Apologies and Happenings

So, I should apologise, first and for most for going dark for the last three and a half months. I had such good intentions, that I had written and scheduled blog posts for weeks  ahead, knowing that the move interstate would really slow me down, but I really didn’t anticipate what was waiting for me when I got to Melbourne.

For starters, my work load almost doubled from what it was in Sydney. Add to that that I’d never really been to Melbourne before (once for a weekend, 8 years ago, and when I was 6 or 7 and my only memory is Port Melbourne and getting on the Able Tasman) and so getting to know the area was also an issue. Oh that’s right, I was also enrolled in two subjects for my Masters, which due to the move I had to change to external. And I don’t know if it’s just me, but external seems SO much more work than internal. Internally you can do your readings and assignments, then in class you join in the discussion for 2 hours a week. Externally, it all online discussion which requires a lot of reading (other people’s posts) careful crafting of your discussion points (you can’t um, and ahh, and ‘you know what I mean?’) and then checking back to respond to responses.

In any event, after work (paperwork often not being finished till 6-7 at night, sometimes much later) and then Uni taking up my weekends and any other free time I found myself with, I was struggling to find time to spend with my partner and explore our new home city. Needless to say, my blog took a hiatus while the insanity passed. When my final assignments were in (thrilled with two Distinctions, under the circumstances) I was able to breathe a bit, and then I finished up work last Friday and I have three weeks off and I am loving it! Reading when I want to, writing a bit, swimming every other day, picnics, watching movies, watching Smash (my latest favourite show) playing Lego Star Wars on the play station, lounging around… it’s fantastic. The other day I had a 3 hour nana nap for the first time in I don’t know how long! I’ve only been on holidays for 5 days and I feel like it could have been two weeks. Who knows if I’ll even remember what work is by the time I go back on the 7^th of January.

I’m absolutely loving living where we have moved. It’s a beautiful heritage place that’s been converted into units. But the main point that will be of interest to you, bookish people, is that we now have the wall space to have continuous bookshelves! See how beautiful they are! It makes me so happy to walk through the door and see that every day.

So, where to from here? I know there’s that statistic that most blogs die off in less than a year, or whatever it is, and I didn’t want that to happen to mine. I’ve put a whole lot of effort into it, and I’m still getting around 1200 hits a month even though I haven’t posted in nearly 4… But in all honesty, with full time work, uni, life in general, and my much neglected writing, posting 5 entries a week just doesn’t seem viable. So for next year, I’ll be looking for a new formula. I think it might be more like 1 or 2 posts a week which are more substantial and talk about the books I choose in more depth. With more things like “Genre Favourites” or something where I post about a genre and give my personal highlights from it. If anyone has any suggestions for topics or genres they would like me to talk about, ask away. That’s if anyone is still reading this. I know I’ve been terrible with my audience.

I’m going to start with a highlights of 2012. I’ll post that separately .

Hope someone’s still reading. 

-LittleElfMan

(Michael)

Moving!

I thought I should write a quick post just apologising for the recent lack of posts and to warn you that it may be a bit light on for the next month or so also...

Rather suddenly an opportunity at work came up which involved relocating to Melbourne! Awfully exciting, but rather time consuming. Put that on top of I'm supposed to be starting back at uni this week (external due to the move) I've been a little busy.

But I promise you this is a phase.

Once I've settled in to a new place in Melbourne, gotten on top of all the uni work and Work work that is building up, I'll try and get back to it.

You won't have nothing from me, I've scheduled picture book reviews every Thursday for the next 5 weeks, so there's a little bit of something for you.

But, until the dust settles, you'll have to make do with meager rations of my opinions of books... I know! It will be hard times for all, but I believe we'll make it through, together.

:)

Thanks for stopping by!

Reading and Writing #3: Morals and Meanings

So, on the last Reading and Writing post which was all about Plotting, I got an interesting comment from Shirley Marr asking about how to plan the 'moral of your story' and whether it's possible or whether it is something that evolves through the writing. This is an interesting question, and can be summed up by some advice I got by the wonderful author and editor Sue Whiting a while back:

What is your story about?

