AWW Feature & Giveaway: Q&A with Kate Belle, author of The Yearning

Welcome Kate Belle!

I am so pleased to welcome Kate Belle to Book’d Out today. Kate Belle lives, writes and loves in Melbourne, but is a country girl at heart, being born and bred in northern Victoria.  Kate describes herself as a passionate author, adequate wife and devoted mum/step-mum. She holds a tertiary qualification in applied chemistry, half a diploma in naturpathy and a diploma in psychological astrology. Her employment history includes a video library, a travel agent, cleaning campervans for hire, the Victorian public service, a disability organisation and a university sports centre. She has ridden a camel through the Australian desert, fraternised with hippies in Nimbin, had a near birth experience and lived on nothing but porridge and a carrot for 3 days.

Kate has had some publishing success with nonfiction articles and four short stories highly commended in Australian competitions. She recently won the Southern Cross short story competition for Cool Change and has had two erotic romance novella’s, Breaking The Rules and Bloom, published by Random Romance.

Kate’s debut full length novel,  The Yearning, was published in May by Simon and Schuster Australia. This evocative, sensual novel explores the yearning for love, sex, and connection. You can read my y review of this remarkable novel  HERE

“It’s 1978 in a country town and a dreamy fifteen year old girl’s world is turned upside down by the arrival of the substitute English teacher. Solomon Andrews is beautiful, inspiring and she wants him like nothing else she’s wanted in her short life.
Charismatic and unconventional, Solomon easily wins the hearts and minds of his third form English class. He notices the attention of one girl, his new neighbour, who has taken to watching him from her upstairs window. He assumes it a harmless teenage crush, until erotic love notes begin to arrive in his letterbox.
Solomon knows he must resist, but her sensual words stir him. He has longings of his own, although they have nothing to do with love, or so he believes. One afternoon, as he stands reading her latest offering in his driveway, she turns up unannounced. Each must make a choice, the consequences of which will haunt them until they meet again twenty years later.”

I had the opportunity to ask Kate some questions and I am thrilled to share our conversation with you today. Read on…

Q & A with Kate Belle

Q: What are the main themes of The Yearning?

Kate: Love, desire, obsession, intimacy, lust and sexual power. To name a few. The Yearning is an intense story of unrequited and unconditional love. It explores how deep longing for connection with someone we believe we love can push us across social and moral boundaries. Sometimes we just want what we want, no matter what, but in love (and lust) there are always consequences and The Yearning doesn’t shy away from those.

It examines the sexual power balance in what appears at first to be an unequal relationship. But there is always more to these relationships than meets the eye. In a way it’s a cautionary tale for young women growing into their sexuality about the damage that mature sexual relationships can cause if we enter into them too early. The main protagonist is anonymous throughout the novel as a way of expressing her sense of invisibility.

Q: Where did the inspiration for The Yearning come from?

Kate: That’s a tricky one because the story sort of evolved out of a deep place within, as many of my stories do. I can’t pin it to one specific thing. The bones of it began as a collection of unsent love letters I’d written to various unattainable lovers throughout my own life, and a couple of short stories that were going nowhere. When I put them together I saw some common themes and the story took root. It rolled out of me as I wrote. I remember finishing a chapter, taking a deep breath and wondering where the story would take me next.

Q: What about a small Australian town in the late 1970′s made it the ideal setting for The Yearning?

Kate: I grew up in a small country town in 1970’s, so that setting holds a lot of ambience for me. The 1970’s was a time when Australia was coming to terms with the massive social changes sweeping across the Western world. Women’s liberation, the sexual revolution, the civil and equal rights movements. Big changes that challenged people’s moral boundaries and social norms.

Combine this sense of boundaries crumbling with a lack of public scrutiny and the relentless boredom that comes with being a teenager in a small town that offers nothing – no bookstore, no cinema, no culture – and you have fertile ground for a relationship like the one in The Yearning to evolve.

Q: The relationship in the novel  defies social and moral conventions, what can readers learn from this?

Kate: When we are young, it’s so easy to give ourselves away in the name of love. Yet entering a mature sexual relationship too early can be damaging in so many ways, ways we can’t comprehend until we hit full adulthood. I hope people will understand how a relationship like this can evolve, and that Solomon isn’t a monster. He struggles with his attraction, but is a bit helpless in the face of his own psyche and a young girl’s powerful desire for him.

There is a lot of hysteria and blame around student-teacher relationships. Certainly there is a power imbalance, but too often the teenagers are painted as hapless victims without any power at all. The truth is young people hold enormous sexual power and this is part of the reason these relationships happen in the first place. Through popular culture our young people learn early the value of sexual allure and how to ruffle their sexual feathers. If they are to protect themselves from potential exploitation it’s important they also understand the emotional ramifications that come with being involved with an older person.

Q: What scene in the novel was the most challenging to write?

Kate: The challenging bit wasn’t so much a scene as a character. Solomon. True confession: I went through so many redrafts trying to get behind his eyes to get his point of view. In the end my gorgeous critique partner, Margareta Osborn, very gently pointed out that perhaps I was so in love with Solomon that maybe I couldn’t see straight and if I wanted to write him properly I had to stop being so sympathetic toward him. It was a bit of a shock, but she was right. I had a very complicated relationship with Solomon throughout the novel, and it wasn’t until I talked it through with Margareta that I realised it was compromising my ability to write him. Weird, I know, but there it is.

