange discovery forces Jena to think about it all more deeply…

A SINGLE STONE is not Meg McKinley’s first work of fiction – she has also written poetry for adults, as well as a bunch of children’s books and chapter books for younger readers. She grew up in Bendigo, but now lives in Fremantle, Western Australia.

A SINGLE STONE won a Prime Minister’s Literary Award, an Aurealis award, and a Queensland Literary Award on release, and is a fascinating and original work of speculative fiction – I hope you enjoy it! Meg is planning to join us for a Facebook chat later this month, when you can ask all your burning questions. Remember, you can order A SINGLE STONE through Boomerang Books and use the ‘loveoz’ code to receive free shipping.

Australian YA is going through quite a renaissance lately – I’ve just come away from the launch of an exciting anthology of Australian YA writing, BEGIN END BEGIN, which I was incredibly proud to be included in. That book is currently #2 on the Dymocks YA bestseller list and it was a total thrill to see fans and bookclubbers on the night! Thanks to everyone who rocked up, and hope you’re enjoying the reads as much as we enjoyed writing them.

xxEllie

#LoveOzYAbookclub – May 2017 title selection

If one tiny thing, one moment, could change the way you and your community lived – for better or worse – what would you do? Jena’s whole life is thrown into turmoil with such a question in A SINGLE STONE by Meg McKinlay, our bookclub title for this month.

Jena lives with her family in an isolated community that has developed and changed in peculiar ways. Cut off from the outside world centuries ago, the girls of the community are all trained from birth to serve the Mountain as tunellers and harvesters, collecting the valuable rock that keeps the community alive. Despite being one of the community’s best harvesters, a strange discovery forces Jena to think about it all more deeply…

A SINGLE STONE is not Meg McKinlay’s first work of fiction – she has also written poetry for adults, as well as a bunch of children’s books and chapter books for younger readers. She grew up in Bendigo, but now lives in Fremantle, Western Australia.

A SINGLE STONE won a Prime Minister’s Literary Award, an Aurealis award, and a Queensland Literary Award on release, and is a fascinating and original work of speculative fiction – I hope you enjoy it! Meg is planning to join us for a Facebook chat later this month, when you can ask all your burning questions. Remember, you can order A SINGLE STONE through Boomerang Books and use the ‘loveoz’ code to receive free shipping.

Australian YA is going through quite a renaissance lately – I’ve just come away from the launch of an exciting anthology of Australian YA writing, BEGIN END BEGIN, which I was incredibly proud to be included in. That book is currently #2 on the Dymocks YA bestseller list and it was a total thrill to see fans and bookclubbers on the night! Thanks to everyone who rocked up, and hope you’re enjoying the stories as much as we enjoyed writing them

#LoveOzYAbookclub – April 2017 discussion post (ZEROES)

Okay, so I have personal preferences for super-heroes. They have to be human, be able to do cool but slightly weird stuff (please don’t give me your standard telekinesis and ‘Look, mum, I can fly!’), have interesting backstories, and above all, they have to be real – blood, sweat, zits, swearing, BO…yup, gimme the real stuff. That’s it. Basically, I like contemp superheroes, bwahaha.

That’s why I have fallen so hard in the past for folks like the Tick, and Jessica Jones and Luke Cage and the crew from Misfits (they are the best – if only for the first two seasons). I really don’t like the glamour versions of most superheroes on the big screen (and that’s why I’m trying not to get my hopes up for Wonder Woman – I mean, I know what I’d like to see in that movie, but DC mileage frequently varies). It’s one of the reasons why I thought Logan was probably the best X-Men movie to date.

It’s also why ZEROES was pretty much my jam: because it was basically ‘Regular Flawed Teenagers With Superpowers’.

Scott Westerfeld already has runs on the board with this: if you haven’t read his MIDNIGHTERS series, you’re missing out (one of the character’s has mathematics as a superpower – mathematics. How cool is that?). You can see how the US covers for this book kind of capitalised on that (and also he’s mega in the States). And I knew Margo Lanagan would give Good Superpower because she is a bloody amazing writer, so every now and then when I caught a glimpse of Lanagan-ness in ZEROES I was all ‘squee!’ and Happy Glow. I am a newbie to Deborah Biancotti’s work, but plan to correct that immediately, because I could kind of see where she was at during the book, in little details, so now I’m deeply intrigued.

