'Girl Defective' by Simmone Howell

Received from the Publisher

From the BLURB:

We, the Martin family, were like inverse superheroes, marked by our defects. Dad was addicted to beer and bootlegs. Gully had "social difficulties" that manifested in his wearing a pig snout mask 24-7. I was surface clean but underneath a weird hormonal stew was simmering...

It's summer in St Kilda. Fifteen-year-old Sky is looking forward to great records and nefarious activities with Nancy, her older, wilder friend. Her brother – Super Agent Gully – is on a mission to unmask the degenerate who bricked the shop window. Bill the Patriarch seems content to drink while the shop slides into bankruptcy. A poster of a mysterious girl and her connection to Luke, the tragi-hot new employee sends Sky on an exploration into the dark heart of the suburb. What begins as a toe-dip into wilder waters will end up changing the frames of Sky's existence. Love is strange. Family Rules. In between there are teenage messes, rock star spawn, violent fangirls, creepy old guys and accidents waiting to happen. If the world truly is going to hell in a hand-basket then at least the soundtrack is kicking. Sky Martin is Girl Defective: funny, real and dark at the edges.

Mia Casey’s graffiti face with blackened tears watches over Bill's Wishing Well record shop. Mia was a real girl who died a few months ago, found face-down in the river and thought to be a ‘party-girl’ – no investigations are underway.

Skylark ‘Sky’ Martin thinks about Mia, even dreams about her. But Sky has enough to worry about without deluding herself into thinking she knew a dead girl . . . 

For one thing, her dad is the Bill who owns Bill's Wishing Well record shop. Her dad can polish off a whole slab in a single sitting and long ago accepted his alcoholism as a permanent character flaw. Then there’s Sky’s little brother, Gully, who never takes off the pig-snout mask their mum sent him for his last birthday. And speaking of Sky’s mum – what’s the point? She changed her name to Galaxy and breezed off to perform installation art in Japan, and now she’s just a voice on the end of the phone.

But life isn’t all bad for soon-to-be-sixteen Sky. There’s Nancy; their failed cleaner turned only best friend Sky has ever known. Nancy is older and wilder; she’s a dream of a girl who can pull of wearing the vintage clothes Sky’s mum left behind and causes eyes to bug out of people’s heads. 

Home is Blessington Street in St. Kilda – where tourists outnumber locals and nobody but Sky and Gully are born and bred St. Kildans. Locals are a colourful bunch and frequent the record shop – there’s the Weird Sisters and The Fugg (a poet), Steve Sharp (once famous, now sober) and Mystery Train.

It’s Mia Casey’s graffiti face that ignites everything – or so it seems. She’s plastered on the wall and suddenly bricks are flying, mysterious white vans are peeling away and a pretty newbie called Luke is hired at Wishing Well. Suddenly Sky’s life becomes full and messy – and glorious. 

‘Girl Defective’ is the new young adult novel from Australian author Simmone Howell. 

It has been too long since we’ve had a Simmone Howell novel. ‘Everything Beautiful’ was her last, and that was 2008. The moment I started reading ‘Girl Defective’ and Howell’s cracking voice rang out from the page – that was when I knew something (or, rather, someone) had been sadly missed on the Aussie YA scene. Howell writes such sharp characters and dark edges with a wry humour that’s wholly unique and breathtaking. Reading her latest offering is like gulping air you didn’t know was cut off – and I hope we never have to go so long between instalments from Ms Howell. 

The novel is set in St. Kilda, Howell’s stomping ground. For those who don’t know, St. Kilda is a suburb of Melbourne and is one of the city’s more colourful areas. It has quite a past – back in the 1880’s the area experienced a land boom and because St. Kilda is overlooking Port Philip Bay, it became a seaside destination. But the depression bought a sharp decline to the area, and for many years it was a place for crooks, prostitutes and general low-lives. It was only in the 1990s that the area experienced a gentrification, and as ‘Girl Defective’ is set in the present, Sky observes that: “These days the red light still glowed but only faintly.” So St. Kilda is a real dichotomy – some areas are still imprints of the suburb’s seedy past, but there are oak-lined streets that are beyond posh and full of million-dollar properties. 

I love the St. Kilda setting; for one thing it becomes a distinct character within Sky’s story, and for another it seems to be a reflection of the Martin family and associates. Father Bill is definitely living in the past (encapsulated in his record shop’s motto – “nothing after 1995”) while Sky’s best friend, Nancy, is determined to look forward and keep her eyes off the rear-view mirror. And as for Sky . . .  well, she seems to be caught between the vibrancy of those around her. With a post-punk father and mother called Galaxy, a brother who is a detective-in-training and constantly snouted, not to mention Nancy’s silver magnetism – Sky constantly feels like the odd one out. She’s mostly friendless at school, prefers masculine clothing and is quietly observant. It’s no wonder that amidst so many fiery characters and temperaments, Sky doesn’t quite know where she fits in, what her ‘thing’ is or who 'her people' are. I love her. Quiet she may be, but Sky is wicked smart and eloquent. She’s such a wonderfully relatable character; constantly feeling like the sidekick or back-up singer is something many, many people can relate to. And Howell has given Sky quite a voice – I adore how she describes her tinging jealousy of Nancy’s shine; 

I don’t know why it had to hurt, the way she dialled the world with her little finger.

