Narrelle M. Harris's Blog, page 44

Competition: What Doctor Who means to me (Win a TARDIS iPhone 4/4S case)

The TARDIS iPhone case in its box, and on my own phone

I don't really remember who my first Doctor was. I wasn't really into Doctor Who as a kid, though I watched it when my brothers did. I liked stories about ponies back then. But later, when I discovered science fiction through Star Wars, Star Trek and Blake's 7, I rediscovered Doctor Who and took a shine to Patrick Troughton. I've loved all of the Doctors to varying degrees since then, even if it did take me a while to warm to Colin Baker.

So, after 30-odd years of regular viewing, what do I see in that show? What does the Doctor mean to me?

Doctor Who means a lot of different things to me. I've learned that adventures are more fun when they are shared; that new things and new places are not always safe, but are often exciting and an opportunity to learn; and that it's important to stand up for what you believe.

As flawed as individual stories are – which is inevitable over such a long history and the constraints of it being a TV series, after all, and not a philosophy – I find that, for me, the themes of courage and valuing intelligence were consistent and influential.

You need courage to choose the unknown, to trust someone to have your back and to stand up for your beliefs. You also need courage to allow your beliefs to be challenged and to see things from another perspective. Stories with the Silurians have shown three incarnations of the Doctor urging the competing sides to attempt to share and understand, with the earliest ones making an impact on me, as did Tom Baker's contemplation on whether he had the right to destroy the Daleks, even with all the evil they had done.

I also love how the Doctor respects intellect. He encourages people who can think under pressure and, particularly in new Who, delights in people solving things before he does. It was always great seeing female characters who were active and intelligent, including many scientists. In fact, I saw a lot of strong, smart women of all ages in this series, particularly when I was younger and I didn't see a lot of them in other TV shows. Not just Barbara, Zoe, Liz and Sarah Jane, but among the supporting cast as well. Amelia Ducat in The Seeds of Doom is still a pretty good template for the kind of old lady I'd like to be. In new Who, there is the exquisite Donna Noble, and how I loved the fact that the Doctor thought her take-no-prisoners mouthiness was "brilliant!".

Despite the science often being terribly wobbly (or non-existant), Doctor Who taught me the value of seeking empirical answers. Even with the advent of a lot of mystical clouds in the current series, I have always enjoyed even the most nominal attempts to say 'It's not magic, it's science.' Science can be understood, and so you should at least try to do so, rather than falling down in superstitious awe or taking things on face value.

On more personal terms, Doctor Who has other meanings for me. It's through a Doctor Who fan club that I met Tim, my partner of 25 years. We've been having adventures together ever since, and that's a darned wonderful thing.

I still love Doctor Who. I love it when the Doctor is enabling others to use their intellect and skills, and to find their own courage to be activists in their own lives. Even in the silliest episodes, where the science stinks and the women are squealing and tripping over tufts of grass: the encouragement to use your brains and find your courage remains as powerful and empowering for me now as it always has done.

THE COMPETITION

Naturally, being a fan, when I was looking for a case for my new iPhone 4s, I was delighted to find a wonderful TARDIS case at Redbubble.com. I ordered one, and when it didn't show up and I contacted Redbubble, they immediately replaced it. Then, wouldn't you know it, the first one escaped from its time loop and arrived three days later. I asked Redbubble if they wanted me to post it back and they said 'Don't worry about it: just give it to a good home."

So in the spirit of their good customer service, I've decided to have a competition to find the TARDIS case (pictured) a good home. It fits an iPhone 4 or 4s and is valued at around $40.

All you need to do is email me at narrelle@iwriter.com.au with the subject heading 'Dr Who Competition' to tell me in 100-300 words what Doctor Who means to you.

PLEASE DO NOT REPLY IN THE COMMENTS!

Conditions of entry:

It is a condition of entry that I may use your answer or part thereof (quoting you) in my blog, which will be online indefinitely. I'm happy to attach an alias to any quotes, but you need to let me know both your real name and preferred alias in your entry.

The competition will be open for two weeks, from Monday 9th January to Monday 23rd January 2012.
I will select the winning entry that week and post the result, along with extracts from all entries, on Monday 30 January 2012.

