I recently read an article by David Cain on reading aloud. He talks about how he used it to find his way through long, tricky sentences, and again when he was reading a book that was written in dialect. So I thought I’d give it a try.

I’m a very fast reader, which has its advantages, but also means that I skip bits, and don’t always absorb as much as I could. Right now I’m reading a couple of books for a panel on ‘the lure of speculative fiction’ at the upcoming Tamar Valley Writers’ Festival. The first one, All the Murmuring Bones by AG Slatter, is described as grim, fairy-tale gothic, which sounds a bit darker than my usual reading, and I’ve been putting off starting it.

But yesterday I set out to read it aloud. The first chapter breaks all the rules of writing, in that the whole thing is a telling (rather than a showing) of a family history. I would have skimmed much of it if I was reading it to myself. But read aloud, the gorgeousness of the prose stood out. I lingered over paragraphs and read them again, and now I know a whole lot about the O’Malleys that I might have otherwise missed.

I’m sure I’ll go back to reading silently most of the time, but I’ll also keep this in mind for when the writing is lush and deep, or when I just want to slow things down a bit.

Book month

I had a hectic couple of weeks in Sydney and Melbourne, followed by a lightning visit to Brisbane. I caught a cold in Sydney, so had to cancel a couple of Melbourne schools, which was a pity, but I managed to bounce back in time for the last two. I’ve since been hearing of so many authors who had the same thing happen. Unfortunately, Book Week always comes at the exact time of year when viruses are at their peak.

It was still fun, though. One of the highlights was working with different groups of K-2 kids to make up stories. My favourite was the one about Chocolate Man who had his head bitten off by a cow.

I also loved these cute pictures of Clara from a Year 3 class.

Queensland Readers’ Cup final

I was so excited to be asked to be quizmaster for the Year 5/6 competition at the final of this year’s Readers’ Cup in Brisbane on Thursday, September 5. There were eighteen teams from all over Queensland, each of them winners of their regional competitions, and they had to answer questions about six books, one of which was Spellhound.

Honestly, they were amazing. Their depth of knowledge about those books was so impressive, and the winning team, from St Andrews Catholic College in Cairns, had researched all the authors, as well as memorising the details of their novels.

Reading between the wines

While I was in Brisbane I spoke to a really nice bunch of teacher librarians (and other assorted folk) at the Quick Brown Fox Bookshop, at a monthly event with the enticing name, ‘Reading between the wines’. The other two authors were Dannika Patterson and Alison Stegert, and Jonathan Bentley turned up, too, to provide a bit of support.

I really appreciate opportunities like this, where I get to hang out with other authors/illustrators as well as all those lovely teacher librarians and bookshop owners.

What am I reading?

For kids, I’m rereading Diana Wynne Jones’s The Pinhoe Egg, which is a follow-up to Charmed Life and one of my favourite books from the Chrestomanci series. It’s the story of Cat Chant, who finds a large, mysterious egg, and discovers that in the village around Chrestomanci Castle, all sorts of secret, magical misuse is going on.

DWJ continues to be one of my all-time favourite fantasy authors.

For adults, as well as All the Murmuring Bones, I am dipping in and out of The Poetry Pharmacy, compiled by William Sieghart. Its subtitle is ‘tried-and-true prescriptions for the heart, mind and soul, and it’s filled with gorgeous poems.

For example, the prescription for anxiety is Wendell Berry’s ‘The Peace of Wild Things’:
‘When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds …’

5 writers 5 minutes

Our latest episodes cover how we make magic seem real in our stories, whether adverbs and adjectives are friend or enemy, plotting vs pantsing, and finding amazing opening lines. We’re joined by Sue Whiting for the first three episodes, and Nathan Luff for the last one.

You can listen to them here.