You're Invited! Summer Change Book Launch

 

To celebrate its release of Summer Change, Wombat Books/Rhiza Edge in conjunction with the Geelong Regional Libraries will be officially launching my new Young Adult novel at Leopold library. I would love for you to join me and help celebrate. Let me know if you can make it!

Leopold Library Event Details

October 6 2023 Release Date

Summer Change Release Date!

Here's a sneak peek of my new YA novel Summer Change! Thanks to the team at 
WOMBAT BOOKS and RHIZA EDGE, especially Carmen Dougherty for the beautiful cover design. It's perfect!

New Contract for 2023!

Thrilled to share the news that my third young adult novel will be published with the fabulous team at Wombat Books/ Rhiza Edge.

Looking forward to this exciting new chapter!

Remember to Dream Big --- Read Often

 

Book Review - I Am Change By Suzy Zail

   I Am Change

By Suzy Zail

My Review:

I had this on my TBR list for much longer than it should have been. It must be read by everybody – immediately!

Lilian loves to learn. She begs to be allowed to go to school and get an education, but the world she lives in does not make such a thing easy - because she is a girl.

Lilian’s day is clear. She is expected to complete her chores and help her mother. She is expected to fetch water. She is expected to get her period and be married off to a complete stranger and give him babies, preferable male babies. She is not expected to learn, think or question the world around her. Lilian, however, wants more than any of that. But the harsh reality is that we don’t always get what we want.

There are so many emotions to be felt when reading this story. Sadness, happiness. Disgust, delight. Fury, triumph. It is a gripping read made all the more so because Suzy Zail has compiled the lives of many girls from Uganda that she spent time with and channelled their experiences into the story of Lilian. Zail spent the time to learn from these young women, understand these young women and share the triumph and tragedies from a country where girls are often seen as nothing more than a commodity.

Zail draws us into Lilian’s world with beautiful descriptive writing of daily life, along with injections of culture, beliefs and lifestyle that make it easy to picture Lilian’s world. Zail also writes with a sensitivity of subject matter that makes your heart break at the unfairness, but also sing with the determination of one young girl’s desire to want change.

Strongly recommend you read this work of fiction knowing that for many girls, this story is their real lives.

From the publisher WALKER BOOKS

Set in a Ugandan village, Lilian has learned to shrink herself to fit other people’s ideas of what a girl is. In her village a girl is not meant to be smarter than her brother. A girl is not meant to go to school or enjoy her body or decide who to marry. Especially if she is poor. 

Inspired by and written in consultation with young Ugandan women, I Am Change is the tragic but empowering story of how a young girl finds her voice and the strength to fight for change.

You can check out my other reviews at GOODREADS

I Am Change by Suzy Zail
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I had this on my TBR list for much longer than it should have been. It must be read by everybody – immediately!

Lilian loves to learn. She begs to be allowed to go to school and get an education, but the world she lives in does not make such a thing easy - because she is a girl.
Lilian’s day is clear. She is expected to complete her chores and help her mother. She is expected to fetch water. She is expected to get her period and be married off to a complete stranger and give him babies, preferable male babies. She is not expected to learn, think or question the world around her. Lilian, however, wants more than any of that. But the harsh reality is that we don’t always get what we want.

There are so many emotions to be felt when reading this story. Sadness, happiness. Disgust, delight. Fury, triumph. It is a gripping read made all the more so because Suzy Zail has compiled the lives of many girls from Uganda that she spent time with and channelled their experiences into the story of Lilian. Zail spent the time to learn from these young women, understand these young women and share the triumph and tragedies from a country where girls are often seen as nothing more than a commodity.

Zail draws us into Lilian’s world with beautiful descriptive writing of daily life, along with injections of culture, beliefs and lifestyle that make it easy to picture Lilian’s world. Zail also writes with a sensitivity of subject matter that makes your heart break at the unfairness, but also sing with the determination of one young girl’s desire to want change.

Strongly recommend you read this work of fiction knowing that for many girls, this story is their real lives.