Howell’s writing is magnificent – and my copy of ‘Girl Defective’ is peppered with markers to remember all the fine lines that caught me unawares. Howell’s similes alone made my knees weak;  

My heart beating like a bird in a box

Not to mention;

Pheromones fizzing like fireflies around us.

This is, ultimately, a book about relationships. There’s a focus on family – of the parents who vamoose and those who stick around. Little brothers we want to cradle and protect, and the sisters we let slip away. The flimsy friendships we hope to blossom into permanency, and the tentative lust that catches us unawares. And then there’s the relationship we have to music – what Sky calls her ‘valve’ on life. Music is an outlet, a private ceremony and those in the book feel a deep connection to the soundtrack of their lives; 

‘Put something on. Whatever you like.’ 

To some eyes this could look like a test. The first track a newbie played might set the tone for his employment. Luke was right to look uncertain. He wandered around the aisles for ages, coming back with Simon & Garfunkel. 

I snorted. Even Gully shook his head. 

‘What?’ Luke asked. 

‘That record doesn’t tell me anything about your inner emotional landscape,’ I told him. 

Luke stayed poker-faced. ‘Don’t have one of those.’ 

‘Bullshit.’ 

‘Sky – don’t psychoanalyse the new guy.’ Dad turned to Luke. ‘Gully reads faces, Sky reads records. We, the Martins, have superpowers.’

Simmone Howell slays me, every damn time. I didn’t want this book to end, and now that it’s over I just want to climb back into Howell’s world and re-read her words all over again. ‘Girl Defective’ is a book about the moment when everything changes, when you lose some and get some and the world falls into place (if, a little crookedly). Everyone has to read this, it’s good for the soul.

5/5 

Interview with Phillip Gwynne, author of 'The Debt' series

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Phillip Gwynne has been a staple of the Aussie young adult scene since the 1998 release of his debut novel, Deadly, Unna? which still remains one of the (sadly) few Australian YA books with a focus on indigenous culture and characters (something I'm quite passionate about).  

So I was thrilled at the chance to interview Mr Gwynne about his new book series, The Debt  

This series is hot news right now, and an interview also appears into today's The Age. So jump on-board this new thrill-ride, and meet the man behind these books...

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Q: How were you first published, agent or slush pile?

The slush pile, god bless it. I sent the ms for Deady Unna in to Penguin and they accepted it. It was only after I had a deal that I thought about getting myself an agent.

Q: How long did it take you to write ‘Catch the Zolt’, from first idea to final manuscript?

The whole series took about three years to write, which averages out to 6 months per book!  At one stage Catch the Zolt was the second book in the series, but for reasons which I will talk about later it became the first.

I never thought I would be a word quota sort of guy, but I realised that the only way  I was going to hit my deadlines was to instigate some sort of discipline, so daily quotas it was.

In the beginning it was 1500 word per day, which became 2000, which became 3000, and then 5000 words for the last book!

Q: Are you a plotter or a ‘pantser’? – That is, do you meticulously plot your novel before writing, or do you ‘fly by the seat of your pants’ and let the story evolve naturally?

Historically a ‘pantser’ but with The Debt I did a lot more prior plotting. It would be interesting to see how much the final product deviated from this plotting though  I think the way it works for me is that I have to totally write myself into the moment before I know what my characters are going to do, and often what they do is completely surprising,

Q: Where do story ideas generally start for you? Do you first think of the character, theme, ending? Or is it just a free-fall?

I’m always fascinated by this question, and probably still haven’t managed to give it the answer it deserves. So here goes another – honourable, I hope - failure.

I think story ideas can start from something as seemingly trivial as a smell or a fleeting glance.

That fragment of experience lodges in your brain, and for some reason, unlike the countless other fragments that lodge in your brain every day, this one refuses to budge. 

And every now and then your brain, your thoughts, return to it, worry the hell out it.

And it accrues material, the same way that a grit of sand in an oyster accrues material.

Until, eventually, the only choice you have is to prise it out, and turn it into a story.

Okay, that’s one place were stories can come from, but there’s also…

Q: Why do you choose to write young adult fiction? What is it about this genre that you love?

To tell the truth, initially I didn’t choose to write it at all. When I wrote Deadly Unna, my first novel, I didn’t even know there was such a thing as Young Adult literature.  When Penguin told me that Deadly Unna? was a Young Adult novel I didn’t really know what they were talking about. And, yes, I have written several Young Adult novels since. But I have also written picture books, and younger readers, and adult novels, and screenplays. I really don’t like to be pigeon-holed as this type of writer or that. I’m just a writer. Full stop.

Q: You’ve been part of the Aussie YA scene for many years now – you could say that your 1998 novel ‘Deadly, Unna?’ helped shape Australian YA into the vibrant and highly-acclaimed readership it is today. What have you noticed are the biggest changes to Aussie YA since you first debuted? How do you see the readership has evolved over the years?

Well, that’s a lovely complement, though I’m pretty sure YA literature was in good shape before I came along!

I think the thing about Deadly Unna is that because it was based on my life, the voice is an authentic voice. And it’s also not a very polite book, in some ways, which is why kids relate to it, even when they have to write essays about it!

 But this is probably a better question for a teacher of librarian. I just write the books, send them out there, and get along with writing the next one.

I don’t really engage that much with the YA world except for this. Not that I don’t think it’s a wonderful world, full of wonderful people. But I’d rather be home writing than in the public eye, being a writer, if you know what I mean.

