Fab books and Magazines

Saints, Tarot and A Haunting Tale

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Feisty, determined, caring for impoverished children and education. Willing to take on the established church for her beliefs and loved writing letters. So much to admire in Saint Mary Mackillop. Blessings to all who work in her name on her feast day.
Mercury is now in a more favourable position and the tarot card I selected today is The World which represents achievement and success.
I am reading Kate Mosse’s The Winter Ghosts and somehow the book followed me into my dreams. I dreamt of a man from a small village who was afraid to go to war.
The best books are like restless ghosts and follow you even to Morpheus.     

TALKING HEADS

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On a freezing winter’s night in Sydney I spoke at Newtown Library last night for an event for the library and Better Read than Dead bookshop.

Josephine Pennicott nervouc just before speaking

I’m always nervous before public-speaking. Like a lot of authors I prefer my characters and words to represent me. This time around I used hypnotic CDs by Marisa Peer in preparation weeks beforehand.

Flowers given at the end of the talk

They must have worked because despite feeling the adrenaline kick–in before I started, everyone present said how relaxed I was.

The talk went very well and it was lovely to see the room packed out. I signed quite a few books afterwards and then headed to the Bank Hotel with a few friends to celebrate Poet’s Cottage over a Thai meal.

with good friends at the Bank hotel

Here we enjoyed lively conversation of books, real-estate, ghosts, tarot and magic. The Bank Hotel is always special to me because I met my husband there.

Josephine Pennicott with Mary and Michelle. Very relieved it is over.

I was very touched by my friends’ support of my book. So many people came to hear my hour-long talk about my personal journey and my road to Pencubitt.

Last Friday evening, I went to see Anna Funder talk to a crowd  at a very full Seymour Centre.

Anna was eloquent, intelligent and elegant  as she described her experiences writing All That I Am. I found it fascinatingto hear her life journey and to put the jig-saw pieces together which led to her writing All That I am. And Anna herself was very gracious when she signed the book.

As I waited in the signing queue I overhead this from two men: ‘What did you think of that?’

‘Oh it was alright. But I prefer her book to hearing her talk about it.’

Do you enjoy hearing writers talk about their work? Leave me a comment and let me know which writers have held you spellbound.  Do you feel the writer should be a mystery and allow their creations to represent them? Is the enjoyment of a book lost if you find out too much about the author?‘

Perhaps Daphne du Maurier was correct when she said, ‘Writers should be read but neither seen nor heard.’

WHEN THE WORLD VANISHES

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I’ve had the most incredibly stressful and frustrating week but I’m pleased to say that my talk at Newtown Library for Tuesday the 31st of July has sold out weeks ago. If you did want to attend you can still reserve a seat HERE for any no-shows on the night.
Don’t forget to bring your books for me to sign. I have a rather ordinary looking marker pen that contains a magic spell to bestow creativity and riches aplenty to all whose books I mark.
if you want to pick-up a few early Christmas gifts Better Read than Dead will have books available to purchase. It may seem premature to think of Christmas gifts in July but my motto is Be Prepared. You can’t give a more special gift than a  book.
I had rather a long blog post planned for this week but it disappeared and so not having the energy to type it all again I think it can vanish forever into space. So much disappears into the Machine, alas.
After the talk on Tuesday we will be going to the BANK hotel for a few drinks and you are most welcome to join us if you’re attending my Talking Heads session. The Bank is where I first met my husband, David Levell and so it’s rather lovely to be celebrating Poet’s Cottage there.   I don’t often come out of the writing shed and I’m looking forward to seeing old friends and making new ones. Thank you to all who reserved tickets.
 
Kookaburras have been waking me every morning and my husband is away digging up dinosaur bones. I am loving the chilly winter mornings. This is the misty view from my little Brick this morning. Daisy exclaimed in great excitement that the world had disappeared.
A world disappeared for me when I read the final page of the wonderful The Locust and the Bird by Hanan Al-Shaykh.
This very moving book about the author’s mother, Kamila  was my book club choice. As always The Magic Hatters brought different views to the work. I saw it as a wonderful testimony to storytelling and culture carriers. I hope to do a more lengthy review on this book as my original musings were eaten by the Machine. A highly recommended read.
Even in the bleakest of times I still need to believe in magic, the power of love, family, ancient bones and story.
Thank you for visiting me. xx

Sunday

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I want Cheree Cassidy’s dressing room. I’m not sure if this is a prop for her shoot for the Sunday Telegraph magazine but I love it!

