~ True Stories Told Live ~

Last weekend, I went to our local annual writer’s festival. Each year, the festival offers a diverse range of inspiring events, rare opportunities to hear from the best writers in New Zealand and the world. This year, 200 writers converged, coming from Aotearoa, the UK, the USA, Canada, Australia, and Asia. With my writing group, the Fabulatores, we attended three out of the six days of events. The trusty notebook I’ve kept notes in since 2008 has gained ten more pages of entries! The first session we attended was the opening gala night, Thursday 18 May. ‘True Stories Told Live.’ Designed to celebrate the first fully in-person festival since 2020’s cancellation because of lockdown restrictions and the ensuing years’ reliance on Zoom for the international quotient. My friends and I found our way to the vertiginous seats in the balcony, and we were amazed by the way the Kiri te Kanawa Theatre filled. Without any doubt, the festival is gaining in popularity every year, with over 40,000 tickets sold and organizers reporting that nearly 20% of the audience were there for the first time. You could feel the electricity of excitement in the air, the joy of being in the same room as these highly talented people, and an audience of appreciative like-minded peers.

After a beautiful Maori welcome and song, Kathleen Drum, the chief executive, gave the opening address. She confessed her son had suggested she compose her speech with the help of a chatbot. But, while the resulting AI speech options had been adequate they were also ponderous, awkward, and lacked the unique touch of human perspective. Kathleen chose to write her own speech instead. Huzzah!
After another opening address or two by the organizers, we moved on to the main event. Eight bestselling/prizewinning authors were invited to stand up and tell stories, without props or script, inspired by a prompt. What was the prompt? They didn’t tell us. However, one friend from my writing group figured it must have had something to do with power as most speakers alluded to it in some way.

Dr. Hinemoa Elder set the tone, beginning with, “Words might be small but they have a vast back story. Our ears tune into the vibration of words.” “A thrust from a weapon can be parried but a verbal tirade cannot. What I bear witness to is the malignant power of online words.” And she shared the work she is doing to introduce laws to protect people from trolling/online bullying.
Joshua Whitehead spoke of his Native American Indian belief in relatedness. “We talk about being in relation to the rocks, trees, water, the animals. Our language says to be in relation to all things, all at once.”
Graci Kim confessed she’d always believed she’d die at 27. After experiencing coming close to death at that age, when a concrete truck hit and killed the two people walking behind her, she changed her life. She realized it ‘wasn’t about doing everything you can, but about meaning.’ She left her diplomatic career and started writing children’s fiction.
Bernadine Evaristo revealed the way she had to give up her old habits of ignoring any man she fancied, in order to build a relationship with the man she liked. The power of vulnerability led to a great relationship and marriage.
Dr. Que Mai Nguyen Phan said, “Along with vegetables, (her parents) fed mythology, songs, and literature to build me up, to teach me to dream.”
William Sitwell told a number of hilarious stories about his days as “a young scribbler” (journalist), incl. having to impersonate Dame Barbara Cartland in public and making the front page of the national newspaper in drag.

Kiwi filmmaker, Gaylene Preston, said when she was four she was a ‘terrible liar.’ One day she visited their neighbours, the Bones, from whose house came the smell of fresh pikelets. ‘”I told them, Simon is over.” Mrs. Bones said, “Simon from the radio? What does he look like?” I said, “He’s got freckles and red hair.” I wasn’t used to the attention. She told her husband, Jack, to come and listen. I embellished the story. I got two pikelets. I was thrilled. I’d found the power of the audience.”
And lastly, Anthony Joseph, the 2023 winner of the TS Eliot Prize, spoke of the power of love. “I tell my students, you have to love what you do. If you love it enough it’ll give up its secrets.”
We listened, learned, and laughed. It was so much fun and a great start to the weekend. Over the coming weeks, I’ll share more of the content of the writers’ festival and do my best to impart some of the flavor, though it has to be said, nothing beats being there.
Have you been to any conferences or festivals lately? What did you think?

Talk to you later.
Keep creating!
Yvette Carol

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“Everyone went to school and I was left with all these women doing housework. Of course, I had to make things up.” Gaylene Preston

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~ A Book Review: The Hunting of the Last Dragon, Sherryl Jordan ~

I have finished reading my eighth novel for 2023, The Hunting of the Last Dragon, by Sherryl Jordan. I’m proud to say that Jordan is a Kiwi author and this influenced my decision to buy the book. As a technically proficient author, I knew there would be no need to worry about scene setting, or characters, or storyline. I could relax and enjoy the ride. And, I did.
First published in 2002, The Hunting of the Last Dragon is written in a unique way. Our protagonist, Jude, is an illiterate young man living in 13th-century England. Staying at a monastery, Jude narrates the story to a monk, who is writing his story along with everything else he’s saying, which adds some great humour. It starts with ‘The tale of Jude of Doran. As told to Brother Benedict at the Monastery of St. Edmund at Minstan, who recorded it faithfully, making this a true and correct record of the hunting of the last dragon and of the events that happened at Alfric’s Cove.’