But the idea of a collaboration is that it’s fairly seamless, and I thought the three authors writing together managed to achieve this. In fact, my only complaint is that I would’ve liked it to be less seamless – I wanted to hear the individual voices of the authors more. But that is nitpicks. Another few things I enjoyed: the wry humour (Glorious Leader, heh), and I am also a sucker for the Plucky Band of Misfits trope, so yes, all these things worked for me.

Kirkus mentioned ‘intriguing protagonists and cinematic powers’ – I don’t know quite how ZEROES would translate to cinema, but I’d certainly watch it (maybe just to see Anonymous).

So – thoughts? Give us your opinion of ZEROES, and whether you might be tempted to read the next book in the series, SWARM. Feel free to leave a 1-5 star rating, if you’re time-pressed. You can drop us a line here in Comments, or over on the #LoveOzYAbookclub Facebook thread.

If you’re keen, tell us what your superpower would be, if you had one

Finally, some good news – April 2017

 

Hey folks, nice to be chatting to you again. This year has been really hectic, so this is actually my first real post of the year. Luckily, it’s a ‘good news’ edition – and there’s a fair bit of good news, so bear with me.

First, I’d like to thank my mate, Andy, for helping me to spiffy up my website – the new #LoveOzYAbookclub page that you can click on now is all Andy’s fine work. For bonus points, he’s been teaching me How to Not Be A WordPress Klutz, so things should get more streamlined around the site soon. From now on, my blog posts and my bookclub posts will be on separate pages, which makes things easier to navigate all round. Cheers, Andy!

Now, apart from that excitement, I’ve got something even better to tell you: I’m releasing TWO new books, and I’ve also got a story in an amazing new anthology. So read on!

 

The anthology is BEGIN, END, BEGIN: A #LoveOzYA Anthology and I’m chuffed to have my story ‘Missing Persons’ in a line-up that includes some totally incredible authors – Amie Kaufman, Michael Pryor, Melissa Keil, Gabrielle Tozer, Will Kostakis and more. BEGIN, END, BEGIN has been a labour of love for editor and contributor Danielle Binks, who has been one of the driving forces behind the #LoveOzYA movement (check it out here at the gorgeous website), and the anthology will be released in stores in less than a week. Come along to the Melbourne launch, if you’re keen – it’ll be on 6pm, May 4 at Readings Carlton, and I’ll be there with other contributors on a panel chaired by Danielle. If you’re curious, ‘Missing Persons’ is a prequel story to EVERY BREATH – basically ‘when Rachel met Mycroft’ – and you can order it as a single ebook here, or pre-order the ebook here, or buy the whole shebang in stores (there’s even a very beautiful special edition).

 

Now – my solo books. I’m rapt to announce that my new standalone, WHITE NIGHT, will be released by Allen & Unwin in March 2018. I’m in the middle of editing that book, but I can tell you three things about it:

it’s not an Every series book
it’s set in rural Australia
it’s been written with the assistance of Creative Victoria

I’m so very proud of it, and I’ll let you know about release and covers and all the loveliness of it closer to dates.

Before 2018, though, I’m doing something really special: I’m releasing the long-awaited book about Harris Derwent, the bad boy from the finale of the Every series. Harris’s book is called NO LIMITS, it’s going to be available in ebook and print-on-demand, and I ACTUALLY CANNOT EXPRESS HOW EXCITED I AM that this book is coming out into the world. If you love Harris as much as me, you’ll be revving your engines for August this year, when the book is let loose. I’ll let you know when pre-orders are available, and I should have a cover ready to go real soon. Far out! I’m so excited for this book!

