Give them pleasure

In celebration of the release of the US edition of PORTRAITS OF CELINA, (hardback with a jacket - it looks so pretty!) I have reposted this post about writing a slightly creepy story.

“Give them pleasure. The same pleasure they have when they wake up from a nightmare.” Alfred Hitchcock

I didn’t set out to write a creepy story. But it seems that I have.

Many readers/reviewers of Portraits of Celina say that the novel is gripping, thrilling and seriously creepy. This comment is often followed by grimaces and shudders, and then the sharing of favourite “freak out” moments. All relayed with huge grins and much wide-eyed glee. Fantastic and appreciated feedback for me as the author, but it got me thinking what a weird lot we human beings are! Why do we gain pleasure from reading stories that scare us?

The answer can be found in biology and evolution. Feeling fear is a primeval response that has contributed to our species staying alive and thriving, and that has saved us from many dangers.

The science goes like this. When we are confronted with a dangerous situation, the brain immediately releases a surge of hormones, in particular, adrenaline, but also others such as dopamine. These hormones trigger our fear response that allows us to react swiftly. Our bodies go on high alert, we are charged with energy and our senses are intensified. Essential things for survival.

Now, for many, when these hormones are released in non-dangerous situations, where there is little or no risk of physical harm, this heady rush of hormones results in a type of exhilaration, or at the very least, exciting, pleasurable feelings. All thrill, but no price! Perfect.

I can assure you it is very unlikely that I will ever bungee jump off a bridge, go skydiving or swim with sharks. I’m not even that keen on roller coaster rides. For me, there is no better place to get my dose of thrills and chills than curling up on my sofa in the safety of my own home caught in the suspense of a nail-biting novel, experiencing fear vicariously.

So I am pleased to have written something a little creepy – something that allows readers the same pleasure as waking from a nightmare!

Hope you enjoy the rush.

Writing makes me happy

I have been writing professionally for fifteen years. So you'd think I would have worked it out by now. But in the last few weeks, more than ever before, I have come to the simple realisation that writing makes me happy. And that when I'm not writing, I can get a little cranky with life.

The past twelve months have been tricky. And life, as is often the case, has been getting in the way of my writing. This, coupled with several failed attempts at starting new novels, a cranky parrot on my shoulder, in full voice, telling me how rubbish my writing was, and inspiration and motivation as capricious as Sydney weather, meant that I was starting to question whether I even had another story in me. Perhaps Portraits of Celina was going to be my last novel.

http://mansquito.com/pages/giant-squid.html

Then, when my guard was down (and my spirits too), by chance I saw a video of a giant squid. This resulted in a light bulb moment, which led to others, and soon I was connecting several (quite random) ideas and, before I knew it, I was at the computer, with a new way in to one of my false start novels.

And I am so HAPPY. I feel like I am BACK. My characters are chatty and demanding and constantly charming the socks off me. And I am glad to be charmed again. I am glad to be writing.

Because writing makes me happy.

Where can you get it?: one advantage of technology in the book trade

Unbelievably, it is almost a year since Portraits of Celina was released. It has been a fantastic year and I have been really happy with how the book has been received. But a year on, it is unlikely to be found on very many bookshop shelves - this is just the way it goes - and I have had a number of people of late ask: where can I get a copy?

So ... if you can't find it at your local bookshop, they should be able to order it in for you. It is still in print and available.

But now, with new technologies, the life of a book has been extended.

It is still available at a number of online bookshops such as: Booktopia and Bookworld.

And it is also available as an ebook, so can be purchased from many ebook retailers such as: iTunes and Amazon/kindle and Kobo and Bookworld.

Isn't it nice to think that even a year after release, a book is still readily available? One advantage of technology in the book trade!

A stern talking to self

Okay – enough is enough, Susan. No more excuses.

Portraits of Celina has been out for three months. It has been read, reviewed and reprinted. You have received wonderful notes and emails and FB messages, and you have done what you can to promote it: school visits, library visits, festivals, panel sessions, conferences, interviews and articles. You have blogged and facebooked and tweeted.