By framing the story this way, Jordan can write it in a conversational way. Jude starts by remembering the high point of facing down the dragon, speaking in the first person, then addressing the monk, “I saw the way you rolled your eyes just then, Brother Benedict…” Then Jude sets his mind to rewind, telling the monk (and the reader) that he must start at the beginning. Yes, we all cry, that is where we want a story to start! Already, we are warming to this framework and style of narration. It’s a nifty literary trick, one I immediately admired/envied as a writer.
In this way, Jude relates his terrible tale. Although the populace of the countryside in medieval England believed there were no more dragons, when Jude returns to his village, he finds Doran is little more than smoking ruins. All the village people and his family have been burnt to cinders. With nowhere to go and the growing suspicion that the culprit is a dragon, Jude flees to join the circus (a freak and acrobat show). Jude has to take care of the prize “freak” of the show, a young Chinese woman with bound feet called Lizzie or Jing-Wei.

The friendship that develops between Jude and Jing-Wei is not forced. It unfolds naturally as the story evolves. One thing leads to another and Jude releases her from her cage. After a perilous escape, the pair overcome the language barrier and learn about each other. They reach the home of a woman believed to be a witch, but Old Lan is a Chinese wise woman. She heals Jing-Wei’s feet so that she can walk again. While staying at her house, the dragon flies down and steals their bread. It has attacked more villages and killed more people. Though Jude is a reticent hero who is afraid to tackle the problem, luckily Old Lan and Jing-Wei are not. Lan reveals she has a secret weapon from the old country (gunpowder) that will kill the dragon, and with the women’s help, Jude finds the courage to do the deed. I must admit I felt a bit sorry for the dragon because it dies a pretty horrible death.
At the end of the book, Jude and Jing-Wei realize they have feelings for each other and marry. I had thought they would never get together. I was pleased with the organic way their romance unfolded and seemed utterly plausible. The Hunting of the Last Dragon was a satisfying read, though the book felt a little short. I was left wishing for a bit more.

Sherryl Jordan was born in Hawera, New Zealand, in 1949. She started by writing picture books before moving on to fantasy for teens and YA. She received a 1993 fellowship to the prestigious writing program at the University of Iowa, which established her as a writer. Her book, A Time of Darkness, published in the USA, gained her a fan following. Now, with 32 titles to her name, Sherryl Jordan is quoted as saying in the St. James Guide to Children’s Writers, “All my young adult novels have been gifts. I don’t think them up. They hit me over the head when I least expect them; overwhelm me with impressions, sights, and sounds of their new worlds; enchant me with their characters; and dare me to write them.”
Love that!
My rating: Three stars

Talk to you later.
Keep reading!
Yvette Carol
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“Remember, Jude, the worst dragons are the ones in your mind.” ~ from The Hunting of the Last Dragon

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~ IWSG: Writing Inspiration ~

It’s time for another group posting of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group! Time to release our fears to the world or offer encouragement to those who are feeling neurotic. If you’d like to join us, click on the tab above and sign up. We post on the first Wednesday of every month. Every month, the organizers announce a question that members can answer in their IWSG Day post. Remember, the question is optional!!! Let’s rock the neurotic writing world!
Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG.

May 3 question – When you are working on a story, what inspires you?
Everything. Absolutely everything. In every book I read. Every podcast I listen to. Every movie I watch. In every conversation I have. Every walk. Every shower. Every change in the weather. Every song on the radio. Every scenic view of nature. Every person or animal I observe. Every glint of the sun on the waves. Every sweet-smelling rose. While I am in the zone working on a story, it’s as if I become magnetic, drawing in a plethora of observations each day. Sometimes they are the most ordinary things, which a moment ago were lifeless. Mundane situations take on a new meaning and inform me in new ways. Suddenly, I feel driven to jot notes. As a book progresses, the folder of scribbles grows bigger and more detailed. The piles of notes slowly surround my laptop, stacking up on my desk. While working on a story, the ideas don’t stop. Jottings spread throughout the house, appearing scrawled sideways up the calendar, written on the backs of envelopes, and random receipts, odd scraps of paper – which I then have to save. They keep coming. By the time I finish a book, I have tons of scribbled notes everywhere and will spend half a day trying to figure out if I can bear to part with any of them. If there are ideas I haven’t used, which often is the case, then I might use them for future books, so how can I throw them away? This is why I have plastic tubs full of manuscripts and all their accompanying folders of notes stacked in storage. I never know when I might need to use them.

When I did Tiffany Lawson Inman’s writing class, Method to Madness, with the Lawson Writer’s Academy in 2012, we did various writing exercises. As a trained Method actor, Tiffany applied the techniques actors use to relax and get into character as a way for writers to get into the zone and let the inspiration flow.
“Tension is a creator’s worst enemy,” Tiffany said. We learned to use relaxation techniques and exercise as the key ways to access our creativity. We learned it was important to exercise daily. The combination of moving the body to get the blood flowing and then relaxing completely worked like a magic formula to unlock creativity.
One of the writing exercises Tiffany gave us was to describe ordinary moments in exponential detail. The idea is to take an ordinary moment like sipping a cup of hot chocolate, and slow it down, noting every single possible aspect, from the appearance of the cup and the liquid, to the aromas, to the feel of the cup, the liquid, and write down every minute aspect we could garner.

