Best of the ACW Archives - Book Review: Sway by Amy Matayo

Review by Andrea Grigg  @andreagrigg 

You know how a book sometimes just grabs you by the throat …

Catherine Hudson recommended Sway to me (in an almost incoherent message punctuated with exclamation marks) so I knew it would be good. I’d never heard of Amy Matayo so I checked her out on Amazon. There were two previous books and I read those first. Glad I did it that way around. They were entertaining, but Sway? Whoa.

Yes, it’s a romance. That’s the bulk of what I read. And I think it’s because Caleb and Kate take turns in telling us the story in first person, present tense that the story is extra special. And Amy Matayo’s use of imagery and figurative language is fabulous along with a bunch of pithy statements like: 

'Assumptions aren’t usually pretty, and they’re hardly ever right. Kind of like thinking a girl is shallow just because she likes the colour pink.’ 

Love it.

Read more at the following link:

http://australasianchristianwriters.blogspot.com.au/2015/06/book-review-sway-by-amy-mattayo.html

Best of the ACW Archives - A world without books | Jo-Anne Berthelsen

By Jo-Anne Berthelsen  @ACWriters

Recently, I heard a story about a young woman who was moving house. She happens to own quite a few books and these had been packed in boxes ready for the big day. Now the number of books she owned did not seem over the top to her, so she was quite taken aback by the conversation that ensued when the young male removalists arrived. 

‘This box sure is heavy—what’s in it?’ 

‘Books—I’ve written it on the box here. And I wrote "More books" on this one and "Even More Books" on that one. And there’s one over there that says "Still more books!"’ 

The young men were dumbfounded.

Read more at the following link.

http://australasianchristianwriters.blogspot.com.au/2015/07/a-world-without-books-jo-anne-berthelsen.html

Best of the ACW Archives ~ Book Review: Swallow Me, NOW! by Melissa Gijsbers

Book Review from Narelle Atkins

Book Description:

All Sam wants to do is to fit in at her new school. Feeling alone, and desperately trying to find her place in the world, she concocts an AMAZING story - BUT it backfires on her, and she becomes known as the 'Evil Genius's Daughter!' Can her life get any worse?

Narelle's Thoughts:

I enjoyed reading Swallow Me, NOW! and I read the whole story in one sitting. The story is easy to read and the target audience is children aged 7-12 years.

Sam is in Year Five and the story starts on Sam's first day at a new primary (elementary) school in suburban Melbourne.

Read more at the following link:

http://australasianchristianwriters.blogspot.com.au/2015/04/book-review-swallow-me-now-by-melissa.html

Best of the ACW Archives ~ Confessions of a Writing Contest Junkie

By Carolyn Miller @CarolynMAuthor

Hi. My name is Carolyn, and I’ve been a writing contest junkie.

Since a random sighting at the closing ceremony of the Vancouver Winter Olympics first grabbed my attention and refused to let go (why was the Australian girl holding hands with an American? What was their story?), I’ve been addicted to writing ‘what ifs’. Pretty soon I started wondering if my stories had enough merit to be valued by people other than me (and my kind, so very kind, family and friends…)

So started my contest journey.

Read more at the following link:

http://australasianchristianwriters.blogspot.com.au/2015/04/confessions-of-writing-contest-junkie.html

Best of the ACW Archives - Romance, Bromance ...

An Interview from Andrea Grigg  @andreagrigg

Image courtesy of Ambro at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Two men. 

One lives on New Zealand’s Kapiti Coast, the other resides in Sydney Australia. 

One is a sixty-something retired science teacher, the other a fifty-something author and strategy consultant. 

They’ve never met, spoken, or been aware of each other’s existence (until this blog post). And yet they share an unusual commonality. They both read Christian romance novels. 

How wonderful is that! Men – reading romance novels! I’m sure there are others out there, but these are the only two I know of and I’m intrigued. Why does this genre interest them? I wanted to find out. 

Before I get started with the questions though, let me introduce you to our guests. The guy across the ditch is Ross Callaghan, and the Sydney-sider is none other than our own Ian Acheson.

Read more at the following link:

http://australasianchristianwriters.blogspot.com.au/2015/07/romance-bromance.html

Best of the ACW Archives: Book Recommendation ~ I Always Cry at Weddings by Sara Goff

Book Recommendation from Narelle Atkins @NarelleAtkins

Book Description:

Ava Larson is going to bring all the other brides to tears.

Engaged to a wealthy NYC socialite's son, Ava is ready to set the city abuzz with her glamorous wedding. At least until she realizes her relationship isn't what it should be. Then, in a move as daring as a red satin dress, she does the unthinkable--she calls it all off and makes a promise to God that from now on, she'll save sex for marriage. She's convinced the future is hers for the taking, especially when an undercover cop promises a new romance...and an unexpected friendship with the homeless guy under her stoop brightens her days. But when her carefully balanced life teeters out of control, weddings aren't the only thing to make her cry. Ava has to figure out what life she really wants to live...and what in the world love really means.

