Ellie Marney's Blog, page 26

Stirring the crazy on InsideADog

My very first blog post as writer in residence at InsideADog!  Hope you like it :)

YA Crime Writer stirs the crazy on InsideADog!! Run for your life!!

xx Ellie

Can you feel the #LoveOzYA tonight?

Something exciting happened.
Every Breath was listed as one of Australia’s most-borrowed YA library books.  YAY!  I’m incredibly honoured to be included on the ALIA list – thank you to everyone who borrowed Every Breath, you’re all awesome!
One thing that stood out, though, was that Every Breath and The Book Thief (by Markus Zusak) were the only two YA titles in the Top Ten list.  The other eight spots were taken by blockbuster American titles, almost all of them with movie tie-ins.
My first question is: wow, what made my book so attractive to readers, and how can I duplicate it?? Because I would totally bottle that, in a heartbeat. I mean, I just write the books mainly to entertain myself (or my 15 year old self, anyway) – the kind of books I would love to curl up with in a hammock at the beach, or on a couch by the fire on a rainy holiday afternoon, the kind of books that transport me into something exciting and moving, full of thrills and feels and adventure.  I guess it seems that other people like those books as well, so…yay!
My second question is: why are there so few Aussie authors on the list?  To answer this question, I did what I often do – I asked the hive-mind (mainly other authors and booksellers, and library and publishing peeps).  And the answers that I agreed with were things like – a) because the market here is smaller, we don’t have the budget to push local voices as much as they deserve; b) the North American market is bigger, in every way, including budgets – that means that overseas books have a larger market/distribution/promotion capacity, which impacts on us Aussies a lot; c) when the market is saturated – so when a book is promoted online, on screens, in films, in print ads and bookstores and toy stores and fast-food outlets and etc etc etc ad infinitum – it’s kinda hard to ignore, and more people buy it.
Here’s another important point – if you want to see local content, you need to invest in local cultural capital.  The Australian government has just ripped $100 million bucks out of the Australia Council, which directly supports local artists and art producers (including authors) to create new work.  A lot of those arts grants go towards supporting and developing small individual writers – me included.  I mean, I was gonna apply for a grant in June, to support myself while I wrote a new book – but in the wake of the budget cuts, that funding round has been cancelled.
So how exactly can you publish and promote local authors if they haven’t been given the opportunity to write new books and get signed by publishers? Good question.  Maybe we should be thinking a bit more about investing in our cultural and arts sector, in the same way we invest in the business and mining sectors.
Anyway, in the light of the lack of Aussie YA on the lists, and in the interests of promoting AusYA, a new hashtag has been born!  To show support and help spread the love for Australian YA, I encourage you to use the #LoveOzYAtag in your tweets, FB updates, Instagram and other social media posts about Aussie YA books – and if you follow the tag, it’ll lead you down a wonderful rabbit hole filled with awesome OzYA recs.  A lot of folks out there are already doing it, so I urge you to go for it! 

And this weekend in particular is a great weekend for following #LoveOzYA – because it’s Reading Matters weekend!!  If you love YA, and you happen to be in Melbourne, this AMAZING conference is being run by the State Library and the Centre for Youth Lit, right in the heart of town at the Arts Centre.  Here’s the link– go check it out.  I will most definitely be there from Friday to Saturday, not as a panellist but in the audience (which is just as good, because I can dress daggy down and drink wine at lunchtime).  Use the #YAMatters tag to follow along.  And if you’re a reader, a teacher, a librarian, a bookseller, a publishing friend, a friendly author, or you’re just around the traps at Reading Matters and you spy me from across a crowded room, please come and say hi :)
Some other good news - I’m going to be the InsideADog writer-in-residence blogger for the month of June, which is awesome!  So if you’re a regular lurker at InsideADog (the Centre for Youth Lit book blog), or even if you’re a regular reader/commenter, please make sure you give me a wave and say hi next month.
On top of that, I’m going to be visiting a bunch of libraries soon, and my first visit will be at Ashburton Library on Monday 1 June at 7pm.  If that’s your local and you’re free, come on down and listen to me ramble on, and grab me for some questions or to have a chat afterwards. Here's the link!
And I have some exciting news about Continuum soon too…so keep your ears to the ground about that.
Okay, I’m not going to write much more, because June will be a mega-blog period at InsideADog – my blog updates will be posted there, although I’ll still check back in here if anything noteworthy comes up, or there’s an event on.  Hope you’re going well, a quick shout-out to the girls from Presentation College, who did a workshop with me last week (Hi girls!  You were awesome!) and catch you again soon!

