A NEW BOOK IS COMING!

Hot off the press:  


I am thrilled to announce that GATHER THE BONES, the book I have been loosely describing as "Downton Abbey with ghosts" (I will come up with a better description!), has been bought by Lyrical Press and will be published as an ebook in the mid year.


Watch this space!


A very excited...


Alison xxx

Australian Women Writers Challenge 2012

Keen on romance, fantasy, crime, YA, literary, mainstream women's fiction? Contemporary or historical? Memoir, other nonfiction or poetry? 


Whatever your preference, whether you're a fan of one genre or a devoted eclectic, the 2012 Australian Women Writers Book Reading & Reviewing Challenge invites you to celebrate a year encountering the best of Australian women's writing. 

Challenge period: 1 January 2012 - 31 December 2012 

Goal: Read and review books written by Australian women writers – hard copies, ebooks and audiobooks, new, borrowed or stumbled upon by book-crossing. 

Genre challenges: 
Purist: one genre only 
Dabbler: more than one genre 
Devoted eclectic: as many genres as you can find 

Challenge levels: 
Stella (read 3 and review at least 2 books) 
Miles (read 6 and review at least 3* 
Franklin-fantastic (read 10 and review at least 4 books)* 
* The higher levels should include at least one substantial length review 

I will be joining the challenge and it is my GOAL to be a "Stella" reader (I'm a painfully slow reader these days!) in a genre other than my own (OK...choosing CRIME!).


If you would like to join me GO TO the Goodreads Australian Women Writers Challenge and sign up!  


And if anyone would like to choose one of my books (yes, I am an Australian writer!) to read and/or review, please email me at alison@alisonstuart.com and I will give away a free copy of the chosen book in the e-format of your choosing.


Happy reading in 2012.


Alison

CHANCE ENCOUNTERS

Donne wrote “No man is an island” but for many writers starting on their writing journey, they can feel that they are not only an island but a very remote island stranded in a wild sea. When I first started to write it felt like some sort of guilty pleasure that I would be embarrassed about if anyone caught me at it! I felt completely and utterly alone.

Gradually, as that first novel began to take shape I started to believe that this was something I could do, that a childhood dream of being a writer was achievable but like any spring growth, that dream felt new and vulnerable to criticism. A couple of wrong words and I would have crawled into a corner and tried to forget all about it. It took a couple of chance encounters to realise that it was all right to keep writing and to keep dreaming.

The first encounter was with a woman in our church choir who I’ll call “Ann”. To me she was an idol…a successful career woman who had managed to reach the pinnacle of her profession and yet also be a wife and mother at a time when women were still expected to be the little housewife. I can’t recall how the conversation started, during which she “confessed” that in her spare time (what spare time, I wondered?) she liked to write romance novels. I never knew if Ann was a published author or not – in hindsight she seemed rather cagey about that aspect of her secret life. That short, snatched conversation in the choir vestry had a deep impact on me and it felt as if she had given me permission to pursue my dream. If this amazing woman wrote romance novels then it was OK for me to do so too.

I typed “The End” and that first manuscript (begun when I dislocated a shoulder on a skiing holiday) had become a fully formed book. A BOOK! I'd done it! But publication seemed an unachievable aspiration as the rejection letters began to flow in. In the meantime my legal career limped on and led me to my second chance encounter in the crowded foyer of a local magistrate’s court, among the speeding drivers and petty criminals. There I met an upcoming crime writer, and lawyer, by the name of Kerry Greenwood. I had read several of her wonderful Phryne Fisher novels and she was enough of a local identity for me to recognise her. In the course of the conversation I blurted out my hopes and dreams of leaving law behind and becoming a writer. Kerry listened patiently and told me that of course I could do it. I just had to keep at it.

The rest is history. I found a writing family with Romance Writers of Australia and no longer felt alone. I kept writing and eventually my stories were published but I never forgot Ann and Kerry’s encouragement to a young, vulnerable, fledgling writer with a dream.

Recently I met Kerry Greenwood again. No longer up and coming but arrived, Kerry’s fabulous stories are being transformed into film with a Phryne Fisher series due for release on the ABC next year. Like any nervous fan I sidled up to her at the end of the panel and began “You won’t remember me, but…”. “Of course I remember you,” she said. “How is the writing?” I felt myself flushing with pleasure that a chance encounter so many years ago had stayed with her. If she only knew what it had meant to me at the time.

