Pew Pew Nano Down!

It's the first of December and I am happy to say that November is over. Not because time is moving forward faster than ever and with it my impending aging and death (lol?), but because Nanowrimo is over for another year and I did it.

Yay!

I wrote 50k words this month and it feels hella good. To celebrate, I am staying in tonight, eating lamington ice cream and playing video games. This is the life!!

I'm also particularly happy with how it actually went this year. As I've said before, I'm a serial pantser. But all that pantsing paid off this time round, as halfway through writing myself in circles I was suddenly afflicted with *inspiration*. Now I'm legit interested in my story, I've got more ideas for it, and even better, it's not anywhere near finished which means it should be a good length when it finally is. Hurrah!

I wore this outfit the other day to see my kewl friends Shit Sex play. I was feeling special so I even did fakey eyelashes, which is unusual for me. For some reason I end up completely dressed up for random casual things like work and a gig, but when some real occasion comes up I'm running late and staying somewhere and barely have any makeup to work with. W/e! Life is fun. This outfit was inspired by my new fave girl, Becky G, in her video Shower. I even did all the makeups but I don't know how to photograph that so you'll have to take my word for it.

Uhhhh those are my new docs. I will quote my Nana, who said, "I know why you had to buy those shoes. They're an extension of you." She knows what it's all about.

Now for the rest of the year I've gotta quickly get another Moss Piglet out, gather the relevant presents and hopefully get some sleep-ins at some point.

I'm flying through books this year too. I recently finished both The Summer We Got Free by Mia McKenzie and I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. Both amazing writers, WOC and telling stories that more people need to hear in order to understand the experiences of specifically black people in America. Especially in the light of Ferguson. If more people read books like these they might be less ignorant and racist. You would hope, anyway. That Rookie roundup was perfect.

Now I'm reading Wetlands. It is both digusting and amazing. I can't wait to finish and watch the movie. It's both relatable and so extreme at the same time. I'm just so glad someone wrote a book about the stuff people do in private. It's so refreshing for it to be out in the open. Especially reading it on the tram, I get a kick (in the same way I think the main character, Helen, would) thinking about people catching sentences about period sex and butt cleaning accidentally.

Books are the best.

Australian Women Writers Challenge - My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin

The end of the year is coming up verrrrry quickly and I wasn't sure I'd get this thing done on time! But low and behold, I picked this book up just before I went on holiday and i couldn't put it down. Which is the opposite of what I expected.

Stella 'Miles' Franklin's names have been used in this challenge as the names for how many books you're reading, so obvi she's a well important lady. On top of that, there's a literary award named after her called the Miles Franklin award, which you can win if your book is exemplary of Australian-ity and also is very good.

On top of that, she wrote this book when she was 16, and everyone considers it one of the greatest literatures in Australia! Sick!

On to the book itself (because if you want to know more about Miles you can just google her for all the goss bout her life.) It's a work of 'fiction' in that she's pretty much written her own bio but used other names. She writes about her life in the Australian outback, dairy farming (which she hates) and staying at her Grannie's house (which she loves.) All the usual teenage feelings like WHAT SHOULD I DO WITH MY LIFE? And WHY AM I SO UGLY?  And then flirting with guys but hating them at the same time. It amazed me reading this book how similar it was being a teenage girl in the late 1800s to now. It's so ridiculously honest, to the point of being embarrassing for her many, many times. And yet she continues on with that teenage passion, like she hates what she's doing but can't do anything else.

The strong feminist element to this book makes it really relatable, in the same way Jane Austen's characters are never insipid or completely accepting of men having complete control of the world (like the history books would suggest women were back then, submissive and content.) She's constantly ranting about how unfair it is that men are allowed to be ugly, or assertive, or have interesting careers and lives while women were expected to be obsessed with marriage and family and nothing else. While times have changed a bit in terms of women's prospects in Australia, the sentiment is still very relatable.

