Aussie Readers discussion

Hi All

I live in Sydney and am an avid romance reader and have been for many many years LOL

Have Fun
Helen

Hi Helen, welcome to our little group. Great to have you. We have a romance section, find yourself a nice soft chair and make yourself comfortable. :)

Hi, I;m Lily... well I made a goodreads account to find good books to read... I am a major fan of Cobra Starship(band) and I really liked the Hunger Games trilogy... :)

Hey Lily welcome to the group. I think you will find there is something for everyone here. It really is time for me to check out the The Hunger Gamestrilogy everyone I know who's read it loves it. If you have time find your way to the favourites quiz so we can find out a little more about you. :)

Hello, I'm Viv. I've only just discovered the "groups" part of goodreads so I'm looking forward to checking it out. I'm 25 and live in Canberra. Today I just started reading Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition

Hi, guys. I'm Kat and I'm from Sydney. I blog at Book Thingo and I read mostly romance and fantasy books. I've been lurking in this group for a little while. Looking forward to seeing what others are reading. :D

Hi and welcome Viv and Kat! I'm doing a lot of work on the group bookshelves this coming week so hopefully it will be easier to find Aussie books in a genre you like. Feel free to lurk or jump in and post a message whenever you like. We love to hear from you.:)

Hi, I'm Mandy from Perth. I have a passion for reading and blog about it here: http://mandythebookworm.wordpress.com/

It's been great to meet so many people through it and find some fantastic books I wouldn't normally have picked up - some that went straight to my favourites shelf actually.

I look forward to making my way around the threads ☺

Mandy wrote: "Hi, I'm Mandy from Perth. I have a passion for reading and blog about it here: http://mandythebookworm.wordpress.com/

It's been great to meet so many people through it and find some fantastic b..."

Wow what a great name.;D But seriously I love your blog. You've certainly reviewed some fabulous books. Welcome to Aussie Readers!

Thanks, Mandy, and yes, great name ;O)

Hi all, bit late to the group but thanks Mandy for the invite. I'm Trace. I was born on Queensland's sunny Gold Coast and lived there most of my life until moving to Sth Brisbane. I started reading almost as soon as I could physically hold a book and have never stopped. I'll read almost anything but adore fantasy, particularly Terry Pratchett, and love my crime or action/adventure novels. I've recently published a couple of fantasy novels on Amazon, Erich's Plea and the second book in the trilogy Ursula's Quest. Hopefully will have the final book ready before Xmas. I've travelled pretty widely although want to see more of the world.... it's such a big place I don't think one lifetime is enough :) I'm married with a dog and two cats and lead a pretty hectic life, juggling home, work and writing but at least it keeps me off the streets LOL. It's great to be here and I'm looking forward to making some new friends,
Cheers,
Trace

Hi Tracey welcome. Ha ha, you do seem to be busy, keeping yourself off the streets. Wow. Stick around, make yourself known, everyone here is friendly so far. Lovely to have you.

Hello both Mandys, both friends of mine here on Goodreads.

It's lucky I gave Mandy (Batgirl) a nick name or it would get very confusing. I have been thinking of changing it to a more literary duo, Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson perhaps?:)

Hi All,

I've been a member of this group for a while but I've never contributed before now. My name's Sarah, I live in beautiful Melbourne and I'm a book addict!

I read to distract myself from my studies (I'm a first year PhD studying chemistry). I try to read across a variety of genres but I love the classics, gothic lit and books about books.

I hope to be more active now that I've made the plunge and introduced myself - and looking forward to meeting some interesting people.

Yay, glad you could join us Sarah. We fave a few confessed book addicts. You have come to the right place if you want your addiction fed. :)

Gail "cyborg" wrote: "It's lucky I gave Mandy (Batgirl) a nick name or it would get very confusing. I have been thinking of changing it to a more literary duo, Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson perhaps?:)"

In some of the other groups the moderators sneak in and change the other's nicknames regularly for a joke. Feel free Gail...

