Poets Cottage

LIFE’S SO LIGHT

josephinetalepeddler 10 Comments

It’s been a busy and exciting week for me with interviews for publicity for Poet’s Cottage and working on the FINAL stages of the first draft of Currawong Manor. Yes, it’s nearly there! The characters are doing their usual games with me at the moment but I think I’m following behind. Thankfully, this bunch is patient.

 

I’m so thrilled to post the first review of Poet’s Cottage HERE. It’s such a surreal feeling for me to see the book that has been part of my life since 2007 now out there in public. I know Booktopia have preorders available HERE and thank you to the lovely friends who have put in orders.

If you are interested in chasing down my original magical trilogy then Momentum have all three books (with brand new covers) as EBooks. YOu can find them HERE.

I am in my garden writing shed. It is pouring with rain and I’m so blissful I could melt. There’s no greater joy than writing in the garden in the pouring rain.

I have to also mention one of my favourite Blogs, The Local Rose, has just celebrated its first birthday. I don’t have a lot of time to visit Blogs but this is one I always love.

Shiva and her lovely daughter

My dream is to buy a writing retreat and head to the bush as often as possible to live a glam and bohemian a life as Shiva Rose. Her lovely, light-filled home was also featured on Apartment Therapy this week.

Shiva's home via Apartment Therapy

 

And in moments of great joy or sadness, I always turn to one of my favourite movies. The Unbearable Lightness of Being.

 

 

This move is so beautiful, so haunting, it hurts.

Life’s so Light.

Thank you for visiting me. I should also mention that Poet’ s Cottage will be featured in the March edition of Good Reading magazine. The article will tell the story of how a family holiday inspired my mystery novel. Have a beautiful weekend. I am hoping for a couple of dawn writing sessions to get the first draft out of me.

This morning my geranium at the front of the house which I sadly thought had died has a lovely red new flower for me to marvel over. xx

“She loved to walk down the street with a book under her arm. It had the same significance for her as an elegant cane for the dandy a century ago. It differentiated her from others.” ― Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being

 

 

A Scorpion in the Corner and Publicity for Poet’s Cottage

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February has been a blur as publicity for Poet’s Cottage begins, ahead of its release in Australia.

My garden writing shed

I’m sitting in my courtyard garden now and the weather is so sunny for a change in Sydney.

I had plenty of chances to use my Mary Poppins umbrella this rainy summer. Of course, I’ve loved the rain.

This week I had the pleasure of being interviewed at home by Mr Steve Meacham for the Sun Herald newspaper. I say it was a pleasure because this gentleman wrote one of my favourite pieces recently,Writer’s Craft is now a Ghost in the Machine. You can find a link to this article here.

I find the whole interview process very daunting as I often get so tongue-tied and a shambling, rambling mess when talking about myself. I take heart from Arthur Boyd who was reputed to be woeful for the journalist to follow in interviews. I found that one of the most endearing traits of Arthur’s.

I was delighted to start off the publicity for Poet’s Cottage with a phone interview for the Tasmanian papers. I shall let you know when they are coming out.

I cannot wait for the Kerry Greenwood TV series, Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, starring my favourite, Essie Davis. You may recall I have bragged often about Essie and I being at the same College of Creative Arts in Hobart. I think she’s perfect casting for Phryne and I love Kerry Greenwood. I’ve won The Malice Domestic Award twice (okay, that’s a little brag again, but forgive me, another thing that I could have said to Steve and forgot). And because Essie is a Tasmanian girl (go Tasmanian girls!) I had her in mind for my character of Pearl Tatlow when I was writing Pearl.

Except now she looks just like my Pearl from Poet’s Cottage (I love her with the dark bob) but she’s Phryne. This show looks wonderful and I can’t wait to see it.

A million times better than the ghastly Underbelly offering which I wrote about here. A small slice of Underbelly Razor.

Tonight I went to the movies with Art School Annie and saw The Artist which is as wonderful and lovely as the reviews said it was. How magnificent is the dog Uggie?

And the two leads, Berenice Bejo as Peppy and Jean Dujardin, are perfectly cast. Not to mention all those fabulous 20’s frocks and shoes…

And a favourite book I read in February: Alice Hoffman’s The Dovekeepers.

