Dawn Barker's Blog, page 5

I am excited to announce that Fractured, my first novel, has just been shortlisted in the WA Premier’s Book Awards! I’m been shortlisted in the emerging writers category, alongside my friend and local bookseller Yvette Walker (Letters To The End Of Love), Sarah Drummond (Salt Story) and Sally-Ann Jones (Stella’s Sea). I don’t know Sarah or Sally-Ann so I’m off to buy their books today and look forward to reading them!

I’d love to say that being nominated for an award isn’t important, but it has come at such a good time for me as I’ve been in a bit of a writing slump. Of course, feedback from readers is incredibly encouraging, but there’s something about an independent literary award that has given me a feeling of…validation as a writer.

I am also thrilled to see my talented friend – and writing group member – Amanda Curtin on the shortlist for Fiction category alongside the big hitters Alex Miller, Tim Winton and Richard Flanagan, as well as the Miles Franklin winning Evie Wyld. Tracy Farr, author of The Lives And Loves of Lena Gaunt is all nominated in that category. I met Tracy at the Perth Writers Festival then read her book, and loved it. Amanda’s book, Elemental, was one of my favourite books of last year (you can read what I wrote about it here) and I’ve got everything crossed for her!

The winners will be announced on September 22nd – but I’m honestly so thrilled to be on the shortlist that I will be clapping wildly for whoever wins!

You can read the full shortlists here.

Writing Let Her Go was a different experience to writing Fractured. Those of you who have read my first novel will know that it was set in Sydney, a city where I lived for eight years, but in a way, the setting was secondary to the story, that of a family going through the horror of postnatal mental illness.

When I started writing Let Her Go, I began with the situation that I wanted to explore: the ethics of reproductive medicine, and the psychological effects on everyone involved in a surrogacy arrangement. In this first draft, the setting was essentially blank: I had written the characters’ stories but the world they lived in was quite bare. I didn’t find this as much of an issue in Fractured, as much of it was set in a psychiatric hospital, and the stark setting suited it. But for Let Her Go, I wanted to write a richer story that involved the environment of my current home town: Perth, Western Australia.

One day, I was on a friend’s boat just off Rottnest Island when he told me the story of a man called C.Y. O Connor, an engineer who designed the ‘golden pipeline’ which still carries water today from Mundaring Weir in the hills of Perth to the goldfields of Kalgoorlie. He told me about the tragic story of this man who, before the first drop of water ever flowed into the pipeline, rode his horse into the ocean at a beach south of Fremantle, then fatally shot himself. In that place, now named C.Y. O Connor beach, there is a bronze statue of him on his horse about ten metres offshore, and as the tides come in, the statue is gradually covered by the ocean. I went to visit, and was struck by the eerie atmosphere there, and had the idea for a scene:

Statue of CY O Connor and his horse in the Indian Ocean at CY O Connor beach

I followed the trail further by taking a trip out of Perth, over the hills and the escarpment to Mundaring Weir, the incredibly beautiful and atmospheric dam where O Connor’s golden pipeline begins. There is a small memorial there to him: a bust of him and a display of his engineering achievements behind scratched perspex windows. I walked over the dam wall, and heard my voice echo around the valley along with the cry of a kookaburra. And with that, I had another scene writing itself in my head. I took a drive along the road which follows the above -ground pipeline, seeing the small towns which had sprung up as camps for the men working out in the desert heat to build it.

Looking down the dam wall at Mundaring Weir 

One evening, as I sat on the grass at Cottesloe beach with my children, eating an ice cream and watching the sun set and silhouette Rottnest Island, the opening scene of Let Her Go jumped into my mind. I quickly scribbled some notes and then that night, wrote what is now the prologue to the book. It’s one of the scenes in the book that didn’t need much editing from that first draft, and that to me is a sign that the magic of writing is working. Once I had put my character on that ferry to Rottnest, I decided to go there with my family for some research, knowing now where I would set much of the book. I was also inspired to use Rottnest as a setting as I’d recently read Caribou Island by David Vann (an amazing book, one of my favourites) and loved the idea of the dual nature of islands, where the sea surrounding you is both protection from the outside world, but also a prison.