Musing about the Muse

"Those who work only when the Muse strikes them make little progress." (William V. Dunning)


Thank you William, your words are so true! Any writer, poet or artist will tell you that if they waited for the muse to appear at their shoulder then there would be little in this world of great literature, poetry or art. The creative life is, I am afraid to say, 10% inspiration and 90% hard graft!


Since becoming "differently employed" in November last year, I have learned that my previous excuses of work pressures no longer excused me from writing. I have spent many mornings sitting at a blank computer screen (well not completely blank, generally it was occupied by Facebook or some other distraction). In order to write I have had to chain my muse by the ankle to the desk and she has howled and sulked and occasionally come up with the goods, but writing, like my previous employment is hard work. Some days the words flow and other days they have to be drawn out like fingernails.


So, who are these muses that so torment us?  According to Greek mythology there were nine of the lovely ladies:

• Calliope:  Epic Poetry (symbolised by a writing tablet)
• Clio:  History (a scroll)
• Erato: Love poetry (a cythara - harp)
• Euterpe: Song and Elegaic Poetry (an aulos - flute)
• Melpomene:  Tragedy (tragic mask)
• Polyhymnia: Hymns (veil)
• Terpsichore:  Dance (lyre)
• Thalia:  Comedy (comic mask)
• Urania: Astronomy (globe and compass)

The word "muse" comes from the Greek "mousa" meaning to excel in arts and in the ancient Greek culture, this covered all learning. Modern words such as "music" owe their derivation to the mousa.


I have decided my own personal muse thrives on stress.  With an imminent overseas trip, a bathroom renovation and general domestic upheaval, I signed off on a draft of one of my WIPs last week with the decision that I would take a break from writing to get everything sorted out. 

That is when my muse came out to play. Without warning I felt compelled to shake the dust off my novella. I have decided this particular story is born of stressful occasions, as I started writing it during my father's last illness.  Suddenly I found I could pass the computer and out would come another few hundred words, without conscious thought and recourse to Facebook or Spider Solitaire. 

Perhaps I am not meant to be a "full time writer", maybe I need some added dimension to my life to kick start my muse into life, or maybe it is just about self discipline and taming my muse into submission?

What kick starts your muse? 

PS You may notice that my blog has changed "look" - that's just me procrastinating again. Then again I am still in spring cleaning mode so a fresh new look for the spring?

Guest Blog: How does Feng Shui Work?

I have done several blogs on Feng Shui and its accidental role in my life. This week I am delighted to have a practitioner in the subject as my guest, Michael Shnippering, who is far better qualified than I am to tell you how Feng Shui works!

In order to understand how Feng Shui works, it is crucial to understand chi. Chi is energy; chi is life force. There exists both positive and negative chi, or energy. Feng Shui is used to promote positive chi and subdue or remove negative chi.

However, there are also other, crucial concepts that form the foundations of Feng Shui. One of these is harmony. Harmony, balance, and symmetry are very important in Feng Shui as well. By improving chi flow, creating openings for chi to enter, and formulating spaces where harmony, beauty, and balance are abundant, Feng Shui works to make a home and the people who live there healthy, happy, and prosperous.

Because energy affects us on every level – physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual, by working with the energy and creating positive situations, Feng Shui helps us improve our lives. With Feng Shui, if you change the energy, you change your life.

Feng Shui is referred to as a science and an art. Some even call it magic. It is all three. For those who don’t believe in magic, simply open your understanding to define magic as a science we don’t yet understand. Because in the Western world, the study of energy is often considered to be “New Age”, there is a great deal of ignorance about it and people tend to negate what they do not understand.

In many other places and civilizations in the world, the study of energy has existed for thousands of years. Scientific experiments have proven that we have energy. Whether you call it chi, prana, or energy, it not only exists but plays an important role in our lives.

A doctor named Masuro Emoto did a study where he froze ice crystals. On some of the crystals he wrote the word “love”. On another set he wrote “Hate”. The ones marked “love” produced beautiful, symmetrical crystals. The others, marked “hate”, yielded deformed, lopsided, sickly-looking crystals. You can think of Feng Shui working for similar reasons.

Feng Shui works because like attracts like. When we attract positive energy into our homes, we attract positive energy to our bodies and the events that surrounds us. Certain elements in our homes may promote negative energy. This is often because they are disharmonious. For example, things that are dirty, broken, or ugly make us feel bad – we are picking up on the energy they emit and cause.

