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Many authors write about that ‘black-out’ time. Some call it ‘writer’s block’. Others just think they need a rest. All I know is that not getting stuck into my normal activity is discomforting. I don’t have time right now to start anything new, and those completed ms need to sit for a while before they receive another draft. I need to view them objectively and that can’t happen when my eyes glaze over what I recently wrote as it’s all too familiar.

Instead I have been working in what feels like a food factory. We have four plum and four apple trees. What the visiting rosellas, blackbirds and wattlebirds decide in their infinity generosity to leave to us humans, I either freeze – and this means loads and loads of apples. When it comes to the plums I make into a sauce I use in cooking. Some is even turned into jam. This year I went that further step by buying up tomatoes and making chutney. I had hoped to make it spicy but somewhere between the store and home, I lost the chili. It’s okay, though I still think the chili would have added a decent kick.

This week I am off to Sydney where I will eventually hit the NSW Writers Centre to run an all day workshop on ‘writing memoir’. I love visiting Sydney as I have always found it an exciting city. The other day I was listening to Howard Jacobson describe his years in Sydney as an academic. He agrees with me about Sydney’s vibrancy, but complains that the atmosphere wasn’t congenial for work. Rather Sydney is a city for having fun.

He may be right! I’d be interested to hear what other authors think about various cities that either inspire us to work, or offer hints there might be more enjoyable ways to spend our time.

THANK YOU GEORGE IVANOFF FOR THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE.

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George says:
When doing school visits I’m often asked how I come up with names for my characters. I thought this would make an interesting topic for a blog post. So, here goes…

Names are important, in that they can give you an immediate first impression about a character. Names can contribute to how a reader perceives a character. So I rarely just pluck random names out of the ether. My characters’ names are always considered and chosen for a reason.

In my Gamers novels, different names have been chosen for different reasons. Let’s start with the two main characters Tark and Zyra. These teenagers inhabit a fantastical computer game world, so I wanted names that reflected that world. They couldn’t be ordinary names. They had to be fantasy names. But, I didn’t want to have names that were too long or difficult to pronounce. I wanted short simple names that worked well together (as Tark and Zyra are a team) and that would be easy to remember and pronounce. I tried out lots of different combinations and variations before finally settling on Tark and Zyra.

By contrast, the personas that Tark and Zyra take on when they enter the ‘Suburbia’ game environment needed to sound ordinary, and even a little twee, in order to match the environment. Again, they also needed to work together. I remember trying out names beginning with the same letter. I had Tim and Tina at one point… but I decided that was a bit too much. So I ended up choosing John and Tina.

With the villains, I decided that the names should reflect their characteristics. The Fat Man was named as he was because he is very fat. He is also hungry for power, so the name’s association with possible gluttony worked in nicely. The Cracker gets his named from his habit of cracking his knuckles. That name also has threatening connotations, which is appropriate for a thug.

With Princeling Galbrath, I wanted a name that sounded like it could be both a person and a place. Something a bit stuffy and regal. Again, I played around with a number of names before settling on Princling Galbrath from the Principality of Galbrath.

Then there’s the dragon and his enormous wife. I wanted them to have fairly ordinary names because, although they are far from ordinary, there is an ordinariness to their lives. They are married like ordinary people… and this extraordinary woman married her dragon all in the name of money. But I also wanted the names to be a bit old-fashioned, as the dragon was quite elderly. So I opted for Edgar the dragon and his wife Vera.

Sometimes, names can also be symbolic. The second book, Gamers’ Challenge, introduces a new character. She is part of a community of people who refuse to abide by the rules and do not play the game in which they are trapped. She is very special and the community have a great deal of hope in her being their salvation. And so, naturally, I named her Hope.

As a writer, I enjoy coming up with names for my characters. And as a reader, I enjoy considering the character names in the books I’m reading — looking at the connection between character and name. It’s lots of fun. The Harry Potter books are really good for this — there is a werewolf named Lupin; and Sirius Black is a wizard who turns into a black dog. As I said… lots of fun!

George Ivanoff is a Melbourne author and stay-at-home dad. He has written over 50 books for kids and teens, as well as many articles and short stories. He is best know for his Gamers books — teen novels set within a computer game world. The first book, Gamers’ Quest, won a 2010 Chronos Award and is on the reading lists for the Victorian and NSW Premiers’ Reading Challenges. For information about George’s writing and school visits, check out his webiste: http://georgeivanoff.com.au

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As a community, we are only too ready to condemn any report of racism or anti-feminism, or anything else for that matter. Yet The Age newspaper report of a study done by Dr. Lauren Saling of Charles Stuart University serves to reinforce certain unfortunate attitudes.

