Rowena Wiseman's Blog, page 8

HarperCollins annual author day and #BooksCreate

Yesterday I went along to the annual HarperCollins author day. We had an update from CEO James Kellow on the state of the Australian publishing industry and the latest developments in the parallel importation of books debate in Australia. It's worrying times for local publishing and important that we all get behind the #BooksCreate campaign to support Australian writers, people working in the industry and the future of Australian stories. Follow the campaign: http://bookscreateaustralia.com.au/ and sign the petition to save Australian literature and stop parallel importation of books: https://www.change.org/p/scott-morrison-save-australian-literature-stop-parallel-importation-of-books

We were also lucky enough to hear from Natasha Boyd of Book Bonding and Mark Rubbo, founder of Readings, about the importance of the author-bookseller relationship.

Image: with CEO of HarperCollins Australia James Kellow, author Spiri Tsintziras and Natasha Boyd from Book Bonding Independent Bookstore

Win a copy of The Replacement Wife! #AmazonGiveaway

Enter the #AmazonGiveaway for a chance to win a digital copy of my contemporary romance novel published by HarperCollins Australia - The Replacement Wife.

Luisa has met the love of her life ... now she just needs to figure out what to do with her husband.

Luisa has fallen madly in love with sculptor Jarvis, so she comes up with a plan to find a new wife for her husband Luke so she can exit stage left. She wants to screen potential stepmothers for her 8-year-old son Max and has strict criteria: the woman must be a single mother; have no more than two children; she can't be authoritarian; she must be creative, nurturing and not much prettier than Luisa.

After a few carefully orchestrated meetings with different women that fail to raise a spark, Luke finally connects with a potential replacement wife. However, Luisa isn't prepared for the fact that Luke's interest in the other woman makes him a better man and a more attractive husband. After suffering for years in a half-dead marriage, Luisa starts to remember what it was about Luke that she originally fell in love with. But is it too late?

3 copies to giveaway! Enter here (US residents only) by 14 June 2016: https://giveaway.amazon.com/p/a91c30e63b3ed440

April #bookphotochallenge

This month I'm doing the ‪#‎AmpersandApril16‬ ‪#‎bookphotochallenge‬ thanks to https://commasandampersandsblog.wordpress.com. I'm having lots of fun styling some shots with my 8 year old daughter ... here's one she came up with for day 17. A-B-C. Follow along: https://www.instagram.com/outaprintwriter/

Emerging from the new novel fog

I've been absent from the blogosphere for a long while! Back in November, in an All in the mind program, neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin said that technological multi-tasking increases the production of the stress hormone cortisol, can overstimulate our brain and cause mental exhaustion. I was suffering from digital fatigue. And two months into writing a new novel, I decided to cut out all the extraneous technological activity. I thought it was going to be hard, I thought I was going to miss Twitter and Instagram and Facebook and Wattpad, that I'd pine for validations from strangers on social media, that I'd feel like a non-entity without publishing a post on my blog. But it's been 5 months since I decided to live more like a 19th century writer and it's been bliss! ( Read my original blog post here ... )

Without online distractions, I've completed my latest novel in seven months, I've written a 7000-word short story, I've been reworking an old novel and I wrote an alternative ending for Silver for all the fans of the story for the Wattpad Block Party Winter edition:  https://www.wattpad.com/217005419-wattpad-block-party-winter-edition-ii . It's been a productive time and I'm so pleased I cleared the headspace for it.


But, now that I'm emerging from the fog of writing a new novel, it's time to get back out there a little. I'm attempting an April book photo challenge on Instagram, you can follow along here: https://www.instagram.com/outaprintwriter/ Thanks to @commasandampersands for the great prompts  https://commasandampersandsblog.wordpress.com/2016/03/26/join-me-for-my-april-book-photo-challenge/

Pretty please ... help turn Aunty Arty into print ...