If you miss out on winning this case, you can find it at Redbubble – "The TARDIS" by mechantefille. RedBubble has a huge range of geek  iPhone 4/4S cases, including Dr Who and Firefly. It was hard not to buy a case for every week of the year! If I'd seen Keep Calm and Call Buffy first I might well have bought that one.

Narrelle M Harris is a Melbourne-based writer. Find out more about her books, iPhone apps, public speaking and other activities at www.narrellemharris.com.

Yvon's Adventure with the Lifetime Reading Plan

Ennovy the black dragon

My friend Yvon Hintz – an artist and writer, among many other things – started a reading plan a few years ago. When I heard she was reading The Book of Ramayana as part of the plan, I thought it must be an interesting reading list! I knew it included Greek classics as well as books by Chinese writers, and I liked the cultural spread of books the plan contained.

I've asked Yvon to share more about the reading plan and what she's getting out of it.

Yvon's Adventure with the Lifetime Reading Plan

I always felt that I had missed out on a lot of good reading because I left school fairly early to help my parents run a shop, so when I stumbled on the Lifetime Reading List on the web, it struck me as a great idea.

Being a Virgo, I love lists and working my way through a chronological list of great writing seemed like a wonderful way to go.

By following a list I got suggestions as to what to read and a structure for that reading. If I had simply dipped at random into literature from the past I might not have read some of the titles, either through not knowing that they existed or because I didn't fancy the sound of them. Sticking to the list, I ended up reading some works that turned out to be wonderful.

I also read some works that  were not so wonderful, but they were not a waste because  I still got something out of them… even if it was just a working knowledge of their contents so that when later authors made reference to them I knew what they were talking about.

Of the titles I've read so far,  it's hard to say which was my favourite; most were enjoyable in one way or another, but  the one I probably enjoyed the most was  the Mahabharata. For one thing I was really proud of myself for just getting through it! It's eight times longer than the Bible and took me seven months to read. But what an adventure!  The granddaddy of all soap operas!

What I've gained from all this reading, apart from the individual entertainment of each title, is the understanding of what a marvellous, rich literary history we have and how much of it rests on what has gone before.  I am so pleased that I chose this list, which starts with the oldest book – The Epic of Gilgamesh (possibly the oldest written story on Earth) – and goes through to more recent works.

The Mahabharata, also on the list.

To begin with, I would buy the hardback or paperback versions of the books. I had a nice little collection in my bookcase when I sold my house, and the bookcase and I moved into a caravan. With a much reduced-in-size bookcase I decided to keep only a few really special books. The copy of David Copperfield in which my mother kept locks of all her children's hair; the  original copies of the first three SF novels I ever read; some illustrated books that I would not be able to get in ebook form; a copy of The Little Prince given to me by a friend; as well as a small collection of books written by my other clever friends.

All other books I obtained in ebook form. I was able to get most of them from the Project Gutenberg site. A few I had to buy in ebook form.

So far there has been only one book I have had to skip. Sima Qian's Records of The Grand Historian. It's a BIG book… usually comes in two volumes.  It came up on my list about the time I was moving house so I didn't want to buy a physical copy and didn't really have the money to spare for the ebook version.  I thought I would do the smart thing and borrow it from the library. To my pleasure, they were able to get a copy in for me… from the main library… but because it's the only copy in Western Australia they wouldn't let it out of their clutches! I had to sit in the library to read it.

I did for a while, but that got to be impractical, so I reluctantly gave up and moved onto the next title. One day I'll go back and fill in the gap.

In addition to reading the titles in the Lifetime Reading Plan I research on the Web, get information about the work and the author and add it to a scrapbook I'm creating. It's getting to be a fascinating book in its own right.

I am currently up to the start of Part three, working my way, with great pleasure, through the works of Shakespeare.  As with some of the titles in the Parts to come, I have read a good number of Shakespeare's plays before, but it's always good to read them again, and in the order in which they were written (roughly.)

I don't know if this exercise has made me a better or more learned person. I never recall books well enough to quote them, but I do remember them and I feel that I am a more well rounded person for my literary feast.

