Weronika Janczuk

Weronika is a seventeen-year-old aspiring author who lives in Minnesota in the US. She's had short stories, poetry, and essays published in Teen Ink, Alive, multiple Creative Communications anthologies, and numerous e-zines. She's working on a novel at the moment (the latest of many) and she says a bit about that in the interview.

One thing which I really love about blogging about books for teenagers - apart from being able to support great authors and their books - is getting to know teenagers across the world, who are smart and motivated. So, yes, when you see Weronica's name on the spine of a bestselling book, you can say, "Hey, Steph Bowe's awesome. She had that girl on her blog." And I'll say, "Yes, I know, I'm fabulous. Bask in my awesome glow."

Weronica writes a really interesting, intelligent blog about books and writing - both YA and adult - that I recommend you check out here. Smart people will like it.

1. What inspired you to start your blog? Tell us about your blog.
I love all things technological, so a few years back, when blogging began to hit the world with force, I decided that I should experiment and for a while I kept a personal diary/journal of sorts online. Soon after, I got bored and took a break. Only a few months ago did I stumble upon some interesting and informative blogs maintained by editors and literary agents in the publishing community and my posts began to skew towards all things literary. The pattern also coincided with my desire to write another novel. Now, my blog serves a few purposes--to inform and entertain readers (most often with literary undertones) and to act as a medium for my thoughts, goals, and inspirations on both a "professional" and personal level. You'll find a bit of everything, not to mention that I'm always looking for new things to try and add on.

2. Who are your favourite authors?
I have many--Audrey Niffenegger, Jodi Picoult, Joyce Carol Oates, Sara Dessen, Steven King, Dean Koontz, John Grisham, J.R. Tolkien, J.K. Rowling, Edith Pattou, Nora Roberts, Shakespeare, Jane Austen, and others. I could add to this list hundreds of books that I've absolutely loved, though for whatever reason I haven't necessarily chosen to follow their authors' careers (there are just too many things to read!).

3. You can choose five books to take with you to a desert island, which also conveniently has unlimited food and water. Which books do you take with you?
EAST - Edith Pattou
PRIDE & PREJUDICE - Jane Austen
THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE - Audrey Niffenegger
ON THE GENEALOGY OF MORALITY - Friedrich Nietzsche
BIBLE

This list would probably change depending on my mood.

4. What is it you love most about writing, and when did you discover a passion for it?
I'll start with the latter question first--it's easier. Sixth grade (I'm a rising senior--seventeen and a half years old--for those who need context). My class did a "free write"--I think (for the first time that year) it was to write something fictional, and I did. The story bloomed into a novel and I've become rather obsessive about writing. Why is that? Sometimes I'm not so sure, but I think that it's why I love reading so much: You can recreate your vision of humans and their humanity--you define interactions, relationships, places, motivations, goals, and inspirations. You give birth to breathing souls and you contextualize their experiences. It's a process that always calms and refreshes me and will forever remain the greatest source of my daily adrenaline and spark. I live for my writing.

5. If you were in a novel (any one you’ve read), who would you be?
I hate to be repetitive, but EAST serves as one of my most favorite novels of all time, and the main character, Rose, always strikes a chord in me. It would be an honor to live her life.

6. Did you have an imaginary friend as a child? (Or today? Don’t worry; we won’t call the men in white coats on you.)
I did not and do not have an imaginary friend of the stereotypical kind--the best friend that sits across from you and tells you how to avoid getting into trouble while you have a little bit of fun (unfortunately). My "imaginary friends" are many--They are the characters that live in my mind and around me, the characters I dream about and the characters that can invade my thoughts and both live and relive stories until I write them down. They talk to me and sometimes--rarely, of course--you might catch me talking back.

7. Who is your favourite fictional character?
I've always loved Hermonie from the HARRY POTTER series, probably more than I should. There has always been something about her that makes me laugh and wish, more than anything else, that I could be next to her at Hogwarts mixing potions.

8. Tell me about your work-in-progress novel. (Imagine I'm a literary agent.)
The thought of a literary agent scares me. I'm not there yet! My exact storyline hasn't been refined yet and it's so complex I can't imagine how I will ever write a one-sentence hook for my query letters. Here is what I will say: WHERE THE DOVES FLY is a literary/mainstream novel that tells, in a dual point of view, the stories of two women as they seek to define themselves artistically in radically different worlds.

Anna has grown up in Communist-dominated Poland and, in order to achieve her full artistic potential, she chooses to leave Poland for a summer art program in England; she leaves behind her abused mother, young and uncared for brother, and lover. At Oxford, circumstances beyond her control force her into a marriage she doesn't want, a marriage that affects the lives she left behind in unimaginable ways. Then, in modern day Minneapolis, Fatemah is dealing with the nearing deportation of her Iranian father, but the day his flight is to depart she discovers a set of letters and paintings from the mother she has never known. Supposedly dead in a car crash weeks after her birth, the mother carries dark secrets that will twist everything Fatemah knows about her parents, her life, her heritage, and her own artistic desires.

