A cuppa with Meredith
Welcome!
Well hello
Happy Mother’s Day! I hope you get thoroughly spoilt on Sunday. My mum and I went out for brunch last Sunday, so it’s a lazy day (hopefully!) for me on Sunday. I only have one stipulation for Mother’s Day — no cooking! Oh, and champagne. That’s two, oh well 😊 and if you are remembering mum rather than being able to spend time with her, then I hope you can find a space in your day to be with your memories.
It’s been crazy busy at my end, how about you? The Tricky Art of Forgiveness is out in the world now and thank you to everyone who has read it and left me a review or rating on GoodReads or has recommended it to friends and family. It’s so interesting to see how everyone reacts to a new book and I love reading your comments.
We had so much fun at the Launch party. It was an hilarious night and everyone, just everyone, loved the fabulous cake. More on that later.
In the meantime, The Dressmakers of Yarrandarrah Prison has been in the news again! As if it wasn’t enough that it made the 2022 Booktopia FAB Awards Top 50, it has gone on to be included in the 2022 Better Reading Top 100. Wow! Plus, the gorgeous cover design was longlisted for the ABDA awards.
I have finished writing my 2023 book (yes, we still haven’t settled on a name for it. Sigh.) I handed that over to my publisher at the end of March and managed to sneak in a couple of weeks off to recover. Right now, I’m getting stuck into the structural edits. In my downtime, I read plenty of books and I have some great recommendations for you, as well as a BIG giveaway.
So much news to share! Let’s get cracking.
Onwards!
The Tricky Art of Forgiveness Launch Party
Well, as the song goes, Oh what a night! Thank you to everyone local who came along to celebrate. It was so much fun. My friend Wendy came down to do the hosting honours and we had a hilarious chat about life as we get older, marriage, and writing.
There were two other highlights for me. Firstly, can I just say for about the gazillionth time, thank you so much to Kellie’s Cakes for the amazing themed book birthday cake. It was almost all devoured within minutes, which tells you something. Vanilla buttercake topped with vanilla buttercream icing. Kellie is pure genius. I ‘met’ Kellie online via her bookclub. Kellie had made mini replicas of The Dressmakers of Yarrandarrah Prison cover on top of little cookies. The moment I saw them, I knew she was the woman to make The Tricky Art of Forgiveness cake. Isn’t it amazing? It was worth the drive across the mountains to pick it up, just to see how much joy it brought to the night.
The second amazing thing is that we were joined by Wolfe Black and Hein Cooper, two local musicians. They had taken the words of Will’s Song from Tricky Art and turned it into a proper song. I almost cried! Never had I imagined that my scribbles would become a song and how fitting for there to be music at the launch. I know how many of you have loved listening to the soundtrack, so this added an extra dimension.
And in breaking news, we’re heading into the studio in June to turn Will’s Song into a professionally recorded single. I’ll keep you posted. Meanwhile, Wolfe Black has her new album coming out very soon and you can listen to Hein Cooper latest album on the usual platforms. As Molly used to say, do yourselves a favour!
Better Reading Top 100
When I asked everyone to consider voting for The Dressmakers of Yarrandarrah Prison in the annual Better Reading Top 100, not for one moment did I think it would actually make the list. At best, I hoped it might come in at #99. Never in my wildest imaginings did I think it would come in at #27. So can I please extend a massive THANK YOU!!!! to everyone who picked The Dressmakers of Yarrandarrah Prison as their favourite read of 2021.
Huge congratulations to Craig Silvey whose wonderful novel Honeybee was the #1 pick as Australia’s favourite book in 2021. And well done to every book that made the Top 10.
But you might be wondering what all the fuss is about. Here’s some quick facts courtesy of the folks at Better Reading:
71 of the Top 100 books were written by women.
There are seven great reads by female authors in the Top 10.
Three female authors in the Top 10 are Australian.
In total, 57% of authors are Australian, and six of the Top 10 books are by Aussie authors.