View all my reviews

Book Review - Crime Writer By Dime Sheppard

  Crime Writer

By Dime Sheppard

My Review:

This is Dime Sheppard's debut fiction novel and I can't wait to see what she writes next! I am still reminding myself to breathe from the fast paced action of the story. It does not stop!

Evie is on a deadline to finish her 16th novel in a hugely successful crime fiction series. She is also planning a wedding to her billionaire fiancé, Daniel. Evie has little interest in being in the spotlight which is where she finds herself with this marriage. To top it off, she has writer's block and no matter what she does, cannot write anything. That is until her fictional world begins to come to life in her real world. Enter her lead detectives, Jay and Carolyn. Love these two!

There are so many things to enjoy about this story. It is fun, serious, playful, emotional, heart stopping and heart warming - all at once. Sheppard sets up Evie's world where the reader can't help but feel a little sorry for introverted Evie. She then introduces the characters from Evie's fictional books into her real world to try and give Evie a boost to get her story written. Sheppard's cleverly written storyline seamlessly transitions between the two worlds. As the stakes rise so does the action, intrigue and cleverly crafted character plotlines. 

Readers will enjoy the rollercoaster ride Evie goes on to complete her writing deadline. They will cheer as she succeeds and groan as she fails. Most of all, they will wish Evie finishes her novel with an ending to beat all endings. And Dime Sheppard does not disappoint. Wow! I am still smiling from the final three words ...

(spoiler alert - DO NOT BE TEMPTED TO FLIP TO THE FINAL PAGE AND READ THEM UNTIL THE END)

Strongly recommend you read this fiction if you have ever wondered what would happen if your favourite characters came to life and visited you.

From the publisher Dime Sheppard

Evie Howland has problems.

Guns. Bombs. Murderers.

And that’s just on the page…
 

In real life she’s meant to be planning a wedding to adorable billionaire Daniel Bradley, but Evie is seriously snarled in the sixteenth book of her successful crime series. In fact, her protagonists are becoming almost impossible to wrangle: one is volatile after a messy divorce, and the other has that heated look in his blue eyes again. They’re both sick of being written. And frankly they’re getting a little…physical. Evie is beginning to wonder if she’s ever going to finish Book Sixteen and get them back into fiction where they belong.

 

But when a disturbingly familiar homicide surfaces in the city papers, it seems as if other, darker characters might have crossed the fiction-frontier too. In which case, Evie is in a lot of real-life trouble.

 

If she is going to survive it, Evie must face her own worst fears, and learn that real love can be the best way of writing her own story.

 

But can she change the ending?

You can check out my other reviews at GOODREADS

Crime Writer by Dime Sheppard
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is Dime Sheppard's debut fiction novel and I can't wait to see what she writes next! I am still reminding myself to breathe from the fast paced action of the story. It does not stop!

Evie is on a deadline to finish her 16th novel in a hugely successful crime fiction series. She is also planning a wedding to her billionaire fiancé, Daniel. Evie has little interest in being in the spotlight which is where she finds herself with this marriage. To top it off, she has writer's block and no matter what she does, cannot write anything. That is until her fictional world begins to come to life in her real world. Enter her lead detectives, Jay and Carolyn. Love these two!

There are so many things to enjoy about this story. It is fun, serious, playful, emotional, heart stopping and heart warming - all at once. Sheppard sets up Evie's world where the reader can't help but feel a little sorry for introverted Evie. She then introduces the characters from Evie's fictional books into her real world to try and give Evie a boost to get her story written. Sheppard's cleverly written storyline seamlessly transitions between the two worlds. As the stakes rise so does the action, intrigue and cleverly crafted character plotlines.

Readers will enjoy the rollercoaster ride Evie goes on to complete her writing deadline. They will cheer as she succeeds and groan as she fails. Most of all, they will wish Evie finishes her novel with an ending to beat all endings. And Dime Sheppard does not disappoint. Wow! I am still smiling from the final three words ...

(spoiler alert - DO NOT BE TEMPTED TO FLIP TO THE FINAL PAGE AND READ THEM UNTIL THE END)

Strongly recommend you read this fiction if you have ever wondered what would happen if your favourite characters came to life and visited you.