It was a good way of unlocking perception, and always had the result of sparking my creative thoughts or, as my grandmother used to call them, the “inspired whatevers.”
There is something about being inspired by what you do that generates more inspiration. And then it is like tapping into the fountain of eternal youth or the never-ending porridge pot, the fodder, the creativity continues. I feel as if I go from zero to a hundred in a minute. Or is it that the ideas – the sparkles – are always there, but we are not normally open to noticing them? Then, when it is time to work on a story, is it that we allow ourselves to open the portals, and all the input flows in?
Either way, once underway on a story, I usually feel overwhelmed with ideas from every corner. The “inspired whatevers” feel infinite, exciting, and fabulous.
What about you? What inspires you?

Keep Writing!
Yvette Carol
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“Can I persuade you that physical tension paralyzes our whole capacity for action, our dynamism, how muscular tension is connected to our minds,” said the acting teacher Konstantin Stanislavski.

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~ A Book Review: The Dragon Prince, BOOK ONE: THE MOON, Aaron Ehasz & Melanie McGanney Ehasz ~

I have finished reading my seventh novel for 2023, The Dragon Prince, BOOK ONE: THE MOON, by Aaron Ehasz & Melanie McGanney Ehasz. This is one of those books picked up on a whim purely by the title and the look of the cover. Didn’t read the back cover, not the first page, nothing. The story premise is that the criminal act of humans trespassing into the fantasy land of Xadia, and destroying the only egg of the Dragon King and Queen, resulted in the 1000-year war between the 5 Human Kingdoms and the Xadian Elves. Our female protagonist, Kayla, is a Moonshadow elf assassin passionately pursuing her first self-created mission: to kill the human king Harrow and the young prince Ezran.

Before she can fulfill her quest, determined Rayla witnesses Ezran and his brother, Callum, make an astonishing discovery: the dragon egg the world thought was destroyed is intact. There is a delightful shift in focus for Rayla from revenge killing to uniting with the humans in an exciting bid to save the egg and bring peace. The goal becomes big enough for us to care about. I think that’s what I liked most about the story. It’s refreshing for a character to change trajectory completely, and I enjoyed that. What I didn’t like so much, the book never seemed to flesh out the characters quite enough to satisfy, despite the book being over 260 pages. If it was a shorter book aimed at a younger audience then the simple structure would fit.

Not having heard of the title before, I’ve got to be honest, I finished this book thinking, what am I missing? Then, I checked the book by reading the back cover and researching online. That was when the penny dropped. BOOK ONE: MOON is a canon novel based on the latest Netflix original series, The Dragon Prince. The books have been written for a specific purpose, to serve an established fan base, to embellish upon a world and characters already known to the audience.
Once I knew this, I felt I understood BOOK ONE: MOON, and from there, I could appreciate it as a decent companion novel. The story premise is decent, and the characters are endearing. I would probably happily read the whole series. However, it goes without saying that the ideal scenario would be to watch the Netflix series before reading the books.

The Dragon Prince series was created and developed by Aaron Gabriel Ehasz (born June 16, 1973), an American screenwriter. Ehasz was the head writer for AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER.” Also a television producer, he is co-creator of the Netflix series The Dragon Prince. Ehasz wrote the paperback series with his wife, Melanie McGanney. Melanie is a New York native with a master’s in English literature. The novels, BOOK ONE: MOON, followed by BOOK TWO: SKY and BOOK THREE: SUN were lapped up by fans. The word on the street is that hopes are high for further installments in the future.
This is a tricky book to rate, considering the genre. But I’ll do it anyway.
My rating: Two stars

Talk to you later.
Keep reading!
Yvette Carol
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But we have to take whatever beauty we can get, however, we can get it. ~ George Saunders

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~ A Book Review: Dark Alchemy, incl. Garth Nix, Eoin Golfer, Neil Gaiman ~

I have finished reading my sixth novel for 2023, Dark Alchemy, Magical Tales from Masters of Modern Fantasy, incl. Garth Nix, Eoin Colfer, and Neil Gaiman. Dark stories and horror are not my normal fare. But, I was hooked by the list of acclaimed authors contributing. A bit of a scaredy-cat, I read the first story, The Witch’s Headstone, by Neil Gaiman, clutching my bedcovers tight. The story read like a classic fairytale. Rather than being scared out of my wits, I relaxed into being charmed by the experience. You felt reassured that this was a well-told story, a little dark, and in just the right amounts. So I let go of the sides and enjoyed the ride. It was a fine tale that made me keen to read more. There are too many to review each one separately, eighteen in all, including stories by Garth Nix, Mary Rosenblum, Kage Baker, Eoin Colfer, one of my favourites, Jane Yolen, Orsen Scott Card, Patricia A McKillip, Elizabeth Hand, Andy Duncan, Peter S Beagle, Nancy Kress, Tanith Lee, Terry Bilson, Terry Dowling, and Gene Wolfe.

