LITTLE PARADISE by Gabrielle Wang

Friday, April 30, 2010

Summary from publisher's website: Melbourne, 1943, and Mirabel is seventeen. She's leaving school, designing dresses, falling in love. Then fate intervenes, her forbidden affair is discovered, and JJ is posted back to China where a civil war is raging. Despite all warnings, Mirabel sets off for Shanghai to find him . . .

My review: I think this is the type of book that anyone interested in reading about that place (Australia & Shanghai) in that time period (World War II) would enjoy. It's based off the author's parents' story, and I'm not sure how much fact and how much creative license, but the realism was brilliant.

The characters in Little Paradise all seemed very three-dimensional, the storyline was engaging (it took a while to warm up, and was slow-paced through the beginning, though once Mirabel got to Shanghai it became very interesting) and I read it in two sittings. One criticism would be that it seemed a bit dry at times - it was written in third person, and generally books in third person don't seem to have as much voice as there is in first person. I think it would've been really interesting from Mirabel's first-person perspective, because I think more of Mirabel's personality would have shone through.

Mirabel ages from seventeen into her early twenties during the novel, and since her experiences aren't particularly teenager-like (having a baby and going into a warzone to find your husband aren't exactly things I can relate to, but Mirabel's story was still fantastic and I really enjoyed this novel...) I think adult readers won't be turned off. But I strongly encourage teenagers to read this, too... I think this was all the more powerful because it is based off fact. I've studied World War II with school, and watched a lot of programs about it around Anzac Day, and what really resonates with me are the personal stories of war - the women at home, the ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. I think that was one of the reasons why I enjoyed Little Paradise so much.

Do you enjoy novels inspired by true stories?

Body Image.

Monday, April 26, 2010


Even though I’m aware every time an unretouched photo of a celebrity is released (or every time I see a fashion photoshoot with models of all shapes and sizes and nationalities) it's probably just a publicity stunt, I feel joyous. And I hope that one day images like these will be the norm. I like to think that images like these improve people’s body-image.

Now, I’m a reasonably intelligent girl. I’m very good at thinking critically and logically. In most aspects, I’m very mature. But I hate my body. With a passion. I’m aware of the media and societal aspects that I have been raised with and I know where these beliefs have come from. I can identify the sources of this body-hatred. I know it’s pointless. I’m aware on some level that I’m fine the way I am. But I still hate my body. It’s got nothing to do with my short-comings as a person, or a lack of mental capacity or awareness – but it’s so deeply ingrained in me that it’s not something I can get out of my head. I’m sixteen and I’m already stuck in my ways.

There’s an attitude – and don’t say that it doesn’t exist, because it does – that girls and women must hate themselves (and there’s a growing trend, too, of boys and men feeling the same). That you must always be seeking to improve your physical appearances. That you must moan about not being thin enough, about how you need to diet, about the cellulite on your thighs, about your tummy. About stubble on your legs and your skin being too pale. You must envy the people who appeal to the traditional idea of beauty, and hold people who don’t constantly strive to be perfect in low regard. It doesn't matter what you think personally. If you accept a compliment instead of saying, 'No, you're wrong, I am fat and ugly', everyone tells you how arrogant you are. You must always strive to be eternally young and wrinkle-free and thin but curvaceous, and actually liking how you look is a sign that you're either deluded or full of yourself.

And there are two things that I think are major forces in this 1) TV, media, marketing (the ads telling you that wrinkles are bad bad bad and stubbly legs are bad bad bad and the shows like Australia’s Next Top Model saying being thin and tall and young is good good good and that if you buy this product now! And starve yourself for the next week, you will have lots of friends and the opposite gender will want to have sex with you! Yay yay yay!), 2) people’s attitudes.

And these are attitudes they got from their parents and relatives and their friends and from the media and all these other lovely things which say that you as you are are not good enough.

And this is why I wish that the media would change so that people could change. This is why I wish everyone was unretouched. Because people look amazing as they are. They don’t need to look computer generated. This is why I wish people on TV looked like people in the real world (they actually are the same people, I think). This is why I want to see people who don’t fit conventional ideals of beauty to be in magazines and on TV.

And I know a lot of you reading probably like the fantastic aspect of magazines and TV and the like – the perfection, and the idea that if we all buy enough hair product we too could be perfect. But I don't. I think I’d prefer models who look different – who have had children, who are older than eighteen, who weigh more than a 110 pounds, who aren’t all tall and pale and ethereal (of course there can be models like this! Just because you're naturally thin doesn't mean you aren't lovely and a 'real' woman - which is the stupidest phrase ever - I'd just like a little variety). I think I’d prefer beauty not to be digitally created. I think I’d prefer cellulite to looking like a Barbie doll. I think I’d prefer to live in a society of people who see beauty in everyone, and who don’t have to shave or wear make-up if they don’t want to. I’d like to live in a world where women and men are treated as being perfect as they are, and where no-one hates their body because of unrealistic expectations created by the media and social opinions.