Q: The Yearning is promoted by your publisher as erotic fiction – what does that term mean within the context of this novel?

Whenever a novel like this hits the bookshelves it needs to be categorised in some way so that people understand its genre. While The Yearning contains strong erotic themes and explicit sexual scenes, all of which are absolutely necessary to the story, I hope it’s not defined by that content alone. It’s a love story (as opposed to a romance). The ending isn’t a traditional HEA, but it is perfect for the story. I think the common themes of expectations and disappointments in love and negotiating challenging relationships give it a much broader appeal than erotic fiction.

Q: I understand you need music to write – what was on your playlist during the writing of The Yearning?

Kate: The majority of The Yearning was written to a gorgeous CD of sensual classical music. My hubby received Seduction by Luminesca, an Australian cello/guitar duo, for his birthday. I fell in love with the music and it perfectly captured the intense emotional journey the characters undertake in The Yearning. It inspired me while writing the intense love scenes and scenes of longing in the book. If I could embed the music into the book for readers to enjoy I would.

Q: What’s next for you?

Kate: I’ve just signed a contract with Simon & Schuster for my second novel, working title Saint. It’s another intense and challenging story about a marriage between Jade, a wild artist who flouts social conventions, and her ever patient husband, Banjo. For the first time in twenty years Banjo walks out  after a fight with Jade and is killed in a hit and run accident. Banjo is left with an unanswered question: did his wife, Jade, love him above all the others? He can’t be at peace until he discovers the answer. Only when their daughter, Lissy, discovers Jade’s book of lovers, an artistic journal chronicling her extra-marital affairs, does he discover the truth.

Q.    Can you please share three of your favourite novels by Australian women writers?

My One Hundred Lovers by Susan Johnson – I just fell in love with the prose in this book. It’s a wonderful exploration of eroticism in all its forms.

Tremble by Tobsha Learner – The way she weaves myth and mysticism into this collection of erotic short stories is awe-inspiring.

Anything by Margareta Osborn – Not just because she’s my critique partner. She is a master at character. I can hear them breathing when I read her work.

Q. What is your preference?

·           Coffee/Tea or other? I’m a brewed coffee addict.

·           Beach/Pool or River? River or beach. Pools are fake.

·           Slacks/Jeans or Leggings? Jeans. Even when I’m too old to get away with them. (Do people still wear slacks?)

·           Butterfly/Tiger or Giraffe? Some days are tigers, some days are butterflys, but they’re rarely giraffes.

·           Swing/Slide or Roundabout? Since I did my knee on the trampoline I don’t do play equipment.

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Review: Ask Me To Stay by Elise K Ackers

Title: Ask Me To Stay {Homeland #1}

Author: Elise K Ackers

Published: Destiny Romance April 2013

Status: Read on April 13, 2013 — I own a copy {Courtesy the publisher}

My Thoughts:

I have previously read and enjoyed The Man Plan by Elise K Ackers a sweet, lighthearted contemporary romance. Ask Me To Stay, the first novella in a new series by the author, is quite different with less emphasis on the romantic relationship between the protagonists.

Ethan Foster left home at eighteen without any explanation, deserting the brother who raised him after the tragic death of their parents and his childhood sweetheart, Samantha O’Hara. In the past ten years or so he has returned only a handful of times for family occasions, never staying more than a day or two, leaving town with gossip trailing in his wake. But this time it’s different, Ethan’s brother’s wife has died, leaving Dean to raise their two young children alone. Despite the animosity between the brothers, this time Ethan doesn’t leave, even though he risks disclosing the secret he has carried for the last decade, the secret that has stopped him coming home.

Though written in the third person, which allows us to learn what Sam, and the other characters, think and feel, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Ethan takes the lead in this story. The plot centers around the ruinous secret that haunts Ethan and it is his regrets and hopes that drive the story.

Ethan is a credible, sympathetic character and I found his motivations believable. I especially liked the way in which Ackers developed his relationship with his niece and nephew, child characters are notoriously difficult for authors to get right and I think the author did so wonderfully in this instance.

I thought Sam could have been a stronger character as I didn’t get much of a sense of why she and Ethan should be together above all things but I did like her. She is one of the few who never loses faith in Ethan despite having good reason to.

While within the scope of the story the romance works fine since it is a relationship rekindled, fans of the genre may be disappointed by the lack of direct interaction between Ethan and Sam. There is a happy ending though which should satisfy most romance readers.

The secondary characters in Ask Me To Stay are also likeable, with subsequent books in the Homeland series to feature Ethan’s best mate, Cal and brother, Dean.

At only 130 pages, Ask Me To Stay is a short, quick read but a very engaging novella with appealing characters and surprising emotional depth. I am looking forward to reading Cal’s story in July.

Click HERE to read a guest post by Elise K Ackers posted earlier today

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AWW Feature & Giveaway: Elise K. Ackers and her reputation

I’m happy to welcome Elise K. Ackers back to Book’d Out today to introduce you to her  new Homeland series being published by Destiny Romance.

Elise K. Ackers is from Melbourne, Australia and is an animal foster carer, a magnet for unusual accidents and an enthusiastic couch commentator. She writes contemporary romance and romantic suspense and is published with Destiny Romance and Escape Publishing.  Late last year I reviewed The Man Plan, warm, lighthearted, contemporary romance, and Elise shared a post about subconcious inspiration.