Yvon*)  Dec 2011

Download the New Lifetime Reading Plan
Start with the first book: The Epic of Gilgamesh by Anonymous, ca. 2000 BCE

Visit Yvon's website for art, short stories and more.
Find Yvon's books on Lulu including her Quinolan series and Wind Gods.

So there you have it! If you're after a new project for 2012 (the National Year of Reading, no less!) this might be the reading plan for you!

Narrelle M Harris is a Melbourne-based writer. Find out more about her books, iPhone apps, public speaking and other activities at www.narrellemharris.com.

Happy Xmas!

Happy Xmas everyone! And Happy Hanukah to those celebrating that holiday. Not forgetting the solstice celebration! I hope you're all enjoying the break, whether or not you're celebrating old traditions, family traditions or just having a few days off work.

For those engaged in the gift giving, if you received a Kindle or other e-reader, you might be looking for something to read! Might I suggest the following books?

Kindle:

All of my books are on Amazon.com for Kindle, including The Opposite of Life, Fly By Night and Sacrifice and the Witch books.
Tim Richards' travel articles about Poland have been gathered together as We Have Here the Homicide: A Travel Writer's Strange Affair With Poland and you can also get his thriller, Mind the Gap (The Darius Transitions), about dreams, Egyptian gods, alternate worlds and train stations.
Mary Borsellino's The Devil's Mixtape, a rival for best book along side Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games trilogy, is also in Kindle format
Or you can get The Hunger Games Trilogy if you haven't read it yet!
Or THIS! A Vampire Christmas Carol Which I just discovered and now covet for my own! Apparently there are a lot of vampire Xmas stories out there…

Other e-readers:

Most of my books are also on Smashwords.
Twelfth Planet Press also has some of its fabulous titles in Smashwords.

iPhone

If you got an iPhone or iPad for Xmas, you might like to try the apps that Tim and I created:

Melbourne Literary
Melbourne Historical
Melbourne Getaways

 

Narrelle M Harris is a Melbourne-based writer. Find out more about her books, iPhone apps, public speaking and other activities at www.narrellemharris.com.

Australian Women Writers 2012 National Year of Reading Challenge

Badge designed by Book'dout (Shelleyrae)

It's time I put my hand up for this challenge! Australian Women Writers has set a challenge for the new year: to read and review writing by Australian Women.

Since I already have a stack of books by Australian women in my stash, it makes sense to declare the reading of them part of the challenge. I'm signing up under the Franklin-fantastic category, which means I must read 10 and review at least 4 books. That's over a whole year. I'm sure I can make it. I'll be sure to ask for recommendations if I seem to be running out of books.

The ones currently on my 'to read' pile that are eligible are:

Lucy Sussex – Matilda Told Such Dreadful Lies: The Essential Lucy Sussex
Tansy Rayner Roberts – Power and Majesty
Alison Croggan – The Gift
Anthology – Scarlet Stiletto: The Second Cut
Tara Moss – The Blood Countess (Does Tara count as an Australian writer now?)
A crime book that I currently can't remember either the title or author of.  D'oh!

Books I don't yet have but are on my radar are:

Deborah Biancotti – Bad Power
Rowena Cory Daniels – The Price of Fame
Marienne De Pierres – Burn Bright

That's nearly ten already, and they're just the ones I remember at the moment.

So, wish me luck, stay tuned and, if you like the idea, go on over to Australian Women Writers and sign up for the challenge yourself. You don't have to read 10 book. The Stella category is there for reading 3 and reviewing 2 books by Australian women. You can do that in a year!

Review: The Devil's Mixtape by Mary Borsellino

Disclaimers front and foremost: the author of The Devil's Mixtape is a friend of mine. I'm a huge fan of Mary Borsellino's work, and of Mary herself. She has a habit of introducing me to new ways of looking at the world which are like a bucket of ice water to the face. Frequently unexpected, but ultimately refreshing and, by god, it makes you wake up and look at things. As I'm a fond of saying, just because I'm biased, it doesn't mean I'm wrong.

