The author, Jeremy Atherton Lin, is ten years younger than me. Which made reading Gay Bar, Why We Went Out all the more interesting hearing from the perspective of someone who started his gay bar adventures when I was embracing a scene he was still navigating. Plus, his tales take place in LA, San Francisco …
I’ve written several versions of the same short scene!
The scene is only several paragraphs long. It's the last time we're alone with just the gay characters in my work-in-progress set in the nineties. In the initial draft they talk about Australian politics at the final stage of that decade. Only one other chapter examined politics and that was in an overall 1990's way. …
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Plotting using The Snowflake Method
My last post was about a new plotting method I'm using. A few things got in the way of my usual writing days after I published that post, and somehow I didn't feel bad about missing them. It was because I didn't feel like I was working on a book. There were a few times …
Taking time to plot my book
I'm trying something new. Usually when I plot a new novel, I work chapter by chapter having a fair idea of the story and how it will end. I also add notes on the conflict for each scene and every chapter's cliff hanger. But I'm experimenting with a different approach called the Snowflake Method. Right …
Finding the right Beta Reader
I don't normally solicit feedback on my works in progress. Yet I have used Beta Readers twice in recent years, and my first novel was professionally assessed several times. This paid assessor gave feedback over several drafts before I decided to have another draft looked at by a team at a publishing house, for the …
Waiting to see if your new book is selling.
There's a unique anxiety after the release of a novel. It doesn't happen straight away. We are on a buzz when our new book is in the public arena. We're busy marketing while finding new promotional possibilities. We're updating our website and searching for new reviews. Then searching for new reviews again. And again. But …
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Thoughts on ‘Strangers On a Train’ by Patricia Highsmith
This is not a book review. It's about what I learnt from reading this classic novel and has some elements of critique in it. A month ago I posted a blog about how anything you read influences your work in progress. My current project is written in third-person. All but one of my published works …
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Anything you read helps your work in progress
Sometimes I choose what I read carefully. For example, I read H.G. Wells and Ray Bradbury when I worked on my first dystopian novel. My assessor got me to read Joe Keenan as she wanted me to hone in on the farcical elements of my first book. But when I'm reading for pleasure, whatever style …
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I’m replacing an entire character
In my last blog I wrote about writing a summary for a book submission. And although it's for a novel I'm still working on, it hasn't stopped me considering how to pitch it to potential publishers. I've created a 500 word and a 300 word synopsis, and a 200 word summary, in line with what …
Book Review – They’re a Weird Mob – Nino Culotta
I discovered 'youse' is actually a word! My parents used to use youse as in 'all of youse', and even wrote it in handwritten notes. And like Nino, the main character in They're a Weird Mob, my parents were born in Europe. Early in life I had to teach myself the difference between borrow and …
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