Review: Girls by Jo Vraca

THE STORY:

Good girls and bad girls, they're everywhere.

Girls is a collection of short stories about young women in the city and the country, who are living with choices made by, and for, them. Dive into their lives.

MY THOUGHTS:

Girls is a collection of short stories that span a multitude of eras and continents. It was a quick but engaging read and fun to come across a character from Vraca’s other novel Floating Upstream which I really enjoyed. One great thing about reading books written by authors living near you is that you can identify with so many of the landmarks and culturally specific references. Even if you’re not Australia, Girls has a nostalgic quality to it that is very enjoyable. 

THE RATING:

5/5

 

Review: Floating Upstream by Jo Vraca

THE STORY:

Julia Marconi has a simple dream—to get out of Goldburne, the stinking hot town in rural Australia, where she’s followed the rules her whole life. She dreams of adventures far away from her violent father whose only goal is to maintain his old world values in changing times. Julia longs for true love rather than the match “made” for her years ago.
Super spunk Robbie Ventura and the arrival of the Carnival add unseen complications to her life, just as she’s ready to settle in and stay out of trouble. It’s all so tantalising. Just a taste here and there won’t hurt. After all, she’s an excellent liar. So with her brother’s motto, “Don’t get caught,” stuck in her head, Julia tries to survive her senior year of high school. All she has to do is spend the last year of the 70s with her head afloat, despite the currents dragging her away from her goals.
But the town of Goldburne and her father have eyes and ears everywhere, and her parents’ plans for Julia don’t involve starting the new decade and new life in the city. A secret that spans three generations and a war could mean Julia ends up like Maria Gervase —knocked up and married by 18.

MY THOUGHTS:

I’m finding it really difficult to put into words all of the things this story made me feel. And there were so many mixed feelings that Floating Upstream managed to evoke from the whole emotional spectrum. I thought the writing was quite serene and tied in really well with the title and theme of the river and the water being the place where Julia took refuge. The plot is quite slow but I feel like this was almost a reflection of the small country town lifestyle. Vraca paints an incredibly vivid picture of the monotony but also the tranquillity of Goldburne and as the story progresses the town itself almost becomes a character of its own.

                The characters in Floating Upstream were well fleshed out and very imperfect which I found frustrating but also understood to be true to life. The story dealt with a number of social issues like violence and sexual freedom and as it was set in the 1970s, I had to keep reminding myself that the reaction I had to the behaviour of some of the characters was unreasonable for the social context of the book. I enjoyed Julia as the POV character and really felt for her trying to break free from her parent’s traditional values. In another time Julia could really have been a wild child but the expectations of her family and also the people of the town really weighed heavily on her. I liked that Julia made a lot of mistakes and she paid the dearly for some of them which doesn’t often happen in other contemporary novels. My only issue with Julia was that the only times I really felt as though she had agency was when she was going to meet Robbie for a late night encounter. Most of the rest of the time she would often think and say things but when it came down to it she didn’t really push the boundaries. This was most evident when she tried to ignore the arranged marriage her parents had set up for her and during those times when her father was violent and it almost seemed like she was having an out of body experience throughout when I would have liked for her to stick up for herself. Again though, this is probably my own perception being clouded by today’s standards.

           Most of the other characters are well fleshed out and I enjoyed reading about them, although I wasn’t a huge fan of Robbie as the love interest and couldn’t really understand his appeal. Even if he was attractive, I just couldn’t get on board with the fact that they had literally no contact for months on end and he didn’t even have the decency to write to Julia even though she practically begged him to. Even if I discount the many double standards in their relationship, they just didn’t seem to have much in common and it felt to me like Julia was just someone Robbie was using to pass the time.

                Overall, Floating Upstream was a really engaging read for me. I was invested in Julia’s struggle and loved the great description of the town and the slow paced lifestyle. If you’re looking for a great Australian read, why not give this a try?