Xx Ellie 

Falling over the edge

We’re well into autumn here, and the fire is crackling over at our place almost every night.  It’s getting cold, working outside in the study, but I don’t mind – I’m really picking up speed with this new book, and everything seems golden.
But it isn’t always like that.  I was kind of inspired to write this post after reading another writer’s question recently, asking ‘what’s your hump point?’, and also because I’ve read a few articles lately about writer’s block.  To my mind, the two things are linked (and remember, folks, this is just my mind we’re talking about here –those of you who know me, you’ll recall that my mind is sometimes an odd and contrary place to be.  I just don’t want to generalise here about All Writers, cos, hey, for a few golden years there my kids thought I was some kind of super-being, but I ain’t thatsuper).
First, the author’s question about ‘hump points’ might need some clarification.  The author was asking what’s the hardest point in your writing process with a book – do you struggle with beginnings?  Or maybe it’s middles or endings which you find hard.  Or is the whole thing just a slog from start to finish, like pulling teeth?  How do you combat that?
Writer’s block is a regular topic of conversation in the writing community – in fact, if you Googled ‘overcoming writer’s block’ you’d probably get thousands of hits for articles and queries about it.  I have a peculiar relationship with writer’s block, which is that I don’t really believe in it.  It’s not that I don’t think writers get blocked – I know they do, and I’ve experienced blockage myself – but I don’t call my periods of drought ‘writer’s block’, because to me that sounds like some sort of inescapable disease, and I don’t want to label it like that because I think that gives it power.
This post isn't really about writers block, but I do struggle with hump points in a manuscript draft.  I had one with Every Move, and I just got through one with the new book, so I may as well throw in my fifty cents worth on the subject (actually fifty cents sounds expensive – let’s just call it two cents).
So here’s the situation: you’re drafting a new project, and it’s all flowing well.  You’re excited, cos it’s new, and you’ve got lots of initial ideas, and the writing is really moving.  A few weeks in, and it’s all looking good.  Then one day, you wake up and pull out your pen and paper/keyboard/charcoal and crayons, and you look at it there, and…you’re drawing a blank.  Your ideas are kind of turning around in circles chasing their tails.  You don’t know what’s gonna happen in the next scene, or the writing feels flavourless and dull.  Everything feels foggy, and suddenly you’re just hitting keys (in my case) hoping and praying that your mojo will return.
You’ve hit your hump point.
For some people, it comes early in the process – getting the crank started is really really hard.  For others (and I think this might be more common), you hit a point at about the middle of the book, when everything you’re writing seems like crap, and you can’t figure out what to do next.  For yet others, it’s tying everything together at the end – oh my god, you’ve written yourself into a corner, now how the hell do you get out of it?
Other (way better and more experienced) writers have shared their wisdom on this issue, so let me summarise their suggestions: take some exercise, get some sleep, take a break and interact with friends and family (remember them?), get some fresh input (films, tv, music, art, nature, other people’s books), make sure your health is ok, try to reduce or wait out external stress, put the manuscript away for a week or more and go back to it for better perspective, go back to a point where the writing was flowing and see if you made the characters do something OOC, stop writing and do some plotting-out, or even stop writing and let the characters live in your head for a bit to find out where they want to go, change your work routine, do some research, work on something else for a while…  There are plenty of potential solutions.  Some authors I know have even opted to scrap the entire draft and write it again from scratch (*cue wailing and gnashing of teeth*), or put it aside and resolve that this manuscript is not yet sufficiently ‘baked’ in their head for them to complete it (again, weeping, but for some folks, they have a sense that this is the right course of action).
My own attitude is a bit of an amalgam of all these things (and yes, I have dumped a project at the 40,000 word point – never a whole book, though, that’s gutsy).  It’s also complicated by the fact that each book is different, and often your process varies (I like to say ‘matures’, heh) every time.  Which, as Lili Wilkinson once pointed out, is what it shouldbe – feeling locked into a certain way of doing things, a certain way of working, can make your life kinda difficult if the project requires a change of attitude or approach.
With Every Move, I was on deadline, so I was under external pressure.  I’d also written a crazy-arse number of plot threads that needed tying up, and I felt overwhelmed.  That required some pleading with my editors (actually not too much pleading, cos they’re awesome like that) for a little more time, and some plain old sitting down and mapping out what had to happen (see ‘plotting-out’, above).  But my struggle with that manuscript was really about making a personal realisation: I didn’t want the story to end.  I loved the world, I loved the characters, and I was having a hard time letting go.  It wasn’t until another author friend (thanks again, Simmone!) kindly pointed this out to me that I had a little lightbulb moment, and after that, tackling the ending of the book was considerably easier.
With this new book, No Limits (working title), it was different.  I got stuck about a third of the way in.  But it felt familiar, and I realised that it was a bit like the way I’d felt when I was writing my first book, Every Breath.  That’s when I figured out something.  Again, this is a personal experience, so it won’t apply to everybody, but what I figured out was this:
