Hello, I’m a big Kate Mosse fan and love gothic literary thrillers, so I was thrilled to see her current book The Taxidermist’s Daughter was inspired by her childhood visits to The Walter Potter Museum.
In Death there can be Beauty
On an overseas trip to the UK many years ago, David and I visited Jamaica Inn in Cornwall. Not only did we get lost on the moors (another blog post altogether) but we were fortunate to discover Mr Potter’s Museum of Curiosities before it was dismantled. I found the museum incredibly fascinating and longed for another chance to examine it, so I was saddened to hear in 2003 that such a fine collection of Victorian-Edwardian whimsy was lost forever when it was dismantled and sold at auction. Some might find the taxidermy displays macabre, but I loved the surreal cuteness of the animals in dioramas such as The Death and Burial of Cock Robin (which took Mr Potter seven years to complete and included 98 species of British birds along with a weeping robin widow and a grave-digging owl); his rabbit school with rabbits writing on slates; and kitten tea parties. Intricate details featured on all of his work – including frilly knickers on kittens. There were also many other interesting and strange curios, enough to spend hours browsing. Mr Potter’s Museum of Curiosities began life in Bramber, Sussex, England. As a teenager, Walter Potter’s fascination with taxidermy started when he attempted to preserve the life of his pet canary. The Deathand Burial of Cock Robin was a massive success. So many people were keen to witness his tableaus that a special platform had to be built at Bramber train station to accommodate the hordes of tourists arriving to view it. After Mr Potter’s death at 82, his daughter and grandson took over the business. Public taste in taxidermy had now waned and the displays were considered in poor taste.
Kitten with two faces
Rabbit School
The collection, numbering 10, 000 specimens, was moved around to Brighton, Ardundel and then to the owners of the famous Jamaica Inn in Cornwall where visitors come from around the world to experience Daphne du Maurier territory first hand. Sadly, when the museum finally went to auction, a one-million pound bid by Damien Hirst to keep the collection intact was rejected, which meant various pieces were sold separately. Hirst wrote a piece for the Guardian HERE called, Mr Potter, Stuffed Rats and Me.
Kate Mosse and Crow
There is also another interesting link HERE to a Taxidermy article about Walter Potter. And a link HERE with Kate Mosse talking about her fascination with Walter Potter and his museum.
Another link HERE is a website to a book about Walter Potter which contains lots of fascinating articles.
And a recent interview with Kate Mosse from the Independent where she discusses the Landscape of her Imagination HERE
Kate at Booth Museum of Natural History
With all the excitement of a new Kate Mosse book, I thought it was a good chance to publish the notes I took when she spoke at Sydney Writers Festival in 2013. I’d had the best of intentions to put them on my blog at the time, but became so busy with writing Currawong Manor that I never got a chance. I shall post that blog later in the week so I do hope you return. Please share this post with your social online friends if you feel they would be interested. Thank you for popping in. Love and Light, Josephine xx
A short film on Potter’s collection that may be of interest.
I nearly didn’t read this book. It received so much acclaim and hoopla that I didn’t think I’d find it interesting. If a book or film is very hyped, I have a bad habit of losing interest. I’m an inverted snob in such matters.
I sent it to my mother-in-law and after reading it, she returned it saying she thought I should reconsider as she knew I’d love it.
Thankfully, I obeyed her instructions. I found this a terrific read, which left me longing for as many people as possible I knew to read it, so we could discuss it. Luckily it was one of my Magic Hat Book Club choices this year.
The cover tag line is: ‘This is a story of right and wrong and how sometimes they look the same.’
We enter the world of a young lighthouse keeper, Tom Sherbourne and his wife, Isabel, on a remote island off the Western Australian coast. They decide to keep a baby found alive on ‘The Day of the Miracle’ with its dead father in a boat. Isabel has suffered three miscarriages and the baby appears to be a gift from God: there can be no harm in keeping her…
This is the clever and intriguing set-up of an engrossing story which weaves between the ‘The Day of the Miracle’ (27 April, 1926) to the emotional final scene in 1950. The book describes the consequences of the decisions of keeping the ‘miracle’ baby.
Throughout the narrative we are introduced to some vivid characters:
Tom Sherbourne the lighthouse keeper, with his measured outlook on life and his beautiful handwriting. His sense of decency and his moral code. An ex-army man with experience in Egypt and working in Morse and international code. Tom is suffering the trauma of his war experiences from one of the most grisliest of wars: a lighthouse posting seems the perfect change to escape his memories. By steamer boat on his way to the lighthouse from Sydney to Perth, he rescues a young woman from a lecherous ex-soldier, a chance meeting pivotal later in the book:
“Being over there changes a man. Right and wrong don’t look so different anymore to some.” – Tom Sherbourne.
