Just finished loving...

"FOSTER" - Claire Keegan (2010 UK)

        At about 16k words, this small gem is somewhere between a long short story and a novella. Not that I care as it's a great read.

        One thing though - the movie is even better than the book, so if you see it going by on SBS World Movies, dive in and record it as it's totally faithful to Keegan's words, but just has that something in the way of emotion and the subtlety of the relationships - and the setting of 1980s (?) rural Ireland - that words on the page can't quite get hold of as well, of a young girl's blossoming time caught between two sets of adults.

        Claire Keegan (born into a farming family in Co Wicklow in 1968) has justifiably won a heap of awards for her short story / novella writings, and at least two of them have been made into movies.

        So, you could do worse than track down anything she has written, book or film, as always, there's lessons for all of us to learn from the experience.

        Cheers....

                T.R.E.

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Decisions decisions ...

        There's Fun, there's Semi-Fun, then there's Work.

        I was indoctrinated at an early age by a hard-working Mum that you always had to finish your Work before you could have Fun. I've never been able to shake it off, although some mornings (like today) I grit my teeth and break Mum's rule, even though I can feel her shaking her head and tut-tutting over my shoulder. Sorry Mum, this morning I cracked under pressure. The pressure build up of seemingly never-ending Work and not a lot of Fun.

        Work (for me) is all of those HaveTo things - finish my two big Xmas pressie projects, wrap up our funeral arrangements before they're actually needed, paint the bloody outdoor furniture, blah blah blah - all that HaveTo shite that have deadlines and the clock always running.

        Semi-Fun is doing this blog. And selected research that I promised someone in a moment of weakness. And cafe stops in the early morning. Afternoon walks when the Spring sunshine is too good to waste. Being at the shed workbench fixing something.

        Fun is Creative Writing. Being on your own with your deepest thoughts. Either at a blank screen and the winking waiting cursor blinking in anticipation, or in a quiet place with pen and pad. There is no better Fun (at my age!). I just love it.

        But last couple of months it's been mostly the first and some of the second and none of the last. My soul starts to shrivel up when life gets like that for too long. So this morning I shut my ears to Mum and dived into some writing, first time for way too long. Felt sooooo good. But after two hours I ran out of steam so I thought to wrap up my free morning I'd opt for some Semi-Fun and waffle on here for a mo.

        Hmmm ... that's all. More soon. But something a touch more interesting next time.

        Cheers....

                T.R.E.

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What can I say...

 "The Prologue Of JEMMA RAGLAN" - T. R. Edmonds (2018 Aust)

        I've read all of this guy's stuff, and this true story is easily his best, the structure and balance just right, pace continuous, and written as it is in the Third Person but Present Tense, doesn't just put you into the story, but into the kid herself. You become her, go through every poignant, shitty, sad, joyous day of her first 13-14 years from the inside.

        But he does need a significant kick up the aorta for not pursuing a commercial publisher harder, but settling for self publishing. albeit through one of the best book printers around, giving it all the quality of the "real" thing. Whatever the hell "real" is in this day and age of book publishing. It deserves to be on more shelves, in more hands, although she is in the USA, UK, and Ireland, and in all of Aust's One-Library systems.

        It's been 6-7 years since I read this the last time, and it's as fresh and new as ever, a true page-turner, I've had dead foot syndrome every morning this week following this kid's challenging childhood as the eldest of five daughters of two hopelessly dysfunctional parents.

        And a footnote for aspiring writers - I'm again reading my Proof Copy, which I wasn't happy with (it was my first foray into self-publishing), as the font size was one point too big, reducing the commercial print run copies by 60 pages. And I reduced the size of the front and back cover images, and the spine, by 10%, and darkened up the background colour a touch. Made a much better presentation. So don't be afraid to be critical of your Proof, no matter how you get it done. And get someone else to proof read it too, I still found a typo in the final copy.

        Okay, that's enough. Find a copy, dive in, see what you reckon.

        Cheers...

                T.R.E.

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Just finished escaping with...

"ASTERIX the Gaul" - Goscinny & Uderzo (1970 UK)

        Every now and then you just have to get away from all the frivolity of life and tackle something seriously serious. Like a graphic novel about how a pocket of ancient Gauls defied the might of the Roman army. With the help of a Druid and a secret potion. I mean - seriously.

        Found this one in the chuckout tray last Saturday, and once again have to question the standards of the reading public of South Australia. C'mon fellas, this is the stuff of history and legend and fables told around the blessed camp fire. So get with it. Brush up on History.

        These two French guys kicked off this saga back in 1961, and probably haven't been out of print since. Because of a discerning market who know a good read when they see it, so if - like me - are in the middle of writing your Will, planning your funeral, and generally getting ready to wrap things up, Asterix and his mate Obelix are just the distractions you need. There is WAY too little serious whimsy in the world and these two have the ability to offset the horrors of the nightly TV News.

        Okay, that's all, just thought I'd share.

        Cheers....