Ask Me To Stay: A Homeland Book is her fourth book, an engaging novella I have reviewed HERE. Here is the blurb:

“When family tragedy brings bad boy Ethan Foster home, he doesn’t expect a warm welcome. In the small town of Hinterdown reputation is everything – and Ethan’s was ruined long ago. Nobody wants him around, particularly not Sam O’Hara, the girl he left behind. There’s still a powerful spark between them, but Sam is afraid to risk her heart again. And Ethan is hiding a secret that will have repercussions for his whole family. Will the townspeople ever forgive him? More importantly, will those he loves the most find it in their hearts to take him back?”

The second title in the Homeland series will be available in July 2013. To learn more about the series and how you can win a copy of Ask Me To Stay, read on…

Reputation as a currency

Ask Me To Stay: A Homeland Book is the first in my novella series with Destiny Romance, and it introduces the common theme across the series: reputation.

Ethan Foster, enigma, run-away and all-round contradiction, has just returned to his home town with an undeserved reputation and a whopping great secret. Over a decade ago, he fled the small country town of Hinterdown in New South Wales, Australia. He left behind a brother, a lover, a best friend, and a life interrupted by untimely death.

People made their own assumptions about his reasons for leaving, and as the years passed, assumptions became fact, and fact became legend.

By the time Ethan returns home, people’s misconceptions are inflexible and damning, and their opinions are getting in the way of salvaging a relationship with his brother, Dean. Because Ethan rarely kept in touch, and because Dean has built a life for himself that Ethan’s had almost no part in – their estrangement is only fuelled by inaccurate gossip.

Both experience and research had told me that a person’s reputation in a small town is like a kind of currency. It’s either tracking well against the baseline, or it’s underperforming. You only get one reputation – and no one is likely to forget what you choose to do with it.Your reputation represents your worth. It determines if people are likely to trust you, rely on you or even like you.

But one wrong move – one mistake – can cancel out years of good behaviour. Ethan’s only mistake was to leave. Prior to that he was a well-liked teenager who was afforded a lot of patience because of his parents’ untimely deaths. Everything changed the day he stopped deciding to put on a brave face. When he left, he was condemned for abandoning his brother, for breaking his then-girlfriend’s heart, and basically for daring to start again.

Ethan quickly learns that rebuilding a reputation takes a lot longer than it takes to lose it, and that taking on someone else’s mistake – and thereby adopting their bad reputation – has heart breaking, far-reaching consequences.
Maybe it’s time to set things straight. But to restore his reputation, he must ruin another’s. Is the price of acceptance too high?

In the second and third Homeland books, which explore the lives and loves of Ethan’s brother, Dean, and Ethan’s childhood best friend, Caleb; reputation is similarly explored. Without spoilers, Cal reignites a friendship with an ex-local with a bad girl reputation, and Dean must battle against people’s perception of him, since his loss in Ask Me To Stay. Both men will challenge their reputations, and the reputations of those they love.

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Review & Giveaway: Sweet Damage by Rebecca James

Title: Sweet Damage

Author: Rebecca James

Published: Allen and Unwin April 2013

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Status: Read from March 27 to 28, 2013 — I own a copy {Courtesy Allen & Unwin}

My Thoughts:

Sweet Damage is the second novel by Rebecca James. Her first, Beautiful Malice, gained international success for it’s chilling story of twisted friendship.

In Sweet Damage, Tim, an easy going, twenty something kitchen hand who has been staying on his ex-girlfriends couch since his return from an overseas trip. When she insists he finds his own space he is thrilled to find an inexpensive room in a large house in the leafy Australian suburb of Fairlight. The only catch is his young, agoraphobic enigmatic housemate, and landlord, Alice, who is not only haunted by unspeakable tragedy, but perhaps something altogether more sinister.

I was immediately drawn to the premise of Sweet Damage, tantalised by the gothic overtones and the promise of a chilling mystery and I was barely a quarter of the way through when the first wave of shivers rolled over me. It wasn’t the last time I felt that tingle of dread, the measured pace allows the suspense to build as the narrative weaves in and out of the past and present, before twisting unexpectedly.

Anna is such an interesting protagonist, and the ambiguity surrounding her character plays beautifully into the suspense. Her agoraphobia, her secretiveness and her difficulty interacting with Tim suggests she has something to hide and as strange things begin to happen in the house, it is understandable that Tim suspects her, especially since she is unable to deny any wrongdoing.

Tim is a little wary of Anna and her odd behaviour but with the arrogance of youth he is not really threatened by the odd occurrences at Fairview. Tim is more concerned with his on again/off again relationship with Lilla, his ex-girlfriend, with whom he admits an obsession. However Anna ignites his protective instinct and he is drawn to her vulnerability which contrasts so vividly with Lilla’s brash personality.

The writing is finely crafted to create an atmospheric and gripping story of psychological suspense. Several suspects move in and out of the frame as the mystery unfolds. As the story reaches it’s climax I thought perhaps Anna and Tim piece things together perhaps a little too quickly but the final confrontation is shocking and not everyone will see it coming.

I devoured Sweet Damage in a few hours, it is an easy yet engrossing read. I think it can be enjoyed by a wide range of ages (16 and up) and recommend it to those who enjoy spine tingling suspense.

Earlier today I posted a Q&A with Rebecca, make sure you take a look!

