Ellie Marney's Blog, page 28

Season to celebrate

 So much of my life at the moment is dictated by seasonal variations.  It’s August here, in north-central Victoria, which means while we’re no longer in the dark heart of winter, we’re still longing for the nights to be shorter, the sun to shine more regularly, the frost not to bite so hard.  I’m still scraping ice off the windscreen of the car most mornings.  Life involves a bit more work – cutting wood, bringing in wood, keeping the fire going, getting wet clothes to dry inside, keeping the power up to the house by running the generator.  I’m just glad we don’t have to deal with shovelling snow.  Being off the grid always means you commit to doing that little bit extra to keep things going smoothly, and winter is make-work time.
It also means that I’m working outside in the dark mornings in the cold again, which isn’t traditionally all that great for my health.  Might have to see about investing in some heating for the shed next year, now I’m spending so much time here…
It’s also the busiest time of year to be a writer, in my state at least.  Melbourne Writers Festival is on, as well as Book Week, and these two celebrations of words and writing always coincide with other local and interstate festivals (Bendigo, Ballarat, Brisbane – all the B’s!) and book launches.  School visits are hot to trot at this time too.  In the most recent Vic Writers magazine, Kate Holden talks about how now is a time for writers to get out and enjoy the fruits of their labours – this is the season for celebrating, listening to other writers, enjoying the company of compadres, kicking up heels!  It’s a peek out of the writer’s cave, even for a little while.
It’s not a great time to be trying to write or edit, but I’m doing both!  Right now I’m smack bang in the middle of serious (as opposed to non-serious) edits and rewrites for Every Move.  The Book I Want to Write Next has taken a bit of a back seat, but I’ve been thinking and mulling over it heaps, and I’m hoping to get into the writing next month.  While I love editing (don’t laugh, it’s true!), I love the feeling of sinking into a story more, so I’m hanging out for the time I can put aside other things – even celebrations – and spend hours locked away, bringing new characters into the world.
But I said it’s a celebratory season – and I’ve got a lot to celebrate this year.  Every Word has flown the coop, and people have been writing to say they’re loving it, which makes me incredibly happy.  The books are set to be released in Canada, the US and the Philippines in Sept/October, and then in the UK in early 2015.  Reviews have started trickling in, and I’m excited to see how people overseas relate to Rachel and Mycroft’s Melbourne adventures.
Every Breath is going great guns too – in fact, I’m in the wonderful position of having a book that is now listed for three major awards.  Every Breath has been longlisted for the Gold Inky, through the Centre for Youth Literature, which is a major honour as it’s an award judged by teenagers (ie, people who my work is actually aimed at!).  It’s also nominatedfor the Sisters in Crime Davitt Award, which is the national women crime writers’ award – I’m going to a dinner at the end of the month where I’ll meet up with awesome friends (I get to meet Rebecca James!  Finally – after we’ve tweeted silly stuff to each other for about a year) and hear the announcement.  Biggest of all is that Every Breath has beenshortlisted for the 2014 Ned Kelly Award for Best First Fiction – that is a big deal, and I am as shocked as anyone that I made the list!
Amazed and thrilled and gob-smacked – that’s how I feel right now.  To be honest, the field in all three awards is so very strong that I’ve got no expectations of going further in any of them, but it’s incredible to be listed!  Thankfully my family is used to me being a bit silly, so they’re not phased at all.  They’re very good at reminding me to stay focused on what’s happening right now (‘I want breakfast!’ – ‘Where’s my socks?’ – ‘He keeps stealing my Lego!’ etc), so I don’t get too carried away with nerves and excitement…  Okay, I’m a bit excited, but I’m still making scrambled eggs and bacon at 7.30am, y’know?  I still have to keep my head in the game – the Game of Life, yo – and I still have to keep working and writing.
But if you’re interested, here’s the links for all three awards, and also for the panels I’ll be on at both Melbourne Writers Festival and Adelaide Emerging Writers Festival over the next few weeks:
At MWF - with Lili Wilkinson: 'Plotting the Perfect Crime Novel'At MWF - with Jen Storer: 'Changing Places'At Emerging Writers Festival, Adelaide - with Adele Walsh: 'Why YA? Writing and Reading YA Fiction'
Finally, as I get back into the right frame of mind to start writing something new, I’m seeking out inspiration from all over the place – music, conversations, online news, other people’s writing, photos and images, television, delicious meals, interactions in the day-to-day.  I keep trying to remind myself that writing is about sliding down inside yourself to find the kernel of what Lee Kofman calls (in this wonderful article) emotional honesty that will ring true in the next sentence you write, the next character you develop, the next plot twist you explore the corners of.  It’s about that ‘Ah!’ moment - the moment that writers aspire to create, and readers latch onto as a moment of real authenticity – and it’s what I’m aiming for, or trying to aim for, in everything I write.  It’s also hard as hell, so I have to get my head on straight to do it!  So if you see me wandering around, acting a little vague between now and December…yeah, you get it!
Anyway, hope you’re going good, wherever you are reading this – dark of winter or summer’s end – and maybe I’ll see you at MWF, or in Adelaide, or somewhere else around the traps.  Have a good week, and if you’re in north-central Vic, stay warm!

Xx Ellie

Every Word playlist, and I can’t believe we went camping!