                T.R.E.

ps - no way even near popping off, fit as the proverbial Mallee Bull, just want to be ready for the only totally predictable event in Life.

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Here be the world...

 "SEVEN HUNDRED YEARS OF POETRY IN ENGLISH" - John Leonard [ed] (Aust 1994)

         I've come to the conclusion that at least half of the known world exists between the covers of books, and while this one (roughly the size and weight of your average breeze block) journeys backwards in Time (1991 to the 1300s), from the Now that we know through those other Times that we don't know, from Les Murray and Seamus Heaney to Chaucer and Langland. (But I have to add there's nothing of yours and nothing of mine in it and without them no version of the world would be complete, eh).

        This is the third of my "chuck-out" OpShop freebies, (why oh why do people throw out such treasure?), and will be a keeper, as surely no-one has ever read it from end to end, but will go on picking it over., a real browser. It's one of those. It's going up onto my shelves. So I can take it down every so often when I need to re-visit the other half of the world. Even if it is incomplete.

        It contains about 700 poems by 150 people, includes all of the "greats", plus heaps that should've been, and heaps that are (for me) completely unreadable. Especially before 1800. 1850. 1880! And I have to publicly own up to why that is. And okay, you may disagree, but we each like what we like. Especially when it comes to poetry.

        I approach reading poetry the same way I approach all creative writing. A novel has to suck me in by page six, a short story by paragraph two, and a piece of poetry by line four. If it doesn't, I move on.

        First, I can't get into stuff that's self-consciously pretentious, those pieces that are simply chopped up into 3-liners or 4-liners to look like "poetry", and often when they are actually really great prose. (Check the piece on Jeff Guess posted 8th April below). Give it away guys, it's irritating and a waste of your talent. Find a more natural rhythm to suit the content. Then there's the old-fashioned, strict-metre, twisted-syntax, rhyme-at-any-cost stuff. This is a legitimate art form but so little of it works well. They're way too often simply exercises in being clever.

        What else? I found that much of the 1800s pieces, so much of it by the "greats", were  just public competitions of the day in describing Nature. Geez they wuz boring fellas. The Romance crap from the 1700s - ohmygod - indigestible. Then there's all that Religion wallop back in the 1500s-1600s, compounded by being in Old English. And the literary lengths some went to! - 43 verses and they still couldn't find what they were trying to say. Spenser's "Faerie Queen" (c1590) goes to 36,000 lines, but the longest poem ever written in English is 131,000 lines, and that was in the early 1800s.

        So, what can I say? Walt Whitman (1819-1892) showed us the way to write poetry in so-called "free verse", to break away from the rule-driven poetic conventions of the past, and (okay, as I see it) capture in words the inner workings of your body mind and soul in the dealings you have with the world as you find it - the whole funny, sad, brutal, loving, hating, creating, destroying, shitty, uplifting - experience.

        As I ploughed through this tome, I tagged everything that caught my eye. I'll put bits of these up in "Pandoras Box", give you a chance to bucket my opinions. Ah, I do so love this job!

        Cheers....

                    Trev

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Some words of wisdom...

 "ALL I WANT IS A WARM BED AND A KIND WORD, AND UNLIMITED POWER" - Ashleigh Brilliant (USA 1985)

        This is the second of my three chuck-out freebies from my favourite OpShop, a very good browse-then-ditch job.

        First up, I never heard of this guy, but he was apparently big in the US world of syndicated newspapers and greeting cards and tee-shirts in the 80s and 90s. Second up, his name isn't a cutesy invention, it really is Brilliant, and he encloses a copy of his birth certificate (born in London 1933, lived mostly in  the US) to quash the doubters!

        His large body of output is just about all through epigrams, confined to 17 words or less, accompanied by an appropriate illustration, apparently mostly from old out-of-copyright works, and called "Pot-Shots". And okay, it's not all brilliant, but there's plenty that's good to great, here loosely arranged by subject, and a very satisfying browse. (And when I first saw the title, about seven current world leaders' faces sprang immediately to mind!)

        He precedes each section with a short observation, about Life, which are all worth reading, albeit at times a touch cynical, not all pretend I suspect, and if you're curious about his life and work, have a dig into Wiki...

THE BRILLIANT LIFE

        A book well worth the browse, but if you Google his name and "Pot-Shots" and hit "Images", you'll find a whole bunch, such as...

        Cheers....

                T.R.E.

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If you're serious....

"OUT OF US ALL" - Susan Cooper (UK 1969)

        I love Op Shops, not those so much that are mainly clothes and shoes and handbags, but the big ones where you can find (if you want one) a spade or a bike or a rice cooker or a bed lamp, or two books (or five DVDs) for a buck, and they have a freebie chuck-out stand at the door. We visit one of these every week. I always scab through the chuck-outs.

        A couple of weeks back I found three books there. This is one of them, a  once-proud volume from the shelves of the Barr-Smith Library of Adelaide University (and justifiably so) long ago. The other two I'll get to soon and report back.