Q: Your latest endeavour is a six-part thriller YA series called ‘The Debt’ – which follows fifteen-year-old Dom as he fulfils six Herculean tasks for a secret organisation. He’s doing this to repay a family debt, and to ensure he doesn’t lose a pound of flesh. You’ve set up this very Shakespearean and mythological task for a young character – but injected a bit of ‘Bourne Identity’ (for the younger set) into it. What sort of research did you do for this high-octane thrill-ride? And are you living out some secret-espionage boyhood dream by writing this adrenaline-fuelled series?

I did a lot of research – you wouldn’t believe the stuff I had find out about. How do you hotwire a bulldozer? Tick! The history of the Coliseum? Tick! What are the 12 Labors of Hercules? Tick. Thank heavens for Google, or I would’ve been in trouble, especially as I wrote most of it while living in Bali where public libraries are unheard of.

I think most boys have secret-espionage dreams. Actually, so do most men! But what I kept thinking of when I wrote this book, is that I didn’t want to give any kid the excuse to put it down and go and play computer games instead. The greatest compliment you can have as a writer is one somebody tells you they couldn’t put the book down.

Q: A six-part series seems like such a big task, and the books are coming out in quick succession. How did you cope with this massive over-arching series; from connecting plots to deadlines and cliff-hangers? 

I’m not actually sure I have! But you’re right, it was a massive undertaking.

The series was probably influenced more by TV than other books, and more specifically those great American series like the Sopranos, Deadwood, Breaking Bad.

Sometimes I’d think I was all over it, other times I’d just despair – what in the hell have I got myself into!

About half way through writing the series, when we’d already edited the first three books, Anna, my brilliant publisher, came up with an absolute ripper idea.

I resisted for a while, as you do when somebody comes up with something far cleverer than what you have, but in the end the better idea won, as it usually does.

But in order to incorporate her idea, I realised I had the first two books in the wrong order.

I sent Anna an email telling her this and she replied saying ‘I really hope you’re wrong’.

The next day she sent another email saying ‘oh no, you’re right.’

So we had to swap them around – re-architecture the first three books. This was, without doubt, the hardest, most intellectually taxing, month of my writing life and times I thought my brain would explode.
Fortunately I had a great team, Anna and my editor Rachael, and we were able to get through it.

Q: Favourite book(s) of all time:

The Great Gatsby.
Catcher In The Rye
Catch 22
The Butcher Boy
Grapes of Wrath
Treasure Island (a recent addition – a great influence in writing The Debt)

Q: Favourite author(s)?

Steinbeck
Dickens
Fitzgerald

Q: What advice do you have for budding young writers?

Be a bit crazy, normal people don’t write books.

Interview with Patricia Briggs, author of the 'Mercy Thompson' series

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So, as a book nerd I tend to fan-girl over many series and authors - which is perfectly normal. But if there is one particular series that gets more of my fan-girl obsessive love, it is without a doubt Patricia Briggs' 'Mercy Thompson' urban fantasy series. 

I sweat, I started reading those books about three years ago and they were a revelation - in noir, romance, mystery, fantasy ... I pretty much wanted to rent a soapbox and sing Mercy's praises (and to some extent I do do that - I recommend these books to absolutely every person I know - as well as a few strangers I just met). 

So when the opportunity arises to ask questions of the author responsible for one of my most beloved series OF ALL TIME - I hyperventilate, happy-dance and then I get my questions on. 

With many, many thanks to Hachette Australia for making this happen, and Patricia Briggs for being herself - I give you the interview!

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Q: Are you a ‘plotter’ or a ‘pantser’? That is, do you meticulously plot your novel before writing, or do you ‘fly by the seat of your pants’ and let the story evolve naturally?

A: Mostly a pantser.  I have outlined exactly one book – and the outline took me longer to write than the book.  Worse, once I had the outline, it was tough to come up with the enthusiasm to write the book because I already knew how it ended.   When I started writing I approached every book the same way.  About ten books ago (Frost Burned is my 19th book) I discovered that it was more effective to let each book start where it wanted to. 

Q: Where do story ideas generally start for you? Do you first think of the character, theme, ending? Or is it just a free-fall?

A: When I am not writing a series book – so I only have to live with the decisions I make on the fly for one or two books—I prefer to write free-fall.  Sometimes that means that I am deleting  scenes almost as fast as I am writing them, but it gives the stories an unpredictability that I like. 

Writing a series as long as the Mercy Thompson books, means that I have to plan a bit more.  I want to make sure that each story is fresh and is going somewhere new and different – and driving future storylines.  I’m not to the point of outlining yet, but I’m not freefalling either.

Q: In my review of ‘Frost Burned’ I suggest that perhaps Jesse’s question to Mercy about the possibility of a baby (which is then followed quickly by a head-on collision) was a subtle message to fans that they shouldn’t look too far into the future. Care to comment on that? Or answer Jesse’s question: ‘will Mercy and Adam have a baby together some day?’

A: I would like to think that she and Adam have at least one child—but I’m still trying to figure out how that would work for future stories.  I am a mother – and as soon as my oldest child was born I changed how I lived.  I started wearing helmets when I rode horses and quit jumping them almost entirely.   Associating with vampires and werewolves would have been out.  But I’m not saying never, just that it would be miserably hard on me to make it work.