The Top 100 will be displayed in Big W stores nationally for the next year and be available at a special discounted price to encourage more readers to discover new authors. All the titles are also available as an e-book list on Apple Books, and, bonus, many libraries get on board too by creating Top 100 shelves. To see the whole list, pop over here.
I’ve read 33 out of the Top 100, so clearly I have some catching up to do!
Australian Book Design Awards
The saying goes, don’t judge a book by its cover but we all do, don’t we? Great cover design often inspires me to pick the book off the shelf and read the back cover and I know I’m not alone in this.
The fabulous Emily O’Neill designed the cover for The Dressmakers of Yarrandarrah Prison. You might recall how she designed it, then gave the design to her talented mum who turned it into an embroidery. Then the finished work was photographed to become the cover design. These images are courtesy of Emily’s Instagram page.
Judges were asked to weigh the merit and innovation of every entry in order to uncover the best and brightest, most original and beautiful designs of the past year. The Shortlist was announced in early April 2022 and the winners of the Australian Book Design Awards will be announced June 3.
If you’re curious, here are the shortlisted titles for the Best Designed Commercial Fiction Cover. My favourites are When Things Are Alive They Hum and The Speechwriter. Which one would you choose?
Books to Love
I haven’t posted any reading recommendations for a while but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been reading. Here are my top picks from some really good books I’ve had the pleasure of reading over the past few months.
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
I did an event with Bowral Bookshop in April and Marie, the owner, thrust this into my hands and insisted I read it. Ever obliging, I did and wow! Quirky and funny, Lessons in Chemistry is a joyous read.
Elizabeth Zott is a chemist but it’s 1961 and the men she works with at the Hastings Institute do not take her or her research seriously. All except Noble Prize nominated Calvin Evans. It’s chemistry of a different kind that makes these two fall headlong in love but tragedy is just around the corner.
Within just a few years, Elizabeth finds herself a single mother and out of work. The only offer she receives is for an afternoon television cooking show called Supper at Six. The trouble is, while Elizabeth is an excellent cook (after all, it’s just chemistry) she has no interest in being on television, let alone a star.
What makes Bonnie Garmus’ debt novel so enthralling is Elizabeth. She is difficult, opinionated, heartbroken and tired of men undermining and demeaning women. But the advantage of a successful show such as Supper at Six, is that she has direct access into the homes and lives of women across the nation and she has no intention of squandering it.
Garmus' writing is funny and wry. Elizabeth is a wonderful invention and the novel clips along at a cracking pace. Every character is a delight, even the ones you love to hate. I enjoyed every minute I spent reading Lessons in Chemistry.
The Torrent by Dinuka McKenzie
McKenzie won the 2020 Banjo Prize for her manuscript of The Torrent and it was well-deserved. Set in Northern NSW, Detective Kate Miles is counting down the days until she goes on maternity leave with her second child. Her boss hands her an old case file and asks her to review it. The family have never accepted the finding that Joel Marshall’s death in a recent flood was an accident. All she has to do is review the case and make sure all the boxes were ticked.
Kate’s in the middle of investigating an assault and robbery at the local Macca’s, she just wants to get it resolved and go on leave. Little does she imagine that the two cases can be in anyway related. Nor does she realise the tragic threads that bind them both.
McKenzie is such a great new voice in crime. Her writing is fresh and nuanced, injected with warmth and humour. Kate Miles is a terrific character and is set to be a fixture in the Australian crime-writing scene.
No Hard Feelings by Genevieve Novak
In an effort to start over, Penny moves into a share house with a guy called Leo, who brings a different girl home almost every night. Not that she’s worried, she spends as many nights as possible with Max who she was once in a real relationship with and hopes to remind him why it was a mistake to break up with her.
On the job front, her boss doesn’t think she’s quite up to it and it's fast becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. Her best friend Bec has just got engaged and her other best friend, Annie, is fast-tracking towards Senior Associate. And Penny? Well, her life is falling to pieces. The problem is, how on earth is she going to turn things around.
