Interview: Kennedy Estephan, Author of ‘The Day it Rained’

Kennedy Estephan, author of ‘The Day it Rained’

Tell us (in a nutshell) about your wordsmith career path so far:
It all started in a rather unexpected way. Initially I was planning to join a local acting group. When told there was no room left, I started looking into other options. A writers’ group was meeting once a month in the same building (Bankstown Arts & Crafts Centre.) So I joined them. The year was 1994. It was my first step in the thousand-mile journey.

Since finishing The Day It Rained, do you have any plans for new projects? Or are you going to rest easy for a while?
The bulk of The Day it Rained, I wrote in between manuscripts. Currently I am rewriting my very earliest work—a story of unrequited love set in a war-torn city. No rest, I’m afraid.

Most people seem to either excel in the humanities and arts or the maths and sciences. Yet you are a high school science teacher and a published author. Do you find it hard to reconcile those two aspects of your career?
To me the challenge is not in reconciling preexisting differences, but in finding the time to read enough of nearly everything to keep myself informed. Lately, I’ve been reading the history of science. The material tends to be informative, engaging and well-written. A good way, I’ve discovered, to satisfy a brain undecided towards which half it should lean.

Does your teaching inspire your writing at all?
Daily contact with students has helped develop in me a better understanding of  what is common in us. It is this universality which I try to carry into my work.

Publishing short stories is never easy. How did you go about getting yours into a book?
As we all know, short stories have a very limited market. Of course some collections do get published. But they tend to be of exceptional quality and/or written by some renowned novelist with established readership. That leaves many short-story writers out, which might explain why quite a few contemplate self-publishing at some point in their career. In my case I did so only after exhausting all other options. Mind you that many stories in ‘The Day it Rained’ had appeared in a range of anthologies following a placement/prize in some SS competition.  That was a source of satisfaction for a while. Then came the time when I felt the need to compile the work in one volume and have it out there for others to share. Thus, this self-publishing venture.

Do you think it’s easier to work on a collection of short stories on a novel? Explain.
Which of the two forms is easier to write depends on your personality and your overall take on life. I, for one, find short stories to be generally less demanding. It is like skimming in and out of water, without having to plunge too deep at any given time. The idea is to reveal, without having to worry too much about development. Of course, the catch is in having each and every word count. Economy is the key. You can’t afford to digress, tempted as you might be at times.

Your collection was awarded a grant by your local council that enabled you to self-publish. How did you go about securing the grant, and would you recommend self-publishing to other emerging writers? Why/Why not?
An opportunity presented itself. I submitted samples of the work. And I secured the grant. It was a humble amount, I dare say. But it lifted my spirits and provided me with much needed exposure. So thank you, again, to those involved. 
As for self-publishing, it is something I’d approach with care. If you were to tread that path, then this is my advice:

• Have your work assessed by professionals. What you need is a constructive and objective feedback—the more reason why you should avoid seeking it from relatives and friends.
• Have the courage and will to rewrite the work as often as needed.
• Enter as many SS competitions as possible.
• Secure a grant if you can. Financial help aside, it can draw attention to your work and help substantiate its literary merit.
• Invest in the services of an editor, if you can afford to.
• Secure a quote or two from people in the know. This will also help with marketability.
• Content yourself with a small print run. The idea should not be to make a profit as much as to test your writing skills and develop some readership before you progress to the next step: securing a publisher.

Of course, there are stories out there of monumental successes following a self-publishing venture. These tend to be the exception, not the rule. Again, my advice is that you tread carefully and be realistic with your expectations.

Your publishing process was helped somewhat by the services of an agent. Do you recommend an agent to us aspiring wordsmiths? Why/why not?
A literary agent can significantly boost your chances of finding a publisher. If you can secure an agent, please do. Mind you this is no easy task. Only a manuscript with a good potential is taken on board. After all, an agent does not get his/her money until a publishing contract is secured. The more reason why he/she has to be extra selective. The agent that represents me is quite renowned. Over the years she has been helpful and extremely supportive. In that regard, I count myself lucky. 

What are some of the difficulties that you encounter when working on a book?
When in the thick of things, I find it quite difficult to juggle between writing and work. To write good fiction means to live through your characters with all their emotional peaks and troughs. To hold a full-time job means to wake up in the morning, disentangle yourself from the remnants of emotions lingering from last night’s writing episode and return to normality—whatever that means.

Another difficulty I encounter when working on a book is in the rewrite. Following a feedback changes are recommended. Some are cosmetic, but many are major. This means more hard work and a lot of heartache doing away with scenes and characters you invested months on end bringing to life. To make things a little more of a challenge, there is no guarantee the ms will find a publisher once those changes are made. Only that the new draft stands a better chance with many of its earlier flaws already addressed.

A few of the stories deal with the Lebanese civil war. As someone who grew up in Lebanon, did you find it hard to write it about something that hit close to home?
I certainly did. It was emotionally draining—let me put it this way. Another difficulty was in keeping away from cathartic writing. That would only have served my needs, not the reader’s. Rewriting those stories numerous times, and often when in good spirits, was one way to keep things on the right track.  

What are your writing goals now, in comparison to what they were before you were published?
I still crave for some recognition—no denying. It is something you’d expect, given all the hard work you put in over the years. Thankfully, I’ve grown more patient with time. Let things take their natural course, I keep thinking. Meanwhile, I work hard and try to be the best I can. That simple.

What advice would you offer to aspiring writers and wordsmiths who want to follow a similar career path? 
Vanity is one’s worst enemy. No one is immune to it. Fight it off with every inch of your being. And work hard. 

