Reading & Writing Weekly Roundup

Pick of the web:

Unless you have been living under a rock (or not in Australia) you would no doubt have read/heard/listened to commentary on the Adam Goodes booing affair.

For my mind, most of it has been a load of wasted hot air, from mostly white people who’ve never experienced a day of discrimination in their lives.

But one piece stood out to me as being commentary worth reading. Powerful and nuanced. Written from a place of actual understanding.

It came from indigenous Australian journalist, Stan Grant, writing for The Guardian.

‘To Adam’s ears, the ears of so many Indigenous people, these boos are a howl of humiliation. A howl that echoes across two centuries of invasion, dispossession and suffering. Others can parse their words and look for other explanations, but we see race and only race. How can we see anything else when race is what we have clung to even as it has been used as a reason to reject us.’

Read the full article here

Short reads on writing:

Have you heard of Spineless Wonders? The e-only publisher that produces short fiction by Australian writers?

Haven’t? You need to. The quality and breadth of the work they publish is pretty impressive. And they keep it nice and affordable for the readers.

Anyway, July was micro-lit month (who knew?) and in celebration, Spineless Wonders published a series of brilliant interview with short fiction writers (which you can find here) as well as audio versions of their work. You can access the entire play-list here, via Sound Cloud.

What’s extraordinary is the number of writers who say they’re inspired by things they see/hear on their daily commutes.

Being a work-from-home person, I think I’m missing out..

Long Reads:

Last week, I finished Eliza Henry-Jones’ In the Quiet, and you can read my thoughts on it here.

By the end of it, I was ignoring my kids’ requests for food, I was that engaged in the lives of the Carlton family as they battled through the grief of losing a loved one.

This week on the blog, I’ll be featuring an interview with the author, which I can’t wait to post.

The past week was also the one in which I became deeply embroiled in an epic World War II story from British author, Kate Atkinson.

A God In Ruins is the sprawling tale of Teddy Todd, a decent man who comes up against the gross indecency of war.

Atkinson is a masterful storyteller and she really gives good novel. Read my reflections here

Writing:

Kind of a bizarre, limbo-type week in terms of writing.

I was waiting on some feedback on my MS, so in the meantime, I started thinking about, and even wrote a scene for my next full-length work.

There’s something really beautiful and scary about the blank, open page. Beautiful because of the wonderful potential the lies ahead, but also scary in the sense that these things involve an awful lot of effort, thought and time.

However, I go into this work (which will actually be my third full-length novel) with more understanding of what is required.

There is nothing like actually writing a book to make you learn how to write a book.

I think this one will be better than the last, and the one before that.

It’s that kind of hope that keeps me writing.