There will be more opportunities – and they will be wonderful and appreciated – but it is time to let go. To stop being that helicopter parent hovering over and worrying about your latest little book baby and how it is doing in the big bad world. Slash the apron strings, Susan. Let Bayley and Celina tell their stories to whoever wishes to listen to them. They are no longer your characters. They belong to your readers, and you must move on. You have a new novel to write and it is not going to write itself. It requires time, effort – and in the (paraphrased) words of Ernest Hemingway “you need to sit at your typewriter and bleed”.

Remember Shay? And Riley? Remember that image you have of them: torn, crying, bereft, but loving each other to bits? Remember Shay touching Riley’s face and telling him she will fix it, fix him? That she would never leave his side no matter what he’s done? Remember your blog post about Dad and those tangly webs? Remember that?

You have another story to tell. And I think it could be a good one, one worth telling. And, yes, it is going to be hard. Really hard. It is going to take a long time. You are going to doubt yourself and at times you will feel as if you are writing nothing but rubbish – and maybe it will be, just that, rubbish, but maybe it won’t. But, Susan, you have to give it your best shot. Come on, put a lid on those doubts, silence those excuses and, please, please, just get on with it. 

Like now.

Bookish adventures

Hello.

I have had a HUGE June with many bookish adventures.
From Reading Matters conference in Melbourne to
Voices on the Coast in the Sunshine Coast to
SCBWI WA events In Perth and "retreat" on Rottnest Island to
three days and nine schools' tour with Westbooks!

Wow! It was hectic. It was fun. It was inspiring. And although I am slightly exhausted, I am also pretty satisfied that I got through it all without too many dramas.

Here are some happy snaps from the WA leg of the trip.

Illustrators showing off! Clever bunnies.

Quokkas!

Some of the gang on Rottnest

The two Sues - with Sue from Westbooks

The Greatest Liar exhibition at the Lit Centre Fremantle - with Frane Lessac

Brian Falkner - writer in residence at the Lit Centre

That's what I call an auditorium! Loved talking about Celina to keen readers.

A note from Celina O’Malley

That morning, my last morning, April 7, 1975, dawned brilliant: warm and golden, the sun slanting through the trees. It matched my mood perfectly. It was to be the first day of the rest of our lives, for Robbie and me.

I walked down my driveway, brimming with excitement, closed the front gate behind me to keep the goats in, just as I did every morning, and headed along the dirt track to the bus stop.

I never made it. I was just sixteen years old.

I have to tell you that I felt ripped off, dying that young, when I had everything to look forward to – my whole life ahead of me. And it was going to be such a good life. I had passion: so much I wanted to do, to achieve. It was incredibly unfair.

But dying wasn’t the worst part, let me tell you. It was just the beginning.

Imagine what it was like having to watch everyone suffer so horribly after I was gone. The waiting, wondering, worrying – the not knowing what had happened to me. It was torture, for them, and for me. It’s what drove Robbie away and sent Mum and Dad mad with sorrow.

And all the while HE lived on. Walked among them. Laughed. Joked. Prospered. Lived. Did unspeakable things.

But now MY time has come. My patience has paid off. It may have taken nearly forty years, but now my sweet little cousin has come at last to help me. And although she doesn’t know it yet, she is going to exact my revenge. To make HIM pay. It’s all up to her now.

Make him pay, Bayley. Make him pay.

I won’t rest until it’s done.

Peace sister.

Celina O’Malley

Stillness after craziness, the love of long lost fathers and the tangling of webs

I love the morning. Love the promise of it. The stillness of it. The quiet pause of it.

This morning the stillness is particularly sweet. After a crazy couple of weeks of releasing Portraits of Celina into the world (or to be more precise, Australian bookshops and libraries!) – a couple of weeks of great excitement and extreme trepidation, where I have had the pleasure of reading some AMAZING reviews, where I have had the joy of seeing nice little STACKS or teetering PILES of the book in bookstores (coupled with the worry that the piles will remain teetering and end up being returned), where I have had gorgeous, enthusiastic emails and facebook messages full of praise and good wishes from friends, relatives, booksellers, early readers and writing buddies, where I have introduced the book to hundreds of teen girls and been encouraged by their excitement and engagement – after such a couple of weeks, it is good to soak in the stillness of the morning, take stock (and a deep breath), make a vow to stop obsessing, worrying and self-googling, and to get back to my next novel.