By the time I’ve written about a third of the book, I feel a great reluctance to go on.  I can’t sit in front of my screen for more than a few minutes at a time without wanting to just jump up and do something else.  Turning on the internet to get on social media seems hugely attractive – in fact, doing the washing or sweeping the house seem hugely attractive at this point.  Or reading a book.  Or watching tv.  Anything but sitting down in front of that goddamn manuscript.  I’m not doing any work, but I’m thinking about the manuscript all the frickin’ time.  I get a horrendous amount of doubt – doubt about the characters I’ve made, doubt about the plot I’ve set up, doubt in my own ability to pull it off.  I become a tetchy, dissatisfied, all-round horrible person to live with, and then I feel guilty that my family has to put up with me (sorry, honey!). 
This is usually what writers mean when they say they’re stuck – they’ve hit the wall (in running terminology), and every word they put down at this point starts to sound terrible.  It’s like getting a cramp.  And because writers live in their heads so much, getting a brain cramp is really painful and frustrating (and sometimes, cos writers can be a bit insecure like that and doubt+insecurity is a bad combo, it can be really debilitating).
So here I am at my hump point.  I’ve invented all these threads, created this whole world with the characters, y’know?  But I’m stuck.  I do as many of the things on the ‘writer’s block solution list’ as I can – I talk to people, I get more sleep, I watch tv and read books, get some exercise, do research, yada yada – and some of them even help a little.  Although I’m still assailed by this awful feeling like I’m teetering on the precipice.
But that, I figured out, is a good thing.  It means that I’m coming to terms, within myself, with the idea of completing this thing I started. 
My tetchiness and dissatisfaction have a genuine cause - I’m about to fall over the edge, into the unknown.  I’m scared.  I’m working without a safety net.  Anything could happen.  I could fail.  I could write a really sucky book.  I don’t know if I’ve got the goods to make it work.  I don’t know if I’ve got anything meaningful to say, that people will want to listen to.  I’m at a crossroads moment.
I said I spend a lot of time with my characters inside my head at this point – that is actually really necessary.  I’m fleshing out their existence as people, and I’m churning over alternative ideas about what will happen.  I’m rolling it all over in my head.  Although I often scribble down notes in an exercise book when these points hit me, it’s a very mental process.  And it’s a kind of ‘dragging up your courage’ moment.  I have to come around to the idea that I’m capable.
So finally, after I’ve tetched and churned and agsted about as much as I can stand (which is about the time my family wants me to leave home and go live in a monastery or something), I finally throw up my hands (y’know, my mental hands) and say, okay, bring it on.
Do I really want to write this book?  Um, actually – yes.  Yes, I really do.
So now I’ve done it.  After this point, I’m committed.  I’ve got to go on, I’ve got to see it through to the end, no matter how difficult or frustrating or nerve-wracking it might be, or how doubtful I might feel about my own ability to make this story work.  Soon after that, most commonly, I’ll sit down with the manuscript and…it’s back.  I’m back.  The system has rebooted, my mojo has returned, the flame is burning again.  Interestingly enough, after I get past this point of decision, this point of mental commitment, I’m utterly invested – the ideas are coming again, and fast.  I’m eager to get back to the writing, I can’t wait to be in front of the keyboard.  I’m impatient for writing days to come round (which leads to its own brand of tetchiness, when I’m denied writing time by Real Life, but that’s another story).  This is the time when – like I did with my first novel – I actually jump out of bed at some ridiculous sparrow-fart time of the morning, feeling excited, because I’m getting the chance to dive back into it.
So to me – and excuse me if it sounds like I’m thrilled about re-inventing the wheel here, but personally, this was a recent revelation – it’s about making the mental commitment to continue with the work.  That’s my hump point.  And now I know, I can give myself a swift kick when it comes around again (or at least, y’know, not stress out so much about it) and remember that it’s normal.  What got me through, on this occasion, was a quote from multi-award winning, multi-book writing romance author Valerie Parv, in response to the question “How do you know when you start writing that you can do it?”.
Her reply?  “The answer is that you start writing to find out if you can do it.”
I hope your own writing is going well.  I hope you haven’t hit the wall, or gotten stuck, or blocked, or arrived at a hump point.  But if you have, I hope this helps, somehow.
And I guess that’s my two cents on the matter.
Xx Ellie
PS – you know how I had a massive giveaway here on the blog for the Every Move release?  Well, I had it, and it’s over, and there was only one problem – one of the winners didn’t get in touch with me.  And it’s been, like, two weeks now, and I really want to send this parcel to somebody!
If you are Elizabeth Gordon, can you please contact me in the next 48 hours?
If you’re not, and you entered, you’re still in the running.  If Elizabeth doesn’t get in touch, then I’m gonna have a re-draw from the existing pool of entrants (I still know who you are, so don’t stress).  I’ll pick a new winner, let people know on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.  If I don’t hear from the new winner within 48 hours, I’ll choose a new name, and so on, until we get this parcel won!
That’s it.  Have a good week :)