Obviously, I need to stop living in a fantasy land and do some schoolwork for a change. And I think I lost the point I was trying to make midway through this post. Anyway...

How do you feel about your own body?
How do you feel about body-image in general?


(Images above are from a recent campaign by Candie's. Britney Spears agreed to release unretouched images of herself next to the airbrushed ones. If you haven't yet heard about this, you can read an article here. In my opinion, Britney looked better before all the digital alteration...)

Girl Saves Boy... Australian cover & blurb

Saturday, April 24, 2010

So my Aussie publisher Text have put the Australian cover & blurb of Girl Saves Boy up on their website, so I figured I should share it here! Let me know what you think....

The first time we met, Jewel Valentine saved my life.

Isn’t it enough having your very own terminal disease, without your mother dying? Or your father dating your Art teacher?

No wonder Sacha Thomas ends up in the lake that Saturday evening…

But the real question is: how does he end up in love with Jewel Valentine?

With the help of quirky teenage prodigies Little Al and True Grisham, Sacha and Jewel have a crazy adventure, with a little lobster emancipation along the way.

But Sacha’s running out of time, and Jewel has secrets of her own.

Girl Saves Boy is a hugely talented debut novel, funny and sad, silly and wise. It’s a story of life, death, love… and garden gnomes.

Advice For My 12-Year-Old Self

Friday, April 23, 2010

  • You will look back on this year of your life fondly. I'm serious. You're going to be sixteen and sitting there and reminiscing about when you were twelve and normal. And you're gonna blog about it.
  • Everyone you are friends with now will have dumped you within a year. Don't choose your high school based on what friends are going there. Every high school in the area sucks. I went to them, believe me.
  • You're going to be just as uninterested in boys when you're sixteen as you are now. This will be a source of constant teasing from your peers. Please don't react. Take the high road. They're all going to get STDs anyway (not that I know this for a fact, but I've got a good feeling).
  • You're not going to take any risks. In the next four years, you won't drink alcohol, smoke, do drugs, go out with boys, go out at all, have dangerous friends or engage in any kind of risk-taking behaviour at all. I advise you don't try and go against the fold here, because I don't really want you to OD or get murdered or anything. What? I have invested interest.
  • Twilight is going to become wildly successful, though you haven't heard of it yet. For God's sake, don't read it. It will scar you for life.
  • You are still going to be in the same crappy town in four years time, except it will be okay because you'll only be two years away from getting the flock out of there by then.
  • It's going to get a lot worse. About a trillion times worse. About a hundred million billion trillion times worse. Be prepared. Better yet, try not to become a teenager.
  • You will never feel nor behave like a teenager. Sorry about that.
  • Try not to tell everyone you meet your entire life story.
  • I feel really sorry for you, kid, because you're going to turn into me and in my opinion nobody really deserves to be such a weirdo for no apparent reason. I mean, I wouldn't wish being Steph Bowe on my worst enemy. Which, by the way, you won't have a worst enemy.
  • I really have very little advice to give you on account of the fact that you don't really do a whole lot over the next four years. You go to high school, you bail from high school, you sit at home a lot and angst, you write a novel and get published. I'd tell you not to go to high school and circumvent that whole mess but I think that was helpful to your novel-writing.
  • I really strongly encourage you no to go through that semi-goth phase because you looked/will look atrocious. And don't shave your head. And try not to be too aware of the world around you. It'll just make you angry all the time about things you can't fix.
What advice would you give your at 12-year-old self (or 16!)?

If Real Life Were Like Teen Books...

Wednesday, April 21, 2010


• Everyone would be gorgeous. I mean, absolutely freaking drop dead beautiful. Everybody. Except the nerds or the people who are ugly for a reason. But then the nerds would take off their glasses and shake out their hair and oh my god they’re beautiful too!

• Vampires and other supernatural hotties would be everywhere. And they would be especially turned on by classy new-girls-in-town who are brunettes. Only brunettes.

• Every school would have a hot, blonde cheerleader who would be at the top of the social hierarchy and dating the beautiful but fallible guy who you have a five-year unrequited crush on.

• There would be redheads! Everywhere! Redhead falling from the sky! Pouring out your ears! Redheads! My God!

• No one would ever have to do homework. Unless somehow relevant to the plot, like how you ask this guy for help on your homework but you’re actually at the top of the class and you just have the hots for him.

• More teenagers would be orphans or from single parents households. One parent would be dead under mysterious circumstances.

• Everyone would have really eventful lives.

• Everyone would be walking around all the time inexplicably falling in love with other people and having epiphanies and giving really lengthy, involved, monologues.

• More people would be rich, and almost everybody would live in New York.

• Awkward moments would be rarer.

• Everyone would be really kind and thoughtful and romantic. And everyone would have above-average intelligence. Which I guess would make above-average intelligence average.

• You wouldn’t ever have pointless conversations with anyone. Ever. It would all be relevant to the plot.