As I waited with my husband and three daughters to catch the ferry to Rottnest from the ‘B Shed’ in Fremantle, I saw another statue of CY O Connor towering above us:

CY O Connor statue

Again I grabbed my notebook: it was as if all the pieces of the novel were coming together, and everywhere I looked I could see the scenes of Let Her Go, and I could almost hear the words and sentences writing themselves. That was the most amazing feeling; it’s what I loved about writing Let Her Go – the process seemed almost effortless at times.

On Rottnest, I had planned to take a tour of the Aboriginal history of the island only to find that the tour had been cancelled because of a dispute between the local indigenous people and the island authorities. In was reported that Aboriginal elders had cursed the island in a secret ceremony. This fascinated me; I was later to hear about a curse that had also been placed on C.Y. O Connor.

On Rottnest, I cycled around the bays and inland saltwater lakes, and visited the open ground that had been a makeshift Aboriginal cemetery for all the prisoners who’d died on the island. I saw the old prison, which is now used as five star accommodation – guests now pay to sleep in what were the cells where terrified men were held.

Looking out over Geordie Bay on Rottnest Island

Back on the mainland, I went on a tour of Fremantle to learn about the Indigenous history. It was run by Greg Nannup, of Indigenous Tours WA, the son of Dr Noel Nannup – the man who has reportedly been involved in the cursing of Rottnest Island.

Both Greg and a local volunteer at The Roundhouse told me about the myth that C.Y. O Connor’s death was because of another curse. It is said that the Noongar people were so angry with him for one of his other engineering achievements – the building of Fremantle Harbour – that they cursed him.

“They sang to make him crazy. “

And there it was, the link between the places I’d visited, and the characters’ stories. I knew that the settings were just right for my story.

Have you visited any of the places that appear in Let Her Go?

Has a book ever made you want to go and see a place that appears in it?

Finally, the publication day of Let Her Go has arrived – my second novel is now on the shelves (in Australia) and the virtual shelves for international e-book readers. Hurrah! It’s a normal day for me though: taking two children to school, and one to the GP, but I will definitely be popping into my local bookshop to stare at my book – and watch to see if anyone picks it up! I’m saving my celebrations the official launch on Thursday night – Let Her Go will be launched by Natasha Lester and sponsored by Flametree Wines.

As Let Her Go is my second novel, I’ve teamed up again with my writing group for a Writers Ask Writers blog post, on writing that difficult second novel.

Annabel Smith, Natasha Lester, Dawn Barker, Sara Foster, Amanda Curtin, Emma Chapman

My first novel, Fractured, was a story that I’d had in my head for many years. I remember telling my creative writing tutor at an evening course at Sydney Uni the novel’s premise, and that was almost ten years ago now. So, by the time I came to actually write Fractured, I had a fairly good idea of my characters and story. I also wasn’t under any pressure, other than that I put on myself, as I knew that my chances of publication were very small. So I enjoyed the process – and challenge – of writing. While I did set myself daily word count targets, and deadlines to complete drafts, I knew that if I was tired/ill/stuck, I could just put it aside.

Then Fractured was published, and I was thrilled when I was offered a contract for a second – unwritten – novel. And then, when I realised I had to actually write this unnamed novel, I was a little overwhelmed!

I had two ideas for my second novel. I’d written half of a first draft of what is now Let Her Go, but also had another idea (which I’m about to turn into my third novel) and was torn between them. I spoke with my agent, and my publisher, and my friends and writing peers and everyone encouraged me to write Let Her Go but I was full of doubts. I worried it could be too clichéd/dull/irrelevant/generally bad – I know now that those were doubts I would have had whatever the story was. I had been so passionate about the topic (of mental illness in new mothers) of Fractured, and I was worried that I didn’t have the same drive for my new novel. I did also have a sense that the people who loved Fractured were waiting for this book, and I didn’t want to let them, my publishers, or myself, down.

I had about a year to write Let Her Go, in between travelling around Australia to promote Fractured, and also as well as looking after my three young children – so it was a big task.

Some parts of the process were more difficult – at times (lots of times!) I had no idea where the story was going or what would happen next, and I felt panic welling up. But there were other, more magical things that happened while writing this book that weren’t so prominent with my first. The writing process felt more natural, more organic. Scenes and settings came to me as if from nowhere, and links started to appear between seemingly unrelated plotlines. At times, ideas seemed to come from everywhere: listening to a song by Florence and The Machine; reading The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner; visiting a secluded beach watching a statue of a man and his horse offshore being submerged as the tide came in. Compared to writing Fractured, Let Her Go gave me far more of those moments that I love while writing, moments where everything seemed to just work, filling me with excitement and a conviction that this book could be good.