Xe

What we call the end is the beginning

This is the first week I’ve had off in a looong time.  The past few months have rocketed along, and the busy-life stuff was a bit wearing, but I am absolutely not complaining – I still can’t believe I get to do this book business as a job.  But yeah – it’s been busy!
First of all, we had the book launch for EVERY MOVE.  Thank you all so much for coming along, or lending support, it really was an amazing night – I don’t think we even had so many people at the launch for EVERY BREATH – and Readings Carlton did a super job.  I got to meet a bunch of bloggers, vloggers and fans!  They are all so gorgeous!  A blogger from North America actually sent her uncle to the launch, to get an early copy of EVERY MOVE (hi, Yash!), which was pretty incredible, and I think I was signing for about an hour and a half, wow.  Adele Walsh was THE BEST – she made a wonderful speech for the launch, which you can find here, and because it was her first launch, she was about as nervous as me!


I didn’t get to say hi to everyone, which is pretty normal, but I always feel bad about it – if I didn’t get to grab you on the night, please know that I would’ve liked to, and I appreciate you took the time to come along.  And if you’d like to relive the glory of the night, it’s right here in two vids – one is from Miranda at Books101, and one is from Rachel and Annette at Tome Travellers (thanks, ladies!):




I also have to announce that the EVERY MOVE book launch giveaway was rolled up by me and my son (he picked the names), and we have winners!  Elizabeth Gordon, @SnugglyOranges, and Alyssa Hamilton, please send me your contacts via DM (or you can email elliemarney[at]gmail[dot]com), and I’ll be sending out your parcels early next week (after Easter is over and the post office is back in business).  If I don’t hear from you by next week, I’ll draw another winner from the hat.
There were also two winners from over 800 entries on the GoodReads giveaway (see right), and I’ll be sending those at the same time.
On Tuesday, straight after the book launch, I jumped on a plane and flew up to the Gold Coast, where I attended Somerset Celebration of Literature , a week-long extravaganza for students, parents, teachers and authors.  What a festival – my god, I had no idea before I arrived that the celebration would be of such an incredible magnitude.  There were fireworks and Dippin’ Dots, a photo booth, a book shop, a Writers Wall, performances, amazing food, students dressed as literary characters, signings, author talks, karaoke, poetry and novella competitions, bus-loads of kids from schools all over the country…  It kind of blew my mind.  The parents and teachers were incredible – so much of it was organised and carried out by people who had taken time off work to support the festival.  And the students were wonderful!  So engaged and diverse, and with such fantastic questions!
As well as all that gorgeousness, there was the company of other authors.  I don’t know if you’ve gathered this already, from my other blog posts, but I live way way out in the country – about two hours away from Melbourne – and while there are quite a few writers up around here, we all come from different areas, and rarely get together and hang out.  So I don’t really get the chance to just sit around and chat with other authors that much, maybe just a couple of times a year.
Somerset, on the other hand, was like a giant sleepover party with just about every cool author I’ve ever wanted to meet.  We saw each other’s talks, bumped into each other at the hotel, joined each other for dinners, went and had drinks together, and gasbagged the whole time.  I felt like I was in Wonderland, honestly.  I had a long chat with Richard Newsome (The Billionaire’s Curse) about writing a book a year (we agreed that it’s hard), discussed writing kissing scenes with Melissa Keil (Life In Outer Space) and Clare Atkins (Nona & Me), talked about feminist writing practice with Melissa and Nova Weetman (The Haunting of Lily Frost) and Sarah Ayoub (Hate Is Such A Strong Word), reunited with Adele Walsh (who had some interesting things to say about fruit…), argued about the best Dr Who episodes with George Ivanoff (Gamers series), and was given excellent social media advice by Alison Tait (The MapMaker Chronicles).  I even talked about pearls with Tara Moss! (The Fictional Woman)  I made a lot of new friends (hi, Christine Bongers – Keith Austin – Rachel Spratt – Michael Gerard Bauer!) and met some of my heroes (Kari Gislason rocks).  Overall, I had an AMAZING time, and even though I missed my family at home and don’t usually love living out of a suitcase, I didn’t really want to leave.  Everyone who would like an annual Australian Kid’s Authors Gossip and Catch-Up Camp, raise your hands now J
I guess I’d better sign off – we have to chop wood for the upcoming winter today, so I’ll be getting out my chainsaw and slinging on my boots.  I’ve had a lovely week-long break now, so I’ve got no excuses not to work!  I’m getting back into writing again (how I’ve longed for some solid writing time!), and the manuscript for NO LIMITS is shaping up pretty well – it needs a lot more done to it, but I’m happy with it so far (and I’m gonna shut up about it now, so I don’t put the moz on it).
Thank you all, for supporting the EVERY series, and for sharing the excitement of launching the final book – I couldn’t have done it without you.  Take care of yourselves, have a happy and peaceful holiday season, if it’s your time to celebrate, and see you next time!
Xx Ellie

That song in your ear - Every Move playlist

Music – do I use it to write?  The answer is yes, when I need some inspiration, or to get back into the groove of something I’m writing.  Then I’ll hit my playlist of songs that bring back the atmosphere of whatever I’m working on (usually while I’m driving).  The answer is also no, because when I’m actually writingI just can’t seem to tolerate lyrics in my ear.  Sometimes when I’m concentrating hard on getting words together, even instrumental music can change the tone in my head.  So I don’t listen while I’m writing.
But I do have a playlist for every book I’ve written – it seems to be a good way of sustaining the mood of a piece, especially over a long period of time (months or years).  Here’s a few of the songs that I used to sustain me for Every Move.  Some are character or scene specific.  Others just seemed to be a good fit for the book.  I’ve listened to all these songs dozens of times, and by the time the book was written, I felt like I’d milked all the goodness out of them and could barely stand to listen to them!  Now, after the book’s release, I can finally add them to my playlist again J
Wolf – PyramidDefinitely scene specific: it’s the getaway scene, when Rachel and Mycroft and Harris escape to Five Mile.  Mentioned by name on p223.
White Noise – Disclosure‘A new song by Disclosure comes on over the tinny PA system…’ – yep, it’s the chaos of Harris and Mycroft’s punch-up at the school dance.
Carried Away by a Moonlight Shadow – Mike OldfieldOn p231, Rachel is hearing Harris’s story while ‘Through the car speakers, a woman sings plaintively of being carried away by a moonlight shadow’. This is a really old song, but it’s odd and weird, and a strangely good fit for this scene.
Nanganator – Drunk MumsYou know Mycroft has to have a song for every book, right?  Well, in this book he kind of had two songs – this one for his anarchic moments at the start…
What I Like About You – The Romantics…and this one, for his lighter, more funny moments with Rachel.
Jessie’s Girl – Rick SpringfieldFolks, if you haven’t worked out that this is totally Harris’s song for this book, then…well, I mention it specifically on p251. (NB: This video is from Glee, and I think it's pretty much a perfect version by Cory Monteith - miss you, Cory)
Riptide – Vance JoyRachel ‘exercises [her] wooden fingers on a Vance Joy tune’ when she finally starts to recover her mojo after self-defence training.  Actually, this song was everywherewhile I was writing Every Move, and I started to think it was the book’s theme song.
Bonfire – Knife PartyIn Mai’s room, ‘Some Knife Party song is playing, the electronic effects groaning out like a continuous belch.’  This song has a nice, ominous tone which I liked.
Strong (High Contrast remix) – London GrammarThis is a sad song, but this remix is high energy, and the soaring feeling of it was a good fit for Rachel in her recovery period, and closer to the end of the book.
Hope you like ‘em!


And wow, the launch is next week!  I’m actually not excited yet, more flabbergasted that it’s all happened so quickly.  Right now I’m thinking about food, and drinks, and door prizes, and trying not to say anything too sentimental at the launch (because then I will start getting all weepy – I’m a bit pathetic like that).  If you haven’t RSVPed to Readings Carlton, and you’d like to come along, please do - then the lovely Readings folks will know what they’re in for!  The Every Move launch is on Monday 16 March from 6-8pm, and you can call 9347 6633 to come along (it’s free), or sign up at the event page on Facebook.  If you’re dropping by, please make sure you grab me and say hi – I will be a bit frantic, but I do want to make sure I get to say hello to everybody.  The next day I get on a plane to present workshops and hang out at Somerset Celebration of Literature, so if you're in Queensland, I'll be with you soon.
Thank you to everyone involved in the blog tour – huzzah!  It’s been a great week, and if you’re keen to see what people are saying about the book, go check out some of the reviews:
YA Midnight Reads: has a review and a giveaway happening...
Delicate Eternity: also has a review and a giveaway...
Novels on the Run: had a fun time trying to keep Mycroft 'on task' during a character interview with Rachel (and a great review)...
The Rest is Still Unwritten: has a review and giveaway going as well

Also, Birdee Magazine are running an Instagram competition for Every Move – go here to their post, and enter for a chance of winning $300 worth of books!  I think that’s a prize I could happily live with J
Have a good week, and I’ll update again soon.

