Belated reading and delayed writing: Child 44 and Game of Thrones

Hello again. It’s been a while, hasn’t it? But here we are again, this time pacing the boards in anticipation of MWF 2011. I’m very happy to be back here with Simon Keck and new MWF bloggers Jo Case and Stephanie Honor Convery; we’ll have an excellent time of it, I’m sure.

In the interim, I’ve been dividing my time between Oxford University Press, where I’m an editor; Kill Your Darlings, where I’m the Online Editor; writing about books here and there; and my online equivalent of a childhood house in the suburbs, 3000 BOOKS, where I try (with decreasing success) to record something about every book I read.

I have less and less time to stick to the project these days, but it’s a good little system. On the one hand, while my untidy mind is likely to forget the details of a novel just read, or even a short story twice read, the internet never forgets. (Just try googling “Billy Joel demo tape”.) But on the other hand – and the other hand never has anything nice up its sleeve – it’s mortifying to realise how slowly I get through books, and to books. For example, only this year did I read Tom Rob Smith’s 2008 Booker-longlisted Child 44 (Smith was a MWF guest in 2009). The third book in his Cold War-era thriller series about secret police member Leo Demidov is coming out next month in the UK. So, while Smith has managed to write two follow-up books in the intervening years, I’ve only managed to read one of them. Luckily someone has their priorities straight.

Speaking of follow-up books, I was recently intrigued by Laura Miller’s piece in the New Yorker about George R. R. Martin, author of the medieval politics-meets-fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire. Titled ‘Just Write It!’, Miller’s piece describes several groups in Martin’s large and passionate fanbase, one faction of which has taken against the author for not yet having delivered the fifth book in the series (Martin predicts that there will eventually be seven books in total). The fourth book, A Feast for Crows, was published in 2005.

That’s a pretty long wait. But of course, like a fool, I thought it would be a great idea to start reading the series regardless. I’m now halfway through the second book, but I have no idea why I would torture myself with the prospect of a perpetual cliffhanger, particularly in a series noted for its complexity and non-traditional reward–morality ratio. (Martin has said that the fifth book will be published in July this year, and a television series based on the books may provide some relief should the book not materialise.) Even more a fool, I want to finish the book (a mere dash at 744 pages) before I hop on a plane for New York this Thursday.

Anyhow, we’ll see how that goes. I’ll also be planning my holiday reading this week. I’m going to New York and Iceland, and am planning my book stash accordingly. More on that soon.

Thrillers and two first names

Tom Rob Smith

Tom Rob Smith‘s name not only breaks the ‘only one first name’ rule, it also seemed to break the internet when I typed it into the MWF search box. Consider the pictorial accompaniment to this post hard won, people. I also wrenched this post from the jaws of the unforgiving Federation Square wi-fi. Maybe someone out there didn’t want this to be posted. [DODGY SEGUE ALERT] Sounds like something out of Stalinist Russia.

Many different paths can lead to writing books. For Tom Rob Smith, it was a personal assessment, or reassessment, of what it was he liked about writing. Though he studied literature at Cambridge, he felt that ‘stylistic’ concerns weren’t his strong point, and he found himself searching for what it was he loved in writing. Eventually, he realised that it was the all-encompassing allure of story that kept him writing, whether across film, television or novel formats. This love of story is evident in Child 44, which was originally conceived as a film, but became his first book — a Booker-shortlisted book, no less. Child 44 tells the story of a serial killer who got away with his crimes because Stalinist Russia refused to admit that he, or any crime, existed. Interested in the idea of a state that is more dangerous than the serial killer himself, Smith found that the setting of Stalinist Russia was a natural fit for the thriller aspects of his story: jeopardy came from everywhere, not just the ‘criminal’; the paranoia and fear of the time arose as startlingly from the state itself.

Volunteers Ahoy

Well, it’s been an action packed week. First thing Monday morning I accidentally deleted our entire database of volunteers. In my defence, the ‘delete this user’ and ‘delete all users’ buttons are VERY close together. I can’t express the relief I felt when I announced to Helenka what I’d done and she laughed instead of throwing something at me. I’d already trawled through my mind to work out how many of those three hundred names, addresses and phone numbers I could recall (none) but luckily the system had been backed up the night before so a phone call to our IT guy had the list recovered in half an hour. My only punishment was to do the coffee run and by then I was totally ready for a coffee anyway.

Monday night was our volunteer briefing at BMW Edge. That type of thing always feels a bit like a birthday party with the obligatory few hours of fear that no one will turn up. To my relief we had a great crowd, around 130 people, and I’ve been meeting with other small groups of volunteers all week. So many fabulous people! I can tell it’s going to be an amazing team.

