In about thirty days, I will be undertaking the craziest thing I have ever done: working on my eighth NaNoWriMo novel, a fairy tale serial killer plot, whilst finishing off a course entitled Writing the Zeitgeist and preparing Christmas decorations for my room. I am coming off of seven NaNo wins, even counting one where… Continue reading National Novel Writing Month 2014
Author: Ashleigh
An avid reader and writer, reviewer and author. I love to read just about anything. I enjoy writing about books, reading and writing as well and I dabble in many areas of writing from travel to crime fiction and fantasy. My blog is a way to get how I feel about reading, books and writing out there.
I currently receive books to review from various publishers in most genres, but typically don't review romance or horror, or erotica books as I these are genres I have difficulty in reviewing and in general they are not what I enjoy reading.
The Forgotten Pearl by Belinda Murrell
Title: The Forgotten Pearl Author: Belinda Murrell Genre: Children's Fiction/Historical Fiction Publisher: Penguin Random House Pages: 282 Price: $17.99 Published: 2nd February 2015 Synopsis: When Chloe visits her grandmother, she learns how close the Second World War came to destroying her family. Could the experiences of another time help Chloe to face her own problems? In… Continue reading The Forgotten Pearl by Belinda Murrell
A Literary Winter Solstice
For Winter Solstice this year, I travelled down to Sydney, with three books in tow, to catch up with Kate Forsyth and get The Puzzle Ring, The Gypsy Crown and Dancing on Knives signed at Dymocks in George Street. It was a buzz, heading down on the train, the books stashed in my bag safely,… Continue reading A Literary Winter Solstice
Revisiting Books
I admit to keeping every book I buy, especially in recent years, and there are books I regret giving away like my Enid Blyton books because finding them in their true form these days is impossible, and there are some that I cannot find anywhere like Poppy and the Outdoors Cat, I cannot recall the… Continue reading Revisiting Books
Common or Uncommon Ground: writing your own or different cultures and ethnicities through time.
To follow on from my discussions of age and gendered writing, I got to thinking about how writers of different races, cultures and ethnicities write, how they represent their cultures, races and ethnicities and how they are thought to do this or what they are supposedly expected to be able to do in terms of… Continue reading Common or Uncommon Ground: writing your own or different cultures and ethnicities through time.
The Puzzle Ring by Kate Forsyth
Title: The Puzzle Ring Author: Kate Forsyth Publisher: Scholastic/Pan Macmillan Category: Historical Fiction/Children's Fiction Published: 1st June 2009 Pages: 409 Price: $16.99 Synopsis: An ancient curse. A ruined castle. A journey back in time. Hannah Rose was not quite 13 years old when she discovered her family was cursed. . . . The arrival of a mysterious letter… Continue reading The Puzzle Ring by Kate Forsyth
Time Slip Novels
Time Slip Novels A time slip novel, according to the UrbanDictionary.com, a novel that transports the main character and therefore the reader from one time to another, such as from the twenty-first century into the sixteenth century. Time slip novels, by my understanding, can combine this element of time travel and historical fiction, and fantasy. It… Continue reading Time Slip Novels
History, Mystery and Magic at the Sydney Writer’s Centre with Kate Forsyth
Two weeks ago I had the privilege to attend a very intimate writing course with Kate Forsyth and about sixteen other people. I enrolled in the course to gain a better understanding of writing, and research for writing, and an added bonus was meeting one of my favourite authors. The course covered conventions of writing… Continue reading History, Mystery and Magic at the Sydney Writer’s Centre with Kate Forsyth
How my hobbies came into my writing…my thoughts.
Originally I intended for this blog to be about reading, books and writing. Primarily it still is, but I have since developed other hobbies, and these are cross-stitch, beading and sewing. I am working my way up to using a sewing machine and making a quilt, and have been practising my hand sewing and cross… Continue reading How my hobbies came into my writing…my thoughts.
Don’t Fence Me In: Gendered Writing. Is there a case for it?
This is a kind of follow up to my post on gendered reading a several weeks ago. It is quite apparent that there are societal assumptions and expectations even today about what boys and girls should read and should enjoy reading. Just briefly, I, like others whom commented and other blogs I have read, indicated… Continue reading Don’t Fence Me In: Gendered Writing. Is there a case for it?
The Book Muse 