Letter to the Editor of Good Reading Magazine published in June 2015 edition

June edition Good Reading Magazine

I have some exciting news to share, my letter to the editor of Good Reading Magazine has been published in the June edition, woohoo!

I was responding to a subscriber (Liz) who wrote to the magazine in April to express her disappointment as follows:

As one of the first subscribers to GR I am really disappointed with the reliance on and reference to Facebook all the time. 
For many reasons I have refused to join Facebook. It's beginning to seem as if I must. But I won't! Do any other readers feel the same? I am not behind the times. I just know that Facebook is not right for me.
I am sure many other readers feel the same. I guess there are valid reasons for Facebook being part of Good Reading, but they elude me.

I couldn't let this letter go unanswered, and you can read my reply below:

It's been a while since I had my last review published in the June 2013 edition of Good Reading Magazine, so I'm really happy to be in print again. I wonder if Liz will reply...

Carpe Librum!

Review: The Girl On Legare Street (Tradd Street #2) by Karen White

The Girl on Legare Street is the second book in a series by Karen White to feature Melanie, a realtor living in South Carolina who can see ghosts. The series began with The House on Tradd Street however this one can be read as a stand-alone.

Melanie is now restoring her historic (and inherited) home on Tradd Street with friends, when she is asked to purchase a home for her estranged mother. Melanie hasn't spoken to her mother since the opera singer left her as a child and the animosity is palpable.

One small thing that did irk me though, was the number of times the characters raised their eyebrows, or moved their eyebrows in the book. I read the e-book version so was able to do a search and it was an astonishing 47 times, argh!

That aside, when I wasn't reading it, I couldn't wait to pick it up again which means a high rating for me. I highly recommend The Girl on Legare Street for readers who enjoy a plot driven novel with great characters, historic restoration and a little ghost hunting.

My rating = ****

Carpe Librum!

P.S. There are two more in the series, and I might just check them out: The Strangers on Montagu Street and Return to Tradd Street.

Review of War Diaries: A Nurse at the Front - The First World War Diaries of Sister Edith Appleton

I read War Diaries: A Nurse at the Front - The First World War Diaries of Sister Edith Appleton in the lead up to ANZAC Day last month and it certainly was a meaningful preparation in the lead up to the centenary.

Blurb
This, the first in a series of four unique War Diaries produced in conjunction with the Imperial War Museum, will tell a story that is rarely heard: the experiences of a nurse working close to the Western Front in the First World War. 

Incredibly, Edith Appleton served in France for the whole of the conflict. Her bravery and dedication won her the Military OBE, the Royal Red Cross and the Belgian Queen Elizabeth medal among others. Her diary details with compassion all the horrors of the 'war to end wars', including the first use of poison gas and the terrible cost of battles such as Ypres, but she also records what life was like for nurses and how she spent her time off-duty. 

There are moments of humour amongst the tragedy, and even lyrical accounts of the natural beauty that still existed amidst all the destruction. 

My Review
Reading Edith's diary entries gave me a glimpse into the life of a nurse at the Western front including her living conditions in France and the hospitals and medical centres she worked in.

Edith's accounts are filled with touching observations, intimate moments with patients, her efforts to honour the dead and write to the families of her patients as well as comments about the conflict and her thoughts about the enemy and German patients she was ordered to treat. 

She also records important holidays and milestones and the ways in which the medical staff and soldiers celebrated them (Christmas) and kept up their morale with skits and concerts.

An overarching theme throughout Edith's diaries is an amazing appreciation for mother nature and the passing of the seasons. Amidst the death and destruction going on around her, it was surprising to learn that Edith enjoyed nothing more than 'tramping about the landscape' and was deeply in touch with her surroundings. While other nurses preferred to go into town and go shopping during their rare hours off, Edith always preferred to take tea somewhere quiet or go for a swim in the ocean.

Her writing is indicative of the time which I thoroughly enjoyed (our language and phraseology has changed so much in the last 100 years) and I was charmed by her delightful sense of humour and admired her strength of character.

Since the publication of these diaries, much work has been done by Edith's ancestors and fellow historians to formally identify as many of the patients mentioned in Edith's diaries as possible; an impressive feat of research in my opinion.

I thoroughly recommend reading Edith Appleton's war diaries, and for more information, you can visit the website created by Edith's great nephew here, A Nurse At The Front.

My rating = ****

Carpe Librum!

Review: Looking for Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta

* Copy courtesy of Penguin Random House*

I received this gorgeous hardcover edition of Looking For Alibrandi from Random House last year, as part of their National Book Bloggers Forum (NBBF14) and finally got around to reading it last month.

For those who don't know, Looking For Alibrandi was written by Australian author Melina Marchetta and published in the early 1990s. 

Based in Sydney, it's essentially a YA coming of age novel focussing on teenager Josephine (Josie) Alibrandi as she attends a Catholic school on scholarship, falls in love, argues with her mother and grandmother, meets her father and decides her future.