And I also love her antique jewellery collection and yes, the Bollywood posters and fresh flowers. Just lovely inspiration on a grey and rainy Sunday. You cannot go past a vintage frock. Thanks for visiting. xx

you can read more on Cheree’s fave and fab loves and image sourced HERE

Possum in Autumn Light

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Amongst all the beauty of the Sydney Autumn light, Daisy and I found a very large dead possum in the street outside her school.
Belinda Alexandra, my writer friend and best-selling author, tells me I should have turned the possum over and inspected her tummy as she may have had babies inside the pouch. That’s a tip for you if you ever find a dead possum in your street.
 
Belinda is a goldmine of information on such issues as what to do with your constipated goldfish. I’m in awe of not only her scribe skills but her knowledge of and affinity for our native wildlife. Belinda works with WIRES (Wildlife Information Rescue & Education Service).
 If you see a dead possum and she has babies, you will know because her pouch will be swollen and you will see them moving around. Wrap the whole body in a towel and take the possum to your local vet as soon as possible.
I’m reading Belinda’s beautiful book Golden Earrings at the moment (along with a host of other research books for my current mystery). Ghosts, flamenco, ballet, civil war, gypsies. As with all of Belinda’s books, you learn a lot about life you may not have known before.
I’ve written about Belinda before on my old Tale Peddler blog and you can read that post HERE.
I love Autumn – feeling winter beginning to slink towards Sydney. There’s something so magical about walking the streets and seeing all the old lady terraces glow and shimmer in the light.
These photographs were taken as I went to collect my daughter from school today.
It’s comforting to know that at night, possums are dancing on my roof.
Thanks to this week’s WHO magazine, who described Poet’s Cottage as ‘a perfect fireside read’.
My favourite kinds of books are cosy fireside reads.
‘But just as Pearl’s beauty masked darkness and rage, Poet’s Cottage harbours horror beneath its elegant facade.’ – From WHO
Enjoy your weekend, keep creative. Thank you for visiting me.
And my beautiful friend Liz ran into someone special in Sydney this week or so she tells me…
 xx

Mo Hayder and Edgar

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I was delighted that Mo Hayder won the very cool and cute looking EDGAR award by the Mystery Writers of America in New York recently for her bestselling book, GONE.

Regular readers will know I am a big fan of Mo’s and love both her police procedural novels which feature the enigmatic, sexy Jack Caffery and also her standalone books which are really marvellous (although very dark and disturbing).

I loved it when I met Mo in Sydney years ago at a writing workshop. She kindly cast my daughter as a character in one of her books, SKIN. (Well, her name, anyway, and added Daisy to the acknowledgments.)

Mo Hayder and Josephine Pennicott

And so if you love your crime or mysteries very dark, beautifully written and with twists that will haunt and play with your mind for years… Mo is the go.

You can read all about Mo and join her forum on her website HERE.

mo and edgar image via HERE

Making the Everything Real

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Wouldn’t you have loved to have been privy to the chat between Neil Gaiman and Stephen King that was in the Sydney Morning Herald this weekend (originally published in the UK  SundayTimes Magazine).
In my recent interview with Booktopia HERE I talked about Stephen King and how I spent my adolescence wishing I was Ben Mears from Salem’s Lot.
I devoured Stephen King’s books when I was a teenager. I loved the characters, the punchy writing style and the words that often seemed to shake and shimmy. I would often find myself laughing out loud at some character who I could recognise in my own small town in Australia. His book  On Writing:A Memoir of the Craft is one I always recommend to people as one of my writing bibles.

Neil Gaiman

I extracted some of my favourite extracts from Neil’s conversation with Stephen below but to read the full interview head to Neil’s journal where you will find it HERE.  
“I think the most important thing I learned from Stephen King I learned as a teenager, reading King’s book of essays on horror and on writing, Danse Macabre. In there he points out that if you just write a page a  day, just 300 words, at the end of a year you’d have a novel. It was immensely reassuring – suddenly something huge and impossible became strangely easy. As an adult, it’s how I’ve written books I haven’t had the time to write, like my children’s novel Coraline.” Neil Gaiman on Stephen King
I never thought of myself as a horror writer. That’s what other people think. And I never said jack shit about it. Tabby came from nothing, I came from nothing, we were terrified that they would take this thing away from us. So if the people wanted to say “You’re this”, as long as the books sold, that was fine. I thought, I am going to zip my lip and write what I wanted to write.
“They pay me absurd amounts of money,” he observes, “For something that I would do for free.”.
“I never think of stories as made things; I think of them as found things. As if you pull them out of the ground, and you just pick them up. Someone once told me that that was me low-balling my own creativity. That might or might not be the case. But still, on the story I am working on now, I do have some unresolved problem. It doesn’t keep me awake at nights. I feel like when it comes down, it will be there…”

King writes every day. If he doesn’t write he’s not happy. If he writes, the world is a good place. So he writes. It’s that simple. “I sit down maybe at quarter past eight in the morning and I work until quarter to twelve and for that period of time, everything is real.