By the time I’d finished reading the second dark tale, Holly and Iron, by Garth Nix, I had confirmed my original hope that these horror stories were not going to scar me for life, and therefore, from the third story, Color Vision, by Mary Rosenblum, I read with unbridled enthusiasm. I thoroughly enjoyed Dark Alchemy. I thought each author brought their “A” game, and there is nuance to the twists and the surprises that delight. I’ve read many anthologies. This one, Dark Alchemy, definitely makes the top ten list.
‘From dark graveyards to great halls, with witches and wizards and lonely souls, these startling and original stories weave a magic all of their own.’ Released by Bloomsbury in 2007, Dark Alchemy: Magical Tales from Masters of Modern Fantasy promised brand-new fiction from great modern fantasy authors. Who could resist? Add to that, the trio of top liners appearing on the cover, Garth Nix, Eoin Colfer, and Neil Gaiman, who are all at the height of their game.

Garth Richard Nix, 19 July 1963, is an Australian fantasy writer specializing in children’s and young adult fantasy novels. His books have received acclaim, especially the Old Kingdom, Seventh Tower, and Keys to the Kingdom series. Nix also writes articles for the role-playing field, including those for Dungeons & Dragons and Traveller. He will occasionally write case studies, articles, and news items in the information technology field, publishing in Computerworld and PCWorld. Nix currently lives in Sydney with his family.

Eoin Colfer, 14 May 1965, is an author of children’s books. Born in Wexford, Ireland. He graduated from Dublin University with a bachelor’s degree in Education. After a short stint as a primary school teacher, he turned to write full-time. He was formerly best known for the Artemis Fowl series. However, this fame was eclipsed in September 2008, when Colfer was commissioned to write the sixth installment of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series, titled And Another Thing …, published in October 2009. In October 2016, with the blessing of Marvel Comics, he released Iron Man: The Gauntlet. Colfer’s books have reached the New York Times list. He has also received many awards, including the British Children’s Book of the Year, The Irish Book Awards Children’s Book of the Year, and The German Children’s Book of the Year.

Neil Richard MacKinnon Gaiman, 10 November 1960, is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, nonfiction, and films. The first author to win the Newbery and Carnegie medals for the same work – The Graveyard Book – Gaiman has so far authored classics in each of the genres he’s interested in, primarily fantasy, horror, and science fiction. For example, the comic book series The Sandman was one of the first graphic novels ever to be on the New York Times Best Seller list. In addition, several of Gaiman’s novels – such as Stardust, American Gods, and Coraline – have been adapted into successful movies or TV series.
‘Prepare to be mesmerized by this spellbinding collection,’ says the marketing material, and for once, the marketing material is right. This anthology makes a stellar read.
My rating: Nearly four stars

Talk to you later.
Keep reading!
Yvette Carol
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“Dream as if you’ll live forever, live as if you’ll die today.” – James Dean

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~ Another (true) Flood Story ~

I met Sal when she came into our lives to help with my son Samuel, who has Down syndrome and Autism. Three afternoons a week, I could rely on Sal’s support, and we grew to know one another well in the ten years she worked for us. Since then, Sal and I have stayed in contact, getting together a number of times a year to celebrate milestones, birthdays, and at Christmas, to exchange gifts and spend hours talking and catching up. An ex-nurse, who has dedicated her life after nursing to caring for people with special needs, Sal, is an Irish whirlwind.

A few weeks ago, I went to her place to have lunch and celebrate her 72nd birthday. Sal, said, “Have I got a story to tell you…” Of course, I sat forward in my chair.
And that’s when she told me her amazing flood story.
Sal was not supposed to work the night of the cyclone, Feb 28th. But, she had left some important papers at the house of Mary and Peter, her highly disabled clients, and dropped over after dinner to pick them up. After collecting her papers, Sal hurried to her car. She noticed the rain was falling more heavily, and there seemed to be a lot of surface water as she drove out of the street. However, she was not too worried.
Then she noticed police officers putting traffic cones across the T-junction ahead. The officers stopped her to say the road was closed due to flooding. She would have to go back and sit tight. Sal returned to Mary and Peter’s house, which along with four other units was set well below the level of the street in the lowest part of the neighbourhood. Though she was not worried about that. Not yet.
Sal splashed through the water around her ankles to get to the house. She went inside and explained to Mary and Peter that she was unable to leave the area until the threat of flooding had subsided. The trio listened to the radio to catch live weather updates. But, Sal also had one eye on the torrential downpour outside and the lake forming in the front yard.