Considered a modern Australian classic, I enjoyed Josie's sense of humour and Marchetta's ability to capture the character of an Italian nonna so very well.

I'd recommend Looking For Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta for YA readers of either gender.

My rating = ***

Carpe Librum!

Get your FREE copy of The Countess' Captive by Andrea Cefalo here

Earlier this year, I enjoyed reading The Fairytale Keeper and the author Andrea Cefalo has just let me know that her sequel, The Countess' Captive is now FREE on Amazon.

Blurb

From award-winning author of The Fairytale Keeper comes another masterful, historically-set retelling of Grimm's fairytales. The Countess' Captive combines Grimm's fairytale characters with real historical settings to a tale that leaves readers wondering where fact ends and fiction begins. 

During March of 1248, Adelaide Schumacher-affectionately called Snow White-has lost so much: her mother, her possessions, and now her home. Adelaide hates abandoning her home city, her family’s legacy, and her first love-Ivo. More than anything, she hates her father growing closer to her mother’s cousin-Galadriel. Adelaide plots to end their tryst before her fate is sealed, and she never sets foot in Cologne again.

But good and pious can only get Galadriel so far.  Never again will she be destitute. Never again will she be known by the cruel moniker-Cinderella. Never again will someone take what is rightfully hers. No matter what it takes.

The Countess' Captive was only free until 23 May 2015.

Carpe Librum!

Review: The Museum of Literary Souls by John Connolly

The Museum of Literary Souls is an enjoyable novella with an enticing premise: when a book becomes very popular and is read by thousands, this can bring the main characters to life.

Mr. Berger prefers the company of books, and after an uneventful career as a Closed Accounts Registrar, and never marrying, he retires to the English countryside with his books.

However, Mr. Berger sees a person he thinks looks like a famous character from a book, and following her leads him to the Caxton Private Lending Library & Book Depository.

I loved the character of Mr. Berger, and the Caxton Private Lending Library & Book Depository is every booklover's dream! With that aside, I just wished The Museum of Literary Souls was longer. 

I'm confident there's enough content in this story for author John Connolly to make it a novel, and I'm sure many readers would love to join Mr. Berger and explore the Book Depository further.

Great read, great price (less than $2 for the ebook), and brilliant concept, but only three stars because I was disappointed by the brevity.

My rating = ***

Carpe Librum!

Review: The Embroiderer by Australian author Kathryn Gauci

* Copy courtesy of the author * 

It's 1972, and Eleni is summoned to her dying aunt's bedside in Athens. Her aunt wants to come clean about Eleni's family history and recounts a shocking life, full of secrets, loss, war, betrayal, death, love and espionage.

The tale takes us as far back as 1822, during the The Greek War of Independence, and essentially follows one particular family and their efforts to survive the conflicts, keep their business going and stay alive in turbulent times.

My understanding of these conflicts is not as comprehensive as it should be, and reading The Embroiderer was a great way to learn about the battles, invasions and wars in Greece from the Greek War of Independence (1821-1832) through to the Balkan Wars (1912-1913).

Readers who enjoy reading historical fiction based around real historical conflicts will enjoy reading The Embroiderer, and will definitely learn more about Greece (and WWI) in the process.

The contents of a senior family member's journal at the end of the novel took the number of characters I could follow just a little too far, and I longed for a briefer method of learning what lay in her journal. I also wished for more time to linger on the details of the family business of embroidery and couture fashion during the period, my main attraction for this novel.

Having said that, if you have an interest in Greece, or are of Greek lineage yourself, you are bound to fall in love with The Embroiderer.

In conclusion, here's an excerpt from the blurb that sums up the novel really well: Set against the mosques and minarets of Asia Minor and the ruins of ancient Athens, The Embroiderer is a gripping saga of love and loss, hope and despair, and of the extraordinary courage of women in the face of adversity.

My rating = ***1/2

Carpe Librum!

About the Author

Kathryn Gauci was born in England, and studied textile design, carpet design and technology. After graduation, Kathryn spent a year in Vienna before working as a carpet designer in Athens for six years.

Before turning to writing full-time, Kathryn ran her own textile design studio in Melbourne for over fifteen years and The Embroiderer is her first novel; a culmination of her love of design and travel, and her years living and working in Greece – a place she is proud to call her spiritual home.

Book cover and blurb announced for The Lake House, new novel by Kate Morton

I'm a huge fan of bestselling Australian author Kate Morton, and I'm so excited today because Allen & Unwin have just sent out a media release containing the blurb and Australian front cover for her new novel The Lake House.

Blurb
An abandoned house... After a particularly troubling case, Sadie Sparrow is sent on an enforced break from her job with the Metropolitan Police and retreats to her beloved grandfather’s cottage in Cornwall. There she finds herself at a loose end, until one day she stumbles upon an abandoned house surrounded by overgrown gardens and dense woods, and learns the story of a baby boy who disappeared without a trace.