Oh I don't need any encouragement. :D

I am probably showing my age by your current nickname, but I like it and it is along the same theme. :D

For those unfamiliar here is a link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMiDOk...

Hi everyone,
I'm a reader of just about any fictional genre, although by far my favourite to write is hot paranormal fantasy - vampires, werewolves, shapeshifters and gargoyles.
I love reading anything that draws me into a character's world, that takes me on a journey I can't get off =)
I'm published as Mel Teshco with Nocturne Bites and Ellora's Cave, but I'm also working on a single title.
I'm really looking forward to the discussions!

Amber wrote: "Hi Matthew! You're the first person from Adelaide I've come across on here!
Which part are you from? I'm out in the northern suburbs - toward Munno Para/Smithfield..."

Southern Suburbs here, towards Reynella

Hi all. My name is Nathan and I am from Newcastle, NSW. I am a highschool (Drama and English) teacher, but dabble in a host of geeky pursuits including game design and podcasting. I love to read sci-fi and fantasy and Ausralia has some great talent in this area.
I have to say I am totally impressed by how pro-active Mandy is at inviting people to join this group - way to go!

Nathan wrote: "Hi all. My name is Nathan and I am from Newcastle, NSW. I am a highschool (Drama and English) teacher, but dabble in a host of geeky pursuits including game design and podcasting. I love to read sc..."

Shucks! Thanks Nathan. I figure there are so many groups on Goodreads it's hard to find us. All the emails I've got from people I've told about the group have been really positive. Goodreads is a wonderful and addictive site but the language and culture can feel a little 'American' for most Aussies so it's nice to have somewhere you can sit back, sip on a cold one and relax!

I'll certainly second Nathan's comments - had Mandy not issued an invite I probably would never have found this site and here I don't have to Americanize my spelling :)

Hello hello.
My name is Kristal, nickname, Chip.
I am a veterinary nurse who lives in Wollongong but my heart belongs to my home town of Byron Bay.
Books have always played such an integral part of my life. From the first memory of my mother reading Roald Dahl, to my childhood which whisked me around to various towns and schools. I moved more than once every year, have lived in over 3 countries and attended 12 schools in 12 years. Making friends was easy, keeping them was the challenge. Books became a constant for me and I have a strong reliance on the written word. I was sick throughout some of my childhood and books were a means of escape.

In school I used to win awards for creative writing, but never was able to nurture this skill, which faded with my algebra skills. To be honest I am happy to left behind, which enables me to hitch a lift upon someone else's imagination wagon and am taken into a corner of their psyche normally not revealed.

These days I am healthy and active, unable to stay in the one place for too long. I am always seeking an adventure outdoors and am caving, canyoning, geocaching, hiking and kayaking on my free weekends.
Although, buried away inside a deep pocket of my pack, is always a book to tuck me in at night.

I look forward to sharing thoughts and opinions with like minded people :)

Chip, I hadn't done any creative writing for 30 years, but since joining Goodreads I have reconnected with my creative side. There's a group called the Short Story Contest and Company which has Short Story, Poetry and Essay competitions and you don't have to be a top writer...it's for fun...you've got nothing to lose, why not take a look.

I will thank you. I haven't written anything apart from assignments and trip reports to years. Its just not the same. :)
Maybe when I have a free weekend I should take up the pen again.

Fabulous story Chip. Thank you for sharing it, a most warm welcome to the group.

Hi Rita,
Big welcome to the group! We love to chat so please go ahead and write to you heart's content. David's poetry is wonderful isn't it. He's written some pieces in several of our discussions. Colleen has written a beautiful poem too in the Indigenous literacy day thread. David's got a new book of poems coming out very soon called Out of Australia and I'm sure he'll let us know when it's available. I checked out your blog. Do you write all the poetry and prose on there? It's so wonderful and amazing! I love it! I love the artwork too, especially those fairytale type scenes!