There were few criticisms I had of this book, and they weren't to do with the writing or storyline (although I won't spoil it but you'll find yourself simultaneously in love with and completely frustrated by her feelings towards a certain Harry Beecham) but more I guess with the time and her unknown privilege. There were a few very racist moments, as is usual with books from this period (and now, but in other ways.) There were moments when she also came across as progressive for her time, and the racist moments were mostly observations of what others said to her rather than what she thought herself. But I think it needs mentioning nonetheless.

All in all this book was a surprise gem for me. I actually watched the movie when I was in Houston a month ago with my mum, and I enjoyed it a lot, which led me to reading the book. There's always some weird stigma for me that historical fiction is going to be really boring, and yet the best ones always just remind you of modern life with different clothes and jobs. This was one of the best representations of how it really is to be a teenage girl and have all your emotions all the time that I've read. I'm so happy that it has the respect of the literary world that it does. I can't imagine that happening nowadays, but I'm glad that it did.

Now apparently I'm an idiot because I just looked at the website and realised I'd signed up to read 4 books this year, not 3 as I thought it was this whole time. Dang it! If I magically find a book I can read in the next week I will, but somehow I doubt that'll happen. Anyway, let's just pretend 3 was always my goal. I've had an enlightened year reading stuff by Australian Women, and I'm pretty sure I'm gonna do it again next year. 10/10 would highly recommend.

Australian Women Writers Challenge - Sibyl's Cave by Catherine Padmore

Okkkk.... it's getting closer to the end of the year and I've got some reviewing to catch up on! As I said previously, for anyone who missed it, I'm doing the Australian Women Writers Challenge, in which you just read some books by Australian women writers and then review them. I'm doing the smallest version of the challenge, which is 3 books, but you can do more if you want. The first book I reviewed was The Stone Key by Isobelle Carmody and my review of it is here.

I've had Sibyl's Cave sitting on my bookshelf for quite a few years, ever since I took Catherine Padmore's course on 'Writing Fiction' at La Trobe. I remember thinking she was cool, and that it was really cool that she'd had a book published, but I never got around to reading it until now. To be honest the genre of the book is not one I usually delve into (historical fiction/drama) but it was interesting to have a reason to read something like this. Here's what the cover looks like:

So... yeah. I don't read a lot of books with a cover like this. I've never really let go of that childish voice in my head that goes "that looks booorriiinggg" and hangs around the sci-fi section looking for the most interesting looking cover. But hey, the good thing about being an adult is you understand when the voice is being shallow, and you go ahead and read it anyway.

I did end up enjoying this book quite a lot. It revolved mainly around the life of one character, and all the stuff she goes through moving from Italy to England to Australia in the mid 20th century. Also all the serious *life biz* that happens. I found some parts of this book refreshingly honest, to the point where you cringe a bit like ugh, yep, that's real. Other times I found it a bit whimsical in its language. It's not that I thought the language was bad, it's just that whimsical isn't really my style, and makes me a little bit uncomfortable.

I was about to write a paragraph criticizing the title, but you know what? It's really fricking hard to come up with titles. I get the significance, I think it's a little obvious and far stretched at the same time, but whatever. The book itself is a good read, very well written. The characters are realistic and believable, and you do end up feeling like you know the main character very well. There was a point in the middle of the book where I was kind of wondering where it was going, which is the danger of something like this which isn't so focused on plot as it is character development. But the end wrapped up well, *spoilers* apart from the one bit where Eli cuts her foot, because I thought that was a little too cheesy and obvious. Like a family movie.

I was happy to read that some of the London parts in the middle were influenced by Vali Myers' biography, because that's really cool. 

So yeah. Not something I'd usually pick up, but I enjoyed reading it, and it was definitely well written. Interesting enough to keep you reading til the end, and for the characters to stay in your mind for a while afterwards. A good effort, Catherine Padmore! Well done.

Good Books and Games

Hey there! I was feeling particularly pumpkiny the day this photo was taken. I love the colour orange. I also love these space tights, which were from ebay. I got a whole bundle of different ones for vurrry cheap.

I've been doing many things. Life is full right now. It's good. Moss Piglet, the journal I'm working on, is almost ready. Good news for those who contributed back in April! It's taken a while, and life has gotten in the way more than a few times, but it's nearly there.