A missing child... June 1933, and the Edevane family’s country house, Loeanneth, is polished and gleaming, ready for the much-anticipated Midsummer Eve party. For Eleanor, the annual party has always been one of her treasured traditions, but her middle daughter, Alice, sixteen years old and with literary ambitions, is especially excited. Not only has Alice worked out the perfect twist for her novel, she’s also fallen helplessly in love with someone she shouldn’t. But by the time midnight strikes and fireworks light up the night sky, the Edevane family will have suffered a loss so great they leave Loeanneth and never return.


An unsolved mystery... Seventy years later, in the attic writing room of her elegant Hampstead home, the formidable Alice Edevane leads a life as neatly plotted as the bestselling detective novels she writes. Until a young police detective starts asking questions about her family’s past and seeking to resurrect the complex tangle of secrets Alice has spent her life trying to escape...

The Lake House will be released here in Australia on 31 October 2015 and I can't wait to read it!

It's an exciting day here at Carpe Librum!

Review: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

As a lover of literature, it's hard not to notice the many great quotes from Oscar Wilde. Here's a few to refresh your memory:

“Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.” 

“The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it.”  

“You can never be overdressed or overeducated.”

Despite my admiration of his intellect, I've never actually read any of Oscar Wilde's work, and thought it best to remedy that this year. So it was that I picked up the beautifully designed Penguin edition of The Picture Of Dorian Gray, the only novel ever written by Oscar Wilde.

I'll admit I was a little apprehensive in the beginning, (what if Wilde is too high-brow for me?) but that was soon put to rest as early as Page 3 when Lord Henry says:

"But beauty, real beauty, ends where an intellectual expression begins. Intellect is in itself a mode of exaggeration, and destroys the harmony of any face. The moment one sits down to think, one becomes all nose, or all forehead, or something horrid. Look at the successful men in any of the learned professions. How perfectly hideous they are!"

I knew then I was safe in expert hands, and continued willingly discovering this once offensive text. We all know the premise (so I won't waste time recounting it) but what I was surprised to learn was that the sins Dorian Gray gets up to are never really expanded upon. His cruel treatment of lovers is there for all to see, but his sexual exploits are only ever alluded to, never described in full. What a pity.

There are countless homoerotic scenes - particularly between Lord Henry and Dorian Gray - but there is never any evidence to suggest they were ever together or even whether they loved each other. Lord Henry clearly loves Dorian for his youth and beauty, and in my opinion Dorian admires Lord Henry's ideals and freedoms, but that's as much as we ever really know for sure about them.

I was looking forward to reading a gothic horror story of sorts, taking me through the slow degradation of Dorian's soul - reflected in the portrait - however The Picture of Dorian Gray often read like an essay; the character of Lord Henry a mouthpiece for Wilde's own thoughts on society, religion, youth and beauty.

In summary, I enjoyed the writing immensely, the plot less so and I'm left to wonder what Oscar Wilde would write about if he had the freedom to write for us today. He was shocking in his time, would he shock us still now? I think he would.

My rating = ***

Carpe Librum!

Review: The Supernatural Enhancements by Edgar Cantero

* Copy courtesy of NetGalley *

The Supernatural Enhancements by Edgar Cantero has one of the best covers I've seen all year, and in this case I was relieved to find the novel definitely lived up to the cover. 

The novel contains excerpts from letters, journals, notebooks, audio recordings and various other sources and if you have the choice, I definitely recommend you choose to read the print copy. I read an e-book version and I just know that reading a hard back copy would have increased my overall enjoyment factor.

The Supernatural Enhancements has it all: an inheritance, a secret society, coded messages, a group of rich people carrying out intellectual and scientific pursuits, code names and even a ghost.

If you loved Mr Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan then you're bound to fall in love with The Supernatural Enhancements as well; particularly if you enjoy a good gothic ghost story with a modern twist.

My rating = ****

Carpe Librum!

Free Recipe from Season of Salt & Honey by Hannah Tunnicliffe

* Extract courtesy of Pan Macmillan *

Blurb
A novel of love, grief and antipasti.

Francesca 'Frankie' Caputo has it all figured out. She's finally going to marry the man she loves and then they will live happily ever after. But when a freak accident cuts her fiancé Alex's life tragically short, all of Frankie's future plans suddenly disintegrate.

Drowning in grief, Frankie flees from her overbearing Italian-American family, and escapes to an abandoned cabin owned by Alex's parents in a remote part of Washington forest.

As her heart slowly begins to heal, Frankie discovers a freedom that's both exhilarating and unsettling to everything she has always known for sure. So when her old life comes crashing back in, Frankie must decide: will she slip quietly back into her safe, former existence? Or will a stronger, wiser Frankie Caputo stand up and claim her new life?

Recipe Extract
Foodies and foodlovers everywhere will be pleased to know that recipes for the dishes mentioned in Season of Salt & Honey are included in the book so you can make them for yourself; yum! It makes my mouth water to bring one of those recipes to you right now courtesy of Hannah Tunnicliffe and Pan Macmillan. The recipe is for Nzuddi, which are small almond biscuits.