Mary wrote the five-book The Wolf House vampire series, which I love. It's full of horror, cruelty, compassion, love, art and rock music. The Devil's Mixtape is her newest book, and it has all the power, passion, razorblade insights and ice-water dousing of her vampire novel, condensed into a single volume. Mary Borsellino does not choose safe, easy subjects – or protagonists – but she grabs everything in two fists and propels you to places you never saw coming. The other writer who most recently made me feel like this was Suzanne Collins in The Hunger Games trilogy

The Devil's Mixtape has three interwoven stories, all about fierce women who do not even pretend to play nice. The very first chapter throws you right into the deep end with letters from a girl named Ella Vrenna. Ella once led a shooting spree at an American high school, and died at the end of it. She's in Hell, writing letters to her little sister, now a grown woman and a rock star.

The second thread of stories follows Sally, a part aboriginal teenager, travelling across Australia with Amy, who isn't really a girl. The third thread is told in excerpts from a book, in which rock journalist Charlotte interviews the band HUSH on the road. The members of the band are all linked, in some way, to the Ella, Sally and Amy.

Those are the bare bones of it, but the layers of storytelling and theme are so rich, deep and varied that I can't begin to cover them all. But I'm going to give it a shot.

There's a lot in here about identity. Ella is no longer her whole self but reduced to 'ellavrenna', her full name always spoken in a breath, made a monster by a monstrous act and losing the rest of who she was in the process. Even in the way she signs her letters, Ella is always confined, but always changing.

Identity features in lots of other ways too. The sainted Stacey, one of the school shooting victims, the other side of Ella's coin, is also remembered more as an icon than as a person.

People you know by one name in one thread are actually going by different names in other parts of the story. Where some people are building an image or identity for themselves with careful iconography, others, like Cherry from HUSH, are using Twitter to break down the icon, communicate with the fans and become more real than the rock idol. Sometimes having more than one name is a way of showing that there is more than one truth about who you are. Even Charlotte turns out to have a secret identity.

The Devil's Mixtape is full of families and siblings torn apart by sickness, violence and death; and full of people forging new families for themselves in the aftermath. The characters are frayed, sometimes broken. They are all terribly flawed and tragically human – even (or especially) the monsters.

God and the Devil are mentioned a lot in this book. Hell, too, since that is where Ella resides, along with a lot of other people who haven't done things half so evil as she has. But I don't see God here really as a religious God. This god seems a personification of a conformist society, intolerant of difference: if you're queer and won't pretend not to be; if you're a girl and won't be sweet and pliable; if you fail to conform (and if you're angry that everyone wants you to) then this God will send you to hell.

A key element of this notion is the story of the wolf and the dog, told in the early parts of the book, ending with the moral "It is better to be hungry and tired and free than to be fat and sleek and at a master's mercy'. God will put a collar on you, so perhaps it is better to be damned but free. But being damned is not the same as being without compassion or love. The book is full of people who choose damnation selflessly, protecting others.

The Devil's Mixtape is about refusing to conform by hiding who you are; but also about trying to find a place to belong, where you can be accepted as your whole self. It's passionate, defiant and fierce. It's also full of stories, parables and fables about wolves and fierce women and love. It's full of people who are strong and vocal. They're not always nice, but they are always, like the wolf, free.

Themes aside, the writing itself is superb. It switches from voice to voice cleanly. Ella's letters to Tash differ in tone and style from Sally's present-tense narrative, which contrasts with Amy's past-tense narration even though they share a timeline. Charlotte's use of reporting alongside verbatim interviews with the band give another tone again. This technique keeps the large cast of characters airborne and distinct and provides texture and momentum.

Then there are the turns of phrase, the unexpected observations and the sudden insights that make Mary one of my favourite writers. On this second read-through (I read one of the later drafts a few months ago) I kept finding more interlinking themes, phrases and ideas that weave the three threads together. It's an intricate, tightly woven story that is as rewarding in rereads as the first gripping time.

The Devil's Mixtape is part horror story, part declaration of love for non-conformists, especially those who embrace being outside the norm. It's passionate, smart, powerful and at times incredibly beautiful.