This question might not be answered with anything to do with the plot. It might be "how people cope with trials and tribulations" or "the struggle between good and evil inside us all" or "how society accepts difference". I mean it might also be "one person's dealing with a horrible family" or "what drives us to bully others" or "the way ice cream melts in the sun"... who knows!

When I was asked that of a junior fiction novel I had written, I had no succinct answer. I still don't. I might not ever. And that isn't necessarily a bad thing. But it is a very interesting thing to think about at any point in the writing process. Before you begin, when you're half way through and working out where you're going, or when you're done and need to edit. The final answer might not come to you until the whole thing is done and dusted. But, as Shirley asked, can you PLAN for it?

I think you can, although it's a very difficult thing to do. Well, in my limited experience, anyway. And entirely depends on the book you are writing too.

The one I'm working on at the moment, for example, was born in a idea of plot. It is being driven by what is happening and I am hoping will be an exciting adventure. So while I don't have a clear picture of what I want 'the moral of the story' to be, I have characteristics I want my protagonists to portray which might, in the end, speak to nature of humanity, or some such pretentious nonsense (I jest, I'd love my book to MEAN something). I just don't really know exactly what I want to say about it.

On the other hand, just last week I had another idea which tied into a potential book idea I'd had sitting on my shelf for years and years now. I kept I diary right through my whirlwind of a first serious relationship which ended rather abruptly after that significant event of every young person's life. Anywho, I had always thought of turning it into a book of some description, but had never known what. Then last week, a completely different, but parallel aspect occurred to me. I now know exactly what I want to do with that story and it will be a coming of age story where I know the moral, I know what it will mean before I even start working on it.

I think (again, this is coming from my almost comical inexperience) that depending on how strongly you know what you want to say with your story, you can incorporate it into the plot to begin with, or wait for that meaning to show itself through the actions that you want to describe. Either way, you can constantly be asking yourself, 'does this achieve the meaning I want it to' as you write.

Because let's face it, it is the books that mean something that we remember. By all means, the storyline and characters are vital, but they are the elements that contribute to the "significance" of the story in the end.

I don't know if any of that has made sense. I feel like I've prattled on for ages.

But if you are someone who reads and writes and have any questions, comments or suggestions, I would love to hear them (not just Shirley - though you are more than welcome to comment - let's get a community conversation going here). Even if you don't write anything, Readers, please tell us your thoughts on morals and meanings. After all, it is the readers who end up with our writings in their hands.

Reading and Writing #2: Plotting

About a month ago, I wrote a blog post about my experience as a reader and a writer and how I've been trying to juggle the two. You can read it HERE.

The Lovely Shirley Marr made a comment suggesting she'd like to read a post about how I went about my plotting out the story I am currently writing. I thought that would make a good topic for another 'Reading and Writing' post.

I'll start by explaining things I have heard other writers tell me before I go into my (very) amateur method.

I'm a bit of a junkie for author events. Basically anything I can find out about (and actually have the time to attend) I'll go to. I go events for authors when I've never read any of their books. I go to events that are designed for primary school aged children to meet an author. I'll go to anything. Basically, I'm like a sponge, and I'm willing to soak up any information at all that might help me on my journey to become a real, proper and true, "Author" myself one day.

So, that said: Plotting.

Emily Rodda has always been one of my favourite authors. I mean, I grew up reading her books. Literally and figuratively. I was obsessed with Teen Power Inc in primary school (still am - I nearly have a complete set!) and then I got to read Deltora Quest and Rondo, and most recently the Three Doors! (I Love that I'm still reading new releases from someone I loved 20 years ago). And if there's one thing that Emily Rodda can achieve, it's the twist at the end. She is genius at getting you to really believe something, wholeheartedly before telling you, actually, you're wrong, this is how it is, and see all these clues I gave you that you misinterpreted. Gold.