THE RATING:

5/5

Insecure Writer's Support Group: Publishing Woes

Insecure Writer's Support Group is a blog hop hosted by Alex J. Cavanaugh where totally insecure writers can get together and share the things that are making us go argh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

         I’ve been busily working away the last couple of months on the final touches for my YA dystopian novel. It’s been a bit of a whirlwind time of final edits, choosing my cover and having the formatting done. Although it’s been an exciting ride I can’t help but feel the anxiety starting to build as I get closer and closer towards publication. The procrastinator and perfectionist in me really wants to delay the inevitable but in my heart I know I’ve done as much as I can or am willing to do for this novel and it’s time to release it into the world. The insecure writer in me wants to keep it as close to my chest for as long as possible so that I don’t have to deal with marketing, the publication process and the inevitable unflattering reviews. In a way I think I might have even been sabotaging myself by being super picky about the cover even though the third version of it was perfect yet I asked for so many tweaks the poor designers had to send me through multiple additional drafts.(kudos to the team at Deranged Doctor Design for putting up with me!)

                I think this is in itself a sign that I’m ready and that I’m just creating ways to stop myself from publishing. So, considering this is something I’ve been working towards for the last four years, I have decided that I need to be brave and just publish. Though it’s super scary and I’m very insecure about the novel’s reception I have decided that I am going to just close my eyes and hit publish. Oh and if anyone is interested here is the cover:

A Call to Edit

Wow, it's been a while since I blogged about something that isn't Insecure Writer's Support Group. I want to apologize for my absence and ask that you all be patient with me for a little longer. You see aside from being generally lazy, I've spent the last few months doing Camp NaNoWriMo and also working on the final self edits for my first novel.
        That's what I'm here to talk to you about today. You see I need your help. I'm fast approaching the end of any edits I can do for myself and soon I'm going to have to hand my WIP to a professional. The question is which professional. There are so many editing, cover making and formatting services out there that it gives me a headache just thinking about it. I've trawled through hundreds of web pages trying to get a handle on services vs pricing but nothing seems comparable. Some editors don't even offer the same kinds of edits.
        I'm more than happy to pay for quality but without having used a service before I'm not sure what "quality" actually entails. That's where you guys come in. I know many of you have published before, some of you many times over. Are there any services that you could recommend to me? Bearing in mind that I've written a young adult dystopian novel set in Australia. I'm not even sure at this point whether I would prefer to use an Australian or an international editor so any suggestions you might have would be great. Thanks in advance.

Insecure Writer's Support Group: Not So YA

Insecure Writer's Support Group is a blog hop hosted by Alex J. Cavanaugh where totally insecure writers can get together and share the things that are making us go argh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Two things have or are happening to inspire this months topic. One is that it's my birthday next month and I'll be leaving my 20s behind. The other is that I've discovered Wattpad, or more specifically what is popular on Wattpad and that just happens to be One Direction fan fiction.
       In the last few years I feel like I've become more detached to youth culture and as a result it has influenced how much I enjoy some of the more popular YA books out there. Sometimes it's as though I'm the only one who doesn't "get" how awesome a much hyped new YA release is. This makes me worry that the ripples of my maturing state of mind is going to flow into my writing and I'll get the most dreaded of review comments saying that it's clear I'm not a teenager.   
       I guess aging in inevitable though and I can only hope that there are others out there like me who will forever be teenagers at heart!

Insecure Writer's Support Group: Formatting and Platforms and Urgh!