And this brings me to thoughts about my dad and tangly webs.

My dad died when I was barely twenty. Six months exactly before my wedding day. (Yes, a child bride!) Eight years before I had that first stirring in my belly that I’d like to write, and twenty years before I had my first book published. In an interview for Magpies magazine, Joy Lawn asked about the absence of fathers in my last two novels. The question threw me. I hadn’t realised. And I had to wonder if it was due to the fact that deep down I feel like I have missed out on having a father for much of my life.

I don’t remember an awful lot about my father as a person. I think he was cheeky. I think he loved having fun. I think he was a risk-taker. I say think because I don’t really know. But when I think of him, my first thoughts are not about what we did together, my first thoughts are of love. I loved him deeply and I know he loved me unconditionally in return. And despite his early departure, he left me with some very strong “lessons” that have travelled with me my entire life. He taught me to be prepared – to do my homework – before speaking or acting or reacting. He taught me to strive, not to settle for a small life. And he taught me about truth. Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practise to deceive. His favourite saying. And the core of my new work. A story of love, lies and deception and a very tangly web.

So now, thirty-three years after his death, Dad is with me again. He is sitting on an orange vinyl chair at a laminate kitchen table, sipping his whiskey, chuckling and saying, Go for it, Suzie-Q; you can do it. Those tangly webs will make for a damn good story. Just do your homework and strive – don’t settle for a small story, make it big, make it shine.

And I am going to give it a red-hot go. This one’s for you, Dad. Love you. Miss you. XXX

Give them pleasure

“Give them pleasure. The same pleasure they have when they wake up from a nightmare.” Alfred Hitchcock

I didn’t set out to write a creepy story. But it seems that I have.

Early responses from readers of Portraits of Celina are that the novel is gripping, thrilling and seriously creepy. This comment is often followed by grimaces and shudders, and then the sharing of favourite “freak out” moments. All relayed with huge grins and much wide-eyed glee. Fantastic and appreciated feedback for me as the author, but it got me thinking what a weird lot we human beings are! Why do we gain pleasure from reading stories that scare us?

The answer can be found in biology and evolution. Feeling fear is a primeval response that has contributed to our species staying alive and thriving, and that has saved us from many dangers.

The science goes like this. When we are confronted with a dangerous situation, the brain immediately releases a surge of hormones, in particular, adrenaline, but also others such as dopamine. These hormones trigger our fear response that allows us to react swiftly. Our bodies go on high alert, we are charged with energy and our senses are intensified. Essential things for survival.

Now, for many, when these hormones are released in non-dangerous situations, where there is little or no risk of physical harm, this heady rush of hormones results in a type of exhilaration, or at the very least, exciting, pleasurable feelings. All thrill, but no price! Perfect.

I can assure you it is very unlikely that I will ever bungee jump off a bridge, go skydiving or swim with sharks. I’m not even that keen on roller coaster rides. For me, there is no better place to get my dose of thrills and chills than curling up on my sofa in the safety of my own home caught in the suspense of a nail-biting novel, experiencing fear vicariously.

So I am pleased to have written something a little creepy – something that allows readers the same pleasure as waking from a nightmare!

Hope you enjoy the rush.

The devil’s in the detail

This particular idiom is a favourite of mine. How often do we get tripped up by not attending to the details of a situation? (What?! I had to check in forty-five minutes before the flight!) Not reading the fine print? (What?! I’m not covered for flood damage?) Not reading the instructions? (Why is there five screws left?) Ploughing through the steps of a recipe without paying enough attention to those important fine details? (What?! It said a teaspoon of chili not a tablespoon?)

As an editor, I am most certainly a details person. But it is in writing, that details give me the most delight and, at times, cause me the most dilemmas. The addition of details can make or break your writing and it can be a deliciously devilish thing to get right.

It comes down to the old Goldilocks scenario.

Too many details and your writing becomes wordy and dull, slow paced and bogged down, allowing no room for your readers to use their own imaginations.

 

Too few details and your readers will find it difficult to form pictures in their minds. And your writing becomes flat, uninspiring and quite possibly confusing.

But if you provide just the right amount of details, your writing will sing; it will be vivid and rich – without slowing the pace of the story.