The lake grew until it started seeping into the house. That was when Sal started to worry. Dirty, frigid water gradually filled her shoes and inched past her ankles. She immediately took her phone out and rang emergency services. “I’m with two highly disabled people, and the house is flooding. We need rescue.”
“Sorry, we are inundated with callouts. We don’t have enough ambulances. If you can get your clients out of the house try to get them to higher ground.”
Help was not coming. The water was rising rapidly. It was up to Sal’s knees. The fridge toppled over. The cabinet of crockery fell face forward with an enormous crash.
“Quick, the kitchen,” Sal said, thinking it was a couple of steps higher than the living room. She pushed Mary’s wheelchair up the ramp. The washing machine fell into the water next. (Later, they discovered that the power company had thankfully turned off all the power to the area when the flooding had started).
Sal quickly realized the water would soon overwhelm Mary in her wheelchair and Peter seated on his walker.
Despite having arthritis and a bad shoulder, Sal lifted Mary out of her wheelchair and laid her on the kitchen counter. The water was already creeping up the cabinets. Mary, a tetraplegic nearly slid off the counter, so Sal flung open a window and stretched Mary’s hand to the window, saying, “Grip onto this ledge and don’t let go.”

Sal rang her son. She told him to take his phone to the neighbour’s house and for both of them to ring emergency services until someone agreed to rescue them. She said, “I will have to use my other hand to hold Peter, so I won’t be able to make any more calls. Please keep ringing until you get a response.”
Next, Sal pulled Peter from his walker and pushed him into the corner of the kitchen, propping him upright by standing in front of him with one hand against his chest. With the water level rising steadily, Sal, said to the otherwise empty kitchen, “You ancestors and guardian angels, anyone in spirit, I’m calling in all my favours. We need help. Now.”
“I’M COLD!” said Peter, over and over.
“I know. Hold on,” said Sal. The water reached her chest. She started to scream “HELP! HELP US! PLEASE HELP!”
The water kept rising. Sal steadied Peter with one hand and held her good arm high keeping her phone dry, screaming over and over, “HELP! HELP!”
As the water reached her chin, the nose of a surfboard floated through the kitchen window. She could hardly believe her eyes.
“Don’t worry. I’m here!” said Douglas, the son of her neighbour. He had responded to his mother’s call that Sal was in trouble by racing down there in his van, talking his way through police cordons, borrowing a surfboard from the neighbour’s on the dry side of the street, and paddling out onto the sea of rising water, following the sound of her screams to locate her.
Sal couldn’t get any words out. She couldn’t move.
“It’s okay, don’t worry,” said Douglas, “we’ll get you all out of here.”
Out of the water in front of her, two black heads appeared. Police divers. They had responded to Sal’s son and the neighbour’s phone calls.

“Here, love, it’s all right. We’ve got you.” They removed the phone from her stiff hand and grabbed hold of Peter. “You can let go of him now.”
“I can’t,” she gasped, “move.” Her hand had frozen in place. She could not physically let go of her charge.
The policeman prised her fingers open gently one by one. Then he took Peter. The second diver rescued Mary. More divers arrived, borrowing the surfboard from Douglas, and asked Sal if she could climb on.
Sal could not move an inch. The policeman had to hoist her up with one hand under her derriere (there was no time for embarrassment) and with another diver on the other side to help hold her in place, they floated her out of the house on the surfboard back to the road and dry land. The waiting crowd of neighbours, and emergency services clapped and cheered.
“You’re a hero, you know,” said the policeman who assisted Sal to the ambulance, where a medic checked her condition. “If it hadn’t been for you and your actions, your clients would be dead now.”
“I did what anyone in my position would have done,” Sal said. Even though she was bruised all over, saturated, and on the point of hypothermia, she would not go home until Peter and Mary had left in the ambulance. Unhurt aside from the full-body bruising, Sal said the state of shock, however, impacted her greatly, lingering for a month after that fateful night of Feb 28.
What a story. The way I understand it, family and friends have been praising this admirable woman. To her, there was no heroism involved. No, seriously, Sal. It’s reassuring to know there are people like her out there in the world who still can be counted on to put other people’s welfare before their own. You know, heroes.
I feel proud and privileged to call her my friend.
What about you? Have you ever known a real hero?

Keep Writing!
Yvette Carol
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(*Names have been changed to protect their identity)

The world is changed by your example and not your opinion. ~ Paulo Coelho

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~ IWSG: Writing Pathways ~

It’s time for another group posting of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group! Time to release our fears to the world or offer encouragement to those who are feeling neurotic. If you’d like to join us, click on the tab above and sign up. We post on the first Wednesday of every month. Every month, the organizers announce a question that members can answer in their IWSG Day post. Remember, the question is optional!!! Let’s rock the neurotic writing world!
Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG.

April 5 question – Do you remember writing your first book?
Like it was yesterday. My first book was called The Survivors, which I started writing to pass the time when I was a young stay-at-home mum. And it was fantasy fiction for children, so it has long been my chosen genre. I remember the sheer joy I felt escaping through the window of my imagination while my baby was sleeping. The story followed the escape and epic journey of a tribe of little critters called Scrifs who were searching for a home. The bad guys were the Stirrits riding grotesque birds that looked like pterodactyls.