9. Tell me about your writing habits: where you write, when you write, how much you write, etc.
Most often I write secluded in my bedroom at my corner desk and on my laptop. (I know for sure that I can't write longhand, and that I sometimes write well with a movie or music blaring at full volume in the same room that I am in.) I had a very tight writing schedule at the beginning of the summer, but things got flipped around and now I'm trying to get out 1000 words a day, but I don't force anything onto myself. I know where this story is going well enough to take it slowly and to cherish the flowing of words from my fingers.

10. Complete this sentence: When I’m not reading or writing I’m…
probably in school, doing homework, walking the dog, or sleeping. That is very true.

Otherwise, I do find time sometimes to watch good movies--I love international films, to work with HTML and other computer languages, to design graphically, to play a game of flag football, to swim in deep lakes, to try new teas, to lay down and listen to the newest indie music hits, to take relaxing drives on the highway, and to visit coffee shops and pizzerias across the Twin Cities.

Weronica's blog is here.

The Mitochondrial Curiosities of Marcels 1-19 by Jocelyn Brown

The back cover blurb: Biology is not Dree's thing. Equally heinous are English, Social Studies, her sister and mother, not to mention Edmonton in general. Toronto is where she belongs — specifically the upcoming Renegade Craft Fair.

Mercifully, escape is imminent: on her fifteenth birthday, she will get the special fund her father promised, and the day after that, she'll be on WestJet Flight 233 to Toronto. Instead, her dad has a fatal heart attack, and all she finds are clues leading to the ominous Alberta Psychiatric Hospital where her parents once worked.

Along the way: two fires, a family scandal, nineteen sassy sock creatures named Marcel, a new friend, a mystery, a stepmother who's maybe sympathetic after all, the unceasing misery of school and the search for a proper way to grieve a father.

This was such an interesting, funny book; eccentric, artsy Dree makes for a fabulous narrator, and the troubles she gets into, the family - philanthropic and gifted younger sister Paige, deceased father Leonard who loved treasure hunts, Grandma working at a psychiatric hospital - and even the settings, made for an engaging, brilliantly different story.

Only a couple of small things bothered me: It felt like a fairly short novel, but it packs a really interesting plotline, and I think it finished too quickly - sometimes the story rushed along a little quickly and I lost track. The OMGs felt a little bit forced; I think the author would have had the true voice of a teenage girl down pat even without making her say OMG all the time.

Apart from those two small things, I loved how unique this novel was - a father dying is a common enough premise in a teen novel, but with such a fabulous protagonist and intriguing storyline - with hidden secrets, two fires and a slightly odd family - it was totally unlike any other YA novel I've read.

I love the cover - I think it's the first time I've seen a sock puppet on the cover of a teen book. This is the publisher, Coach House's, first YA novel, and I really thing the author has done a brilliant job.

I loved the inclusion of craft projects in the book (some of which you can find on Dree's blog), accompanied by cute illustrations like these:


There were so many lines I wanted to write down and save for later, so many funny things. I adored Dree's creatures made of baby socks - Marcels 1-19 - and her honest, chatty, sometimes rambling voice made the book.

Overall, I thought this was a lovely novel, that'll really appeal to people with a quirky sense of humour, even if you aren't a fan of crafts.

You can get it on Amazon.

Third Transmission by Jack Heath

The back cover blurb:
I'll be watching you, Agent Six.

Agent Six of Hearts is back at work. He's sealed inside a torpedo, blasting towards a warship.

His mission? To steal canisters containing a weaponised strain of the SARS virus. Before ChaoSonic can use it to wipe out an uprising that is tearing the City apart.

But Six has bigger problems. Vanish is still on the loose. So is Retuni Lerke. And a scientist has designed a new weapon. One more dangerous than anything Six has ever seen. One that could wipe out him, the Deck, and anyone else who opposes ChaoSonic for good.

Six has to find the weapon, and destroy it. Because ChaoSonic can't always control their creations. He is living proof.

Though I haven't read the previous two Agent Six of Hearts books - and now that I know what happens, I don't think I'd be able to enjoy them as much as I would have if I didn't know - I really enjoyed Third Transmission.

It was excellently researched and seemed to be written effortlessly. Six was at first a really stiff and emotionless character, but the more I read, the more I empathised with him. The other characters - King, Ace of Diamonds, his brother Kyntak, his less-than-wholesome sister Nai - made up an interesting and varied cast.

Third Transmission reads so smoothly - without too many of the clunky details you might find in other novels of this genre. The back cover blurb tells us about Six' mission to steal the czanisters with the SARS virus in them, but that's only the very beginning - from there, the story branches out towards things like teleportation, and eventually time travel. Even through these out-there concepts, nothing seems forced or unrealistic.