Jet Black Publishing has launched a December Kickstarter campaign to help raise funds to turn five of their ebooks into print-on-demand books. One of those ebooks is mine - Aunty Arty and the Disquieting Muses!

Aunty Arty is about entering the world of art and a beautiful relationship blossoming between an aunty and her niece. Aunty Arty and Frieda find themselves in Georgio de Chirico's painting 'The Disquieting Muses', they meet a statue who has been cursed by Cupid’s lead arrow, sentencing her to a lifetime without love ...


Jet Black Publishing is a new ebook publisher based in Melbourne and they were brave enough to take this quirky children's story on. I had the freedom to contact my own illustrator ... that's where I found Narelda Joy and this is where the Aunty Arty story became truly magical ...





Narelda and I worked closely for many, many months on The Disquieting Muses. I watched as she transformed my story into a visual feast. Together, we developed activities for children, a teacher resource pack and a video about creating Aunty Arty. It was a truly exciting and creative time - we were full of energy and hope and love for our characters and the story ...


But then the ebook was released and parents started telling me over and over again 'I want my children to read a printed book,' 'I like them to hold the book,' 'I like my kids to choose a book from the bookshelf'. Parents were wary of the bright lights of the ipad screen before bedtime.


I had to agree, what is better than sharing a physical book with a child at bedtime? We all love the way a child pauses over a great illustration and the way they like to hold the book and look at the back cover for something more ... making the joy of that story last just that little bit longer ...


Narelda and I finally met face-to-face in September this year (she lives in the Blue Mountains, near Sydney, and I live on the Mornington Peninsula, near Melbourne), after sharing a passion for our book via email for so long. We met at White Rabbit Gallery in Sydney, a contemporary Chinese art gallery, and over gluten free dumplings and chrysanthemum tea we discovered we got on just as well together in the real world as we did in our imaginary world.




I truly believe that we created something special together and that's why I would love to see these books printed and a hard copy to be held in children's hands.


So this is where we'd like to ask for your help to turn Aunty Arty into a print-on-demand book ... we'd love to see this book in homes, schools, libraries, galleries and bookshops ... and would love to create more stories in the series!


For $50 you could help Aunty Arty go on the greatest adventure of all - into print! You'll receive a copy of the paperback and a shoutout on social media. For $100 you'll get all this plus your name printed in the book on the 'producers page'!


Pretty please ... from as little as $10 you can be part of the Aunty Arty adventure here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1208819366/jet-black-publishing-print-launch

Colm Herron on troubled writers

Colm Herron is the author of four novels and numerous essays and articles. He hails from Derry, Northern Ireland, and his newest novel The Wake was released in November this year. In this guest post, Colm reflects on writers such as Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Plath and Lawrence and asks the question does a troubled mind make better writing?

Imagine this advertisement in the window of Random House, publisher: WANTED: DEDICATED AUTHOR. MUST BE IN GOOD PHYSICAL, MENTAL AND EMOTIONAL CONDITION.


Looks straightforward, right? Maybe I’ll apply. After all, I’m busy writing my fifth novel now and it’s going well. Four hours every morning I’m at it, with blinding flashes of inspiration once every two or three days (OK, make that weeks) and feeling sheer delight sometimes when the thing seems to be writing itself. Trouble is, I have a bad back, kidney problems, arthritis in my typing finger and eyesight only marginally better than Mister Magoo’s. Oh, and sometimes I’m a bit paranoid regarding certain book reviewers. (But, as every writer knows, just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you).


What is writing anyway? The process I mean. William Wordsworth called it “emotion recollected in tranquility.” Great. But how long do I have to wait before I get nice and tranquil? Or do I really have to be? I remember reading one time that Ernest Hemingway wrote a letter to Scott Fitzgerald that went something like this: “The whole lot of us are bitched from the start and you have to hurt like hell before you can write seriously. When you get damned hurt use it. Don’t cheat with it. Be as faithful to it as a scientist.”