I‘m in awe of this book. I prostrate before it. So beautiful, powerful and inspiring. Alice Hoffman brings the bones to life so eloquently in her account of four women at Masada in 70AD. I take my hat off to Hoffman for her reminder of how powerful words and tales can be. This is a book that will give you strength. It’s raw and graphic and some of the passages will nearly destroy you with how inhumane people can be – but then the doves are always there as a symbol of goodness and hope. And Hoffman is writing at the top of her powers. She creates a spell just as powerful as Shirah does in the story. A wonderful novel about women, women’s mysteries and women’s stories.

This reads like a channelled book that contains the prayers and devotions of a real group of four women who would have been lost to time. But it really does contain messages and symbols for modern women as well.

Hats off again to Alice Hoffman for opening a portal where I could glimpse a world where fortunes were divined by scattering dove bones, Lilith was feared for snatching babies at night, girls were given in arranged marriages at thirteen and a Scorpion in the corner is a sure sign a witch is present.

As for my current book, Currawong Manor, I’ve finally reached the 100 000 mark of my first draft. There’s still a bit to go and for reaching that important mark I treated myself to this lovely black telephone.

I feel as if Hercule Poirot is exercising his little grey cells as he chats to me on the other end

And of course, I can’t leave this post without one little peep at Johnny.

Thank you for visiting me. xx

 

Extraordinary Life

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I posted my new baby on my Facebook last week and received a very enthusiastic response from the lovely people there. The cover design team at Pan Macmillan nailed this cover on their first try. I’m totally smitten by it and think it captures the story perfectly. Clever, clever design team.

From this...

My agent loves, loves, love it. I love, love, love, it and have spent countless hours staring in wonderment that my family holiday in 2007 has now turned into this book which will be released in Australia in April 2012.

To this...

 

 Life is extraordinary.

On the Orient Express

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An overcast Monday in Sydney. David carried the proofs back to Pan Macmillan for me this morning and now I’m free to return to my artists, all waiting patiently in the Blue Mountains in the Currawong book. I’m eager to lose myself again in their world as I’ve been out of their story for quite a few weeks.

At my daughter’s school assembly this morning the children sang the National Anthem as the flag was hoisted. Swooping over their angelic, Australian voices a flock of brightly coloured parrots dazzled.

Last night I curled up next to David and watched the wonderful David Suchet travel the Orient Express in a documentary. In the show, David Suchet travels to Venice on the Orient Express which is probably the most glamorous way I could imagine of entering that magical city. If I was a passenger, I’d start to be a bit unnerved by ‘Poirot’ suddenly appearing on the train. In one scene, David Suchet drives the Orient Express and my mind of course couldn’t help imagining the headlines if he had managed to crash the train and kill the passengers…

How fascinating that he stayed near the carriage where the fictional Hercule Poirot was described as being by Agatha Christie in her inventive novel, Murder on the Orient Express. When art and reality mesh and mingle in that twisty way I find it so surreal and oddly satisfying. Although ‘real life’ will always win for being the most surreal and twisty over any fiction.

ALL GREAT SHIPS MUST COME TO PORT

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My father died on the 4th of this November. By some strange coincidence a character in Poet’s Cottage dies at the same time. I’m not surprised because the creation of Poet’s Cottage and my father’s own journey with his cancer ran parallel lines at times. Even as I sat at his deathbed holding his hand, I was checking final proofs. My father, who supported my writing so much, would have approved.

My father was a huge inspiration on my writing and shared my love of words and nature. 

My most grateful thanks to all the Gibson Ward in South Hobart Nursing Staff, Dr Robert McIntosh and Millington Funeral Home for their loving care.

I know my father’s spirit survived his physical death. I will always look for signs from him and have had a couple already including the most remarkable dream of a blue butterfly the night following his passing.

On the 8th of November, four nights after my father’s death, I woke at 3.28 am and wrote the following lines in my journal.

Communion, time for communion, the moon is waxing. Full, round and glowing. Like bones or the eye of a benevolent god. All ships must come to port. I am not afraid. For you are here. The moon outside the window is whispering not the end of the tale but the beginning. Singing the ancient lullaby to ensure a smooth and sacred passage over uncharted waters to the land of the ancestors and the eye of the moon. I do not sleep. I think of all the great ships who must come to port, the first and last breath and the sweet moments in between. Between the bones, the rigging, lies sacred flesh, a will to live and a blackbird drinking in a birdbath. It is 3.28 am. My father at 4 am took his last breath and swallowed the luminous moon.