Ten in the Hot Seat:

1. Describe yourself in one word: passionate.
2. Biggest accomplishment to date: becoming a father.
3. You wish you wrote: The Moon and Sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham.
4. Can’t leave home without: hugging my two children.
5. One thing you are currently writing: I am rewriting a manuscript—my first attempt at a novel. That was nearly twelve years ago.
6. First thing you wrote: a clumsy, melodramatic, poorly-written short story set in a war-torn Beirut.
7. Addicted to reading: anything of depth.
8. Top spot on your goals list: finding inner peace. I fear that might also be the day I stop writing.
9. If you were a character in a novel, you’d be: The nameless English patient in Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient.
10. The best thing about being a wordsmith: the ability to reach across and touch people’s lives.

Tags: Creative Writing, Writing, writer, short stories, self-publish, agent, write, kennedy estephan

Books, Bags & In Betweens: High Fashion, Lowly fakes, and Harold Carlton’s Heaven, Hell & Mademoiselle

‘Please don’t cry, Monique, they say “identical models” but I doubt they will be,’ Chanel explained. ‘The workmanship will be shoddy, the fabrics poor quality. No one can copy the essential qualities of a Chanel.’

And this was the sentence that cemented my decision to love Harold Carlton’s latest book, Heaven, Hell & Mademoiselle (Orion, $32.99). You see, not long ago, I posted on my Facebook status that I was sick of Facebook allowing fake brands to advertise their wares on the site: not only was every fake I encountered tacky and thus not an accurate representation of the designer and the luxury that the house purported, but I couldn’t help but think that the obvious market for these fakes was promoting a lower culture that destroyed the appeal of fashion as an art, and that funded those nasties we want eradicated from the world (there is significant research that shows that fake markets fund terrorist training and groups, among other things).

As someone who has celebrated some of her bigger life milestones with the purchase of a designer good (if only as an investment piece that transformed my otherwise chain store wardrobe, for the use of a family heirloom and as testament to my love of a luxury that goes the distance), and who loves the appeal of advertisements for luxury brands and the chic factor they bring to my inspiration wall, I was able to really resonate with the sentence in Carlton’s book, which gave me some comfort in the face of my frustrations. Not because I had saved to celebrate my milestones with a material object (we all have our weaknesses), but because I would hate for my creative work to be so blatantly copied in a manner that denounced its value. High fashion and couture is art, so where is its copyright and why are we so quick to embrace the lows of it? Surely we know when we’re not in the presence of the real thing, so why buy into it? (I was given a fake Gucci wallet when I was in year 8. I was embarrassed, even at that age, to be carrying it out around).

I guess what I am trying to say is that creative licence is a lot more than money and style. It’s someone’s love and work stamped on something that requires effort and commitment (most designer bags, at least in the league of Hermes & Chanel, are hand stitched, and in the case of Hermes, made by one person), and the fact that there are some people profiting (albeit in a tacky way) from ripping this work and creative licence off.

The fact that I own a few real designer bags makes me very conscious of the fakes, and I am often quite smug (naughty!) at the fact that I can tell what’s real and what’s not. maybe it’s because I hate liars, and maybe it’s because I worked just as hard to save up for my goods that it irks me to see them paraded around at market stalls with no concern for their true value as a product. Then again, this is the difference in the way that people see fashion: whether as a statement or just as clothes, shoes and accessories that you scope out when getting dressed everyday.

The former are the type you’ll read about in Harold Carlton’s book, and maybe through his tales you’ll be able to see just how much fashion can really mean.

When I picked up the book and read its blurb, I thought that I would hate it and that it would bore me, but I was more than plesantly surprised. Perhaps because I had known little of the author at the time (his last book, Labels, was published in 1988), and I was overcome with a scepticism about how this man, whom I purported to be a fashion journalist, would capture the time, place and exuberance of 1960′s Paris with the might required for a book on the grand dame of fashion: Coco Chanel herself.

But Harold Carlton (whom I discovered actually worked as an assistant designer for two Parisian maisons de couture, and was a fashion illustrator for a number of high profile publications in New York & London) has done a maginificent job, not necessarily for capturing the essence of 1960′s Paris (the storyline itself would have worked no matter the time or setting, and to me, was thus rendered irrelevant to the appeal of the whole book), but for his great story telling, and particularly in his ability to weave together four very different characters, all essentially on the same mission: to find love and work in fashion in Paris couture.

The year that sets the tale is 1968, and four young fashion hopefuls have arrived in the city of love, dreaming to make their way to the top in the competitive and often damning Parisian fashion scene. They have all come from different, often fraught, backgrounds or recent events, and are burdened with both their past and their quest for making something of themselves in the future.

And, lest this girly scenario supposedly lend us the wrong idea that this is a somehow girls-only book, they are not all women: and the men play as much a part in the novel as their female counterparts. Monique’s chance encounter with Mademoiselle herself sets the stage for her successes, and her undeniable natural talent as a seamstress, sees her plucked from the workrooms to a place where she can command a lot more than she’s ever been used to: but will she let an adulterous man and her little relationship know-how affect her career?

Christopher on the hand, is not as devoted to Chanel as Monique: the boy just wants a shot as a desginer in the couture houses. Clawing his way to the top is one thing where fashion is concerned, but as he finds himself letting his English sex appeal get the better of him, he wonders about the choices he has made in the search for success.

Samantha is the New Yorker who has had Daddy pave the way for her too long. The only problem is, when she decides she’s going to make it on her own, she fails to realise that her brash attitudes is not exactly what french society is made of.

And then there’s beautiful Sophie, who has had everything she could have ever wanted out of life, except the answer to a question that has paved the way for her burdening insecurities a little too long.

As their lives collide in mash of fashion, society, culture and relationships, and all in a quest for work, they all begin to realise that what they set out to achieve is not necessarily what their happiness is made of.

