August means writing, reading and winning!
I'm hibernating over winter. Working, staying warm, reading, creating and nurturing.
Well hello lovely,
One minute we’re at the beginning of winter and now there are hints of spring in the air. The wattles are in bloom, my roses are sending out hopeful new shoots, the days are longer.
Mostly I’ve been writing, or rather, editing. There’s been side servings of art class, yoga, reading and finishing a knitting project. I feel like it’s been a season for nurturing. Life has been challenging on the home front and sometimes I find I have to get out of my own way. Stop worrying and do stuff that makes me rest and look after the things that really matter.
I think we all have phases like that in life. Where everything that can go wrong chooses to do so all at once. Wouldn’t life be so much easier if things happened consecutively in an orderly manner so we had time to take a deep breath and regroup? Yes, I believe it would! But as John Lennon said, ‘life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.’
So, a shortish newsletter this month (by my standards!) I read the fabulous new novel by Alice Robinson, If You Go. I’m so thrilled I can also offer you the chance to win this title. And I have some new events coming up over September and October. Hopefully, if I am in your neck of the woods, we’ll have a chance to catch up and say hello.
Whatever is going on in your world right now, be kind to yourself. If all else fails, disappear into a book. It always works for me :-)
Behind the Scenes
I can’t believe I boldly asserted that I would be through this round of edits by the end of July! Who was I kidding? If you’re following my progress closely, you’ll be pleased to know that I resolved the issues with Chapter 10 and am now about half way though the edits. Yes, it’s very slow going. I keep consoling myself that Maggie O’Farrell apparently did 47 edits of Hamnet. It goes to prove that rigorously editing your work is a time-consuming business (and not, in my case, that you think you’ll win the Women’s Prize for Fiction like Ms O’Farrell.)
The halfway mark is analogous to riding a bicycle without gears up a steep hill and finally (finally!) reaching the top. From here you can see to the horizon but you can also see your endpoint. Take your feet off the pedals and fly down that hill, ears pinned back, hoping you don’t crash and burn at the bottom.
Stay with me! I promise I will finish this … at some point.
Books to Love
My reading has remained all over the place. Although, I’ve covered some fantastic debut fiction over on my New Voices Down Under newsletter and I encourage you to sign up to see what caught my attention. Meanwhile I’ve read the new Alice Robinson. I loved her debut Anchor Point and her third novel If You Go is original and beautifully written.
Esther wakes up in what she thinks is a hospital, nursed by a woman called Grace. She is weak, thin and covered in old bruises. Her hair has been shorn and she is overcome by constant nausea. But she soon realises, through the fog of pain and disorientation, that she’s not in a hospital because she is Grace’s only patient. There does not appear to be anyone else here but them. But where is here?
As the days unfold, Esther decides that Grace is her captor. Her mind plagues her with recollections of her young children who must be wondering where she is. Of her former husband, their father. Of her father and his wife who raised her because her mother was too busy being an icon of the women’s movement to attend to parenting. But if Grace is her captor, why is she so tender in her ministrations, why does she seem to care about Esther.
Alice Robinson’s extraordinary third novel, If You Go, is a thriller with a twist. Centred around mothers and mothering, it explores Esther’s complex childhood and relationship with her mother. How that relationship informed and undermined her ability to be the mother she wanted to be to her own children. And, what it means, in a broader sense, when a society fails to honour this nurturing role at both the personal level and its implications for us all. That world has fallen apart. All the threats we live with, be it climate change, political upheaval, war and economic destruction have come to pass. Esther’s world has shrunk to the individual and, in the end, that is the only place hope can reside.
However, as bleak as this story world is, it is anchored by the intense relationship between Esther and Grace. One, a mother who seems to have lost her children and her life. The other cast in the caring role and, as it becomes increasingly clear, sacrificing everything to fulfill that role. If You Go blends the funny, tender, thoughtful and thought-provoking. By posing a nightmarish what if? scenario, Robinson explores grief, mothering and family. How, in the midst of everything awful, it is human nature to seek love and hope. Beautifully written, evocative and searing, If You Go is a novel that plays on in your mind long after the last page is turned.
Giveaways Galore!
I’m excited to have **two** copies of If You Go to giveaway, thanks to the wonderful people at Affirm Press. All you have to do is send me a reply email with the answer to the question below.
Name one two characters in If You Go.
The fine print: Giveaways are currently only open to subscribers and you must reside within Australia to be eligible to win (postage!) The winners will be picked at random and will be emailed on Tuesday 13 August. Good luck!
Upcoming Events
BookFest!
Friday 13 & Saturday 14 September 2024
Goulbrn Performing Arts Centre
Look at this amazing line up! Kate Grenville, Inga Simpson, Kate Forsyth, Nikki Gemmell, Tim Ayliffe— the list goes on! Panel discussions, author talks and workshops galore. Plus, many of these events are FREE!! But you still need to book as places are limited. Please come and join us if you can. It promises to be a fun weekend.
Full program details are here where you can also book your tickets.
Berry Writers Festival
Friday 25 October to Sunday 27 October 2024
It’s so good to be invited to be a part of the 2024 Berry Writer’s Festival. The program will be released this month but if you’re dying to know the names of the incredible authors and thinkers who will be appearing over the course of the weekend, then click on this link. What a line up, right?
New Voices Down Under
In our July edition, we meet south coast local Mitch Jennings. Sports journalist by day, novelist by night. I had the pleasure of chatting with him at the South Coast Writers Festival and he truly is a lovely guy. I loved his crime novel, A Town Called Treachery who everyone agreed was like Scrublands (Chris Hammer) meets Jasper Jones (Craig Silvey.) Mitch very generously shared so much about the inspirations and his writing journey. It’s well worth a read.
The July edition also features reviews of two brand new titles. The quirky and brilliant The End and Everything Before It by playwright Finegan Kruckemeyer. I loved this book! It reminded me of Tim Winton’s Cloud Street and Joanna Harris’ Chocolat. And for something completely different, I read Amanda Willimott’s Winter of the Wolf, inspired by the true werewolf trials in the winter of 1572 in France. Also a great read.
For you chance to **win** a copy of A Town Called Treachery, you must be a subscriber and answer the question posed in the July newsletter. You can do both of those things by clicking the button below.
The end of the cup
Well, my friend, my cup is empty. Thank you so much for hanging out with me today. I’ll be back in your inbox in October, hopefully declaring that I have finished my edits. Because, honestly, you’ll be heartily sick of hearing about it by then :-)
Don’t forget, you can check out updates on events at www.meredithjaffe.com or, why don’t you leave a comment below or drop me a line. I love hearing from you!
Keep well,