Thank you to all the kind people who sent me emails and love and my friends who realised where I had disappeared to. Thank you to Pan Macmillan for support and of course my wonderful agent, Selwa Anthony. It meant a lot to my family that my father was so happy with all the good news surrounding Poet’s Cottage and my other book being picked up before he died.

There are no goodbyes between my father and myself. At the same time, I feel shattered and grief-stricken and thankful that I am checking the proofs of Poet’s Cottage. Words, stories, books have always been my refuge. I will hide myself away in the writing shed and hope my heart will start to beat a little stronger as the days pass.

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with a passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, — I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! — and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

More Tease than Dita

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If you’re on my Facebook, you’ll know I’ve been skiting a bit about going for early morning runs in our local park. I’m really not a running type of person. Yoga yes, but jogging is something I haven’t done since Farrah Fawcett and the Angels jiggled away in the original shows.

 But lately, there’s been a lot happening in my life and I find I don’t sleep well at night for the first time ever. So I hope running will help to soothe my jangled nerves and thoughts.

It’s heavenly in our local park. I thought I might be mugged or murdered before I set out, but it seriously looked as if half of Sydney had the same idea to get up before the dawn and run like a crazy thing. There were people running carrying tyres, people running carrying sticks, people running carrying mobiles. People boxing, doing Tai Chi, people walking dogs. People everywhere! And yet the park is so large that somehow we all seem to fit and it doesn’t feel intrusive.

Here’s a couple of shots of where I’ve been running. Can you imagine we have this much green beauty and marshlands on our doorstep? It goes for miles. I love seeing all the wildlife and birds very early in the morning. And it’s literally a five-minute walk from my front door.

I loved it so much on the first morning, that I had to run home and wake my husband up – yes, I’m that cruel – and insist he go running too. This created great excitement in our house with my daughter wanting to run as well instead of going to school. He came back glowing and more awake than I’ve seen him in months. We are now converts to dawn running.

Did you watch The Slap (if you’re in Australia) last week on the ABC? My book club didn’t love the book by Christos Tsiolkas. I was very disappointed in the novel as it had been so hyped and I couldn’t wait to read it – but I found the characters all so revolting and the sex scenes so unbelievable that I couldn’t enjoy it. It was a champion of an idea, however and I take my hat off to him for that.

For once, Ms Australian TV seems to have got it right. I loved the first episode, which didn’t have any quirky characters and in fact featured people that are just like some people I know. So fab to see Essie Davis (my favourite Australian actress) and yes, I know I’ve said it before – but she’s a Tasmanian girl – so there you are! Love Essie.

Lovely Essie Davis

But also Melissa George was really good playing Rosie. I do know a woman who is exactly like Rosie. I think all the elements of the book which I disliked are all diluted on TV and that makes the whole thing work better in my opinion. I also love the idea (as Essie Davis said in an interview) that each character really gets slapped when Hugo is ‘disciplined’ by a fellow barbecue guest who is not his parent. And so I have to admit, that Ms Australia TV has redeemed herself after her last pitiful offering of Underbelly Razor and I shall be watching again tonight. There is a rather good website set up for The Slap here if you want to read more and see some cast videos.

My roses provide me with so much pleasure

My book, Poet’s Cottage has sold to Bolinda audio publishing which is wonderful as my sister has been slowly going blind for many years now. She has retinitis pigmentosa. Last year she was given a guide dog – and so it means a lot to have this particular sale, as you can imagine.

And I know this is more tease than a Dita show but this is my cover of Poet’s Cottage. All I can tell you is that it’s beautiful. I’m in love with it and have spent many happy moments gloating over how wonderful and perfect it is. My agent also loves it. The design team at Pan Macmillan are very clever, wonderful and masterly and I am very thrilled. When I am finally given the go-ahead, I shall post the official picture (the front of this piece of paper) of my new baby here.

And finally, I love this this wonderful badge designed by the very clever Neil Gaiman. Long live libraries and librarians everywhere!