 

 

Tags: Chanel, Chanel bags, heaven, Hell & Mademoiselle, Harold Carlton, Paris Couture, Fake, Fake designer hadbags, luxury products, couture

Bookshelf: The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner (An Eclipse Novella)

A guest blogger post by Josephine Ayoub*

*My 15 year old sister (and an amazing creative writer with a flair for drama the likes of which I have never seen. And this is not my nepotism talking. Anyway, she didn’t want to do this review, because she doesn’t “do” reviews. But I thought I would let her flex her wordsmith muscles a little by giving her a task that would challenge her).

A new way to look at the world of the vampires…

A new way to look at the Cullens…

A new way to look at Bella Swan…

This novella is a way to look at them…From the eyes of a vampire.

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner (Atom, $22.99) is the latest title from the mind that brought us the Twilight phenomenon. Any fan of the Twilight Saga, will surely be sucked into the secretive and sinister vampire life of Bree Tanner, a character first seen in the third book of the series, Eclipse. Now see the side of the story that was never seen before: The side of the newborn vampire. Bree Tanner is one of many newborn vampires created by Riley. Feared and strong, Riley leads these newborns, but under the command of someone they only know as ‘she’. But when Bree finds an unexpected friendship in another vampire named Diego, she begins to realize that their creator has many secrets about the vampire world—secrets in which he can’t afford for them to find out. Is she just another pawn in Riley’s tricks and games? Bree and Diego know something is coming—something big.

With no clue of what to do or who to trust, and she finds herself in an ultimatum. She must now pick a side…Before it’s too late!

I loved visualising the story from a new point of view after reading of her in Eclipse. Knowing the secrets that Bree craved to uncover, it was alluring to hear her thoughts and it made me anxious awaiting the moments she found out about the truth.

I would have loved it more to know her story right from the beginning too. I mean, from exactly when she was turned…The story is set about three months after she was turned by Riley, so there is some missing spots. She does however describe memories, giving us a small idea of what it was like and her past… I would’ve liked more of that.

***

Josephine Ayoub is the kid sister of Miss Wordsmith Lane herself, Sarah Ayoub. She’s in year 10 at the local highschool, loves reading, TV dramas, and pasta in white sauce and has a sick mistaken theory that she’s moving in with Sarah when she finally ties to the knot to James. Josie spends far too much time spinning stories, whether she’s telling them in far too lengthy conversations to her siblings, turning them into hit school plays or using them to manipulate and scare her younger cousins when they get out of hand during baby-sitting. For someone who’s concerned about the environment, Josie always forgets her bedroom light on. And, as Sarah would like to add (without Josie’s consent), this extends to the home environment also, where Josie always forgets to pack the laundry and the dishes. The easiest of all chores.

Tags: The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, Eclipse, Eclipse Novella, Twilight series, Twilight reviews, Stephenie Meyer

Hot off the Press: The Porefessional by Benefit

Extra, Extra! Read all about it: Pores can disappear now and there’s no doubt about it!

If this is headline news you thought you’d never hear, think again. This week, the Benefit pink and pretty press pack has me really excited, and that’s because I finally have the chance to rid myself of unattractive pores without plastering on my make-up coverage ala a paper mache project.

The reason being is ‘The Porefessional’: Benefit’s latest dal-action pro-balm that acts as a primer while minimising the appearance of those unsightly little buggers we call enlarged or open pores.

The translucent and lightweight primer suits all skin tones and gives you an airbrushed, silky-smooth finish (and, should you think I jest: it actually feels silky smooth on the skin) and is ideal pre-make-up application.

Simply pat onto complexion or key areas of concern using fingertips, and follow with foundation or pressed-powder for an even, flawless finish. What’s more, it’s oil-free, which means you’re combatting that clogged-pore problem while masking it!

Available from August 21st for $53 (22mL), the Porefessional is what you need when the mission is impossible. It’s Pore-fection in a tube, and that’s what we call a gadget to be proud of.

