Venturing out again
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Tomorrow night, Jane Caro will be joining us to talk writing, reading and my new novel The Watchful WifeTo come online with us, just click on the link to my Zoom conference room at 8pm:
JOIN BOOK CLUB ON ZOOM Dear Friends
This week I've been out and about most nights and, after those (now almost hazy) years of isolating and being reluctant to venture out, my delight in socialising has returned. It feels a bit like muscle memory.
On Sunday morning, I arrived at Bondi Pavilion for the Sydney Jewish Writers Festival, well in time for my 10am session with Rabbi Ralph Genende, Ros Ben-Moshe and Joanne Fedler. After the session, I caught up with Melbourne and Sydney friends before eating too many smoked salmon bagels in the Green Room. In the afternoon, Scott Whitmont curated readings by eight writers - including me. I've always loved being read to and it was a delight to be both reader and listener. In the evening, the FourPlay String Quartet was astounding. They've been collaborating with writer Neil Gaiman to compose music to accompany poetry. The work Clock had me particularly spellbound. Later, UK writer, comedian and atheist David Baddiel debated and argued the existence of God with host of Radio National's Soul Search, Meredith Lake.
Monday night was the Sydney launch of Doll's Eye, Leah Kaminsky's new novel. It's the fascinating story of a German woman and a Yiddish poet who, having fled war-torn Europe, meet in the remote (now abandoned) town of Birdum in the Australian outback. Tom and Meg Keneally launched the book, Jane Turner from Gertrude and Alice Bookstore hosted the event and Scott Whitmont showcased his skills as MC.
Tuesday night was the launch of Jeanne Ryckmans memoir, Trust: A Fractured Fable. It's a wry and darkly funny account of Jeanne's encounter with the Irish professor who wasn't. Jo Dyer launched the book with a witty, hilarious and touching speech while Upswell publisher, Terri-Ann White, shone with pride.
Tomorrow night, the ever generous Jane Caro is joining us on Thursday Book Club. To my delight, Jane will be interviewing me about my new novel, The Watchful Wife. We'll also be chatting about our writing and our reading. You can join us at 8pm here.
Hope your week has been filled with fun and friendship and a good book! NEW RELEASE RECOMMENDATION
THE OTHER SIDE OF MRS WOOD
Lucy Barker
BUY FROM ABBEY'S BOOK SHOP
ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK --- Mrs Violet Wood is a highly celebrated medium in 1870s London. With the assistance of her faithful companion, Miss Sarah Newman, her seances and gatherings are attended by society's finest, but Mrs Wood is starting to feel a little worried. Her finances need bolstering, and she wants to attract new followers. When a rather ragged and uneducated young girl, Emmie Finch, appears, Mrs Wood sees something attractive and biddable in her, and takes her under her tutelage. Despite Miss Newman's misgivings, Mrs Wood pushes Emmie into the spiritualist world - but is Emmie really all she seems? A colourful and evocative novel, with well-rounded characters and a satisfying story arc that looks kindly on the Victorian urge to reach those on the other side. - Lindy
Enter the code THURSDAYBOOKCLUB at the checkout for a 15% discount on Abbey's new release recommendations. This code will also get you a 15% discount on the books by my guests on Thursday Book Club and my novels, The Teacher's Secret, The Deceptions, Running With Ivan and The Watchful Wife. JUNIOR READERS
THE FORTUNE MAKER
Catherine Norton
BUY FROM ABBEY'S BOOK SHOP
ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- Maud Mulligan lives in a rat-infested and poverty stricken part of London, but she and her father are saving their hard-earned pennies to enable them to emigrate one day. When tragedy strikes, Maud gives up her last treasured possession to have her fortune told. This is a city where soothsayers of all sorts flourish, but the grandest of all are the Seers, and when Maud is taken off the streets by a wealthy industrialist's wife it turns out she is part of someone else's Seeing. So starts a fabulous adventure set in 1913, where striking workers, suffragettes, chemists and bakers all play their part. Equal parts gritty historical detail and imaginative world-building, this was an engrossing and magical read! Lindy
An Autobiography
by
Janet Frame
I have a section of my home library dedicated to mad memoirs. As a mad person myself I want to know how others make meaning and art from their experience. Sometimes, as in Janet Frame’s three volume autobiography, the writing processes the horrors of the mental health system. It is chilling but these books offer much more besides. Volume one documents a childhood full of poetry, words, nature and a burgeoning imagination. There’s also poverty and deep family wounds. Frame publishes from an early age and, as she recounts in volume two, it is writing that saves her life. Having become one of the ‘secret people’ locked away in a New Zealand asylum Frame’s scheduled leucotomy (lobotomy) is cancelled when the hospital superintendent learns of Frame winning an important literary award. Volume three charts Frame’s journey overseas and broadening experience in life, love and literature. Frame’s writing is dense and full of metaphor; I found it cluttered at first but settled into its rhythm and the heart-bursting pleasure at seeing someone so misunderstood fully inhabiting their rightful place in the world. NEWS
Readings has announced the shortlist for the 2023 Readings New Australian Fiction Prize.
