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Editors help writing be the best version of itself
Author Sarah Madden was complimentary about the editorial process for Blue in the Red House when interviewed by Jessica Gately for the latest issue of Underground Writer’s zine Roots (issue 25, page 8). She said, ‘it made the book flow better, read better, and ultimately be the best version of itself it could be’. We may be a little biased, but we agree that Aidan’s editing was thoughtful, encouraging and supportive – just what every author hopes for.
Sarah’s novella was our first experimental non-fiction title – which is the only genre for which we are currently open to submissions.
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Some more TLC for YWCA Canberra
Obiter Publishing and the Singed Sisters were able to donate a further $3500 to YWCA Canberra in January from sales of Tears, Laughter, Champagne. In her thanks, CEO Frances Crimmins reminded us that we are helping to ‘make a difference in the lives of women, children and families in Canberra by ensuring they have the essential supports and resources they need to live’. Richard Perno talked to Karen on Radio 2CC about how the Singed Sisters turned the tragedy of losing their homes in a bushfire into a positive money-raising effort.
There aren’t many copies of the book left now, so if getting hold of a copy has ever crossed your mind don’t put it off much longer. Check out Canberra stockists or buy online.
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Congratulations to the 2018 MUBA winner
The Most Underrated Book Award, run by the Small Press Network, aims to ‘uncover and celebrate the hidden gems of Australian publishing'. The 2018 winner is Living in Hope by Frank Byrne, with Frances Coughlan and Gerard Waterford, published by Ptilotus Press. It is a memoir of childhood by a man who was removed as a child from his family, country, culture and language and it is described as ‘filled with surprises and unlikely fun’. Obiter also congratulations the shortlisted titles: Goldie Goldbloom’s Gwen, from Fremantle Press; and Lynette Washington’s Plane Tree Drive, from MidnightSun.
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What we’ve been reading
Jane has definitely not spent the summer following the advice of decluttering guru Marie Kondo – the very idea of throwing out books! She did reread a couple of novels, Barbara Pym’s biting comedy Jane and Prudence (Jonathan Cape, 1953) and Penelope Fitzgerald’s Human Voices (Flamingo, 1980) set inside the BBC during World War II, both of which once again sparked joy in her chest and entrenched their place on her shelves. Jane then impressed herself by actually reading books off her summer reading list. Pulitzer winner Less (Hachette, 2017) by Andrew Sean Greer follows a writer’s odyssey of avoidance, and includes a course he teaches titled ‘Read Like a Vampire, Write Like Frankenstein’ – words to live by? The first graphic novel longlisted for the Booker Prize, Sabrina by Nick Drnaso (Drawn and Quarterly, 2018), also did not disappoint. There is unspeakable violence but the focus is firmly on the unbearable grief that follows – grief that has nevertheless to be borne.
We can map Karen’s travel itineraries by the books that she reads. So there is Jonathan Coe’s Middle England (Viking, 2018), a compassionate, kind and funny portrait of a country that in the last decade seems to have lost its way, and James Thompson’s Snow Angels (Berkley Publishing, 2011), crime fiction set in the dark and cold of Finnish Lapland. There’s Gillian Slovo’s Ice Road (Little Brown, 2005), a harrowing story set in St Petersburg in the years up to the Siege of Leningrad, and Dorthe Nors’ Mirror, Shoulder, Signal (Pushkin Press, 2017), about a Swedish-to-Danish translator of crime fiction learning to drive in Copenhagen. That must have been one helluva holiday!
Aidan has been on a bit of a crime spree lately ... vicariously, of course! Chloe Hooper’s The Arsonist (Hamish Hamilton, 2018) about the lighting of the Churchill fire on Black Saturday, continued to linger in the mind long after closing the last page. Similarly, although this time in fiction, Mark Brandi’s Wimmera (Hachette, 2018) had Aidan gripped from beginning to end and did not easily relinquish its hold afterwards. And he is sticking with the themes of crime and regional Australia in his latest read, Jane Harper’s The Dry (Pam Macmillan, 2017).
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