The world in which Six and the other characters live is really interesting - like our own world at some point in the future almost - a city where it rains acid, pollution makes life difficult, and a single company rule the City. A company called ChaoSonic, which, you know, indicates from the outset that they're up to no good.

I get sick of hearing the phrase action-packed, and I would shoot myself in the foot before I used it myself, but Third Transmission really was. I read it in one sitting, and was so well written, I had a lot of trouble looking for fault. It was really seamless; incredibly enjoyable and when I'd finished reading, a bit depressing.

This book also has one of the most satisfying conclusions to a novel that I have ever (and read that as EVER) read.

This book is to be released here in Australia in August, and it will be released in the US as well - but not until November of 2010. It's worth the wait, and even if you aren't usually a reader of sci-fi adventure (I think that's the genre), it's definitely worth checking out.

--

This isn't part of the review, but I thought I'd thought you'd like it. According to the quiz on Jack Heath's website, the character from his books I'm most like is Kyntak (that's Six's brother):

You're reasonable, clever, athletic. When you're hurt, you try not to show it. Most people like you pretty soon after meeting you, although every now and again someone regards you with suspicion or jealousy. You enjoy having a laugh with your friends, but you have a serious side - you're just careful who you show it to. Because you never know when a maniac might send his troops out to abduct you, shave your head, drain your blood and hold you hostage. If that happens, laugh about it. Why not? You'll be able to figure a way out.

I know, that's totally me (though maybe not the 'clever' bit). This so beats the Myers-Briggs Personality Test.

Sprout by Dale Peck

The back cover blurb: When Sprout and his father move from Long Island to the midst of rural Kansas after the death of his mother, he is sure he will find no friends, no love, no beauty.

But friends find him, the strangeness of the landscape fascinates him, and when love shows up in an unexpected place, Sprout realises that Kansas is not quite as empty as he thought it was going to be.

An incredible, literary story of a boy who knows he is gay in a the town that seems to have no place for him to hide.

I loved this book - Sprout was a funny and engaging character, and the novel was structured like he was writing it - in parts essays for Mrs Miller, the senior English teacher who likes inventing cocktails and has taken Sprout under her wing to train him for the State Essay Contest, and thoughts of his own. It was kind of hard to discern when it stopped being essays and started being his private thoughts, and I loved the confusing, sprawling way in which it was written.

The characters all had depth and were endlessly interesting, if a little frustrating - Sprout's strange relationship with Ian Abernathy, his future-starlet friend Ruthie Wilcox (who I felt we didn't find out enough about; though she seemed a really bizarre character, in what we did learn about her), Sprout's drunk father who later starts dating Mrs Miller, and Ty, Sprout's somewhat troubled friend.

Sprout himself is a really great character - he carries a dictionary around, for one thing, which is odd enough on his own. The point at which he reveals he is gay to Mrs Miller is also when the reader finds out he's gay, and I think this part would be a whole lot more effecting if I hadn't have known this as soon as I read the back cover blurb. Sprout was a character I really empathised with.

Even the settings were interesting - Sprout lives in a trailer which his father grew vines around, and surrounded with upside-down tree stumps. So many little details like that made a quirky story even stranger, and the characters, their experiences, their behavious, were believable even with their eccentricities.

One of many things I loved about this book was how honest it was; almost shockingly at times, but I think that added to the entire appeal of the novel. It was decidedly different.

Overall, a brilliantly funny and moving novel. I don't think this book is for everyone, but if you like books which are honest, witty and a little bit left of centre, it's definitely worth picking up.

Secret Revealed: I’m just like Judge Judy, but a little more rock ‘n’ roll

I can finally tell you the big secret which I have been waiting to tell you for AGES. I’m really good at keeping secrets, but not usually my own.

Sadly, it’s not a really controversial secret (though it is really cool and exciting) like ‘I’m gay’ or ‘I’m actually a Stephen’ or ‘I love Edward Cullen’ (if I had have said that last thing, I give you full permission to hunt me down and stab me with a wooden stake).

So, no gender reassignments or declarations of love for sparkly vampires today, but – and this is the bit where I stop making bad jokes that make no sense and actually tell you – I am going to be a judge for the Inkys, Australia’s teen choice book awards!

This is very exciting and unexpected and I am very honoured and a little bit scared. You know how when you're really excited and you can't keep still and your toes kind of won't stop wriggling? I'm supercalifragilisticexpialidocious excited.

And here are some more details about the Inkys:
"The Inkys are international awards for teenage literature, voted for online by the readers of insideadog.com.au. There are three awards: the Golden Inky for an Australian book, the Silver Inky for an international book, and the Creative Reading Prize, won by a young person for a creative response to a book they love, in any format they choose. "

The online launch is on August 20th, and that's when you'll find out the longlist (I already know. Ooh, it's good to know stuff.) You can come along without even leaving your computer chair. Just click here.

Asides from me, the other judges are author James Roy, who was last year’s Golden Inky winner for his novel Town, the lovely Adele of Persnickety Snark and three other teenage reader-judges.