But, yes, in general, I think it is important to pay attention to what’s going on right now.  That doesn’t mean not to plan for the future – just that worrying too much about it is counter -productive.  No one knows what’s going to happen in the future.

Q: ‘Frost Burned’ follows on quite nicely from ‘Fair Game’ – with regards to an uneasy supernatural/political climate and perilous Fae/human relations. And, of course, we get Asil stepping out of ‘Alpha and Omega’ and into the ‘Mercy Thompson’ world (with terrific results!). Does this all suggest that the time is closing in when we’ll get a crossover book?

A: I used to say never, and the thought of trying to balance a story with Anna, Mercy, Charles and Adam in it makes my head hurt.  But I’m always looking for new challenges.  Let’s just say that it is not happening in the next book and leave it at that.

Q: You’re currently working on a book of ‘Mercy’s World’ short stories. We know you have a story for Samuel and Ben . . . can you give anything else away? Will Asil get a story? Will Ben get a bit of romance in his story?

A: I don’t like to give too much away while I’m still working on something.  Then people will read it and say, “I thought you promised that you were going to do X”.  There will be a Tad story and, though I’m not there yet, an Asil story.  Also I am including a story version of  “Homecoming”.

Q: The ‘Alpha and Omega’ spin-off has been such a success – fans embrace Charles and Anna as they do Mercy and Adam. When did you first suspect that Charles could carry a series on his own? Are there any other ‘Mercy’ characters you’ve day-dreamed about writing a spin-off for (perhaps everyone’s favourite British werewolf!?)

A:  Charles stalked onto the pages of Moon Called fully formed.  At that point, Moon Called had so many characters I stopped typing and told him,  “Really?  Now?  We have to do this now?”  I managed to do little more than hint about him and set him aside with the promise of more later.  When Anne Sowards, my editor, asked me to write a novella, I let Charles out to play.  It was Anne who asked me if I could write a series with Charles and Anna and I jumped at the chance.

Q: Purely out of curiosity . . . will we ever meet Adam’s ex-wife?

A:  Funny you should mention that . . . yes.  Mercy #8 will have Christy Hauptman on stage.

Q: So, we know you’re working on the short story collection. But how many more ‘Mercy’ books are you contracted for, and how many more ‘Alpha and Omega’ books?

A: I have three novels under contract.  Two more Mercy books and another book in the “Mercyverse”.  That other book might be an Alpha and Omega book, or I might pull another character out to play.  That said, I am sure there will be more Alpha and Omega books, I just wanted a little more freedom to explore the world.  I will keep writing both series as long as they continue to feel fresh to me—and readers still like them.

Q: What books and TV shows are you currently loving at the moment?

A:  I love The Mentalist (anything except the Red John episodes.  He doesn’t make sense to me as a character.), Criminal Minds, NCIS (okay, the stories don’t always make sense but . . . Gibbs makes up for it), Warehouse 13, and Haven.  We are watching the DVDs of Game of Thrones. Terrific acting, scriptwriting, story, and the filming is amazing – but I’m a happy ever after kind of person and George Martin never met a character he couldn’t torture and kill.  So “loving” isn’t really the word for my relationship with The Game of Thrones.  Awed, maybe, but not loving.  

Q: What advice do you have for budding young writers?

A:  Read!  Read outside your genre.  Read good books and figure out what you like about them.  Read books you hate and figure out why you hated it.  Then write, write, write and write some more.  And . . . get a day job.

'Frost Burned' Mercy Thompson #7 by Patricia Briggs

 Received from the Publisher

From the BLURB:

Shapeshifter Mercy Thompson's life is calming down, at least enough that she can focus on mundane matters like Black Friday sales. But on her return, Mercy is unable to contact her mate, Alpha Adam Hauptman, or the other members of their pack. All she knows is that Adam is angry and in pain.

With the werewolves fighting a political battle to gain acceptance from the public, Mercy fears Adam's disappearance may be related - and that he and the pack are in serious danger. Outclassed and on her own, Mercy may be forced to seek assistance from the most unlikely of allies: the vampire seethe.

Coyotes are known for their luck – or, at least, one coyote is known for her luck. But when Mercy finds herself in a car accident with her step-daughter Jesse, she does not understand the full weight of her good fortune . . . until she returns home to find her pack and her husband missing, and signs of a bloody struggle at her friend’s, Kyle and Warren’s, house.

One werewolf remains; Ben is in a bad state, having been tranquilized with silver, he is ranting about federal agents coming in and escorting the entire pack away with lies and badges.

With the recent dire political climate stirred up between the humans and fae, Mercy has few people she can turn to for help – but when her digging uncovers an assassination plot that could shake the tentative human-werewolf alliance to its very core, she knows she will have to do everything in her power to get her mate and pack back, and out of harm’s way. 

‘Frost Burned’ is the seventh book in Patricia Brigg’s ridiculously brilliant ‘Mercy Thompson’ urban fantasy series.

In the opening chapter of ‘Frost Burned’, Mercy is in a head-on collision after Jesse casually enquires over the possibility of her and Adam having a baby together. Perhaps this is Brigg’s subtle way of telling fans that they can’t look too far into the future (without dire consequences). But more likely it’s just a really great way to kick off the high-octane thrill-ride that is ‘Frost Burned’. Though, honestly, it was a good question Jesse asked – because since their mating/marriage, Mercy and Adam have been going on at a steady romantic trot and keeping fans swooning over them. We last saw the pair in 2011 book ‘River Marked’; that sixth instalment had a deliberately depleted cast, and followed Mercy and Adam on their (somewhat disastrous) honeymoon wherein they were the real focus of the book. So it may come as a shock to fans that ‘Frost Burned’ kicks off as a polar-opposite to ‘River Marked’, wherein Adam has been kidnapped and Mercy is left to her own devices to try and find him. 