About the Author
Born in New Zealand, Hannah Tunnicliffe is a self-confessed nomad. She has previously lived in Canada, Australia, England, Macau and, while travelling Europe, a campervan named Fred. She currently lives in New Zealand with her husband and two daughters, having happily ditched a career in Human Resources to become an author. When she is not writing or reading she can usually be found baking or eating and sometimes all four at the same time (which is probably somewhat hazardous). She is founder and co-author of the blog Fork and Fiction, which, unsurprisingly, explores her twin loves - books and food. Season of Salt and Honey is her second novel.

Nzuddi, looking delicious and ready to eat

Review: Naomi's Room by Jonathan Aycliffe

Naomi's Room by Jonathan Aycliffe is the best 'ghost story' I've read in a long time.

Four year old Naomi goes missing from a toy store on Christmas Eve when shopping with her father and is later found murdered.

A photographer watching the house during the case captures Naomi's image on his camera and Naomi's father is disturbed by strange sounds in the house. Investigating the history of the family home, he also discovers some horrific secrets.

Naomi's Room is a classic ghost story, however I was thrilled when it took an unexpected turn. I believe this change took courage from the author but I want to be clear that it's not a twist (e.g. the narrator is not a ghost or anything). 

The plot was so refreshing that it took this novel from a solid three stars to an easy four stars for me. I highly recommend Naomi's Room for those who enjoy a quick and easy ghost story with a touch of horror.

My rating = ****

Carpe Librum!

Review: The Room Beyond by Stephanie Elmas

The Room Beyond by Stephanie Elmas is a dual narrative full of mystery, secrets and ghosts. Serena starts work as a nanny in a mansion in Victorian London looking after a smart and charming little girl, but not everything is as it seems.

Meanwhile, in the 1890s, an infatuation becomes a dark obsession with repercussions that will last a lifetime.

I've read a few dual narrative novels lately, and while The Room Beyond was an enjoyable read, it didn't stand out from the crowd. 

What I will remember from this novel though was the library at 36 Marguerite Avenue; a library which leapt from the page and one I'd love to visit.

The Room Beyond is a ghostly gothic novel, the twists and turns were enjoyable, but it's not a novel I'll be raving about in weeks to come. (Gorgeous cover though, don't you think?)

My rating = ***

Carpe Librum!

Wild Wood Blog Tour: Review and Interview with Posie Graeme-Evans

* Copy courtesy of Simon & Schuster for review *

Blurb
Jesse Marley calls herself a realist; she’s all about the here and now. But in the month before Prince Charles and Lady Diana’s wedding in 1981, all her certainties are blown aside by events she cannot control. First she finds out she’s adopted. Then she’s run down by a motorbike.

In a London hospital, temporarily unable to speak, she uses her left hand to write. But Jesse’s right-handed. And as if her fingers have a will of their own, she begins to draw places she’s never seen, people from another time - a castle, a man in medieval armour. And a woman’s face.

Rory Brandon, Jesse’s neurologist, is intrigued. Maybe his patient’s head trauma has brought out latent abilities. But wait. He knows the castle. He’s been there.

So begins an extraordinary journey across borders and beyond time, one that takes Jesse to Hundredfield, a stronghold built a thousand years ago by a brutal Norman warlord and passed down to the noble Dieudonné family, a clan honored and burdened with the task of protecting England’s dangerous northern border in the fourteenth century. Jesse holds the key to the castle’s many secrets and its connection to the mystical legend of the Lady of the Forest.

Somehow Hundredfield, with its history of darkness and light, of bloody battles won and lost, will help Jesse find her true lineage. In a world where the tales of old are just a heartbeat away, there are no accidents. There is only fate.

My Review
Wild Wood is a dual narrative that draws you in from the very beginning and I was entranced by the hulking presence and history of Hundredfield; located on the Scottish borderlands. Jesse is the key to the past and her narrative in the 1980s is read alongside that of Bayard, a male character in the 1300s. I'll readily admit that I didn't want to leave Bayard's chapters at all, and each time I had to leave for one of Jesse's chapters I cried out nooooo in my head. I wanted to stay with this battle-hardened warrior and was desperate to find out what was going to happen to him, his brother Maugris and strange, mute wife.

My interest in Jesse's part of the tale steadily crept up on me and I couldn't wait for the story to meet in the middle so to speak. I love to read novels by authors who believe that the past bleeds into the present, and Posie definitely belongs to this category; as does fellow Australian author Kate Morton, and recently discovered author Kate Riordan.

By the time I finished reading Wild Wood, I felt as though I'd wandered some of the rooms of Hundredfield but was hungry for more. I particularly wanted to know more about the character of Hawise. 

Luckily for me, I was fortunate enough to interview Australian author Posie Graeme-Evans below and put all of these questions - and more - to her, so please enjoy!

My rating = ****

Carpe Librum!