I'm excited.

Butterflies by Susanne Gervay

Butterflies tells the story of Katherine, a seventeen-year-old Italian-Australian girl who is still disfigured after falling into a fire pit when she was three years old.

Butterflies is told through a combination of Katherine’s tumultuous and sometimes disconnected thoughts, recollections of events in the past – how she was burnt, time in hospitals – and Katherine’s present life. I thought this was a really beautiful novel; written prettily but simply, and I found Katherine to be a layered and interesting character – not just a burns victim, but also a teenage girl, an Italian-Australian, who fiercely refuses to be called ‘disabled’. The other characters were kind to her but they still fought – her mother, older sister Rachel, friend Jessie – and Katherine also struggled within herself, making for an often sad, but ultimately heart-warming, novel.

There were only a couple of things that threw me off – firstly, Katherine was really quite stubborn. It took me a while to warm to her, but her struggles with her burns and operations, and poor self-image made her occasional sharpness understandable, and by the time the novel ended, I was really happy for the way things worked out for her. Secondly, I really felt it should have been in first person – the way the novel jumps between her inner dialogue and third person descriptions of her day to day life distracted me, and I wish the novel had have stayed in Katherine’s head the whole way through.

Apart from those two, minor things, this is a really lovely novel, written almost lyrically, and Katherine is a relatable character – stubbornness and all – who you really feel for, the further you get into the novel. Even though the majority of readers of this book wouldn’t have burns covering their body, the things that Katherine experiences – pressures from her mother, friends, exams – are all very ordinary, and stuff that teenage readers will understand, especially Katherine’s struggles with self-esteem and self-image (that’s something, I think, that affects everyone).

Overall, Butterflies offers a fascinating insight into life as a burns victim, as well as that of a teenager, and is told wonderfully. I think this would really appeal to teenage girls.

http://www.sgervay.com/

20 things to say

I found this somewhere (I basically copy and paste these things then come back to them a month later, when I can't remember the sources), and though it isn't book-related, I thought it would be fun.

20 things I want to say to different people. These people will not be identified. You will read this, and then you can go and write a list of things you want to say to other people.

1. I miss the person you were three years ago.
2. Thank you for believing in me.
3. I think the highlights in your hair make you look ridiculous. I will never tell you this. I’m just going to wait for your hair to grow out, and try and avoid laughing every time I see you until then.
4. I think you’re going to regret what you’re doing now when you’re older, but I don’t know how to communicate this to you without offending you.
5. I’m sorry that I told you I was gay so that you wouldn’t ask me out.
6. I completely misjudged you.
7. I think you’re awesome, but I know you’d feel uncomfortable if I told you that.
8. I wonder where you disappeared to.
9. You try too hard. You were more likable when you acted like yourself.
10. I wish you dressed better, and I feel bad when I wish that, because I dress terribly myself.
11. I forget how beautiful you are because I see you every day.
12. Your support means a lot more to me than I think you realise.
13. You’re not fat, and I wish you’d stop telling everyone that you are.
14. I’m afraid that you’ll die before I do.
15. I envy you, and I feel terrible about it.
16. Brown is not your colour.
17. I was the one who wrote on your poster. I’m sorry. It was stupid. I was twelve.
18. You think you’re a lot more grown up than you really are.
19. I’m really sick of the way you treat me.
20. I wish you’d have let me cut your hair.

Boyology by Sarah O'Leary Burningham

Relationships with boys are tricky-especially for teen girls who are still figuring out who they are themselves. How do teen girls drum up the confidence to talk to a guy when the teenage years are fraught with self-doubt? Is it really possible to just be friends with a boy without any weirdness? What’s a girl to do when she likes a guy more than a friend and isn’t sure he feels the same? And most of all, how can girls deal with all of this and still stay true to themselves? BOYOLOGY: A Teen Girl’s Crash Course in All Things Boy by How to Raise Your Parents author Sarah Burningham, has the answers to these questions and the other dramas that are teen relationships.

The very first thing I noticed about this book was how gorgeous it was - the corners are curved, the pages are finished beautifully, the cover art is engaging and the book is filled with cute, funny illustrations by Keri Smith (to quote Alice of Wonderland fame, 'What is the use of a book, without pictures or conversations?')

Of course, after that, I opened the book. And it just got better from there. Boyology is a non-fiction book for teenage girls, and has a chatty, conversational tone. I love the fact that the author shares her own experiences, good and bad, as well as snippets in the book from the author's husband (I can hear you. You're going 'Aw, cute'). Quotes from teenagers and celebrities are also sprinkled throughout the novel; and these are both wise and hilarious. Boyology is very funny, and there were some many parts of it that I loved - the playlists and the 'boy breeds' section, among many others. As I read it, I was giggling. A lot.