But, fans should not despair – Mercy and Adam are not completely separated. There is the mate-bond, and two chapters from Adam’s POV (the first ever in the series) – both of which work to show readers how far Adam and Mercy have come in their relationship; how strong they are together, even when apart. While some fans may despair that a physically separated Adam and Mercy will mean none of the lovey-dovey stuff we’ve come to anticipate from them – the romance is actually still here, tenfold even, because we clearly see how much Mercy and Adam have grown from loving each other. We see Mercy tap into a strength (and anger) that we haven’t seen from her since the awful events of ‘Iron Kissed’. 

Get Ben to Samuel, who could treat what was wrong with him.  

Take Jesse and Gabriel to someplace safe. 

Find whoever had taken my mate and get him back. 

Adam’s pain was a roar in my heart, and I was going to make everyone who hurt him pay and pay.It was like triage. Decision one – preserve those who were safe. Decision two – retrieve the rest. Decision three – make the ones who took them regret it. 

And since this book seems to have a theme of ‘two sides of the same coin’, it’s fitting that in ‘Frost Burned’, Mercy is also forced to confront and remember the events of ‘Iron Kissed’ and her rape. Briggs has never let those memories get too far away from Mercy, which is commendable for being so brutally honest – but in ‘Frost Burned’ it is definitely bought back as a solid reminder to Mercy, and readers, that there is no such thing as ‘getting better’ or ‘getting over it’ – which is a bold statement that I’m glad Briggs makes, again and again. 

Readers would know going into ‘Frost Burned’ that this would be a game-changing book, if only because events in Briggs’s spin-off series, ‘Alpha and Omega’, precipitated revolution. In third book ‘Fair Game’, the human justice system all but turned its back on the Fae population – who have retreated into their own world and are still regrouping and thinking on their next move, when ‘Frost Burned’ begins. Readers should know going into this book, that the human/Fae/werewolf worlds are in a great state of flux; while the vampires are trying to keep their existence hidden (and for good reason – they want to see how things turn out between the Fae and humans first!). Ever since Briggs started her ‘Alpha and Omega’ series, and made a central character out of the Marrok’s son and right-hand-man, Charles, her urban fantasy world has been getting ever more complex. Through Charles, Anna and Bran in ‘Alpha and Omega’, Briggs has made us privy to the political goings-on of the supernatural world. Indeed, in ‘Frost Burned’ while the ‘Alpha and Omega’ trio don’t make an appearance, their offside activities with the Fae are mentioned and set up a very intriguing foundation for the TBD 4th book. . . but with the events of ‘Frost Burned’, Briggs effectively expands the ‘Mercy Thompson’ world beyond the Tri-Cities and ensures this series has room for expansion and a foot in the more political supernatural activities. 

I was pretty much in awe of Briggs throughout this book. She has managed to write a cunning mystery, interspersed with political thriller and supernatural noir – all rolled into one, and with hefty doses of romance thrown in for good measure. She brings out some old favourite characters who haven’t made lengthy appearances in a while – Stefan, Ben and Zee among them – as Mercy pools all of her resources and rings in every favour owed to her. And while Bran, Charles or Anna don’t make an appearance from the ‘Alpha and Omega’ world, one secondary character does stroll into ‘Frost Burned’ and I was thrilled to pieces to read about him (especially for his exchanges with Mercy!) –and it just made me long all the more for the book when these two series’ meet at a crossroads! 

This book also made me cry, but that’s too much of a terrible spoiler to go into. 

I am thrilled to know that Briggs is currently working on a book of “Mercy’s World” short stories (as yet untitled, and without firm release date). This will be a collection of short stories from various anthologies, including a few new ones Briggs is writing. She has said there will be a Ben short story – and I can’t wait. Reading about Ben in ‘Frost Burned’ reminded me of what an enigma he is, and how interesting. It also reminded me that I'd love for him to have a happy story (yes, romance!) at some point to make up for his hard life. And I’m also crossing my fingers for a short story about that certain secondary character who strolled from ‘Alpha and Omega’ into ‘Frost Burned’ – because he was a standout in this book; unpredictable, funny and lethal all at the same time. 

I am worried that updates on Brigg’s website mentions she has another ‘Mercy’ to write under contract, and she’d like to write another ‘Alpha and Omega’ and is currently working on a ‘Mercy’ book (so she is definitely contracted for 2 more?). I worry, only because with ‘Frost Burned’ I see no end in sight – I can honestly picture the ‘Mercy Thompson’ series going well into series double-digits. With ‘Frost Burned’ Briggs has expanded her world exponentially – everything is more politicized and on-edge, Mercy has more to lose than ever before and has found a groove in her personal relationships and pack to protect. I don’t want this series to end anytime soon – likewise, I can imagine ‘Alpha and Omega’ becoming more complicated from the events of ‘Frost Burned’ and I’m deliriously excited to see where that leads in a new book. 

‘Frost Burned’ was such an incredible book that dug me even deeper into Mercy’s world, and now I never want to leave.