I'm very excited to read these books, which arrived in the post:

They're by two of my favourite internet ladies. I have to admit, I already read Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth on the tram in one sitting when it arrived... but it's one of those poetry collections I know I'll go back to a million times. It's amazing. Particularly the section called Conversations About Home (at the Deportation Centre), which I wish anyone who thinks refugees are just 'queue jumpers' would read. Using that phrase makes me sick. If that piece of writing could become the most well known writing of this century, it would benefit the world infinitely. Warsan Shire can be found on tumblr, and twitter.

Mia McKenzie runs one of my favourite blogs, Black Girl Dangerous. The articles are so good, and so on point every time. The blog is a space for Queer/Trans/People of Colour (QTPOC), so be respectful and just read it unless you're part of that community. But I highly recommend reading it even if you're not, to get an education. The Summer We Got Free is Mia's first book and I'm really excited to read it.

I never ended up doing a games post :( Blogging takes time, which I only have a little of now. But I've been playing Path of Exile recently, with my housemates, and it's awesome! It's basically the Diablo 3 you wished you had. It's an independent New Zealand game, and somehow it's free, with the only microtransactions being completely aesthetic and not changing the gameplay at all (apart from making your character look awesome-er.) It's still in open beta so I can't wait to see what else they do with the game as it progresses. It's a giant fuck you to big games companies who have millions of dollars to work with and then create shitty, cartoony games with crap graphics and even crapper storylines... cough Blizzard cough.

Here is my Ranger character Buttz McGee being awesome. I have a blue frog with a crown on as a pet. That's an example of something you can buy with real monies.

Usually I'm not a fan of microtransactions, but the fact that I'm enjoying this game so much really made me want to give some money back to the developers. So I was happy to buy something.

You can download and play POE for free here.

That's all for now, stay tuned to see what colour I dyed my hair (OMG WHAT COULD IT BE?) and more inane ramblings about my life.

Australian Women Writers Challenge - The Stone Key by Isobelle Carmody

So I signed up for this thing, the Australian Women Writers Challenge, which exists to support and promote books by Australian women. Which I think is a fine thing to do, being an Australian woman and all. You sign up and decide how many books you're going to read and/or review, and then you link your reviews back to their site. Considering I was already halfway through The Stone Key by Isobelle Carmody, I thought I could just start with that one. This will be the first of 3 reviews that I do.

I've previously blogged about Isobelle Carmody and how excited I was to meet her at Supanova a couple of years ago. After re-reading the rest of the Obernewtyn series, I read The Stone Key for the first time. I first started this series in around Year 7 or 8, when I was about twelve. I loved the series very much back then, so it was interesting to revisit it as an adult, as I hadn't read it since. To be fair, between publishing the forth and fifth book, there was a ten year gap. So it wasn't exactly possible to continue being a "young adult" while reading it. They've also started publishing the whole series with new covers, which means everyone who had the old ones has half the series in a different cover set now *hyperventilates*. I mean... it doesn't sound like a big deal. But to me it is. I liked the old ones better! They don't look pretty on my book shelf! Anyway.

Old Cover

New cover... waaah I'm a little baby

I might as well do a *spoiler* alert here. I won't go too much into the storyline, but there might be some mentions.

The Stone Key begins where it left off in The Keeping Place, with the rebellion in the Land kicking off. Considering the actual size of this book, which is fricking huge, but also the huge font size, I'm really confused about whether it's longer than The Keeping Place or not. My main issue with The Keeping Place was that it was a lot of conversation and not much action at all, which would be great if the conversation was interesting rather than superfluous.

The Stone Key had a much stronger storyline and a lot more things happened. Which made it more enjoyable to read. Unlike the previous books, where you got the feeling that the end of the series was indefinitely far away, she's really outlined what will happen, or what the protagonist, Elspeth, thinks will happen. This probably comes from the ten years of planning the rest of the series!

Even though I did really enjoy this book, I have a bunch of criticisms which I can't ignore. I kind of wish I'd been able to just finish it while I was in high school and while I had a less critical mind about writing. But there you go.