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AWW Feature: Q&A with Rebecca James, author of Sweet Damage

Welcome Rebecca James!

I am delighted to feature Rebecca James at  Book’d Out today and talk a little about her newest release, Sweet Damage. Rebecca James was born in Sydney, Australia, in 1970 and grew up in various different places throughout New South Wales, including Bourke, Sydney, Wellington and Bathurst. During her twenties Rebecca worked as a waitress, an English teacher in both Indonesia and Japan, a bartender, and (most memorably) a mini-cab telephone operator in London. During her thirties Rebecca spent most of her time having babies, she has four sons, and helping her partner run a small kitchen business in Canberra.

Rebecca’s first novel Beautiful Malice (Allen & Unwin 2010), a young adult psychological thriller, placed Highly Commended in the 2010 FAW (Fellowship of Australian Writers) Christina Stead Award and became a international best seller.

Sweet Damage is a compelling story of suspense that  I devoured within hours. My review is available HERE and I have three copies to giveaway, for now I am going to let Rebecca tell you more about her fabulous new novel, read on…

Q&A with Rebecca James

Q: Can you give us the ‘elevator pitch’ for Sweet Damage?

Rebecca: Laid back surfer Tim Ellison can’t believe  his luck when he scores a cheap room to rent in a  Sydney mansion. The only catch is his new flatmate, Anna London:  withdrawn  and agoraphobic she’s not exactly easy to make friends with. When strange and terrifying things start happening in the house, Tim wonders if he’s made a mistake taking the room and soon he’s caught up the tragic mystery of Anna’s past and the discovery of secrets both shocking and horrific.

Q: What was the first element of inspiration for creating Sweet Damage?

Rebecca: I was thinking about anxiety and agoraphobia and how having a person who’s basically  trapped in a house had a lot of potential for a story. And then I started thinking about how a lot of people view mental illnesses like agoraphobia, how they see it as a weakness, a failure. I thought it would be interesting to narrate most of the story from Tim’s perspective – a well-meaning but slightly insensitive guy who is completely baffled by Anna’s situation, her inability to leave the house. That was the basic set-up and then I had to put Tim and Anna under a whole lot of pressure and create a big mystery and lot of twisty plot elements to keep readers guessing and turning the pages.

Q:  Sweet Damage is written in the first person view from a young male,  did his gender pose any difficulties for you as you wrote?

Rebecca: Sometimes, yes! In my first draft my editor made the comment that Tim at times sounded like a 40 year old woman rather than a young man in his twenties. In redrafting I had to be really conscious not to let my voice override his, make sure he wasn’t thinking the way I would in his situation.

Q:  Is Fairview, the house in which Anna and Tim live,  based on a real location?

Rebecca: The location is real but the house itself is a product of my imagination. I know Fairlight the suburb pretty well, as I’ve lived there myself (in a small flat, not a mansion!) and my grandmother used to live in the very street – Lauderdale Avenue – in which I set the book.

Q:  What draws you to the young adult /psychological thriller genre?

Rebecca: I didn’t set out to write YA fiction. When I was writing my first book, BEAUTIFUL MALICE, I wasn’t thinking about categories or genres at all. It wasn’t until I started looking for an agent that I had to start thinking of how to pitch it. Interestingly, Beautiful Malice sold as a YA book in most territories, but as an adult book in others. in fulfilling my contract (BEAUTIFUL MALICE sold in a two-book deal) I had to try and write a book with similar crossover appeal – and so I hope SWEET DAMAGE is the same as BEAUTIFUL MALICE in that it will appeal to both teens and adults.

I’m definitely drawn to psychological thrillers. I think it must be my favourite genre in both books and movies. I enjoy the element of suspense and I always love it when there’s a completely unexpected twist that you don’t see coming.

Q: Do you and your sister, Wendy (The Mistake) talk about your writing with each other?

Rebecca: Yes, we do. We read each other’s manuscripts and give feedback. We talk about plot and characters and pacing and style – all the elements of novel-writing basically.

Q: Name three of your favourite novels by Australian women writers

Rebecca: It’s difficult to name only three  and I find it hard to list favourites as I don’t tend to think of books in that way. So I’m going to list three books that kept me thinking about the characters  and the writing long after I closed the last page.

OUT OF THE SILENCE by my sister Wendy is a book I couldn’t get out of my head for a long while. Maggie’s plight really brought home to me how dreadful and unfair life could be for women before feminism made abortion possible. Her story’s a great reminder how important feminism has been for women (and still is) and how much we’re now able to take for granted. (OUT OF THE SILENCE has just been republished as an ebook by Momentum press so you can now buy it from Amazon).

THE SPARE ROOM by Helen Garner is another book that resonated for me. I love Helen Garner’s ability to apply a her sharp critical lens to the domestic life of ordinary people. She’s honest about people’s motivations, and their small pettinesses and there’s a courage and beauty in that honesty that I really admire.

I also love Liane Moriarty’s work, particularly WHAT ALICE FORGOT (I haven’t read her latest yet, but intend to remedy that very soon). Liane Moriarty reminds me a bit of Anne Tyler in that she’s fundamentally kind to her characters. She shows people in all their flawed glory without being judgemental or superior, which is, I think, a great novelistic skill. The idea that people can be both flawed and lovable, that life is sticky and complicated, and that people can surprise themselves in both good and bad ways, is, for me, a recurring message of her work.  Her books somehow make me feel more optimistic and cheerful.