Now I’m working on scheduling everyone to their preferred roles and it’s the time of year where the words ‘I don’t envy you at all’ are constantly being thrown at me. This means many hours working my way through the program, assessing where I need to place people and trying to marry that with where people want to be placed. Of course I’m forever wandering off on tangents, reading up on different writers and events. The events at the Toff and Festival Club look fabulous and I’m excited about Craft Hatch. All of these crossovers between words, music, art and craft totally have my heart.

\In response to Nina in her blog below, No Nina, it’s not just you, Tom Rob Smith is hot. If you would like me to write him a love letter on your behalf maybe you should check out my new website Clothing For Correspondence. And you could give me that red cape you are wearing today in return.

Jane
Volunteer Coordinator

Crimes within Crimes

Is it just me or is Tom Rob Smith a hottie? I don’t mean to be pervy or anything, but check him out on YouTube talking about his debut novel from last year, Child 44. He’s written another one since then, The Secret Speech, and he’s still so young! I think he’s 30 at the most. (Too young for me anyway).

Child 44 is a thriller set in Stalinist Russia and based on the true story of serial killer Andrei Chikatilo, also known as the Butcher of Rostov. Child 44 was long-listed for the 2008 Man Booker Prize, it won the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger award for best thriller of 2008, and it has been translated into 17 languages. Not to mention that the film rights have been sold to Ridley Scott/Fox 2000!

The novel Tom Rob (or is that just Tom?) is promoting in his visit – all the way from London – to the festival is The Secret Speech. Again it’s gripping, cinematic (not surprising as he is also a screen-writer) filled with historical detail about the post-Stalin period in Russia and contains characters you can care about.

One festival session I will definitely be rushing to get a front-row seat for is Crimes Within Crimes . This session is where the lovely Tom Rob meets our very own Crime King Marshall Browne.

Marshall Browne is the author of thirteen books of fiction. Several of his detective novels and thrillers have been published in the US and other countries to critical acclaim. His novels are set in various places including historical Melbourne and Japan, but his two Franz Schmidt novels,  The Eye of the Abyss and The Iron Heart, are set in Hitler’s Germany. The Eye of the Abyss was a Gumshoe Award finalist, a Publisher’s Weekly Best Book, and one of The Australian’s Books of the Year. The Iron Heart is his latest novel.

In The Iron Heart Franz Schmidt arrives in Berlin in January 1939 to take up the position of Chief Auditor at the Reichsbank, the financial heart of the Third Reich. As he battles with political intrigue,  murder, power, and the Gestapo, Schmidt’s brief becomes clear. He must steal a copy of the Reich’s financing blueprint in an attempt to prevent the country’s march to war.

Tickets are still available to Crimes Within Crimes, which promises to be a fascinating discussion of how war and chaos can provide the perfect cover for other crimes. I recommend it for couples. Why? Because it has something for everyone: war and history, fascinating back-ground stories and characters, interesting settings and a little bit of eye candy too. Depending on your taste of course.

Nina
Development Manager

All Our Workshops are Now ON SALE!

Bookings are open for the Melbourne Writers Festival Workshop Program. The Festival celebrates the fact that we’re a city of readers and writers, by offering audiences a fantastic range of workshops, masterclasses and seminars with our visiting authors. When bringing writers from around the world (and around Australia), it seems unwise not to utilise their knowledge and thus our program of Workshops & Seminars has been developed to develop our local talents.

Workshops are for all-comers, no matter what their level of experience, while masterclasses are for those with some record of publishing success. More details will be found on the MWF website. Masterclasses and workshops are limited to just 14 participants so those classes tend to book out very quickly.

This year’s workshops include:

Tom Rob Smith (UK) on Commerce & Creativity
Lisa Lutz (US) on Giving Voice to Unique Characters
Kate De Goldi (NZ) on Writing Fiction for Children
Wells Tower (Canada) on Writing Short Stories
Jessa Crispin (US) on Being a Critic During the Death of Print
Wayson Choy (Canada) on The Secrets of Memoir Writing – Truth or Consequences?

Our masterclasses include:

John Boyne (UK) on Historical Fiction
M J Hyland (UK) on How to Write Good Fiction – From First Draft to Last
Philip Hensher (UK) on Building Character

Our seminars include:

Aspects of the Novel, with Philip Hensher (UK) & Wayson Choy (Canada)
Aspects of Fantasy with Margo Lanagan (NSW)
Aspects of History with Glen David Gold (US) & Alexander Waugh (UK)
Aspects of Thrillers & Mysteries with Jewell Rhodes (US) and Tom Rob Smith (UK)

Finally, to give an insight into the world of publishing, the festival runs The Whole Shebang, our intensive day-long workshop for emerging writers. This is a very popular day and features conversations on the author–editor relationship, grant writing, ways to get published and how to create you own success, in addition to presentations from all the key organisations. This day is an essential starting point for all those wanting to begin their writing career.

Details and bookings for the 2009 MWF Professional Development Sessions.