In Port Partageuse, a small coastal community where a fresh granite obelisk lists the men and boys who will not be returning to the community. The town’s scars are raw. In this community, Tom meets and falls in love with defiant, sparkling Isabel Graysmark, the only daughter of the headmaster Bill, and his wife, Violet, who lost both sons to the war.
The nature cycles of the island and Port Partageuse, are hauntingly portrayed. And the real life ghosts of the living, still mourning so many lost, are also wonderfully captured. The Australian phrases, increasingly also lost to American slang, are resurrected in bold splashes which contrast well against the more lyrical descriptions. You ache for all the characters. Even very minor characters who barely appear such as Frank, the baby’s father, become important. Septimus, the grandfather, is also beautifully sketched and an entire book could be devoted on his story.
The character’s roles are superimposed against the lighthouse itself, the great light illuminating to protect the sailors, but also revealing the deeper shadows that are lurking within every member of Port Partageuse. People are getting on with life – but the war has taken so much.
The Light Between Oceans is a book that should give inspiration to all writers who think they may have left their run to late to start. It is Stedman’s debut full-length novel, written in her mid-sixties. I was most fascinated by her writing process which is very similar to my own using visual imagery and a method of ‘free falling’ into the story, allowing the visual images to guide you. She worked a lot from original material in the British Library, reading war-time diaries and journals which she said ‘brought her to sobbing many times’. This first-person research shines through. The two images of the ocean used above were both taken by Stedman when she was working on the book.
I feel that with a different cover design, it might have reached more of a male audience. My partner began reading the book after hearing my enthusiastic appraisal of it and is really enjoying it. He would never have picked it up on its cover normally.
Thankfully, many people did. Nine international publishing houses bid on the rights for the book. In Australia The Light Between Oceans was:
Winner of three ABIA awards for Best Newcomer, Best Literary Novel and Book of the Year Winner of two Indie Awards for Best Debut and Book of the Year Winner of the Nielsen BookData Bookseller’s Choice Award for 2013 Recently voted Historical Novel of 2012 by GoodReads’ reading community
The names of the miracle child in the story, Lucy, means Light and she represents the Hope of the story. I also took the Light Between Oceans to represent the break between the two World Wars. Ultimately, I saw this as a book about the ripple effects of war. A story of right and wrong and the different shades of grey in between – a tale of forgiveness and redemption. Janus Rock, where Lucy washes up, represents the Ancient God of Doorways – transitions and beginnings. Janus presided over beginnings and endings of peace and conflict. As a transitional god, he had a role in birth and exchange as well. Janus also represents a middle ground between barbarism and civilisation.
If you are interested to read more about M.L Stedman’s writing process, there is an interview HERE
This review is for my Australian Women Writers Challenge for 2014.
Currawong Manor has been receiving some very positive early reviews:
Academic, columnist and author, Karen Brooks’s review you can read in full HERE:
The settings are richly and beautifully drawn. You can smell the flowers, feel the cold press of the snow or the dewy warmth of a humid summer. Likewise, as the mystery unravels, you can feel the whispers of the past and the weight of guilt that hangs upon those who carry their secrets, determined to protect themselves and others. Like the birds that occasionally darken the eaves of the house, doom walks through the pages and reading Currawong Manor becomes a visceral experience – at once exciting and dramatic. A Gothic treat for lovers of mystery, family dramas, history and suspense.
Shelleyrae at Book’d Out says:
An impressively crafted literary story, Currawong Manor is an absorbing and dramatic tale. Full review HERE
Kathleen Easson at Aussie Mum Network:
There is more than one mystery to be solved within these pages. The book contains hints of Agatha Christie, the kitchen and garden of Sunday Reed and subtle references to various famous artists including Norman Lindsay. I could not put this book down, it was an enjoyable and easy read. I look forward to further works by this author. Full review HERE
A reminder that on Tuesday 24th June, I’m talking at Newtown Library with Gayle Donaldson and so hope to see you there if you live locally. You can book tickets for this event. HERE.
And I made a video where I’m talking about some of the inspirations behind Currawong Manor including my brief meeting with Pearl Goldman, Norman Lindsay’s life model and muse. I hope you enjoy. Please feel free to share with any people you think might be interested in the book.
If it’s in a word, or in a look. You can’t get rid of The Babadook’.