Anyway - At an event where she was talking to 10 year olds (and I was hiding up the back pretending not to be a groupie-fan-boy), one of them asked the question I most wanted the answer to: "How do you get your twists to work at the end?"

She said, she will always know EXACTLY how the book will end before she does anything else. Sometimes even before she knows where she's starting. Then she fills it in in the middle, and she can add twists and turns as she sees fit. This was interesting, because I had heard other writers say they start a book and see where it will go. So there's one tip you could use... Know your ending!

Then, when I heard Garth Nix talk (admittedly, this was to a group of grown-up-groupie-fan-boys-and-girls) He said he will always write out an entire chapter by chapter outline of any book he is going to write - he just never looks at it again. I guess, in this case, if you have got it in your head where you want to go, you can let the writing process open up other possibilities.

What about you? I hear Shirley ask.

Well, I've tried to employ both of these, in some ways. I'm a real list freak. I write them all the time. And excel geek too. Sometimes my partner will come into our study and say "another spreadsheet? what's this one for." or "You'll need to make a list of all your lists" etc. I love that fluff... I can't help it.

So when asked the first question, I said: I'm plotting out my story! And, indeed, I was. My novel has alternating chapters from two different characters' perspectives. I made a spreadsheet that had 3 columns: Chapter / Elsie / Angus. I arbitrarily picked a number of chapters (24 sounded good) and put numbers in the first column. Then I greyed out alternating cells in a checkerboard type way so show when that character will not be narrating at that point. Then I wrote in what happened in chapter 1 because I'd already written that one. Then, borrowing Emily's idea, I put my twist in towards the end, and then worked backwards. Being in excel, I found it easy to move things around if one character's discoveries didn't time well with the others. I've got it to a point where I'm happy with it, but haven't been too prescriptive. I can't guarantee I won't look at it again, like Garth, but I'm ready to start writing the book proper now.

This is just what I did for this current book. I've done different things in the past, but as this post has gone on so much longer than I intended, I'm going to stop there. I was going to talk about how my reading helps my plotting and how I plot my reading to help my writing, but we can save that for another time.

I hope that wasn't too boring and feel free to ask questions to inspire further 'Reading and Writing' posts.

Carole Wilkinson's Dragonkeeper Winner!

Two weeks ago, I had the lovely Carole Wilkinson drop by my blog and ask a few questions. It was just a little fun as part of the Dragonkeeper blog tour. You can read all about it HERE.

As part of that tour, there was a competition running to win a complete set of Dragonkeeper books thanks to Walker Books Australia!

Well, The time has come to reveal the winner!

So with no further ado:

Reading and Writing # 1

I've decided to start a series of posts that I'll do from time to time about my experience as someone who reads a lot, and also is attempting to write their own stuff at the same time.

So, I'm currently plotting and planning a YA novel and I think I'm getting to the point where I just have to start writing it. I tried to hold off writing until I had worked out where I was going with it, but then I needed to write something for my Creative Writing subject at Uni and so I wrote the first chapter.

I got lots of positive feedback, and it's helped in fine tuning that first chapter, but at this stage, that's all I've got done. And I know it's going to change by the time the books done, because as I write the rest, facts and happenings in the first chapter will have evolved, but I also have to hand it in as an assignment in a few weeks. So I'm currently working through that thoroughly, making it as good as it can be as a first chapter of a book that doesn't exist.

The dilemma I'm facing though, is with my reading...

I'll be reading for work, or for uni, or for pleasure (when time permits) and I'll find that my eyes go through the motions, following line by line, then I'll read the bottom of the page and realise I have no idea what just happened in the book because for that whole page I was actually thinking about characters and plot points for my own story.

Is this my mind telling me it's time to write?

I think so.

I think I need to take the time to, at the very least, write out a plot plan.

Oh where do all the hours in the day go?

Blog Make-Over!

Well, I've re-named my blog and given it a make over. It's a bit fresher, a bit more fun.