In the rain and snow!  In July!  But hey, we did.  It’s school holidays, you’re supposed to do crazy stuff like that.  Well, maybe not that crazy.  But it was great!  I saw and played in and skied on solid snow for the first time in my life.  I fell down and lot and got a damp bum.  I had a good time, which is funny cos I was dreading it.
Much like book release periods – I dread being so busy that I can’t write, and I feel drained and exhausted afterwards, but I have a strangely fun time.  Now that Every Word is out there, fending for itself, I feel oddly unoccupied.  Wah!
Anyhoo, just for the feels, here’s something I promised I’d post up: the Every Word playlist.  These are the songs that inspired me during the writing of certain scenes, or just seemed to ear-worm me at different times while I was writing the book, and gave the writing a heartbeat.
Prytania – Mute Math: For the opening credits.  Something about this ‘shaka-shaka’ song really reminded me of Rachel and Mycroft’s whole journey for this book.
Rocksteady – The Bloody Beetroots: For the roller derby scene, obvs.
Gold on the Ceiling – The Black Keys: Mycroft’s current Black Keys fave – he always has a Black Keys song on the hop.
Lay Your Love on Me – Racey: For the hot make-out scene in Mycroft’s room.  I changed my mind a few times about this song, because I thought it was too daggy.  But you know, Mycroft is kind of daggy, in an off-beat way.  What finally convinced me in the end were the lyrics: ‘Every word you say/ every move you make now…’
Wide Load – Ainslie Wills:  This is a beautiful, mournful song of regret by a Ballarat singer-songwriter, and it set the mood perfectly for the scene where Rachel sees Mycroft through the window of his room, late at night.
London Calling – The Clash: Arriving in London.  What else could you use?  Plus, Mycroft mentions the Clash specifically during one of those hair-raising drives with Professor Walsh.
Royals – Lorde: In the Underground tunnel, before Alicia and Rachel visit the Sherlock Holmes museum. This song was soo big while I was in London, omg, it was played everywhere. 
Fine Shrine – Purity Ring : This is for Rachel, swimming back to consciousness after a (no spoilers!) traumatic event.  It sounds like a bubblegum pop song that’s been warped and turned inside out so you can see the entrails – which is a lot like I imagined Rachel would feel at that point.
Burning Down the House – Talking Heads: This song would not leave me alone during the writing of Every Word.  Honestly, it’s addictive – try it.
Stay – Rihanna: Out in the yard, before the final scene of the book.  Mentioned on p:327.
Straight Lines – Silverchair : Another song that ear-wormed me.  Consider it a final credits song – for me, it’s about trying to be good and find a balance in your life.
There you go!  Hope you like these tunes, and maybe they’ll give you a little perspective on where I was at while I was writing the book.  I’d like to say thank you too, to all the people who’ve written in, and posted reviews, and gotten in touch through Twitter and Facebook to say they’re loving Every Word.  That makes me incredibly happy.
The Goodreads giveaway has wound up – congratulations to the three winners, from the US, Canada, and Great Britain!  I’ll be sending your copies of Every Word through this week.  Thanks to everyone who participated in comps and giveaways on the blog tour, and again, special thanks to the book bloggers who supported the tour.  Hugs.
Over the next few weeks, I’m going to keep you updated about the progress of Every Move, which I know people are keen to hear about (it’s going to the printers in November – that’s the current timeline, at any rate), and I might even have time soon to put up a new Crime Report interview, which is something I’ve been rather slack about.  Until then, hope you’re doing okay – the weather here is truly miserable and cold (I can’t believe we went camping!), with drips all down the windows, and mud on the front step.  We’re keeping the house fire stoked high, and drying our socks that way.  Hope the weather is better for you, wherever you might find yourself, and have a good week!
Xx Ellie

Behind the scenes

Holidays!!  Yay, we are on holidays!!  You know what that means – yes, we get to have sleep-ins in the morning, and no school lunches, and no mad rush after school pick up to get to extra-curricular activities.  We can just chill at home!  Read books!  Wear pajamas all day! (well I don’t usually wear my pajamas all day, but my writing clothes are kind of pajama-like: trackie pants and ugg boots)  But first of all, we’ll have a nice big round of cleaning the house, so it’s in a fit state for the next few weeks of lazing about and flopping on the couch and so on.
I celebrated the first weekend of the school hols by going to Sydney.  It was a bit crazy – Friday was a mega day, with a 4.30am start for the plane, and then a bus trip out to Crow’s Nest to say hi to the Allen & Unwin crew, before a full afternoon of touring around bookshops.  I met some lovely booksellers, and signed a lot of copies of Every Word and Every Breath.  I even met some fans, and book bloggers, and had a great – if exhausting – time.  I also bought some awesome books.  There were an awful lot of books I wanted to buy but didn’t – honestly, I was really proud of myself for being so restrained.
In this blog post I wanted to tell you about the kind of behind-the-scenes stuff that you don’t think about when a book is released.  You’ve written your Amazing Manuscript Made of Gold, and then by some strange alchemical process, it gets turned into a book – a real book, on a real shelf, in a real bookshop.  But such a lot of work goes on behind the scenes to make that happen.
While I was in Sydney, I met a few of the team members that are involved in the book-alchemy process – Liz, the Head of children’s publishing at A&U, and Theresa, who sorts out the marketing of my books, and Clare, the new children’s and YA publicist, who's about to dive into the massive task that Lara, my previous publicist (bless you, Lara!) is moving on from.  We all sat around and ate cake together (such delicious cakes, mmm…), and talked about Every Word’s reception out in the real world, and plans for the series as a whole.
They represented a whole super-group of people who put their energies behind your book as it comes out of its manuscript state - a butterfly from a cocoon - and into a form that people like to pick up and hold, and hopefully take home with them.  That super-group is made up of cover designers, marketing boffins, sales reps, finance managers, advertising organisers, and trend trackers. Without them, the Every series would just be mouldering away in obscurity on my computer.  Withthem, the books become something recognisable and real.
A lovely sales rep called Michelle took me by the hand and - in an amazing display of endurance and people-skills - drove me all over Sydney to visit bookstores, sign books, and talk to booksellers.  That took six hours, and gave me a lot of insight into the book-selling process, as well as infinite respect for Michelle, who does this every day.  Michelle knew everyone by name, and I realised that it’s her friendliness and tenacity and book-love that actually helps get the Every series into shops, and into readers’ hot little hands.  Michelle and I had a grand time chatting about books, TV (we both lurve Hannibal, and want one of those shirts that says ‘Someone please help Will!’), and life in general.  She was an absolute doll, and mainlined me coffee when I really needed it.  Plus, she knew every sneaky parking spot in Sydney.  Michelle – respect.
Then there are book bloggers and book tubers, who do an incredible – and unpaid! – amount of work to review ALL THE BOOKS (so many books they must surely have trouble keeping up) and create a buzz about them out in the online world, and by extension the real world.  I met Mandee, the Bookish Manicurist, and Sunny, from A Sunny Spot blog, who amazed me with their zeal.  Many online reviewers are young, and holding down study or other jobs, on top of their blogging/tubing commitments.  They do it because they love the books, and it’s a pretty awe-inspiring effort.
I just thought you’d like to know that a whole lot of work by many many people goes into the creation of a traditionally published book.  It’s not a solo process, at all, and once the manuscript leaves my hands, it flutters around the offices of heaps of lovely folks, all of whom have input into bringing the best possible book to you, the readers.  I’d like to say a huge Thank You to everyone who’s played a part in bringing the Every series to life – such a lot of tireless hard work by others is involved in bringing mydream into reality, and I’m immensely grateful.  Special thanks to Lara Wallace, who is an amazing publicist and has always been there to hold my hand - Lara, I will miss you!
Okay – a couple more things.  First, the Every Word Goodreads giveaway (see linkie-link at right) is about to end.  More than 580 people have entered so far, and if you’re quick as a wink, you can too.  Good luck!
Second, I’m going to be appearing at Death in July, the women crime writers festival in Ballarat on 4-5thJuly.  I’m attending the first night keynote address by my mate (who launched Every Word), Angela Savage.  Then I’ll be on a panel on Saturday with Simmone Howell and Nansi Kunze, where we’ll get to talk about YA crime – first panel discussion on this topic that I’ve ever heard of, so far as I know, so hey, come and check it out - plus a special morning tea launch of Every Word.  Here’s a link for bookings - if you’d like to come along and heckle, I’d love to see you there.
That’s it.  I’m gonna try to update more frequently now I’m on hols, and I think the next post will be on the Every Word playlist…  Until then, have a good week, stay warm (it’s 6 degrees here), and take care!
Xx Ellie