Get The Devil's Mixtape e-book, published by Omnium Gatherum, from Amazon.com. It's only $3.99 and it may be one of the most disturbing and compassionate books you read. It's like a bucket of ice water to the face; and that's not at all a bad thing.

Narrelle M Harris is a Melbourne-based writer. Find out more about her books, iPhone apps, public speaking and other activities at www.narrellemharris.com.

News! And a story for Xmas!

It's been a busy and exciting week!

First up: I'm very pleased and excited to announce that I have a new publisher for the second Gary and Lissa book, Walking Shadows. Clan Destine Press is an independent Melbourne publisher headed by crime author, Lindy Cameron. Lindy launched The Opposite of Life when it was released in 2008 and now has the sequel in hand. We hope to bring it to you in around May 2012.

You can read a little about what's in store in the next book at Clan Destine.

In other news, my Twelve Planets anthology, Showtime, is coming together. The anthology contains four short stories, including one about Gary and Lissa at the Royal Melbourne Show. The proposed cover looks evocative, and the introduction by Seanan Maguire has left me almost literally speechless with wonder that someone thought those things about something I wrote. Stay tuned more news on the release date.

Finally, because it's Xmas, I have posted a short story on my website for your holiday reading pleasure. Show and Tell is about what happens when a small girl takes a cursed mummy's hand to school for show and tell. It's the hand versus a class of seven year olds. Who do you think wins? Go to www.narrellemharris.com and follow the links to read the story.

Review: A Playground for Disobedient Dinosaurs by Mark Butler

In September, I said that self-published books did not have to be bad books. With a good writer who pays attention to detail, there is no reason a self-published book can't be excellent.

Mark Butler's A Playground for Disobedient Dinosaurs is a great example of this. The author, Mark Butler, is better known (by me at any rate) as a stand up comedian. He has a cheeky, smart, quick wit. Several of his shows have been language-related. In his most recent show, he delighted word nerds and grammar nazis with Grammar Doesn't Matter on a First Date.

A man who is passionate about grammar was always going to at least produce a correctly punctuated and grammatically lovely text. (Barring a few typos, which escape even the best editors and proofreraders, and even in professionally published books).

But is it a good story? Are all those excellent word skills wasted on a poorly plotted, cliched idea full of ill-conceived and badly executed characters?

Hell, no. Butler constructs stage shows with pace and rhythm, and he brings those skills to his book as well. He's also a published travel writer, so he has form.

A Playground for Disobedient Dinosaurs sees Red Thomas, a drifter and rogue, a heavy drinker with a gambling habit, returning to England after a failed attempt to rip off a cruise ship casino. He cons his way into a job at a prestigious secondary boys' school. There, he teaches smart alec kids about probability, chaos theory and the dangers of taking calculated risks. And dinosaurs. Perhaps he even means to take the job seriously as a chance to start over.

Red should not be as likeable as he is, with his vast set of vices and faults, but there's a vulnerability behind the inappropriate behaviour—even when he becomes attracted to a final year student from the neighbouring girls' school. His troubled background unfolds slowly and you realise that in his erratic and inappropriate way, sometimes he's actually trying to make things all right for other people.

Still, he's heading for trouble, between the maths club in which he's teaching boys about probabilities through games of chance and his relationship with Lucy. Red, however, is not the only person heading for an uncertain future. There's a former pupil, now Sports Master, trying to get back to rowing glory; his student Robert, Lucy's boyfriend and son of a prominent politician; some old friends of Red's; and of course Lucy herself.

The book isn't just tracking the slow collapse of Red's newly constructed world: the plot is interwoven with those mathematical concepts of probability, statistics and chaos theory. The beat of the proverbial butterfly wings carry on past the end of Red's individual adventures to a few weeks after the end of the school year.

It's an interesting ride that avoids stereotypes and cliche. The characters have complexity and depth, and are as contradictory as real people. Lucy is no Lolita; she's neither a corrupted innocent nor a sassy teen seducer, but rather an intelligent, indpendent young woman. Red is a rogue, but his instincts seem basically kind and fair, and his relationship with Lucy is complicated. His relationship with the boys he teaches can also be more complex than you'd think. Red does a lot of things he shouldn't, but avoids being a terrible person even while he's doing them.