Hi, my name is Rachael and I live in Brisbane. My love of books is bordering on obsession. I never leave the house without a book in my bag! thanks for the invite :D

Welcome to the group Rachael, you might find a few of us here with a similar obsession. I think Rita is planning a 'BRA' meeting for those who need help with the obsession. (I have a sneaking suspicion she is planning on feeding our obsessions though.) :D

Well ain't that a cunningly evil plan from Rita. I love it!

Rita wrote: "David wrote: "G'day all,

I'm David J Delaney and am a former Brisbane boy but now currently live and work in Cairns with my very patient, and darling wife, I sometimes wonder where I get the tim..."

G'day Rita, you can still find both my books (as far as I know) at Angus & Robertson in Cairns 07 40410591 I have sold out of the copies I had at home & have 'pooled' so much into my new book that as yet I don't have enough money to do a re-run of both.

I hope you can get hold of them & I am sure you will enjoy.

Boy!! drop out for a couple of days & look at all the new faces, welcome to you all (-:

Hello all, I'm Paul Daniels. Personally I'm not a big literature reader, nor am I an author, however I am a husband and business partner to an author, "Elita F. Daniels".

We live up and out in the rural area of North Queensland so it's been quite an interesting process getting the book published - in the end we've done it all ourselves.

It's good to see an Aussie group here on GR, nice to sit down in a place where people don't keep asking if drop-bears or stick-snakes are real ( and no, we don't ride kangaroos :) ).

Regards,
Paul.
( http://elitadaniels.com )

Great to have you with us Paul. Contrat's on the successful publication of Elita's book. :)

Gail "cyborg" wrote: "Great to have you with us Paul. Contrat's on the successful publication of Elita's book. :)"

Thank you Gail. I suspect I'll be spending more time on here than Elita will. I don't know if it's a trait that dominates in writers/authors but it would seem while I have no trouble gabbling away for page upon page Elita will spend hours in torture trying to compose the perfect short reply. Of course, a lot of the time she's hard at work bashing out the latest book idea on her keyboard :)

Regards,
Paul.

Hi everyone, I'm Soma. I live in Bali but went to high school and uni in Oz. Aussie citizen :) I've just written a book, Sammi Ever After self published on Amazon and Smashwords.

I love reading anything. As long as it doesn't bore the pants off me. Fantasy, chick lit and women's lit are my favourites.

Nice to meet you :)

I hope you don't mind me asking, but has the self-publishing worked out as you had hoped, and would you recommend it?

Jan wrote: "I hope you don't mind me asking, but has the self-publishing worked out as you had hoped, and would you recommend it?"

I think we all start out with a grand dream of success in the back of our heads that we temper to something more realistic, from which reality throws its side in and you end up with a rather luke-warm response overall.

I don't see one making a lot of money on a single book alone, there really needs to be a collection and you have to really push it every day which is perhaps why it's very useful to have a partner with you on the job.

The best upside of self-publishing is that what ever the results, you are in control of the next step.

Paul.

Jan wrote: "I hope you don't mind me asking, but has the self-publishing worked out as you had hoped, and would you recommend it?"

Well, I only just started in the whole business. Actually published last week or maybe it's 2 weeks ago now? So far it's been a good start, a few good reviews. Sales have been slow and the marketing is a real slog on your own. I made a video trailer, sent copies out for reviews, joined forums etc. It's become a full time job just promoting. I'm not sure if I have the patience to wait for a publisher (so many stories of authors waiting months if not years for someone to pick up their manuscript) so that's the reason I went self-publishing. I like the idea of getting my book out there asap! Plus I'm a graphic designer/film maker so I figured I could make most of the material myself anyway.

Maybe I should get back to you in a few months when I've either made it or am curled up in a corner crying.

:)

Soma wrote: Maybe I should get back to you in a few months when I've either made it or am curled up in a corner crying.

We're now just 2 months into our own publishing run - we were starting to crawl up in the corner, mostly because we hadn't yet forged the conviction to strike at it on our own fully. Now we've reformed our views and we're back up and running with a lot more drive.