Desert Island Blog - I mean, Books

Hi again, welcome to the second last week of June.  Freaky, huh?  The year is almost halfway over.  We will be on school holidays in ten sleeps.  Sooner than that will be the winter solstice, the longest night of the year in this hemisphere.  The days seem to be rushing to a close lately, and we’re going through firewood at a rate of knots.  Here I am again in the early hours of the morning, writing while the world is dark outside.
I don’t exactly long for summer, at this point of the year, but I do miss sunnier days.  And I had to answer a question recently about my most significant books, the ones that have touched my life and work, which made me think of desert island books.  You know – books that you would take with you to a desert island (or smuggle in during a long stint in solitary confinement, or run back to save in a housefire).  Except my version of a desert island would have glorious white sand, and those nice Adirondack chairs, and maybe a cocktail bar somewhere close at hand…which I guess is not what the ‘desert island’ concept really includes, but hey, if it’s my island I can do what I want.  I saw a picture recently of a beach with its own lending library – now that is my kind of beach.
Anyway, the books. Here’s what I came up with.  It’s a weird list:
The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas HarrisThe Chrysalids by John WyndhamThe Complete Worksof William ShakespeareThe Handmaid’s Taleby Margaret AtwoodThe Wandergroundby Sally M GearhartCarrie by Stephen KingThe Outsiders by Susie Hinton
You notice a few things straight away (apart from the fact that they almost all have ‘The’ in the title).  They are all older books – ie, of a certain era.  I read most of them for the first time as a teenager, so the era is primarily 60s-80s, which makes sense given I’m a child of that era.  They are almost all ‘genre’ books – no matter that some, like King, have entered the canon purely on the basis of career longevity (consistent popularity being the mere icing on the cake), and some authors, like Wyndham, have always had a certain cache.  Of the six books, three are science fiction (or speculative fiction, I guess you’d say), one is crime, one is horror, and one is YA.  Two of the books are overtly feminist.Shakespeare is the only ‘classic’ text, and his inclusion is pretty much a no-brainer.
Only one YA book, huh?  But I read all of them as a teenager (except for Atwood and Gearhart, who I read in my early twenties), during an era when YA was an almost completely unheard-of term.  In my teens, if you wanted to read, you read adult books (which is how I came to read Jaws by Peter Benchley – lurid sex scenes and all – at twelve).  There were fewer restrictions (or ‘guidelines’, if you like) on what was acceptable for a teenage audience then, because the audience for every book – until Susie Hinton came along – was assumed to be adult.  If you couldn’t handle the language, you searched for something easier.  Apart from Hinton, the only people bridging that gap were authors like Roald Dahl, who wrote across age ranges.  If you didn’t like it, you could slink off home and read Charlotte’s Web for the fortieth time.
It’s weirdly embarrassing to list your favourite books.  I guess you always think that people will judge you, or your work, on the basis of it.  It’s always tempting to include a few ‘grand literature’ titles – oh yes, Of Mice and Men had a profound impact on me, or Certainly, I’ve read The Brothers Karamazov simply oodles – but that would be lying.  Of Mice and Men is an awesome book, but it never kept me up at night.  All of the books on this list have kept me up at night, whether it was through wonder, or terror, or some poignant tone that moved me deep, or just the fact that I loved the writing so much I couldn’t stop thinking about it.
If you would like to list your desert island books and tell me about them, I’d feel honoured.
And now to news and events, ahem.  Yes, we had a Melbourne launch for Every Word!   It was lovely, and thank you all over again to the people who came on the night.  Readings Carlton were wonderful, Angela Savage did an amazing job as the host, and cracked me up by challenging me to read out one of the pashing scenes in Every Word in front of the audience, an idea which I found mind-boggling and blushingly declined.