Q. What is your preference?

• Coffee/Tea or other? Tea.
• Beach/Pool or River? Beach. But I love pools too. And rivers.
• Slacks/Jeans or Leggings? Jeans. (Slacks? No way! They sound so old -ladyish!)
• Butterfly/Tiger or Giraffe? Giraffe. They have cute faces. Though I don’t know what I’d do with one.
• Swing/Slide or Roundabout? Actually the thought of either makes me a feel a bit queasy. I’d rather just sit on a bench seat and read, thanks very much!

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A special edition of Beautiful Malice, with a preview of Sweet Damage, is currently available from Allen & Unwin

Review & Giveaway: The Wild Girl by Kate Forsyth

Title: The Wild Girl

Author: Kate Forsyth

Published: Vintage: Random House March 2013

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Status: Read from March 15 to 17, 2013 — I own a copy {Courtesy the publisher}

My Thoughts:
The Wild Girl is a stunning tale of passion, love and war where history and imagination intertwine to create a wonderfully rich portrait of a woman whose contribution to the legend of the Grimm Brothers is finally acknowledged.

Dortchen Wild lives in the small kingdom of  Hessen-Cassel in Germany in the early 1800′s, as Napoleon Bonaparte marches across Europe. One of five daughters of an apothecary,  her only relief from her father’s tyranny comes from the rare occasions she can escape his attention and her friendship with her next door neighbour,  Lotte Grimm. As the war intensifies, Lotte’s older brothers Jakob and Williem return home. With a single glance, twelve year old Dortchen falls in the love with the scholarly Williem but he barely notices her and she can only worship him from afar. As war rages and Cassel is plunged into economic ruin, the Grimm brothers hope to reverse their fortunes by publishing a book of collected fairytales.  It’s not until Dortchen shyly offers to contribute that Williem realises Dortchen has grown up, but her father forbids any courtship between the desperately poor neighbour boy and his daughter. While the lovers endure years of enforced separation due to abuse, war and poverty Dortchen never stops hoping for her own happily ever after.

Kate Forsyth uses historical record as the anchor for a story that she then develops with informed imagination. The Napoleonic War and it’s social effects grounds the tale in time and place while her fictional narrative winds in and out of what is known about the Grimm brothers, the origins of their fairytale collection and Dortchen. I don’t doubt that Forsyth’s research, using primary sources such Williem’s diaries amongst others, is impeccable but I most admire how she creates a plausible, seamless narrative melding fact with fiction. The author’s intuitive grasp of behaviour and motive ensures her characters, their environment and their lives feel authentic.

In the tradition of the original Grimm’s fairytales, Dortchen’s childhood is beset by darkness. Her mother was a weak woman addicted to Laudanum and subservient to her husband. Dortchen’s father, pious and strict during her childhood, devolved into a drunken, abusive tyrant in her adolescence, illustrated in several harrowing scenes. The war and resulting economic deprivations is hard on the family and though three of the sisters are eventually able to escape, Dortchen is forced to remain at home and care for her ailing parents. It is saddening to see Dortchen withdraw into herself in self defense, her spirit eroded by her fading hopes for escape from her father. The spark is only revived when she steals a moment or two with Williem. Her relationship with him is fraught with angst, drama and passion, their love is challenged repeatedly and a happy ending is never guaranteed.

The fairytale’s appear in the narrative not just as stories passed between the characters but also with some relationships to the plot. Dortchen often hopes that Williem will recognise her pain in the tales that she tells, though his scholarly focus seems to make him somewhat oblivious to the subtleties. They also reflect the political and social instability of times with tales of greedy kings and an abandoned, unfed children, despite their origin being from other times and places. The fairytales themselves are both versions of familiar stories like Cinderella and Snow White as well as less well known tales like that of a singing bone that identifies a murderer.

Really I could go on, The Wild Child is remarkable. A tale of triumph over adversity, an epic historical romance, a fascinating glimpse into the history of storytelling – it is all those things and more. One of my favourite reads for the year, I recommend it wholeheartedly.

 

Earlier today I posted a Q&A with Kate Forsyth HERE. Visit to learn more about the author, the book and  download an ESampler.

The Wild Girl is available

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AWW Feature: Q&A with Kate Forsyth, author of The Wild Girl

Welcome Kate Forsyth

I am thrilled to introduce you to Australian author Kate Forsyth today. Kate Forsyth is the internationally bestselling author of more than twenty books, including The Witches of Eileanan and Rhiannon’s Ride series for adults, and The Puzzle Ring, The Gypsy Crown, and The Starthorn Tree for children. She has won or been nominated for numerous awards in Australia and the US.

Currently undertaking a doctorate in fairytale retellings at the University of Technology, having already completed a BA in Literature and a MA in Creative Writing,  last year she published  Bitter Greens (Random House 2012)  an exquisite retelling of the Rapunzel fairytale, interwoven with the dramatic true life story of the woman who first told the tale and I was captivated by its effortless blend of history and fantasy.

Today I am delighted to be celebrating the release of Kate’s newest novel, The Wild Girl (Random House 2013), the story of Dortchen Wild and her relationship with the Grimm brothers, the authors of the Grimm’s Fairytale collection. The Wild Girl is a stunning tale of passion, love and war where history and imagination intertwine to create a wonderfully rich portrait of a woman whose contribution to legend is finally acknowledged.

