CATEGORIES

Writers at the Convent, held at Melbourne’s Abbotsford convent from 12 to 14 February, increased its audience numbers this year.

‘This year’s festival proved what enormous potential it has for growth as once again there was a significant increase in audience numbers on the 2009 festival, with six sessions completely sold-out and an increase in the number of “walk-up” ticket sales,’ festival founder Mary Dalmau told the Weekly Book Newsletter.

Bestsellers at this year’s festival bookshop were:  

   1. Keeping Faith (Roger Averill, Transit Lounge)
   2. Lunch in Paris (Elizabeth Bard, HarperCollins)
   3. In the Company of Rilke (Stephanie Dowrick, A&U)
   4. Wyatt (Garry Disher, Text Publishing)
   5. Future in Flames (Danielle Clode, MUP)
   6. Shannon Bennett’s Paris (Shannon Bennett, MUP)
   7. Emancipation (Michael Goldfarb, Scribe)
   8. The Imperfectionists (Tom Rachman, Text Publishing)
   9. Capital (Kristen Otto, Text Publishing)
  10. Free to a Good Home (Catherine Deveny, Black Inc.).

Source: http://www.booksellerandpublisher.com.au/articles/2010/02/14871/

This article from Thorpe Bowker’s Weekly Book Newsletter and Media Extra is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2009, Thorpe-Bowker.

Carmel Bird has generated quite a bit of interest with her new novel Child of the Twilight and it shows in the number of mentions received in the media this weekend. Rebecca Stead’s When You Reach Me, Garry Disher’s Wyatt and Henning Mankell’s The Man from Beijing also sparked interest. But it was Kirsten Tranter’s The Legacy that came out on top. Ingrid, the protagonist, inherits a lot of money and leaves Australia and her friends to live in the New York art world. You can read Bookseller’s+Publisher’s original review of the title on page 36 pf the e-mag here–Media Extra.

Most mentioned in the Media this week

1 Legacy, The by Kirsten Tranter
2 Man from Beijing, The by Henning Mankell
3 Child of the Twilight, by Carmel Bird
4 Wyatt, by Garry Disher
5 When You Reach Me, by Rebecca Stead

Source: http://www.booksellerandpublisher.com.au/articles/2010/02/14751/

This article from Thorpe Bowker’s Weekly Book Newsletter and Media Extra is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2009, Thorpe-Bowker.

The death of writer J D Salinger dominated the book news pages this weekend as the book world mourned a classic author. Salinger’s most famous work, The Catcher in the Rye, received the most mentions this week. Alexander McCall Smith’s Double Comfort Safari Club garnered five mentions for itself. And a handful of mentions went to Martin Amis’ The Pregnant Widow, Garry Disher’s Wyatt and Ross Fitzgerald’s My Name Is Ross: An Alcoholic’s Journey–Media Extra.

Most mentioned in the Media this week

1 Catcher in the Rye, The by J D Salinger
2 Double Comfort Safari Club, The by Alexander McCall Smith
3 Pregnant Widow, The by Martin Amis
4 Wyatt, by Garry Disher
5 My Name Is Ross: An Alcoholic’s Journey, by Ross Fitzgerald

Source: http://www.booksellerandpublisher.com.au/articles/2010/01/14665/

This article from Thorpe Bowker’s Weekly Book Newsletter and Media Extra is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2009, Thorpe-Bowker.

Wyatt has been away for 10 years. Now he’s back– but that is all Garry Disher wants us to know. He is older, edgier, even more taciturn, but just as focussed and just as lethal. For those who don’t know, Wyatt is not a cop–he’s a masterful career criminal. In this new caper, he is contracted to rip off a skilled, ruthless, amoral international courier of stolen jewellery and other goods. Double-crossed by his associates (not a smart move) Wyatt sets out to get even. The plot of this new Wyatt is clever, the twists and turns entertaining and gripping and the denouement riveting, though too abrupt for me. There had better be a sequel, Garry! What sets a Disher novel above its peers is his use of language–gripping, witty and sexy, with quick quips and asides that put him on the same level as Elmore Leonard and Carl Hiaasen. Understatement is one of his tools, describing, for example, an extremely rare stamp (stolen, of course) as ‘the charmless little scrap of paper’. He is a joy to read. This novel should appeal to all his fans, to crime fiction aficionados, and to anyone who relishes a fast-moving, well-written romp.

This review from Australian Bookseller & Publisher magazine (Summer 2009/10, Vol 89, No. 5) is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2009, Thorpe-Bowker.

This is a straightforward, keenly observed book on organic pest control in Australia. While other Australian books provide good practical advice, Tim Marshall’s Bug also tries to change our attitude to problem bugs and insects. He advocates watching them, seeing if they actually do harm and then reacting with the least harmful solution first. There are detailed descriptions of a huge range of pests with some lovely line drawings that aid identification. I would have liked a scale on these drawings to help gauge the size of the critter, however Marshall says that the book is more about materials, methods and general approach, rather than identification. The rest of the book covers a huge range of solutions from doing nothing and encouraging predators, through to setting traps, physical barriers and making organic sprays. He also looks at good bugs and how to encourage them into the garden, and provides a list of suppliers if you want to purchase them. Tim Marshall has been intimately involved in organic agriculture and gardening for more that 25 years and this book reflects his wealth of knowledge. Anyone who gardens, or who just cares about our planet, should have a copy.