Jennifer Kent’s stylish psychological thriller/horror move has to be one of my favourite Australian films in recent years.
The movie details an arresting, polished performance by Essie Davis as we witness her struggle with severe sleep deprivation, a child with behavioural problems and the anniversary of the death of her husband who was killed driving Essie’s character, Amelia to the hospital as she’s about to give birth.
Amelia, who on the surface appears a gentle, sweet-natured mother – she takes out her elderly neighbour’s garbage bins, works with the elderly in a nursing home and defends her son’s violent behaviour at his school – is repressing some powerful energies.
She is sexually repressed and unable to find any relief. She has an increasingly strangely behaved son who demands attention day and night. She is creatively repressed (we see her reading late at night The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron) and in the movie she reveals that she did some writing (including a children’s book – which gives food for thought of the original author of The Babadook book). She is repressing the memory of her husband’s decapitation in the car accident at the most pivotal time of her life – in labour. To be in a sacred birth-giving moment and undergo the horror of your husband being killed in front of you has had a severe psychic savage blow to her being. Most troubling of all – Amelia does not love her son; she blames him for her husband’s death. All these energies have been pushed deep inside Amelia to emerge as The Babadook – a monster released through the reading of a red book with increasingly violent childlike drawings.
Every time I read of a mother who commits maternal filicide I feel a combination of revulsion and deep pity that somehow a bridge has been crossed. A taboo has been severed and I wonder how events escalated to such a degree that nobody was able to prevent the tragedy. I speculate about the inner monsters that formed around the mother which eventually pushed her over the edge. The Babadook represents our own darkest urges and repressions. As Samuel, Amelia’s child chillingly points out, ‘you can’t get rid of The Babadook’. Once he grows under your skin, he must be either released, acknowledged and tamed. I won’t reveal what happens to Amelia’s Babadook to avoid spoilers, but there is a cautionary tale for all of us in this cracker of a psychological Australian film.
I love a movie that acknowledges the dark power of words and storytelling and isn’t afraid to examine darker issues. Samuel, played beautifully in a debut performance by Noah Wiseman, utters the heart-breaking cry at one point, ‘You don’t love me, but I love you!’ The cry uttered by many children who are victims of abusive parents.
Mothers of small children will see themselves in Essie’s chronically sleep-deprived performance and will empathise with Amelia trying to cope with it all. There are recognisably familiar amusing scenes at pampered children’s birthday parties and children behaving wildly in cafes.
The set design is beautifully lit and the whole movie looks fabulous and polished. I fell in love with the house in the movie with its grey walls, checkerboard floors and original kitchen fittings.
My own criticism is that last third could have done with a few cuts in the writing and editing, as for my tastes it strayed too far into Exorcist territory and tipped the movie into Horror more than Psychological Thriller. A tighter edit would have elevated the movie to the standard of classics such as Nicolas Roeg’s adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s Don’t Look Now, Peter Weir’s adaptation of Joan Lindsay’s Picnic at Hanging Rock or Polanski’s Repulsion.
But it’s a fabulously simple idea which works well with the small but expert cast. Even the supporting characters seem to have backstories . Lovely to see Hobart boy Ben Winspear, making it two Tasmanian actors in the film.
Tasmanian-raised Essie Davis has long been my favourite Australian actress. You can read my previous post (and see the photo where I finally met her again HERE)
So thrilled to see this collaboration with writer/director Jennifer Kent (a NIDA friend of Essie’s) make it to the big screen. We desperately need more Australian movies of this calibre. Jennifer’s short film MONSTER was the genesis for The Babadook.
The illustrations of The Babadook add to the eerie horror and were sketched by American illustrator Alexander Juhasz.
A magical, haunting, dark fairytale for modern times, a cautionary tale for all of us who supress our darker urges and our creative longings. And a sly reminder that the darkest monsters lie not under beds or within wardrobes, but in ourselves.
Beware of your own Babadook.
After the movie I walked along King Street with my movie date friends in Newtown and watched strangers dance together in the street to a Gypsy van. We needed the slight burst of gaiety after the dark journey we had just shared.
If this movie sounds your cup of tea, please make time to see it and support Australian filmmaking. If you enjoyed this review, please share with your social networking friends and spread the cyber-love.
You are as powerful and strong as you allow yourself to be.’ Robyn Davidson
Sometimes I play that game where I’m asked the five books that changed my life. Although my choices might change (and really every book has left a small thumbprint on my soul) one work did have an influence on my life when I first read it as a young girl in Tasmania – Robyn Davidson’s Tracks. The descriptions of the Australian outback were so powerful and beautiful. I’d never thought of my own country in quite the same way.