Enjoy your week. Stay creative, happy and thanks for visiting me. xx

image of Essie and The Slap via google image

 

Anything can happen

josephinetalepeddler 4 Comments

David walked out of the door today, on his way to Pan Macmillan, carrying my heart in a hessian bag. Where on earth did September go? To me, it was a blur of rising at 4 and 5am to try to get a few hours of my copy-edit in before Daisy woke.

Finally the copyedit is finished. Check out all those post-it notes!

I loved working on the book so intensely in the last month. Clara Finlay, the editor really pulled me upside down, inside out and shook that book as hard as she could shake – but she was wonderful. I may never meet Clara Finlay, but I feel as if I know her. I felt her over my shoulder the entire time as we went line-by-line, date by date, fact-by-fact, character tone by character tone. We pondered together house-ownership problems and why I’m so obsessed with dentists that I felt the need to include so many in Poet’s Cottage. David said I should have named the book Poet’s Teeth. I do seem to have rather a thing for them, it’s true. And another mystery to me is – why I felt the need for so many people with the surname of Brown in a 100, 0000 word manuscript.

But I’m convinced I am a better writer for this edit. I have vowed never again will I write without having a very detailed plan of my house in both time periods and also meticulous time charts for every character.

I have quite a few blog posts I want to share coming up, including my annual agent’s author event. But I’ve been up since past 1am doing last-minute checks to the manuscript so David could hand deliver it to Pan Macmillan in their city office.

David Levell and Josephine Pennicott take a holiday at The Captain's Cottage

And just as the copy-edit is over, the beautiful Captain’s Cottage in Stanley where my family and I stayed several times whilst I worked on Poet’s Cottage is up for sale. It was in the Australian paper on the weekend. Here are a couple of shots of us at the cottage, relaxing and happy. I wish I had the money to buy it. I have so many happy memories of that house and our trips to Stanley.

Daisy and Josephine Pennicott outside The Captain's Cottage Stanley

Here are also a couple of random shots of my garden which is starting to come alive. These were taken right outside my garden writing shed. My David Austins are taking off as well, so thrilled with my tiny garden.

I am enormously weary but filled with great joy and relief.

Daisy getting married in the Spring garden

And one of the most magic moments in September was seeing Mary Poppins swoop slowly towards me at the historical Capitol Theatre in Sydney. This is the most beautiful theatre to see any show in. Years ago, David and I saw Blondie play the Capitol. The image below is taken from their  website.

Around me were the cheers and screams of the excited crowd as she slowly glided through the air of the darkened auditorium. Mary Poppins and I looked at each other and she was as touched and as thrilled by the magic as we were. My daughter was screaming beside me, ‘That’s real magic!’

After Miss Marple, and Jane Eyre, Mary Poppins is one of my favourite characters in fiction.

Now I have to clean my very dusty, brick house and go back to the next book. 

Thanks for visiting me. xx  


Copyedit

josephinetalepeddler 11 Comments
Even a confirmed Winter lover as myself has to admit I’m enjoying the Spring weather and light in Sydney at the moment. Here is where I am every day in my writing shed.
 
Yes, we finally have the wall paper up and I love being in there amongst the birds and butterflies. It’s just lovely to work in the garden next to our big old tea-tree and palms and feel as though I’m amongst pink birds and butterflies. Birds and butterflies represent the soul to me and so it’s a great paper for a creative writing shed where we do our soul work. Just this morning, the most beautiful bird with a yellow breast came right to the window to peep at me. It’s magical in my shed! 
 
Over the next month or so we shall be doing more work on the shed to try to create a lovely as space as possible for both our books. My husband is also a writer and so we have to share which we’re good at. Luckily, he is used to my girliness and has long given up fighting I think he was just relieved the paper is duck-egg blue and not pink!  I’m looking forward to installing the fairy lights, adding some pretties and growing some roses out the front but first of all I have to cull all the paperwork we’ve collected over the years between us! And at the moment, I’m head down on my copyedit for Pan Macmillan and so things may be quiet on the blog for a couple of week to ensure I reach my deadline in time. All my editors from Pan Macmillan have been so brilliant and it’s a joy to work with them. Because I was nearly 60 000 words into my Currawong book it was a wrench to return to Poet’s Cottage again but I’m loving revisiting the characters and hopefully adding a bit more to the MS as this is one of the last chances I get before publication.
 