5/5 

Interview with Kate Constable, author of 'New Guinea Moon'

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I love a book that opens up my world and teaches me a little something - and I certainly got an education reading Kate Constables' latest young adult novel, New Guinea Moon.  

I knew nothing of Australia's colonization history with Papua New Guinea, of our bloody beginnings in that country or their relatively recent independence from us.  

That's partly why I loved Constables' book - she's drawing on her own life, when she lived in PNG with her family as a young girl. But she has further explored this tumultuous time with a beautiful coming-of-age story, until the two seem parallel - a young girl gaining independence for herself at the same time that a country is doing the same.  

This is a beautiful book, and I was very lucky to ask some questions of its author. 

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Q: Are you a ‘plotter’ or a ‘pantser’ - that is, do you meticulously plot your novel before writing, or do you ‘fly by the seat of your pants’ and let the story evolve naturally?

I am definitely a plotter. Plotting, which is really just working out the story, is almost my favourite part of the writing process. I think perhaps it's because I’m an uptight Virgo, and I like to know where I'm going before I start the journey! But having said that, I like to keep the plot fairly loose, to allow for those moments of serendipity that arise while you're actually writing.

Q: How long did it take you to write ‘New Guinea Moon’, from first idea to final manuscript?

 This one took a long time, for me! I think it's been about three years from deciding, right, I want to write a book about PNG, to handing in the manuscript.

 

Q: Where do story ideas generally start for you? Do you first think of the character, theme, ending? Or is it just a free-fall?

It's weird, but I think I usually start with a setting! Place is very important to me, and I like to have a clear idea of where my story is set before I begin. Often a story idea will arise out of a setting, as it did with New Guinea Moon. Or I might have an idea for a theme -- with Winter of Grace, which was part of the Girlfriend Fiction series, I thought, hm, I'd like to see a book for teenage girls that deals with religion and spirituality from an open, questioning point of view. So I wrote one!

Q: So, the old advice goes “write what you know” – but it took you nearly 10 years to write a book that seems to be very much based on your own life and experiences. Your family moved to New Guinea when you were six, so your father could work there as a pilot. I’m sure many people would have told you over the years that your life in New Guinea was story-worthy. So what prompted you to write ‘New Guinea Moon’ now? And was it harder to show this book to your friends and family, knowing that it is so informed by your own history?

 As you say, it sounds like an obvious subject! I had previously written a couple of short stories based on my family's time in PNG, and I've always had it in the back of my mind that I'd like to write more about that time and place. But paradoxically, I think being so close to the subject matter did make it more difficult to choose a story and find characters. I needed a few different shots at it before it came together. In the beginning I wasn't even sure if the book would be fiction or memoir, or if it would be aimed at children, young adults or adults - and that was even before I started wrestling with the plot and characters! And it was hard to show it to my parents, especially. I was afraid they'd think the characters were based on them - which they emphatically were not, even though a lot of our family experiences and memories found their way into the book. I think it might have brought back some fairly painful memories for my Mum, who didn't really enjoy her time in PNG. So that was hard.

Q: ‘New Guinea Moon’ is set in December 1974, when change is in the air. Indeed, the following year the eastern half of the island was granted independence from Australia. At one point your protagonist, Julie, muses that the ‘Europeans’ are already speaking of New Guinea with a wistfulness and nostalgia – knowing that everything is on the brink of change. What do you remember of this time, and how much were you relying on your own memories when writing ‘New Guinea Moon’? What sort of research did you do for the book – and did that include speaking to your own family about your time living there? 

I was pretty young when my family lived in PNG -- I was only eleven when we left. I do remember a certain atmosphere in the air around the time of Independence, a weird mix of excitement and apprehension, but I couldn't really make much sense of it at the time. At the time Independence was declared, I was only about nine. But I read a lot of memoirs of Australian expats who were there at that time and it illuminated the scene for me - the political situation and how that affected the expat residents, and of course the Papua New Guineans themselves. I think a lot of expats had built up very comfortable lives for themselves and thought things would continue in the same way indefinitely, moving very very slowly toward self-government, over many decades. But then the Whitlam government came into power and suddenly everything was fast-tracked, compressed into a couple of years. Even some Papua New Guineans, especially in the Highlands, thought the process was too rushed. So it was a very unsettled time, everyone's expectations were turned upside-down, and quite a lot of expats actually did sell up and leave. I remember being quite thrilled about the new flag, and the new coinage, and I remember the Independence parade in Mt Hagen, and the new flag being raised for the first time. Even as a child, I found it a very moving day. Reading the memoirs of expats, they are all filled with this overwhelming nostalgia and mourning for a lost paradise. It was interesting to try to juxtapose that very real love and grief with the political and historical reality for Papua New Guinean citizens themselves, and the huge optimism and excitement that Independence meant for them.

Q: As much as ‘New Guinea Moon’ is about Julie exploring this beautiful island and finding her independence – there’s also a large focus on family. She’s getting to know her father, who she hasn’t seen since she was three-years-old. And, while she’s away from home, she’s realizing that she isn’t so different from her mother, Caroline, and that might not be such a bad thing. Then there is the Crabtree children, and Julie sees how different their family is (indeed, they admit to being raised by their 'mami' - maid - and feel a maternal bond to her). So often in YA parental characters are pushed to the side and are non-existent or cardboard cutouts. Why do you think it’s important to represent realistic parental relationships in YA?

