A cuppa with Meredith
Welcome!
Well hello
I can’t believe we are already in July! It’s been a whirlwind few months. Since my April newsletter, I have released The Dressmakers of Yarrandarrah Prison out into the world, been on a book tour (still am, actually) and finished the first version of my next novel. Unbelievably, we also managed to deliver StoryFest 2021, squeezing it into the narrow opening between the Victorian and NSW lockdowns.
Now it is time to put my feet up for a couple of weeks. It’s school holidays and lockdown means we are seriously curtailed in what we can do anyway. I like to focus on the positive, which means I am taking the opportunity to make inroads into my To Be Read pile and generally get my literal and figurative house in order. (You should see the mountain of clean washing I had to put away this morning!) These two weeks are critical for me to be able to rest and refill the creative well before I embark on the next round of edits of adult novel #4. I don’t know about you, but I can’t think or write if I am running on empty, surrounded by mess or undone tasks. I demand order!
To add some cheer to everyone’s lives, I have some fun stuff in this newsletter. A new From the Vault featuring Australian bestseller Rachael Johns, a quick, easy and super delicious slice recipe for us to have with our cuppa, some new reads and a giveaway with no strings attached. Enough general chit-chat,
Onwards!
The Dressmakers of Yarrandarrah Prison
Since we last shared a cuppa, I have been super busy promoting The Dressmakers of Yarrandarrah Prison. I have visited so many places. (It feels like that Aussie song, I’ve Been Everywhere.) I’ve been to Mona Vale, Brookvale, Mosman, Sydney CBD, Newtown, Thirroul, Kiama, Goulburn, Nowra, Merimbula, Bega, Moruya, Kogarah, Cronulla, and Kempsey (virtually.)
Still to come (post lockdown) you can come and say hello at Parkes Library on October 11. I am very excited about this as I have never been to Parkes. A couple of things have been postponed—my trip to Port Macquarie and an event with The Bookshop Bowral—but never fear, where there is a will, there is a way. If we can, these events will be on later in the year. If you are a local to any of these places, keep an eye on my website events page or my socials for dates and times.
So many people have taken the time and trouble to write lovely things about this novel, in their capacity as bloggers, bookstagrammers and Goodreads members. A few readers have been kind enough to send me a personal message too. Your kind comments have meant so much to me.
The thing is, when a book goes out into the world, it takes on a life of its own. Readers either praise it or pan it. If readers and booksellers like it, they press it into the hands of others, urging them with comments such as, ‘you must read this!’ Word of mouth can snowball month after month, the story reaching more and more readers. All I did was write it, it’s you that breathes life into the story. I find that deeply humbling. Thank you, one and all.
From the Vault
I read How to Mend a Broken Heart during the madness of the last few months. It was the perfect read for the times; full of love and heart and humour. Rachael Johns and I first met in 2013 when I interviewed this up-and-coming author about why she wrote rural fiction in a piece commissioned by Harlequin (now HarperCollins HQ)
These days, Rachael and I are both now published by HarperCollins and, in one of those serendipitous moments, How to Mend a Broken Heart came out on the same day as The Dressmakers of Yarrandarrah Prison. Rachael and I have been trying to get our act together (TBH, her dance card is way fuller than mine) to chat about writing, our books and life in general. We will make it happen but until we do, I thought it would be fun to revisit this article. Turns out the 2013 pundits were wrong. Our passion for rural fiction was not a flash in the pan. Writers such as Rachael Johns have gone from strength to strength, cementing their place on our bookshelves and in our hearts. It’s fascinating to look back at the Australian fiction landscape and see how far we’ve come.Click here to go back to the vault.
Something sweet to have with our cuppa... Date & Coconut Slice
Since we are in lockdown land at the moment, and it is school holidays, and we’re not really able to go anywhere, I kind of figure we may as well be baking. Sometimes, I like to bake super healthy stuff and feel virtuous. Other times, I think ‘hang it’ and break out the butter and sugar big time. The original recipe calls for a cup and a half of sugar but even I think that is complete overkill. One cup of sugar gives the right chewy texture without making our fillings fall out. Anyway, the dried fruit is sweet enough, surely?
I warn you though; this is very more-ish and totally delicious. No fuss and not much mess either. If you really want to make life easy on yourself simply line the lamington tine with baking paper. That way you can lift the whole lot out of the tin to cut it and let it cool. Sorry there is no picture, I ran out of day. But send me yours and we can live vicariously through your baking instead of mine 😊
Date and Coconut Slice recipe
Preheat oven to 165C
125g melted butter
1 cup SR flour
1 cup shredded or desiccated coconut
1 cup of chopped dates (or whatever dried fruit you have in the cupboard will work. Delish with cranberries or apricots too)
1 cup sugar
1 beaten egg
Dash of vanilla
Mix together all the dry ingredients
Stir in melted butter, vanilla and the beaten egg
Press into a small greased and lined lamington tin (28cm x 17.5cm)
Bake at 165 C for 20 minutes*
*The trick is to put the slice straight in the oven and make sure it doesn’t brown. That way it stays super moist and chewy in the centre. Take it out of the oven as it starts to brown around the edges. Cut it into squares straight away but leave in the tin to cool. TBH, don’t worry if you overcook it. It still tastes divine even when crunchier. It’s all a matter of personal preference.