This year’s six shortlisted books are:
Time and Tide in Sarajevo (Bronwyn Birdsall, Affirm)
A Country of Eternal Light (Paul Dalgarno, Fourth Estate)
Hydra (Adriane Howell, Transit Lounge)
Funny Ethnics (Shirley Le, Affirm)
All That’s Left Unsaid (Tracey Lien, HQ)
Search History (Amy Taylor, A&U).
Kirsty Everett in conversation with Patti Miller
6.30pm - 7.30pm
Monday 4 September 2023
Better Read Than Dead
265 King St Newtown 
The Story Room: Never Stop Believing
The ancient art of storytelling comes to life on the stage when six storytellers (including me)
share a true & deeply personal story.
7pm - 9pm
Tuesday 5 September 2023
Bucketty's Brewing Co
26 Orchard Rd, Brookvale NSW 2100, Australia
Northern Beaches Readers Festival Trivia Fundraising Night
6.30pm
Saturday 9 September
Balgowlah RSL Club
This looks like fun! You can book your tickets here.
An Afternoon with Susan Duncan and Suzanne Leal
Join Susan Duncan in conversation with Suzanne Leal for an afternoon talk with tea, champagne and cakes to celebrate the release of Sleepless in Stringybark Bay.
3pm - 4.30pm
2 September 2023
Better Read Than Dead
265 King St, Newtown
Rose Scott Women Writers’ Festival
The Women's Club,179 Elizabeth St Sydney
15-17 September 2023
The program for this year's Rose Scott Women Writers' Festival is out. There's a great line-up of writers. You can book tickets here here.
The winners of the 2023 NSW Premier’s History Awards will be announced next week. Here are the shortlisted works:
Australian History Prize ($15,000)
General History Prize ($15,000)
Visions of Nature: How Landscape Photography Shaped Settler Colonialism by Jarrod Hore (University of California Press)
Under Empire: Muslim Lives and Loyalties Across the Indian Ocean World, 1775–1945 by Michael Laffan (Columbia University Press)
Singing the News of Death: Execution Ballads in Europe 1500–1900 by Una McIlvenna (Oxford University Press)
NSW Community & Regional History Prize ($15,000)
The Naturalist: The remarkable life of Allan Riverstone McCulloch by Brendan Atkins (NewSouth, in association with the Lord Howe Island Historical Society and Museum)
He Belonged to Wagga: The Great War, the AIF and returned soldiers in an Australian country town by Ian Hodges (Australian Scholarly Publishing)
Whitefella Way by Jon Rhodes (Self-published)
Young People’s History Prize ($15,000)
The Goodbye Year by Emily Gale (Text Publishing)
Running with Ivan by Suzanne Leal (HarperCollins Publishers)
The Wearing of the Green by Claire Saxby (Walker Books Australia)
Digital History Prize ($15,000)
Still We Rise by Anna Grieve and John Harvey (Tamarind Tree Pictures)
The Australian Wars, Episode 1 by Rachel Perkins, Darren Dale, Jacob Hickey and Don Watson (Blackfella Films)
Ayahs and Amahs: Transcolonial Journeys by Lauren Samuelsson (University of Newcastle, Australia)
The Anzac Memorial Trustees’ Military History Prize ($10,000)
The Scrap Iron Flotilla: Five Valiant Destroyers and the Australian War in the Mediterranean by Mike Carlton (William Heinemann, an imprint of Penguin Random House Australia)
Soldiers and Aliens: Men in the Australian Army’s Employment Companies during World War II by June Factor (Melbourne University Publishing)
He belonged to Wagga: The Great War, the AIF and returned soldiers in an Australian country town by Ian Hodges (Australian Scholarly Publishing)
Writing Competitions
31 August 2023: Woollahra Digital Literary Award
The award seeks original literary submissions that are digitally born - originating online or in electronic or multi media form.