Narelle's Thoughts:

I Always Cry at Weddings is Sara Goff's delightful debut novel set in New York City. The story is a contemporary romantic comedy that's different to many other books in the Christian fiction genre. Ava comes across as a little shallow at the start of the story. She has spoiled princess moments, and she takes for granted the privileges that accompany her glamourous New York City lifestyle. We see Ava evolve and grow as the story progresses and her life circumstances become more challenging.

Read more at the following link:

http://australasianchristianwriters.blogspot.com.au/2015/11/book-recommendation-i-always-cry-at.html

Best of the ACW Archives ~ Character, Character, Character!

By Andrea Grigg  @andreagrigg

Heard of the movie? I’d read a couple of reviews, watched the trailer, and knew it was sad. So, armed with tissues, five of us toddled off to the local cinema.

Everything seemed normal at first. There were the usual sounds of lolly bags being wrestled open, frozen Cokes hurtling up straws, low-key chatter during the ads and previews. And then, the instant the movie began, a collective ‘Awwwwwww?’ erupted from all around us. Loud, shrill, and very, very female.

Read more at the following link:

http://australasianchristianwriters.blogspot.com.au/2014/07/character-character-character.html

Best of the ACW Archives ~ Coming Up Short

Image courtesy of Apolonia at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

By Jeanette O'Hagan

Short changed, short-sheeted and the short straw. Nobody likes coming up short - or do they? There are some shorts we may enjoy; shorts or short sleeves in hot weather, short blacks - and short stories.

After all, many of the biblical stories are short (Ruth, Jonah, Esther, and Jesus’ parables). They may be short but they still give a powerful and even life changing message. How much impact has the parable of the Prodigal Son or the Good Samaritan had over the centuries? Grims' fairy tales, Aesop’s Fables, Rudyard Kipling’s Just So stories, Edgar Allen Poe’s stories, even the adventures of Sherlock Holmes or many of Isaac Asimov’s classic tales (like 'The Bicentennial Man') are told in short story form.

Read more at the following link:

http://australasianchristianwriters.blogspot.com.au/2015/04/coming-up-short.html

Best of the ACW Archives ~ Introducing NetGalley

By Iola Goulton

A few weeks back, I posted a link to NetGalley to the Australasian Christian Writers Facebook page, and someone responded, “What’s NetGalley?’ This post is for you (and anyone else who is wondering!).

What is NetGalley?

NetGalley is a service to provide “professional readers”, including book bloggers like me, with electronic versions of upcoming releases. Trade publishers have produced paper Advance Review Copies (ARCs) for years, mailing them to newspapers, magazines and key review sites and influencers in the hope of gaining favourable pre-publication reviews. Amazon led the rise of the customer reviewer, and the Kindle made expensive paper versions even more of a luxury. Why mail paper, when you can email a file?

This is where NetGalley comes in, providing secure electronic ARCs to over 215,000 booksellers, media, librarians, educators and reviewers who use NetGalley, with around 50% of users visiting the site more than nine times a month (I admit: I am one of those).

Read more at the following link:

http://australasianchristianwriters.blogspot.com.au/2015/02/introducing-netgalley.html

Best of the ACW Archives ~ Creative Nonfiction Part 3

By Nola Passmore

Keeping it Vivid

Last week, I looked at how scenes and dialogue can be used to create story in nonfiction. Vivid imagery can help readers experience the world of your story and give them a reason for staying. Here are some tips for doing that.

The Five Senses

Writers typically highlight sights and sounds when describing a setting, but it’s easy to forget smell, touch and taste. It would be overkill to work all five of the senses into every scene, but see if you can drop in one or two where relevant.

Describing the place where her friend's mother was dying, Lynette D’Amico writes that “death is invisible in the room that smells fur-lined, like a mouse cave. So many candles are burning, the daughters pant and glow.” That brief account gives a sense of what it was actually like to be in the room.

Read more at the following link:

http://australasianchristianwriters.blogspot.com.au/2015/03/creative-nonfiction-part-3-nola-passmore.html

Best of the ACW Archives ~ Creative Nonfiction Part 2

By Nola Passmore

It's Okay to Make a Scene

Novels and movies are typically made up of scenes: little stories or vignettes that progress the plot in some way. Perhaps it’s a glimpse into the protagonist’s character, the foreshadowing of a tricky situation, a skinny latté between friends or a phone call that sets off a rippling chain of events. The point is that something happens. However, scenes are more than the playthings of fiction writers; they’re “the building blocks of creative nonfiction” (Gutkind, 2012, p. 107).