Tags: Benefit, Primer, Porefessional, Pores

Life Snapshots: Reasons why my weekend rocked

• High from a dinner out at Toko Surry Hills on Thursday night, I started it off by turning off my computer early on Friday night, and deciding that I was NOT going to fuss around about all the work I had to do. Instead, I took my kid sister Josie to Civic Video and she chose the all-star Valentines Day for her Friday Night In with her Big Sisters (you’ll meet her soon, she’s reviewing Stephenie Meyer’s latest for Wordsmith Lane). That coupled with the copious amounts of candy corn I ate after tracking it down at a nearby lolly store, and staring at the gorgeous book by JoJo Moyes that I wanted purely on the merits of the cover alone, made for a great night.
• Saturday was an average day, but all weekends cannot be of the grand sort. I went to be weekly osteopath appointment to treat my back (in the aftermath of my car accident it has been really painful and prone to various stuff-ups that I would rather not dwell on) and hit the shops a little while later, where I picked up a gorgeous Cooper St Clothing dress that I can’t wait to wear. The beauty of it is its desk-to-date factor: I can throw on a blazer for work and wear it with tights, then change out of those on my way out. Saturday night I hit Fiance’s Best Man’s Girlfriends’ 21st, wearing my beautiful black tutu skirt, lace top, black patent pumps and a gorgeous red high-waist belt recently purchased from Ebay. The look was polished off with one of my fave clutch purses: the black patent YSL Y-Mail clutch which I ordered over the phone from Perth luxury store Cult Status, and which makes me feel like a million bucks everytime I carry it.
• Sunday was pretty chockers. After an early morning mass at St Joachim’s, I went to see my future mother-in-law and Nanna, and they surprised me ith my very own Mad-Hatters hat (copied from the latest Alice in Wonderland flick by Tim Burton). It’s a little too big for all our heads, so it’s going to make a great centrepiece or decorative item at my Mad-Hatter’s Kitchen Tea Party this October.
• After my busy morning, my plus one and I headed to the Brad Ngata hair salon in Sydney’s Surry Hills/Darlinghurst for an amazing blogger event held by the team at Maxted Thomas PR. The event was a great way to catch up with the staff and other bloggers, as well as play students in the art of skin care and make-up thanks to the pop-up stalls for some of their great clients. Canapes and Champagne were free-flowing in great testament to this agency which recognised the contribution that bloggers and social media users make to the media/beauty industry. Sometimes it’s so easy to be overlooked in favour of the print titles and the like, so it felt great to know that our work still matters to the industry. Big thanks must also go to my gorgeous mate and wedding planner, Danielle of Entertainment Solutions International for being my plus one at the event.
• And before I headed home on Sunday night, to write like a mad woman (see, the work catches up with you eventually) and eat McDonald’s in front of the TV, I joined some bloggers for a visit to the Benefit store in Paddington, where I got my eyebrows professionally shaped and tinted (and then my lashes and make-up done too). I was so enamored with the store and its staff (and my new eyebrows, which almost a day later, I can not stop staring at in the mirror. I tell you, I used to be so modest but post-brow shaping and tinting, I feel rightfully vain) that I had to have a quick chat with their Brow Expert Hannah Terrett about the process and why it’s so great for the face. Try to ignore my animated hand gestures and my frequent use of the word amazing (as you can see I was quite stunned by the awesomeness of the whole Benefit Shebang), and do enjoy my first foray into Wordsmith Lane TV. If you want to check out the Benefit services for yourself (they come highly recommended from yours truly, among other, far more glamorous peeps), call in to your nearest store and check out some of their great brow, lash and make-up packages, most of which are redeemable for product. If you just want your brows waxed, it’ll set you back a mere $25 for a great session with the pros. Watch and see why it matters.

 

Tags: Benefit, Maxted Thomas PR, MTPR, Blogger Event, Valentines Day, Candy Corn, Jojo Moyes, The Last Letter from your Lover, Mad Hatter's Party

Interview: Gemma Crisp, Editor of CLEO & Blogger at The Show Pony

Going freelance can be a pretty tough thing if not done right. I mean, I tried it, and within three months I was unbelievably bored and uninspired. Staying in my PJs all day was not good for my mind or my motivation levels, but I could have learned a thing or two from former Dolly Editor turned CLEO editor  Gemma Crisp, who proved that maintaining contacts and motivation levels by working around (and with) others could take you far in freelance world. In this interview, Crisp tells us how she got her start in magazines and how it feels to be back in the editor’s chair for one of Australia’s iconic women’s lifestyle magazines.

Interview: Gemma Crisp, The Show Pony (and newly-appointed Editor of CLEO)

How did you get your big break into magazines? 
It’s a long convoluted story and a lot of it comes down to being in the right place at the right time… but the defining moment was scoring a three-month unpaid internship with the features department of British Marie Claire while living in London a decade ago. I made friends and contacts who helped open doors in the publishing industry when I moved to Sydney.

Did you always want to work in magazines, or did you just want to be a writer? 
I wasn’t one of those people who knew what they wanted to do from an early age – I flirted with the idea of being a radiographer (despite not having a scientific bone in my body!), a French teacher, a diplomat and a hotel manager… It took a career crisis in my early 20s to make me realise what I really wanted to do – and that was journalism, specifically magazine journalism. I devour newspapers both in print and online, but I don’t think my tone and style of writing suit that particular medium. 

How did it feel to score the CLEO Editor’s gig, and does it feel like you’re coming full circle now that you’re going back to the magazine after being their Features Editor and then moving into the Dolly’s Editor’s chair? 
Being offered the CLEO editorship felt a little surreal yet also completely normal – I’ve always had a soft spot for the magazine, even before working there as Features Editor and Associate Editor, so it almost feels like it’s fate, as disgustingly cheesy and clichéd as that sounds. Walking into the office after three years’ absence didn’t feel weird at all, so I guess you could say things have come full circle – although six months down the track, I could be warbling a different tune!

You left Dolly not long ago to try your hand at the freelance life. How does a lifestyle of being your own boss compare to working for a company or magazine?  
I spent eight months freelancing and was really surprised at how much work fell into my lap – I was lucky to get booked for a couple of lengthy in-house stints at two of the celebrity weekly magazines, which was a nice change having previously only worked on monthly mags. I was also fortunate in that I didn’t have to send out endless story pitches and hustle for work – although that may have changed if I’d spent more time in the freelance world.

Freelancers tend to comment about being able to work their own hours, or work in their PJ’s all day. Is that something that appealed to you, or did you structure your day around a routine to keep you more productive? 
I told myself I’d get into a routine and stick to it, but I have to admit the snooze button on my alarm clock was utilised more often than not! I’m not great with my own company, so I rented desk space in a communal warehouse office so I had somewhere to go and could be around other people, as opposed to slobbing around the house in my pyjamas while talking to the walls!

What are you looking forward to the most about editing CLEO? 
I’m looking forward to getting my hands dirty, adding my own flavour to the magazine and being part of a team again, which is something I missed while freelancing.

Most bloggers find that, at least initially, it’s very hard to get your writing read by a large audience. Do you think that your work on the glossies made it easier for The Show Pony to work?  
The Showpony was more of a “baby” for me to work on while freelancing – after two years of editing a teen magazine, I wanted to write about things that appealed to me – so it was never meant to set the world on fire. I did have ‘send PR release to magazines’ on my to-do list, but I never quite got around to it! Erica at Girl With A Satchel was kind enough to link to my site a few times and it was mentioned in Sydney Confidential and Mumbrella, but I didn’t take advantage of my contacts as much as I could have.