There were a couple of generalisations I didn't like - like the fact that boys like video games, horror movies and sports, and girls don't. I'm sure this isn't what the author intended at all, but at one point, after reading a certain section, I thought: I like playing video games (like Halo and Half-Life - not the girly video games, but the first person shooters), I enjoy watching football, and I love horror movies. Dear God, no wonder my grandmother always calls me Stephen - I must have had my gender reassigned as a baby and I'm really a boy! (After a brief conversation with my parents, and looking through my baby photo album, I discovered my fears were unfounded, and was indeed, really a girl. This was a relief.)

Boyology covers a lot of information, and all the necessary bits, including the more unpleasant things, all with a great deal of tact, without once seeming condescending or judgemental. I think this would make a lovely gift for daughters and nieces in their early teens; my younger sister had a flick through it, and there isn't really anything that would make it inappropriate for pre-teen girls, either (the kissing cartoons made her giggle, as well).

Overall, a funny, informative book, which is really accesible, easy-to-read and engaging! You'd be wise to check it out.

Check out Sarah O'Leary Burningham's website, and buy this book on Amazon.

Review: Worldshaker by Richard Harland

Col lives on the Upper Decks of the juggernaut Worldshaker, a mobile city as big as a mountain. He has been chosen as next Supreme Commander - but then a girl Filthy escaped from Below appears in his cabin. 'Don't let 'em take me!' she begs. Will he hand her over, or will he break all the rules? Col's safe, elite world is about to fall apart.

Though I don’t usually read fantasy (I think Worldshaker classifies as ‘steampunk’, which is an incredibly irrelevant genre name that imparts absolutely no information about the novel, but sounds really awesome), I really enjoyed Worldshaker. I was slightly frustrated by Col’s naivety, but he was a character who was easy to empathise with the deeper I got into the novel. I found the plot believable, and the ending satisfying and conclusive.

The world within which Col lived on the juggernaut, separated into the Upper Decks and the Filthies Below, made for a fantastic setting – dark and a little bit sinister, and very alternative to our own world but at the same time with many similarities. The characters within Worldshaker fit very much with their surroundings, and there were many weird and wonderful personalities who you were never quite sure were on Col’s side or not.

Richard Harland spoke on the fantasy panel at the NSW Writer’s Centre Kids & YA Festival about the history in Worldshaker. It’s explained in the novel how it came about that everyone is living on juggernauts, and the Filthies are living below, and the world in Worldshaker’s history is very much the same as ours, until Napoleon made a different decision, and juggernauts slowly became possible in their world. I liked the thought of it being entirely possible that maybe we could be living on these ridiculously large earth-ship things, and I thought of it again when I read James Roy’s Sliding Doors post on this blog, and how different things would be if people in power had have made different decisions however many years ago (though it is very, very improbable, it’s an interesting thing to think about).

I also have to mention, I absolutely love the cover of Worldshaker. It has got to be one of my favourite book covers of all time.

I recommend this book to anyone and everyone. It’s a fantastic, multi-faceted fantasy story which is very reflective of the real world, and I really enjoyed it.

Review: Surf Sisters by Laurine Croasdale

Winter swells are rolling into Diamond Beach. But surfer girls Fran, Pink, Marlee and Tilly are still consumed by all things surfing.



Fran and Pink are collaborating on a surf label, and there’s news of a major surfing contest at treacherous Shipwreck Beach — a chance for Marlee and Tilly to dazzle on the world stage.


But parents and boyfriends are distracting the girls from their big plans.


Pink’s mother Christie is determined to control her spirited daughter; Marlee tells Kyle she has to concentrate on her surfing; and Jamie still can’t see that Tilly is anything more than just a friend.

One thing that I really liked about Surf Sisters was that we finally got to find out a bit more about Fran and Pink, who play relatively minor roles compared to Marlee and Tilly in Surf School, but whose characters are really expanded on here, especially Pink. Though Pink seems at first very spoilt (and in Surf School, quite naïve), we find out a lot more about her in this book, and she becomes a lot more relatable and easier to empathise with.

There were a great deal of subplots and things going on, and I felt a few of them didn’t have enough time to develop, or resolved too quickly. Other than that, this was a fun, fabulous novel, which really made you empathise with the girls and their plights – Pink’s to be taken seriously by her mother, Marlee’s to earn enough money to make it to the surfing competition – and felt terrible when they struggled with their relationships with family, boys, and each other.

I think I liked Surf Sisters even more than Surf School (which I also enjoyed immensely), and I’d recommend it to teenage girls of all ages as an easy, fun read, and a must for girls who surf.

Review: Surf School by Laurine Croasdale

Fifteen-year-old Tilly, Fran, Marlee and Pink are surfer girls.

They have been meeting for the first surf of the season every year since they first met at the surf school run by Tilly’s dad, Phil, when they were eight. Phil has big plans for the surf school this year, but when he is injured in a hit-and-run accident, everything suddenly seems uncertain. While Phil languishes in hospital and the police track his attacker, Tilly is determined to realise his plans and keep the surf school open. To do this, she needs all the help she can get from her friends. But Marlee is training for the surfing competition to win a new board and beat the moody Kyle, Pink is warring with her parents and intrigued by the stranger Kim, and Fran is busy making jewellery.