You can read my review of  The Wild Girl , and have the chance to win a copy, HERE.  But first, Kate graciously agreed to answer some questions for me about The Wild Girl. Read on to learn more about this novel and how you can download an Ebook Sampler to enjoy.

Q: Please tell us about The Wild Girl

Kate: ‘The Wild Girl’ tells the beautiful untold love story of the forbidden romance between Wilhelm Grimm, the younger of the famous fairy tale scholars, and the young woman who told him many of their most compelling fairy tales. Her name was Dortchen Wild and she grew up next door to the Grimm brothers in the small German kingdom of Hessen-Cassel. It was a very bloody and turbulent time, with Napoleon conquering most of Europe, and Dortchen’s father was an autocratic man who disapproved of the impoverished Grimm brothers and forbade her from seeing Wilhelm. They met secretly so she could tell him such well-known stories as ‘Rumpelstiltskin’, ‘Six Swan’s, ‘Hansel & Gretel’, ‘The Frog King’, and ‘The Elves and the Shoemaker’, (plus many more). She was only nineteen and he was twenty-six, yet it was a long time before they could at last be together. 

Q: Why did Dortchen Wild capture your imagination?

Kate: It was the irresistible combination of the beautiful and heart-wrenching love story, and the telling of the tales. I’ve always been both enchanted and frightened by fairy tales and I found it extraordinary that this one young woman had a head stuffed full of all these marvellous stories, and that she told them to Wilhelm so they could be saved forever. I felt a very strong connection to Dortchen right from the very beginning – her birthday is actually only a week before mine – and I found it very easy to imagine myself into her skin.

Q: What are the challenges in melding historical fact and fiction?

Kate: The first and most difficult challenge is finding the facts in the first place. Dortchen Wild is virtually forgotten by history. I had to create a lot of story out of my own imagination, using her own stories to guide me. Then there was the difficulty of portraying such well-loved figures of the Grimm brothers as fictional characters. I set the known facts as immovable pegs around which I wove my own intuitive interpretation of their lives. Finally, there’s the need to write a compelling, fascinating, unputdownable novel. I had to make sure the story wore the historical background lightly. I really dislike books where the author feels a need to show off their scholarship by weighing down the story with pages of details and facts. It has to be just enough to bring the past to life without slowing down the pace. It can be a delicate balancing act sometimes.

Q:What was the most surprising piece of information you uncovered in your research?

Two things, which actually strike off each other. Firstly, Jane Austen and the Grimm brothers were contemporaries of each other. Her first novel ‘Sense & Sensibility’ was published in 1811, and the first edition of the Grimm’s fairy tales was published in 1812. She was actually ten years OLDER than Jakob Grimm at this time.

Secondly, the last witch to be executed in Europe died only 3 years before Jakob was born, in 1782. That means Jane Austen was seven. The woman’s name was Anna Göldi and she was convicted of bewitching her employer’s daughter causing her to have fits.

Q: What was the highlight of your research trip to Germany?

Kate: I had a couple of magical moments, but the one that stands out for me the most is on my first day in Kassel (which used be spelt with a C).

I had had a extraordinarily vivid dream in which a young woman danced alone in a snowy forest, at twilight, dressed all in black. They sky was grey, the ground was white, ravens flew over, crying harshly. Above the forest was a castle, its windows lit up with light. People were dancing up there, their shadows twirling past the golden windows, and I could hear violin music spilling into the dusk. The girl in black was dancing wildly, laughing and crying both at once. Then a tall young man, also dressed all in black, stepped out of the shadowy forest and danced with her and the scene – so strange and wild – turned into a joyous one. I had used this dream as the opening and closing scenes of the novel and, indeed, it became the front cover image as well.

Anyway, when I went to Kassel I went to the castle there and went walking through the parklands and forest around it, looking for a spot that seemed to chime with my dream which I remembered so vividly. I came to the woods below the forest and stood so that the castle was in the same spot as it was in my dream. I wondered to myself – if violin music was played in the castle, could you hear it from here? Just then – I swear to this with everything I hold true – I heard violin music. It was the spookiest, most eerie thing that has ever happened to me. At first I thought I must be imagining it. But no. A young woman stood just below the palace, playing a violin. She was about 19 years old, blonde-haired and blue-eyed, just like I imagined Dortchen would look, and she stood alone on the shore of the lake, just below the palace, playing her violin. Every hair on my body rose up, quivering. I could not believe it!

Kate took a photo of the child and shares it here at left

Q: Which is your favourite Grimm fairytale?

Kate: Can I please have three? ‘Six Swans’, ‘Sleeping Beauty’ and ‘The Leaping, Lilting lark’, which is one of the tales Dortchen told Wilhelm. Its a very beautiful and romantic variant of ‘Beauty and the Beast’ with a much stronger and more active heroine.

Q. Name three of your favourite novels by Australian women writers

‘Angel of Ruin’ by Kim Willkins.

‘Daughter of the Forest’ by Juliet Marillier.

‘The Forgotten Garden’ by Kate Morton.

Q. What is your preference?

• Coffee/Tea or other? Tea!
• Beach/Pool or River? Beach.
• Slacks/Jeans or Leggings? None of these. I mainly wear dresses
• Butterfly/Tiger or Giraffe? Tiger.
• Swing/Slide or Roundabout? Swing.

