Category Archives: Blog

Periodically there are things I find worth saying about reading, writing, society and culture. This is where they are said.

Two hot NZ books

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From the myriad possible entry points to blogging about something other than my own novel, I lit upon some exciting New Zealand fiction from two young authors I’ve enjoyed in the past. I’m generally slow to jump on first-book bandwagons, but when I find them both enjoyable and noteworthy I’ll always pick up their second faster.

The first is Anti Lebanon by Carl Shuker. Admittedly I only picked up his first novel The Method Actors, in 2006, because I was deep in my own first draft at the time and wanted to see what a debut novel had to do to win $65,000 (The Modern Prize in Letters from Victoria University of Wellington – didn’t last long, sad to say).

In style, The Method Actors has a rough-hewn edge that I can appreciate, sometimes letting formal conventions lapse as Shuker wrestles to weave the intricate individual narratives into one engaging tale. In truth, not much of the story has stayed with me, except for a moment I came across one striking line –

“Once peoples find themselves both capable and motivated in lying for a cause the concept of truth is immediately anachronism. Superfluous.” (~p 212, ch. “Meredith October 2000”)

There are various other intelligent and feeling things featured around that line on the topic of a hidden massacre of Chinese by the Japanese, a storyline that forms the spine of the book, but damn me if that wasn’t the most worthy single line I had read for a long time. James McNeish recently gave a Janet Frame Memorial lecture where he praised Sarah Quigley and Lloyd Jones (about 20-26 minutes in) as NZ authors with something to say – I say Carl Shuker is one of those authors. He shows a critical awareness when viewing the world and its ley-lines of power. So, however effective the writing in Anti Lebanon, knowing the author and the topic, I am confident I will find it a worthy read.

The second author is  Eleanor Catton. Her The Rehearsal is a more recent publication. Like The Method Actors, it featured multiple narratives and is credited with a risky experimental structure. The style is far more polished, however, as sumptuous and seductive as the central arc, that of the goings-on between a schoolgirl and teacher.

Her new novel, The Luminaries, sounds somewhat similar, but taken to the next level. You have a small town instead of school community, a death instead of a dalliance, and a mystery around exactly who-what-why, with the setting of the 1860s gold rush and (I think?) some astrology to boot. Catton is an extremely talented and award-winning writer, and already Booker nominated for this novel, so I’m sure it will dazzle.

Mobi and epub for Rise and Shine; cover talk

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The mobi and epub versions of Rise and Shine are now available, along with the pdf, of course. Enjoy, share – remark, if so moved! Any feedback very welcome. At the current pace, I expect the next excerpt, House of Mirrors, to be up within a month.

The publication of this excerpt is kind of a micro-product of the whole process at the The Sovereign Hand (Temporary cover)moment: line edits and cover. The temporary cover on these files comes from a fantastic piece of 17th century art, the Temptation of Saint Anthony by Jaques Callot. It fits the story in a variety of ways, particularly as a literal, in-universe depiction of a past, defeated evil, or a figurative representation of the apocalypse that promises to be unleashed. I’m not sure whether we’ll end up working with it in any way for the final cover, but it fills the gap nicely while me publisher and I thrash through the options.

Rise and Shine

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Anyone suffering from the reality tv plague is likely to pick up a pitchfork or other wicked implement at the mere mention of a “journey”. There will never be a Writer Idol, but the process by which a writer becomes an author remains of enduring interest, at least for those hoping to become an author – “author” being an interesting enough concept in itself, even before the rise of self-publishing.  That ahh-ha moment I mentioned: for other people, now you have authority, however small, over whatever plot of cultural space you’ve staked out for yourself. The ideas and effort were all there years beforehand, but only now do they have validity.
Whereas our corporate news media can ascribe authority to any half-baked story just by stamping its masthead, thereby demanding our society’s respect and attention.

Yes, I have some interest in authority.

Gdammit, though, if writing about yourself doesn’t feel indulgent. So for the moment I will put any talk of journey aside and let details prop up as they will. In this case, the story of the first excerpt from the novel, now available free for download.

This is Rise and Shine. When I returned from Australia in 2007, I was advised by an arts consultant to try and publish, enter competitions, get my name out there. Luckily enough, the Pikihuia Awards for Maori Writers has a novel extract category – I don’t know of any other such opportunity for novelists.

Shortlisting was reward enough, which brought publication in Huia Short Stories 7. To come second? Well, the judge was on the record as disliking anything in the SciFi/Fantasy realm. Her awarding R&S second proved that my story, written my way, could surmount genre prejudices. I just had to hold the rest of my text up to that standard.

Anyway, download, peruse. Love to know what you think.

Addendum: Mobi and epub versions of Rise and Shine will be up by the end of the week.  WordPress won’t let me host these file types, so I have handed them back to my dear publisher, who is out of town but will sort things by then.

First Post…(of many?)

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I know. Terribly imaginative title. But apt enough, because I’m a bit of a reluctant blogger. The throwing of a few words can become an avalanche, and suddenly a whole day lies buried. And I look back at that pile, however attractive and satisfying, and wonder ‘Did I mean to do that?’

Writing is an end in itself, of course; something is always accomplished. But in our modern monetarist culture, that simply isn’t justification enough. Writing, as a profession, is not flush with outside investment. For the vast majority, and for all those starting out, that capital comes from one source. Inside. The writer. And they have to account, either in minutes or cents, dollars or hours, or days, weeks, years of blank cheques signed alternately in pain, hubris or pure will and self-belief. We make up these little coupons permitting us to do what we do, no more audacious than what our banks do creating credit, yet with vastly less authority. The lucky writer though, has at least one person who just takes that cheque on faith. Knows its worth. Believes. Until the rest of the world catches up.

Ahh! You’re published.

(See what I said about avalanche?)

Even publishing, though, ascribes only a marginally higher status, with even less advance in wealth (power). Minutes are still precious. So any writing requires a little deliberation and clear intent. Especially for me. When I write my brain just keeps making connections. The final draft of The Sovereign Hand – which with an ensemble cast, multiple storylines, is no novella – is still 100,000 words less than the first full draft. Much of it whimsies and digressions, along with the expected first-novel first-draft chaff.

So what can a reader of anarko demokratus expect? Terse forays, I hope, rays expanding from a small cluster of interconnected points. Those loci are key. So, reading, writing, literature local and beyond. Anything stemming from the New Zealand discourse that must be said – from the world discourse that must be said. Anything I find must be said. Two writers I enjoy with admirable blogs are China Mieville and Bernard Beckett. A lofty goal, but maybe something in those realms or in-between.

Then, of course, there’s The Sovereign Hand. I will enjoy sharing tidbits of the novel’s past, present and future as publication looms. And extracts – the first of those, and another post, this weekend.