I felt fearful of so many things and it was perfectly obvious that here was some sort of Athena warrior goddess who feared very little, a young woman who in 1977 trekked 1700 miles across the desert from Alice Springs to Western Australia. Of course there are all sorts of symbolic meanings attached to entering a vast, seemingly empty wilderness. The old prophets entered them for clarification and transcendence. Jesus went to fast in a desert. A desert cuts out all the sensory overload. The vastness of the landscape encourages meditation.
But it wasn’t just Robyn’s ballsy guts/madness in choosing to enter the desert with only her camels, her dog, the intermittent visits of National Geographic photographer Rick Smolan and the indigenous Australians she met along her way. It was the authentic raw power of her writing that inspired me.
I was fortunate to see Robyn Davidson speak at the Sydney Writers’ Festival last year on a panel interviewed by Michaela Kalowski with Emile Sherman, the producer of the movie Tracks. Actress Mia Wasikowska, who plays Robyn in the movie, was also in the audience. I intended to write this post shortly after the festival I was so inspired and fired up by the three speakers I saw that year, but I was editing my own book at the time and the deadline was forever looming.
from the movie Tracks
I’ve been thinking again about Robyn Davidson as the movie Tracks is shortly to hit the big screen. Robyn in person, decades after I read her book is every bit as striking as her younger self in the flesh. Elegant, warm and charming,she described herself as an ‘odd-ball’. And I sensed a kindred spirit when she spoke about how she hated being too connected and never carries her mobile phone and hates answering it. It’s always a relief to find someone as odd-ball as yourself. She talked about how she had offers before for Tracks to be made into a move, but she wanted it to be an Australian film. Could I love this woman any more? She spoke about how the journey she took would be impossible these days as social media would be covering every step. She also expressed her concerns for young people these days as the pressure from social media is so intense. And related a very touching story to do with a reunion with her camels in Western Australia many years later. I had no idea that camels were so intelligent, emotional and had memories like elephants.
Robyn Davidson’s early life is gothic involving her mother’s suicide at 46. Robyn is currently writing a memoir about this period of her life. In a recent interview in the Sydney Morning Herald Good Weekend magazine with journalist Amanda Hooton, she spoke about her mother’s death and her struggles over writing the period of her life to avoid the ‘poor pitiful me’ tone.
‘I now think of her as something incorporated into me. I’m very interested in neuroscience: the idea that we have these maps in the brain. I think she’s sort of mapped into me.’
Tracks is a book I would urge every mother to buy their young daughters (or sons) to read as it will hopefully give them a warrior shield in navigating their own desert. It is certainly one I will be encouraging my daughter to read. One aspect of Robyn’s desert trek I loved was that she didn’t do it for fame, or to become some sort of feminist symbol, she did it for the journey itself.
In this fifteen minute interview below with Caroline Baum, Robyn expresses her concern about how the desert has been taken over by the buffel grass introduced from Africa has been drastically altering the herbage for native animals and changing the rich palette of the desert itself.
I never did have the courage to go into the desert alone. But Robyn Davidson’s book Tracks gave me the courage to travel to India on my own.
Travelling with an Australian girl I met in India. Here we are on the Holy Ganges.
Prior to reading her book, I wouldn’t have been able to travel to Melbourne solo. My life became richer as a result of her own journey and her ability to express her desert walk with such eloquence. I became a writer – a different type of writer to Robyn Davidson, but one just as inspired by the tone and palette of my own country. It takes courage to embrace a creative life with all of its dips and heights.
with a Sadhu in India.
I was most grateful I had the chance to say this personally to Robyn Davidson at the Sydney Writers’ Festival. In the next couple of months, I shall post my panels that I experienced with UK writer Kate Mosse and Spanish writer Carlos Ruiz Zafon. Both of these panels were excellent and filled with inspiration so I hope to share them with you.
With another friend I met in India. We are still in touch.
Here is a link to Robyn’s panel from Sydney Writers’ Festival. My interaction with her comes towards the end.
Yes, Robyn Davidson, you made me feel that I could do anything.
‘Camel trips do not begin or end, they merely change form.’ Robyn Davidson
If you enjoyed this article and found some inspiration, please share with your online friends. Or leave me a comment to know if you’ve read Tracks. Is there a particular book that sparked some courage within you? I would love to hear from you.
Some links to articles on Robyn Davidson of interest:
‘Though a great deal is too strange to be believed, nothing is too strange to have happened.’