Interview with Posie Graeme-Evans
Hi Posie, and thanks for joining me here at Carpe Librum. It’s such a pleasure to host you here today. Having successfully published five books, with your sixth Wild Wood out this month, I think many readers would like to know where you do most of your writing. Do you prefer a chaotic and free-flowing writing environment or a clean desk approach?
Hmmm. Good question, Tracey : ) I used to think I could write anywhere – and, if pushed, probably can, but now I have a real writers office for the very first time in my working life so this is where I like to write. It’s a converted dairy building on a hill, and Andrew (my husband) rebuilt it from being a smelly old shed  - when we first saw the place, 200 chooks were in residence - to a civilized room with windows on all sides and lovely views. It’s my book-doona. Doesn’t mean it’s tidy all the time, though! I have periodic frenzies where I chuck everything out, clean everything beautifully, then go through the rubbish because I’ve lost all my notes!

Posie's writing desk; where the magic happens

Posie's office (above) is a converted dairy

Can you tell us about the research you undertook to write Wild Wood? What is some of the more unusual resource material you've consulted in your writing career?

I research by walking the story-ground. I think long training in making TV drama has taught me that – pictures first, words second (yes, odd for a writer.) So, that generally means physically going to where I think the story, as it develops, is set. I don’t get to travel as much as I’d like (going to the UK where my books seem, mostly, to be set is expensive!) but, hand on heart, it makes such a big difference to just stand there and look, and smell and feel and… be. As a writer, I think the stories find me, not the other way around…

Also, because my novels are set in the past, a roll-call of eccentric and unusual buildings I’ve stayed in on the research trail ticks the box marked “unusual resource material”. 

Monkton Old Hall Pembroke - a priory guesthouse 

run by the Benedictines for pilgrims on the way to 

the shrine of St David. Haunted! Believe me!

Try a haunted Priory Guesthouse – C11th Monkton Old Hall in Pembroke (and yes, I, personally know it’s haunted.) Or, a fortified tower house in the Scottish Borders for Wild Wood; the Castle of Park taught me all about right-handed spiral stone staircases, for instance. Right-handed? Yep. Built so that a right-handed man with a sword in his hand had room to swing the blade as he descended on his assailants coming up (and who therefore had no fighting room). 

Then there’s the Bath Tower at Caernarfon Castle on the Menai Straits in Wales. Another ancient place, C12th this time, but I slept in a crenelated bedroom at the top of the tower with arrow loops set in the 2m thick walls. And why is it called the “Bath Tower”? Apparently because there were public baths for the soldiers in the basement – a “stew” in the terms of those days (medieval people often went to public baths) – and it was also a place where the women who followed the garrison and the castle workmen plied their trade. The neighbours wouldn’t have liked that!

What was the hardest part of writing Wild Wood?
Having faith I could blend a legendary character into ancient & current events and amongst people who needed to feel real. And, writing half the book in the first person voice of a C14th warrior! That was tough, and fascinating. I hope some of my male readers will let me know if I’ve got there : )

Hawise is a very minor character in Wild Wood who has a very brief scene just over halfway through the novel and I’m desperate to know more about her. What can you tell us? 
Ah… I loved Hawise as soon as she turned up; in fact, you could build a whole story around her I think. She came to me out of that ancient tradition of wise-women who need to live apart from town-dwellers because they’re so different to “normal” people (who often fear them as a result.) I think, though, that Hawise had managed to pass for “normal”, sort-of, for years and years and years, except there’s that tricky little aspect to her that she does not appear to age. And, the way she’s written, she could indeed just be a bit of an outsider and nothing more. BUT, I really think she serves the Lady of the Forest and always has. There. Said enough : ) 

I'd love to read an entire book about Hawise! I’ve noticed in many photographs and interviews that you’re quite fond of wearing scarves and pashminas. I love scarves too, and as a book lover I’m always on the lookout for scarves with text as part of the pattern/design. I was wondering if you collect them, and if you have a particular favourite?

Author Posie Graeme-Evans in her office

You’re right about the scarves, Tracey! Don’t consciously collect them, however they have built up rather over the years – and they tend to mirror my mood, or I’ve bought them at a significant time. For instance, the one I’m wearing in the picture (above) taken in my office today bought in a tiny shop in Lyndoch in SA when we had actually – and at last! – rolled production on “McLeods”. I think it’s quite refreshingly nutty  and it was my present to myself after keeping the faith for 8 years as the network debated if the series would, or would not go ahead. 

Given your great success in Australian TV (McLeods Daughters and Hi-5, just to name two), what’s your first love now do you think, writing and books or television?
Aaargh! Chose between two children? Hard to do…
I had thought, after McLeods finished, that I just wanted to write full time; before, books had always come second to TV and fitted into the cracks and downtime of my production life. But, last year as I was finishing Wild Wood, I had an idea for a series and it began to badger me. Just one of those things. And now I’m developing it to shoot in New Zealand. 