And now, Let Her Go is out. I feel the same as I did with Fractured: anxious about how it will be received, but mainly relieved that it’s done, it’s published, and that there’s nothing else I can do except hope that readers respond to it. I feel more relaxed, and confident that I’ve done my best. It’s out of my hands now…

You can read about how the rest of the Writers Ask Writers Group feel about their second novels:

Amanda Curtin, who wrote her second novel, Elemental, ‘through immersion in the past, through instinct, through questioning, through trial and error’…

Emma Chapman who is currently editing her second novel, about a photojournalist in the Vietnam war

Annabel Smith who wrote her second novel, Whiskey Charlie Foxtrot, with ‘complete freedom’…

Sara Fosterwho found writing her second novel, Beneath The Shadows, as exhilarating and excruciating as her first

How exciting – for the next few weeks, in the lead up to the publication of Let Her Go on 24th June, the e-book of Fractured is available for only AUS$4.99 – bargain! Even better, the ebook also now contains a sneak peek of the first chapter of Let Her Go, so you can read that before its release at the end of this month.

So, if you haven’t yet read it, this is a great opportunity to, and if you have, please do let your friends and family know because soon, it’ll go back to the normal price of $11.99.

You can read excerpts of reviews of Fractured here, and you can download it from your usual e-book retailers.

I’m so excited that finally, it’s almost time for my second novel, Let Her Go to hit the shelves. The publication date is 24th June, but of course you can pre-order the book now from your local bookshop.

I’m having a little gathering to celebrate the launch, on the evening of Thursday 26th June at Art Collective WA. If you’re in Perth, please come along to have a glass of wine, hear me talk about the book (briefly!) and most importantly, celebrate. It’ll be a great evening, supported by the fabulous, WA family-owned Flametree Wines.

Let Her Go will be launched by the award-winning author Natasha Lester.

I’d love to see some of you there. The details are above, but please do RSVP if you’d like to come along as numbers are strictly limited. Books will be available on the night for purchase and signing of course!

I love literary festivals. I was lucky enough last year to be invited to talk about Fractured at a few festivals around Australia: Perth, Margaret River, Sydney and Brisbane. For me, it’s the ultimate weekend: days to immerse myself in hearing and talking about books, meeting readers and writers, and then buying even more books.

This year, I decided to treat myself to a weekend in Sydney to go to the festival; people with young children will understand how excited I am just at the thought of a five hour plane journey with no little kids clambering all over me – just me, a book and a glass of wine! While I’m primarily going to the festival to watch other writers, and meet up with friends and colleagues, I’ll be having some meetings with my publishers at Hachette to discuss Let Her Go‘s release in July, and visiting a few bookshops.

I’ll also be talking at one session as part of the festival: Now Hear This on Sunday 25th May 2014 at 11.30am in  The Loft, Pier 2/3, Walsh Bay. This is a live storytelling event chaired by Melanie Tait, author, playwright and producer/host on Radio National. I will be joining four other speakers to tell a live story on stage with the theme “Lost For Words”. I am slightly terrified.

I’m also thrilled to have been invited to the Big Sky Readers and Writers Festival in Geraldton from 12-14 September 2014 to talk about Let Her Go. The details of the programme are still to be released, but there are some great authors confirmed who I’m looking forward to meeting, including Ashley Hay, Craig Sherborne, Tony Birch,and Tim Ferguson.

I’ll post more details nearer the time, but in the meantime do say hello if any of you are in Sydney!

To celebrate Mother’s Day, I’m teaming up with my Writers Ask Writers friends Amanda Curtin, Annabel Smith, Emma Chapman and Sara Foster to offer a great book giveaway. You could win a pack of ten books: a copy of each of our latest novels, as well as a book that each of us would give to our own mums for Mother’s day.

There’s also a bonus prize if the winner is from Perth: two tickets to see Jennifer Saunders discussing her recently released memoir, Bonkers: My Life in Laughs, at the Octagon Theatre on 28 April 2014, 7.30–8.30pm. Thank you to our great local bookshop, Beaufort Street Books, for sponsoring our giveaway.

