Dawn Barker's Blog, page 4

For any of you in Poland, I’m excited to say that you can now buy the Polish translation of ‘Let Her Go’ from today. The Polish title is ‘Pozwol jej odesjsc’ which I think essentially means the same as the English title! I love the Polish cover image and am sure that it will stand out on the shelves!

You can find out more about ‘Pozwol jej odesjsc’ and order it direct from the publisher here.

It’s been a long time between posts. There have been a few reasons for that, mainly because not much has been going on with my writing!

It’s been a busy year for me personally and professionally, and I’ve been back at work as well as trying to juggle family life with three children under 6, and spent a bit of time overseas. Next week, for the first time in almost seven years, my three children will be at full time school, so I’m determined to use the couple of days when I’m not at (psychiatric) work to set myself some goals and get back to writing.

That’s not to say that nothing has been happening in the last year.  I was tutoring Queensland Writers’ Centre’s Year of the Novel Online course. I finished a (very rough) first draft of a third novel and wrote a synopsis and chunk of a non-fiction book that is currently with my agent for revision. I’ve been busy preparing to chair a couple of session at this year’s Perth Writers Festival (more details soon). We sold Let Her Go to Poland (where Fractured was released in 2015) and Turkey, and only a couple of weeks ago, Fractured was published in Turkey as ‘Kirik dokuk’!

The Turkish cover for ‘Fractured’

I think I needed last year to settle after publishing two books in two years, and I definitely have the desire now to get back to writing. Once the children are settled in school and I catch up with readers and writers at Perth Writers Festival, I will be back to my desk!

Today is publication day for Fractured in Poland, where its called Pęknięte odbicie. Google translate tells me this means ‘cracked mirror’ but my Polish contacts tell me it’s closer to ‘Fractured’ than that clumsy translation. I have used Google translate to interpret some information on Polish websites, and it also tells me that the blurb calls Anna a ‘freshly baked mother’ so I’m not sure how reliable it is!

Polish jacket for Fractured. Published in Poland 5/32015

It’s very exciting to have my first international book published today and I’m sorry I’m not in Poland to see it on the shelves there. Thank you to my lovely Polish publisher Proszynski media for all their hard work in getting it ready for publication there, as well as Hachette Australia and my agents from Zeitgeist Media Group for their help in taking it overseas!

Last night, I went to the launch of the 2015 Perth Writers Festival programme at the beautiful University of Western Australia. There are so many exciting writers taking part this year, and I’m particularly looking forward to seeing Liane Moriarty, Hilary Mantel and Elizabeth Gilbert, as well as discovering new books and authors.

Jane Seaton, Dawn Barker, Natasha Lester, Richard Rossiter, Sara Foster and Amanda Curtin

I will be busy over the festival weekend: I’m talking in two sessions, chairing another two, and running a workshop so please do come and say hello if you see me! Here are the sessions I’ll be appearing in:

Friday 20th February, 2.30-3.30pm

How I Rescued My Brain

When David Roland found himself in an emergency ward with little idea of how he got there, doctors wondered if he had had a nervous breakdown. Eventually they discovered he had suffered a stroke, resulting in brain injury. He talks to Dawn Barker about his neurological difficulties and his remarkable cognitive recovery.

Saturday 21st February

11.30am-12.30pm

Unravelling

How do you write the inner life of an imaginary person? And is this harder if the character has suffered trauma or their mind is deteriorating? John Darnielle and Emma Healy have created two intriguing characters in their new novels, join them in discussion with Dawn Barker.

4-5pm

Inspiration is a fickle mistress

Does inspiration hit in a burst or is it more of a slow burn? We ask writers Dawn Barker, Juliet Marillier and Georgina Penney what the starting point was for their new novels and whether their original idea became the finished book.

Sunday 22nd February

10am-1pm

Workshop: Creating Authentic Characters

4pm-5pm

Case Studies

Some of the best thrillers are grounded in real life and two writers with a lot of material to work with are Dawn Barker and Anne Buist. They discuss with Ray Glickman how their day jobs as psychiatrists inform their fiction.

You can read the full programme here, and I’d love to see you there!

Are you ready to start writing a novel, but aren’t sure where to start? The next Queensland Writers Centre’s Year of the Novel Online course (written by Kim Wilkins and presented by Hachette Australia) starts soon, and I’m thrilled to be tutoring it!

Back in 2009, a few months after my first daughter was born, I knew that it was time to start writing the novel that had been in my head for years. I had done some creative writing evening classes, but needed support to write an entire novel. I browsed online for a course that I could do from home with my newborn, and found a link to the Queensland Writers Centre’s Year of the Novel Online. I signed up, and began writing the manuscript for what was to become Fractured.

What really suited me was not just the course material and writing exercises, but the fact that there was a group of us all writing our first novels, so I had moral support and encouragement to keep writing and get through the first draft. I still keep in touch with some of the participants I met five years ago, and we still critique each other’s writing.