– Thomas Hardy
As I write this on a sunny day in Sydney with dappled light showering our inner-city street, cicadas competing with the traffic noise and overhead planes, gum trees a wash of green against a brilliant blue sky, Angelina Jolie has just finished directing a scene near our house for her new movie Unbroken.
Regular readers will know my fascination with comparative religions. The reason I’m so excited that Hollywood has come to our area is that Angelina is directing a scene in my local church. This church is a big part of our family and has formed the fabric of our lives here for the last decade. My daughter was baptised there and before my father died, he flew over to give me away in my Alice in Wonderland meets Carnaby Street wedding.
Unbroken being filmed at our local church
In an area bursting with the politically correct/hipster crowd, the church has been a sanctuary to me for years. I’ve seen it go through many changes and several priests, but the current priest has been my favourite for many reasons. The reason I mention Angelina is that it’s proof of how life can bring unexpected twists and miracles in ways you can’t imagine. And how ‘real life’ can be stranger than fiction and any movie. For years we’ve battled with church costs (the roof fell in a few years ago) and in one swoop – thanks to Angelina – those costs have been considerably bumped down. But I could never have expected that’s who would have fixed our church roof. Not even my imagination would have dreamt that scenario.
Extras in period costume cross the street for Unbroken
My daughter went to school yesterday morning with a little piece of paper in her pocket, for an autograph in the unlikely event she bumped into Angelina. She walked past crowds of extras dressed in period costume and the big movie lights trying to spot one person. (She loves her because she has tattoos.) We are relieved that this small brush of celebrity is with a person as inspiring as Angelina. It is heartening to point out photographs of Angelina and Brad dressed up for movie premieres, but then also be able to talk about her humanitarian work and how she has used celebrity and her beauty and talent as a force of good in the world. Everyone that had contact with her raved about how unpretentious, down-to-earth and friendly she was. I was also very delighted to see on the weekend in Sydney she went shopping with her children and bought books from local bookshops – a reminder to all to buy BOOKS this Christmas. As Christopher Marley said: ‘When you give someone a book, you don’t give him just paper, ink and glue. You give him the possibility of a whole new life.’
And so Angelina Jolie is our little Christmas miracle and if you see Unbroken, know that the church in it has been my oasis of quiet contemplation for the last decade of my inner-city life.
The beautiful and inspiring Angelina Jolie
I have finished my edit of Currawong Manor.
On Monday, 2nd December at 12.30 am I pressed the send button and Currawong Manor went across the city back to Pan Macmillan. I felt enormously depleted, emotional and empty. I’ve loved working with my artists for so long and it’ s always hard to let go of my characters. I’ve spent years in their company. I feel so empty without them all and wonder if anyone will care for them. Where do these characters come from? They come. Sometimes quickly, but sometimes they are furtive and hide themselves behind other characters. Or they are too coy to appear at once, and you know they will come another time and book.
You spend years with the ones that do appear. You grow to know them more intimately than you do most of your neighbours, and friends.
And then they are gone. Released with the SEND button to a waiting editor and publisher in an office across the city and you are left alone, crying with exhaustion and wondering why you push yourself through so much for so many years to meet a being who is as real as a dream.
Divine madness has descended for years – if you are lucky – and then it moves on and you are left feeling abandoned by your own creation.
You sit and wait and hope the muse will bring you another story. You wait and ache and start to spin the web.
I’ve now begun work on my new web. and loving feeling the new characters appear.
Poet’s Cottage continues its tour around Europe and here is the beautiful cover from Dutch publishers HERE Fingers crossed that the Dutch will enjoy my Tasmanian sea-fishing murder mystery. It never fails to excite me to think that our family holiday inspired a book that is now selling internationally.
In November I appeared at the Newtown Festival for Better Read than Dead in the Writer’s Tent with the always inspiring and dynamic Kate Forsyth.
Josephine Pennicott and Kate Forsyth
I also attended the New South Wales SWITCH Library Awards dinner at the Star Room in Darling Harbour, sponsored by Bolinda Audio alongside some of my agent’s authors. Here is a photo of writing friends Belinda Alexandra and Karen Davis.
Belinda Alexandra and Karen Davis
I travelled to Melbourne for the Sisters in Crime annual Scarlet Stiletto Awards. I can’t enter anymore as I’ve won two shoes (the legal limit!) so this was my first year as a judge. Congratulations to all shortlisted entries and to the winners. You can find a full list of winners HERE.