It’s like nothing I’ve ever done before (and I can’t tell you what it is!) but if we get through this current phase of script development (and its not called “Development Hell” for nothing) we might just have a fighting chance of getting into production. Or not. Never can tell with TV – it’s a marathon, not a sprint, and there’s never, ever any guarantee of success. 

What’s your secret reading pleasure?
I like reading fact more than fiction : )

I’m happiest when…? 
There’s a storm outside, the fire is lighted in the dairy, I’ve got fresh coffee and a cat or two on the chair or the couch and… I’m writing! On second thought, me and Andrew in a warm car driving through a snow storm on a road we’ve never seen before. Preferably in Scotland.

My beverage of choice is…?
In winter? A big and bloody red wine in front of a fire at night. Ah, but summer…. A  crisp Prosecco does me, outside on the deck, looking at the view as the light fades

Do you have a favourite bookshop in Tasmania? If so, what makes it special? 
Genuinely hard to pick favourites because there are a few I love here. Fullers, in Hobart, is lovely. It’s a genuine ‘temple of the book’ with a charming café too. And the State Theatre bookshop, in North Hobart is lovely as well – and there’s a great café next door! (yes, but really: buy a book, have a coffee; they’re inseparable for me : ) But then, I can’t ignore the Hobart Bookshop in the square behind Salamanca Place – amongst the galleries and the, yes, cafes. And, our local Dymocks right in the centre of town. They’ve always been such wonderful supporters of my books and really, really know their stock so well… Please don’t make me choose : )

Posie is enjoying 
The Edge of the World 
by Michael Pye 
this month

What are you reading at the moment? (Do you prefer paper copies, e-books or combination of both?) 
E-books when I’m travelling, but paper everywhere else. And, at the moment, reading a great, great book called, The Edge of the World – How the North Sea Made Us What We Are by Michael Pye. Just gorgeous, in every way. And beside The Edge of the World is just a stack of other books. A yummy, yummy prospect.

What's next? Is it true there’s going to be a sequel to Wild Wood? I really hope so, but what can you tell us? 
A sequel to Wild Wood? Blimey. Hadn’t really though of that but… will now : )
Meanwhile I’ve begun writing The Outer Sea, that will be set in Wales, or Cornwall or Ireland (that’s why we stayed at Monkton Old Hall this January just past.) Too early to talk about it though. I’m superstitious!

Anything else you'd like to add?  
Just my thanks to you, Tracey. I’ve enjoyed answering your questions. Stimulating!!

Thanks so much Posie, I really appreciate your time and wish you continued success. I’ll be looking forward to The Outer Sea. 
I’m delighted and thrilled to feel so supported, Tracey : ) 

Review: The Shining by Stephen King

The Shining by Stephen King hardly needs an introduction at all. Most readers have either read the book, seen the movie or at least know the premise behind this thriller from the storytelling master of the page, Stephen King.

Being such a fan of Stephen King's works, I thought it was about time I read his 1977 classic and I wasn't disappointed. I won't bother re-hashing the well-known plot, except to say that young Danny and the chef-come-mentor Hallorann were my favourite characters.

The decline of Danny's father in the Overlook Hotel was convincing and creepy, although my favourite scene from the movie - where it is revealed that instead of writing his play, Jack has been writing the phrase 'all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy' over and over again on his typewriter - is not in the original novel. 

Reading The Shining has renewed my interest in the movie and I hope to watch it again soon. I have a copy of the sequel released in 2013, Doctor Sleep and look forward to finding out what became of Danny and his psychic gifts or the ability to shine.

So, have you read The Shining, and/or watched Stanley Kubrick's movie The Shining? Which did you prefer?

My rating = ****

Carpe Librum!

N.B. This book counts towards my participation in the Mount TBR Reading Challenge 2015.

Review: Ajax Penumbra 1969 by Robin Sloan

Ajax Penumbra 1969 is the prequel to Mr Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan; a book I instantly fell in love with in 2012 and gave five stars to in my review.

In this novella, we find out how Ajax Penumbra came to discover the 24 hour bookstore in San Francisco and become employed there.

Having such love for Mr Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, I had high hopes for Ajax Penumbra 1969 and was desperately looking forward to reading Mr Penumbra's back story so to speak.

I did get the back story, but admittedly I was left wanting more. Sloan takes us up to the point where Mr Penumbra is working at the book store, but not when he learns about the real purpose of the store.

Instead of leaving me satisfied, I finished this novella desiring more. Mr Penumbra's work as an Apprentice Acquisitions Officer at Galvanic College Library was absolutely fascinating, and I'd happily read an entire novel about his work there and the work done by colleagues before him.  Here's why.

"Armitage explains that Galvanic's library contains more one-of-a-kind, untranslatable, and/or inexplicable volumes than any other collection on earth. In the second session, he sends you down into the stacks. There are books made from silver and bone. There are books with blood on their pages, figuratively and literally. There are books made of feathers; books cloaked in jade; books that ring like bells when you pull them off the shelf; books that glow in the dark." Page 13

What a library! And Ajax Penumbra is an Apprentice Acquisitions Officer here, tasked with tracking down rare books, sometimes taking years to locate a single tome. It was during the pursuit of a rare book that Mr Penumbra discovered the 24 hour bookstore and in many ways, this was an even more interesting premise than that behind Mr Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore. 