I also received some incredible reviews this week.  The Tales Compendium, YA Midnight Reads, The Rest is Still Unwritten and Novels on the Run all posted gorgeous reviews of Every Word.  What had me most excited though was that Amie Kaufman, the Aussie co-author of These Broken Stars, wrote a glowing review of Every Breath and posted it on Pub Crawl.  I was pretty blown away by that, because I loved These Broken Stars, and it’s always so nice to get a pat on the back from another author, someone whose work you enjoy and admire.  So I’m still kinda floaty about that :)
So I mentioned events, right?  We are having another party!  The local launch of Every Word, the Castlemaine Big Bash, is happening in the Castlemaine Library at 6pm this Friday 20 June.  The library is having me in early for a reading and Q&A event at 5pm, and the launch will dovetail straight into that event, so come for both sessions or one, but please do come!  If you’re in town, it’d be wonderful to see you.
I also mentioned I’d be in Sydney soon – well, after a bit of organising by the lovely Lara Wallace, Allen & Unwin publicist and all-round awesome chick, it’s been decided that I will be dropping in at a number of bookstores on the Friday I arrive, so I can sign stock.  I won’t be staying in any one place for long, but the last stop on the bookstore-hop will be Kinokuniya.  So I will be at Kinokuniya Sydney from 4.30pm on Friday 27 June , ready to sign books or just have a chat.  If you’re in Sydney and you’d like to drop by and say hello, I would love to see you :)

Before that, I will also be appearing at the Wheeler Centre in Melbourne, for their Next Big Thing gig on Monday 23 June at 6.15pm - you can go book here, it should be a lot of fun.  Today I'm visiting Castlemaine Secondary College (in about half an hour!) and Wendouree Library on Wed 25 June - contact that library for more details.
Until then, have a great week!  Maybe see you at the Big Bash on Friday, if not, catch you round town sometime.
xx Ellie

A Most Especially Very Good Day

It is a most especially very good day when you finally see your book out on the shelves.
Every Word has been released into the wild, and it's an amazing thing.  I have to say it’s a very strange feeling, seeing your book looking all book-like on a shelf in a shop – it always spins me out a little, in a good way (a very good way!) to know that people are seeing and reading the book for the first time.  For some reason this second book process has produced a swirl of nerves, rather distinct and different from Every Breath.  I suppose it’s to do with anxiety about what people will think – will they enjoy it as much as the first book?  Does it meet people’s expectations and standards?  Maybe that’s something you feel particularly with a series, because you want to do the characters and the whole show justice, and you hope like hell that people will think you’ve matched the heights (or lows, or whatever) of the first book.

I’m going to put my worries aside for the moment though, because Every Word seems to be making people happy – early reviews are starting to come in, and they’ve been very complimentary (relief!), and if you'd like to read some of the nice things folks are saying, have a look:
Birdee MagNovels on the RunThe Bookish ManicuristAlphaReaderWritten Word Worlds
And I did a guest post here at Speculating on Spec Fic, in which I talk a bit about the process of writing the series, and here at Cereal Readers, answering some questions about the book.  There are giveaways on at most of these websites too, if you're keen to have a go at winning a copy.
I've got some lovely things of my own to give away - check this out!
Yes, these little beauties are library bags, and they will be on hand at the Every Word launch in Melbourne (Readings Carlton, Thursday 12 June, 6.30pm - come along!) and at the Castlemaine Bash at the library on Friday 20 June 6pm - I'll be giving them away as door prizes, and it will be fun to see people walking around town with their EW library bags!
I'll also have them with me when I go wandering...yes, I'm going to Sydney!  I'm quite excited about that.  I'll be visiting Sydney from Friday 27 June until Sunday 29 June, to see my publisher (they all want cake! so demanding!) and to drop in at some bookshops and sign copies of the book.  I'm hoping to set up a time and place where I can meet up with people who are keen to come and have a chat, so if you let me know your favourite bookshop, I might be able to accommodate you there.

What else has been happening...well, I've been spending a lot of time online and my husband is about ready to throw my phone in the dam again (please don't! I just got a new one that doesn't over-heat...) and I've been working my other job (yes, you have to have one of those), and spending a bit of quality time with my boys.  I've also been editing Every Move, which is quite exciting - and heart-breaking sometimes, but I try not to angst too much about that - and I've started watching Hannibal, a rather creepy show adapted from Thomas Harris's magnificent book, The Silence of the Lambs (tip: don't watch Hannibal while you're eating dinner).

If you're a student of Castlemaine Secondary College - hey, I'm coming to see you!  I'll be at CSC Literature Festival on 18 June, running a workshop on plotting the perfect crime.  I'm also going to be speaking at the Wheeler Centre on Monday 23 June, and popping in at Wendouree library on Wednesday 25 June before the exciting trip to Sydney, and the equally exciting Death in July Festival of women's crime writing in Ballarat in (you guessed in) July.  See you there!
I'd like to do a new post soon on the songlist for Every Word - it definitely has a songlist - and a bit about my all-time favourite books, but until then, hope you're all travelling well, and if you're round and about for the Every Word launch/es, please do come along :)
xx Ellie

EVERY WORD Blog Tour

Hi folks!  Just a quickie update to let you know about the Every Word blog tour, which has started right now - as in today!  There'll be giveaways, interviews, guest posts and more, so if you're keen to follow Every Word's progress through the blogosphere, go check it out:

EVERY WORD NATIONAL BLOG TOUR – MAY 28 TO JUNE 27
http://speconspecfic.com/, guest post and giveaway, 28-05-2014 
www.writtenwordworlds.wordpress.com, review and giveaway, 28-05-2014
www.alphareader.blogspot.com, interview and giveaway competition, 02-06-2014
www.asupersunnyspot.blogspot.com, review and giveaway competition, 02-06-2014
http://www.cerealreaders.blogspot.com.au/, interview, 03-06-2014
www.novelsontherun.blogspot.com, review and giveaway competition, 05-06-2014
http://aussieownedandread.com, interview and review, 11-06-2014
http://www.thetalescompendium.com, review, 11-06-2014
http://theyabooklover.blogspot.com.au/, review and giveaway competition, 16-05-2014
http://rachybee-the-rest-is-still-unwritten.blogspot.com.au/, review and giveaway competition, 17-06-2014
http://www.fictionalthoughts.com, interview, 20-06-2014
http://yamadness.blogspot.com.au/, review, 30-06-2014


And in related news, we've confirmed that yes, there will be a nice little party here in Castlemaine to celebrate Every Word's release, and to thank all the friends who've given me a leg up over the past year :) The party will be at Castlemaine Library on Friday 20 June, and it'll kick off at 5pm with a reading and Q&A, plus a giveaway draw, and then we'll all move out to the Library foyer to rage on after 6pm... Champagne may well be involved, and definitely cake!  And I have some sweet magnets and library bags to hand out as door prizes...  If you're in town that night, please feel free to come along :)

(and yeah, that's me and my two youngest boys - no champagne for them, but they're excited about the cake!)

xx Ellie

GIVEAWAY WINNER & CRIME REPORT - Guest Post: Angela Savage

Hi folks, I've been battling our WOEFUL - let me just repeat that, WOEFUL - internets for the last few days, but I'm finally able to tell you who won the Every Word giveaway, phew!
So without further ado...Elspeth La Morte, congratulations!  You've won the first prize of two signed books - Every Breath and brand spankin' new-Every Word, as well as a handy magnifying glass! (very useful at crime scenes).  Please contact me at elliemarney[at]gmail[dot]com with your mailing details, and I will send off your lovely package :)
And...because my kids couldn't stand the idea of only pulling one name out of the hat, they came up with the idea of a second prize!  Ha!  So...SA Jeffrey, you have won the consolation prize of an Every Word fridge magnet (it's very pretty), and badges and stickers.  Again, please contact me at the email above to receive your winnings!