• Everything would be very! Dramatic!!

• Everyone would be in a love triangle.

• Did I mention we’d all be gorgeous?

• People would be more forthright about expressing their feelings and they would always have these long diatribes about how much they love other people! And it would be fantastic.

So, basically, I’m moving to Teen-Book-Land.

What do you think life would be like, if it were like a teen novel?

5 Ways To Bore A Teenaged Reader

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

  1. Not giving us any reason to empathise with characters. Okay, so this will vary from reader to reader. Some people will probably be okay with an extremely exciting and action-packed plot!! Like OMG exploding stuff!! Guns!! Spies!! But for me - and I think a lot of teen readers - believable characters who I can relate to are a must (obviously there are exceptions to this rule...).
  2. Nothing actually happens. Teenagers at the younger end of the spectrum aren't really going to be interested in a whole lot of intellectual rubbish. Adults will read that sort of stuff and talk about it with their friends at dinner parties and go, Oh! How smart I am to understand all that subtext and hidden meaning! But teenagers don't have time for your pseudo-intellectual time-wasting. I don't, I mean. And I speak for all teenagers! Every single one!
  3. It's all about a great big MORAL. You can have morals and meaning and a lesson behind your book. You really can. But a novel that is only a flimsy story constructed to back up a lesson that you want to teach the youth is usually very boring, and you won't end up getting your point across at all. You have to be subtle. Remember: story first. And characters. See point 1.
  4. Focusing on adult characters in a YA novel. I'm not saying teenagers are incapable of enjoying or understanding a novel with adult protagonists, but generally when a teenager picks up a YA novel they want a story they can relate to in some way. The experiences of adult characters are just so... grown-up. All responsibility and boring stuff. See point 1. Again. Even though you have already.
  5. Unoriginality. So, this isn't going to apply to all teenagers. Some teenagers I know want to read books that are as similar to Twilight as possible. But I like to think that the majority of teenaged readers enjoy original novels, stories they haven't heard before, things that surprise and entertain and [insert another synonym of surprise/entertain here, something like confound...]. The same old rehashed plot is boring
What bores you in a book, as a reader (regardless of whether you're a teenager)?

A BIG SECRET THAT YOU MUST NOT TELL ANYBODY

Monday, April 19, 2010

Teenagers today are exactly the same as teenagers yesterday and ten years ago and a hundred years ago. Teenagers are, have always been and will always be, sarcastic/awkward/jaded/obnoxious to their parents. There are exceptions (Steph Bowe, you, your kids). It has always been hard to be a teenager. It is not harder in 2010 than it was in 1985. I mean, come on! It's hard to be alive. There's like school, and work, and writing a novel... and taxes. TAXES! Except most teenagers don't have to do those.

Everything you are going through right now - every crappy thing, every fantastic thing, every unrequited crush - someone has been through before. Millions of people have been through before. Someone else is experiencing the exact same emotion right now. Human beings are like snowflakes, not that we melt or that we're pretty, but that we're all different but still effectively the same.

Okay? So when you feel uncomfortable and when people put you down and when you think that no one will ever love you know that that is not true. Everyone feels like this at some point or another and it's all going to be absolutely fine. I can't guarantee that because I haven't lived to that point yet but I've got a good feeling about it.

Also, note that no teenager gets as much action as teenagers in books do. Namely the teenagers in Steph Bowe's books. You're going to read my book and you're going to think to yourself, Steph Bowe, you are so living vicariously through fictional characters. And yes I do refer to myself in third person a lot. It makes me feel like a real person rather than a figment of my own imagination.

Today I got bound proofs! (They are like ARCs.) I got two of them. I want to give one away but my mum won't let me. I know. This is like the point in the publishing process where the book gets sent out to Important People Like Famous Authors and other cool folks and I start to feel like a legit author. Okay, so I don't think I'll ever feel like a legit author.

If you have any questions about the Publishing Process or how to refer to yourself in third person without seeming like a tool (yeah, that's not possible), ask! Ask away!

I am still planning to do a vlog. I still haven't decided what about. I also have numerous book reviews coming!

MY WORST BEST FRIEND by Dyan Sheldon

Monday, April 19, 2010

Gracie is shy, quiet and loves iguanas and hiking. Savanna is outgoing, loves shopping and boys. Savanna is one of Those Girls, and Gracie is not, but somehow they end up best friends. That is, until Savanna starts cheating on her boyfriend (making Gracie lie for her), cancelling things at the last minute and being totally self-centred. Gracie's a bit of a soft-touch, though, and stays loyal to Savanna because of their friendship... but will she ever stand up for herself? Will Savanna realise the error of her ways?

What I love about My Worst Best Friend is that it takes a very simple premise, and makes it work really well. It's a situation many teenage girls (and boys... and adults...) can relate to. And it was executed so well - so much humour and written in a way that makes it a quick, easy read.