Anna Elkins’ award-winning essay about her travels in Israel includes visits to thermal pools, a kibbutz and Roman ruins, but never reads like a travelogue. There’s peril, interpersonal encounters and deeper questions of life and meaning. She writes beautifully (e.g. “two contrails met in a calligraphy of white”), but another reason the story is so engaging is that it’s told almost entirely in scenes. If you have ten minutes to spare, it’s well worth reading Of Danger and Beauty. I count five major scenes. The first takes place in Tel Aviv where a missile is intercepted. The second involves Anna and her friend Tsach having a dip in the Dead Sea. Can you identify the other three?

Read more at the following link:

http://australasianchristianwriters.blogspot.com.au/2015/03/creative-nonfiction-part-2-nola-passmore.html

Best of the ACW Archives ~ Creative Nonfiction Part 1

By Nola Passmore

If It's Creative and Nonfiction, Does That Mean We Make It Up?

I once went on a mission trip to Mexico as part of Youth With A Mission. Our first outreach in Guadalajara was organised by a group of Christian women who wanted to share the gospel in their neighbourhood. We performed some dramas to a crowd of about forty to fifty. Then one of the local pastors preached a short message and asked people to indicate if they’d like to receive Christ. The entire group came forward for prayer. It was an incredibly moving experience and we were full of praise and thanks to God.

Although everything I’ve just told you is true, it’s not presented in a particularly interesting way. The version I had published in one of the Aussie Stories books began like this:

‘It was hot and humid; the air so thick we got puffed just walking around. Our heavy black tracksuit pants didn’t help. Every movement was an effort. We were about to do our first street performance in Mexico.’

Do you think that opening is an improvement?

Read more at the following link:

http://australasianchristianwriters.blogspot.com.au/2015/03/creative-nonfiction-part-1-nola-passmore.html

Best of the ACW Archives ~ I Wanted to Cry

 By Iola Goulton

A few weeks ago, I received an email that made me want to cry.

It looked innocent enough—a request from a debut author for me to review her book. My website said I wasn’t currently accepting review requests, but that’s only kind of true. I still look at each request I receive and consider it, as I wouldn’t want to miss the opportunity to read and review a great book.

So I read her email instead of just sending my standard “I’m not currently accepting books for review” response.

She says:

I chose to publish [book title] independently to retain control over my book.

That’s fine. I have no issue with whether a book is traditionally published or independently published, as long as it’s good, and in a genre I like.

My book is considered to be Christian Romance.

Christian romance? Excellent—it's one of my favourite genres. She continues:

There is love in the book … but I don’t feel it overwhelms with Romance. I would rather it be called Historical Fiction …

Well, I like historical fiction as well, so that’s not a sticking point. But what she said next got me worried:

but alas … I don’t have that much control over it.

That’s a red flag. You, the self-published author, don’t have control over your book’s genre? And this seems to contradict her choosing to publish “independently to retain control over my book”.

Read more at the following link:

http://australasianchristianwriters.blogspot.com.au/2015/01/i-wanted-to-cry.html

Best of the ACW Archives ~ To Review or Not to Review?

My name is Andrea Grigg and I don’t like writing reviews.

Some of it stems from the fact I’m not a natural reviewer. It takes me hours, even when I love a book. I could rave about it verbally – albeit not coherently – but to write one is a challenge. I forget plot points, themes and often can’t remember the subtext. All I know is I adored the characters, felt their pain and then the love when everything turned out as it should.

But there’s a great deal more to my discomfort than that.

Nola encapsulated my thoughts beautifully in one of the threads on my January 14 post: (You’ll need to set aside half an hour if you want to read all the comments). Here's what she had to say:

‘I sometimes feel 'put on the spot' when I read something I don't think is up to scratch...'

Read more at the following link:

http://australasianchristianwriters.blogspot.com.au/2015/01/part-2-australasian-christian-fiction.html

Best of the ACW Archives ~ Let's Talk About Book Covers...

By Kara Isaac

It's been a crazy start to 2015 and I wouldn't change it for anything :) In between developmental edits, author photos, trying to draft Book#2, and a whole lot of crazy things that go along with your debut novel, in the last few weeks I've been providing some early thoughts to my publisher for the book cover. I'm one of the least visually creative people on the planet so I'm super excited to see what the team at Howard Books come up with for this story.

Close To You is a contemporary romantic comedy is about a disillusioned academic-turned-tour-guide and an entrepreneur who knows nothing about Tolkien who fall in love on a Tolkien themed tour of New Zealand.

Read more at the following link:

http://australasianchristianwriters.blogspot.com.au/2015/04/lets-talk-about-book-covers.html

Best of the ACW Archives ~ Called or an Offering?