Fractured by me, Dawn Barker and my choice, The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty

Shallow Breath by Sara Foster, and her choice, The Light Between The Oceans by M.L. Stedman

Whisky Charlie Foxtrot by Annabel Smith, and her choice, Flight Behaviour by Barbara Kingsolver

How To Be A Good Wife by Emma Chapman, and her choice, The View on the Way Down by Rebecca Wait

Elemental by Amanda Curtin, and her choice, Sustenance by Simone Lazaroo

You can enter by signing up below to receive updates on news and events from my website, and then leaving a comment below telling me which book you’d choose to give your mum for mothers day. If you already subscribe by email, then simply leave a comment!

If you’d like more entries, just go to Amanda’s, Emma’s, Annabel’s and Sara’s websites and follow their instructions for entering. The giveaway ends at midnight on Tuesday 15th April. Each of us will draw a winner from our own subscribers/commenters, and then we’ll draw the grand winner on Thursday 17th April!

*Apologies to our international readers, but the giveaway is open only to Australian residents.

*Your email address will of course be kept private and you can unsubscribe to our updates at any time.

I have just finished listening to the audiobook of The Husband’s Secret. Liane Moriarty is an Australian author, and this novel has been a huge success all around the world. I loved it. In it, we meet a woman – a busy mother of three girls – who finds a letter hidden in the attic while her husband is overseas on business. The letter says:

For my wife, Cecilia Fitzpatrick. To be opened only in the event of my death.

Cecilia must then wrestle with the decision of whether or not to open it…

The book has other story threads running through it too, all concerning secrets and the lengths that families will reach to protect each other. The characters, particularly the mothers, are very easy to identify with (or were, for me, as I have three children young too) and Moriarty writes so well about family relationships and secrets. The writing is suspenseful and compelling , and had me in tears at times (even though I was listening to it while running!) My mum would love the page turning story and the emotional drama – as I did.

I’d love to hear which books you’d choose for your own mother. Good luck!

Authors Annabel Smith and Emma Chapman are starting a new series on their blog called Six Degrees of Separation, based on Hungarian writer Frigyes Karinthy’s 1929 short story ‘Chains’ in which he coined the phrase ‘six degrees of separation’. Each month, they’ll choose a book to start with and invite other writers and bloggers to join in by linking that book to five other books. I’m taking part this month, when they start with Hannah Kent’s hugely successful novel, Burial Rites.

I read Burial Rites soon after its release. I admit I bought it mainly because of the hype, as it’s not necessarily a book I would have picked up as I don’t read a lot of historical fiction. However, it’s a fantastic story, and the Scandinavain setting was completely convincing, which leads me to the next book…

I read Pers Petterson’s Out Stealing Horses on the recommendation of Favel Parrett (author of the Past The Shallows) and loved it. This book was originally written in Norweigan, and I (of course) read the English translation. While the setting was foreign to me, it was so convicing. Having grown up in Scotland, I could identify with the chill of Northern Europe. Which leads me on to…

David Vann’s Caribou Island is one my favourite books. I read this a few years ago and just loved it. Again, the setting is amazing, though rather than Northern Europe, this book is set in Alaska. Vann uses the setting as a character – the hostile island and the inclement weather are as much the antagonists in this novel as the human characters. He used the setting perfectly to force the main characters into isolation where they have to confront their relationship. It was one of the inspirations for my partially setting my next novel, Let Her Go, on Western Australia’s Rottnest Island. I met David Vann last month at the Perth Writers Festival and was a little star struck as he’s one of my favourite authors, and it was there that I bought the next book in my chain…

I have just finished reading my signed copy of Dirt. I must admit that when I started reading it, I didn’t engage with it very easily. The main character is into new age philosophy and it’s not something that’s ever interested me, and there’s not much to like about any of the characters! But, being such a fan of Vann’s writing, I kept going, and in the end, wasn’t disappointed. The second half of the book is completely compelling, horrific and chilling, and like Caribou Island (and Goat Mountain), kept me awake at night. Which leads me onto…

I had never read Turner Hospital until I heard her speak at the University of Queensland a few years ago, where she did a reading from Oyster. For some reason, I thought she wrote epic romances! How wrong I was. I loved this book. Oyster concerns a new age religion, but takes it a step further than Vann to write about a sinister cult leader. She writes beautifully about the Australian bush, but like Vann, uses this setting as an antagonistic force. Which leads me to…

Another of my favourite books: Tim Winton’s Dirt Music. It’s set on the West Australian coast, and like Turner Hospital, Winton writes so vividly about the scenery that it’s a huge part of the story. Dirt Music has a great plot, suspense and deeply flawed characters which kept me engagaed until the end. Just like the book at the beginning of this chain, Burial Rites.