As the cover says, hungover, underpaid and overwhelmed. I’m sure that about sums up our twenties for a lot of us. I didn’t expect to enjoy this book as much as I did. But Genevieve Novak perfectly captures that decade of finding your feet, figuring out who you are, making many, many mistakes and wondering why everyone else seems to be getting it right while you’re still floundering. Personally, I couldn’t wait to see the back of my twenties and No Hard Feelings reminded me why!! Except Novak writes with such warmth and wit, I enjoyed every moment walking in Penny’s shoes. I loved this book and I think you will too.
If you're interested in hearing me chat to Genevieve about No Hard Feelings, you can find it over here on the Writes 4 Women website or wherever you get your podcasts. To be frank, it’s very lucky that there is a podcast at all because I realised halfway through that I hadn’t hit record so we had to go back to the beginning once we’d finished and pretend we hadn’t already been through all these questions. Thanks to the wonders of modern technology and Pamela Cook’s (W4W) wizardry, it all came together in the end. Sorry Genevieve!
The Natural History of Love by Caroline Petit
The Natural History of Love is based on the extraordinary true story about the great love affair between French explorer, naturalist and diplomate the Count de Castelnau and the daughter of a Brazilian plantation owner, Carolina Fonçeca. She is sixteen when they first meet and will spend the rest of her life as the mistress of the already-married Count.
The story starts in 1852, and traverses the world literally but also takes place against the backdrop of the unfolding scientific discoveries and debates around Darwin’s revolutionary publication, On The Origin of the Species.
Amazingly, from the salons of Paris, the couple and their children ended up in Melbourne. Petit discovered their story when the house they once owned was about to be demolished to make way for a concrete plant. Why was the house known as the home of the ‘mad’ Count Edward Fonçeca? And what was the story behind the embittered legal battle between Edward and his older brother?
I love discovering books that shine a light on forgotten history. Petit does a stellar job on bringing to life the woman at the centre of this story, Carolina Fonçeca — her sacrifices and her passions, not to mention her fine mind and how she was very much a part of her lover’s career as a naturalist. It’s a great read.
Giveaway
Thanks to the good folk at Affirm Press and HarperCollins, I have three copies each of The Torrent, No Hard Feelings and The Natural History of Love to giveaway. To be crystal clear, three lucky subscribers will win one of three giveaway packs.
You know the drill, all you have to do is send me an email reply with the answer to these three oh-so-difficult questions.
1. What is the name of the detective in Dinuka McKenzie's novel, The Torrent?
2. What are the names of Penny's two best friends in No Hard Feelings?
3. In what Australia city did the Count de Castelnau and Carolina Fonçeca end up living in The Natural History of Love?
As always, this giveway is only open to subscribers and you must reside within Australia to be eligible to win (postage!) The winners will be picked at random and I will announce who they are on 31 May. Good luck!
Upcoming Events
Here is a list of my upcoming events. Full program details are on my website (time, place, etc.) I try to keep this list updated, so do jump on over there for any new events that might be being held in your neck of the woods. I'd love you to come and say hello so that we can meet IRL.
June 4 South Coast Writers Festival
I’m going to be interviewing the fabulous Jane Caro about her new novel The Mother at Wollongong Town Hall AND I will also be in conversation with author and friend Pamela Cook about The Tricky Art of Forgiveness at Wollongong Library
June 10 and 11 Parkes Shire Libraries
I’m spending the day between Parkes Library and Peak Hill Library. See their Facebook page/ website for details
July 2 Kiama Library
Details on on their website to come
The end of the cup...
And, my friends, my cup is empty. I’m going to be head down into my edits for my 2023 novel for the next little while, I hope you all have a wonderful couple of months filled with reading and love.
You can check out updates on events at www.meredithjaffe.com or you will always find me chatting on socials on either Instagram or Facebook @meredithjaffeauthor.
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