What were some of the difficulties you first encountered swapping from a very senior editing role to blogging? Was it hard to establish an audience, build up the site, find your niche etc?  
The major difficulty was trying to balance freelance work with blogging – I totally underestimated how much time blogging chewed up so it was hard trying to juggle my personal writing with paying the bills. Unfortunately my life got a bit hectic towards the end, and I began to find blogging more of a chore, so the Pony is officially out to pasture… but who knows if it’s forever?

Did you consult any mentors or magazine girls turned freelancers to make the process a little easier? 
Nedahl Stelio, who was my editor at CLEO when I worked there from 2004 to 2007, has become a good friend and she helped out with advice when I was thinking of leaving DOLLY to do my own thing. She had also jumped from magazines to an online venture (www.cocolee.com.au, a fashion site that has weekly online sales) so had plenty of advice and tips – thanks Ned!

Do you have a goals list that the Wordsmith Lane readers can have a sneak peak at? 
Not really – apart from making CLEO as successful as I can! I’m not really a goal/mantra/affirmation person, mostly because I haven’t needed to be…

Do you have any particular direction you’d like to take CLEO in now that you’re in charge? 
I definitely have a lot of ideas and plans for the title, but that’s for me to know and you to find out!

What advice would you offer to aspiring bloggers, freelancers and wordsmiths who want to follow a similar career path? 
When it comes to becoming a journalist, there are so many different roads and paths that lead to the same place, so don’t feel like there’s only one way to break into magazines or become an editor. Never underestimate the importance of having a good attitude, a willingness to do anything you’re asked (no matter how menial it seems at the time) and the power of great ideas. 

Ten in the Hot Seat:

1. Describe yourself in one word: Can I have two? Pretty please? Go on, you know you want to… I can? “Pocket rocket.” Thanks!
2. Biggest accomplishment to date: Having a successful career in the magazine industry – if you’d told me I’d become the editor of two iconic Australian magazines back when I was a teenager growing up on a sheep farm in Tasmania, I would have thought you were on crack. (Not that I had any idea what crack was back then…)
3. You wish you wrote:  For my personal satisfaction – People of the Book, by Geraldine Brooks. Such a great story, I wanted to re-read it as soon as I’d finished the last page.For my bank account – Stieg Larsson’s Millenium trilogy.
4. Can’t leave home without: Getting dressed!
5. One thing you are currently writing: Answers to these questions.
6. First thing you wrote: Professionally? An article for British Marie Claire that involved travelling to the Northern Territory to spend a week on a remote cattle station, interviewing the jillaroos who worked there. I had NO idea what I was doing…
7. Addicted to reading: Vanity Fair and the Bureau of Meterology website – I’m obsessed with the weather forecast.
8. Top spot on your goals list: To survive the next three months – for some reason I thought it’d be a great idea to start a demanding new job, spend a month in Europe, sell my apartment, buy a house and get married, all by October!
9. If you were a character in a novel, you’d be: Little Miss Lucky.
10. The best thing about being a wordsmith: Learning something new every day.

Tags: CLEO, Dolly, Gemma Crisp, intern, women's magazine

Bookshelf: Harlan Coben, Caught

Guest Post by Liz Goralewski

Caught, by Harlan Coban ($32.99, Orion)

Wendy Tynes is a reporter on a mission: weed out sex offender scum and bring ‘em down. When she comes across supposed paedophile Dan Mercer, her job becomes a lot more complicated and involved. The evidence against him isn’t as rock-solid as she’d like, and the case built against him gets thrown out, and all charges dropped. Add in the disappearance of overachieving teen Haley McWaid, and you’ve got yourself one pickle of a crime. 

Bestselling author Harlan Coben’s latest novel is Caught, a story of revenge, mistakes and life lessons. Before I make any judgements on this, I have to admit that I’m not a big fan of crime/thriller novels (that is to say, I’ve never read this genre before), so I began reading it in a very cautious state of mind. I wasn’t really looking forward to the story at all. But, Coben’s writing style can put ant literary critique at ease. He writes with such clarity of voice and intention, only using the words that are entirely necessary. We’re given the story and the all the details we need to follow it. Apart from that, he puts the right amount of emotion into scenes, not overdoing it to the point of nausea. My favourite way of saying this: no nonsense, no crap, no Selley’s No-More-Gap.  

Readers should be very thankful for this simplified style of story writing. If it were anymore complicated and cluttered, the numerous twists of the plot may have been lost in translation. This story is action-packed, for lack of a better term. Big hooks and revelations aplenty in every chapter, on every page, and with each chapter, the twists get more twisted, and the revelations increase in numbers. In fact, the revelations come right up until the epilogue of the story, the final one coming from an almost-forgotten plot point. Once again, readers should be thankful for the sweet simplicity of the writing. If not for that, I’d probably be too confused to write this review. I’d still be trying to  figure out what happened to who. 

The characters in this story were mostly straightforward. Again, nothing too multifaceted. But, I don’t think Coben knew exactly how to write some of the characters. Being a 40-something writer, he probably has to  go by his observations and what he sees in films and other literature. The teenagers, for example, came out extremely stereotyped. ’Nuf said.

Relationships between some of the characters played a major role in the uncovering of revelations. At the same time, the relationships that weren’t directly linked to the plot had little to no focus on them. Good. Less crap, more relevant story. 

