Post-Publication Fun

  • Launch at Toronto Library, NSW on 11th February 2023

Launching a novel turned out to be one of the best experiences I’ve ever had, and that was down to the enthusiasm radiating from everyone who came along.  There had been a huge gap between the time I sent the final, final, final version of my novel (Grey Nomad, Brio Books, 2023) and the date set for the official release of the paperback version. I had spent a lot of time telling people that it was on its way, so to finally be able to crack open the champagne was wonderful.

(Lots of chatting going on!)

GenreCon23 in Brisbane, 18-19th February 2023

After all the staring at the blank page, scribbling, and revising, it was a peak experience to have the opportunity to participate in a panel presentation at GenreCon23 in Brisbane on 18 February.

Most writing festivals are designed for readers (and, of course, for publishers to sell their authors’ books).  As such, we eagerly go along to hear directly from the writers of the books we enjoy as well as to be introduced to books we have yet to read.  However, GenreCon23 was a conference that was all about writing. 

GenreCon is run by the Queensland Writers’ Centre and held in Brisbane each year. It focuses on what have become known as ‘genre’ novels, e.g. crime, speculative fiction (including science fiction, fantasy), historical fiction, romance, and the many wonderful books that blend some or all of these.  Like other writing festivals, GenreCon invites selected published authors to present, or to be interviewed ‘in conversation’ with another writer, or to participate as panel members to discuss a topic, or to run workshops. However, for GenreCon, the focus is on the many and varied aspects of the writing process.

GenreCon23 attracted over 200 participants. I had been invited to participate in a panel discussing ‘Putting the Sci back in Sci-Fi’, hosted by another recently published author, Bryn Smith (Magnus Nights: The Helios Incident, Hawkeye Press, 2021).

With renowned authors Garth Nix and Jay Kristoff also on the panel, it wasn’t a surprise to see a large audience in the auditorium.

Garth Nix was the keynote speaker for the event and is a widely known Australian author of many young adult fantasy novels (e.g. the Old Kingdom series which commenced back in 1995 with Sabriel, Harper Collins).

Jay Kristoff is another Australian author with an international following in science fiction and fantasy (e.g. Nevernight series which began in 2016, St Martins Press). 

As daunting as it was to sit alongside these two authors, the upside was that they ably helped new writers like Bryn and me to sound knowledgeable! The audience asked lots of questions and later it was most gratifying to have people randomly tell me how much they enjoyed it.

As a newly published author, I was thrilled to see my novel (Grey Nomad, Brio Books, 2023) sitting on the bookstand for sale, let alone have the fun of people approaching me every so often during the event to ask me to sign their copy. As many of you know, my main character in the novel is 70 year old Joyce, keen knitter and CWA member, so it was fascinating to me that most of those buying the book were the many young twenty-somethings.

(Book sales of novels by authors who were presenting at GenreCon23)

In his keynote address, Garth Nix won many writers’ hearts by talking about preparation aka reading for pleasure and how, if you want to learn to use semi-colons, read Lord of the Rings! He was a constant supportive presence for all the writers, attending as many talks as he could, even when not a presenter.

Many of the sessions were held concurrently, so I couldn’t get to all of them but there was something for everyone, e.g. Nalini Singh (romance, paranormal), Natasha Lester (historical fiction), J.P. Pomare (crime), and R.W.R. McDonald (crime). I extended my boundaries and went along to the panels on fairy tales (which included an amazing retelling of Bluebeard!), and horror (in which writers of horror turned out to be exceptionally funny people).  

By the end of the two day event, I felt rejuvenated and was itching to get back to writing. Next year, GenreCon24 will feature an overseas keynote for the first time: Patrick Ness, an American-British author of Young Adult fiction (e.g. Chaos Walking trilogy, The Rest of Us Just Live Here, A Monster Calls). I can recommend the experience to anyone interested in writing.

My Favorite Books of 2022

1.

Sea of Tranquility, by Emily St John Mandel (narrated by Arthur Morey, Dylan Moore, John Lee, Kirsten Potter) – Picador, 2022

If you liked her ‘Station Eleven’ (now also a TV miniseries) then you’re going love this. Her beautifully lyrical writing weaves a number of seemingly separate events from the past, present and future together to a cosmic conclusion.

2.

The Island of Sea Women, by Lisa See – Simon & Schuster, 2020

I came to this story with woefully little knowledge about Korea during World War II and in the years that followed. Neither did I know much about the women free divers of the island of Jeju, so this story of the lives of two young girls growing up and working in their diving collection was both gripping and illuminating.

And as a bonus,

3.

Exiles, by Jane Harper (narrated by Steve Shanahan) – Macmillan Australia, 2022

It was such a delight to follow the detective we’ve met in her earlier novels in this cold case mystery.