This evening was the 20th Anniversary of Sisters in Crime at the boho glam Thornbury Theatre and so I was delighted to be a part of the celebrations. Angela Savage wrote a lovely article on the history of the red shoe, A Dagger With A Difference, which you can read HERE.
image via Sisters in Crime
The beautiful and talented Essie Davis was the host and guest speaker. You may know her as Phryne Fisher in Kerry Greenwood’s Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, or from many other wonderful parts she has played. I remember Essie from our Hobart days at Rosny College together and so it was a joy to be able to connect with her again. In the photo below you can see her hugging me.
Sisters in Crime with Essie Davis on far right
When Tasmanian girls reunite
Essie was always a person you knew would be Someone. She claims she was a dag at Rosny but I can vouch she was always super-cool and super-talented. I was also pleased to have the chance to hand her a copy of Poet’s Cottage as when Pearl Tatlow came to me, I often daydreamed over the years if Poet’s Cottage was ever made into a movie, Essie would be perfect to play Pearl. Yes, I know that seems like big dreams, but if Angelina Jolie can pay for our church roof, I can believe in big dreams and miracles. And on that note – I wish for you all the big dreams, miracles and surprising twists in your life that you could NEVER have imagined in the season of light ahead.
And it wouldn’t be a Christmas blog post on Tale Peddler without a gratuitous Johnny Depp photograph.
Thank you for visiting me. Here is the divine Mediaeval Baebes with the glorious We Three Kings.
Love, Light and Peace. May you find the best of the Holy Season within your own heart.
Hello,
I love September, as in the Southern Hemisphere, we are in Spring. The Sydney air seems to pulsate joy and magical possibilities. I’m on another editing deadline for Currawong Manor, and so updating my blog before I lose myself too much into the threads of my Blue Mountains artists. The rose ladies in my courtyard garden are putting on a colourful, flashy display and creative ideas for more projects are also flowering within me.
I attended the Davitt Awards in Melbourne this month, for which Poet’s Cottage shortlisted. Although I didn’t collect an award, I had an excellent night with my Sisters in Crime and was thrilled to be a part of the audience when Kerry Greenwood received her well-deserved Lifetime Achievement Award. Congratulations to all Sisters in Crime below who took out major awards.
Lifetime Achievement Award Kerry Greenwood
Adult Fiction Mad Men, Bad Girls and the Guerilla Knitters Institute (Maggie Groff, Pan Macmillan)
True Crime The Waterlow Killings (Pamela Burton, Victory)
Children’s and Young Adult Fiction The Tunnels of Tarcoola (Jennifer Walsh, Allen & Unwin)
Best Debut Mad Men, Bad Girls and the Guerilla Knitters Institute (Maggie Groff, Pan Macmillan)
Reader’s Choice Award Tamam Shud: The Somerton Man (Kerry Greenwood, NewSouth).
Josephine Pennicott and David Levell
Ian Irvine and Traci Harding
Traci Harding and Josephine Pennicott
I also attended my agent Selwa Anthony’s annual Sassy Awards, always an interesting event. Here are a few snaps from the evening. Unfortunately, I had an infected eye which kept me from rocking the dance floor, but it was fun to catch up with long-time writing friends such as Belinda Alexandra, Ian Irvine, Traci Harding, Stephen Irvine, Anna Romer, Richard Harland. Writing in isolation, the Sassies are a reminder that you’re not working alone, and you are in fact, connected to a larger industry web. Along with an infected eye, Scorpio in Saturn wasn’t benevolent to me. After a few wines with friends, I managed to drop a cup of tea on my laptop. Disaster! Here is a shot of my beloved, covered in rice in a vain attempt to absorb the moisture.
Polka dot posers at Luna Park
View from Luna Park
If you are ever suffering from the blues and live in Sydney, I recommend an outing to Luna Park. Take your real child, or your inner-child, and inhale all the exuberant energy and joy that to me represents Sydney. The location by the sparkling harbour ensures your senses are constantly assailed by gaiety and brilliant scenic blue views.
The adrenaline rush you get from the rides ensures you don’t have time to waste worrying over trivia – you are only concerned with surviving the next ten minutes.
I have to concede that if you have a fear of heights like yours truly, braving the Ferris Wheel in gale winds is probably not perfect timing to teach your daughter about facing fears.
I made the trek to Luna Park (and risked my spine on the Tango Dancer and Spider) as I have a brief scene in Currawong Manor featuring the iconic Sydney location.