Photo courtesy of foto76/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

By Ian Acheson

I’ve always found the topic of “one’s calling” fascinating. We all wonder at times in our lives what our specific calling is and it’s a topic that has consumed many pages of books, blog posts, conference notes and so on. It’s often used in discussions around vocations and careers.

When I started to meet writers I was at times surprised and, often intimidated, by the fact that so many mentioned they were called to write. Because I didn’t and, still don’t, consider myself called to write. So thoughts of wondering I was less of an author quickly came to mind.

Read more at the following link:

http://australasianchristianwriters.blogspot.com.au/2015/04/called-or-offering.html

Best of the ACW Archives ~ Let's Talk About Sex, Baby! (Part 2)

(Image courtesy of smarnad 
at FreeDigitalPhotos.net)

By Andrea Grigg

It’s almost two months since I wrote my first post on the, ahem, touchy subject of sex in Christian novels. If you haven’t read it or would like to refresh your memory, you can find it here. Thank you to everyone who commented on my question: When is realistic too much? Your thoughts were both insightful and intriguing.

Every fortnight, a group of us from a local church get together at Zarraffas (a Queensland coffee chain). These ‘Ladies of Reedy Creek’, as I’ve dubbed them, range in age from 30 to 70+, and are very accommodating when I ask them questions concerning writing. All I have to do is bring out my pen and little black notebook and they’re like meerkats on alert.

This week, I asked them what they thought about sex issues being addressed in Christian novels. (Picture a group of extremely alert meerkats). Not only were their responses unanimous (except for one who left to attend a doctor’s appointment – or so she said) but they were strongly felt.

Read more at the following link:

http://australasianchristianwriters.blogspot.com.au/2015/05/lets-talk-about-sex-baby-part-2.html

Best of the ACW Archives ~ Let's Talk About Sex, Baby! (Part 1)

By Andrea Grigg

Sex.

One of the most controversial topics within Christian fiction, especially in my favourite genre, romance.

I get the feeling some Christians would like to remove sex from fiction altogether. I suspect they might even consider it sinful to read Christian fiction in the first place!

Of course, there’s the other end of the spectrum, although I’m not sure what it looks like. I haven’t gone searching for Christian books with explicit sex scenes in them but they could be out there. If they are, I suspect they’re in the self-published section.

When I was writing A Simple Mistake I had a very interesting conversation with a friend. She encouraged me to ‘keep my writing real’ and then related a story about a girl she knew personally who needed counselling because her marriage relationship hadn’t turned out like the ones in the Christian romances she’d read.

My first thought was, ‘You’ve got to be kidding!’ and my second, ‘What on earth has she been reading?’ Even though it sounds far-fetched, the story is true and it has stayed with me. Keeping it real is something I think about all the time as I write.

But just how real should we get?

Read more at the following link:

http://australasianchristianwriters.blogspot.com.au/2015/03/lets-talk-about-sex-baby-part-1.html

Best of the ACW Archives ~ The Ethics of Online Book Reviewing

By Iola Goulton

It’s no secret that there are fake reviews on Amazon. Indie author John Locke has admitted to buying reviews, ‘entrepreneur’ Todd Rutherford admits to selling them, a Gartner study shows 10%-15% of online reviews are fake, and studies show consumers have difficulty identifying fake reviews (many people don’t even know it’s a problem).

Some authors are prepared to let ethics fall by the wayside in the quest for the almighty dollar. I’d love to say that Christians are immune to unethical or dishonest behaviour, but I’ve seen this isn’t the case.

Read more at the following link:

http://australasianchristianwriters.blogspot.com.au/2014/04/the-ethics-of-online-book-reviewing.html

Best of the ACW Archives ~ Are you a Reviewer, an Influencer or a Basher?

By Iola Goulton 

Last week I talked about how book reviews are for readers. But not all reviews are created equal. When it comes to online reviews (at Amazon or other sites), it can be hard know which reviews you can trust. 

The trick is knowing something about the reviewer’s history. On most sites you can click on the reviewers name and see their profile, which includes their reviews. Sites like Goodreads and Christian Book show the average rating for a reviewer. Amazon doesn’t show this statistic, but the reviewing page will soon show you if they a reliable reviewer. 

Personally, I ignore reviewers who only have one review, or who only ever review books by a single author. To me, those shout ‘fake’ (biased friends and family, shill, sockpuppet, or even paid reviews). I ignore reviewers who only ever give five stars, because that doesn't tell me anything about their reading tastes and whether I'm going to like the books they like. And I ignore books that only have five-star reviews, because even the classics have one-star reviews.

Read more at the following link:

http://australasianchristianwriters.blogspot.com.au/2014/01/are-you-reviewer-influencer-or-basher.html