I have to know more, argh!

My rating = ***

Carpe Librum!

Interview with Michael Schmicker, author of The Witch of Napoli

Thanks for joining me at Carpe Librum Michael as part of your blog tour with HFVBT. I’d like to start our interview by asking when your personal interest in Italian Spiritualist medium Eusapia Palladino (1854-1918) first began? (For those who don’t know, Palladino is the inspiration behind the main character in The Witch of Napoli).

Author Michael Schmicker

We first met in a library. I was researching the scientific evidence for psychokinesis (the ability of the mind to move or affect objects – to levitate a table, for instance), and stumbled across the famous “Feilding Report.” It describes a series of sittings England’s Society for Psychical Research (SPR) conducted with Palladino in Naples in 1908. Palladino was in her mid-fifties, and had been sparring with skeptical scientists for two decades. She had been caught cheating multiple times, yet she also produced some of her most amazing psychokinetic feats under extremely strict scientific controls. The SPR had declared her a fraud; continental scientists disagreed. They forced the SPR to give her one last chance to demonstrate her psychokinetic powers. She won that dramatic showdown, thumbing her nose one last time at skeptics.

Eusapia Palladino

Eusapia knocked me off my feet. The Italians say when you fall hard for a woman at first sight, you’re struck by a colpo di fulmine – a lightning bolt. She was fiery-tempered, amorous, vulgar, confident – in a Victorian age where respectable women were insipid saints on a pedestal, stunted socially, sexually, intellectually, economically. She allowed strange men to sit with her in a darkened room holding her hands and knees (“proper” women would have fainted, or thrown themselves off a precipice if caught in that situation). She flirted and teased her male sitters, argued loudly, slapped an aristocrat who insulted her country, flew at men who accused her of cheating (even when she did). Yet she was also extremely kind and generous to anyone in trouble, loved animals, gave to beggars. Her heart was large. I thought she’d make a hell of a heroine for a novel – and a Hollywood movie. I’ve finally got the novel done. Next up, getting in the door at 20th Century Fox. A guy can dream, right?

What can you tell me about the title for The Witch of Napoli, because she wasn’t really a witch was she?
The real-life Eusapia wasn’t a witch. She didn’t cast spells, mix potions, or put curses on people. She was simply a medium – a woman who talks to the dead (perhaps). But she could also levitate tables, make objects fly through the air, and perform other spooky feats Christianity associates with devils and witches, so the title works. It took me a while to come up with it. I started with “Séance” – it’s short, and easy to remember, but it’s a bit tricky to spell when you’re typing a search in Amazon books. So I changed the title to “Queen of Spirits” – “queen” is a popular title word in the historical fiction genre, especially with older female readers. But several friends argued the word “spirits” suggested alcohol – was it the biography of a celebrated mixologist? I caved in and finally came up with “The Witch of Naples” – the word “witch” has cachet, especially with younger female readers. Then someone reminded me there’s a Naples, Florida too. So to distinguish the two, and keep the title which I loved, I opted for a little Continental flair, spelling the city like the Italians do. Ecco! as the Italians say: There you have it.

I read that your interest in the paranormal began when you were in Thailand working as a Peace Corps Volunteer; did you see something there that made you a believer?
I was open-minded about the paranormal before I got there. Heretical hypotheses about the nature of reality don’t frighten me – I majored in philosophy in college, taking mind-stretching courses like epistemology (what is truth?) and ontology (what is reality?). In ontology class my freshman year, the professor read us a wonderful poem called Chuang Tzu and the Butterfly written by the well-known Chinese poet Li Po. In it, Chuang Tzu falls asleep and dreams he is a butterfly. When he awakes, he asks himself the question, “Am I a man who dreamed I was a butterfly, or am I now a butterfly dreaming I am a man?” Think about it for a minute. How do you scientifically prove you’re not the latter?

After college I became a journalist (Microsoft and Colgate-Palmolive aren’t looking to hire Aristotles). I knew how to ask questions and write clearly, and worked as a crime reporter for a year before joining Peace Corps in 1969. I taught English at a Buddhist monastery school in Bangkok, and moonlighted after hours for the Bangkok World newspaper, slipping up to Laos and Cambodia on weekends to cover the Vietnam war and penning feature stories for the Sunday magazine.