Xx Ellie

Release

This is the week of Every Move’s release.  Wow – there were times when I didn’t think this book would even happen.  Again and again I’m reminded: writing is hard.  We wouldn’t keep doing it if we didn’t love it.  It’s work – deeply satisfying work.
My son has reached that age when he’s making decisions about the things he wants to do and be.  I don’t mean he’s consciously making those decisions – I mean, he’s following his gut instincts towards the things he likes, gravitating towards the things he enjoys, and slowing dropping out of the things he finds a bit ‘meh’.  We all reach that stage.  Sometimes it takes us longer, so the things we really like and enjoy get sidelined for a few years, to focus on the things we need to do.  But they simmer away there inside you, those things you are drawn to, the pastimes you love, or the hobbies you wish you had more time for.  If you’re really lucky, and you have good circumstances and the right encouragement, you find a way to utilise those talents early.  But for many of us, me included, it sometimes takes years of trial and error before you figure out just what exactly you’re hankering for, what it is that really fires your passions.
I have worked many jobs, and I have liked quite a few of them.  But there has always been something else there, bubbling in the background. I remember writing stories on sheets of foolscap paper in a special folder that I kept in my bag especially for the long trips to and from school on the bus.  I did it all through primary and high school, and I used to hang out in libraries a lot.  I read everything I could lay my hands on during this time, and used to hound the school librarians for the next books when they arrived on order.
By the end of high school I knew that saying I wanted to be a writer was a like saying I wanted to be an astronaut – one of those things that little kids say, not realising how far out of reach a goal like that could be.  So I looked at law and journalism and education and other things, all those stupid pamphlets they used to give you in high school when you’re trying to figure out your direction after Year Twelve, while surreptitiously sneaking the ones about writing and publishing into my bag.
But in the end it came down to two things: determination and patience.  By the time I had my first child, I was thirty, and knew that somehow I wanted to keep writing.  And then when I’d been patient a long time, and had developed a dogged level of persistence, I figured it was now or never.
Ultimately, if you want to follow the thing that inspires you, you have to be determined.  You will not be given the chance to pursue your dream or talent or whatever because some Fairy Godmother gave you a wish, or put an opportunity in your lap.  You will have to work for it.  You will have to be determined, and just stick with it, despite tedium and bad luck and frustration.  You will have to become a bit of a bloodhound about it. Because nobody owes you anything, nobody will give you anything for free.  So you will just have to suck it up and do it.
Fortunately, if you’re following the dream of your heart, the thing that inspires you, your passion, you will not find working at it a chore.  You will keep going because you love it. 
So here’s some of the new reviews for the thing I created out of love J
Here at UnfinishedBookshelf
A full series review at Behind the Pages
Here at Written Word Worlds
At Fictional Thoughts
And at DaringDamsels
I've also had some amazing reviews at ALPHAreader's blog and at Kid's Book Review. There will be more reviews coming in as the blog tour continues, and also in print media like Dolly and Birdee.  If you'd like to join in the giveaway, you can click on the link to GoodReads at right, or go back to my previous post, which tells you how to enter.
Tonight, I know lots of people are going to see Roxane Gay speak at the Wheeler Centre – I so wish I could be there!  She’s amazing!  But if you can’t make it to Roxane’s talk, and you’re around Castlemaine tonight, please feel free to come along to the Castlemaine Library, where me and three other female crime writers (Sandi Wallace, Kathryn Ledson and Sue Williams) will be having a lounge-room chat for the Killer Queens event.  It’s free, it starts at 6pm, there’ll be a door prize and refreshments, so please feel welcome!
I’m also gearing up for my visit to Queensland as part of the Somerset Celebration of Literature on the Gold Coast – I’m flying out the day after the launch party for Every Move.  It’s gonna be a massive week, and I hope to see you there.
And finally, for those of you who don’t know, it is also the week of International Women’s Day.  IWD is actually on 8 March (which is the day my littlest son was born J  Happy Birthday Ned!).  IWD exists because we still live in a world where the pay gap between women and men is huge, and where here in Australia, the Minister for Women is a man (our illustrious Prime Minister, He Who Shall Not Be Named), who happens to have scheduled an IWD lunch at a men’s-only club (really.  I mean, really.  I hope Roxane says something about this tonight, I really do), and where women all over the world still live in fear and inequality.  With that in mind, I’d like to do a quick roll call of all the women writers who’ve influenced me in my lifetime.  And here they are, and many more besides, in no particular order:
Joanna RussAnna LivySally M. GearhartSimone de BeauvoirSheri S TepperMargaret Atwoodbell hooksMary FallonGermaine GreerHelen GarnerKate MilletMonique WittigNgaio MarshMarie LuHelene CixousAlice WalkerAmy TanLucy SussexHoney BrownKerry GreenwoodKat ZhangDiana GabaldonKatherine MansfieldAngela SavageKendare BlakeJulie KagawaPatricia CornwellJudith WrightPhillipa (PD) MartinMaggie StiefvaterJanet FrameMargo LanaganVeronica RothStephenie MeyerGeraldine BrooksDonna TarttLaurie R. KingRebecca JamesLeanne HallLaura BuzoCate KennedyMalinda LoRebecca SteadMadelaine L’EngleUrsula Le GuinFiona WoodCath CrowleyKim KaneKirsty EagerMelina MarchettaEmily RoddaLili WilkinsonCarole WilkinsonCatherine JinksAngela CarterJeanette WintersonFinola MooreheadJoanne (JK) RowlingSheila RowbothamSheila KitzingerVal McDermidSuzanne CollinsMelissa KeilGabrielle WilliamsSimmone HowellRuby LangfordJane AustenCharlotte BronteToni MorrisonElizabeth Barrett BrowningEmily BronteNicole HayesLee KofmanPamela AllenJackie FrenchRuth ParkMiles FranklinNansi KunzeFleur FerrisClaire ZornZuzanna BudapestNaomi KleinAmie KaufmanSally MorganAmrita PritamSusie (SE) HintonCassandra ClareSuzanne CollinsSandi WallaceSue WilliamsLiz FilleulElla WestKirsten KrauthLauren BeukesLisa McMannAnne BuistAlice PungJenny ValentishValerie ParvFelicity CastagnaKathryn LedsonEmily DickinsonMaxine Beneba ClarkeIsobelle CarmodyRoxane GayBrigid KemmererMaureen JohnsonChristina RossettiHolly Blackand all the women I’ve accidentally left out,and most especially, poet and high school English teacher, Lorna Ferguson.