You can find out more about Kate Forsyth @

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The Wild Girl is available

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You can download a free Esampler at Random House by clicking on the image below

Hidden Book Tour

Bloomsbury is delighted to launch Hidden by Marianne Curley, the first in the  Avena series.

Marianne Curley’s debut novel Old Magic established her place as an exciting and original voice in the world of children’s literature in Australia and went on to sell in 13 countries.

Hidden is Marianne Curley’s  first book in 8 years.

For as long as Ebony can remember, she’s been sheltered. Confined to her home in a secluded valley, home-schooled by her protective parents, and limited to a small circle of close friends. It’s as if she’s being hidden. But something is changing in Ebony. Something that can’t be concealed. She’s growing more beautiful by the day, she’s freakishly strong, and then there’s the fact that she’s glowing. On one fateful night, Ebony meets Jordan and she’s intensely drawn to him. It’s as if something explodes inside of her–something that can be seen from the heavens. Ebony still doesn’t know that she’s a stolen angel, but now that the heavens have found her, they want her back.

 I was able to ask Marianne a single question in anticipation of her book launch.

How was writing Hidden different from writing your previous books?

When I thought about this question, the first thing that sprang to mind was technology, and how much more convenient computers, the Internet and telephones had become. I know that makes me sound ancient, but there were seven years between The Key and Hidden, and technology went crazy in that time. I had no need to drive to libraries anymore. All the reference material I required was now as close as my fingertips. And how distracting had a telephone become!

Another difference was the pressure I felt to prove I could still write. It seemed like my life had started again after my cancer treatment, and the longer it took me to achieve publication, the more intense the pressure became.

Another difference was my change in lifestyle. I had a physical disability now and was learning to walk without bumping into walls because my balance was wonky. And I was not able to go for my walks on the beach anymore, or down the broken paths of the local rainforest. These were my thinking times, in the open air, when I worked on a plot problem, or a new plan, or any number of issues. Now, because of my pain treatment, when I closed my eyes to visualise my characters and the scenes I put them in, I fell asleep. I fell asleep while typing so many times I had to remember to save my file every few minutes in case I accidently held down the delete key!

But the best thing that’s different now while I write my new series is my attitude – to everything. The successful transplant gave me a second chance at life, and even seven years later, I’m still excited to be alive. My priorities have changed. Small things don’t bother me anymore. If there’s a problem, I deal with it. Today I’m even taking care of my sleepiness by ensuring I go to bed early, get a good night’s sleep, and take power naps whenever I feel my head slide towards the keypad.

Learn more about Hidden, get access to exclusive extras and enter to win a copy  at the Hidden Books Facebook page

Hidden is available from Bloomsbury and all good bookstores

Review: House For All Seasons by Jenn J McLeod

 

 

Title: House For All Seasons

Author: Jenn J McLeod

Read an Extract

Published: Simon and Schuster Australia March 2013

Status: Read from February 03 to March 05, 2013 — I own a copy {Courtesy Simon & Schuster Australia}

My Thoughts:

Jenn J McLeod’s lovely debut novel, House For All Seasons, is the story of four women, once childhood friends, now strangers, drawn back to their hometown by the unusual terms of a surprising inheritance. Sara, Poppy, Amber and Caitlin must each must spend a season at Dandelion House in Calingarry Crossing to honor Gypsy’s last wishes and face the memories they left behind.

The women in The House For All Seasons are at a crossroads in their lives when they receive word of the bequest. Sara is physically and emotionally fragile after treatment for breast cancer and her recent divorce, Poppy is beginning to recognise that her professional success is a poor substitute for personal satisfaction, Amber’s perfect facade is starting to crack and Caitlin is frustrated by thwarted dreams.
Though they are reluctant to revisit Calingarry Crossing, Dandelion House proves to be a haven as each woman assesses her past, present and future, searching for redemption and renewal. With a nudge from heartfelt letters left for them by Gypsy, and timely intervention from mysterious (perhaps mystical) sources, Sara, Poppy, Amber and Caitlin confront their difficult pasts and their memories of Willow.

As part of the women’s stories, McLeod explores difficult issues such as cancer, teenage pregnancy, domestic violence, post traumatic stress and addiction. The larger themes examine the need to make peace with the past in order to move forward and the importance of knowing what you need, and want, to be happy within yourself. Their experiences are sure to strike a chord with any reader who has questioned their role or direction in life.

There is romance, though it remains mostly low key. The emotion is heartfelt and honest without becoming overly sentimental. The drama increases as the secrets begin to unravel concluding with a surprising twist that binds the women in an unexpected manner. I thought perhaps McLeod could have lingered a bit more over the ending, it felt a little rushed and blurs with Caitlin’s story. It is a minor quibble though, for what is a well crafted, well written story.

A moving novel of friendship, family and forgiveness, I thought House For All Seasons was a warm, engaging story and an impressive debut from Jenn J McLeod. I look forward to revisiting Calingarry Crossing in her next book.

Click here to learn more about Jenn J McLeod and House For All Seasons in the Q&A I posted earlier today

House of All Seasons is available to purchase

@Simon and Schuster Au I @BoomerangBooks I @Booktopia I @Amazon Kindle

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AWW Feature: Q & A with Jenn J McLeod

Welcome Jenn J McLeod!