The characters sprang from my pen with such velocity in those days. I recall spending a lot of time doodling them down the margins of the page – little pen & ink critters doing different actions. They were so alive in my mind. For those periods of writing each day, I could be somewhere else, not the 17-year-old with her hands in a napisan bucket two times a day, washing cloth nappies – we had no washing machine, nor could we afford disposables. With the flick of a biro on a pad of foolscap paper, I could be in another, better world, having the adventures of 100 lifetimes. It was exhilarating. That was when I got bitten by the bug of writing fiction. Truly. Completely.

What were your thoughts about a career path in writing?

Those were the days before attending workshops, children’s literature festivals, or conferences, before reading any books on the craft, joining any writers’ groups, or listening to any lectures. I had no thoughts. I was like the wonderful self-published author, Chris Parker, who talked to my friend’s writing group last weekend, unaffiliated to anyone or anything and wholly unaware of the industry.

As a complete greenhorn, I wrote to please myself. I wrote for my child and the eternal child within me. I wrote for the unadulterated bliss of it.
It wasn’t until a few years later that I heard of Wendy Pye Publishing, which was one of the biggest traditional children’s publishers in New Zealand at the time. First, I studied all their books. Then, I started writing (and illustrating) similar short stories for 5 – 7-year-olds in the classroom. Two stories got shortlisted, and one Wendy Pye held onto for over a year before finally returning them to me unpublished. Over the intervening years, I started submitting manuscripts for children’s stories to different publishers. Two books were again shortlisted – one they would publish if I let them change all the characters’ names. The other they would publish but would only pay 5%, half the going rate for unsolicited manuscripts at the time. I turned both offers down.

Where are you now, and how is it working out for you?

Today I’m an indie author with three books in print and stories in two anthologies. I reached a certain point where I stopped waiting for someone else to say my stories were good enough for publication. These days authors have options. I published my books, releasing my trilogy, The Chronicles of Aden Weaver, in 2020. And I can tell you that was one of the most satisfying moments in my life. It took about a week for the smile to wear off after the launch day. I felt I was in charge of my destiny and that felt fine.
I’m working on the first book in my next middle-grade series at present with my stellar writing group, The Fabulatores. I write in my “spare time” at the weekends, and I fully intend to write as long as I’m alive. I heard it said that you know you’ve found your life purpose when you’d be willing to do it even if you never received any money. That’s the way I feel about story writing. I hope to be like Barbara Cartland, who lived to a ripe old age and was still propped up in bed, writing her romance stories by hand, at the very end of her life. Can’t think of a better way to go.
What about you? Where are you now?

Keep Writing!
Yvette Carol
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‘I once heard someone say that “given infinite time, anything can happen.” ~ George Saunders

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~ A Book Review: A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, by George Saunders ~

I have finished reading my fifth novel for 2023, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain (in which Four Dead Russians Give us a Master Class on Writing and Life) by George Saunders. A birthday gift from the eldest sister, a person who always puts a lot of thought into her gifts, I looked forward to reading it. From the first lines, I was hooked. An esteemed Man Booker Prize-winning author, George Saunders has been teaching a Russian short story class at Syracuse University since 1997. The idea behind this book is to give us an idea of what he teaches about the short story. While the rest of us probably won’t ever make it into the class, (of the 6-700 applicants each year, they pick 6), we can get an insight into Saunders’ course through A Swim in a Pond in the Rain. It is written in the way of sharing short stories by Russian masters one at a time, then Saunders shows us step-by-step how the story is constructed, what the authors did, and why. We learn through the examples of the greats. What a cool concept.

George Saunders, astutely and with great humour (I guffawed aloud numerous times), proceeds to dissect each story written by Tolstoy, Chekhov, Gogol, and Turgenev and to look in depth at how they work. Saunders writes, “The aim of this book is mainly diagnostic: If a story drew us in, kept us reading, made us feel respected, how did it do that?” It ticks an automatic “like” from me because – being a mostly self-taught writer – I’m always hungry for more, seeking new information and learning. However, I am sure A Swim in a Pond in the Rain would provide a captivating insight into the world of fiction for anyone, writer or not.
George Saunders (born in 1958, in Amarillo, Texas) is an American writer. He received a B.S. from the Colorado School of Mines in 1981 and an M.F.A. from Syracuse University in 1988. Married with two children, he wrote his first book, CivilWarLand in Bad Decline, a collection of dystopian stories published in 1996. More short-story collections followed, however, he is best known for his debut novel, Lincoln in the Bardo. The book became a bestseller and was awarded the Booker Prize in 2017. A Swim in a Pond in the Rain is a series of essays by Saunders on 19th-century Russian writers, published in 2021. Saunders’ Liberation Day is a collection of short stories he released in 2022.