Insecure Writer's Support Group is a blog hop hosted by Alex J. Cavanaugh where totally insecure writers can get together and share the things that are making us go argh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I bought a new phone last month. I made the switch from Apple to Android. Not for any particular reason except that my old iPhone refused to display most of the Flash embedded websites I use to shop online.  It's been almost three weeks and I'm still waiting to get used to the phone. I'll be the  first to admit that I hate change. I hate change in technology even more. Thirty years from now I'm going to be that crazy old lady being auto-tuned on YouTube (or whatever weird futuristic equivalent of YouTube will be around) for complaining about how evil technology is. Sadly, technology is a necessary evil when you're self publishing and my fear is that I will never get the hang of it all.
      I am Will Smith's character in I, Robot. I just don't trust or understand technology and the closer I get to publishing my novel the more freaked out I'm getting. I've already settled on paying someone to format my MS for publishing because just the thought of it is giving me a headache. I'm lining up poor unsuspecting friends and relatives to spearhead my Facebook and Twitter feeds because I'm still accidentally sending all sorts of weird friend/other requests to people I don't know.
       When I started this blog I thought that all I had to do was make it look like I had it together here. It took me six months to realise I could change the settings so no anonymous spammers could leave comments.
       So I just want to know, where any of you guys as clueless when you started and does it get better?

Random Thoughts: For The Love Of Writing

Once upon a time I wrote a story. I did it for the love of writing. It was called Iron Willed and I managed to get to the second book in the series before I finally lost steam and it sort of died in a heap. A lot has happened since I stopped writing that story.
      I rediscovered dystopia thanks to The Hunger Games. I  discovered self publishing and all the trimmings that come with it. Including the one piece of advice that all the advice sites agree on. That self published writers need to write good stories and have them edited to within an inch of their lives.
      Now that I look back on said story I can see how much I've improved as a writer. I'm so glad that all this obsession hasn't been for nothing. And yet a part of me is a little sad because I can also see that all this precision has bled a lot of the love right out of my writing.
      I've always maintained that I'm not really a writer. I'm a storyteller that just happens to express herself through the medium of words. I would love to tell my story through film or art or possibly manga/anime but alas I am so much worse at those than I am at writing. So this is how my stories will be told.
      I am sitting here thinking about what a shame it is that I find myself focusing on the craft rather than the storytelling. I remember how quickly I wrote those books and how much fun they were to write. It was freeing to just let the words flow. The story isn't mind blowing. I'll never get professional accolades for it. In fact, I can see some discerning reviewer (like myself ironically!) who would tear it to shreds. But you know what? This is the one book that I don't think I'd care if a reviewer totally firebombed.
      It's a fun book filled with teenage romanticism, cool powers, impossible world building, a snappy heroine, a non romantic best friend and plenty of stereotypical sidekicks. And I love it. Every single bit of it. So I've decided I'm going to write it. Technicality be damned.

Publishing in Australia

I've been at this writing lark for a little under two years now and even in that short amount of time it feels like the entire publishing industry has changed so much. When I first decided that I wanted to try and publish, I was under the impression that my only option was to go the traditional route and do the whole agent, then publisher, then years of editing thing.
        Frankly, it scared the heck out of me. Not only because it's such a difficult process to begin with but because of the lack of control that I hear writers have over their own work. Then I met all you wonderful bloggers and writers and discovered the world of self publishing. Now it feels like I have all the options in the world. I only need pick one and go for it (Ha! Because it's that easy!)
       I've made it my goal this year to publish at least one thing I've written. Being Australian, I think that brings with it a whole different kettle of challenges than it would if I were from say the States or the UK. For a start the market is a lot smaller here and it could take years for a book to prove itself in Australia before international publishing is considered. For another, self publishing hasn't caught on the way it has elsewhere so I still get those blank looks from anyone when I mention Kindle or Kobo or Nook.
       I don't even want to delve into the scary world of self marketing, formatting, book covers and everything else that goes with it. I am neither an artist nor an accountant and I am the absolute worst at following any kind of advice unless it is written in easy to follow steps and everything happens exactly as instructed. Not exactly a stellar start point for a writer. But despite all that, I have a dream and I will see that dream to fruition no matter what.
       So, I've decided to document my Australian publishing journey on this blog. I will write about everything that I do in order to get my work out there. So that all those writers who come after me don't have to suffer the same kind of anxiety that I have been! And if anyone comes across anything that might help me, please feel free to post it in the comments :)

Watch this space!