EVEN MORE GOOD NEWS: I’m so incredibly thrilled to announce that EVERY BREATH has been nominated for a YABBA award. It’s a massive honour, because it’s a Children’s Choice award – so it’s readers who’ve selected and voted, and that means more than anything. I’m delighted to be nominated, and you should check out all the other books on the shortlist, too, if you can, because my book is in AMAZING company.

Now, events. I haven’t updated my events for a while, but here’s some of the stuff I’ll be up to this year. If you can make it along to the public events, I’d love to see you. There’s a lot of events, so hold on tight…

*Thursday May 4 – BEGIN END BEGIN: A #LoveOzYA Anthology Book Launch

Readings Carlton, Melbourne, 6pm for a 6.30pm start. Free, no booking required.

Panel appearance with Michael Pryor, Melissa Keil, Amie Kaufman, Lili Wilkinson (chaired by Danielle Binks)

*Tuesday May 16&23 – GATEways crime writing workshop

Writers Victoria. For Gr5&6 (special selection) only – see Writers Victoria for bookings.

*Thursday, Friday, Monday May 25, 26&29 – Writing Residency

Castlemaine Secondary College (CSC students only)

If you’re a CSC student, see your lovely librarian Andrea McDonald for deets.

*Friday, Saturday June 2&3 – Reading Matters (attending only)

Centre for Youth Literature

See website for details and bookings.

 

…Phew! I have other stuff after June, but it’s all Sekret Stuff at this stage – when I have more details I’ll let you know here. #LoveOzYAbookclub is still going strong, so if you’d like to keep in touch, drop over to the bookclub page or check out the threads and join up here on Facebook.

Apart from all this book stuff, life has been generally good. I’ve had a bit of a headcold, but on balance things are okay: my family is doing great, I’ve picked up some more teaching work, and the writing/editing is going well. Learning how to self-publish has been a major learning curve – and I’m not a Master, yet – but it’s good to be learning new stuff, y’know? It keeps your brain nimble.

I hope you’re all going well, and the year is off to a good start for you. Now I’ve gotten most of the bugs out of the site, I’ll be updating more regularly. Until next time, take care and go hard

#LoveOzYAbookclub – title selection April 2017

This month’s title for bookclub is ZEROES by the collaborative team of Scott Westerfeld, Deborah Biancotti, and Margo Lanagan.

I think the first book of Margo Lanagan’s that I ever bought was Black Juice, her collection of short stories – and I quickly bought the companion collections, Red Spikes and White Time, once I realised what I was reading. Fiercely original, with sensuous language, the story Singing My Sister Down – about a family spending time with their rebellious daughter before her unusual execution – is probably the best-known of the stories, after it was nominated for both the Hugo and Nebula awards. She won a a Printz Honour award for her book Tender Morsels.

I remember going to see Margo Lanagan and Melina Marchetta speak on a panel at the Melbourne Writers Festival, and then lining up to have my copies of the collections signed, gushing like a fangirl all the while.

Deborah Biancotti is an Australian writer of genre-bending SF, horror, fantasy and steampunk. Her story And the Dead Shall Outnumber the Living was shortlisted for a Shirley Jackson award, and she has published two collections of short stories, Bad Power and A Book of Endings. I haven’t read enough of her work, and plan to remedy that after reading ZEROES.

Scott Westerfeld is another enormously creative thinker and writer – his Leviathan series has been popular at our house. His other series titles, in Midnighters and Uglies, are equally good, and he has released a new series, starting with Horizons, just recently.

ZEROES is a superpower story – but superpowers that you don’t usually come across. The tagline for the series is ‘Every Power Has a Price’, and I think that’s enough to be going in with; whatever you think about SF/fantasy, expect to have your ideas thrown around as the formula is mashed up and played with by these three incredible authors.

Remember, you can order ZEROES through Boomerang Books, and get free shipping with the ‘loveoz’ promo code.

And I do hope you enjoy the book!

xxEllie

 

#LoveOzYAbookclub – March 2017 discussion post: A SHADOW’S BREATH

It’s time to talk about Tessa and Nick, and the different facets of A SHADOW’S BREATH by Nicole Hayes. I’d like to open by saying that I’ve read every single one of Nicole’s books, and she seems to develop further as a writer with each subsequent novel – which I find satisfying, because to my mind, an author who’s working on her craft with each book is really putting effort into the stories she creates. I like watching the evolution of style and skill, and Nicole’s skills are pretty solid by this point.