Recently, the Queensland Writers Centre asked me if I’d consider being the tutor for the next course, and I immediately said yes!

 

The course has been written by author-extraordinaire, Dr. Kim Wilkins (who also writes as Kimberley Freeman), and I will be there to support and guide the participants over the next year as they complete the first draft of their own novels. I am also going to be writing my third novel throughout that time so hopefully by the end of the year, we all have something to show!

The course starts on Monday 27th October 2014. You can find out more details here, and it’d be great to work with you if you’re keen to sign up!

On Monday night, I went to the beautiful Western Australian Museum for the awards ceremony of the Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards – where Fractured was shortlisted in the category of ‘emerging writers’. I didn’t win (as expected) but was happy to see my friend, local bookseller, and writing colleague Yvette Walker collect the award for her debut novel, Letters To The End Of Love. Congratulations, Yvette!

It was great to have a drink (a very bubbly, cold champagne) with the other writers shortlisted in our category: Sarah Drummond for Salt Story, and Sally-Ann Jones for Stella’s Sea. I’d spent a few days with Sarah up in Geraldton at the Big Sky festival so it was lovely to see her again.

It was  fantastic to see Richard Flanagan win both the ‘Fiction’ category and the overall Premier’s Prize for his amazing novel, The Narrow Road To The Deep North. He gave a moving and funny speech, including some teasing of our premier, Hon Colin Barnett and I’ll never be able to forget the phrase ‘Fifty Shades of Colin’ after Richard’s very amusing acceptance remarks!

Me, my husband and a T-Rex at the 2014 WA Premier’s Book Awards

I am still buzzing from the experience of the evening: it was, without a doubt, the highlight of my writing career so far. Being in a beautiful building, surrounded by dinosaurs (I made sure we got a photo with one above!), drinking champagne and being amongst writers whose work I admire was amazing. Being shortlisted for a literary award is not something I EVER expected would happen to me, and it was a wonderful validation for me. It didn’t matter that I didn’t win; it was enough to have some recognition from a panel of independent judges that my writing is good enough to be up there with so many other books which I consider to be far more ‘literary’ than my own. It has renewed my confidence in myself and my enthusiasm to get back to writing my third novel, and possibly some non-fiction writing too.

Congratulations to all the other shortlisted and winning authors! Thanks to the State Library of WA for organising the event and all the judges for spending months reading over 500 entries!

 

I’ll be talking about being a shortlisted emerging writer with Yvette Walker at a free event at the State Library of WA on Thursday 2nd October from 6pm – 7pm. This is a FREE event but bookings are required here or by calling 08 9427 3111
. The talk is hosted by author (shortlisted in the Fiction category for Elemental) and Writing WA member, Amanda Curtin.

 

To celebrate the launch of Annabel Smith’s new novel, The Ark, our writing group is discussing the issue of writing in the digital age. Also, we warmly welcome a new writer to our group – Yvette Walker, author of Letters To The End of Love, which is shortlisted along with Fractured in the Western Australia Premier’s Book Awards. Yvette is also my local bookseller, and it’s great to have her join us!

 The Ark tells the story of a team of scientists and their families who retreat into a bunker known as The Ark, alongside five billion plant seeds that hold the key to the future of life on Earth as the world outside descends into chaos. But The Ark’s sanctuary comes at a price…

I was lucky enough to read an advance copy of this book and you can read my review here. What is even more exciting is that Annabel is releasing this story as an interactive app, an amazing project to take on and complete!  I haven’t yet seen the novel in its digital form, and I am really looking forward to the experience. You can read more about The Ark here.

 

Writing in the digital age

In my writing life, I use the internet a lot. While some of that time  is useful, much of it is not, and the biggest challenge for me as a writer in the digital age is finding the balance between the benefits of the internet and social media, and the endless distraction.

What are the things I love about the internet as a writer?

Research

As I write, I often look things up. For example, I might have characters standing in a garden in summer, and I want to know what kind of tree would be in flower – it’s easy to look it up! It’s invaluable for instant fact checking, and I use an online dictionary and thesaurus too. I’ve also done things like search for images on a real estate website of the type of house my characters might live in, or find an image of the Supreme Court of NSW so I can describe what it looks like.


Social networking

Writing is a solitary activity – I spend many hours on my own lost on my stories, which I love, but to balance that isolation, I do enjoy connecting with other writers, readers and industry professionals through social media. I can ‘virtually’ attend literary events like awards ceremonies by following a hashtag and reading what others are tweeting, or I can hear about literary events, reviews and news. It gives people a way to hear about my books and activities, and a professional networking tool…

What don’t I love about the internet, as a writer?

The distraction!

Most writers don’t have the luxury of time: writing is something that is squeezed around the normal working day, and every minute is precious. It’s very easy to sit down to write, and then to find that the hour has disappeared after checking emails, checking my Facebook and Twitter feed, checking the comments on my website, then going back to see what’s happening on Twitter…

The best piece of advice I was ever given was, “if you want to be a writer, you have to write.” Trawling the internet is not writing; social networking is not writing. Undoubtedly, the biggest challenge for me as a writer in the digital age is to return to that solitary state and just write.