The writing style is vivid and flows well. There are a few passages which flash back to characters' history mid-action which can be a little muddy, but the flow picks up again quickly. Something of old British public school stories of old loiter around the text, as they should, but the eccentricity of such stories is distrupted by Red. There are some particularly witty descriptions and wordplay. For instance, there's the delightful line on Red's first day of teaching at St Johns: "A new chapter of his life was about to unravel."  This is before he's even taken his first class. Every now and then a turn of phrase is perhaps a little too much, disturbing the rhythm for a phrase too good to miss, maybe, but generally I loved these creative word pictures.

On the whole, A Playground for Disobedient Dinosaurs is a well paced and entertaining story about maths, dinosaurs and the unimagined consequences of a person's actions, even when they seem to be getting away with it.

A Playground for Disobedient Dinosaurs is available from Mark Butler's website   or from Lulu.

Narrelle M Harris is a Melbourne-based writer. Find out more about her books, iPhone apps, public speaking and other activities at www.narrellemharris.com.

Narrelle's Xmas list for the Nice and the Naughty

It's that time of year when even the atheists among us celebrate the end of another year by seeking out gifts for our loved ones. Whether your celebrations are secular, religious or pagan, you may be looking for some ideas for gifts. (If you don't celebrate Xmas, this list may help you for other festivals and birthdays. Also for unbirthdays and those times when you think, damnit, *I* need a present.)

You could visit Twelfth Planet Press and buy one of their excellent volumes. Publisher Alisa Krasnostein recently won a World Fantasy Award for her outstanding work with this small press. You could even splash out on a subscription to the entire Twelve Planets series. Bad Power is the most recent of the series. (My volume, Showtime, will be released in early 2012. It contains a Gary/Lissa story!)

If you're a Melbourne local, you should locate one of the Melburnalia pop-up shops, where you can find items hand-crafted by your fellow citizens! Goods on offer include jewellery by the lovely Ali Alexander, delightful books from Arcade Publications, knitware, cycling accessories, tea, quirky buttons and, you  know, neat stuff. The pop-up shops are at terrific Melbourne locations too, like Captains of Industry and the Parlour in the Nicholas Building. The shops are only open until Christmas Eve, so get there while you can! Find them on Twitter or Facebook for addresses and hours.

*Late addition* What was I thinking to have missed a link to Clan Destine Press? If you love Kerry Greenwood's Phryne Fisher books, it might be time to branch out with her historical novels set in ancient Egypt and ancient Greece. Clan Destine also has crime books, including Lindy Cameron's excellent actio thriller, Redback. Non-fiction, comic fantasy and the story of Dougal the kitten are also on the site.

Bookshops

You could also just go straight to Arcade Publications online to get a set of their wonderful little books about Melbourne. I can personally recommend Madame Brussells: This Moral Pandemonium, about Melbourne's famous 19th century Madam, but there are books about E W Cole, Australia's pin-up girls from the 60s and, recently, Australia's first novelist, Henry Savery.

Other bookshops you should visit, online or in person, are:

f2m The Boy Within

Hares and Hyenas stocks the fabulous F2M: the boy within, which I have reviewed and written about. They have a terrific selection of queer lit and a cosy little seating area down the back, if shopping makes you tired.


Embiggen Books, whose names comes from the Simpsons! And they have books about cool science as well as fiction. They stock some Twelfth Planet Press titles too, so show them some love. (I interviewed Warren a while back too.)
Readers' Feast, which is about to re-open at the old Georges building on Collins Street. We've missed them. Show them some love too.
Of Science and Swords has moved to 377 Little Collins Street and now has a flatmate in Critical Hit. This means you can get great fantasy and SF books along with geek T-shirts and Angry Birds slippers.
Oh, and Fablecroft are having a sale: impressive books, with award nominees among the stories.

Books I loved this year:

The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins – not new, but brilliant. You may recall that I gobbled the trilogy up in five days.  The film comes out next year, so get your friends and family into the book first! If they've already read The Hunger Games, I recommend The Girl WHo Was on Fire, a collection of excellent essays about the trilogy. Here's my review of that book.