One week, I decided to interview a famous Thai fortune-teller, Khun Mae. She turned out to be a warm, friendly lady in her 70s. Khun Mae dressed old style – the way Thai women did before Western culture redefined beauty. She sat bare-breasted on the linoleum floor, her shriveled boobs resting on her kneecaps, her skirt tucked between her legs, her grey hair cut butch like a man’s. The few teeth left in her mouth were black from chewing betel nut, and she spit the juice into an empty condensed milk can clutched in her gnarled hand. I remember she had this wonderful laugh. Her father had served as a court astrologer to Siamese royalty in his day, and he had passed on his occult knowledge to her. After we exchanged a traditional wai greeting, and I sat down on the linoleum floor beside her, Khun Mae asked me my birthdate (Feb 26), my day of birth (Friday), my time of birth (not sure), and added 543 years to my life (Thailand doesn’t use Anno Domini; in their calendar, Buddha’s birth marks year one). Then she pulled out a little grey school slate and started chalking down Thai numbers and odd symbols. When she finished, she blew my mind with a series of remarkably accurate statements about my life before Thailand, and what would happen in the future. Somewhere in a trunk, I still have a copy of the notes I made that day.

What an amazing experience! I also read that you've never seen a ghost yourself but have you witnessed or experienced any other paranormal phenomenon? 

Khun Mae was my most dramatic personal brush with the “paranormal,” though I frequently experience a lot of Jungian synchronicity in my life. 

What compels you to investigate the paranormal?Journalistic curiosity. Besides, it’s a lot of fun! Whenever people find out I write about the paranormal, they pull me aside and whisper, sotto voce, “I’ve never told anyone this before, but....” then proceed to tell me about seeing their grandmother’s ghost, or experiencing a chilling premonition that came true, or recalling the time a dowser with a forked stick found water on their neighbor’s farm. When they’re finished, they add, “But please don’t tell anybody what I told you.” That’s sad. Why are we so ashamed to share these stories? These puzzling phenomena continue to be seen, felt, experienced and reported by people of all ages, races, cultures, and socioeconomic backgrounds; in every country on earth; often in forms and manifestations unchanged since mankind started recording them four thousand years ago. Ridicule doesn’t make them disappear; education doesn’t make them disappear; the immense technological achievements and intellectual prestige of modern science cannot eradicate belief in them. Perhaps it’s time we seriously, open-mindedly examine the best evidence for these “impossible” phenomena.

We seem to have more and more books and TV shows based on paranormal and supernatural themes, and running parallel to that are significant leaps in scientific discovery. As a published and experienced investigative journalist in the field, what trends do you see in terms of people believing in the paranormal?Reputable pollsters like Gallup have found that the majority of the American public accepts the reality of one or more paranormal phenomena. I’m not sure what Aussie polls show, but I think acceptance will increase as 21st century science slowly extricates itself from its mental cage of 19th century philosophical materialism. The implications of quantum physics are astonishing in terms of what it suggests about the true nature of “reality.” The impossible suddenly becomes possible – even probable.

Do you prefer to buy your books online, from a physical bookshop or borrow them from a library?

Andy Carpenter designed
this book cover for
Michael Schmicker

A bookstore, if I can find one. I love cover art, and hate squinting at a 2-inch jpeg on Amazon. At a bookstore, you can pull a paperback off the shelf, plop down in a chair with a cup of coffee, and admire the art full-size. Writers sometimes get so caught up in their prose that they forget buyers do judge a book by its cover. The book-reading experience starts with art, not words. Andy Carpenter in New York City did The Witch of Napoli. He's done covers for a half-dozen New York Times best-sellers, including Laura Hillenbrand's Seabiscuit, Tom Brokaw's The Greatest Generation, Caleb Carr's The Alienist, and even art directed LL Cool J's Platinum Workout. He was worth every penny. 

When you have time to read for pleasure, what are some of your favourite books/authors?

One of Michael's
favourite books

I’m a product of my education and era, so my reading leans more classic than contemporary – Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Washington Irving, George Orwell, Umberto Eco, Italo Calvino, Ray Bradbury, H.L. Mencken, E.B. White, David McCullough...I read a ton of non-fiction, particularly history. Historical fiction? Two favorites which pop to mind are Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose, because it’s so intellectually rich; and George Orwell's Burmese Days, because I spent five formative years of my life in Southeast Asia. A close third would be Autumn of the Patriarch, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I wish I had his talent.

What is your secret indulgence?Dark chocolate, 72% cacao – though it’s hardly a secret. My wife and son know I’m addicted.

What's next? What are you working on at the moment?I may follow up The Witch of Napoli with a small Kindle companion book called The Real Witch of Napoli. Many readers have emailed me wanting to know more about Eusapia Palladino, and what was fact vs. fiction in the novel. The short biography might also include a quick summary of the scientific evidence for psychokinesis. But first I have to make sure the Witch flies off the shelves. We’re planning a fun, séance-themed book party in New York in May.

Anything else you'd like to add?Two things, Tracey. First and foremost, my sincere thanks to you for giving me the opportunity to talk with your readers. Bloggers and reviewers like yourself make it possible for new writers to find their audience. Without your help, books die. 

Second, where can I find an outfitter for my dream adventure Down Under – driving a Land Rover across the outback from Alice Springs to Kalgoorlie? I’m serious.

Thanks for your time and kind words Michael. If anyone reading this interview can help Michael with his outback trip, please comment below. Thanks!