I think there are some books where you can tell from the first few words that it is the “right fit” for you, and an eagerness is born within. I warmed to the innate optimism immediately in A Swim in a Pond. “There’s a vast underground network for goodness at work in the world,” Saunders writes. “A web of people who’ve put reading at the center of their lives because they know from experience that reading makes them more expansive, generous people.” My sentiments exactly.
There were things I learned about writing through the course of reading this novel. And there were many things I confirmed through reading it. For instance, Saunders echoed my understanding that writing a story doesn’t happen through planning but is created from almost dead words through the alchemy of editing. “The actual process, in my experience, is much more mysterious and beautiful and more of a pain in the ass to discuss truthfully.”
Parul Sehgal of the New York Times, in his piece, George Saunders Conducts a Cheery Class on Fiction’s Possibilities, said, “He offers one of the most accurate and beautiful depictions of what it is like to be inside the mind of the writer that I’ve ever read — that state of heightened alertness, lightning-quick decisions.” Yes. I couldn’t agree more.

It was a master class, as promised. We learned about the need for efficiency, velocity, specificity, and escalation. “That’s all a story is, really: a continual system of escalation,” explains Saunders. “A swath of prose earns its place in the story to the extent that it contributes to our sense that the story is (still) escalating.”
There was a lot to praise. And I loved the idea of listening “to the wisdom of the novel” when editing, which Saunders describes thus, “Every true novelist listens for that suprapersonal wisdom, which explains why great novels are always a little more intelligent than their authors. That’s what craft is: a way to open ourselves up to the suprapersonal wisdom within us.” Woohoo. What more could we need? A smart author putting into words some of the essences of the mystery that is fiction writing. Bliss.
The only question I have left is, will there be a second Master Class book?
My rating: (A totally rare) Five stars

Talk to you later.
Keep reading!
Yvette Carol
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‘A person can hardly read even a few lines of Tolstoy without feeling her interest in life renewed.’ ~ George Saunders

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~ A Book Review: The Dragonslayer’s Apprentice, by David Calder ~

I have finished reading my fourth novel for 2023, The Dragonslayer’s Apprentice, by David Calder. I wasn’t sure what to expect from this slim novel which I picked up for a dollar at a local book fair, apart from expecting a few dragons. It turned out to be a story about Jackie, a fifteen-year-old female dragonslayer’s apprentice, though written from the point of view of the Dragonslayer. The story is set in medieval times and follows the fortunes of the Dragonslayer as he and his team attend various towns in need of their services. Jackie is not the male apprentice her master had wanted. The Dragonslayer, (who remains unnamed throughout) thinks he must be “stark-staring, raving mad” to take on young Jackie. Naturally, we expect the story will prove that he was right to take a chance on a female apprentice, and with a few adventures along the way, that is what happens.

One of the first things that struck me about this novel was the tone. It was tongue-in-cheek. The Dragonslayer noticed that it took each of the latter about ten minutes to say, in effect, that they had nothing to say. Why don’t they have a meeting with the beast and just bore it to death, he thought. From the get-go, we realize this book is not taking itself seriously, which is fun for the child reader. The enigmatic assistant, Ron, says ‘two words a day’, and his gestures and grunts are interpreted by the Dragonslayer in regular comedic installments. He translates a nod as, “I’ve unpacked the equipment, checked it, sharpened everything, made repairs where necessary, oiled everything, laid it out in order, and locked it up safely.” LOL.
First published by Scholastic New Zealand Ltd, in 1997, with the tagline, “She’s smarter than Xena, funnier than Guinevere, and spunkier than Catherine (a.k.a. Birdy). She’s Jackie, Dragonslayer-in-training, and she’s moving through the land to kick some major tail!” I like that. These days girl power is trending. I suspect that back in the 90s, the idea was new and exciting. Kudos to Calder. The problem was, despite the official backing of a traditional publisher, the book failed to launch, which is a shame because the characters are there and it’s a decent story.

No one can really ever say how another person’s story should be written. Art is art. However, in my opinion, there is not enough structure. I prefer the structure nailed down. The plot arc pertains to Jackie being a female in a “traditionally” male role. She faces sexism throughout, with most folks being surprised by her gender and then dumbfounded when she dispatches the monsters. Toward the end of the book, the Dragonslayer realizes Jackie is a worthy apprentice, and the guild of dragonslayers welcomes Jackie to the guild. We discover she is a princess who had feared the royal family would disapprove of her apprenticeship to the Dragonslayer. The king and queen, who are in attendance, accept her back into the family fold. I feel it would develop that connection and tension for us readers if the fact that Jackie was a runaway princess had been introduced in the beginning. Then by her endeavours, and her adventures, if she had built the courage to triumph, face her parents, and get welcomed into the guild, we could engage with her on a deeper level. But Jackie’s feelings about her parents and her royal heritage do not appear until the last four pages of the book. It could have proved the emotional heart of the story. And, unfortunately, from the point of view of character arcs, Jackie starts smart and sassy and ends up more or less the same way, too, which is a lost writing opportunity.
A great story is about cause and effect. The reader endures the building tension to see if the characters will get through/win the day, know the answers to the story questions, and rise through the arc of their journey. With The Dragonslayer’s Apprentice, the small band accompanies the Dragonslayer traveling from one town to another to defeat various beasts. Surprisingly there is only one dragon. There is a giant kitten (?), a pair of monstrous killer birds, and a woman claiming to be a witch. Jackie gradually proves herself a worthy apprentice. It is a good enough story in itself. But, it could have been so much better if the chapters had been better connected to build the tension necessary to keep us turning pages. When you reach the end of the book, there is not enough emotional payoff. No cause and effect; no payoff.