I am happy to welcome  Australian author, Jenn J McLeod to Book’d Out today. No stranger to embracing a second chance or trying something different, Jenn took the first tentative steps towards her tree change in 2004, escaping Sydney’s corporate chaos to buy a small cafe in the seaside town of Sawtell. Moving to the country was like coming home and she now spends her days maintaining her NSW property and writing contemporary Australian fiction—life-affirming novels of small town life and the country roots that run deep.

Jenn secured a two-book deal with Simon and Schuster, with her debut novel—House for all Seasons (March 2013) and Book 2 in the Seasons Collection—The Simmering Season— to follow in 2014. House For All Seasons is the story of four estranged friends, Sara, a breast cancer survivor afraid to fall in love; Poppy, a tough, ambitious journo still craving her father’s approval; Amber, a spoilt socialite addicted to painkillers and cosmetic procedures; and Caitlin, a doctor frustrated by her controlling family, bequeathed an old country house, who must stay for a season at The Dandelion House in Calingarry Crossing to fulfil the wishes of their benefactor, Gypsy. But coming home to the country stirs shameful memories of the past, including the tragic end-of-school muck up day accident twenty years earlier. At The Dandelion House, the women will discover something about themselves and a secret that ties all four to each other and to the house – forever.

You can read my review of House For All Seasons later HERE, please read on to learn more about Jenn and her debut…

Q & A with Jen McLeod

Q. Welcome Jenn, what five words would you choose to describe House For All Seasons?

Jenn: Small town keeping BIG secret!

Q. House For All Seasons began as a NaNoWriMo project, how much of that draft remains in the finished book?

Jenn: Quite a bit. The process of no editing, no revising (just bashing out the story without my usual editing and perfecting) seemed to sweep me along until, at 50,000 words I had a basic story outline (that I call the bones of the story). Not only that, I was concentrating on telling the story in MY words and not trying to write like someone else. I think it’s when I truly found my voice as a writer. The next part of the process involved fleshing the story and the characters out, adding death, dialogue and dialogue tags, etc.

Q. Why did you choose to structure the novel in four parts?

Jenn: I set out to write a story about four women, each as different as the seasons. Telling their stories in four parts complemented the seasons theme.

Q. What scene did you find the most difficult to write and why?

Jenn: Only one? Hmmm…

The foal scene took a lot of research, but I had such fun with it.

But probably the most difficult was the ending – mainly because I didn’t want this story to end. But alas, it had to (my publisher said so.) Walt Disney is quoted as saying, “Always leave them wanting more.” But how much more? Some readers want the never-ending story, because like me they don’t want to let go. Others are like diners who, after a lovely four-course meal, are happy to bring things to a close. So it’s a balancing act for an author to tie the loose ends together at the right time and in the right way to bring a satisfactory conclusion, while not dragging out the ending. Difficult? Yes.

Q. Are Dandelion House and Calingarry Crossing based on real locations?

Jenn: I wish! Isn’t the Dandelion House wonderful – stuck out there in the middle of nowhere? The early draft did make more of a feature of the house but I soon found the girls’ stories took over and the purpose of the house changed. Perhaps one day I’ll write a prequel that shows more of Gypsy and her life with Willow at the house, her connection with Eli and people in town.

Hmm…, that’s got me thinking now …!

The town of Calingarry Crossing is fictional, but I drew inspiration from small towns I love and live near in NSW: Ulmarra, Sawtell, Bellingen and Bowraville. Then I plonked it on the western side of the Great Divide. The Simmering Season (book two, March 2014) is also set in Calingarry Crossing, with a focus on the actual town and featuring some of the characters I couldn’t bear to leave behind.

Jenn: Q. As a debut author, what part of the process of being published has surprised you the most?

The editing. I was not at all precious about it. I thought I would be. I’d heard terrible stories of different publishers telling authors to cut entire characters from their stories, or drop to a single point of view – *gulp*. But I didn’t need to worry. Simon & Schuster were wonderfully supportive and encouraged the four-part approach, seeing it as a point of different. Having an editor who was an award-winning author herself was fantastic as she has obviously been where I am. It was great.

Q. Name three of your favourite novels by Australian women writers

Jenn: No! I refuse to only list three favourites. What I can list is what I’ve just read and enjoyed very much – P.A. O-Reilly’s The Fine Colour of Rust. I am hanging out to read Dianne Blacklock’s next novel and want to find time to read Dawn Barker’s Fractured and Helene Young’s Half Moon Bay.

Q. What is your preference?

• Coffee/Tea or other? — Coffee
• Beach/Pool or River?  Beach for watching. River for fishing. Pool for cabana and cocktails!
• Slacks/Jeans or Leggings?  Jeans. Jeans. Jeans. I could sing the David Dundas song right now … (who?) (“When I wake up in the morning light, I jeans and I feel alright… I pull my old blue jeans on … cha-cha!”) but that would be showing my age! (Goggle him, young-uns!) [That song is stuck in my head now Jenn - thanks! Scroll down to listen!]
• Butterfly/Tiger or Giraffe?  Butterfly (as you can probably tell from reading house for all Seasons).
• Swing/Slide or Roundabout?  None – I am giddy enough right now without any help.

Learn more about Jenn McLeod at

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House of All Seasons is available to purchase

@Simon and Schuster Au I @BoomerangBooks I @Booktopia I @Amazon Kindle

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