        This book could just as easily been titled "IN ALL OF US" because that's what Susan Cooper is saying - we all have stories in us, if you have the desire (the compulsion!) to weed them out and get them onto the page. This could just be a huge help if you're struggling to find a start.

        It was compiled for Years 10 and 11 High School Lit students, but if you're serious about creative writing, you can do a helluva lot worse than read this excellent compilation of story excerpts from the pens of such worthies as Dylan Thomas (still one of the all time best ever ever ever), as well as some poetry, and arranged by subject matter - "Memories", "The Sea", "Love", "Gangs and Rebels", et al - with lists of suggested exercises at the end of each, designed to get you off your rear end and thinking and creating.

        Okay, may be a bit hard to find, but there's copies out there online. You could do a lot worse.

        Cheers....

                    T.R.E.

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Just confronted by....

"THE SUNBIRD" - Sara Haddad (Aust 2024)

        This is a short work of fiction, less than a novella really (but with a confronting "appendix"), of an old woman living in modern day Australian suburbia, but looking back to the 1947 events in Palestine when she was a five year old caught up in those early waves of Zionism after the war, when she and her family were displaced from their homes.

        This work is clearly and heavily biased to the cause of the modern day Palestinians and the current (written when still only half way along) events in Gaza, while the appendix is a list of (what I hope is) facts (up to mid-late 2024) about the "war", all very damning to the Israeli government policies and its army of implementation. And presumably any country that supports it.

        What can I say? The story itself (self-published, I gather on purpose) is well written and very readable, but stems from an author who is personally involved, being a "Lebanese/Australian" and a journalist to boot. I have my own opinions about this "war" (and about a heap of other horrors that spews out of the TV news every night), but I'm not going to add them here. (Stay tuned to "Pandoras Box" over to the left).

        I strongly urge you to read this book (if you can find a copy - I fell over mine in a street library - although it sounds like there's been plenty printed) with an open mind, then do as I'm about to do, Google the hell out of it and make sure of what I believe to be true, is, starting with "What is Zionism?"

        Oddly enough, I couldn't find out much about Sara Hadad, but the tag below should help.

SARA HADDAD

        Cheers....

                T.R.E.

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Object lessons for the starter-outer

        There's something a bit special about reading the PROOF COPY of your work, this one being the second edition print, WITH my own cover design, and have to say much better than the original, it being back when I was green. I was never happy with the old cover (right, back in 1993) but didn't feel competent enough to say so at the time.

        I soon found that the resellers didn't know quite where to put it on their shelves, I saw "Australiana", "Memoir", and "New Fiction" and somehow it didn't look quite comfortable in any of them. First lesson, don't be afraid of "The System", stand up for yourself.

        I had quite a set of reactions from this re-reading after so many years, made me realise how much of a beginner I was back then, but especially how I (wisely I see now) used a whole bunch of my own life experiences to get going. Another lesson, use what you know to start with, experiment later if you want. I remember a good friend ringing me when they read it on release, saying - "I didn't realise just how Australian you are!" Neither did I till they said that. Still, I'm fifth generation Aus in all directions, most of them pioneer farmers, all of them battlers, and every one of them contributed to what I write.

        My own version of "The Ghost" didn't actually come alive until the mid-late 1970s (I was in my '30s), I explored steadily through to the mid 1980s, started writing with focus and intent about 1988, found a great agent, had poetry published. He wanted more, sent him a short story (one of many I had by then), published that, what else y' got? So I sent a whole bunch more short stuff, luckily all of a homogenous nature, and of time and place settings. Because that's what I knew best. One look at it all and he said "This is a novel! - just needs front and back ends...", which I did, and "Melrose St" was published in 1993.

        So my friend, if you're just starting out, doesn't matter how young or old you are, practice by exploring stuff close to you, get it down, massage it into a whole, see where it goes. Worked for me.

        Cheers...

                T.R.E.

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Currently re-discovering...

"NORTH AND WEST OF MELROSE STREET"
        - T. R. Edmonds (Aus 1993/2019)

        I have a sure-fire way of telling if a book has totally sucked me in - my right foot goes to sleep. Yep, ridgey-didge, pins and needles so bad I have to hop for a while afterwards.

        I do most of my reading in the "Library" for about 15-20 minutes each morning, but if I read too long my right foot drops off (or Jess in passing wants to know "You haven't died in there have you!?").

        This week I've had a dead foot five mornings in a row.

        It's been about 30 years since I read this book, and that was for the final edit of the proof copy of the original edition, as I didn't bother with that for this second edition, as I just had to okay the cover, the back blurb, and the technical bits for the front pages. But having finished "Bob" I cast about for what was next, fixed on this, got totally hooked. And no, not because it's mine (my first), but because it's simply a great read. And because of it's been so long, it's like reading someone else's work, every word and character and event fresh and new.

        What can I say? - plenty of copies around, in paperback (Abe Books), and e-book (Amazon and Kobo). And if you're in Aus, there's lending copies in each State's One Library network. Do yourself a favour...

        Cheers....

                Trev

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