Now I know it’s been a while since I had a friend over to visit for the YA Crime Report, but it's been darn hard - there just aren't enough people in the world writing YA Crime!  But I've been hankering for a visitor to share cuppas and cake with, so it’s with great delight that I introduce a good mate of mine, Angela Savage.
Angela writes crime for adults (which we won’t hold against her), but she’s been in the crime biz for a long time.  She won the 2004 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an unpublished manuscript for her first book, Behind the Night Bazaar.  She’s also won the Scarlet Stiletto Award, and been shortlisted twice for the Ned Kelly Awards, and her central character, Jayne Keeney, is a kickbutt detective.  Angela’s going to be standing up for me at the Every Word launch, as we send the next part of Rachel and Mycroft’s adventures out into the world, so I thought I’d like to introduce her!
Angela and I first got to know each other through Sisters in Crime, and through our similar experiences living and travelling in Asia for long periods of time.  She’s released three books – Behind the Night Bazaar, The Half Child, and most recently, The Dying Beach – featuring the cool, hard-drinking, Thai-speaking detective Jayne Keeney.  All of her books have an amazing sense of location, with lush gorgeous backdrops in Thailand, and an incredible understanding of local culture and custom.  Her books have a consistent theme of social justice, and plenty of action and wit to keep you furiously turning pages.
So please put your hands together for the lovely Angela Savage!!
Hi Angela, welcome to the blog!  How’s things going over your way?
Thanks Ellie. It’s great to be here. All’s well over my way. If I could just squeeze a few more hours out of every day, things would be perfect.
What was it – a book, a detective, an author – that first turned you on to crime writing?
I have to confess that I didn’t set out to write crime fiction. My first attempt at a novel was a thinly disguised autobiographical account of the adventures of a twenty-something Australian woman in Laos in the early 1990s. Big on textual detail but light on plot. I’d turned to short story writing as a way of honing my plotting skills, when a friend alerted me to the Sisters in Crime Scarlet Stiletto Awards. This was 1998 and I submitted a story called ‘The Mole on the Temple’ about an Australian expatriate PI based in Bangkok investigating a classic card swindle. The story won third prize, at which point I started thinking about writing crime fiction.
The more I thought about it, the more I realised crime was the perfect genre for the ideas I wanted to explore. Cultural misunderstandings are a rich vein for dramatic tension as well as humour, and working cross-culturally is a lot like being a detective. An outsider is always trying to figure out the big picture from a small set of clues, to distinguish a reliable source from one trying to take them for a ride, and searching for meanings lost in translation.
Besides, I’d always enjoyed reading crime fiction. Some of my favourite authors at the time – whose work I consider influential on my early efforts – include Sara Paretsky, Carol O’Connell, Michael Dibdin and Martin Cruz Smith.
Jayne is a great character – cool-headed, tough, intelligent, plus she can drink hard men under the table, and she has a passionate, justice-driven side.  I’m often asked if Rachel Watts, my character in the Every series, is anything like me, and the answer is always (has to be) ‘a little bit’.  So how much of Jayne is in you?
Hah! I actually wrote a post about whether Jayne Keeney and I would get along if we met. I know a lot of readers see Jayne as me (it was a mistake to give her black curly hair like mine but, at the time, I couldn’t imagine myself inside the head of a blonde). And we certainly have things in common – love of Southeast Asia, for example, as well as taste in crime fiction. But Jayne is less idealistic and much tougher than me.
How much research do you do for your novels?  Did you have to make another trip to Thailand to get the details right for The Dying Beach?
I do a lot of research for my novels. I read about Thai politics, culture, geography and language. I research technical aspects of crimes, too, such as whether a bottle would break when it connects with a skull (rarely) and how to assess whether someone has died from deliberate or accidental drowning (very difficult).
I’m also a firm believer in the value of field research. I first got the idea for the novel that became The Dying Beach while on holiday in Krabi in 2009, and I returned with the family in tow in 2011 expressly to do field research for the book. That my commitment to research requires me to travel to exotic tropical destinations is just one of many ways I suffer for my art.
Something I noticed about your books is that not only are your locations real, and the experiences of your detective, Jayne Keeney, authentic, but – just like real life – the resolutions of your stories aren’t always neat.  Things aren’t always resolved in a conventionally formulaic way, although justice is usually served.  Have you done that on purpose?  What other elements of the standard crime story do you like to play around with?
Great questions, Ellie. I like a degree of ambiguity in the books I read and I aim for that in what I write, too. And given the premise of an Australian expatriate working in Thailand, to my mind, there are simply too many obstacles, too many variables, to get away with neat or conventional resolutions.
I like the challenge of bending the rules of the genre, while also being aware that when you write crime fiction, you enter an unspoken pact with the reader to see that justice is served, one way or the other.
My first novel, Behind the Night Bazaar, is no whodunit: the reader knows the facts of the case early on – long before Jayne does, in fact. The suspense and drama come from the ‘whydunit’ and in finding out how justice will be served.
My second novel, The Half-Child, is more of a ‘howdunit’, while The Dying Beach is probably the closest thing I’ve written to a whodunit, complete with liberal red herrings.
I also enjoying playing with gender and cultural stereotypes. This is particularly the case in Jayne’s relationship with her business partner and lover, Rajiv Patel. She is the impulsive, obstinate, at times reckless one in the duo, Rajiv the reflective, cautious and considered partner – the Watson to her Holmes.
Who are your favourite crime authors, and why?
I like books that are political but not didactic, gripping but not gratuitous, with characters and scenarios that are credible but not predictable. Above all, I like good writing. Authors whose work meet these criteria for me include Megan Abbott, Kate Atkinson, Honey Brown, Raymond Chandler, Garry Disher, Wendy James, Adrian McKinty, Leigh Redhead and David Whish-Wilson.
Finally – and this is a bit of a self-serving question, I’ll admit! - can you tell us a little bit about the next Jayne Keeney story?  (have you thought that far ahead?) I confess I have a soft spot for Rajiv, Jayne’s boyfriend - will Jayne and Rajiv be able to sort things out, or is Jayne a bit too much woman for him to handle?
The next Jayne Keeney novel, tentatively titled A Tiger’s Heart, is set in Bangkok in 1997 during the financial crisis. I actually started writing this book after The Half-Child and got 30,000 words in before deciding this was not the third, but the fourth book in the series. So I set it aside and wrote The Dying Beach instead. Now to find the time to finish it…
Thanks so much for coming to visit Angela!  Can’t wait to see you again at the Every Word launch :)
Thanks for having me, Ellie. Special thanks for the honour of inviting me to launch your book.

 Can't wait!  Speaking of the launch (which seems to be all I'm speaking about to people at the moment), invitations are going out right this minute to the Melbourne launch for Every Word .  If you'd like to come along - and you're certainly most welcome! - it will be at Readings Carlton, on Thursday 12 June at 6.30pm.  There'll be drinks, nibbles, door prizes, readings, signings - basically the whole pavlova.  Please do come!  I'd love to see you there :)
xx Ellie

EVERY WORD UPCOMING LAUNCH AND GIVEAWAY

Salutations!  The sky is overcast with rain, and the sun is nowhere to be seen.  All the leaves in our yard need sweeping up, and we’re going through firewood faster than we can cut it, with the wood fire stove blazing to keep out the cold.  But I’m still in a good mood!
That’s because I’ve got a giveaway happening for Every Word :)  Here’s the gorgeous prize pack – I’ve got a lovely brand spanking new copy of Every Word, hot off the press, as well as a copy of the Australian edition of Every Breath, and a snazzy magnifying glass, so you can conduct your own investigations.  Very shiny!


As you know, I’m kind of an old-fashioned chick, so I’m doing it the usual old-fashioned way – if you’d like to enter the giveaway, you can do one of three things:
1. tweet me @elliemarney on Twitter, saying you’d like to enter - if you mention Every Word and give me an RT, I’ll enter you twice
2. go across to my Facebook page and comment to let me know you’re keen to enter, and I’ll put you in the hat – if you share the link to the giveaway post, you get two entries
3. leave a comment here on the blog, and into the hat you go!
Good luck to everyone who enters!  I’ll be pulling a name out of the hat (yes, it’s an actual hat, that’s the way I always do it) in two week’s time.  So check back then, and see if you got lucky!
I also wanted to let you know that Every Word is going to be launched into the world on Thursday 12 June, at 6.30pm, at Readings Carlton in Melbourne .  Woot, we’re having a party!  The fantastic Australian crime author, my Sister in Crime mate, Angela Savage, will be there to host the send-off.  There’ll be cake (there has to be cake) and balloons and champagne and door prizes on the night (not a meat tray!)  Copies of the book will be on sale, and there’ll be speeches (not too long) and signing, as well as me blushing, and a lot of general silliness.  If you’d like to join in, you’re very welcome – come and help me celebrate!  You can RSVP at Readings on 9347 6633 or just rock up on the night.
Until then, I’ll be keeping busy with visits to schools, and the Every Word blog tour is coming up very soon, which I’m totally looking forward to.  So far, there’ll be visits to blogs like Speculating on Spec Fic, The Rest is Still Unwritten, Tales of the Inner Book Fanatic, Cereal Readers, the Loony TeenWriter, Tales Compendium, BookProbe Reviews, and many others – stay tuned, and I’ll let you know when and where it’s all happening.
It’s all a bit thrilling!  I’ve been turning my beautiful copy of Every Word over in my hands and looking through it – I’m still pretty amazed that it’s a real book, and by the end of the month it’ll be up on a real shelf.  I can’t wait to share it!
All rightie then, better get back to the rest of the day.  Since the cold weather came back, we’ve started cooking roasts again – roasts!  My fingers smell like garlic and rosemary from preparing today’s.  Have a good week, and I’ll be in touch again soon :)
Xx Ellie 