With all my love -
xx Ellie

THE BIG ONE – EVERY MOVE RELEASE GIVEAWAY

Yes, that time is upon us!  That special time, when I start running around in a frenzy like my dog when she’s caught a rabbit (or spots a kangaroo in the distance, or sees…basically anything with wheels.  She’s really into things with wheels.  We don’t know why.  She’s a dog, we’ve never asked her).
Yes, it’s release time! (duh-duh-DUH!!!)
Every Move IS ABOUT TO ARRIVE AT SHOPS, holy crap.  Soon it will be on shelves - in bookstores, at libraries, in schools – and in peoples’ hot little hands.  People will be reading it, my god (I mean, people are reading it now, for review, which is a-mazing, but by the end of the month other people – anybody, in fact – will be reading it.  Eep!)
And I am right in the middle of it all.  I’m prepping packages of be-ewdiful posters and book cover proofs and media release and stickers and badges and swaggy things, to be sent out to schools and libraries and bookstores (I’m sending them this week, if you’ve been waiting).  I’m doing interviews and guest posts and articles for the upcoming blog tour.  I am spending a lot of time on my phone.  And I’m getting really excited about the release, and the Killer Queens gig I’m doing with three other crime authors at Castlemaine Library on 5 March, and the chance to talk to students at Somerset Literature Festival in mid-March, and the party! Omg, yes, the launch party!  (it’s on 16 March – see my prev post.  My thoughts about it are currently running along the lines of What food will I buy?  How much booze will we need?  And – most importantly - which flannie will I wear??)
So right now, even if you can’t make the launch, and you can’t join in the fun elsewhere, you still get a chance to celebrate with me– cos I’m giving stuff away.
I HAVE TWO SIGNED COPIES OF EVERY MOVE AVAILABLE TO WIN ON GOODREADS
Wanna try your luck on Goodreads?  Click the linky-link (see over on the right)
I ALSO HAVE THREE EVERY MOVE GIVEAWAY PACKS TO OFF-LOAD
These are, I have to say, pretty spesh.  Each pack consists of:*A full set of the Every series: Every Breath, Every Word and Every Move*A set of three posters (one for each book)*Three Every Move badges*Three lovely Every Move postcards*Six Every Move stickers, for your stickery enjoyment*All these things come wrapped inside a totally sweet Every Move library bag (or it could be an anything bag.  I say it’s a library bag, cos I use mine at the library, but really – go nuts)
Wanna have a go at winning a giveaway pack?
You can do ONE of these things to enter:
1)    Tweet – gimme a mention on Twitter, using the name of the book, and I will put your name in the hat2)    Comment – here on the the blog below this post3)    Facebook – share the link to this post on FB, and let me know in a comment
Remember, you only have to do ONE of these ONCE (but hey, if you wanna tweet/comment /post and generally squee about the launch, please feel free!  I will be doing a lot of squeeing over here, in the corner…)
At the end of March , I will compile all the names from tweets/comments/posts into one big ginormicon-type list, and ask my kids to randomly select a name from the hat (trust me, there will be no cheating.  Those little buggers cheat like crazy at Uno and Scrabble and blackjack, but they take giveaway draws very seriously).
THIS GIVEAWAY IS INTERNATIONAL.  Yes, that’s right.  So you can enter from anywhere in the world.
I am not including Instagram in this giveaway – the main reason for this is cos there will be another giveaway comp via Instagram (I will update you on that very soon), and I don’t want people to get all confused.  But hey, if you’d like to tell people about the giveaway on Instagram, be my guest!
And that’s it!
Oh, before I go, I should say  I had the most incredible time on writing retreat.  Three whole days of just writing– no ‘fitting the writing around other stuff’, just writing.  Pure bloody magic.  When I got home, I discovered that the house had blown up…no, that’s not true.  But my partner got sick, the kids had multitudinous sporting engagements and were all running around like chooks, my parents were visiting, and the dog had (temporarily) gone missing, so I literally hit the ground running.  My partner also helped pull a guy out of a burning car by the side of the road in my absence (!!! And also ??? – yes, really. I’ll tell that story another time).  But hey, we’re all mostly back to normal now!
Anyway, I hope your week is not quite so eventful, and that you’re keeping well.  North American friends – stay warm!  Australian friends – stay cool! (well, you’re always cool, heh)  And see you next time J
Xx Ellie