And I’ve been so busy lately doing loads of arty things. We saw the Pre-Raphaelite exhibition on drawing at the AGNSW which I loved. Both David and myself have a big soft for the PRB and it was a treat to see a few of Elizabeth Siddal’s works in this show.
 
I saw Jane Eyre at the cinema with my friend Artschool Annie. How brilliant was Mia Wasikowska as Jane? Divine casting and I loved this movie version so much I’m going to try to see it twice.
 
The Tasmanian-looking landscape really made me long for my home state, Thornfield, is my idea of the perfect house and unlike my pervious post on Underbelly Razor, this is a house that actually looks lived in and of the time.
 
 I also really enjoyed.Michael Fassbender as Rochester. A really sublime movie.  I think Jane Eyre is such an inspiration for her nobleness, stoic determination and strength. 
I hope my daughter loves this book as much as her parents as I think Jane’s a great role-model for young women in today’s climate with the sexualisation of females. Jane doesn’t use her looks to get ahead in life. And Rochester still prefers her to the prettier Blanche Ingram. It’s a tale of hope and as Spring is a season of hope it’s a perfect time to catch this movie.
 
I also saw Lakme at the Sydney Opera house with the amazing Emma Mathews. This opera was a treat with the divine Emma singing the Duet of the Flowers.
 
And David and I saw The Mousetrap at this incredible theatre, The Genesian in the heart of Sydney. We originally saw The Mousetrap in the West End in London which was a dream come true for me. But even though this was an amateur production, it was really enjoyable and well done.
 
This weekend, I have my agent, Selwa Anthony’s annual bash which is always a very grand and inspiring affair. During the day there are author and publishing  talks and at night a formal dinner and award ceremony.  We are looking forward to attending the Sassies and hopefully, I’ll have time to pop back and do a post about it when I reach my deadline.
 
Enjoy September and I hope that butterflies and pink birds are fluttering in your soul. Keep Inspired and Keep creative.
And because it’s Spring. Here’s a couple of images from the latest issue of Country Style.
 
 
 I always love their Spring Issues.  
    

DAWN

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What a wonderful life I’ve had! I only wish I’d realised it sooner.” Colette

This is a favourite quote that I’ve been using a lot this week. We’ve been enjoying exploring a pre-dawn Sydney to visit Daisy’s doctor before school.

 It’s an education to see Sydney’s inhabitants waking up.

The homeless people sleeping in train tunnels, fairy-lights in Hyde Park, joggers and office-cleaners.

 I have revisions to do for Poets Cottage and so I’m out of the 1940s where I had just got comfortable and back to a Tasmanian sea-fishing village in the 1930s.

 A great Newtown identity died this week. I’m going to miss Bob Gould.

I had discovered many treasures in his chaotic, messy shop over the last decade or so. As Chuck Mckenzie said on my Facebook, he reminded you at times of an oversized owl glowering away as you searched the huge towers of books. I also saw him as a cantankerous wizard from a Hogwarts library. A most fascinating man. I always found the perfect book for my research in his shops. I’d ask the book angels to guide me and somehow five or six books would find their way to me. Books long out of print, stories penned by ‘ordinary’ Australians giving the most terrific details of everyday life that I could use. Books that these days mightn’t have been published because they aren’t by a celebrity or a proven author. The last time I saw Mr Gould I had a pile of books for the 1940s Blue Mountains mystery book I’m working on. He looked through them, raised those eyebrows and said, ‘You have good taste in literature, young lady.’ I floated down the street afterwards, not just for the rare event of being called a young lady but my inner-geek was sated that Bob Gould said I had good taste in literature. Hats off to you, Bob Gould. With all the hoo-haa recently about publishing and technology, you were a blazing reminder of the magic, beauty and mystery that I love about bookstores and booksellers.

bob gould image source

colette image source

top hats and quote source

A Stevie sort of mood

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=py3w5fttedA]Had a lovely morning sitting in my little garden working on revisions for Poets Cottage. Fresh washing blowing on the line, cats asleep in the sun. Blue sky, bright pansies and geraniums and garden gnomes for company Perfect working environment. And then I was in the mood for some Stevie. I still live in the 70’s when it comes to music.