Fitzgerald took him at his word and wrote Tender is the Night. It was basically his view of his tempestuous marriage to Zelda. He had already told her that their life together was his material and on top of that he pilfered from her diaries and letters in his writing of the novel. Zelda, in spite of her schizophrenia, or more likely bipolar disorder, had already published her own version of their relationship in her novel Save Me the Waltz. Scott was furious that she had used material from their life together in her book (the irony escaped him) and pushed successfully for Zelda’s publisher to give him editorial control over what was in her novel. So what actually appeared was a bastardized version. Two years later Scott’s Tender is the Night came out. It is now widely regarded as possibly even better than The Great Gatsby. As Kurt Vonnegut might have said: So it goes.


The list of troubled writers is a long one and I have merely touched on it. The great and prolific short story writer Katherine Mansfield died from tuberculosis at the age of thirty-four, still writing furiously till the end. Sylvia Plath, weighed down with extreme  bipolar depression, achieved a lasting literary breakthrough in the final tormented months of her life, producing more than forty remarkable poems in a sustained burst of creative energy.


And then of course there was D H Lawrence. Lawrence, slowly dying of tuberculosis and unable to have sex, began writing Lady Chatterley’s Lover after his wife Frieda had taken Angelo Ravagli, an officer in the flamboyant Italian Bersaglieri brigade, as a lover. Now that’s dedication.


Right. We know it’s highly desirable for a writer to be in good all-round shape but we also know that it’s not essential. Indeed, in a strange kind of way, a feeling of general wellbeing may even at times be a drawback. I’d say Plato was going a bit far when he wrote: “Madness, provided it comes as the gift of heaven, is the channel by which we receive the greatest blessings … Madness comes from God, whereas sober sense is merely human.” Yes, a tad over the top I think. But nobody can deny that the same man knew a thing or two about writing.


Check out Colm Herron's novel The Wake on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B017CCHRNG


Website: http://www.colmherronpublishing.com/


Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/colmherronpublishing














Top image via Favim.


If you'd like to write a guest post for Out of Print Writing, check out the Guest Post guidelines here: http://outofprintwriting.blogspot.com.au/p/guest-posts.html

10 ways to live more like a 19th century writer

Technology is changing our brains. Our attention spans are shrinking and we find it hard to concentrate on one task at a time. Neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin says that technological multi-tasking increases the production of the stress hormone cortisol as well as the fight-or-flight hormone adrenaline, it can overstimulate our brain, cause mental exhaustion and poor decision making.

In a recent interview with Lynne Malcolm on All in the Mind, Levitin was talking about his book The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload and said: 'there's a structure in the brain that allows us to switch between different modes ... Each time you switch what we call your attentional set, that is what you are focusing on, it burns up glucose. There is a switch in the brain, it's a neurochemical switch but it's kind of like a light switch, and the glucose gets burned up when you switch tasks, and the glucose is in limited supply.


So after a bunch of rapid shifting between emailing and texting and driving and talking and all the other things we do, if you feel depleted and tired, it's because you have literally depleted this glucose source. And cortisol the stress hormone is released as a result. That clouds your thinking. Among other things, it shuts down higher cognitive activity. Cortisol is associated with the fight or flight reaction, so you are not meant to be pondering and solving complicated problems in a fight or flight situation, you are meant to either punch somebody in the nose or run away so they don't punch you.'


Being a chronic technological multi-tasker, I've personally seen a change in myself over the last five years. I find it hard to concentrate for long periods of time on my work. I'm impatient sitting through a movie; it feels too long and contrived, more like prison than entertainment. An achievement hasn't been an achievement until it's been posted and liked by my followers. I have these impulses to snap and share; I've found myself going on an outing looking forward to the photo opportunities for Instagram. Technology has created instincts I didn't have five years ago.