The ancient Chinese studied chi in great detail. They were able to discover how things in our physical world carry a certain kind of energy or cause a particular type of energy. They then translated this into a template for making a home harmonious,. In addition, they also used astrology and astronomy, for the positions of the planets, seasons, elements, and other aspect of nature also guide and shape their own energies.

 

The bottom line is – Feng Shui works. People have noticed the changes to their homes and lives.

BIO: Michael Schnippering is the founder of of Feng Shui at Work. He is committed to the true art and science of Feng Shui. Over the years his Feng Shui practice has taken him to various parts of the United States, Germany, France, Spain, Colombia and Argentina.

Visit Michael and his team at  Feng Shui at Work http://www.fengshuiatwork.com

Twitter: @fengshuiatwork

On Spring Cleaning and Blogs

Spring is in the air and I am spring cleaning! So far I today I have cleaned the oven, launched a new book and revamped my website.

In September I will be part of an exciting new grop blog -- Historical Hearts -- which launches on September 14 and in the interests of maintaining my sanity and the best use of my time, I am moving my personal blog over to my website. Past posts will still be able to accessed here but all future blogging will be done from http://www.alisonstuart.com/alison-stuart-blog.html.

Oh... and the new book I have launched today is a collection of my short stories:  TOWER OF TALES available at Smashwords and Kindle.  From now until the end of August you can download it for free from Smashwords. Just quote coupon #CZ59R!

Fit to Write - A Personal Journey

This time last year I was a mess. 


My dream job had begun to unravel as the organisation I worked for as a senior executive went through an organisational restructure. I was working long hours, dealing with some difficult issues,  what little exercise I did was getting pushed to the back burner and my diet seemed to largely consist of Board room sandwiches and take away. My weight climbed up over the 80kg mark for the first time ever which on a 162cm frame was not a good look! I was going to bed exhausted, sleeping badly and waking up just as exhausted. In short I was stressed, overweight and miserable. 


My father had died earlier in the year and in retrospect I was still dealing with his loss - I simply hadn't acknowledged my need to grieve. I was also frustrated because that five minutes I grabbed on a Saturday afternoon to write was just not enough time to produce anything of any worth. So add 'creatively stifled' to the mixing pot and I was going nowhere fast.

You know things aren't going right when you feel nauseous just driving into the car park in the morning and you tear up just looking at a white board!

Something had to be done or I was heading for the ubiquitous "burnout". Early in September I attended a conference at which the motivational speaker was Matt Church. Every conference has a motivational speaker these days but Matt Church brought a different perspective. He talked about the chemistry of the body and how it affects your working life. He described "Adrenalin Junkies" and as he spoke I could hear the voice in my head..."He's talking about you". To paraphrase him, our bodies give us effectively 3 hours of adrenalin a day and if you are an adrenalin junkie (and I ticked all the boxes), you've burnt it off by 11am. After that cortisol kicks in which, while giving you the same energy level, has the physical effect of thickening the blood. When you stop, "it's like being hit by a Mack truck"...it affects your sleep, causes weight gain...etc.  


How to deal with the problem? Seratonin - it takes at least 3 weeks to begin to replace your seratonin levels. I couldn't change the work situation but I could change me - diet and exercise needed serious re-evaluation. So I signed up to Michelle Bridges 12WBT program. This is not a quick fix weight loss program; it is careful eating and a minimum of 6 days of exercise. I began to use the gym at work in a quiet hour in the afternoon if I could grab one, I changed into my exercise gear before I left work thus ensuring I made it to my Step Into Life classes or simply worked on Michelle's "Learning to Run" Program.


Then in November my employer and I parted ways. It was one of those unpleasant Friday afternoon discussions that come from left field. Yes, I was devastated but at the same time exhilarated. I felt as if I had been set free. As a measure of how stressed I had been, it took at least two months to begin to feel as if I had achieved some sort of equilibrium again. In that time I had lost 8kg and I was exercising every day. In May this year I ran my first 5km "Fun Run" (not two words I have ever put together!) in 37 minutes.


I now write full time. I sit at a desk from 9 to 5 talking to imaginary people, which after my recent work experience, certainly beats talking to real ones! But you have to be fit to write. It is an occupation that demands as much attention to your physical well being as any other job. I'm at an age where bits of me are starting to wear out but that is all the more reason to exercise.