Every Breath US Cover

Hi again, I hope you’re all going okay with your respective seasons.  We are nearing the end of autumn here, and all the trees have turned red and gold.  Footy time has begun again, so our indoor washing lines have been strung with once-muddy socks and footy jumpers, and it’s raining heaps.  We’ve started keeping the wood-fire stove on during the day, it’s just getting that cold.  I think it’s going to be an early winter.
I wanted to show you the beautiful US cover for Every Breath, which my Tundra editor, Sylvia, passed on recently.  It’s gorgeous, with a very dark and broody Mycroft, and fingerprints on the title, so here it is!


Every Breath will be released in Canada, North America and the Philippines in September this year, so if you live over that way, make sure to keep an eye out for it.  I’ll let you know more about the release when we’re closer to that time.
So I’m happy to tell you that I finally completed the draft of Every Move, the third book in the series.  It was a bit of a rollercoaster ride, and I did some marathon sessions at the laptop before the end – I did a nine-hour day in an artspace up at the old (de-commissioned) Castlemaine gaol, writing the finale, and then another eleven-hour stint the following day, desperately working through the ending…  You go a bit nuts when you’re writing on a deadline, I’ve discovered.  I’m very grateful to friends who saw me wandering around in my grubby trackies and ugg boots, with crazy hair and a slightly haunted expression…thanks to those people who gave me pats on the back, and encouraged me to keep going, it did make a difference!
I’m especially grateful to writer friends who told me to keep slogging, and most of all to my writing buddy, Ali Daws.  I’ve always been a bit of a lone wolf, as far as writing is concerned – I tend to hole up with my scribbled notes and my laptop, and try to nut it all out myself, and never show anyone what I’m working on.  But I found it kind of impossible to do that with this book.  I really needed someone to talk to, someone who understood the writing process, and knew and loved the characters as much as I do, just to get the final details straight in my head.  Ali was the guy who I sent draft chapters to, who read and critiqued, who gave encouragement at every turn, and who helped me brainstorm solutions to problems, and corners I had written myself into.  I’ve developed a new appreciation for writing buddies, after going through this process with him, and I certainly couldn’t have written the book without him.  Ali – respect.
So now the writing period is over.  Phew!  You’d think it’d be a good time to just sit back and chill out, and maybe watch a bit of telly, or have a nice cuppa in front of the fire and a lovely long sleep.  You’d think wrong.
Now we’re only a month away from Every Word’s release, so things are starting to hot up.  If I’ve neglected to reply to you on email lately, check your inbox – I’m slowly catching up with all my emails.  I’m going to be making badges and swag for giveaways and fun stuff like that.  I’ll be contacting booksellers and schools and libraries about the book’s publication, and maybe organising a few days to drop in and sign things (and if you’d like me to come visit your school or library or bookshop in June, when Every Word’s out, drop me a line).
And of course, I’m going to be organising the launches – there’ll be one in Melbourne in June, at Readings Carlton, and another one here in Castlemaine, to say thanks to local mates.  When I have dates and times and stuff finalised for those things, I’ll let you know.  Anybody and everybody is most welcome to come along.
I’ll be setting up a giveaway here on the blog soon too – maybe more than one - so if you’re keen, stay in touch.
Until then, stay warm and dry (or if you’re in a summery spot, stay cool!), and I’ll talk again soon!