This study claims to prove that older people are ‘less able to tell a coherent story’, often repeat themselves, have no ‘form of self-correction’, find it harder to receive information, particularly when it comes to medical matters and consequently are a danger to themselves and others.

Because this study has been poorly reported, possibly due to lack of space, it’s open to a number of queries. Which senior citizens did Dr Saling use in her study? This report reads that even if these seniors were considered ‘healthy’, that we don’t really know whether these seniors have had very little education or are even half way to dementia. It emphasises a current belief that once people are over a certain age, that they’re overly loquacious, can no longer be considered useful, and the sooner they disappear the better as that will leave room for younger generations.

I hear too many accounts of schools, tertiary institutions, government and private firms persuading their older employees to leave so they can employ younger, and therefore cheaper, workers… who then have to figure out all over again how to design the wheel.

As a working writer/facilitator, I meet many elderly folk who volunteer in institutions that would be lost without their help. They are also instrumental in raising grandchildren, thus saving considerable cost on state funded child care. I meet them when they are writing up their personal stories so future generations will know something of our history, much of which is forgotten or ignored. It’s my experience that these seniors are as sharp as the latest ceramic knife, even if they find the latest technology a little more bewildering.

But this is a generation, often in their seventies, eighties and nineties, who ‘boiled nappies in a copper’, bought food from horse drawn trucks, had outside dunnies, and can recall every detail of what Australia was like in pre and post World War 2. This generation has been through more social and technological change than ever experienced by anyone before, and mostly they handle it very well.

But I’m talking about Melbourne. It’s possible that Perth’s harsher desert climate leads to a greater need for eye-glasses, hearing aids and memory expansion techniques.

If anyone wants to disagree about younger folk not being equally repetitive, I would suggest that they run a critical eye over twitter and Facebook where the vocabulary is limited to approximately two hundred words.

It’s always been a source of amusement to me that if was run over by a bus, the media report would first state my age as being of prime importance, then my gender. Only if I was lucky enough, it might mention how I have spent the best part of my life.

So could we please have fewer articles about the dangers of growing old? There is, after all only one alternative to aging and I don’t think most of us are rushing towards it.

This was rapidly followed by my other ‘hat’ when I ran an all day seminar for the Port Phillip Council on ‘mentoring memoirs’. I had a surprising number of willing participants, 16 in all, and so many different nationalities, you wouldn’t believe. I had foolishly opted to provide food for the day. I will never do htis again, as this was most stressful. If you don’t know how many people are turning up, how can youknow how much food to provide? Loaves and fishes? From now on it will be only tea, coffee and biscuits.

Then a busy morning at Kilbreda Catholic College, with an audience of some 250 girls. They were so quiet and attentive I worried that I sent them to sleep? Hope not as they did ask some pertinent questions.

Then another seminar in the Hawthorn Community centre where the participants were predominantly Anglo, and gave a different slant on writing memoir. It was held in the mayoral chambers and I have to admit that I have never spoken in such an august setting.

My final gig yesterday was in the Rosebud Library and a workshop of some 14 who want to ‘Write Crime’. I was delighted when a 13 YO boy joined us. Seems his teachers keep saying ‘Your stories are too gruesome.’ Hmm. I did mention that I don’t always finish books if I don’t think I have enough years left in me and I’m not taken with the writing. At this, our youngster’s face was worth a photo.

This week I also had the opportunity to meet the very clever genealogist Shauna Hicks. If anyone is interested in tracing their family tree, I suggest you check out
http://www.unlockthepast.com.au/blogs/shauna-hicks

Presently, I am preparing for a busy October. I will be on two panels with Catherine Jinks and Sue Bursztynski at the SheKilda Festival, speaking about writing crime for young readers. This venue is rapidly followed by my other ‘hat’ when I’m running an all day seminar for the Port Phillip Council on ‘mentoring memoirs’. So far I have had a surprising number of willing participants. Should be an interesting day for all concerned.

b. I’ve recently finished writing my first novel “Change of Pace”, which was inspired by my move from Singapore to a miniscule seaside village in Crete. In Change of Pace Anna Cox, turns thirty, gets dumped and fired in one unfortunate week. She subsequently books a last-minute one-way ticket to Greece in a moment of uncharacteristic spontaneity and winds up on a Greek island.

c. When I’m not scribbling down story ideas or walking Taxi Driver (my Yorkie) I’m wearing my Financial Controller hat at Essen&Essen – a coaching and mentoring company.

d. Excerpt from Change of Pace (Anna contemplating her new life) :

Time moves differently here. Hours and minutes seem less relevant. Days float and blend into one another. Of course, I am still aware of time ticking inexorably away as it always does. Here it does so more gently though, with more consideration and grace. Even the alarm clock on my nightstand, which I’ve set to ring at seven o’clock in the morning, wakes me with a less brutal ring than the one I have back home.

e. In ten years time I hope to have written another ten novels! That’s my goal. Now I just have to roll up my sleeves, focus, and get to work. Some days, that is easier to say than do. But nothing worth doing in life comes easily.