Back to my edit for Currawong Manor. And if you are around for the Newtown Festival, I am appearing with Kate Forsyth in the Writers Tent. More information on that event HERE. Thank you for visiting me. Keep creative and keep sparkling. xx
I was delighted, astounded and totally gobsmacked to discover yesterday that Poet’s Cottage has made the shortlist for the annual Sisters in Crime Davitt Awards.
I wasn’t expecting to make the cut because the formidable 61-book longlist was filled with some amazing talent. But I’m so happy to see Poet’s Cottage shortlisted along with serial-Davitt winner/writing pal Katherine Howell, Sulari Gentill, Caroline Overington, Kathryn Fox, Norelle M Harris, Maggie Groff and Malla Nunn. I’m very thrilled to see my Tasmanian sea-fishing murder mystery alongside such talented Sisters in Crime. Including my old mate, Jen Storer with her Truly Tan book in the Young Adult/Children’s section. My eight year old, Daisy when I told her Truly Tan was nominated, said with a sympathetic expression, ‘Your book will NEVER beat her.’ You can always count on your tribe to cut you down to size. You can see the full shortlist HERE
When I first heard the news, I had to go for a run to calm down. A day later I’m still sitting with a grin wider than Luna Park.
I was transported back to Stanley, Tasmania, where the wild sea wind and spectacular scenery inspired the story of Poet’s Cottage. I still hear the faint sounds of Pearl’s gramophone playing, feel the cold sea breeze blow Birdie’s hair, and hear the stomp of the Bindi-Eye Man as he treads through Thomasina’s memory trailing damp, rotten seaweed in his wake.
I’m always happy that people have enjoyed reading the tale that whispered itself to me and has clung like the Tasmanian sea-mist for so many years. They were lovely characters to explore and I’m delighted they have made it to the Davitts.
I have included an image I love of Daphne du Maurier outside Menabilly, her sea-fishing ‘cottage’ that inspired Manderley from Rebecca (it’s from the book Daphne du Maurier At Home by Hilary Macaskill) and photos of my own trip to Stanley near the Tasmanian sea. It brings me such joy that local book clubs have gone to Stanley to discover the inspirations that inspired Poet’s Cottage.
Thank you for visiting me and may your story find you. xx
Hello,
I’ve returned from the mountains after a blissful week with my family. I roughed out some early drafts for my current mystery novel, which is an idea I’ve nursed for a couple of years. I have a title for this one and some early images, so feel very optimistic. My agent was also keen on the idea, so that’s coming together nicely. The mountains was a haven of winter sunlight, air spiked with goodness and the beauty of peace. It’s shocking to experience how differently you feel when your senses aren’t bombarded by constant traffic and aircraft. We bushwalked, slept a lot, read in front of the stove fire, explored the antique shops and it was all heaven. I also caught up with a couple of friends in the mountains including Kim Wilkins aka Kimberley Freeman who was on a research trip for a forthcoming book. It was very difficult to return to the city and the abruptness of a new school term.
I’m currently working on a coming-of-age novel that I’ve been tinkering around with for several years. I am very much in love with this project.
I’ve been reading a lot and catching up on books I’ve had on my ‘to-read’ list. The Somnambulist, a truly wonderful Gothic Victorian mystery by Essie Fox. The Poison Tree by Erin Kelly, Citadel by Kate Mosse and The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. I do plan to do some proper reviews when I get a chance. I’m getting very behind with my reviews for Australian Women Writers.
I’m pleased to see Poet’s Cottage is on the long list for the Davitt Awards for mystery and crime writing. Even more thrilled to see the list had a record number of entries. 63 books have been nominated this year which is a statement that mystery and crime writing is booming in Australian publishing.
And I’m also thrilled to know that book clubs are enjoying Poet’s Cottage. When I get a chance I’m planning on creating a website with a book club section. I was contacted on my Author Facebook page this week by a lovely lady who is taking a walking tour to Stanley this weekend as her book club is reading the book in the nearby town of Wynyard. I couldn’t think of a more spectacular back drop for a book club meeting.
I love this recent Vogue cover featuring Sofia Coppola. Sofia was one of the inspirations behind my character Elizabeth, a photographer in the present-day thread of Currawong Manor. I needed somebody who was powerful, but in a gentle, soothing type of way. I’m a big fan of all of Sofia Coppola’s movies.
I finally caught up with The Great Gatsby (probably the last person in Sydney to see it). I saw it with Artschool Annie and we both relished the painterly interpretation that Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin brought to the book. It made me feel like re-reading The Great Gatsby.
And thank you to all who entered my Giveaway both here and on Facebook. It is now past the full moon and so as promised I have drawn a winner. Congratulations ROBYN JONES. Please PM me your address and I shall post your books to you.