I'd love to hear any feedback! Please comment!

I'll try and continue to bring you all the book related posts I can muster amongst a full time job and studying a Masters in Children's Literature and life...

Thanks to those who read it. And thanks again to those who comment. I love it when people let me know what they thought about my writings.

Onward with the new!

Be sure to like my page on Facebook so you can see what's going on.

Falling behind!

Just a really quick post about my Goodreads 2012 Reading Challenge...

I'm wondering if I bit off more than I can chew.

I picked my target 4 weeks into the year, and looked at the number of books I had read, which averaged 3  week. So I times-ed 52 by 3 and rounded down to account for those longer books.

I've since realised that the first four weeks of the year (2 and a half of which I was on holidays with nothing to do but read) were probably not the best sample to calculate the rest of the year on.

I mean, I managed to keep up; that is, until Uni went back. I've been back at Uni 2 weeks, and I'm nearly 2 weeks behind... And it's only going to get worse.

But, I refuse to change it! I will achieve this goal! (nearly 3 times the amount of books I read last year *eek*).

 Head down and READ!

Usborne Puzzle Adventure Series Celebration!

This blog post is a little celebration that will expose me (further) as a giant nerd (crazy person). 

I have completed my collection of the
Usborne Puzzle Adventure Series!!

When I was in primary school, I was obsessed with the Usborne Puzzle Adventure Series. They are awesome! (note the use of ‘are’, their awesomeness has not faded with the years).

In primary school I borrowed a large number (not sure exactly 10-14 or so) of them from my best friend.  He then went to a different high school, and we lost touch for a number of years. In year 12, we were re-united and I realised that I still had them so I asked if he wanted them back. No-longer being in primary school, he said no, I could keep them. *SCORE!*

So a few years later I started trying to collect all the missing titles. This proved to be more difficult than I first thought. Then over the last year or so it kind of slipped from my mind. You can see one of my very early blog entries where I tried to read and review all the ones I had.

Last week, that same friend and his lovely wife (the mutual friend that facilitated our reunion in high school as she had kept contact with him, then went on to marry him) came over for dinner. Nostalgia had him browsing this series on my shelf and he asked if I had the complete set. I checked and saw I had only one left to collect. They both offered to check their local second hand bookshops. The next day, he sent me a text saying that the one I needed was on Amazon. I looked into it, and it would have cost me $16-$20 all up including postage. I figured I should check ebay while I was at it and there was a copy for $6 with free postage! *WIN!*

So this is a little celebration of my childhood (adulthood) nerd-dom (craziness). I even threw together a video to mark the event!

It’s true, I panicked for a moment when I looked on Wikipedia and saw that did have ‘Agent Arthur’s Mountain Mission’. But thankfully there is always someone crazier in the world and I found *this website* that told me once and for all that it never existed. I kind of wish my Agent Arthur's Island Adventure had a matching cover, but beggars can't be choosers.

It is also true that I don’t have all the other series either. I do have the 3 Advance level ones, but not all of the other series. I am missing:

Science series # 2 – The Time Warp Vrius

Whodunnits # 2 – Murder Unlimited

Spinechillers # 1 – Midnight Ghosts

Spinechillers # 2 – House of Shadows

Spinechillers # 6 – Nightmare at Mystery Mansion

Spinechillers  - Clock of Doom

Then of the Young Series, the only one I do have us # 7.

But a win is a win and I've got the whole original series now! I'm so happy! If only my Emily Rodda Teen Power Inc series were as complete (I'm missing 4 of those)

Anyway, I’ll wrap it up there, those of you who are collectors can celebrate with me and the others, well, you can think what you will. It won’t change how I feel about it! J

5 Gold Stars

Bloggers, who are we supporting?

I just wanted to post a quick post about something that I've noticed on some blogs recently.

Someone will review a book, and then, in the interest of disclosure say that they received a free review copy from a publisher (I'm talking Australian publisher here - and Australian bloggers).