I had difficulty with Savanna as a character. I mean, I didn't like her from the start. I couldn't understand why Gracie was friends with her. Why she kept lying for her... Savanna was irritating and mean and just, ugh. I think a lot of girls who have had fallings-out with mean friends in the past will definitely be able to relate and understand why Gracie does the things she does... but sometimes it was frustrating to read. I would have liked to have seen things from Savanna's perspective..

But Gracie was a fabulous character! I loved that she loved iguanas and cared about the environment and was a tomboy. Cooper, too, was a fantastic character. In fact, I found every character in the book except Savanna absolutely awesome - funny, unique and believable...

I recommend this book to younger YA readers, girls twelve and up. It focuses on themes of friendship, trust, and the importance of being true to yourself. It's a realistic and fun read.

WHAT NOW, TILDA B? by Kathryn Lomer

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Tilda's fifteen and in Grade 10, and with exams and senior secondary school coming up, the pressures on for her to figure out what she's going to do with her life - the problem is, she has no idea what she wants to do. One night, she stumbles across a pregnant elephant seal on the beach, and this chance encounter has a big impact on her life.

I loved this for how real it was. I could so relate to how Tilda felt about her life. It didn't rely on high-drama events to make for an interesting story. Everythin was believable - the dialogue, Tilda's relationships with other people, Tilda herself... It wasn't a book that packed a huge emotional punch, but I really enjoyed reading it.

I think there was slightly too much going on at times in this book, and I really wished that we got to know some of the characters better. We got to know Tilda really well, her life, and the plotline involving the seals, but so many other things were only mentioned in passing - I would've loved to have gotten to know Bella a little more, and I felt we didn't know a whole lot about Shell and her family, either. Eddie Maloney felt a little one-dimensional to me (this may have been due to the fact we were in Tilda's head, though). I would've liked to have known more about Mr Hensley and his wife, too. All of the characters in this book were really interesting, and I wanted to get to know them all a little better.

I'd strongly recommend this book to girls fourteen and up. Tilda is a wonderful character, and her uncertainty about her future is definitely something teenage girls will be able to empathise with.

WILL GRAYSON, WILL GRAYSON by John Green and David Levithan

Saturday, April 17, 2010

This book is called Will Grayson, Will Grayson because it's about two boys named Will Grayson who meet once by chance. The book jumps between both their perspectives, and their separate stories. And sure the book is about them, because they're telling their stories, but it's also very much about Tiny Cooper - a friend of one of the Will Grayson's - and the musical he is making about his own life. The other Will Grayson is in love with Tiny Cooper, and he's also depressed, and extremely emo.
 
And it's really difficult to explain but the book is just so funny and with so much heart and with fantastic dialogue. And you'll like it.
 
To me, it was really obvious which author had written which Will Grayson. One was an extremely John Green character (every protagonist in each of his books is effectively the same. It's a great character, and the writing is hilarious, but you wonder, must they all be the same? Which is hypocritical of me since all my characters are just slight variations on myself.), and the other was gay (David Levithan's known for writing GLBTQ lit for teens).
 
I didn't really feel the attraction to Jane. Usually in John Green books, I'm basically in love with the love interest myself but Jane felt a little bland to me. And the interactions between Jane and Green's Will Grayson were too damn intelligent. I mean, I don't want to feel stupid when I'm reading a book. Teenagers don't talk like that. But I still loved his perspective and his relationship with Tiny and it was great.
 
But Levithan's (well, I think it was Levithan's) Will Grayson definitely made the book for me. I think an adult reading this book will hate him because he's a whiny, mopey teenager but I thought his character was so representative of teenagers in general. All of the dialogues between him and other characters were really believable. And I was basically laughing through this entire book.
 
And Tiny Cooper! So brilliant. I wished we could have had his perspective.
 
The themes in the book weren't as developed as I think they could have been. That just fell a little flat for me. There's very strong language and it's largely about a gay teenager (Tiny Cooper, who is indescribably awesome), so it might not be everyone's cup of tea. I recommend it only to an Upper YA audience. It's funny and fantastic and I loved it.

The Best Things About Being A Teenager

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Okay, so my post yesterday was a bit depressing... and maybe it should have been 'the suckiest things about being human' rather than about being a teenager. But, obviously, there are tonnes of great things about being human! And about being a teenager! Thus the point of this post... here are my favourite things about being a teenager!
  • Being filled with a sense of possibility at having your whole life ahead of you. As in, I could do anything! I could be a nail technician or a deep-sea diver or a singer or an actor or I could train dolphins or open a restaurant or be a teacher or an archaeologist or a nudist or all of the above.
  • Not having to work a job, and having school holidays! Lots of time off.
  • Everyone being nice to you because you're a kid (okay, so not always) and being able to make mistakes.
  • Not having all of the responsibility of being an adult, and being supported by your parents.
  • Everything feels like it means something. Every crush and every friendship and every moment of your life feels huge and new and fantastic. Of course, there's the reverse where bad things can feel like the end of the world, but the highs make those times worth it.
  • Being young is kind of great. I love being healthy and having strong bones and being able to jump and run and things like that. Not all teenagers have that, and elderly people don't, and it's something I'm grateful for and make the most of.
  • Everything is so damn profound all the time. It's like when you're driving in the car at night and listening to The Smiths or The Kinks or Radiohead or something and looking at all the headlights and you think, I feel infinite. (Reference! To a book! Which one?)
  • Books for teenagers are awesome! Well, duh.
What are the best things about being a teenager?