I really enjoyed this book – I think this was because of a combination of the simple but wonderful prose, relatable characters and situations and classic Aussie beach setting. Though I’ve never surfed, I found that element of the novel really interesting and expertly written.

The relationships between the four girls can best be compared to The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants, though I found Tilly, Marlee, Pink and Fran a lot more believable, and I think I also liked them more because they were Aussies (I’m sorry, I really can’t help being biased). I especially liked Fran, but I really wish that her character was expanded on more (we do find out a bit more about her, and she plays a more important role in this novel’s sequel, Surf Sisters).

Some of the fights the girls had felt unnecessary (though that’s probably very true-to-life, considering the characters are teenage girls). I found Pink a bit hard to like – she’s awfully spoilt and naïve – but she does redeem herself in the sequel.

I love the covers of both Surf School and its sequel, Surf Sisters – very simple but eye-catching, and consistent with what the novels are about.

I’d recommend Surf School to girls twelve and up – it’s a fun, easy read, written simply but beautifully, and a book you’ll definitely want to lend to your friends.

SLIDING DOORS: A guest post by James Roy

As anyone who knows me will tell you, I'm a big fan of the Sliding Doors principle, made famous by the Gwyneth Paltrow movie of the same name. Regardless of what you think of that movie (I wouldn't put it in my Top 50, but it wasn't awful) I think its premise is an interesting one: that if one moment in our life goes differently, everything can change thereafter.

OK, so that seems like an obvious statement. You get run over on a pedestrian crossing, and of course you'll be thinking 'What if I hadn't had that extra piece of toast for breakfast? I'd have been here five minutes earlier, and I wouldn't have been run over.'

But I'm thinking about this in the context of writing. I wanted to be a writer from the age of about eleven or twelve, and whilst I lost focus for a while through uni and my early working life, it remained something I really wanted to do. A dream, for want of a better cliche.

Here's how it went: I finished reading a particular book, and was so moved by its ending that I sat down and wrote the first 3,000 words of my first novel. I sent them off to an agent, and the person at that agency who opened my envelope first - Laura - really liked what she read. She rang me, asked me to finish it, and I said it would take me eight weeks. It took me nine, but I had to drop pretty much everything else to achieve that. Laura sent my manuscript to one publisher, who rejected it, then sent it to Leonie at UQP. Leonie loved it, and hey presto, a dream was about to come true. And it did, and it has. Wonderful, ain't it?

Now, backtrack a little. Imagine, just for fun, that I hadn't borrowed that particular book from Hornsby Library. Imagine I hadn't closed it, stood up, gone into my study and started writing. Imagine that I'd lost my nerve as I walked up to the post-box with my envelope in hand. Imagine someone other than Laura had opened the envelope, someone who didn't like the way I wrote. Imagine she'd told me she couldn't wait eight weeks, or I'd been unable to find the time to finish the book. Imagine if she hadn't sent it to UQP, or that Leonie had, that very morning, closed her schedule for the year. Or was having an off day. Or, upon speaking to me, decided I was too hard to work with. Or the budget was too stretched to take on a new author.

I know, some of those factors were within my control, while many others weren't. But at least some of the the dice had to fall my way.

And it's not always what it seems. Around the same time my first book was coming out, I went for a medical writer's job in North Sydney. Out of the 75 applicants, two of us got interviews. And I missed out. I was gutted. Heartbroken. But looking back, I'm glad I didn't get that job. I was deluding myself if I believed I could work at a PC all day writing technical articles, then catch the train home ready for an evening of creative writing. So sometimes even what looks like the wrong sliding door can be the right one.

Again, if at least some of the factors are beyond our control, why get so worked up about it?

This is all I'm saying: that any published author who thinks that their success is some kind of birthright - some kind of destiny - is kidding themselves. Of course, events in the past can contribute (me being raised as a missionary kid almost certainly contributed to my eventual choice of career path) but really, any author who believes that they are sitting on some writers panel rather in the audience simply because they deserve it more, or are more talented, or have worked harder than anyone else, should remind themselves that if they'd taken the wrong sliding door, even by sheer accident or misfortune, they could be sitting in the audience, hanging off every word, taking notes, and wishing it was them up there with the microphone.

So, is this a rant against cocky authors? Partly, but not only. I really believe that to reach what we dream of reaching, we need to make every post a winner. Tick off every box. We need to be bold enough to approach the right people, and to be gracious with the criticism they offer, and considerate of and prudent with the advice they give. And when success comes, we should enjoy it, whilst quietly reminding ourselves that no matter how much talent any of us might possess, no matter how many times we've redrafted our masterpiece or kissed arse, it could just as easily have been so different.

I think Rudyard Kipling summed it up really well in his poem If, part of which is above the door leading onto Centre Court at Wimbledon: "If you can meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two impostors just the same..."