Tessa is a great character, finely drawn and subtle, and she has actual agency in the story – always my biggest tick for YA. I liked that the arc about her relationship with her mum wasn’t all easily resolved, especially at the end. Relationships – family, romantic – are hard work, and involve communication from both sides, and I think A SHADOW’S BREATH captured that.

I also loved the character of Nick, and I think Nicole Hayes did an amazing job with the way she handled the ‘I-can’t-tell-too-much-cos-spoilers’ events after the car crash. I actually knew the twist in the tale, but even I was sucked in to Nick and Tessa’s epic journey – and that’s saying something. The Australian bush was efficiently and beautifully evoked (as a rural, I appreciate this) and I could easily picture everything Tessa and Nick encountered (although I was always picturing it in the Macedon Ranges area, cos that’s home, so…).

Yuki needs a mention: she’s a fantastic character, and again, there are differences of opinion and communication issues in Tess and Yuki’s friendship, but that’s the reality we like to see (and something that’s highlighted in this review at Reading Time). I’d love to know what happens to Yuki (maybe a follow-up?) because I can see her going on to great things!

So – now it’s your turn. Tell us what you thought about A SHADOW’S BREATH, and if you can’t give a review, maybe a star rating (1-5 stars and we’ll get the drift) here or on the Facebook thread. And tune in next week to find out about our new read for April!

xxEllie

 

 

#LoveOzYAbookclub – March 2017 Author Interview: Nicole Hayes

 

So I’ve already told you a little bit about Nicole Hayes, the author of this month’s title, A SHADOW’S BREATH: she’s written two other YA books (The Whole of My World, and One True Thing) and she’s deeply involved in The Outer Sanctum, AFL football commentary in general, and the brand new AFLW comp in particular. Now Nicole is here to answer a few questions herself and put the record straight about her sordid ballet history…

 

 

* One curious or unusual thing about you that most people don’t know:

A lot of people know I played footy as a kid – illegally mostly, and I was eventually kicked out of the team because “girls can’t play footy”. Ha! (Obviously bollocks, evident today.) But, what people don’t know is that in between footy training I was also studying classical ballet – with tutus and crossovers and ballet shoes. So for several years of my primary school years and into early secondary, Tuesdays and Thursdays I was all about speckies and drop-punt; Mondays and Wednesdays it was chasse and glissade.

 

* Working in silence? To music? With snacks? No snacks? What are the essentials for your writing routine?:

I love cafés for a serious writing session when I’m getting started on a novel. I need the distraction of background noise and need to leave my house behind, with all the demands it seems to make on me whenever I walk in the door. But as my deadline looms, I lock myself in my back office. So it’s completely different depending on where I am with a novel. It’s weird and sometimes impractical juggling both processes, but for now it’s working.

 

* We’re at a dance party right now, and the DJ wants to know which song gets you out on the floor for major boogies and you say…:

Losing My Religion by REM. It’s probably not a dance song, but it has such powerful memories for me of backpacking through Europe – every busker in every Continental city seemed to be playing it at the time – that I literally can’t stand still when it comes on. Also, expect very loud singing. (For which I will apologise in advance.)

 

* While researching your book, you found out some crazy stuff, and it was this:

Humans didn’t see the colour blue until the modern era. I’m not even kidding.

I was doing all this research on painting, and colour and light, because Tessa is learning to paint in A Shadow’s Breath, and I came across all this research and evidence to suggest that blue is a modern phenomenon. In literature dating back to the 1800s, the ocean was described as “wine-dark” and other variations of reds and greens. Not just in English either – it’s true of all the major languages. That actually blew my mind.

 

* The best opening line from a book, in your opinion, is:

‘124 was spiteful.’ (Beloved by Toni Morrison)

 

 

Thank you!  And thanks for getting your sillies on with #LoveOzYAbookclub J

xxEllie