The Suckiest Things About Being A Teenager

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

  • THE HORMONES. They're psychotic. They're making me think and do bizarre things. I want to say to every twelve-year-old kid: Kid, you do not want to be a teenager. You will have crazy hormones possessing you and it will be terrible and you will basically feel like the biggest freak ever. And I can't tell you that it'll get better because I haven't gotten to that point yet, so who knows? Maybe I'll feel like a teenager for the rest of my life.
  • THE WORRYING WHAT OTHER PEOPLE THINK. From what I've gathered, I think this is something adults experience as well. And it's AWFUL. It's this constant, do they like me? Do they hate me? Am I just a pain in the neck? Are people only nice to me because they're socially obligated to be nice to me? These questions keep me awake at night.
  • THE PRESSURE. The pressure to go to parties and have a lot of friends and drink alcohol and date boys/girls and dress well and be attractive and care what other people think and act like you're normal even when you feel like the weirdest person ever. And the pressure to be thin. God. It's all about being thin And if you're a girl there's all this pressure to be feminine and if you're a boy I'd say there must be all this pressure to be masculine.
  • THE UNCERTAINTY. What will I do after school? Where will I live? Will I have friends? Will I get into university? Will anyone want to hire me? I've got no skills! When will I move out of my parents house? Will my life be good? Will my life ever feel like it's getting better? Will all my friends ditch me? Will I ever get married, have a boyfriend/girlfriend? What if no one ever finds me attractive? What if I turn into a cat lady?
  • THE AWKWARDNESS. I can't remember the last time I didn't feel awkward. Or the last time I didn't have an awkward conversation with someone my own age. Always with the awkward. Always with the saying stupid things. I try and avoid interacting with people of the opposite gender that are my age because those interactions tend to be even more awkward. And later, agonizing over everything I said. Hate that.
  • THE HATING YOURSELF/YOUR BODY. This constant feeling that you aren't good enough, that you aren't interesting enough, that you aren't thin enough. Just this feeling of not being enough. And you're aware that you only have these attitudes because of the media and peer pressure and everything and that maybe you are enough, but these bad feelings are still there. And, geez, did I just slip into second person there?
Did I miss anything? What do you think sucks about being/having been a teenager?

Things I Can't Relate To In Books For Teenagers

Sunday, April 11, 2010


  • Bitchy, mean-girl cliques. I'm aware they exist in real life. But they don't have the sort of power they seem to exert in books. When I've encountered 'the popular girls' in the real world, I've noticed that they're the same as everybody else. Insecure and trying to make themselves feel important. In books, when they're presented as being these total ice-queens who are totally untouchable, I think, Yeah, no.
  • Perfect love interests. When you have a crush on somebody, I don't think you think they are totally perfect. You see their flaws and you like them or you find them acceptable. No teenager has flawless skin or is totally nice. And certainly not teenage boys. I read books where the love interest, who is a 17-year-old boy, is basically an Adonis and I think, Have you ever met a teenage boy in your life? I think not! I know a lot of readers like this whole fantasy boy but I like books where I can imagine events occurring in reality.
  • Teenage pregnancy. There are always these really maternal emotions going on with the pregnant girl and the moment someone goes maternal Steph can no longer relate.
  • Teenagers who hate their parents. This is okay if they have a legit reason for hating their parents (they're evil/they killed somebody/they're vampires/etc), however if they are constantly having temper tantrums and talking about how awful their parents are for no reason the book will have totally lost me. I love my parents, and they're socially obligated to love me. I don't understand why someone would give that up.
  • Girl finding herself drawn to a hot bad boy for no apparent reason. This is because, if there were a hot and possibly supernatural bad boy with magical magnetic girl-attracting powers Steph Bowe wouldn't be attracted to him. Especially not if said bad boy is actually bad (like an emotionally abusive fallen angel... or something like that).
  • Girl constantly going on about how bad it is to be flat-chested. Yeah, suck it up, honey.
  • Boys presented as being soulless and entirely driven by sex. Please, don't get me started on gender stereotypes. I could be here all night.
What can't you relate to in YA fiction?