Johnny Depp meeting Dr Gayle Dine’ Chacon from the Navajo nation while filming The Lone Ranger
Thank you for visiting me. Keep creative. I hope you enjoyed the full moon period. It’s a favourable time to rid yourself of everything holding you back from achieving your dreams.
Women’s Crime isn’t always cozy – a fab Amanda Wrangles card
Hello,
I have been quiet on the blog as I’m on deadline for my latest edit of Currawong Manor but wanted to pop in quickly and announce a giveaway on Tale Peddler.
As I’m so busy at the moment this giveaway will run for a month but I will remind folks weekly and it also gives you more chances to win.
I’ve just returned from Melbourne where I was a guest for Sisters in Crime along with fellow Tasmanian writers Poppy Gee and Livia Day for a panel called Something Rotten in the Apple Isle. Lindy Cameron chaired the panel.
This was a fun night and it was so great to finally meet Poppy and Livia and to be reunited with the Sisters in Crime of Melbourne.
Sisters in Crime, Lindy Cameron, Carmel Shute and Josephine Pennicott
For the evening I read Poppy and Livia’s books and they are both excellent although different in style and setting. All three books are set in Tasmania which is what inspired our panel . Livia’s A Trifle Dead is set in urban and hip Hobart and is a really funny and gripping read. And Poppy’s book is set on the stunningly beautiful East Coast of Tasmania and describes the ripple effect amongst a small community when the body of a dead girl is washed ashore.
Josephine Pennicott with Amanda Wrangles and Leigh Redhead
We discussed Tasmania as Muse, our own childhoods in Tasmania, some well-known murder cases in Tasmania and how our books were inspired by the landscape. We also touched on motherhood and writing and how difficult it can be to produce work when you also want to be there for your children. Thank you to the audience who braved a chill winter’s evening to hear us speak and also to Sisters in Crime for inviting me to be part of the event. I have shared a few photographs taken at the night on my Instagram. There are two Sisters in Crime in particular the beautiful Leigh Redhead and Amanda Wrangles who always seem to bring out my inner trout pout. Amanda Wrangles is the talented artist behind the beautiful cards in the photo. They are not included in the giveaway but I couldn’t resist showing them off.
But – back to the giveaway. I’m sure you have guessed it by now…
One person will win a signed copy of our three books and so a complete set of Something Rotten in the Apple Isle books. This competition is open world wide and so if you’re overseas and have been longing for a print version of one of our books you now have a chance to win ALL THREE. It makes a unique and lovely gift for the crime and mystery reader in your life.
And it’s super easy to enter! To be eligible to win – either do one of the following:
leave a comment below this post to let me know you would like to be placed in my Magic Sorting Hat
or
leave a comment on my personal or Author Facebook page
or
leave a comment on my Twitter message regarding the giveaway
or
leave a comment on my Good Reads giveaway. (As soon as I figure out how to work a Good Reads giveaway.)
AND if you SHARE the competition on your social networking sites and let me know you have shared, you get an extra chance!
AND every week when I remind if you SHARE AGAIN you get an extra chance in my Magic Sorting Hat.
I have loads of things I want to blog about including my impressions of the Sydney Writers’ Festival but for now back to the edit.
Some might find the taxidermy displays macabre, but I loved the surreal cuteness of the animals in dioramas such as The Death and Burial of Cock Robin (which took Mr Potter seven years to complete and included 98 species of British birds along with a weeping robin widow and a grave-digging owl); his rabbit school with rabbits writing on slates; and kitten tea parties. 
Intricate details featured on all of his work – including frilly knickers on kittens. There were also many other interesting and strange curios, enough to spend hours browsing. 
Mr Potter’s Museum of Curiosities began life in Bramber, Sussex, England. 
As a teenager, Walter Potter’s fascination with taxidermy started when he attempted to preserve the life of his pet canary. The Death and Burial of Cock Robin was a massive success. 
So many people were keen to witness his tableaus that a special platform had to be built at Bramber train station to accommodate the hordes of tourists arriving to view it. 
After Mr Potter’s death at 82, his daughter and grandson took over the business. Public taste in taxidermy had now waned and the displays were considered in poor taste.
Sadly, when the museum finally went to auction, a one-million pound bid by Damien Hirst to keep the collection intact was rejected, which meant various pieces were sold separately. Hirst wrote a piece for the Guardian HERE called, Mr Potter, Stuffed Rats and Me.
And a link HERE with Kate Mosse talking about her fascination with Walter Potter and his museum.