This is all well and good. But what grates me the wrong way is that then some bloggers finish with "support my blog by buying this book from...." and they usually list Amazon, The Book Depository and occasionally an Australian online retailer.

Who's supporting who? You're happy to accept free reading copies from Australian publishers, but then you're willing to sell out their profits to their American or UK branches for a measly 2.5% cut on each sale? I mean, at the very least, for reviews on books that you've accepted a free copy from a publisher I think you should limit your "support me" to an Australian company and there's a higher chance that the sales will come back to the publisher that let you read it for free anyway. (although this isn't even guaranteed). Or look into a local bookshop that has a decent online store and add them as an option (if they offer this sort of remittance.)

Now I know that blogs are read by international readers, and they're not likely to buy something from Australia when they've got Amazon and the Book Depository in their own country... But I can't help but feel put off when I see them listed just underneath "review copy courtesy of *enter Australian publisher here*. 

You're probably thinking that this rant isn't very well thought through, but I don't think that some people arguments of the globalisation of the book industry are very well thought through. But that's for another post.

And if people want disclosure from me, here it is: The opinions in this Blog are my own. I get books from all kinds of sources, (publishers, booksellers, friends, bookshops - when I buy them myself - and even the occasional op-shop) but I only write about the ones that move me one way or the other and I only write my opinion of them. Then, I don't ask for support through sales because I can't get my head around it and all the implications that go with it. I expect that if someone read my reviews and were convinced to buy, they'll buy through their usual methods.

Well, this was supposed to be a short post, so I'll end it there. Feel free to comment. I'd love to hear differing opinions, even if they won't change mine. 

The Blogger Problem

I recently read a blog post that was about blogging and about what this particular person was looking for in blogs and which types of things she followed/read regularly. One thing she said was blogs that did nothing but review books tended to get tired. This got me thinking about my own humble blog...

At the beginning of 2012 (well late 2011 to be precise) I decided that this year I would make a more concerted effort with my blogging. I set up a spreadsheet to schedule and plan ahead, I allocated certain things to certain days I was all pumped and ready. Return readers might be aware that I vaguely follow this pattern:

Monday: 

A review of a fiction title - pretty much either YA or junior fiction as that's about all I read.

Tuesday: 

Miscellaneous... I left this open to whatever took my fancy, but it turned into another fiction review.

Wednesday: 

JudgeABook. I really like these posts. They are different from a straight forward review and also let me stretch my creative writing muscle in an achievable way.

Thursday: 

A picture book review.

Friday: 

Fairy Tale Friday. I set up a second blog last year dedicated to fairy tales. Unfortunately I found it too difficult to read for work, read for uni, read for pleasure, write for 2 blogs, write for uni, write creatively (aspiring author here), and then, you know, live as well. (Sometimes my partner thinks he's a Blog-widow).  Something had to go. So I brought my other blog over to this one as a weekly post. That way it's not ignored, yet not overwhelming.

By all means, my hit count has increased dramatically this year, but something about 5 posts a week will do that... It's more that I don't know how many people are repeat readers, my subscribers count is embarrassing and I seem to get more hits from people google-ing the book I've reviewed than anything else.

So, after I read that readers want something other than reviews if they are going to subscribe, I've spent nearly two weeks racking my brain for something exciting to replace my Tuesday Posts to spice things up a bit here.

I had thought, that working in the book industry, I would have countless things to write about that would entertain and inform. If I do have these things rattling around in my brain, they aren't presenting themselves.

So, have I come to any conclusions?

Other than blogging about my floundering efforts as a blogger, I'm not entirely sure. Perhaps I'll have to start taking notes during my days selling books and then write quick anecdotes. Perhaps I'll rant on like I have now and hope people are interested. I see other people do that in their blogs all the time!

Do you, Reader, have any suggestions for me? What do you look for in a book blog? What would excite you? What would make you pause as you scroll listlessly through your blog feed? Is changing my Tuesday posts enough?

These are the things currently going through my mind.