How To Write A Novel (For Real)

Saturday, April 10, 2010


String a whole bunch of words together, probably somewhere between forty thousand and a hundred and forty thousand words. Have characters, a plot (make sure it's made-up, otherwise it's non-fiction). Use adverbs (or don't). Don't listen to all the rules everybody tells you (or you can, if you want). Write as slow or as quick as you like. Outline or wing it. Rewrite it a million times or once. Don't think that because something works for another writer it'll work for you. Figure out the novel-writing methods that work for you and write that way. Every writer is different. Every novel is different. Don't think for a second that your writing, your novel, means less than that of someone with an agent or a book deal or ten New York Times bestsellers. Don't be dissuaded by others. Write your novel in whatever way works for you. It's just a whole bunch of words strung together. And it's not easy for anyone. It is overwhelming. Other writers feel the way you feel. It's bizarre, I know. I'm sorry I don't have all the answers.

And then I go, damn, I wrote this book.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

So I just got the typeset pages for my novel. There are dual narrators, and at the beginning of each chapter, when the perspective changes, there are little headers with their names in handwriting. And the girl's name is more feminine and pretty and the boy's name is blockier and I just think, my goodness. How special.

And every now and then I forget I'm reading my own book - just for a second I'll forget - and I think: This person gets it. Somebody understands. Someone has perfectly captured the way I feel.

And then I go, damn, I wrote this book. And I feel kind of crappy that I've put so much of myself in a novel that is about something so distant from my own experience. But then I also feel okay. I feel a lot of things. I hope that I have a clone somewhere who will read it and think, hey, somebody gets it.

You guys. You're missing out. Being Steph Bowe is probably the strangest and most weirdly wonderful thing ever.

Sometimes I worry I've put too much in this book and it still isn't enough. Sometimes I worry I have no good stories left in me, and I never did to begin with.
God I hate these sometimes.

Anyway, I'm doing schoolwork and working on the next novel and just being generally stressed out. Yourself?
What are you writing, right now? How are you going?

Interview with Emily Gale, author of Girl, Aloud

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Emily Gale is the author of Girl, Aloud - a story about a girl called Kass, her dysfunctional dad and his plan to make her enter The X-Factor and become a star. Also: a fight with her best friends over a boy with brown boots, secrets being kept by her mum and a very shifty little brother. It deal with tricky issues but it's also very funny. Check out my review here.

Emily is a Londoner living in Melbourne, and you can find out more about her on her website... or you could read this interview! It's really quite good. I interview Emily about writing Girl, Aloud, getting published and being a writer...

Steph: Can you tell me a bit about the process of writing Girl, Aloud? When did the idea come to you? How long did it take to write, and what were the challenges in writing it?

Emily: I started Girl, Aloud purely to please myself in the final month of my second pregnancy, which happened to be November and therefore NaNoWriMo time. My plan was to blitz it for a month - partly because I was scared that having two young children to look after would mean I'd never write again (wrong!) but also because I had just experienced a massive disappointment in terms of my writing and needed to drag myself back up. It was a departure in terms of tone - I was depressed about my writing and decided that the best medicine would be to make myself laugh...then I discovered the dark side of my story, which refused to go away. The original idea came years before but didn't get off the ground. A few seasons of watching Simon Cowell annihilate talentless wannabes on The X Factor gave me the inspiration to delve into the family life of one of those singers. I was fascinated by the parents who back them up so fervently - did parenthood make them hard of hearing or is the price of fame really "my child" these days? What if there was a girl who really didn't want to be there - what set of circumstances would make her agree to it? What started out as a bit of fun became a bit more than that. I wrote a large chunk of it that November, had an 8-week break to get settled with the new baby, and then took up the story again. It was a quick first draft but then many months of redrafting. The main challenge for me was to bring out the details of Kass's life with her father without making it so overbearing that there was no room for the fun side of the book.

Steph: I love the characters in Girl, Aloud - Kass especially, but even her dad and brother. What came first - the story or the characters? Do you find there is much of yourself in your characters?

Emily: The basic idea came first but Kass established herself in my head very quickly. I can't lie - there is a lot of my younger self in Kass even though her set of circumstances are very different to mine at the same age. She's not me, but she's not a million miles from my inner teenager. Additionally, my brother Oliver was the inspiration for Raff - he's the only family member who can claim any rights over character. That was the most cathartic part of the story for me, personally - I wanted to capture my experience of sibling rivalry in a more extreme set of circumstances. I think I also wanted to relive the relationship I had with my brother when we were young - I loved writing the final scene between Kass and Raff; I think it was my way of telling my big hairy 30-year old brother that I love him even though he's a ratbag. The dad crept up on me over several drafts, and by the time he was fully formed I found it very emotional writing scenes between him and Kass. He started out as pure clown and I was only brave enough to make oblique references about his mental health - then a trusted reader said: 'what are you actually trying to say here?' and I knew I had to stop beating about the bush and let him be the larger than life character he is.

Steph: What's your road-to-publication story? Did you find yourself with lots of rejections? Was it long process, were any parts particularly difficult for you?