As I put up the pictures of the covers of these books, I’ve realised how similar they all are: earthy colours, trees, sand, dirt, water. It’s interesting that books I connected by the sense I got from reading them are clearly marketed in similar ways by their jacket design.

Have you read any of these books? What would your chain look like?

Earlier this week, I found out that Fractured had snuck into the top ten bestselling debut fiction titles of 2013 in Australia! The data was collected by Neilsen bookscan, the company who monitor book sales in Australia. 

It was great news to hear as I start reading the final proofs of Let Her Go – the release date of 24th June is coming around quickly!

Thanks so much to everyone who bought and read Fractured. Here’s the full list – I’m in great company!

1. Burial Rites – Hannah Kent

2. The Rosie Project – Graeme Simsion

3. Thornwood House – Anna Romer

4. Redstone Station – Therese Creed

5. House for All Seasons – Jennifer McLeod

6. Ryders Ridge – Charlotte Nash

7. Be Careful What You Wish For – Gemma Crisp

8. Walking on Trampolines – Frances Whiting

9. Fractured – Dawn Barker

10. The Russian Tapestry – Banafsheh Serov

I’ve just spent a wonderful weekend at the writers festival in my hometown of Perth in the beautiful grounds of UWA, although, as it is every year, it was very hot! When I attended last year, it was just when Fractured was launched, and my first ever festival as an author, so this year I really enjoyed being able to relax and watch everyone else up on stage!

On Friday I saw Tim Cope, Xavier Toby and Brendan Shanahan talking about their adventures, Carrie Tiffany, Inga Simpson and Evie Wyld discussing the settings of their novels, and Lionel Shriver talking to Stephen Romei about her latest novel – which I’ve just finished – Big Brother. I love how Shriver tackles big social issues in her writing. I’d seen her talk in Sydney years ago about We Need To Talk About Kevin but didn’t warm to her much then. This time, however, I found her incredibly sharp, intelligent, entertaining and witty and I had author envy! She gave some wonderful anecdotes and advice.

On Saturday I watched Margaret Drabble and Rabih Alameddine discussing literary allusions in their work with Angela Meyer, Eleanor Catton discussing the incredible thought process that formed her Booker prize winning novel The Luminaries, then David Vann and Lionel Shriver discussing social change through writing with Chip Rolley. I was hoping that hearing Catton talk about the book would inspire me to pick it up again – I struggled to get into it – but her talk made me realise how incredibly intelligent and philosophical she is and has made me a little more frightened of tackling it! But I will…

On Sunday, I started the day watching a panel discussing euthanasia – Philip Nitschke, Lionel Shriver, Frank Brennan, Dennis Altman and Anne Summers. It was a fascinating discussion, but left me feeling agitated and wishing that I was up there on stage with them as there were so many things I wanted to say! The panel – and audience – were overwhelmingly in favour of euthanasia, and I wished there was a bit more balance. I too, am philosophically in favour of it, but one of my major concerns is how we address the issue of how we ensure that people make end of life decisions without impaired judgement – and of course I’m thinking particularly of the mentally ill. There also seemed to be a bit of ‘doctor bashing’ going on which irritated me. Despite me waving my hand around wildly to ask questions, the microphone never came my way. Perhaps that was a good thing as I was outnumbered!

I then watched Angela Meyer, Julienne Van Loon and Ron Elliott discussing shorter forms of literature with Annabel Smith, before seeing one of my favourite ever authors, David Vann, talking with Stephen Romei. Vann’s writing is incredibly dark and intense, so I was surprised to see that he was a very warm, funny and humble man who was open and honest about his life. I was thrilled to chat with him afterwards and discuss how his book, Caribou Island was a big influence on my next novel, Let Her Go which is partly set on Rottnest Island. When I asked him to sign some books, he wrote this:

David Vann signing ‘Dirt’ for Dawn Barker

As always, the best thing about the festival was what happens out of the sessions too: I was able to meet and chat with so many other writers and readers, booksellers and publishers, and generally just soak up the atmosphere of books and words for a whole weekend. I even got the first look at the bound proof of Let Her Go!

The festival was very inspiring and  has given me the impetus to start work on book number three. I have a lot of ideas and characters worked out, and now it’s time to put them into motion and see what happens!