A Most Pecular Malaysian Murder by Shamini Flint is the first of her Inspector Singh series. Its great to read a crime novel set in another culture, written by a person from that culture. It's a good choice for someone who likes their crime fic in foreign locales.


The Shattering by Karen Healey – Karen Healey is doing some terrific work, and her second book is a fantasy set in contemporary NZ, with a multicultural cast and a sense of humour, as well as heart-stopping moments. This book deals with teen suicide and grief in ways both illuminating and sensitive. It's also got magic, idyllic yet sinister small towns, wonderful textured characters and smart, pacy plotting.


Melbourne by Sophie Cunningham is a love letter to Melbourne and a beautifully crafted object in its own right. Perfect for the Melburnite who has everything. Here's my review.

Other books I loved this year (also set in Melbourne) were Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley and Madigan Mine by Kirstyn McDermott. The Happiest Refugee by Anh Do was another favourite, the well deserved Book of the Year winner.

Finally, it's not out yet (but aha! I read an early version and I think it's AMAZING!),  Mary Borsellino's new book, The Devil's Mixtape, is due out on 15 December from Omnium Gatherum. In her trademark style, all sharp edges, crystal prose, horror, heart and compassion, The Devil's Mixtape follows three threads: a girl writing letters to her sister from hell, a music journalist following a band on tour and a road trip in 1950s Australia. I can't wait to get an official copy!

Anyway, I hope you find some ideas there. And hell, it's the time for indulgence, so why not buy yourself a present while you're at it?

Narrelle M Harris is a Melbourne-based writer. Find out more about her books, iPhone apps, public speaking and other activities at www.narrellemharris.com.

Spoilerphobic

Free image from Freefoto.com under Creative Commons licence. Photo by Ian Britton.

When I was a little kid, my younger brother, Bryce, and I decided to search the house for the Christmas presents we knew must be secreted somewhere in our parents' bedroom. After some heavy duty snooping, we did indeed locate presents that matched what we'd been asking for, or at least seemed likely to be ours.

Come Christmas morning, we opened our presents and found… what we'd already found. It was disappointing. The element of surprise was lacking. It was like we'd already had our presents a month ago, but simply hadn't been able to make use of them.

I never snooped for presents again. I never even picked up parcels from under the tree and tried to guess their contents. I didn't want that awful feeling of Christmas Disappointment again.

Fast forward a good 20 years to Poland, where Tim and I lived and taught English for a while. We spoke only a smattering of Polish, so we didn't bother watching Polish television or attempting to read Polish newspapers. English language films were not a problem, though: they were regularly screened with subtitles at all the local cinemas. However, we had to choose what to see purely on the strength of the poster art, as we had no other information about the film to go on. (Remember, this was pre-internet, with no way to look up plot synopses, casting information, reviews or trailers.)

As a result, we saw a lot of films with practically no expectations except those intimated by the poster. The Mask turned out to be hilarious, because we hadn't already seen the best bits on the promo. The Crow was a last minute choice on a huge screen that was visually amazing. Arizona Dream was even more bizarre, but much less interesting, than the poster.. (Apparently, Johnny Depp cannot save every film. Not even when Jerry Lewis and Faye Dunaway are trying to help. Or maybe they were the problem.)

Other films packed all kinds of surprises because we had no idea what to expect. The twists and the reveals came to us as the film makers had intended, unfolding with the story. And Tim and I discovered that we liked this approach to seeing a film.

So here I am in the 21st Century, thoroughly spoilerphobic. I don't even read the backs of books any more, as so many of them reveal events that don't happen until half way through the story. If a trailer of a film I want to see comes on at the cinema, I close my eyes, stick my fingers in my ears and hum.

It may seem excessive, but I don't really want to see the Reader's Digest version of a film, with all the emotional highlights and an suggestion (or downright revelation) of the ending, beforehand. If I see a film and am disappointed by the execution, so be it, but I don't want to see it and be disappointed because, in effect, I already know the whole story.