Emily: I was an editor of children's books for several years and when I went freelance I wrote commissioned books for Ladybird and Parragon (pre-school books), but I was determined not to use contacts when it came to novel writing (stubborn). I got my first agent very quickly, and then managed to unget her. That's when I wrote Girl, Aloud. Despite a lot of interest in earlier drafts (that was hard, that so-close-but-no-banana phase) I had to wait several months for the agent who could see exactly where the story needed strengthening and was willing to wait while I fixed a few things - Louise Burns at Andrew Mann Ltd. What a great moment. Having lost my first agent I really needed that boost. I hope it goes to show that writers can have more than one life. Signing with my agent happened when I was still living in London, and it was while I was in the process of emigrating to Australia that Louise was subbing my novel. I think that helped! There is nothing that will take your mind off the submissions process more than leaving all your friends and family and moving to the other side of the planet - really quite distracting! Still, the waiting was awful. I checked email obsessively and will never forget the moment there was one sitting there with the word OFFER! in the subject line. I went into panic mode and decided that the first thing I had to do was finish the washing up. Shortly afterwards I slapped myself into sense with my rubber gloves and did some more appropriate celebratory things, like bonkers dancing and drinking champagne.

Steph: What's the most rewarding part of writing for you? (The writing? The publication? The fame and untold riches?)

Emily: I can't deny that I desperately wanted the publishing deal; I was a mule about it, couldn't give up. And after I got the deal I would find myself breaking into a massive proud grin whenever I was alone and suddenly remembered "oh yes, I did that!" But it's complicated (the kind of complicated I wouldn't give up for the world, mind). I find being published exhilarating but completely terrifying. The worst thing is the temptation to compare one's writing or career to other authors. That's a killer. By far the most rewarding part is the writing - not every day, but those moments when the words flow so freely it's the writer's equivalent of sprouting wings and taking flight. Nothing feels as good as writing a scene that works. On the other hand, the untold riches are yet to arrive in my bank account (some kind of technical error I'm sure). Maybe those feel really good, too. I just doubt they feel better than the writing.

Steph: Imagining you're able to travel back through time and meet yourself as a younger writer – without tearing the universe apart – what advice would you give her about writing and life?

Emily: I should probably tell my younger self to quit the appalling, heartbroken poetry, but I know she's going to have a fabulous evening sharing that poetry with a friend in 10 years' time so I can't deny them that. Oh, how they will laugh. So I think I would just tell her to try harder to be brave, to spend less time moping and staring out of the same window, and more time writing. My regrets are mainly things I didn't do, or say - the curse of the shy! I wish my younger self knew, as I do now, that I'm never the shyest person in a room. Not that I don't still have those moments of utter dread, but now I know it's worth going through them for the feeling you get on the other side.

Steph: What are you working on at the moment?

Emily: I've just finished another teen novel, which is about celebrity culture and a girl who finds that her home changes from being a site of extreme conflict to the only place she feels safe. I've also got an adult novel underway, and Parragon are publishing two picture books for me this year. Oh dear, I sound a bit all over the place now but that's the truth of it - I love writing in all of those genres.

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You can find out more about Emily Gale and Girl, Aloud at her website: http://emilygale.co.uk/. Girl, Aloud is also on Amazon. And follow Emily on Twitter, too!

And, on the 29th of April, Girl, Aloud is being launched at Readings Hawthorn! You can find all the details of that on Readings' website, if you're a Melburnian interested in attending.

SUGAR SUGAR by Carole Wilkinson

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

It's 1972 and 17-year-old Jackie has aspirations of being a fashion designer. She's left her home in Australia to stay in London and try and break into the fashion industry. She decides to go to Paris for the weekend, and try and meet a famous fashion designer, show him her designs... but then everything goes awry, she loses her designs and finds herself travelling across Europe with strangers and having the time of her life.

So this was fantastic. I can't honestly say I've read anything like this for a YA audience. After I finished reading it I wanted to travel back in time to 1972 and hitchhike across Europe. The characters were interesting and varied - from all different countries and backgrounds, with all different motivations for travelling. Alun was probably my favourite, though they were all very interesting (Dolf, too, was great). What's been done fantastically here is the way all of the characters grew and developed as the novel progressed - almost everyone who Jackie met was changed by their experiences, and I think that added a great realism to the novel. Jackie herself was a likeable character - easy to relate to, and very committed to her dream. She was also very naive, and I think that was an important part of her character development, but at times it was frustrating.

The title of the novel, I felt, wasn't very representative of the book ('Sugar' was what Jackie said instead of swearing, which was cute, but I don't think it suited as the novel's title). The cover, however, I think is absolutely gorgeous! The colours and design are fantastic.

The best part of this novel, by far, were the settings. Jackie travelled through all sorts of exotic countries and I could really tell as I read how well-researched this novel must have been - the locals of each city, the country, the traditions... it was incredibly believable. And the way in which these settings were evoked were magnificently done - at no point did the descriptions become clunky or forced. Very wonderfully done.

I would recommend this to an upper-YA audience, 14 and older, because of some drug and sexual references (Jackie is 17, and most of her friends are older). I loved it!

