love a recipe

I did enjoy this comment from Slate on Dan Brown's witness statement:

Brown has done a lot of thinking about what makes a successful Dan Brown thriller. He has found that it requires a few essential elements: some kind of shadowy force, like a secret society or government agency; a "big idea" that contains a moral "grey area"; and a treasure. The treasures in Brown's four novels have been a meteorite, anti-matter, a gold ring, and the Holy Grail. The shadowy forces have included the Priory of Sion, Opus Dei, and the National Security Agency. The big idea, if I'm reading him correctly, goes something like this: Is the Vatican good … or is it evil? Is the National Security Agency for us … or is it against us? When all of Brown's elements come together, doled out over cliffhanging chapters, with characters that exist to "move the plot along," it is like mixing the ingredients to make a cake.

go to http://www.slate.com/id/2138483/ for the rest of it

thanks to lili at the cyl for the orginal link

seriously but not solemnly

A fashion guru featured in a magazine at the local coffee shop said she took fashion seriously but not solemnly. It struck a chord - that's how I'd like to see children's books taken.

mid-books crisis

Mickyd queried me whether I'd finished So Yesterday and I'm admitting I'm having a mid-books crisis. I get to the middle of the book and I get stuck and start something else. Mainly a YA problem at the moment. (Tim Winton's The Turning I've stopped reading a few stories short of the end because I don't want it to be over too quickly.) A book I've just got stuck in has a great start but our heroine's been stuck on a plateau for sometime and it looks like she'll be there for a while. Is this just a problem for me or are authors and editors forgetting the middles of books. Great starts but loose rambling middles. The editing finger itches as interest wanes. But perhaps YA readers don't want to finish books too quick and I'm out of step.

If you're missing hearing an English accent, pop along to the APA AGM.

art is not truth

It was a plus being sent to find this quotation while reading Blue Balliett's Chasing Vermeeer:
"We all know that art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth.
Pablo Picasso

I really enjoyed Chasing Vermeer, though the ending didn't quite fulfil the promise of the rest of the book.

interesting quotations

"We are now in a position to say to authors: 'This is our plan to put you in every airport in the world.' It's a very attractive proposition."
&
'It's in the interests of authors to have one global publisher - it gives more sales and marketing visibility.'
Tim Hely Hutchinson, Hachette Livre UK c.e.o. The Bookseller Feb 06

The Burning

I'm reading Tim Winton's The Burning. It's good to be back in Winton World. I loved Dirt Music. It was a Xmas holidays one year, perfect summery reading. Reading Tim Winton is like tapping crystal.

Clayton's CBC

I went to the CBC Clayton's award last night. It's always a good night - a qurky, oddly Australian idea of an award's night. Mike Shuttleworth was provocative and entertaining. I didn't agree with all he said (although I agreed with his comments about The Black Dress being a fine read) but It did make me sit up and listen. I think one of our problems in children's books is that we like to sit around agree with each other too much. One of his points was his disappointment that the older readers section wasn't a YA section. The various premier's award are either de facto or de jure pretty much YA awards so YA books actually get pretty good "award" coverage. It's the chapter book area, the post-picture book and pre-YA section as well as poor old non-fiction that dip out in terms of critical recognition. We've come along way from Redmond Barry refusing to let fiction into his library. Non-fiction didn't get guernsay at the Claytons, and it's all crammed into one section in the awards. While on the topic of the awards I'd also like to see more encouragement to new writers and illustrators - good on the Victoria CBC for having the Crichton Award. I'm just disappointed it doesn't have as a high a profile as the other awards. Maybe it should be the one we really celebrate. Maybe one for new writers as well? All in all, though, the CBC does a fabulous job of promoting children's books.

latest Magpies

I just got the latest copy of Magpies and I enjoyed David Fickling's article. I particularly like his entry on "Publishing Lunches", something the poms are famous for. And it's cross referecnced under "Listen".
"Necessary. Talk to your author. Get to know them Find out what they intend their story to do … The truth is particularly good over coffee."
I found it interesting in his speech at Reading Matters that he divided editors into shoppers and cooks, and David identified himself as a cook but all the particular stories he told were about shopping.

Saturday paper pickings

The Australian had a nice article on Begg-Smith. Interesting that the Canadian Olympic bureaucracy makes such demands on their athletes but Australia was ready to turn a blind eye to Begg Smith's extracurricular activities. We didn't have much to loose but the Canadians need to have the discipline to sustain the quality across of the whole team. Or is the Canadian reputation for bureaucracy deserved? Begg Smith said: "For Australia, the No 1 thing is results. Results speak higher than anything else." I'm not sure we should take that as a complement. It reads to me like we're weak, easily lead and focussed on the short term and on the appearance of success. That's all probably true. Look at the AWB. It would also seem to be pretty much the way of the modern world. I liked the claim reported in the article that one of Begg Smith's domains infected your computer with pop-ups then has a pop-up advertising software that kills pop-ups. "Which is like me breaking into your house and then selling you a burgular alarm.

"Britain's situation wasn't unparalleled; America had undergone the big brand publishing takeover years before. But America is bigger, and publishing diversity stood a better chance of flourishing."

"It wasn't that Random House and Waterstone's didn't fill an important niche in the British book world. Rather, there didn't seem to be room for anyone else."