A Story in my head buzzing hard

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I spent a day lost in the magical light of Norman Lindsay’s home at Springwood.

Can you beat a drystone wall? I grew up loving them and they still have the power to charm.

Wandering into the bush with notebook in hand, it’s easy to believe Norman’s statues are luring you into another world.

A smaller magic outside my writing shed where my David Austin Prince rose proudly displayed its first bloom.

 

The  magical perfume so divine to savour. Hopefully a good omen for my current mystery novel.

 

And I must let you know of an event I will be taking place in for Better Read than Dead bookshop and Newtown  Library Tuesday 31st July . It’s Talking Heads with Josephine Pennicott. I know this is very advance notice and will update nearer to the time. Places will be limited but you can book through the library online or on  8512 4250. Would love to see all who could make it come along so we can chat murder, mystery, families, bohemians, secrets, Tasmanian sea-fishing villages, writing tips and a host of other fascinating topics. Here is the beautiful Newtown library I  shall be chatting in.
I’m really looking forward to seeing The Mousetrap in Sydney with the Sydney Theatre company performing Agatha Christie’s classic.
 I first saw The Mousetrap in St Martin’s Theatre with David in London’s West End and it remains one of my favourite theatre experiences. (Followed closely by The Woman in Black).
This week I also went to my bookclub at Better Read than Dead to discuss Craig Silvey’s feisty and wonderful mystery novel, Jasper Jones.

My daughter has just told me she has a story in her head and it’s buzzing hard. I know the feeling.
This weekend I am going to try to find some time to sit in the autumn sunshine with these two pink magazines I picked up today. I love the beautiful Christy Turlington’s feature in the gentlewoman (one of my favourite magazines).

This photograph of Johnny Depp was doing the rounds on Facebook and of course I cant’ resist ending this post with his sage and beautiful words. Thank you for visiting me. Stay creative. xx
Remember, murder lurks around every corner…

Poet’s Cottage in Good Reading

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Hello,
The current edition of Good Reading magazine (April 2012) in Australia features an extract from my Reader’s Letter in Poet’s Cottage. It’s a two-page spread and features personal photographs taken at Stanley when I was first inspired by the sea-fishing village. It also has photos of some of the books I used for research.
Here is a link to the Good Reading magazine website HERE where you can purchase a copy online. It is a very lovely layout so thank you, Good Reading Magazine!
I’ve done another couple of radio interviews this week. On Thursday I’ll be speaking with Penny Terry from ABC Tasmania for the Statewide Afternoon programme. I’ll let you know when it will be aired.
On Monday I spoke with David Woods from ULTRA 106.5 – this one is meant to go to air this Saturday in Hobart at 9.20am, all going to plan.
And that is all for now my birds as I am very weary and going to curl up with my book. Thank you for visiting me. xx

Muses and Photography

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So many lovely and special things are happening that I can’t keep up with it all.
Last Sunday I was a cover-girl for the Sunday Tasmanian which was totally fab.
My interview with Blanche Clark of the Herald Sun (Melbourne) ran this weekend, which you can read at this link HERE – soon I’ll add a proper media section for all Poet’s Cottage related articles and reviews.
I’ve also done a few radio interviews – I’ll post dates of when they go to air when I get a moment.

Josephine Pennicott in the Herald Sun. Interview by Blanche Clark

The wonderful Carla Coulson is holding a competition where you can win a photo shoot with her in either Sydney or Paris. I didn’t want to share this, being a true Scorpio woman who is determined to win when she wants something. I’ve admired and loved Carla’s work for years and followed her Blog from its humblest beginnings to the incredible Blog it has become. And one of my dreams was that Carla would photograph me one day, as I would love to see her at work.
But to be fair (and to hopefully score more points for me to win because I blogged about it as well! It’s that ruthless Scorpio thing)… here’s the link HERE. But you have to be quick as the competition closes on the 3rd April. See, I told you but I didn’t give you long…
Carla is the person who inspired me to purchase this magnificent Monica Bellucci photography book which is far more divine in the flesh than here. The red trimmed pages and the smell of this glorious massive book has to be experienced. My husband must think this is the best book that has ever come into the house with all its Monica nudes. And so if you wish to channel your inner-Bellucci then head to Carla Coulson’s Blog to enter. And if you do happen to win, don’t forget who sent you…

One of my favourite images of Monica and her husband Vincent.

 
Check back later in the week to read about a pretty cat called Rainbow and bones, friendship, women and story. Thank you for visiting me. XX