Xx Ellie

Beginnings and Endings and Everything In Between

It’s been a crazy month.  While I’ve been gearing up for the June 1 release of Every Word, which I’m very excited about sharing with people, I’ve also been in the process of writing the third (and to my understanding, final) book in the Everyseries, Every Move.  My editor has already given me a month’s extension, when the copyediting process for Every Word ran over a little, so I’ve been busting my buns trying to get the book finished.  I know, I know, my editor would probably be okay to give me another few days, or even another week, but I like to be vaguely professional and get my manuscripts in on time.
I’ve been so busy with the writing of this book, that it didn’t occur to me until I reached this point, the nearly-end-point, that I’m about to write the ending of the series.  About to write – yes, that’s correct.  I haven’t written the final two chapters yet.  I have to admit I’ve been kind of stuck on it (don’t worry, Eva, I’m definitely going to get it finished!).  I know basically how it will end, and some of the outcomes, but I have to work out the choreography of it – how the action will all play out.
There’s a few reasons, that I can figure out, why I might be struggling with this ending bit, even though I’ve been mentally preparing myself for writing this book since halfway through the writing of Every Word.  I know exactly what the reasons are, because I had to get up in front of Simmone Howell’s RMIT YA creative writing class and talk about them (and hi to everyone from the course, this is your shout-out.  Also to Simmone, who is awesome).
The first reasons is that I’m a pantser – ie, I write by the seat of my pants, with no pre-organised plan for what’s happening or who’s going where or who’s doing what (except for the plan in my head).  I do scribble down a lot of notes, and I often go so far as to write a rough outline.  But I think I figured out some time in high school that me writing outlines is actually a kind of giant procrastination technique – see, look at my beautiful colour-coded outline!!  I wrote it on big sheets of cardboard and stuck it up on my wall to follow, and it took 3 WEEKS to write it all out, which is time I could probably have better spent WRITING THE ACTUAL BOOK, yes, I know, but see the pretty pretty??!  I actually almost never follow outlines that I write for myself, so I’m better off just ditching the outline, and writing what’s begging to be let out of my head.
But, coming back to the reason being a pantser makes it hard to finish things is…this means that I don’t know what’s going to happen next.  I swear to you right now, I do not know what will happen in the final two chapters of Every Move.  And I’m submitting next Wednesday.  I know - freaky, right?  Also – scary, because I have no idea how I will get it together between now and then (particularly scary for my editors, I imagine).  Also – holy crap, now I’m on deadline and I HAVE to think of something.  I don’t have time to mull, or muse, or wait for that bolt of inspiration from the blue, la lalalala.  I HAVE to think it up RIGHT NOW.  That is kind of stressful.  On the positive side, I'm hoping that If I can't see the way this is all going to end, then maybe when readers get it in their hot little hands, they will be kept on tenterhooks in the same way.
One of the other reasons I’m finding Every Move hard to finish is, there are lots of threads.  You know, in a book, there are plots, and subplots, and subsubplots, and characters with issues, and background happenings, and side characters that would very much like their story arc resolved now thank you.  Well, it turns out that by the end of a series you have a LOT of that stuff floating around. And you need to tie all the loose threads up (mostly).  That has taken me a while to get my head around, and also to figure out what all the threads are that actually need tying up, and then how to work them all in.
Phew.
Another reason why I’m finding it hard is – I’m tired!  I’ve been writing the Every series for the better part of five years now.  It’s become my main (not my most lucrative, but my main) job, and I’ve been working a pretty punishing schedule of inside-12 months release dates for a while now.  Producing what I hope is good quality work at that rate is tiring.  Some days I do get word strain.  My brain gets overfried.
I want to make good words!  But it’s harder do that – avoid those adverbs, reject that cliché – when you’re tired.  Still, that’s what you’ve gotta do.  Especially in a series: you owe it to your readers, your characters and yourself to keep your language and ideas fresh, keep the characters interesting, and make sure the plots are fun and twisty and as original as you can make ‘em.
I’m also doing other jobs that are related to publication and promotion of the books, like communicating with my lovely new publisher in Canada, Tundra, about the release of Every Breath in September over in North America, and also editing one book intensively while writing another, and attending speaking engagements (hi, Tintern College students, I will see you again soon!), and doing interviews, and updating my blog (oh yes, that would be this!), and a bunch of other business-y type stuff that I had no idea was part of the professional life of being a writer.  At the time I signed on with my publisher, I thought I would hand over my manuscript (oh blessed holy manuscript!) and lo and behold, that was it.  Wrong wrong wrong.  There’s a lot of housekeeping involved in being a writer, I’m discovering.
Finally, there’s one last reason why writing this ending has been a hard slog.  And it’s very simple and obvious.  Halfway through the class, after I’d waxed lyrical to Simmone’s lovely students about most of the stuff I’ve just talked about, Simmone actually turned to me and said, ‘Wow, so this is gonna be it, yeah?  You’ll have to say goodbye to the characters.’
And it really hit me.  OH MY GOD, I’M SAYING GOODBYE TO MY CHARACTERS.  These people I’ve lived with, had adventures with, talked with in my head for five years…  My invisible playmates.  My imaginary friends, who I know almost as well as I know myself.  I mean, I can tell you how James Mycroft likes to drink his tea (strong, lots of condensed milk) and his favourite band (The Black Keys), and what Rachel has in her drawers (lots of denim, flannelette shirts, t-shirts, cut-offs, only two pairs of shoes – runners or boots, a windbreaker, tank tops, thermal shirts and leggings, various undies in white cotton and four bras – two are sports bras) and how Mike always has trouble getting his hair to stay down, and what their family house looks like, and…
Maybe that’s why I’m having so much trouble writing these last few chapters.  Because I love my characters.  And even though I will have a great sense of accomplishment after writing the end of the series, and will celebrate it with champagne, and throw up my arms and yell, because I’ll be able to y’know, have a holiday, and then start on something new which I’ve had on the mental back burner for ages (it’s begging me to let it out), I will still be sad.  I will be incredibly sad when I send off the final pages to the printers on this last book, because – oh, my babies!  I love Rachel and James, and I will miss them like crazy.  I will probably do strange things like obsessively re-read all the books in a row, just like a mother who goes back over all the old baby photos…  Oh boy.  Maybe I won’t do that.

Anyway, it all comes down to this.  There’s beginnings and endings, and one book – Every Word – is about to have its beginning out there in the world, and I give it all the love and luck that’s in me. I can’t wait for people to read it, and I hope you all like it.   Another book – the final book, the last book - is about to come to an end.  Wish me luck with the writing, and I hope I do everybody justice.
xxEllie
PS: Before I start bawling into my beer, I should say that there'll be more frequent updates over the next few months, and I'm currently looking for more YA Crime-related guests to interview.  I've got a few people possibly-maybe lined up, but if you think of anyone you'd like to see quizzed here about the process of writing YA Crime - authors, experts, police, anybody - please give me a holler (ie, write me a comment, or tweet me @elliemarney)
And I'll be doing a residency at Tintern College all next month, plus I'm dropping in at Carey Grammar, but I'm also planning on popping into some bookstores to do signings and say hello, closer to Every Word's release, so keep your ears open for news.
And, the blog tour for Every Word will start at the end of May, so oh my goodness, it's all happening!  I really can't wait to share this book :) 
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