Two quotes from "The bigger, the better? The British small publisher begs to differ"
By Tara Mulholland International Herald Tribune
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2006

So Yesterday

I'm reading Scott Westerfileld's So Yesterday. I like the trimmings (Hunter's facts are neat.) But by page 60 I'm beginning to wonder where's the beef. All decoration and not enough story? I'll read on.

The code

The case against Dan Brown and the Da Vinci code by two researchers seems absurd in creative terms (no idea about the legal). A fictional writer is to be constrained by fear of a law suit if a book is successful because he or she based it on fact? We're choking creativity by being so uptight about intellectual property. Isn't there some famous quote about standing on the shoulders of others? Now there'll be a charge for doing so.

bad writing

I enjoyed this blog on bad writing:
sucking-blood-out-of-literature/
I'd started to read The Historian late last year and given up, finding the writing portentous. It was nice to have the view confimed by analysis.

But
yeah whatever
(which had triggered the previouse blog) seemed to go over the top in its attack Zadie Smith's On Beauty. The criticism was based on a single example of a poor metaphor. I really enjoyed Smith's book even though I wasn't favorably disposed at the start as I hadn't got into White Teeth. I know lots of moderately literate people who enjoyed On Beauty as much as I did. Dr Zen has an overdeveloped canon of correctness.

first person

I'm intrigued by person in voice - ever since a work-experience person (who's gone on to a mid-list career as a children's author with another publisher) authoritatively informed me that first person just couldn't be sustained in a novel and that it was dull to read. I've always liked the first person, so I was disconcerted with earnestness this fiat was delivered with. Most of the books we've published are third person but I've really liked the way Michael Wagner uses first person in Dog Wars. I'm reading it to Miles (aged 6) and he's loving it - a first person flea. Phil Kettle claims that first person is the way to a seven year old boy's heart - put him at the centre of the story.

So Susan Johnson's comments about the "person" in her first novel intrigued me. To quote here "I clung to third-person because it felt safe … because I hoped for a more magisterial, authorial distance… Finally I relented though, accepting that first person was the only way the story could be told. After that I was away. She goes on to say, "Once a character's voice has been discovered … everything else follows."

buzz about Nunn's Shadows

I just opened the packaged that contains the proofread pages from Barbie, the toughest and meanest of all proofreaders who's never seemed to liked any of our other books, and there was a note "Great read!" Pick me up off the floor!

And I got this email from Lisa on Friday: "It is a brilliant read! I am totally engrossed and don't expect to get anything else done until I have finished it!"

From the chark blog - this link to a very lovely opening sequence to a website:
www.puertodepalos.com.ar/
It's worth a look.

There's a buzz building about Cameron Nunn's Shadows in the Mirror (coming out in May) based on early copies of the book we've sent out to readers. Cameron's written a book that is all of clever, engaging and substantial. He's skilfully slipped in the substance into something akin to a thriller. Here comes a narrator that you just can't quite rely on, and the distrust engages the reader to read on to try and find out what really happens.

It was a long haul to publication for Cameron, from early enouragement from Ursual Dubosarsky when he took some students to a writing camp. But the book is proving that it's been worth it.

There are always gems in the Saturday Age. Ap Dijksterhuis of the University of Amsterdam has discovered that big decisions are best left to the unconscious mind because it can juggle lots of facts and figures better. The conscious mind tends to inflate the importance of some attributes at the expense of others and can handle on a few facts at a time, leading to poor decisions. (The study was based on picking the best of four cars. It seems a narrow base on which to build a theory, and I'm what best meant. The other item of random interest (random is my 12 year old daughters favourite word) were the "skipper dippers" collecting food from bins at the back of garbage bins. It's growing - to the extent that there are skipper dipper swap meets. People say it is more about reducing waste than free goods.

It was stimulating reading Business Network this week in the Age as it featured David and Sharon Marlow's Book Street. As an independent publisher its good to read about our counterparts on the other side of the fence, the independent booksellers, in the mainstream press. It's encouraging to find such passion. My understanding of the bookselling ecology is that the independents are the one's who build the success of books. Some books start big but many build through the handselling efforts of the independents. And the Marlows seem to have this point of difference in spades. I love being sold a book, and I'm happier reading and giving a book that comes with a recommendation. But I'm not sure that it's something that Australians are typically good at - accepting advice in a shop. We not fabulous at giving service, but we're not good at receiving it either. As a publisher it's energizing talking to a great bookseller. It was good to catch up with Lynndy of Gleebooks when I was up in Sydney and to meet Toni and Nicola of the newish Lindfield Children's Bookshop

I've read this section of the paper before but for the first time I knew about the industry. I was a bit shocked that the advice was so generic, big business talking down to small. The best of the advice the Marlows were already following and the some of the rest of it was just plain wonky.

We're working hard to grow our website. Chris Miles is in a day a week or so. It is highly enjoyable - you get such a quick result. An innovation is up and happening as soon as we upload. (Publishing books has such a long cycle by comparison, and it seems to be getting longer.) Visits are increasing, teachers notes, hi res images of authors and covers are being downloaded - we looked at the statistics on Friday and we could see! But it's slow progress. We want a site like a rambling old house with lots of back corridors and attics that take several visits or will only be found by accident.
I'm kind of proud of this my first genuine blog entry, and I'd be chuffed if I got a comment back so please reply.