Now, while it may seem that I’ve only praised Coben, I do have one pretty big problem with this book: it almost became a life lesson. At my age, I probably don’t have quite the appreciation of these as I should, but the lesson is so simple (there’s that word again) and preaching, that it does call for some annoyed eye-rolling. Contemplation and lack of confidence in their own choices showed up a lot in the main characters, echoing the need for a life lesson within the book. Cringe. 

Overall, this book is probably perfect for it’s target audience – the middle-aged family people. The themes that are brought up are mostly relevant only to them, and so for an early-20s reader, the novel may come across as admonishing. But, with Harlan Coben’s charmingly smooth writing style, it’s easy to get pulled into the story.

Liz Goralewski is a constant reader, half-time thinker, and writer in between. Currently studying English and History at Sydney University, she hopes one day that her young adult urban fantasy will be published and adored. She loves her husband and her cats more than any number of Reese’s Cups. And that’s saying something.

Tags: harlan coben, caught

Wordsmith Spotlight: News from the wordsmith beat

• Victoria Mixon dishes the dirt on the six personality types that will succeed as writers. What category do you fall into? I think I am the sensitive, but I am not entirely sure.
• In something that’s a little more fun, journalist Nicole Haddow tweeted who she writes like yesterday, after visiting http://iwl.me/ Despite plugging in blog posts, a few paragraphs from my novel and a few paragraphs from my latest article in Madison magazine, I kept getting the same guy, one Cory Doctorow. Despite the fact that they are all different types of writing! Oh well, at least it was something to play around with.
• Need a writing tutor? Jan at Writer’s Journey supports writers of all contexts and genres through writer’s retreats and workshops that take you ‘back to your creative self’. Sounds like something I need to enrol in, my head’s a little clogged up with all my tasks at the moment.
• But hopefully not for too long, as Melbourne writer and blogger Megan Burke of Literary Life has just offered her services as an intern with moi. Yes, I know we’re separated by a stately border, but if Megan thinks it will work, I ain’t complaining. Megan is going to help me try and stay on top of wordsmith news and worthy interview candidates, so you’ll occasionally find posts that are either written, researched or inspired by her. She’s also going to help with a little bit of mundane research and admin stuff (such is life of an intern), and in exchange, I will mentor her in any way possible about the foray into freelance feature writing. Thanks for volunteering yourself Megan!
• The pretty, smart and wonderful Corrine over at Frock & Roll (love that title!) has written part three of her series “The Blogger’s Guide to Hustling: Networking, Promoting & Getting your blog OUT THERE”. A good read for all you aspiring wordsmiths who have taken my advice (and that of my fellow writers) and got yourself a web-based shop-front aka blog or website. See parts one and two of Corrine’s hustling series here and here.  
• The NSW Writer’s Centre is running a fiction writer’s critique group on Saturday afternoons from September, which might be a good avenue for this of you who have started writing and are after some workshopping of your work. Other interesting courses include The Business of Being a Writer, Writing for Children & Young Adults and Writing Creative Non-Fiction (get in quick, this last one starts in ten days).
• Ardent glossy-mag girls would know that there’s been a bit of a shuffle in mag land recently, with Sarah Oakes from CLEO taking up a maternity leave position as Editor of Sunday Life, and Gemma Crisp of the Show Pony (and former Dolly Ed and CLEO Features Ed) taking up a spot in the CLEO Editor’s Chair as her replacement. Amelia Bloomfield from Bride to Be has also left her Editor’s chair as she gears up for a move to Byron Bay, with former CLEO Features Ed, (shortlived) Aussie Glamour Features Director and OK! Special Projects & Lifestlye Director Sarah Gawthorne taking up her position. Cealia Corse has also left her job as Cosmo’s Features Editor to take up a spot as the Beauty Editor on Women’s Health, and replacing her is one Melanie Senior. (Of course, you might have gotten all this at Mumbrella and Girl With a Satchel anyway, but on the off chance you have not, here it is from moi).
• Not that my news compares to all of the above, but I’ll dish it out anyway:
  • I’ll be contributing a six-part beauty series to Trespass magazine in the near future, entitled “The Adventures of a Beauty Amatuer”. You might have noticed that I have a few more beauty posts than usual up on wordsmithlane, and that’s because my interest in beauty writing has peaked somewhat in recent weeks. Of course, the likes of these posts will compare not to online beauty portals and magazines like Beauty Haven, Primped and such, but coming from the point of a view of a features writer who has never written style and beauty before in her life, it’s going to be a learning curve as much for you as it is for me. Especially because my interest in beauty writing, or lack thereof, stemmed from my lack of interest in beauty products themselves, which, thanks to my quest to be a beautiful, glowing bride, has also peaked.
  • In other Sarah news, American Journo student and Soccer Blogger Alex Veeneman has written about me on his blog, and I have been featured on girly travel website She Goes.
• And in another bit for mother country, Beirut has yet again been named a must-visit destination by Daily Candy (site which I love moreso because of the book of the same name). My cousins have just returned from there begrudginly, all bronze and high on all-night cocktails and partying and Euro-shopping. I am superbly jealous. Tell me how it is possible for a supposed war-torn, supposedly fundamentalist country to have ZARA, MNG, Bershka, TopShop (yes, the British chain) and H&M, while Australia only has one of the above? If I suddenly disappear, it’s because I have a dual reason to go there other than visiting my grandparents!
• Speaking of Lebanon, Miss Lebanon Australia Daniella Rahme, flies out today to compete in the Miss Lebanon Emigrant Pageant in Beirut. The competition is created to name the queen of Lebanese beauty queens who has grown up in another country to migrant parents of Lebanese origin. Good luck Daniella, we hope you do Australia proud!
• Would you like to see some Wordsmithlane Video Blogs? Any other thing you’d like to see up here that I am not already doing (ahem, not that I do much). Might do some beauty vlogs, me thinks…