James Roy was born in western New South Wales in 1968 and spent much of his childhood in Papua New Guinea and Fiji, adventuring by day and reading books at night. Then one day, tired of reading books by dead people, he decided to start writing his own. Since his first novel was released in 1996, James has written a number of critically acclaimed works of fiction and non-fiction for young people, including the CBCA Honour Books CAPTAIN MACK and BILLY MACK’S WAR, and six CBCA Notable Books. In 2008, TOWN also won the Ethel Turner Prize for Young People’s Literature in the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, following which he wrote HUNTING ELEPHANTS, his first novel for Woolshed Press. James lives with his family in the Blue Mountains. He enjoys trying to make music and art, doesn’t like olives very much, and hasn’t entirely abandoned his dream of sailing around the world.

Website. Blog.

NSW Writer's Centre Kids & YA Literature Festival

Note: Sorry it’s taken me a while to get around to posting about this. I’ve been really busy. And if you’ve emailed me, I’m not deliberately ignoring you. I’ve just got several million emails to get through.

As you know, I went to Sydney. It was very nice. I stayed at The Hughenden Hotel in Paddington, and it was absolutely lovely (and great because my dog was allowed in our room). If you’re considering a trip to Sydney, I’d recommend The Hughenden, because as well as being a lovely place (with fantastic food, which is of utmost importance, to me at least), it’s central to just about everything. You can catch a bus down to Circular Quay and check out the Opera House and take a ferry somewhere. Sadly, I didn't take any photos of the hotel, but go and check it out on their website.

On the Friday evening I went to the launch of Road To Camelot, a book of short stories by well-known Australian authors that take characters from Arthurian legend and explores their childhood and adolescence. I haven’t yet had the opportunity to read it, but it sounds great. It was edited by Sophie Masson. You can see photos of that on Susanne Gervay's blog.

I've organised the rest of this post under headings (bold headings) - the names of each panel - to stop myself from rambling endlessly. However, this probably won't work.

Festival launch

From left to right: Sue Boaden, Penguin’s Laura Harris, best-selling author Melina Marchetta, and festival Director Susanne Gervay.

Melina Marchetta is the author of the phenomenal Looking For Alibrandi, as well as Saving Fancesca, On the Jellicoe Road and, most recently, Finnikin of the Rock (On The Jellicoe Road is my favourite, though I haven't yet read Finnikin of the Rock). She spoke beautifully, and I really wish I had have recorded her speech or written it down, because it really was wonderful.

I think that was a really great start to the festival.

Authors and their publishers: How do you get published

From left to right: James Roy, Leonie Tyle, Susan Hayes, Zoe Walton and Deb Abela.

I really enjoyed this panel; they spoke about the process towards publication, as well as the importance of the relationships between publishers and their authors (I'm sorry, that was so awkwardly worded. It sounds as if publishers own the authors, and they're sleeping in a kennel out the back).

(I have to say, it was really cool to meet Deborah Abela, because I've been reading the Max Remy series since I was ten. Just thought I'd mention that.)

Near the end of this panel, a lady in the audience asked a long question about kids not reading because of the internet, Myspace, Satanism, etc. I wasn’t really listening because it’s kind of hard to hear the questions people ask, and also I’m just a naughty kid and I was whispering to my mum. Okay, so my mum was whispering to me and I was just telling her to be quiet.

Then Leonie Tyle pointed at me in the second row and said that Steph Bowe could answer that. She only guessed that I could answer it, but I couldn’t really. Also, I briefly considered the possibility that there was a young blogger getting about whose name was also Steph Bowe and who was sitting in the row behind me.

There’s this line in a song by The Killers called This River Is Wild which goes ‘Sometimes I’m nervous, when I talk I shake a little.’ It’s not exactly amazing lyric, but I quite like the song and it also sums up very neatly how I felt at that point.

I recall blubbering something that involved Twilight and the internet letting teenagers talk about books and of course kids are still reading.

According to my mother – who tends to make every story she tells a little more fantastic each time she recounts it to someone – I said, I don’t know where do you get the idea kids aren’t reading books! In that slightly aggressive voice I adopt when a room full of adults are looking at me and I’m already nervous.

So I don’t know, I hope I didn’t scare that lady or make an idiot of myself (okay, so idiocy is inevitable, but, thank God, excusable because of my age.)

Okay, I'm going to stop talking about myself now.

I’m not sure whether it was before or after that question when someone asked about parallel imports, and since at the moment I don’t have much of an understanding of what it involves, I’m going to be doing a bit of research into that. I’ll be blogging about that shortly, because I know enough to know that it deserves a post of its own.

Taking story into scripts, film and web




From left to right: Melina Marchetta, William Kostakis, Susanne Gervay, Caleb Lewis, W "Chewie' Chan.