View all my reviews

In Conversation ... with Jo Tuscano

    

In Conversation with 

Jo Tuscano 

Tell us about your most recent publication. 

JUST RELEASED - Nov 17, 2021

Standing beside Elise’s grave, Siobhan Montrell remembers how her mother finally blew the perfect smoke ring on the day that Elise disappeared. Remembers the day that would change and define her life forever.

The toddler’s body was found in the river near Gables Guesthouse. Only eleven years old at the time, Siobhan has carried the guilt of Elise’s death with her since that day.

Twenty-eight years later, Siobhan returns to Rachley Island, having inherited Gables — guesthouse and family home — from her aunt. Cleaning the property to prepare it for sale, she discovers an old book in which her aunt used to draw and write, revealing the truth about the tragic drowning.

The River Child is a tale of grief and guilt, deceit and secrets, and ultimately forgiveness.

Published by ODYSSEY BOOKS

Is there much research that goes into your writing?

I have published non-fiction as well as fiction. With non-fiction, there’s a ton of research to be done. I spent a lot of time on my two co-authored books (Back on the Block, published in 2009 and the next one, This is Where You Have to Go, coming in the future), reading academic papers and government reports and legal documents. Sometimes, it does your head in! With fiction, there’s still research that has to be done. If you’re setting your novel in a real place (even a fictional town up north in NSW like I did), you’ve got to get the setting right –flora and fauna, the weather. With my second novel, Under Andromeda, I had to get it right because there’s some astronomy in there. You just can’t make up stuff about planets, so I read and researched a lot about planets and constellations. It’s best to go there if you can! If you can’t, there’s google earth, the State Library and talking to people who’ve lived there.

Writers are sometimes influenced by things that happen in their own lives. Are you?

To an extent. When I was in primary school, a young girl went missing from the nearby migrant hostel. The whole community was looking for her and the police, and rumours were flying around at school, at the shops, everywhere. I remember lying awake, wondering where she was. This fuelled my imagination to write The River Child.

My novel Under Andromeda, coming out next year from Odyssey Books, was inspired by the visits I made with my mother to a psychiatric hospital. I set the book in a psych hospital and on a beach.

I definitely think for some writers, some events happen in their formative years that are so poignant and powerful that they live in a writer’s mind for years until the time comes when a writer just has to use them as a springboard to write.

Other than writing, what else do you love?

I love playing piano, guitar, singing, dog walking, wine and cheese with friends, theatre, talking about books, editing interesting manuscripts, teaching, creating resources for the company I do some work for and mentoring. At the moment, I’m mentoring an Aboriginal man in prison who is writing his second novel. He has an amazing imagination, and he can illustrate as well. It’s very fulfilling to mentor someone and watch them grow as a writer.

Top tips for writer's? 

Don’t hide it away! Write at least 3 chapters, and then get a professional editor/writer to look at it. They can point out the elements that are working well in your manuscript and also show you how you can improve your writing. This way, you find out early where your strengths and weaknesses are, and you don’t waste time (and money) having to re-write your whole manuscript. Get familiar with the basic tenets of fiction writing as well.

Do you have any writing rituals you can share?

I start my day listening and singing along with a chant. It doesn’t matter what you pick; find something that suits you, be it Hindu, Islamic, Christian or non-religious. I have a Russian Orthodox monks-singing-chanting one. It is really soothing, and it’s been proven that a chanting practice is good for the brain. Then I do a daily crossword, find a word in the dictionary that I’ve never used before and use it, and then start writing and editing. When I’m writing novels, I set up my writing space surrounded by objects, aromas, pictures etc., to get my mind into the setting. When I was writing Under Andromeda, I had shells and sand strewn on the floor and giant posters of the planets and constellations on the walls.

How did you get published?

With non-fiction, my co-authors, Bill and Des and I approached IATSIS. I knew there was nothing out there about a Stolen Generations member’s time in the notorious Kinchella Boys’ Home. It was published by them in 2009. With fiction, Odyssey Books picked me up through my agent/editor and I signed a double contract for two novels.

How can we learn more about you? 

   

    

Thank you for joining In Conversation this week. Remember to always 

Dream Big ... Read Often.