DANCING IN THE DARK by Robin Bavati

Monday, April 5, 2010

Ditty wants to start ballet lessons - but her strictly religious Jewish parents forbid it. So she begins dancing in secret, creating elaborate lies so her parents don't find out what she's doing - if she's caught, she'll be in huge trouble. Ditty soon finds herself questioning the beliefs her parents have raised her with. For Ditty, following her dreams of being a ballet dancer may cost her her family.

What really surprised me about this book was the fact that it was set in the present - until mobile phones were mentioned, I thought it was occuring twenty years ago! The strictness of Ditty and her family's religion was really startling since it was set in such a familiar location (in and around Melbourne) and set in the present day - a lifestyle like that Ditty had to live (involving not mixing with people of other religions, not being allowed to watch television or access the internet, having to wear clothes that totally cover your body at all times, not being allowed to have hobbies, being married off at seventeen and so on...) is one that I can hardly imagine a teenage girl living anywhere near where I live. And yet people do.

Ditty was a wonderful character, and I think everyone in the novel (Ditty's family, friends, people at the ballet school) were depicted very realistically. I think I expected for there to be a lot of competitiveness at Ditty's ballet school, but that wasn't really an element of this novel.

I think the sheer scope of the novel made it feel a bit rushed at times - it covered five years of Ditty's life, from twelve to seventeen, and there were a couple of intances where a year passed in a blink.

This is a really wonderful story - while it serves as a fantastic insight into the life of someone who's very religious, the religious aspect won't alienate readers - I think all teenage girls will really empathise with Ditty, and her need to be independent and follow her dreams is something almost everyone will be able to relate to. I strongly recommend it to girls 12 and older who are looking for a contemporary YA from a unique perspective.

Hypothetical

Saturday, April 3, 2010


If I were to kill somebody I’d do it in an old-school cozy mystery way, like by poisoning the wealthy aristocrat’s liquor. And then the old lady - or the four kids and dog who drive around in a funky van - who is/are the crime solver/s will call everyone in the mansion - because I’m staying in this mansion, with all these other people, tons of suspicious maids and butlers and other servants, and me, being creepy - into the grand sitting room (it’s nighttime at this point, and the fire is crackling, and someone is sitting in the big red velvet chair and smoking a pipe, and then there’s this loud ominous crack of thunder! Bang! Like that) and then the old lady or leader of the band of crime-solving teenagers says, “It was Ms Scarlet, in the kitchen, with the pipe!” (Who decided to put the pipe in Cluedo? How often do people get killed by pipes? How illogical is Cluedo, anyway? Most moronic board game ever. Or at least up in the top 3, with Monopoly and dumb Monopoly Junior). And after this announcement, I appear out of the shadows, sipping scotch and I’m wearing this black beret, right, and I’ve got this wicked gleam in my eye and I’m all, ‘You’re wrong! It was I!’ Because of course the only reason I’d ever poison a wealthy aristocrat was because I wanted people to pay attention to me. I’m like that. And then it turns out that my face it actually a mask and I am not really Steph Bowe at all! Which is quite good because, I mean, why would I kill a wealthy aristocrat? And why would I be drinking scotch? And congratulations if you read all this. Good on you.

I'm thinking about this because the book I'm working on - and by 'working on' I mean occasionally writing, mostly agonising over, and by 'the book' I mean 'one of three books, all of which are infuriatingly complicated and weird' - involves a murder. And I'm trying to figure out why the murderer would kill the murderee the way in which they have.

Girl Saves Boy

Friday, April 2, 2010


...is the title* of my novel debuting in Australia & New Zealand this September! You can now add it to your to-read shelf on Goodreads! (It's being pubbed in the US mid-next year.)

Expect a summary soon... if you want to guess what the book's about, feel free to comment and tell me! (Hint: there are no zombies. There are, however, teenaged prodigies, a lobster kidnapping/emancipation and a girl saves a boy's life, as indicated by the title).

I also now have a snazzy author profile on Goodreads. And you can follow me via my Facebook fan page, too! (I'm such a professional.)

And guess what else: I started Hey! Teenager of the Year one year ago today!
In that time I've:
I've been generally shy and weird and funny in an uncomfortable way and accidentally offended people and really tried to be a good person but kind of messed the whole thing up. And made friends and lost friends and been really unhappy and really happy and lived with a wonderful family and been massively stressed out. Felt like I'm missing out. Felt blessed. Tried to make other people happy. Tried not to be a pessimist. Written and read like a crazy person. Probably been a crazy person or at least acted like one. Probably this paragraph didn't make sense.
*That's definitely the title it will have in Australia & New Zealand. It might be different in the US, and I'll let you know when that title is decided on.
So how's your year been so far?
And what would you guess 'Girl Saves Boy' is about? (No aliens, either, by the way. Or else it would be 'Alien Saves Boy' or 'Girl Saves Alien' and I'm trying to steer clear of plotlines similar to that of X-Files. Not that I don't love X-Files.)
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