31 August 2023: Marjorie Barnard Short Story Award 2023
Australian writers are invited to submit short stories to a maximum of 3000 words.
31 August 2023: 30th Scarlet Stiletto Awards
Sisters in Crime’s Scarlet Stiletto Awards for best short crime and mystery stories turn 30 this year and are offering a record $12,720 in prizes. The focus is on women's crime and mystery short stories, and the competition is open to all women, whether cisgender, transgender, or intersex, who are citizens/residents of Australia. More information on the competition in the link above.
4 September: Writing NSW Varuna Fellowship 2023
The Writing NSW Varuna Fellowship is awarded annually to a writer with a work of fiction, creative non-fiction, a play, or a suite of poems that is ready for the next stage of development. Applicants must be Writing NSW members and be willing to commit to developing their work.
22 September 2023: POEM FOREST Writing Prize
Created by Red Room Poetry, in partnership with Wollongong City Council, POEM FOREST invites students and teachers to use their words to make positive climate action. For every nature poem received a tree is planted to help heal habitats and create a POEM FOREST for future generations.
30 September 2023; Bridport Memoir Award
This is an international award for writers embarking upon a memoir. To enter, submit a 300 word overview in addition to a 5000 to 8000 excerpt.
2 October 2023: Sydney Morning Herald/Dymocks Essay Prize.
This new prize is for persuasive non-fiction writing on a choice of topics and is open for entry in two age groups, those aged 14-18 years and 19-24 years. There will be six winners decided by senior editors at The Sydney Morning Herald and special guest judge, award-winning author Tara June Winch.
What is Thursday Book Club?
Thursday Book Club is a relaxed, friendly book club connecting readers online. We meet on Zoom from 8 - 8.30pm. There are no scheduled books to read: we simply chat about books we like & books we’re reading. Once a month, I interview a guest writer.
Tomorrow night, I'll be in the hot seat when Jane Caro will be interviewing me about my novel The Watchful Wife
Zoom in as you can – it doesn’t matter if you’re late or have to leave early. Just join my Zoom conference room between 8pm and 8.30pm (between 10am and 10.30am if you're in central Europe) by clicking on this link: https://us04web.zoom.us/j/8521042343
If prompted, here are the details to manually enter:
Meeting ID:852 104 2343
Password 886 196
Thursday Book Club Recommendations
My recommendation
Dirt Town by Hayley Scrivenor
Barbie R
Neverlanders by Tom Taylor (CBCA Book of the Year)
Bitter & Sweet by Amal Awad
How to Pay Your Mortgage off in 10 Years by Serina Bird
Ripper by Shelley Burr
Minor Disturbances at Grand Life Apartments by Hema Sukumar
The Things That Matter Most by Gabbie Stroud
Hazel H
Blood on the Wattle by Bruce Elder
Louise R
The Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagercrantz
Only Murders in the Building created by Steve Martin & John Hoffman
Take care,
Suzanne
PS. Would you like me to drop in to your book club?
If your book club has chosen to read The Watchful Wife, The Deceptions, The Teacher’s Secret or Running With Ivan, I’d be delighted to attend your meeting by Zoom (whether your group is meeting online or gathering together in person) to answer any of your questions. To schedule a date, please email me here.
JOIN BOOK CLUB ON ZOOM
My new novel, The Watchful Wife, is out now You can buy it from Allen & Unwin here or at your favourite bookshop. 
You can buy Running with Ivan here
You can buy The Deceptions and The Teacher’s Secret
directly from my publisher here:
Kindle version
Paperback
*****Enter the code THURSDAYBOOKCLUB at the checkout at Abbey's for a 15% discount on my novels, The Watchful Wife, The Teacher's Secret, The Deceptions and Running With Ivan.
The Deceptions Paperback
Audible QUESTIONS? EMAIL ME You can buy
The Watchful Wife, The Deceptions,
The Teacher’s Secret
and
Running With Ivan
online and from your favourite bookshops, including https://www.abbeys.com.au/book/the-deceptions-suzanne-leal-9781760875275.do
https://www.gleebooks.com.au/product/deceptions-the/
https://www.gertrudeandalice.com.au/product/the-deceptions/
Booktopia
Suzanne Leal | suzanne@suzanneleal.com |
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