It's funny you should say that, because I've been guilty of pushing the parents aside myself in the past - or at least one parent! In fiction, I mean! Sometimes I think it can feel as if the stage is just too crowded in a YA novel - if you have lots of friendship and love relationships going on, it's hard to make room to explore family relationships as well. And of course during your teenage years, you do separate yourself to some extent from your parents and your family generally, and feel more closely bonded to your peers. So in a way that emphasis is natural in a YA novel. But of course your parents are still hugely important - your relationship with them shapes the person that you've become, to a large extent, however much young people might want (or need) to deny it! Perhaps since I've become a parent myself, I look on the parental figures with slightly more sympathy! Give them a break, they're doing the best they can!

Q: There's also fascinating explorations into racism and colonialism in 'New Guinea Moon', which Julie seems to notice a lot more because she's the outsider coming in (plus, she has her mother's leftist/radical leanings in the back of her mind) - Julie really sees the "us" and "them" mentality and sympathises with the quest for independence. Was that something you felt growing up - or is it only now when you look back that you see the colonial roots of that 1970's society and how wrong it was?

I have to say that Julie's attitude was one I wish I'd had, rather than the attitude I did have at the time. When you're a child, you take so much for granted; it's just the way the world is, and you don't question it - I never questioned our segregated schools, for example, or having house servants (though we only briefly had a meri, most of the time we had no servants). But I do remember being uncomfortable, as a child in PNG, with some of the casual racism around us, and also with the huge disparity in material wealth between us, the privileged expat community, and most of the local inhabitants. That awareness and discomfort was something I did carry into adolescence and adulthood, I don't think that has ever left me. But as a child, I never understood WHY things were like that. Those were the sorts of questions I really wanted Julie to ask.

Q: Did you go back and visit Papua New Guinea when you were writing the book how much has it changed from when you were a child growing up there?

I would dearly love to go back, and I applied for a grant to allow me to revisit PNG, but unfortunately I didn't get it! But later on I was glad, actually, because if I had gone back, I think the new experience would have overlaid my old memories and wiped them out, if that makes sense. Just judging from videos on YouTube, things seem more chaotic than I remember. I have photos of the mains street of Mt Hagen in the mid-70s, and it's all very neat and orderly; now those same streets look much wilder and more dilapidated. I would love to be able to take my father back to PNG one day - he misses the place.

Q: You’ve written so expansively – in fantasy with the ‘Chanters of Tremaris’ series, for younger readers with ‘Cicada Summer’ and ‘Crow Country’ and now a contemporary young adult novel in ‘New Guinea Moon’. Do you set out to write in so many genres and for varying readerships – or is it always the story and characters informing such paths?

That's an interesting question! Personally I think that my writing always settles at about the same level, which crosses over that upper primary/lower secondary divide. So what determines the readership really becomes the subject matter -- the realist books, with more mature themes, seem to push up into YA, and the books with magical/fantasy elements tend to be pitched as children's books. But I have to say that my own preferred reading is a really good, layered children's book -- and that's what I mostly try to write.

Q: ‘Crow Country’ was a huge success, winning the Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Award for Younger Readers in 2012. How is it writing the follow-up to such a huge literary success? Do you feel more pressure?

 A little bit! I think it helps that New Guinea Moon is such a different kind of book - a realist, historical YA book, with more of a romantic emphasis, rather than Crow Country 2! And New Guinea Moon was almost finished by the time Crow Country started winning awards - so it was too late to worry by then anyway!

Q: What are you working on right now, and when can we expect it to hit shelves?

I'm working on another time-slip book for younger readers, which is a mixture of The Block, My Place and a ghost story. I've got it all plotted out, so now I just have to write it! I'm hoping to finish it before the end of the year, so maybe it might be out some time in 2014?

Q: Favourite author(s) of all time?

Oh, that is such a hard question. I have so many favourites! Nancy Mitford, Rumer Godden, Lucy M. Boston, Antonia Forest, Helen Garner... how long have you got?

Q: Favourite book(s)?

Another tough question. But I decided once that if books were outlawed and I had to memorise one book to keep it alive, I would memorise The Secret Garden.

Q: What advice do you have for budding young writers?

Read, read, read everything you can. And write as much as you can, too. I was calling myself a writer for ten years before my first book was published, so don't give up!

New Guinea Moon is published by Allen & Unwin and is now available at all good bookshops and online

'New Guinea Moon' by Kate Constable

Received from the Publisher

From the BLURB:

Julie has grown up not knowing her father, with just the occasional Christmas card and the knowledge that he flies planes for a charter company in New Guinea. When she comes to stay with him one long summer, she learns to appreciate not only her long-lost father and his love of flying, but also New Guinea itself and the people she meets. An awkward romance with a young expat contrasts with her growing attraction to the son of a local coffee plantation owner. And, left to her own devices much of the time, Julie learns to rely on herself and gain her own independence. A tragedy and then a mystery leave her reeling, but force her to evaluate what she really wants out of life.

It’s December 1974, and after tensions reach boiling-point between Julie and her mother, Caroline suggests she spend the Christmas break with her father in Papua New Guinea. 

Julie has not seen Tony McGinty, her father, since she was a child. She has sent him sparse cards, but she knows nothing about him except that he lives in Mt Hagen, flying planes for Highland Air Charters.