Exercise is now a vital part of my life, if I miss a day then I know it. I still need to lose more weight but at least that is not down to Board room sandwiches any more! The fact is I like a glass of wine in the evening and good food and I'm at an age where the metabolism doesn't function quite the way it used to but at least I don't FEEL overweight any more.


So where am I going with this? Some advice for being "Fit to Write" 

• Make exercise part of your day - whether it is going for a walk, yoga or anything. Start setting yourself goals. You do it with your writing...do it with exercise. "Today I will walk one street further" or (as happened to me) "In May I will participate in a Fun Run". It is easy for me to say this and I can hear the excuses (I know them all...believe me) but you can do it. Not exercising is a habit. It takes 21 days to make a new habit. If I could do it, you can too. 
• Watch your diet. I know chocolate is a compulsory part of any writer's life, but make it a treat, not a part of the daily food group.
• Get up out of that chair at least once ever hour and do something different for 5 minutes.

I know many of you are not just writing, but also balancing employment and families. Nothing changes what I've said above. I did it...you can too! When I started running, I could barely make one minute before feeling as I was about to have a coronary, now I can run 3kms without stopping (OK...I will never be a marathon runner but this is about you...not what others can do!).

In summary: Listen to your body, cultivate a "whole of body awareness" and set yourself goals, even if they are "baby steps". Striving to achieve a goal is better than just sitting back and letting life happen to you.

Any more tips to allow us to be "Fit to Write"?

Alison after the Run for Kids - still smiling!

(PS Another great reference that resonated with me  is the "Strong Women Stay Young" concept. See the website at http://www.strongwomen.com/ )

The Soundtrack to my Writing Life

Being a creature of habit (in other words a typical Capricorn) from an early age I developed a routine around the way I worked, of which music played a significant part. Back in the days of LPs (remember those large shiney black things?) I would never start a study session without Tchaikovsky’s 1812 overture or Handel’s Water music. It would have been as unthinkable as not playing a couple of rounds of solitaire (with REAL cards) while I ate my lunch. 

More recently when I needed to concentrate at work drafting agreements or finalising complex meeting minutes, I would put my iPod on and listen to an eclectic selection of music in a playlist called “Music to Work To”. This included Celtic and Opera.

You may be rolling your eyes and  thinking “OCD” here, which I am not at all but when I have a goal to achieve I find music and routine helps to soothe the savage beast. Putting the music on (and occasionally lighting the oil burner)  seems to provide a clue to my scatty brain that we are here to WORK.

As I was thinking about this, it occurred to me that my published novels were both written to music. THE KING’S MAN with its dark undertones had behind it the music of Purcell. The music of Loreena McKennit  features strongly in my writing world, and her eastern influence is providing background to one of my current “WIPS” (work in progress) which is partially set in the Arab world of North Africa in the seventeenth century.

At the moment I am deep into rewrites of my post World War One novel and you would think that maybe something 1920s or a selection of the war poetry of  Wilfred Owen might be the kick start, but oddly it is a simple little ballad by a young singer called Christina Perri.  Her song “Arms” seems to perfectly capture the fear on the part of both my hero and heroine to allow themselves to fall in love. I am probably singlehandedly responsible for the number of You Tube hits Christina’s video is experiencing as  neither the CD nor the digital download seems to be available in Australia yet, but here it is. I hope you enjoy it.

Do you have a musical soundtrack to your writing, reading or working life?

The next best seller is coming along nicely...

I have had a few readers ask me lately when my next book will be coming out. The truth is I don't know!

For the last eight years I have been occupied with the thing called "career" as I rose to being a senior executive. While I liked to think it didn't interfere with my writing, the truth is it did. I will be the first to admit I am not superwoman. After a day at the executive grindstone, I would crawl home from work too tired to do much more than throw some food on the table, watch an hour of mindless TV and go to bed. Weekends were then spent catching up on cooking, shopping, cleaning and life. So those spare five minutes on a Saturday afternoon were not terribly productive. I could feel all my creativity just disappearing. I couldn't write and I couldn't sew - my two creative outlets. All I had was work.

In November last year I quite suddenly found myself "differently employed". The circumstances don't matter...it is one of the realities of corporate life and the higher up the ladder you are, the shakier it becomes. If anyone has ever found themselves in the same position you will know that it is a horrible experience and despite all the silver linings (and there are plenty!), it shatters your sense of self.