So, like the Paleo diet, where people are eating like our ancestors, I've been wondering what it would be like to live and write like a pre-digital writer. Could I improve my brain function and my creativity by cutting out the digital activity?


I'm trying to live more like a 19th century. I've set up these rules for myself, to see if calmer thinking can have a positive impact on the novel I'm currently writing:


Get straight into writing first thing in the morning rather than checking and responding to messages. Use optimal brain time for writingthe internet should only be used for research while writing. Do not fall down rabbit hole of informationmake dedicated time for responding to messages, rather than doing bits and pieces throughout the day. Previously, writers would have opened letters after the mail arrived. They would have had a confined period for reading and responding to correspondence.take email and social media off phone and minimise creating content for Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Wattpad to be used for serialising stories (Dickens made an art of serialised fiction back in 1836) and Goodreads to be used for rating recently read books and adding favourite quotes only.quiet walks and gentle exercise eat nutrient-rich foodsevenings are for family time, socialising and reading. Let the brain rest and restore before bed.aim to get at least 7 hours of sleep a nightmake more time for observation and daydreaming handwrite ideas and micro-fiction pieces in notebooks. Writing by hand is supposed to inspire creativity by slowing down the process and engages more parts of the brainImages via Favim

Bequest - free on Kindle until Tuesday!

My novelette Bequest is free on Kindle until Tuesday! Leonard wants to bequeath his tattooed skin to the National Gallery. He has been almost completely inked by one of Australia's best contemporary artists, but he is a canvas that nobody wants ... 
Download now: http://www.amazon.com/Bequest-Rowena-Wiseman-ebook/dp/B00N7LW4G2

BooktoberFest photo challenge on Instagram

I did it! 31 days, 31 photos for #BooktoberFest. A massive thank you to Jenny Bravo @blotsandplots for organising the photo challenge on Instagram for readers and writers. She came up with some creative and challenging prompts for us, such as pastel books, books + animal, indie books, make a book rainbow and many, many more. It was fascinating seeing how people interpreted the prompts differently.

It was a great way to make connections with other #booklovers and I've discovered a number of new and inspiring accounts to follow.

See my books & writing photos for #BooktoberFest on Instagram: https://instagram.com/outaprintwriter

Win a copy of The Replacement Wife! 3 ibooks vouchers to giveaway!

Three ibooks vouchers for my new novel The Replacement Wife are up for grabs! Enter the Giveaway below for a chance to win a digital copy of my contemporary romance novel published as an ebook by HarperCollins Australia. Complete the giveaway by visiting my author page on Facebook or sending a tweet. Ends 24/10/15.

About The Replacement Wife:


Luisa has met the love of her life ... now she just needs to figure out what to do with her husband.


Luisa has fallen madly in love with sculptor Jarvis, so she comes up with a plan to find a new wife for her husband Luke so she can exit stage left. She wants to screen potential stepmothers for her 8-year-old son Max and has strict criteria: the woman must be a single mother; have no more than two children; she can't be authoritarian; she must be creative, nurturing and not much prettier than Luisa.


After a few carefully orchestrated meetings with different women that fail to raise a spark, Luke finally connects with a potential replacement wife. However, Luisa isn't prepared for the fact that Luke's interest in the other woman makes him a better man and a more attractive husband. After suffering for years in a half-dead marriage, Luisa starts to remember what it was about Luke that she originally fell in love with. But is it too late?

Reviews:

Honest and at times brutal in its depiction, digs deep into why we stray when we stray.
Maldivian Book Reviewer's Realm of Romance

... a serious, sobering and thought-provoking story ... a painfully real read with flawed characters and plenty of heartbreak.
Bookaholic Confessions

Wiseman delivers an emotional read with severely flawed characters dealing with an uncomfortable topic ... Wiseman is a talented authoress, she pulled me into her story forcing me to play the role of armchair friend, foe, and marriage counselor, sign of a more than gifted writer.
Raven Haired Girl

a Rafflecopter giveaway