My first criticism is that while embracing wholly the 'first person' viewpoint she'd set up for herself with the first couple of books, there really is just too much *thinking* included. It's realistic, yes, but it's also very tedious. Although it's a great example of excessive character development for the protagonist, AND I'm keeping in mind this book is intended for young adults, so a bit more plot explanation might be deemed necessary (by some people - I would argue not,) there was still far too much stewing over Elspeth's thoughts. We know she would be OBSESSING about these things. It's what we would be doing in her place. We don't have to go through absolutely all of it with her, you know? We got the gist by the second chapter. It just gets really repetitive. Half of it was necessary, and the other half seemed like overkill.

Secondly, every time there was a conversation or a meeting between people, as in The Keeping Place, they would sit down, someone would bring in plates of humble-yet-mouthwatering food, and after the conversation it would be packed away. I mean, are these descriptions really necessary? Again, it's the same every time, and the food they're eating isn't exactly relevant to the storyline. It seemed really superfluous and turned scenes which could have been quick and simple into long, drawn out food porn, essentially.

The story and characters of this book were definitely its strongest point. Without giving anything away, Carmody's strayed into much darker territory this time, and with much more interesting results. The darkest parts of the book were the most engaging, for sure. And there were some sad parts which in which I felt genuine emotion, which is always a good sign.

So basically my experience with reading this book was both positive and negative. I would love to have read the exact same book, minus half the descriptions and musings. I feel like it really just needed a better editor. There were times when I couldn't put it down, and then other times when it felt like it was dragging on. Nevertheless I will be reading the next one and the one after that, of course. It's an epic story, combining fantasy and sci-fi and dystopian futures (or pasts?) and those are the things that I love about it. The sense of adventure, the powers, the socio-political kind of themes. It just needs some intensely strict editor to go "I'm cutting it up and that's all there is to it. No more plates of cheese and warm bread."

November

Well, it's the end of November, and I finished my novel a day early. Or I should say, I finished 50k words. It's nowhere near finished. It has a start and an ending, but I mean... the middle is pretty weird, to say the least. There's more than a few loose ends. It's more like a tangled ball of string than a knitted sweater. If you know what I mean.

My progress graph.. got a little sketchy in the middle.

I've found Nanowrimo to be a very positive experience. If there's anyone out there who's dreamed of writing a novel, I'd urge them to sign up next year, even if it sounds impossible. It's totally possible, I just did it. I also did it with literally no planning. On October 31st, I was only just finished moving house. I had no time at all to think about it, and on November 1st I literally just opened a word document and wrote the first thing that came into my head. Somehow that turned into a story. And now I have 50k words of story.

Which is immense! For me, anyway. I've never, in any way written that many words before. Usually my stories peter out after about a paragraph. Let alone 90 pages.

Over the month I've really come to appreciate what the Nano website peeps do for us as well. They do it for no profit, it's free to sign up, and the only reason they do it is because they want heaps of people to write novels. They get famous and not-famous-but-inspiring writers to give pep talks throughout the month, which really keeps you going. They know how you're feeling, and they help all they can. I owe them, hardcore.

So I've written my first novel. It feels both better and not as exciting as I thought it would feel. There's a sense of awe that I always had for people who wrote novels, like it was this impossible thing that I would never achieve even though I longed to. It's kind of obvious now, but the first thing you notice is that it's actually very easy. You just keep writing. The hard part is writing anything good. That's where the not-so-exciting bit comes in. Most of it was pretty bad, and the plot is intensely holey.

But, you know. I had fun. My housemate got me a 1st novel cake. I wrote a novel. :)

Oh, almost forgot. Did our first gig at a venue, The Lounge. Was Rad.

And lastly, here's me looking cute for work.

Birthday Beehive

Dress - Topshop, Cardigan - MNG, Tights - Forever 21, Shoes - Asos

Officially 24. We tried to play a game of Talisman, but it quickly dissolved into laughing and drinking, so we switched to just that. I got a beautiful rabbit ring from my friend Liv, who's recently been to India. I also got these magic book earrings, handmade by my boyfriend (!!!) No words. One has an all seeing eye on it, and the other has a mouth.