Seeing something fresh for the first time, without expectations or waiting for the twist, is wonderful. It's exciting. If a story is predictable or pat – in effect spoilering itself through bad writing or plotting – I lose interest and walk away. I love it when I can't quite see how it's going to pan out; or if I can work out, for example, whodunit, but not how- or why-dunnit. I can appreciate the writer's skill in assembling plot, character, theme and rhythm without pre-empting their choice of pace and clues.

(Here's something. I went to see Apollo 13 years ago. It's based on real life events, but I actually couldn't recall how those real life events had played out. The last half hour of that film, I was riveted with suspense because I didn't know what was going to happen!)

Someone once told me that there was no such thing as spoilers any more, because all the information is out there on the internet. But if you can avoid the knowledge (simply by refusing to go looking for it) then surely the term still has meaning. Hell, if it had no meaning, there wouldn't be a word for it.

I even think you should include spoiler warnings for old films, TV shows and books. After all, the film may have been released 50 years ago, but some people aren't that old. New generations will still see it for the first time, and they don't yet know about Rosebud, the Crying Game or Norman Bates. There are people not yet born who may one day appreciate not knowing crucial details of those films.

I know people who love to discover all the details of a film or show well in advance of the screening. That's fine. If you like to know it all before you start, I wouldn't stop you. But I would beg of you not to share your inside knowledge with me. I want my surprises as the writer intended.

Narrelle M Harris is a Melbourne-based writer. Find out more about her books, iPhone apps, public speaking and other activities at www.narrellemharris.com.

Short attention sp… oh look! A bird!

A long while ago, a friend sent me a link to a long article about how the way we use the Internet may contribute to decreasing our attention spans. We're forever darting in and out of Facebook, Twitter, Tumbler, news sites, YouTube, livejournal, you name it. Studies indicated that people were losing the ability to focus for more than a few minutes.

Still with me?

The ironic and tragic thing is that the article was so long, I dipped out half way through reading to check on my Facebook and Twitter feeds, and only remembered to go back to the article a week later.

As that embarrassing incident shows, it may well be that my habits with regard to the Internet are in fact retraining my brain to have a shorter attention span. Let's face it, I'm easily distracted as it is. (I have a novel to write. Oh look, the dishes need doing. No really, write the novel. Hello kitty, would you like a cuddle. No, seriously, write the damned book.)

Reduced concentration spans are a problem, though. For a start, you need some ability for sustained research and analysis if you are going to think through problem. Or develop a plot for a novel. Or think up coherent arguments for issues you believe in.

This weekend, the issue of how constant connectivity seems to affect my concentratoin span was highlighted for me. Tim and I had one of our irregular 'tech detox' breaks.  In this instance, I had won an overnight stay at the Rydges Hotel in Carlton, so off we went for just a little break away from home. No computers. No phones. I had my Kindle, because I was reading Suzanne Collins' Gregor the Overlander series on it, but it is not web enabled outside of a wireless connection, so it didn't count.

We took a few books and we went to Carlton early for breakfast while we read the paper over a few hours, before we would be allowed to check in. ANd I noticed that if Tim was placing an order at the counter or left the table for a minute, my instinct was to reach for the phone.

Seriously. Couldn't  I be alone with a thought for five second without needing to distract myself?

As the day wore on, the itchy-trigger-finger reaction slowed and disappeared. In those quiet moments I instead looked around – at the rain outside, at the people inside. I reflected a little on the articles I read and then discussed salient points with Tim on his return.

At the hotel, we set up camp with our books and a cup of tea and read. I finished three books I had been part way through and started a new one. No stopping to tell the world every half-arsed thought in my head, or to read what everyone else thought of the dismal weather. It was nice.

I read a lot, so obviously I haven't completely lost the capacity to concentrate for more than 90 seconds, but it was surprisingly relaxing to abandon short-term thinking for the day, in favour of focus and savouring the quiet moments.

And if you're still reading at the end of this blog, thank you, and I hope I haven't kept you away from your status updates for too long.

 

Narrelle M Harris is a Melbourne-based writer. Find out more about her books, iPhone apps, public speaking and other activities at www.narrellemharris.com.