This is hungry work

That’s a line from a Hozier song (yes, the one everyone has been listening to).  Writing work feeds into itself, to some extent, but the material that nurtures it comes from everywhere.  Writing work is hungry work, always seeking out new morsels.
I’ve started printing out the lyrics to some of my current favourite songs, and tacking them up on the walls of my office (using the term ‘office’ here in its broadest sense), so I can see the way words work in different combinations and contexts.  Poems go up too – although I’ve always thought that lyrics qualify as contemporary poetry – and sentences or phrases from books, photos, scribbled scraps of overheard conversations, pics of artwork, postcards, pamphlets, notes, business cards, newspaper clippings, drawings (usually done by my kids), jokes, Post-its, and other ephemera like feathers, leaves, and on my desk, random stones and mementos, including two conkers from a tree in Hyde Park.
I like the bower bird approach.  I’m not a tidy person by nature – tidiness is something that has instead been drummed into me by over a decade of householding for a large family.  When you have four kids, you maintain organisation or you flounder in a sea of chaos.  So I am tidy, but if you look around my work space, you can see that tidiness is an imposed state of being.
I collect things – knick knacks, oddsy-sodsy things…memories, I guess.  Do they help me work?  I don’t know.  I think so.  They remind me that for all the structured thinking necessary for daily routine - the mental order I apply to keep to diary dates and planned events, the discipline and compartmentalisation required to sort out work and parenting and weekly grocery lists and everything else - the part of me that writes needs randomness, and flow, and a certain looseness.  The mind has to be allowed to roam and wander and free-range if it wants to create.  It’s something I’ve discovered, or rather I’m discovering as I go along, that way of keeping ‘loose’ in my mind during the course of the day.
Lately, amidst all the bustle of book launching, I’ve been feeding myself with music, and with some great books – I just read Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel, and it was beautiful, full of poignant desperation and starlight.  It reminded me strongly of On the Beach by Nevil Shute, not just for its themes (which are similar to Shute’s, although not as grim) but for its evocation of human fallibility and longing and nostalgia.  I was gifted my copy of Station Eleven by Kirsty Eagar – a gorgeous gift, thank you! – and now I’m thinking deeply about a book I’d like to gift to her (we seem to have started our own little book club).  I’m going to be doing a longer post on workspace and working habits for Kirsty’s blog in a few weeks – when it goes up, I’ll let you all know.
First review: I was given a heads-up (thank you, Sera!) about the first review of Every Move, which I’m thrilled to say was glowingly positive, in Kid’s Book Review.  What a relief it was to find out that people are enjoying the book!  After all my nerves and anxiety, I’m starting to relax a little – it’s a great weight off my shoulders.  Thank you to everyone who has tweeted/texted/pinged me to say that you’re loving Every Move!  There’s nothing more satisfying than finding out that the work you’ve put in has been worth it.
Blog tour details: Ahh, okay, now this is still being finalised, but I can reveal some of the blog tour stops now.  More fine-tuning will be reported on soon, but here’s the schedule so far -
1 March: The Unfinished Bookshelf
2 March: Behind the Pages
3 March: Fictional Thoughts
4 March: Speculating on Specfic
5 March: Genie in a Book
6 March: YA Midnight Reads
7 March: Delicate Eternity
8 March: Novels on the Run
9 March: The Rest is Still Unwritten
10 March: The Loony Teen Writer
Please do drop in at the tour stops and say hi (or, y’know, read the articles and reviews) – I know most bloggers enjoy it when people leave a comment or two!  Some of the tour stops will involve giveaways as well, so if you’d like a chance to win a copy of the book, keep a lookout.  I’ll be doing a giveaway of the book here, as well, sometime in the next few weeks.
And you’re coming to the Every Move launch party, right?  I hope you are, if you live in Melbourne (or especially if you’re coming from afar), because me and Adele Walsh would love to see you – remember, it’s at Readings Carlton in Lygon St, on Monday 16 March from 6-8pm.  I’m trying to think up some nice food to give people who have gone to the trouble to come, because I don’t reckon corn chips and strawberries will cut it this year…should I go the kabana and cheese platter?  I know some folks who would like cake too (*cough* Allen and Unwin team *cough*), so I’m gonna aim for variety J
Anyway, I hope you’re having a good week, and if you have any catering suggestions, please leave a comment below!  Take care –
Xx Ellie

EVERY MOVE BOOK LAUNCH OMG OMG FLAILY HANDS

Hi again!  Okay, are you ready?  Here we go…
Please join me, and special host  Adele Walsh, for the launch of Every Move, the finale in the Every series!  The launch will be at Readings Carlton (Lygon Street, Melbourne – see map) from 6-8pm on Monday 16 March 2015.


There will be feasting, speechifying, book signing, general silliness, and probably my kids running around like dervishes.  All ages gig, nibbles (nicer than last year! I promise!), drinks on the house, a door prize giveaway, and Adele and me have sworn a sacred oath not to make speeches that are too long or boring.  Maybe if I can get just a bit more organised, I will make a cake.  If you’re round and about in Melbourne, please feel welcome to come along.  We’d love to see you!
If you’re on Facebook, you can join up here; otherwise, please RSVP to Readings Carlton on:  (03) 9347 6633  so we how know much booze food and stuff to buy.  I hope you can make it!

There is no other news that is more exciting.  I mean, I got a new phone tree for my son’s class, and my parents are coming to visit, but the part-ay is the big news, baby.
But I should mention that I received my author copies of Every Move – new books always smell so nice! – and copies have gone out to bloggers and reviewers for the upcoming blog tour. Which means that right now, people are reading the book.   So I am remaining calm, yes, very calm *hyperventilates*
Anyway, I’m supposed to be writing this very second!  So please remember to come along to the launch, if you’re able, and have a most excellent week.  I will tell you about the blog tour as soon as I have more info.