It's pretty weird turning twenty four. I think it's the first birthday I've really not wanted to have. Twenty three was a good number - old enough to be taken seriously, young enough to not have much responsibility. Twenty four brings questions from relatives like, 'When are you going to decide which real job you're going to do?' and 'Are you still living in a share house?'


The hassling gets tiring, but I'm confident that although I'm completely lost, I think that's ok. I know what I don't want to do, and I think it'll take a while to know what I do want to do. I don't think I need to know at twenty four. We'll see what I think at twenty five. I just quit my job at the bakery, and that's like a light at the end of a dark, stinky tunnel filled with snakes. Once my last two weeks are over, I'll hopefully have a job somewhere else I can stand, and also have better hours so I can have more time off. Then I can look for a new house, and try to get into position in my life I'm happy with.


Until then... twenty four.

Reading.

Right now it is time for me to write about Isobelle Carmody, but first I'm going to comment on Suzanne Collins.

I just finished reading Mockingjay, the second Hunger Games book. I read it in about twenty four hours. Same with the first one. I'd been meaning to read them for a while, before the movie came out, because I hate for movies to dictate the look of characters and places to me. And while I have obviously enjoyed them, and am involved with the characters and looking forward to the film, I knew from the first page that these are not very well written books. The sentences are clumsy, the dialogue is cringe-worthy and the metaphors are basic at best. The storyline and characters are its selling point. And the storyline is exciting, although it's also very predictable.

What this lead me to think about is the level of understanding teenagers and tweens have when reading. I have no doubt that I would have loved these books beyond measure when I was eleven, and even when I was sixteen. I loved any kind of adventure, or fantasy novel. I also know that I was always ahead of my age group in terms of book-comprehension, purely because I read so much. I obviously feel the conceit in this, but then again, an alarming amount of people I speak to now have no interest in reading books and what's more, seem to have a kind of smug attitude about it. Which is (ooh pun) something I actually can't comprehend.

Anyway, my long winded point is that while the Hunger Games were good for a trashy, quick read, I know that there are teenagers out there who can read more complicated sentences. Teen writing does not need to be dumbed down. It really plagues me thinking about whether or not Suzanne Collins dumbed down her writing on purpose for a younger audience, or whether she's just a bad writer and has no idea. There's a HUGE difference between simple writing and bad writing. And at least her editors should have known better.

All through the books I was reminded of Isobelle Carmody, whose teenage post-apocalypse is anything but cliche. About how she published her first Obernewtyn book when she was nineteen, and how much I love her for writing that series. It is not trashy, and it is not full of cliche writing. It has well realised characters and an epic plot that is so developed, it's taken her twenty four years to develop it. The first book was published the year I was born, and the last is being published later this year.

Basically, Isobelle is my hero. She's been a published writer almost her whole life, and has been able to live solely off of writing. I've been reading her books since I was about eleven. I read an interview with her today which reminded me of how awesome she is, and how much I want my life to be similar to hers. I met her a couple of years ago at Supanova, for the first time, and when I asked for a photo she said, "Yes, my daughter would love you!" (in reference my turquoise hair and bead necklaces.)

That is the face of someone fangirling out. But seriously, she was wearing a coat with a magical, sparkling eye on the back. She is a fantasy princess. And then she added me on Facebook. <3

To turn this post back to more superficial things, her fringe is SERIOUSLY calling to me. I've spent the last couple of years growing my fringe and layers out and cursing them, so it seems so wrong to then chop into them again. But with Isobelle and Grimes combined, I am having a hard time resisting.

Anyway, I think that's all I have to say on the teen fantasy genre and fringes. Is it fair to compare those two authors? Probably not, but I mean, it just happened in my head while I was reading. It probably sounds like I don't like the Hunger Games either, which is totally not true. I am really enjoying that series, and I especially think it's important to note that Katniss Everdeen is an excellent, human, not-trope-or-stereotype strong female character. From a feminist perspective, I think it's a +1. But I honestly think editors, publishers and authors need to give tweens and teens more credit when it comes to their reading skills. Maybe then more kids would get into reading, instead of finding it boring. Idk.