Car-Crimes: the 2nd Aussie A~Z PI Mystery for kids

I’m delighted that the 2nd of this crime series for kids is about to to appear. Hopefully I will be able to introduce it at the SheKilda BIG event coming up in October.

Briefly, this is another of my Aussie ‘Famous Five’ series. Again this odd quintuplet of kids and rat solve a crime committed by other youngsters based on a true happening.

When Taylor Ferrini, a Grevillea College student and the fourth member of the ‘Zoo’ gang, is accused of
stealing luxury car insignias from Shortland Mall’s multi-story car-park, and in the process injuring a security guard, Anna and Zach, and their friends – Ruby, Brett and M- are asked to help prove his
innocence.

Writing a series is great fun, as the characters and their motivations have already been established. The reader of ‘Car-Crimes’ that might know ‘Hedgeburners’ is aware that Anna is an A-type personality who wants to solve crimes, that Zach keeps many animals and is behind in his homework, that Brett is a bit of a wimp, that Ruby is a keen wrestler and that M is a ‘friendly’ rat with an invaluable ability to creep into hidden corners.

I am also getting interest in Mentoring Your Memoir workshop coming up in the Betty Day Centre on the 11th October. This is funded by the Port Phillip Council and will be an all day event. I have room for 15 participants and it should be great fun.

Friday, I was at Cribpoint Primary, a smaller school with a ‘family feel’ where I spoke to all year levels. I sometimes forget how little Preps are and how much needs to be explained. This came to me half way through their session when it appeared that the kids hadn’t realised that I was the author of the book I was reading to them- a salutary reminder of never assuming the audience knows what you’re talking about.
We had our official launch of ‘Cameleers’ and Jason came from the Leader newspaper to photograph myself with the two school captains. Jason and I had met before so I suggested that this time we photo-shopped a little. He just laughed so I know the paper will pick the worst…. at least it will be in my eyes even if no one else agrees.

I was planning to take a break in September from the ‘writing game’ but unfortunately I was a car accident last week so that ended that. Instead I’m nursing a sore back, looking for a new car and wondering if I’ve lost my nerve. Where I live, cars drive like the fury mostly ignoring all speed limits. It can be pretty scary.

The other novel ‘Room’, which has become a ‘cause celebre’ in Canada, certainly uses a remarkable voice to describe the narrow world where the narrator lives, a room where inanimate objects take on personalities of their own and are referred to in capitals. The idea, based on the kidnappings of young girls in Europe, certainly carried a narrative line. But I had to read half way into what is really a very long book for ‘something different to start happening’. Why do authors feel they have to write so much? With the ebook, I suspect this will become worse as there will be more books, less editors and no one around to prune.

Maybe I’m not sophisticated enough to judge adult literary fiction. Nevertheless, that leads me to peruse the importance of the ‘narrative line’ when writing for youngsters. I don’t think anyone would dare write a novel or a short story for kids without a plot. Plots are universal. They occur in all our folktales. Imagine ‘Red Riding Hood’ without a plot. Where would we end the story? At the wolf lying in grandma’s bed? Would it consist of a description of how the wolf eats grandma? And how Red Riding Hood, while strolling through the woods admires every tree, mushroom and squirrel? Spare me! I know a lot of literary fiction aims to reduce narrative drive to a minimum. In the wake of Virginia Wolf and James Joyce, they prefer to set up a character or situation and play around with that. But even these works contained plots. Subtle ones maybe, but they exist. Doesn’t Bloom spend twenty-four hours battling monsters whose roots are based on the Odyssey?

So my advice to would be authors is to keep both plot and subplots firmly in your mind as you write and try not to be too clever. When it comes to kids, that kind of cleverness rarely works.

All this reminds me to add that my latest Grevillea Murder Mystery which absolutely no pretensions if literary fiction is now available in hard copy and selling at $25.00 plus postage. I do like the cover which was designed by Sylvia Blair of BookPod. here it is again.

Unfair Coverup