 

 

How do the other writers in the group feel about the digital age?

Amanda Curtin – “When I try to imagine what my writing life would be like without the internet for research, the view becomes cloudy.”

Natasha Lester  who “views the digital age with excitement”

Sara Foster who finds that the internet “is a fantastic tool for publishing and promotion, but also an endless noise-maker.”

Yvette Walker – who describes the internet as “a twenty-first century toll road I have to drive along everyday.”

Emma Chapman who says that the digital age “shakes up the traditional order of things: it means that the floodgates are open not only to those who are ‘accepted’ but also to those who just want to share.”

Annabel Smith who believes “that most of the time, what readers want is much the same as it has always been: a great story, well told.” And The Ark certainly is that!

What do you think about writing in the digital age?

 

 

It was lovely to wake up here in Geraldton today (I’m still at the Big Sky festival), preparing to talk about Let Her Go, and see that an article I wrote about surrogacy is the cover story of Good Weekend magazine. If you’re on the east coast of Australia, you can get it with your weekend Sydney Morning Herald (and The Age I think!), or you can read it online here.

Although I put the story together, thanks to the three Australian women who shared their stories of being altruistic surrogates with me: it’s their story to tell. Thank-you, Linda Kirkman, Shannon Garner and Rachel Kunde.

I’ve been quiet here recently, though anything but quiet in the real world! On Wednesday, I’m flying up to Geraldton (in Western Australia) for the Big Sky Readers and Writers festival. I’m very excited about the festival – the organisers have planned it so well, and the writers even get to go up a day early to spend a night on the uninhabited Abrolhos Islands. They look beautiful, though with the recent storms in WA, I am a little anxious it’s going to be a wild night out in the Indian Ocean. I had visions of snorkelling with the amazing sea life, but I’ll be equally happy to bunker down in a cabin and chat to the other writers!

 

I wish I could say I’d been busy writing, but I’m struggling to really get into my new novel. I have started though, and have ploughed on to write 7000 words even though I’m yet to settle into the story or characters. I know that it’ll come though, and I am excited about the themes and ideas for the book. Perhaps being back at a writers festival will inspire me – I’ve been a bit isolated from the writing world recently as I juggle family and the day job! I have been doing some reading though and have read some great books in the last few weeks.

I’ve just finished Helen Garner’s This House of Grief which was a harrowing but compelling read. Garner’s skill is that she doesn’t just report the details of the trial; she also writes with a novelists’s flair for language, and isn’t afraid to inject her own feelings and opinions into the reporting.

 

 

 

I am about half-way through A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra. This was recommended to me by a friend whose opinion I always valued, and he knew that this was a book that would appeal to me. It’s set in Chechnya during the Chechan wars, and so far I’ve been drawn in by the sense of place, of cold snow and material desolation, and by the characters: a villager who tries to save a little girl from Russian soldiers, and a hardened female doctor who has returned to her country to find her family but is thrown in to the world of the little girl. I look forward to finishing it soon.

 

I was lucky enough to get hold of an advanced copy of the new David Nicholls’ latest book, Us, which I absolutely loved. It’s funny, it’s emotional and it made me both laugh and cry. It’ll be published in Australia at the end of this month, and has been long listed for the Man Booker prize. I really enjoyed One Day too, but this novel has much more depth to it, and some brilliant and beautiful insights into relationships.

 

 

Let me know if you’ve been reading anything good lately!

I’m thrilled to have been asked to be a guest at the 2014 Big Sky Readers and Writers Festival in Geraldton, Western Australia from 12-14 September 2014.

Other guests include Tim Ferguson, Ashley Hay, Liz Byrski, Isobelle Carmody, Sarah Drummond (who is shortlisted along with me in the emerging writers category of the WA Premier’s Book Awards), Craig Sherbourne and Tony Birch. I’m looking forward to meeting them, and as it’s my birthday that weekend, I’m also looking forward to having a celebratory drink!

The Abrolhos Islands (australiascoralcoast.com)

 

 

I’m flying up a day early to spend a night on the uninhabited Abrolhos Islands which is so exciting – its not a place that I ever though I’d visit.

 

 

 

I’ll be appearing in the following sessions at the festival:

Saturday 13th September 11.45 to 12.45

The scales of injustice.

Where does justice lie in the search for truth within our courts?

Bret Christian and Dawn Barker in conversation with Malcolm Smith.

Venue: Geraldton Universities Centre

Saturday 13th Septmber 2.45 to 3.45

A world of other women: no boundaries, no borders.

Sarah Drummond, Liz Byrski and Dawn Barker in conversation with Geraldine Mellet.

Venue: GUC

Sunday 14th September 11.00 – 12.00

Secrets and lies: our hidden lives.

Post natal depression and surrogacy are the subject of Dawn Barker’s two novels. She discusses these issues with May Doncon

Venue: GUC

You can read the full programme here.