But having the right level of detail is only half the problem. The details you choose must be just right as well – they need to be precise, convincing, evocative, authentic, sensory, specific, arresting, unusual. They should never be merely embellishments. They need to work hard for your plot, or setting, or themes, or character.

In my own writing, I tend to start quite expansive and then whittle down my descriptions and scenes until I feel I have just the right balance, keeping only what I feel are the most arresting, evocative or necessary details. This of course is time-consuming, but it works for me and, as I whittle away, the process becomes like solving a puzzle. By way of example, the first drafts of the prologue in Portraits of Celina ran at around 1000 words. The prologue that made it into the final draft is a mere 250 words – yet it still says everything it needs to say and, while it hasn’t been tested on the general public yet, I think it is vivid and powerful. (She says, hopefully!)

To finish up, I found an interesting definition of “the devil is in the detail” in that most reliable of sources Wikipedia.

“The idiom ‘the devil is in the detail’ refers to a catch or mysterious element hidden in the details.”

In the context of Portraits of Celina, this particular definition brought a sly grin to my face. There is certainly a catch / twist hidden in the details of this story. Quite a dark one, actually. And yes, my friends, that is a teaser ...

The next big thing

It may be Boxing Day here in Australia, but apparently THE NEXT BIG THING BLOG thingy must go on.

Last week the very lovely Deborah Abela tagged me on her blog, as part of a chain of blog posts by writerly types called THE NEXT BIG THING, where authors are invited to wax lyrical about their next book.

Today it's my turn, and I’m going to be answering a bunch of questions about my new novel, Portraits of Celina, which comes out next April. Then I have to tag more writers who will tell you about their new books next Wednesday.

So let’s get this show on the road.

What is the working title of your next book?

Portraits of Celina. It will be out in April 1 next year – no joke! I’d show you the cover – it is amazing – but I’m afraid I can’t as there is going to be an official “reveal” and competition in February. Stay tuned.

Where did the idea come from for the book?

The idea snuck up on me. I was writing a totally different book for a younger age group, but it wasn’t working. After some scathing but "right on the money" feedback from my daughter, I decided to ditch that particular project. But the set-up and back-story I had created intrigued me and I couldn’t let my characters go. So I decided to go for a bit of an explore and see where it took me.

What genre does your book fall under?

This is a tricky one as it doesn’t fit neatly into a particular genre. A haunting thriller perhaps? It’s for readers aged 12+, and the back cover blurb describes it as “A ghost story. A love story. A story of revenge.”

What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

There has been much discussion and daydreaming about this among the editors at Walker Books. But I think Ashleigh Cummings who played Debbie in Puberty Blues and Tomorrow When the War Began would do a great job of Bayley. Oliver I’d choose a hot newcomer from NIDA. Gran is definitely Jacki Weaver. And Bill Hunter (if he were still with us) is the perfect Bud.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

When the grief-stricken Anderson family moves to the lake house in faraway Tallowood, Bayley hopes that this will be their chance for a fresh start, but the house was witness to an awful tragedy forty years earlier and Bayley becomes entwined in her murdered cousin’s desperate yearning for revenge.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

Walker Books Australia will be publishing Portraits of Celina.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

About eighteen months – I wrote most of it on the train during my morning commute to work.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

Can't really answer this one yet – though some readers have seen parallels with The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold.

 Who or what inspired you to write this book?

My daughter, Lizzie, inspired (or strongly suggested) I ditch my original idea (which sucked, in her humble opinion) and explore the setting and characters and set-up I had created. She was so right!

What else about the book might pique the reader's interest?

Early readers (my publisher, editors, sales and marketing team, sales reps etc) have all commented on how genuinely creepy and suspenseful the book is. And there is a twist at the end of the story, which has taken everyone by surprise and has had them looking at me through narrowed eyes and saying things like “I didn’t know you had such a dark side, Sue!”

So that's it from me. It is now my duty to pass the baton on to other writers and as it is the holiday season and everyone is lying around a pool or on the beach somewhere reading the current big thing, I have only managed to tag two writers - the gorgeous and talented Sue Lawson and Steph Bowe. They will be posting on January 2. 

So long!