When I realized the author was a New Zealander, I looked up David Calder to learn more. He is a Kiwi-American author of two novels who cites his influences as F Scott Fitzgerald, Wilbur Smith, and Bernard Cornwell. Calder has a fascinating backstory. He was a soldier during the Vietnam era and had two engineering careers in the US, in automotive and software businesses, before transitioning to full-time writing. These days, Calder divides his time between a small horse farm in the Waitakere Ranges north of Auckland in New Zealand, as well as his base in Long Beach, Southern California. He is working on a follow-up to Redemption Cove, set in southern France, and another Israeli terrorism novel.

My rating: One and a half stars

Talk to you later.
Keep reading!
Yvette Carol
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“Act I — Get your character up a tree; Act II — throw rocks at him; Act III — get him down again.” ~ Anne R. Allen

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~ IWSG: Book Envy ~

It’s time for another group posting of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group! Time to release our fears to the world or offer encouragement to those who are feeling neurotic. If you’d like to join us, click on the tab above and sign up. We post on the first Wednesday of every month. Every month, the organizers announce a question that members can answer in their IWSG Day post. Remember, the question is optional!!! Let’s rock the neurotic writing world!
Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG.

March 1 question – Have you ever read a line in novel or a clever plot twist that caused you to have author envy?
All the time! My gosh, I couldn’t begin to count how many times that has happened. Isn’t it fairly typical of all writers (and artists) that we compare ourselves unfavourably to those peers we most admire?
In the last few years, I’ve read some stellar novels. The boys and I read Mortal Engines, the first book in the award-winning Mortal Engines quartet, by Philip Reeve, and every night, after reading, we’d have to talk it over. We could not read four pages and go to bed silently. I thought, wow, imagine publishing a book that stirred people that way. The unique dystopian world, the images raised large in our minds, the issues brought to life clamoured to be heard. The boys and I would end up having long existential conversations, in consequence, thinking about pollution, progress, and what we would do if… I felt deep envy of the vastness of the concept Reeve had conjured. It was so fresh and keen, the world-building first class, the story gripping. It was dangerous and scary at times, touching at others, spellbinding – it had it all. And, boy, did I wish I’d thought of the sheer scope of the Mortal Engines world.

Another book that stands out is Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield. This one is mainly because of the lyrical style of storytelling and the truly intriguing central question, that of a drowned girl who, hours later, seemingly comes back to life. How? This perplexing mystery draws us through incredibly detailed depictions of country life revolving around the enigmatic Thames River. Unfortunately, the answer to the mystery lets the whole novel down. Therefore, any feelings I’d had of wishing I’d written the enchantingly detailed body of the book had dissipated by the end.
Then there was Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, a tour de force of world-building enough to make any fantasy writer quake with covetousness. From the astonishing opening, I read with my mouth agog. It begins:
When the Moon rose in the Third Northern Hall I went to the Ninth Vestibule
Entry for the first day of the fifth month in the year the albatross came to the south-western halls

And with those words, one finds oneself ushered into the House, which shares its halls with the tide and the earnest, endearing Piranesi, the only living inhabitant of the House apart from the strange weekly visits from a man he calls the Other. So beguiling, so otherworldly, so clever, and haunting was this novel that I literally “looked forward” to every chance I got to read some more. As with Mortal Engines, I found myself thinking about Piranesi long after each day’s reading. I was absorbed. And the twist was killer. What I envied most was the world-building prowess demonstrated by Clarke. Being a fantasy author, I know how hard it is to build a world out of thin air, and to do so as convincingly as this was awe-inspiring. The world of the House was so real in my mind I wished I could go there. Piranesi won the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2021 and was chosen as Book of the Year by The Times, Guardian, Observer, Daily Telegraph, Financial Times, and many more. That book is envy-worthy!

That wraps up the books I’ve read recently. But, if we go a bit further back in time (say 50 years, to my childhood), then we reach the pinnacle. Last but certainly not least in the jealousy stakes has to be my all-time favourite books, which most readers of this blog will have heard me bang on about many times before, the Moomin series by Tove Jansson. What I love and admire the most about this series is the charm, the sense of humour, and the child-centered voice with all the guilelessness and transparent innocent joy of a child in springtime. Even reading them as an adult, the humour on every page is subtle, sweet, and life-affirming, the books make me want to weep with happiness. They are the perfect children’s books and deserve their place as revered classics in every library worth it’s salt. Jansson’s masterpiece, the Moomin series, remains my Everest – my hope has long been to one day be a good enough writer to write a series to compare. I don’t know if I’ll ever get there, but that’s my secret (and now, not so secret) hope.
What about you? Are there any books you wished you’d written?

Keep Writing!
Yvette Carol
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To write a story that works, that moves the reader, is difficult, and most of us can’t do it. ~ George Saunders

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