We've sold quite a few copies both online via our WWW site and via Amazon/B&N etc but as you say, you really need to massage the forums on a constant basis.

Do you have anyone else helping you?

It's good that you have the extra talents in your suite for the video production, people do seem to like such things even for books :)

Paul.

hi, i have joined this group after receiving a message from Mandy. i'm finishing an undergraduate degree as a lit major and i work in a sydney bookstore. i don't intend to pursue graduate work but my self is completely dedicated to a future of reading and writing. at this point my main interest is in aberrations and transgressions operating from within "canonical" literatures, although the world of literature is so large that i really feel i'm only just beginning to get acquainted with it. i have a vibrant past including work in gay bars and severe mental illness that i think has given me interesting reading and writing perpsectives. my life is fairly clear now and i'm devoting more and more of my time to reading. i would be happy to make new friends in sydney or australia for discussions on books. not sure how consistently i'll be around but thought i'd say hi anyway!

We're now just 2 months into our own publishing run - we were starting to c..."

I don't have anyone else, just me. You're very lucky to be doing it as a team, I've been thinking that this would be some much easier with someone else helping out.

Glad to hear you came back to it though.

marc wrote: "hi, i have joined this group after receiving a message from Mandy. i'm finishing an undergraduate degree as a lit major and i work in a sydney bookstore. i don't intend to pursue graduate work but ..."

Welcome to the group Marc and thanks for joining! We've got a few undergrad students as members and they post messages every once in a while. Uni and study must take up so much of your time. I'm happy for you to join in the discussions or just lurk around the group whenever you feel like it. It's a pretty laid back sort of group. Goodreads is so huge I think it's nice to have our own Aussie corner to fall back on now and then. Good luck with your writing! :)

Rita wrote: "Hi all, I'm 25 and my name is Rita but sometimes I go by the alias of KiTTiE or KiTTiArrA depending on my character role at that moment (no I don't have multiple personalities just different moods)..."

Enjoyed my stroll through your blog Rita, well done, I might have to attempt something like that one day, I enjoyed your choice of Shakespeare as well, I read his sonnets for the 1st time in my life last November mainly to do with a competition, so I had a go at writing a sonnet & loved it, I have now written 7, 6 x Shakespearean & 1 x Petrachan, here is the sonnet I entered into the comp. & no I didn't win.(-:

Sonnet no.1

The paupers friend

Now thou hast mingled with the noble class
but they’d not see in life that I do see,
they hold their feasts', drink from their purest glass,
in finest mansions built beside the sea.
See not the homeless begging on the street,
nor in dark laneways, wet with cold they die.
See not the children sick or with bare feet,
nor for the measly scraps thrown out they vie.
If I could forward through the frames of time
to lands afar unheard of now by thee,
would not thine eyes view pestilence and crime,
would still there be fine mansions by the sea.
Where still are those who sleep in laneways cold,
where nobles, whom for wealth their souls they’ve sold.

David J Delaney.
17/11/2009 ©

Hi everyone, Deb here.
I'm a weekday Melbournite and a weekend farmgirl down in the Otway Ranges. Good to see so many Aussies here.
I joined Goodreads when I had flu and while recovering decided I needed to get back into reading. It's worked. Joining the 50 books a year group helped and I'm storming through my "to be read" books since then.

Welcome to the group Deb lovely to have you with us. We are here to chat about books and anything else you can think of. Join in have fun. :)

Hi I'm Vicki,

Thanks Mandy for the invite.

I enjoy reading all genres, and I am looking forward to finding some new reads from this group.

Cheerio for now.

Seems like Mandy has been busy herding us in - well done Mandy, we needed something like this to bring us into a more cohesive group.

Vicki wrote: "Hi I'm Vicki,

Thanks Mandy for the invite.

I enjoy reading all genres, and I am looking forward to finding some new reads from this group.

Cheerio for now."

Welcome Vicki, Mandy is working hard sorting out our bookshelves (with a little interference from me :D.) Hopefully you will be able to find something you can enjoy. :)