Category: AUTHORS

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So that’s what a fresh voice means!

How amazing is this?

After reading Lisa’s novel What Kate Did Next, I said to myself. Now that’s what publishers mean when they say they’re looking for a fresh voice.

All of a sudden I get it. It’s not about being a GREAT writer. Let’s face it, we’re not all meant to be GREAT writers. In fact trying too hard to be a GREAT writer can make you not such a great writer in the end. The secret is to be different but be yourself.

To my delight, when I went snooping around Lisa’s website, I found a great article she’d posted about finding your voice. It is well worth a read. http://www.lisaheidke.com/writing-news.html  In a nutshell, it’s about being real. That’s what I loved about Lisa’s Kate Cavandish. She is real. I related to her so much and I am neither wife, mother nor photographer. There is just ‘something’ about the way Lisa handles the every day, yet it still well-paced and entertaining.

I think the other thing that resonated with me as a writer is that there were no life and death moments, no obvious hero, no all-consuming love. This is a woman’s story — a real woman like so many struggling to balance work, her family and her dreams. (The best scene is actually a lustful moment Kate has that is interrupted by her young son. Absolutely gorgeous and refreshingly different! You’ll have to read the book. LOL)

What Kate Did Next is about the everyday, grounded by the ordinariness (is that a word?) of life, but lifted by its possibilities.

What I loved about this book
Kate’s sister. What a character. She made me laugh out aloud.

What I learned by reading this book
Aside  from the “Oh my God, that’s what publishers mean by a fresh voice thing”, I learned that sex doesn’t have to be real to be satisfying !!!!!!!  (Again, you have to read the book LOL)

It has inspired me to find that voice.

BLURB – What Kate Did Next
Meet Kate Cavendish – housewife and mother of two – as she dips her toes back into the workforce while trying to juggle kids, a work-obsessed husband, lust for her son’s soccer coach, and much, much more …

Her husband’s a workaholic, her kids are growing up – now it’s time for Kate to follow some of her own dreams …

This is the often comical but also wry account of the life of mother of two, Kate Cavendish. It seems like only yesterday that Kate was one of the most well-regarded photographers in town. So how, she wonders, did her life come to consist of so much drudgery, not to mention dealing with a recalcitrant, eye-rolling teenage daughter and an often-absentee husband. And why oh why did her young son have to score such a distractingly gorgeous soccer coach?

Find our more about Lisa and her novels http://www.lisaheidke.com/home.html

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Review: Lies and Seduction by Victoria Black

Tender and delicious is how I’d describe Victoria Black’s debut novella – Lies and Seduction. (This IS NOT, however, how I would describe the roast!).
It’s true. Captain Caruthers can’t cook to save his life, but he can save the life of the woman he loves.

The author sure knows how to cook though. She turns the heat up in the kitchen, in the bathroom and in the bedroom, cooking up a tantalising and sensual story set in romantic 1940’s war-time London.

This story has all the ingredients to satisfy those hungry for a quick bite of a lusty hero, a nipple – oops! – I mean nibble of a feisty heroine, and a little serving of history on the side.

Bottom line – who cares if Captain Caruthers can’t cook. Priorities please, ladies!

I was thrilled to win a copy of this book. Thank you Victoria. May there be many more.
Buy this book at Cobblestone Press or find out about Victoria Black on her website. http://victoriablack.htmlplanet.com/

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Blue Skies, shining on me…

Nothing but Blue Skies, do I see.

What a wonderful old song and what a wonderful new book.

The nicest thing about Fleur McDonald’s novels is how romantic she makes life on the land sound, even though Fleur knows first hand there’s nothing glamorous about it at all. It’s hard yakka.

Amanda Greenfield, the lead character in Blue Skies, doesn’t shy away from the prospect of hard work either. She’ll do whatever it takes to keep Kyleena – the family property – going after her mother dies in a tragic car crash, leaving her father depressed and distant. The intriguing plot, and yet another collection of well-drawn and likable secondary characters, keeps Amanda busy and with more obstacles than there are sheep to crutch on Kyleena!)

Blue Skies – following on from Fleur’s best-selling debut novel, Red Dust – opens with a very moving and evocative prologue and first chapter, their impact making it impossible for me to put the book down.

What I loved

I love that Blue Skies is a story for everyone, at any age – from city teenagers swamped by their pressurized and carbonised suburban life, to grandmothers who remember a simpler time and place.

I loved the unexpected, and the weaving of two stories – one set in the 1930’s/40’s, the other modern day, spanning several years. Fleur’s authentic depiction of generations working the same Esperance property is a treat for readers who, like me, enjoy reading about Australia’s early settlement, but not necessarily full on historical novels.

Blue Skies is a realistic account of farm life in which the author has set up a classic mystery, cleverly sprinkling clues in the same way she sprinkles back-story through a compelling plot that keeps the reader wondering until the very last page.

What I learned

The diversity and beauty of this wide brown land called Australia continues to surprise and delight, and the town of Esperance – both the name and the way Fleur describes it – evokes a unique image of untamed country, touched by a tempestuous coast. (My West Australia itinerary is growing every day!)

Just as red dust and blue sky is quintessential Australia, so too are Fleur McDonald’s novels – Red Dust and Blue Skies. By naming her next book Purple Roads, she’s not only writing up a storm, she’s on her way to writing a rainbow! But it’s her readers getting the pot of gold at the end.

Blue Skies by Fleur McDonald is published Allen & Unwin. For more information about the author visit her website http://www.fleurmcdonald.com/

Also find more great Aussie authors: Bronwyn Parry, Helene Young and Fiona Palmer on Facebook. And keep an eye out for up and coming A&U author – Karlene Lane.