Xx Ellie

Every Move, PTSD, and the deep breath in

First, I have to say I’m excited.  Like, hugely.  Every Move is about to be released into the wild – uh, I mean, the world – and it’s thrilling to know that in a few short weeks, people will be reading it.
It’s also NERVE-WRACKING, like whoah.  I don’t think I’ve been this nervous for a book release before – I don’t think I was even this nervous with Every Breath.  I’m worried that readers won’t like it, or won’t find it a satisfying conclusion to a series in which they’ve invested time and love.  I’m worried about typos (every book has ‘em.  Me and Sophie tried our utmost, but like head lice, they’re really really hard to thoroughly eradicate.).   I’m worried about the spicy bits – I’ve tried to judge it right, but I can’t cover all folks’ comfort levels.  I’m worried about what reviewers will say (I know! I shouldn’t read them!  But I can’t help it).
So, yeah – stress.  Nerves.  But exciting ones.
Speaking of stress, there was one thing I wanted to talk about before the book came out: it’s the subject of Rachel’s PTSD.  I think it’s pretty clear, from the blurb on the back of the book, that Rachel has had a reaction to all the trauma she went through in Every Word.  Which stands to reason, yeah?  She and Mycroft had a pretty horrifying time in London. 
I’ve always tried to be true to the characters in the series: that’s been really important to me, that it’s obvious to the reader that chasing after murderers and hunting down clues isn’t totally risk-free.  It’s a fictional world, but I’ve tried to keep it real.  I haven’t glossed over the danger, or the injuries that both Rachel and Mycroft have copped in the series.
They both carry some physical scars.  But in Every Move, Rachel is suffering some of the psychological effects of those experiences.  Safe to say – without spoilers – that she is still having a rough time many weeks after England, and is exhibiting a lot of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder symptoms.  Mycroft too, although he is coping with it in a demonstrably different way.  I wanted it to be clear that Rachel and Mycroft are just ordinary kids, who’ve experienced something terrible and have a reaction to that.  There’s no way I was going to just write it like ‘ok, we solved that one, la-li-la, now everything’s fine!’  In real life, it wouldn’t be fine.  In Every Move, it’s definitely not fine.
At this point, I need to credit someone here for some help, someone who (unfortunately, and my deep apologies) didn’t get a credit in the Acknowledgements.  Braiden Asciak – who is, I have to say, a superstar - provided me with some fantastically useful info on PTSD and how it’s diagnosed and treated.
PTSD sufferers display some classic symptoms, and I’m gonna detail them right here: recurrent distressing memories, recurrent distressing dreams, disassociative reactions (flashbacks), intense psychological distress in response to cues, marked physiological reactions to cues, persistent negative emotional state and exaggerated negative beliefs about oneself/others, diminished interest in significant activities, irritable/reckless/self-destructive behaviour and emotional outbursts, and hypervigilance.
These are only a few of the issues around the disorder.  It was my job in Every Move to write Rachel as coping with the problem, and hopefully finding her way out of it. 
There are readers out there who will find Rachel’s struggle difficult to read.  I wanted to say that I didn’t include ‘trigger warnings’ with this book, for a couple of reasons.  One is that they’re not in common use in print publishing – in Australia, or anywhere else that I know of.  Two is that I’m with Roxane Gay on this issue: I don’t think that trigger warnings are useful.  They provide the illusion of safety.  Just about anything is a trigger for somebody.  It’s clear from the Every Move blurb that the issue comes up.  I will trust the reader to make the decision about what they’re okay to read.  In the end, no one can make that assessment and decision except the reader themselves.
I also wanted to point out that there are no links at the end of the book to PTSD support organisations.  I did suggest it, but again, it’s something not frequently done in Australian fiction.  But I’m getting in touch with organisations like Beyond Blue, SANE Australia, ReachOut (for teenagers and children), and headspace (the National Youth Mental Health Foundation) to let them know the book is coming out, and that it deals with the issue.
Something else I wanted to say is that I’ve experienced PTSD myself.  My partner and I lived in Indonesia for a long time, and we lived and worked in Jakarta during the fall of President Soeharto in 1998-99.  It was a period of dreadful political and social upheaval.  We didn’t live in a gated expat enclave, but in an apartment building right in the middle of the one of the most riot-prone areas of the city.
I was working at an international school at the time: all my students and I had overnight bags in a locker in case we couldn’t leave, after a nearby school’s bus was overturned and set on fire one afternoon – all the kids made it out, thank god.  I rang my partner every day to find out if the roads were clear of riots, so I could make it home.  I rode a motorbike, and needed to know if I would have to dodge rocks, Molotov cocktails, military forces or angry crowds.  My partner and I were at home on the day a large contingent of tertiary students staged a protest march along our main road.  Military forces fired on that rally, and many students were killed – and we watched it all happen, hiding behind the concrete balcony of our apartment.
It was not a good time.  It was a horrible time, and when we finally left the country, we were heartsore and traumatised.  The country we loved to be in was tearing itself to pieces.
We left Indonesia and went to India, for a six-month hiatus.  Unfortunately we arrived in the middle of Diwali.  The constant explosion of firecrackers made both us edgy.  We jumped at loud noises, and had bad dreams.  We recovered to a large extent, but it’s still a time of my life I remember with a great deal of anxiety.  Typing this out now, my hands are shaking.  When I try to explain it to people, they look at me like I’m joking, like it’s exaggerated recall, or something I saw once in a movie.  But it was real, and I still get a reaction to the memory.
These experiences made me try really hard to do justice to Rachel’s story in Every Move.  I hope I’ve gotten it right.  How does Rachel find her way through?  Well, I guess you’ll have to read the book to find out :)  But I do hope that it strikes a chord with some readers who need to know that it’s possible to recover.
Phew!  Okay, it was great to have a chance to talk about things before the book comes out.  I hope you like the book, and I’d like to say again a huge thank you to all of you, especially all the readers out there who’ve come this far on the journey with me and Rachel and Mycroft.  I’m feeling the love!  Now I better get back to writing (I’m getting there on the new MS), and I’ll be in touch again very soon to let you know about the Every Move launch party (probably March 16 – that’s gonna be the next post) and the upcoming blog tour.
Have a good week, good luck to everyone who’s back at school, and hooray for March!
Xx Ellie