This review from Australian Bookseller & Publisher magazine (Summer 2009/10, Vol 89, No. 5) is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2009, Thorpe-Bowker.

Blood Moon takes place during schoolies week and has instances of cyber bullying. Were there any particular events which inspired you to include these topical elements?
I don’t have first-hand knowledge of the teenage world of binge-drinking, cyber-bullying and fraught friendships but relied on newspaper articles, observations and conversations with parents and teachers. However, I do have a stake in it: I sometimes write for teenagers, have a young teenage daughter and often work kids into my novels (many of my peers write as if the world were populated only by adults). When I read that a kid has committed suicide after a savaging on Facebook my first instinct is to slip inside her mind and the people around her—see the fictional possibilities, in other words. But I can’t be entirely calculating, remote and neutral. It distresses me to think that many adults don’t know how to be parents. Their kids are their friends, there’s no bottom line, and the wealthy often leave parenting to boarding schools and nannies. Also, the marriage of teenage inventiveness and advances in IT is leaving parents and the law behind. Finally, money talks. Blood Moon’s cyber-bullying subplot is based on a hushed-up case in which a top private school allowed three girls to get away with ruining a staff member’s life after a parent threatened to sue if her darlings were punished.

The chilling opening pages of the book introduce Adrian and Ludmilla. How difficult was it to portray so clearly the feelings of menace and entrapment between them in so few words?
This chapter wrote itself quickly and smoothly, but didn’t come out of nowhere. I knew from research that domestic violence exists in many forms at all levels of society. A man doesn’t need to wear a labourer’s singlet and use his fists to be a tyrant. And the research backed up what my eyes and ears have told me over many years. When I see the body language of a man incensed that his wife has changed her hairstyle, a clever colleague defer yet again to her opinionated and uninformed spouse, a neighbour sport a black eye, I ask myself what is not on view. I wasn’t trying to preach or educate, but move the reader. To do that Adrian and Ludmilla had to live and breathe in my imagination so that his bullying and her strategies were theirs alone.

I really like DI Challis, he is tough, but also caring, compassionate and fair. Is he a character you like and how well do you know him?
I like Challis, too. I’m still learning what makes him tick. But it should be noted that Ellen Destry has also become more interesting to me as the series progresses. She takes centre stage in Chain of Evidence. I’ve never had the patience to draw up character profiles (appearance, personality, beliefs, etc), though these can help new writers. When characters begin to move and talk, I begin to write. The rest I discover as I go along. Not that the characters take over. I’m disbelieving of writers who claim that. Characters might surprise me, I might learn something new about them, but I’m in charge. I ask ‘Would you really do this, given the kind of person you are?’ and ‘What would it take for you to act out of character?’ and demand answers.

As Ludmilla works as a planning infringement officer there are many examples in Blood Moon of how the countryside of Victoria is being ruined by the greed of property developers and their clients. By writing about it, do you hope to make your readership more aware of it?
Art flies out the window when you try to preach. This is not to say my books are high art (though I’d like to think they’re multi-layered and well written). Nevertheless, many contemporary issues make me angry (I can scarcely finish reading the morning paper), and may find their way into my books—but for their dramatic possibilities and usefulness in reflecting the world we live in. This is one of the great strengths of crime fiction compared to literary fiction. Certainly I’m distressed about the greed, vulgarity, rapaciousness and moral deadness of some Peninsula developers and residents. Writing Blood Moon was one way of placing these matters in the forefront, when the eye might pass over them in a newspaper. But story and character—fictional concerns, writing craft concerns—came first.

What are you working on next?
The seventh Wyatt caper novel in response to fans’ demands, a standalone crime novel and preparing talks for an author tour of the US, where my books are pretty popular. (See review, page 27.) In the fifth instalment in his Inspector Challis series, Garry Disher’s protagonist investigates a brutal bashing amid teenage end-of-school celebrations. The author spoke to Sue Watt. A bloody tale ‘I like Challis … I’m still learning what makes him tick. But it should be noted that Ellen Destry has also become more interesting to me as the series progresses

This review from Australian Bookseller & Publisher magazine (April 2009, Vol 88, No 6.) is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2009, Thorpe-Bowker.

Fans of Garry Disher’s crime novels featuring Sergeant Ellen Destry and D I Hal Challis will certainly not be disappointed in this book, the fifth in the series. Disher’s skilful writing grabs the reader’s attention within the first pages and doesn’t let go until the book reaches its very satisfying conclusion. In the town of Waterloo on the Victorian Peninsula, the police are gearing up to deal with the influx of young people attending schoolies week and the toolies (kids ‘too old for school’) who prey on them. When the body of a woman is found brutally murdered outside the gates of an isolated property, police resources are stretched. Destry and Challis, who are working on the case, are in the early stages of a relationship made difficult not only by their working together, but by the fact that Destry is trying to deal with a haunting personal secret. The murder investigation is cleverly woven into a book with twists and turns which deal with interesting characters and their problems, cyber bulling and conservation issues. This topical book, which is well written, thought provoking and gripping, will appeal to readers of authors such as Ian Rankin and Michael Robotham.

This review from Australian Bookseller & Publisher magazine (April 2009, Vol 88, No 6.) is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2009, Thorpe-Bowker.