This month I've been reading...
To be blunt, I’ve fallen behind in my reading. By bedtime, I’ve been too brain dead to indulge in my usual nocturnal pleasure of a solid hour’s read before nodding off to sleep. On the plus side, I’ve picked up a few reads on my book shop tour so I have plenty to keep me entertained. But enough excuses, here is what I did read.
In May, I had the pleasure of interviewing Kate Holden in a satellite event for Sydney Writers Festival. The Winter Road is a compelling work of non-fiction and how Kate Holden has corralled such a massive topic into 120,000 words is beyond me. (She told me the original manuscript was 180,000!) It centres around the murder of environmental officer, Glenn Turner, by Croppa Creek farmer, Ian Turnbull. Holden blends true crime with an examination of historical farming practices in this country before and after white settlement. This is a nuanced study of greed, power and our fraught relationship with the environment that explores questions about our legacy and out future.
On the fiction side of the equation, I read from Where I Fell by Susan Johnson. Johnson has used a really interesting structure with this novel. It is in the tradition of an epistolary novel (letter writing for us lay people) except we now live in the world of email not snail mail. The catalyst for the story is when Pamela sends a fraught email to her former husband Chris that accidentally ends up in the inbox of a stranger of the same name. The story unfolds inside the confessional box of the ethernet that gives them a freedom potentially denied by a face-to-face exchange. The two women share confidences, argue and philosophise about their lives up until now, where they wish to be and where they might end up. The abrupt end of the novel took me by surprise and did leave a slightly sour taste in the mouth but not enough for it to undo the pleasure of reading From Where I Fell.
Alice Pung’s new novel, One Hundred Days centres around sixteen-year-old Karuna and her fraught relationship with her Philippino mother, simply known as Mar or Grand Mar. Karuna has been suffocated by her mother her entire life. Treated like a doll; dressed up, made up and shown off before puberty hit and wreaked havoc. Almost weaponised in the war between her car mechanic white father (who gives Karuna the distasteful nickname, Tool Kitty) and a mother who is desperate to keep her safe at any cost. When the marriage breaks down, Karuna and her mother move into a suffocating apartment in a downtrodden area where Karuna struggles to define her new identity. Forced to share a bed with her mother, she has no privacy and little freedom except within her own imagination. When Karuna finds out she is pregnant, the imminent arrival of a baby becomes an almighty battlefield for control. One Hundred Days is tense but funny, although often in a way that makes the reader suck in their breath in horror. Yet despite this, Pung’s warmth and compassion for her characters shine through.
Pick of the month...
A new Michael Robotham is always the perfect excuse to curl on the couch. I devoured When You Are Mine in two days, partly because Robotham is a master at pacing his novel so that the plot draws you in and turning the pages from the get-go. When You Are Mine is being marketed as a stand-alone thriller but I suspect Robotham will be under pressure to bring back Constable Philomena (Phil) McCarthy after this debut.
McCarthy fought hard for her place in the Metropolitan Police whose members did not want the daughter of a notorious London gangster joining their ranks. Determined to put distance between her family and herself, Phil is working hard to build a career as an honest copper.
All this is thrown into turmoil the day she attends a call out to a London flat and meets Tempe Brown; a victim of a violent domestic assault at the hands of her married lover. When the man resists arrest, Phil wastes no time in showing him who is boss. The problem is, the perpetrator turns out to have powerful friends. With her fledgling career on the line, Phil must find a way to navigate the treacherous waters of a police force who are looking for any excuse to get rid of her, a violent man seeking revenge and the women in his life too frightened to bring him to justice.
When You Are Mine is bang on topic for the times. Robotham never shies away from telling a hard story or going places that might make other writers nervous. He always writes strong, well-rounded female characters. Phil McCarthy is no exception. Delightfully flawed, driven by her convictions and, like any good crime thriller, determined to set the world to rights. To top it all off, last week, Michael Robotham won the UK Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Ian Fleming Steel Dagger award for best thriller for his previous novel When She Was Good. No surprises there since Robotham consistently delivers great crime fiction.
Giveaway!
Going with my pick of the month, I have put together three great Australian crime novels for one lucky subscriber. What’s the catch? No catch. It’s my way of saying thank you for all your support. If you would like to win these three books, then email me at meredith at meredithjaffe dot com and tell me this: Who is your favourite character from The Dressmakers of Yarrandarrah Prison?
The small print: I am sorry to say that this giveaway is only for residents of Australia. Otherwise the postage would cost me a fortune! "Competition" closes 15 July 2021.
Book Me!
Did you know, that I could be your guest at your next book club meeting, your local library, or maybe your next guest speaker at a community group event? I love coming together to chat, and if the tyranny of distance is too great, there is always the option of a virtual talk. It is as easy as jumping onto my website here and making a date.
The end of the cup...
My teapot and my cup are empty. To everyone who is in lockdown, over lockdown, wanting life to return to normal, the kids to go back to school and generally longing to escape, there is no better place than between the pages of a good book.
I’ll be adding any new tour dates to my website www.meredithjaffe.com or you will always find me on socials on either Instagram or Facebook @meredithjaffeauthor.
See you next time!