The next panel I went to (okay, so I stayed in the same room) was ‘Taking story into scripts, film and the web’. I missed out on ‘How authors can write for awards, entertainment, education and sales’ with Laurine Croasdale, Gabrielle Lord and Chris Cheng. I was a bit disappointed about that. I wish I could be in two places at once. Or at least in two adjacent rooms at once.

Melina Marchetta spoke about writing the script for a film based on her own novel, Looking For Alibrandi. I’ll probably badly misquote her here, but she said that in order to write the film script, she had to completely destroy the novel, and then pick up all the pieces. Caleb Lewis, a playwright who spoke about turning novels into plays (He adapted Susanne Gervay’s novel I Am Jack for the stage) said something similar was involved in the making of a play. William Kostakis spoke about the importance of authors promoting themselves and their books online through blogs and Twitter, which I assume that everyone reading this blog would know about. Comic book artist W. "Chewie" Chan spoke about graphic novels (among his examples was the excellent Maus, as well as another memoir in graphic novel form, Fun Home).

Then there was lunch. Sadly, I did not photograph the rice paper roll or brownie I had to eat, as I said I would. They were both very nice. I also had two hot chocolates.

Fantasy: creating new worlds to explore our own



From left to right: Richard Harland, Jenny Hale, Kate Forsyth, Garth Nix and Angie Schiavone (chair).

Next was the panel about writing fantasy. Even though I don’t write fantasy, I really like the authors who were at that one (not to say that the picture book authors weren't equally awesome). Jenny Hale spoke about her latest book, Jatta, a story about a werewolf princess. Richard Harland has a great website of writing tips, and I just finished reading his novel, Worldshaker. Kate Forsyth, fantasy author of novels for both adults and children, gave a very good description of what fantasy is, which I really should have written down. They all spoke about writing fantasy, including how their fictional worlds are reflective of our own.

At one point, they mentioned bizarre sub-genre names, like 'new weird' and 'steampunk' which I thought sounded hilarious.

Stars of youth literature reveal their secrets


James Roy and Garth Nix.

Following that (I’m kind of trying to avoid saying ‘and then’ at the risk of sounding like I’m quoting Dude, Where’s My Car?) was ‘Stars of youth literature reveal their secrets’ with Garth Nix, James Roy and Gabrielle Lord, chaired by Mylee Joseph, who works as a librarian.

Gabrielle Lord is a very successful author of crime fiction, who has also written a novel for children, Monkey Undercover. Garth Nix is an immensely popular author of fantasy novels, including series The Keys to The Kingdom, The Seventh Tower and The Old Kingdom. James Roy is the author of numerous novels for teenagers and children, most recently Hunting Elephants.

First page panel (2)




From left to right: Leonie Tyle, Margaret Hamilton, William Kostakis and James Roy.

The last panel of the day was the first page panel, where authors and editors commented on selected first pages that people had submitted earlier in the day. I attended the panel where Leonie Tyle, Margaret Hamilton, James Roy and William Kostakis commented.

Mine was read out (even though a lot of people I know and some people I don’t have read that novel, it was the first time I’d listened to someone else read a page out loud). James Roy said it sounded like Stephenie Meyer writing The Book Thief. I haven’t read The Book Thief, but I thought it was funny more than anything, considering how I feel about Twilight.

Room To Read launch


After that was the launch of Room To Read. Now, I won’t say much about it here because I’m planning another post where I can go into much more detail about the organisation, but in short, Room To Read is a not for profit organisation that works towards educating children across the world. Since 2000 they’ve supported over 3 million children, established 700 schools and built 7,000 bilingual libraries. Pretty awesome. Further details later on.

Some other interesting, funny things:
Ursula Dubosarsky, the author of many excellent books for young people, has a multitude of stamps she uses when she signs books. And I think they all have specific places and order. It’s pretty cool. I think I’ll become a picture book author just so I can bring back out all those stamps I had when I was little (I’ve got a really awesome ‘The Wiggles’ stamp set).

All of the authors and panellists had name tags, and my mum and I did as well. People who weren’t authors kept on asking my mum what books she’d written, and she kept on telling them she wasn’t an author. No-one asked me if I was an author, though I did meet someone who reads this blog (Which made me go: Oh my God, people actually read this? The pressure to actually write coherent posts is kind of kicking in now. No more vampire rants).

All the authors I met were infinitely lovely. I think this was just because they were really nice people, though there is a very slight possibility some people heard the word ‘blogger’ and decided not to say or do anything bad because they were worried I might pull a Perez Hilton on them.

I’m incredibly grateful to Susanne Gervay for inviting me to the festival and introducing me to everyone. Susanne is an infinitely wonderful lady, and the author of many fabulous novels for children and teenagers (She’s going to America next year, because her novel I Am Jack is to be published there).

Melina Marchetta and William Kostakis. Not sure who that is on the far left.

Melina Marchetta, me, William Kostakis.

James Roy (he's the one on the left, in case you were wondering).

Laura Harris, Libby Gleeson, Susanne Gervay and Melina Marchetta.