Tags: Beirut, Blog Promotion, Bride to Be, CLEO, Gemma Crisp, Miss Lebanon, NSW Writer's Centre, Sarah oakes, Trespass, Trespass Magazine, Women's Health, Writer's Course, Writing workshops

Wordsmith Spotlight: Get Published in Lip

Plenty of aspiring female wordsmiths, or feminist/women’s interest writers, have started out writing for lip magazine, including writer and researcher extraordinaire Rachel Hills and Trespass Editor-in-chief Liv Hambrett. This week’s wordsmith spotlight looks at this time-tested publication for girls who have a lot to say, and how to get published in it.

lip magazine is a Canberra-based publication that comprises of a regularly updated website and two print issues per year.  It was started with the view to provide an alternative magazine for young girls, inspired by the likes of Sassy and other overseas publications (the founding editor, Rachel Funari, moved to Australia from America).  lip gives young women an opportunity to read about real issues that are relevant to them, while also providing a place where they can get published and share their own thoughts and opinions. It recognises that feminism isn’t a “dirty F word,” and encourages young women to think, feel, create, speak out and live. (More about that here).

The magazine has been around for a number of years, but right now is a particularly exciting time for the publication: it recently came under new editorial control, which inspired some changes, namely a move to becoming a predominantly web-based publication.  
 
lip publishes articles about women’s mental and physical health, political and social issues, the environment, culture, and life – as long as its relevant to females aged 14 – 25.  lip accepts freelance contributions from both established and up-and-coming writers with fresh voices and interesting perspectives.  Reviews and articles should be based around the writer’s opinion, not merely a re-hashing of the plot and/or relevant facts.  Content on the website usually is usually of a shorter length (reviews between 400 – 600 words, articles 800 words). See writer’s guidelines here, and contact details for the editorial team here.  

Perfect for all you aspiring writers, not just because its recent expansion means new opportunities for getting published, but also because of its fantastic reading material.

Good luck, and happy pitching!

Tags: Get Published, Lip Magazine, Women's

Madison: When I grow up, I want to be a gangster

First published in Madison, August 2010. Copyright Sarah Ayoub 2010

A spate of vicious crimes committed by children has rung alarm bells about Australia’s increasingly violent media. But, asks SARAH AYOUB, who’s really to blame?

In the playground of a south-western Sydney primary school, five year six boys huddle together defiantly as they watch the rest of the school go about its everyday business. To the rest of the school, they’re a gang not to be messed with, commanding respect and fear from the classroom to the school yard with their tough demeanour and aggressive attitudes. Their teacher Jessica, 24, is used to their behaviour, but even she looks on in horror as another boy walks past and mouths something at them. Seconds later the leader of the gang raises his arm, pistol in hand, and shoots the young boy in the temple.

The pistol, of course, is fake. Another prop in playground fun between bored children on the cusp of adolescence, playing out the scenarios they’ve seen in countless films and television series where crime and violence are seen as the tickets out of poverty. The reaction of their teacher, however, was very real - a reflection of growing adult concern over the influence of violent entertainment on impressionable young Australian minds.

When Underbelly 3: The Golden Mile made its debut to 2.2 million viewers on Australian TV earlier this year, it not only reignited the debate into representations of on-screen violence and its effects on children but it also brought another argument into the mix – the glorification of crime as an enterprise. The Underbelly franchise, which first aired in February 2008, has been one of Channel Nine’s great success stories, documenting the lives of some of Australia’s most notorious gangland criminals. Yet whilst fear and violence are at the core of the first two series’ narratives, giving a very real and murky snapshot of Australian’s criminal underworld, The Golden Mile – which follows the life of Sydney criminal identity John Ibrahim – casts a more glamorous glow on its protagonist and his cohorts, showing the wealth, women and immense privilege that comes with such notoriety.

What’s more, the show had spilled over into real life, with those on whom the characters were supposedly based paraded across the Australian media. The Daily Telegraph couldn’t get enough of the 39 year old Ibrahim, whose rise from disadvantaged western Sydney teenager to wealthy nightclub entrepreneur provide the bulk of The Golden Mile’s storyline. His multiple homes, nightclub ventures, and decadent spending habits (including a live-in hairdresser and round-the-clock bodyguard) have provided as much media intrigue as his business interests.

Such portrayals have dismayed parents, law enforcers and interest groups. The NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione and current Chair of the NSW Law Reform Commission James Wood both expressed concerns that television crime dramas, video games and Hollywood movies were glamorising crime to impressionable young people who might not be able to discern the reel from reality.  

The debate over the effects on children of violence and crime in mass entertainment is nothing new. However, with changing social dynamics - like parents working more and longer hours, less time spent as a family and greater access to negative influences through newer technologies and the ability to socialise with whomever, whenever - they are becoming increasingly relevant. 

According to Dr Wayne Warburton, Lecturer from the Department of Psychology and Deputy Director of the Children and Families Research Centre at Macquarie University, our brain adapt according to the concepts and emotional experiences that it is exposed to.

“Exposure to violent media changes the way our brain is wired”, he explains. “Research shows some well documented changes [including] an increased disposition towards aggressive behaviour and long term increases in fear, in the tendency to interpret others’ behaviours as hostile and in beliefs that aggression is a normal response to conflict”.

This is evident in the attitudes of George a 12 year old boy from one of Sydney’s inner west suburbs who admits that for him and his friends, fighting is often the most trusted method of problem-solving. “Movies and shows with lots of fighting and violence definitely make you more eager to fight”, he says. “It’s good to know how to [fight] because ‘gronks’ and people on the street get into punch ups because they think that they are gangsters like the people on TV”.