When Julie touches down in Papua New Guinea, the heat is stifling and her bags are promptly stolen – only to be saved by a charismatic local who is home from his Australian school, Simon Murphy. Simon’s father, Patrick, was one of the first ‘Europeans’ (white people) to pave their way on the island – he went on to marry a local woman, and now runs a successful plantation, though he’s getting on in years and it looks as though Simon will soon be taking over.

Julie and Simon travel together in a small plane to Mt Hagen, where Julie once again meets the father she has never known. Tony quickly introduces Julie to his island ‘family’ – his boss is Allan ‘Curry’ Crabtree, whose wife is Barbara and they have two children, the young Nadine and Ryan, who is Julie’s age – all home from their Australian boarding schools for the holidays.

The Crabtree’s seem to be the centre of European socializing on the island. All the chartered pilots who work for Allan come to their house for festivities and parties, and Barbara is self-appointed matriarch overseeing all.

But while Julie is taken-aback by the beauty of the island, the sweetness of the locals and her tentative new relationship with Tony . . .  she is also seeing an ugly underbelly to the European ‘settlers’. They have servants they call ‘meri’ and ‘haus boi’ – white expats don’t mix with locals, and want very little to do with them at all. And talk of independence stirs the air – people like Barbara Crabtree are convinced there will be riots in the streets, and Europeans murdered in their sleep. 

Just when Julie feels herself settling into the beauty of Papua New Guinea, and envisioning her life with Tony post-independence, tragedy strikes – and Julie questions everything she knows about right and wrong, family and confidence in herself.

‘New Guinea Moon’ is the new young adult novel from Australian author, Kate Constable. 

Kate Constable lived in Papua New Guinea from the age of six, when her father was a pilot on the island. She lived there for a number of years before she and her family relocated back to Australia. Knowing this now, it explains a lot of how ‘New Guinea Moon’ is such a thoughtfully detailed book, effortlessly capturing a time and place that at once reads so foreign and out-of-time, but tangible in many other respects.

Going into this book, I knew absolutely nothing about Papua New Guinea or its colonisation by Germany, the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth of Australia until independence from Australia in 1975.  I was actually quite shocked to learn that Australia had such roots in colonisation, so learnt from Britain, no doubt. It was an unsettling realization that Australia had such a history, and so very recently too! That’s why I was happy that in the book, Constable uses Julie’s outsider eyes to comment on the inequality she sees and feels disturbed by. Julie’s mother, Caroline, is portrayed as a leftist feminist and she is most certainly looking on Papua New Guinea and the Aussie expats with a thought to what her mother would think . . . but it speaks a lot to youthful intolerance that Julie so wonderfully articulates what she sees is wrong in this colonized society. Particularly because Julie has arrived in December 1974, and murmurings of independence are rife in the air and electrifying the people, locals and expats alike;  

‘They’ll kick us all out. This time next year, there won’t be any Europeans left, apart from the God-botherers.’ 

‘It’s the end of an era . . . it’ll never be the same.’ 

It’s odd, Julie thinks. There is anger in the way they speak, bitter resentment at their dismissal from the scene. But there is a wistfulness too, nostalgia for the lives they are still leading, as if they see themselves as ghosts already; they miss living here and they haven’t even left yet. Did the Romans sit around talking like this, before their empire fell?

Julie’s thoughts are also informed by the two families she comes to know on the island. The Crabtrees are well-to-do Aussies who have made their wealth with Highland Air Charters. Julie becomes uneasily close to Ryan Crabtree, a boy her age who seems to be in two minds – he once spoke fluent Pidgin, taught to him by the meri who helped raise him – but now he looks upon the locals with haughty disdain and seems to be allying with his mother on wanting to leave and live in Australia when independence comes. 

Then there’s Simon Murphy, the twenty-something handsome man who helps Julie get to Mt. Hagen. Simon is, quite literally, in two worlds – with an Australian father who was one of the first Europeans to settle on the island, but also with a New Guinean mother. Simon welcomes independence, and feels a duty to his home to return from his Australian studies and start running his father’s plantation business, contributing to the local economy and possibly looking into local politics. Simon is not one of the Europeans, rather he is seen as a ‘local’ in the eyes of the expats – as such, Simon sees the injustice of colonization and is excited by the prospect of his country standing on its own two feet.

There is a tinge of romance to ‘New Guinea Moon’ – though it pales in comparison to the far more interesting questions Constable raises about white ‘superiority’, and her provoking thoughts on Australia’s colonialist past. 

At times I wished there was more of a focus on Tony and Julie’s relationship – but I actually thought Julie grew closer to her mother, Caroline, while she was away from her. It was when Julie started asking herself what she thought of independence and Australia’s role in Papua New Guinea that I think Julie started to appreciate the different world-view her mother had equipped her with. By contrast, Tony is a sweet and shy man, never quite at-ease around his daughter . . . which is a shame; because I think there was a little more room for father/daughter bonding in this book. 

I really, thoroughly enjoyed ‘New Guinea Moon’. It is an unsettling book that beautifully and meticulously captures a dubious moment in Australia’s colonialist past. Papua New Guinea of the 1970s is magnificently evoked and seen through the eyes of a thoughtful and maturing young woman in Julie. There’s romance, tragedy and a deep respect for a wondrous country and its enduring people . . . 

5/5 

New Guinea Moon is published by Allen & Unwin and is now available at all good bookshops and online.