I suppose I am more fortunate than most. I didn't feel defined by my career. I realised that I had one solid rock to cling to and that was my writing. While I don't think my "career" is completely over, I have consciously taken the time out to consider where it was going and, more importantly what it was doing to me (I think that is the subject for another blog).  In the meantime I have thrown myself into my alternate career - writing.

The reality is that By the Sword and The King's Man were mostly written during my time in Singapore where once again I had found myself "differently employed" (as an expat wife). What this means is that I have a cyber sock drawer stuffed with ideas and half started novels but nothing close to submission quality so I have set myself this year to finish some of those "UFOs" (Unfinished Objects).

I believe the best tool of writing is "time" and by that I mean setting your work aside to "set" for a while (months is good) and then coming back to it with fresh eyes. My writing style is to complete a rough draft (and I mean ROUGH) - the plot may change from the beginning to the end, it will have missing chunks with "put more stuff here" annotated into the manuscript but what it will be is the skeleton of the story. I will then put it away and pull out the ugly object some months later and begin my favourite part, the rewrite. This is like putting flesh on the bones, or for an artist starting to apply the paint to a rough sketch. This process will need to be repeated several times as you deepen the layers of paint, add complexity to the characters and depth to the plot. It is like any craft, it needs to be done with care and love and above all, time.

Time is not a commodity that many professional writers enjoy. There are nasty things called "deadlines" so the honing of their work needs to be tailored to meet that deadline. I suspect this is why so many writers first couple of books are infinitely better than their subsequent books (until they get into a rhythm of writing).

So where am I at? I currently have four pieces of work on the various burners of my literary stove.

• A ghost story set in 1922  encompassing a Regency mystery and the shadows of the first world war. A big departure from my usual period of history and quite a complex story. 
• The long awaited sequel to By the Sword and The King's Man. Set in 1680 it brings the strands of both stories together with the "next generation" plus Barbary Pirates. 
• A Regency-set romance. I am venturing into very well covered territory here so I am not hopeful this will get much of a run but it has been interesting playing in another period of history.
• A time travel novella...English Civil War to modern times. It's been fun to write!

There we are...that is what is simmering at the moment, in various stages of production. I am shuffling them around and my hope is by the end of this year, they will all be to submission standard. It is one thing to write them, the next thing will be to find a publisher and in this rapidly changing world of books, I have no idea how hard that is going to be!

So thank you for asking, I would love to say my next best seller will be coming out soon, but I would be lying!

However what I am doing is putting together a collection of my short stories which I will self publish so watch this space.

Alison

The Colours of Lake Eyre

The early settlers in Australia clung to the fragile coast line of this great country and could only dream of what lay beyond there own existence. They watched the sea birds flying inland and explorers began to venture into the interior in search of the great inland sea that drew the birds. Charles Sturt carried a whaling boat with him into the dry interior in the hope of finding this mythical sea. Other explorers found the great sea but it was an illusion...a great salty sink in the centre of Australia, named Lake Eyre.

We have watched in horror as massive floods raged through Queensland earlier this year. Some of the water went out to sea but a great deal of it filled the inland waterways of the Cooper Creek and Diamantina River systems and after 10 years of drought the rivers flowed at last, spilling out into Lake Eyre. The filling of Lake Eyre is said to occur only once a lifetime but it seems that this phenomena may become more common as the climate adjusts. As it fills, life comes back to it, filling it with fish and water birds. It is no coincidence that the pelicans have gone from my own waterfront in Melbourne. Some primeval urge draws them to the waterways of Lake Eyre.

Just as it draws the birds, so too it draws people and my husband and I headed off on a 4000 km round trip to see Lake Eyre for ourselves. Our own explorations have already taken us to Innaminkca, Longreach and Birdsville and we have seen the "channel country" as it is called in drought and flood. Lake Eyre was the final pilgrimage.

The human ability to settle in what seems utterly inhospitable country never ceases to amaze me and on those dry, barren desert plains of northern South Australia, you come across the ruins of old homesteads and railway settlements from the days of the great Ghan rail link between Adelaide and the north. Lake Eyre itself is very hard to approach from land as the country around it is privately owned - the great Anna Creek Station, the size of Belgium, being one such landholding.

From William Creek, a one pub town that once used to be a siding for the Ghan, we took a flight in a small pain over the great Lake which is the only way to get a real appreciation of the size of this inland sea.  Pictures speak volumes so here are some of the colours of Lake Eyre