While George concedes that his friends’ attitudes most likely came about because of the media they consume ( he cites martial arts film Kickboxer as one of his favourites) he was also adamant that it was a generational issue. Interestingly, experts say that children and adolescents growing up in the late 90’s and early noughties have indeed been a lot more desensitised to violence than their older counterparts. But is TV really to blame?

According to Neilsen media research, by the time the average US child starts elementary school, he or she will have seen 8,000 murders and 100,000 acts of violence on TV. Such statistics seem plausible, especially considering the number of high profile ‘child’ murders we have seen over the last quarter of a decade. Few could forget the chilling murder of British toddler, Jamie Bulger in 1993 abducted and killed by two ten year old boys thought to have been inspired by the low grade horror film Chucky. Or even the death of six year old Tiffany Eunick in Florida who died in 2001 at the hands of her 13 year old neighbour after he performed wrestling moves on her inspired by those he had seen on television. Her death  prompted the US’ most senior public health official at the time, US Surgeon General David Satcher, to release a report linking “exposure to media violence” with increased physical and verbal aggression in children, and ten years later, cases such as Tiffany’s seem to be heading closer to home.

In February 2010, the Brisbane Times reported that Liberal National Party police spokesman Vaughan Johnson demanded tougher vetting of television programming following the stabbing death of 12-year-old Elliott Fletcher at a Brisbane private school; the second private school killing in Brisbane in a fortnight. At the time, Queensland University of Technology Media Lecturer Susan Hetherington spoke about the virtual world that children see becoming so real, to the extent that it rarely differed to the real world.

“The sheer weight of [media violence] desensitizes us”, she told madison. “When you see something over and over, it not longer seems shocking or horrifying. That process of normalising [violence] is problematic”.

Indeed, violence and crime, whether real of portrayed, seems to have become a normal part of our existence. Interestingly, a decade or so ago, real-crime shows like Australia’s Most Wanted focused on bringing criminals to justice, whereas the latest spate of crime documentaries like Gangs of Oz, Beyond the Darklands and Australian Families of Crime seem to bring infamy, something that’s more likely to appeal to our increasingly extroverted You –Tube worshipping youth.

“Just because we can tell something is fictional, it doesn’t mean it cannot affect our thinking and behaviour “, says Warburton, warning that such portrayals are of particular concern to young children and teenagers who are still developing their sense of self.

This is especially relevant to mothers like Brisbane-based Melinda, 30, who works with Collective Shout [an organisation whose aim is to expose companies who sexualise children and objectify women], and faces such issues of violence and objectification, particularly of women, in her daily work. However, even she was surprised to find that her 14 year old son knew everything about Melbourne gangland killer Carl Williams, having looked him up on the internet in the wake of his murder.
 
“He [spoke] of how Williams was really powerful, and how he could walk into any room and command the respect of everyone there, and how he would love to have that kind of power”, she says.“I had to have a long talk to him about how much harm this man did to others and how awful it must be to live in fear of your life”.

Earlier this year, a classmate of Penny’s*, 15, brought a knife to school, threatening to use it to kill another student, with whom she’d had ongoing issues. The girl in question was a big fan of the The Combination, a 2009 Australian film which focused on the relationships between Lebanese Australian and Anglo Australians youths , and which had to be temporarily pulled from cinemas after two violent incidents during the film’s first week of release.

“We were all just hanging out on recess one day, and she was in a fight with three other girls”, Penny remembers. “Then she pulled a pocket knife out of her bag and lunged at the girl, screaming, ‘I’m gonna shank you! I’m gonna shank you’. There was a big group when the fight was happening, but as soon as they saw the knife, they all ran away and some called the police. The teachers were oblivious to what was going on until the cops came to investigate. She ended up getting expelled and we never heard anything about it again”.

Such stories are a concern for parents, who send their kids to school trusting in the fact that they will be safe havens. However, as statistics and case studies show, this is not always the case.

Dr Lance Emerson, CEO of the Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth, a national non-profit organisation that works to create better futures for Australia’s children and young people, told madison that youth violence is definitely on the increase, citing that the number of young people under 17 who were charged with assault had risen by about 48% since 1997, with the largest increase in violence in that period among young girls aged 10-19.

Despite such statistics, Dr Marc Brennan, Lecturer in Media and Communications at the University of Sydney is keen to point out shows like Underbelly are high productions that use elements of genre to attract viewers, not glamorise violence.

“Criminal behaviour and violence are narratives that translate well”, Brennan says. “When we blame the media we tend to ignore more difficult questions such as the socio-economic problems that often plague young offenders”.

Such socio-economic problems include levels of education, family income and types of employment, location and environmental factors. For those most likely to be affected, the combination of their family life and their local environment might mean they are constantly bored, unaware of resources available to them, or at risk of joining fellow youth of similar backgrounds and in the same location in anti-social behaviour.

As Charlie, 25, a high-school teacher says, “On many occasions, I hear [students] discuss that they’d like to be exactly like those Underbelly characters”, he says. “For most of them, though, it’s cultural, and they don’t really see a way out of it.”

So who is really to blame? Is it too simplistic an argument to suggest that TV alone contributes to the increase in youth aggression? Dr Brennan thinks so, pointing out that the majority of studies conducted on the links between increased aggression and media consumption are done by psychologists, not media researchers, who look for connections rather than investigating why the violence occurs.

“They [studies] suggest that violence didn’t exist before media”, he points out. “We blame the technology as a way of not addressing the bigger questions such as why children seem to think certain behaviours are [acceptable]. Maybe it is [not the media] but our values as a society that we [really] need to revisit.”

Tags: Freelance, madison, article, gangs