GenreCon 2023

The GenreCon 2023 program is now out! I’m very excited to take part in one of the panels at the 8th ‘GenreCon’ coming up on 18-20th February 2023!

GenreCon is hosted by Queensland Writers Centre and takes place at the State Library of Queensland (with some sessions available online).  The program is their usual fabulous mix across genres: sci-fi, fantasy, horror, historical fiction….

The panel I get to contribute to is on the topic ‘Putting the Sci in Sci-Fi’ and is on Saturday 19th February from 2.30 – 3.30 pm. Really looking forward to meeting many favourite authors at the event, including those on the panel: Bryn Smith, Garth Nix, and Jay Kristoff!!

‘Grey Nomad’ – early eBook release!

The paperback version of my sci-fi novel ‘Grey Nomad’ is due for release in early 2023, but you don’t have to wait that long — the publisher has released the eBook version ahead of schedule!

Here’s a taster….

‘There, turn left,’ she shouted. ‘Left!’

The caravan hit the side of the road in a grinding flurry of gravel, and grit strafed the windscreen. Bruce wrestled with the steering wheel to stop them rolling. With a jolt, Joyce’s head hit the rest as the car stopped. Dust swirled and only the clatter of her knitting needles falling to the floor rattled the sudden silence.

‘What the hell do you think you’re doing, shouting at me like that?’ he roared. ‘I don’t know what’s got into you lately.’

‘You missed the turn, that’s what,’ Joyce said tersely. ‘The sign was huge—“Viridian Spaceship” in letters as high as a house. How did you miss it?’

Even if you don’t usually read science fiction, I think you’ll enjoy reading this story of Joyce, a stalwart member of the Country Women’s Association, who at seventy years of age gets abducted by aliens and thrust into the middle of an intragalactic war that threatens Earth. You may have heard of the genre of ‘cosy crime’ – well, I think I may just have written a ‘cosy sci-fi’ book. Alternatively, my editor jokes that ‘Grey Nomad’ is a coming-of-age story!

Anyhow, I’d love you to read my novel – if you like it, then it would be really great if you wrote a review for it on Goodreads, and/or on the site from which you downloaded the book (Apple books, Booktopia, Google Play, Kindle, or Kobo).

Alison

One hundred ways to get writing …

Start a new page, take another step, ask for help, think again, try again

Take a break, sigh, breathe, lie on the floor, try again

Consult a book, click a link, sketch a diagram, dot some points, try again

Clean the bath tiles, go for a walk, sit, do a jig, try again

Type a word, sharpen a pencil, write a list, make a spreadsheet, try again

Sleep, waste some time, tell a friend, tell a stranger, try again

Dunk a tea bag, brew a coffee, eat a biscuit, eat another, try again

Do a course, watch a how-to video, analyse a show, review a book, try again

Join a group, attend presentations, offer feedback, listen to critique, try again

Write ‘the’ as many times as it takes to get bored, write rubbish, free associate, write a paragraph for a genre you hate, try again

Write more rubbish, make a folder called ‘crap’, make a folder called ‘ideas’, fill the folders, try again

Identify a book you love, pick a paragraph at random, read it aloud, ask yourself why it works, try again

Write a paragraph in the style of a favourite author, do that again for an author your spouse likes to read, do it again for a different author, and another, try again

Look back at your ‘ideas’ folder, list the ideas in order of ‘do-ability’, in order of challenge, in order of excitement, try again

Explore the internet for writing competitions, identify a match with any of your ideas, write the deadline on a post-it-note, stick it somewhere you see every day, try again

Rough out some ideas while telling yourself you’re ‘not really writing’, start writing out some sentences and paragraphs among your rough ideas, keep filling in the blanks, smarten up the rough draft so the sentences make sense, try again

Ban yourself from looking at the damn draft again for at least a few days, congratulate yourself with a treat of your choice, write something that ‘doesn’t matter’ just for fun, go back to your rough draft, try again

Bring your draft to a critique group, read your work while someone reads it aloud, underline where they stumble in their reading, keep notes on the listeners’ feedback, try again

Re-draft, re-draft, re-draft, put it away for a day, try again

Submit, breathe, rest, smile, keep trying.

When I’m not writing…

Poetry is always a stretch for me but, inspired by a great workshop by Ed Wright from The Creative Word Shop, this emerged!

‘When I’m not writing, I’m knitting’

My mind is tangled yarn.

I rip my knitting off its needles.

Wool trails from the bin onto the floor,

where lie the fragments of paper from unfinished drafts,

where the vacuum cleaner can no longer go.

If I leave,

If I close the door,

Will my mind unravel?

