a little fantasy * a little sci fi * a little love
First off, the plot is perfect for a movie. It lends itself much easier to a screen adaptation than Holden Sheppard's other works - each dramatic cinematic beat is here. Two earlier scenes really resonated, setting up Jack Brolo's low opinion of himself, and later, his state of mind returning to the town he grew …
Continue reading "Book Review – King of Dirt by Holden Sheppard"
This novel would make an excellent film. It has all the elements of a box office smash or a highly streamed miniseries. Period drama. Likeable characters. Sneaky dealings. A love story. Two teenage boys meet one evening just before the second world war. James is Irish and from a very poor family. Otto is the …
This is not an easy task. Some of these guys are good so there's added pressure to pick the right one. And I have a bias for theatrical reads. Partly because many moons ago I studied acting, and partly because my last audiobook was presented by a trained British actor. All of this is being …
I read this straight after reading his previous novel, 7 1/2. These are the first Tsiolkas' books I've read (yes, I've waited that long) even though I'm familiar with his stories from various TV and film adaptations. 7 1/2 fascinated me with its stream of consciousness style, its raw sex scenes and fascinating prose, which …
Continue reading "Book Review – The In-Between by Christos Tsiolkas"
Stop fictionalising your life! This was advice a friend's psychologist told him to tell me. Both me and my husband are talked about often during his sessions, and his analyst has read my books to gain a better understanding of his relationship with us. In a recent writer's hashtag, someone wrote: Trying to get my …
I'm halfway through the first draft. But I've just changed the text from past tense, third person limited, to present tense, first person multi point of view. While I was reading Holden Sheppard's The Brink, I was taken by how personal his book felt with different characters narrating in the here and now. My gut …
A father and daughter team were on the radio the other morning. Like me, dad obviously enjoyed the house party days of the nineties. He told his daughter (and us) about the Primal Scream track, 'Loaded'. Hearing people still affectionate about that decade is why one of my WiP's is set in that era. I'm …
Continue reading "Getting a manuscript ready for submission"
Last week I was on a work trip. I travelled from Sydney to Broome via a connecting flight to Perth. The first leg of this trip alone was four hours. Knowing this, I decided to print one of my works in progress, The Midnight Man, because I’ve been feeling the urge to get it ready …
These days, that's more that I usually do. But this manuscript is special. This story, The Midnight Man, took me a year to finally start as I was revisiting my earlier works for a new publisher at the time I came up with this story. And while I'm more efficient in my writing these days, …
Perhaps 'agonise' is too strong a word. You see, I've gone back to work on the fifth draft of The Midnight Man, a novel I need to get right. I haven't been this obsessed with perfection since my first book. It's currently novella length and tells the story of Stan, a middle aged man in an …
kevin klehr 