(Alison Ferguson, 11 June 2022)

Listening to books

The best of 2021

The books I read in print form last year were a disappointment so I won’t share the pain. On the other hand, 2021 brought me some fabulous listening pleasure with the following audio books. As usual, I flit between genres so it’s hard to present them in any particular order. Let me know if you enjoyed any of these too!

Top favourite of 2021

Slow Horses: Slough House, book 1 (2010, John Murray Publishers) by Mick Herron

(audio book narrated by Sean Barrett)

In the first book of the series, we meet British MI5 agent River as he is bungling an important training mission. For this, he gets sent to the sad and miserable dumping ground for failed spies, Slough House.  However, it is River’s boss, Jackson Lamb, who captures our attention for the series. Fat, farting, swearing, smoking, and without a politically correct bone in his body, Lamb torments River and his fellow failures. The plot is intriguing and the writing witty. Best of all, the BBC is currently filming some of the series, with the wonderful Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb, in a cast that includes Kristen Scott-Thomas and Jonathan Pryce.

Best light fare for 2021—two contenders

  1. The Thursday Murder Club (2020, Viking Press) by Richard Osman

(audiobook narrated by Lesley Manville, Richard Osman, Marian Keyes)

Having seen Richard Osman being amusingly knowledgeable on British television game shows, I was intrigued to hear that he’d written a few cosy crime novels. The setting is a retirement village where (shock and horror) the residents are anything but sweet senior citizens. With a ‘Midsomer Murders’ sort of plot, this novel was very much in the style of the author’s personality: clever, warm, with a few unexpected twists and turns.

(audiobook narrated by Zara Ramm)

This is a continuation of a consistently amusing series that is among my favourites. The Time Police were the bad guys in the original ‘Chronicles of St Mary’s’ Series, which is all about historians who ‘investigate major historical events in contemporary time’ (i.e., time travel, but don’t let our heroes hear you say that). In the Time Police series, we follow three raw recruits who don’t fit the usual tough guy Time Police mold.  In this book, they’ve graduated and are doing things in their own hilarious way.

Best Young Adult fiction for 2021

The Rest of Us Just Live Here (2015, Quill Tree Books) by Patrick Ness

(audiobook narrated by James Fouhey)

What happens if you’re the teenagers in the background while the superhero kids go head to head with zombie monsters and mysterious blue lights? This novel uses this fun premise to explore sadder themes that are all too real for adolescents. The writing is tight and the characters are compelling—definitely worth a look.

Best dystopia for 2021

Metro 2033 (2005, English edition Gollancz) by Dmitry Glukhovsky

(audiobook narrated by Rupert Degas)

The novel, originally written in Russian, inspired a widely popular video game. Translated into English, I loved how ‘Russian’ it still felt. Basically, the world above ground has been destroyed and contaminated by nuclear fallout. Our hero, Artyom, lives in the Moscow Metro system where every train station has evolved into its own State while subjected to the ever present threat of the mutant monsters that lurk above. Artyom is entrusted with a quest to deliver an important message. His journey is a post-apocalyptic odyssey where new characters emerge to help or hinder the battles he must fight as he navigates his way through the underground. Warning: it is long, but then—it is Russian!

Best non-fiction for 2021

Educated (Windmill Books, 2018) by Tara Westover

(audiobook narrated by Julia Whelan)

This memoir tells how the author grew up in the back blocks of Idaho, raised in a Mormon family which was dominated by her father whose survivalist ideology became increasingly bizarre and damaging to his wife and children. It’s a grim tale, but written evocatively in a way that allows us to sense the inner resilience that burned within the author who eventually found her way out to engage with formal education and a wider world view.

And finally,

Best re-read for 2021

The Lord of the Rings (1955, Allen & Unwin) by J.R.R. Tolkien

(audiobook narrated by Andy Serkis)

Really, what is there to say? I’ve listened to a couple of versions of Lord of the Rings, but I think Andy Serkis (aka Gollum) is the best narrator. My only complaint is the songs….I confess I skip these when reading LoTR, but I can’t do that in an audiobook very successfully, and Serkis’ singing isn’t up to his voice acting level. Still, good on him for being authentic, I guess!

Great News!

Just wanted to share my good news — I’ve been offered a publishing contract for my sci-fi novel, ‘Grey Nomad’! It’s with Booktopia Publishing (who have expanded from being mainly an online book retailer to publishing as well). After getting a legal contract consultation, I signed on Friday — so lots of champagne this weekend! 

I’ve put up a few posts about this story before, and I’ve kept working on it, encouraged by earlier drafts being shortlisted for the Brio Books Fantastica Prize in 2019, and for the Queensland Writers’ Centre Adaptable program in 2020. Lots of revising and great editing advice has got it to the stage it is now. I know that there’s still a whole lot more polishing to go, but what a joy to be able to undertake revisions knowing that sometime soonish (maybe toward the end of next year????) I’ll be able to share the story itself.