The Book Stash - Episode 22: James Acaster's Classic Scrapes by James Acaster

We've got something a bit fun this time, it's comedian James Acaster's book James Acaster's Classic Scrapes. We also talk about finding your voice, experimenting while you're starting out, and more. Check it out.

Hey Stashers, please leave us a review on your favourite podcast platform. It will help people to find us and we want know what you think of the episodes. Thanks for all your support!

Join us on social media and share your stories, we're on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Links from this episode:

• James Acaster's Classic Scrapes by James Acaster

 

PODCASTS

• The Comedian's Comedian podcast 
• Good One podcast By Jessie David Fox
• The First Time podcast by Katherine Collette, author of The Helpline
• Plotboilers podcast - Book reviews and the writing life

WEBSITES AND BLOGS

• Tomi Adeyemi's website - offers a writing course and advice
• Better Novel Project - deconstructing bestselling novels
• Writer's Digest - Great tools and workbooks
• The Write Life
• writers-online.co.uk
• Live Write Thrive by C.S. Lakin
• Meet-up - an online tool where you can find writers groups

Subscribe to The Book Stash on iTunes, TuneIn, Stitcher and all good podcasting apps.

Wrote a story from our writing prompt? Share you story in the comments below:

The Book Stash - Episode 21: The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Holy moly - our 21st episode is now live! We fawn over the enchanting story The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. We also have heaps of great tips for writers including how to refine your writing and themes you can borrow from Shakespeare.

Hey Stashers, please leave us a review on your favourite podcast platform. It will help people to find us and we want know what you think of the episodes. Thanks for all your support!

Join us on social media and share your stories, we're on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Links from this episode:

• Pick up a copy of The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Subscribe to The Book Stash on iTunes, TuneIn, Stitcher and all good podcasting apps.

Wrote a story from our writing prompt? Share you story in the comments below:

The Book Stash - Episode 20: Anne of Green Gables, L.M. Montgomery

 

This time around we're talking about Ash's all-time favorite book, Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery. We also talk about representation in writing and striking the balance with "show, don't tell".

Hey Stashers, please leave us a review on your favourite podcast platform. It will help people to find us and we want know what you think of the episodes. Thanks for all your support!

Join us on social media and share your stories, we're on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Links from this episode:

• Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
• "Show, Don't Tell" activity sheet

Subscribe to The Book Stash on iTunes, TuneIn, Stitcher and all good podcasting apps.

Wrote a story from our writing prompt? Share you story in the comments below:

The Book Stash - Episode 19: The Trip of a Lifetime, Monica McInerney

Ash has been listening to the audio book for The Trip of a Lifetime by Monica McInerney. We talk about creating realistic characters, the lyricism of dialogue in audio books and finding the right pace for your story.

Hey Stashers, please leave us a review on your favourite podcast platform. It will help people to find us and we want know what you think of the episodes. Thanks for all your support!

Join us on social media and share your stories, we're on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Links from this episode:

• The Trip of a Lifetime by Monica McInerney

Subscribe to The Book Stash on iTunes, TuneIn, Stitcher and all good podcasting apps.

Wrote a story from our writing prompt? Share you story in the comments below:

The Book Stash - Episode 18: Dragonflight, The first Chronicle of Pern, By Anne McCaffrey

Ash has been reading the classic fantasy book Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey, which leads us down a path of tips for crafting believable magic systems. We explore tips from Brandon Sanderson's First Law in how to approach magic when creating your worlds.

Please subscribe and leave a review which will help more people find our podcast.

Join us on social media and share your stories, we're on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Links from this episode:

• Dragonflight, The first Chronicle of Pern, By Anne McCaffrey
• Let's play 'Dragonriders of Pern' on the Commodore 64 from Epyx games 
• Sanderson's First Law
• How to create a magic system in six easy steps

Subscribe to The Book Stash on iTunes, TuneIn, Stitcher and all good podcasting apps.

Wrote a story from our writing prompt? Share you story in the comments below:

First Tuesday Book Club, hosted by Dymocks Camberwell

Last night I had the honour of speaking at Dymocks Camberwell's First Tuesday Book Club. It was such a fantastic event, with just over 50 attendees. The audience were fantastic and listened to me with respect (and they even laughed in all the right places!).  I spoke about my intentions behind writing The Rachaya Series, how I came to be a writer in the first place, and the many exciting experiences I have had since the publication of Fyrebyrne Island in April last year. For anyone who missed out on attending, Dymocks Camberwell have signed copies of Fyrebyrne Island and The Lost City, as well as books from the other authors who were there last night.

I also got to meet four other wonderful authors and was able to learn a lot from them about writing, publishing and public speaking.

Katherine Collette's debut novel, The Helpline, was published by Text Publishing in September this year. Katherine has been very busy with television appearances and author talks all over the country. She also records a podcast, called The First Time Podcast, about being a first-time author along with writer Kate Mildenhall. Katherine was a great speaker to listen to and an all-round lovely person.

Alice Nelson wove her lengthy experience working with refugees in Harlem into her novel, The Children's House, published by Penguin Publishing on October 1st 2018. Alice spoke with compassion about the people she has met over the years and her inspiration behind writing such a heart-wrenching novel. 

Liz Porter has drawn on her experience as a journalist to write Cold Case Files, published by Pan Macmillan, and Crime Scene Asia, published by Big Sky Publsihing - books about past crimes that were solved with forensic science. She had the audience laughing with tales of really stupid criminals, and had a lot of anecdotes to share.

Maryrose Cuskelly, a True Crime author, talked about her new release by publisher Allen&Unwin, Wedderburn, based on the true story of a murder in a small country town and the court case that ensued. Maryrose raised the important consideration that we all have a darkness within us that can make us do terrible things. Her talk was thought-provoking with many interesting anecdotes.

Books to Read Before You Die

Steve and I mentioned a list of books during Episode 17 of The Book Stash (1984 by George Orwell) that I have been working through to ensure I read widely and don't fall into a reading rut. This is the list I found online years and years ago and I thought I would share with you all. My only wish is that there were more female writers on this list.

Note: This is not my own list. I cannot find the original source. If anyone knows where it came from please let me know in the comments so I can give credit where credit is due.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert M. Pirsig
Watership Down, by Richard Adams
The Last Lecture, by Randy Pausch and Jeffrey Zaslow
A Short History of Nearly Everything, by Bill Bryson
Man's Search for Meaning, by Victor Frankl
The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman
Cosmos, by Carl Sagan
Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-Street, by Herman Melville
Maus: A Survivor's Tale, by Art Spiegelman
For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemmingway
Kafka of the Shore, by Haruki Murakami
The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
The Road, by Cormac McCarthy
One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
East of Eden, by John Steinbeck
How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie
Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Stranger, by Albert Camus
Dune, by Frank Herbert
The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood
Anne of Green Gables, by L.M.Montgomery
Farenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury
The Giving Tree, by Shel Silverstein
To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
Animal Farm, by George Orwell
All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque
The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
Catch 22, by Joseph Heller
Slaughterhouse Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes
1984, by George Orwell

The Book Stash - Episode 17: Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell

We're spending some time in George Orwell's dystopian vision of the future, Nineteen Eighty-Four. We also talk about reading broadly and Ash takes you through her must-have essentials currently on her writing desk.

Please subscribe and leave a review which will help more people find our podcast.

Join us on social media and share your stories, we're on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Links from this episode:

• Come see Ash Oldfield talk at Dymocks Camberwell's First Tuesday Book Club October 2018
• Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell

Subscribe to The Book Stash on iTunes, TuneIn and Stitcher

Wrote a story from our writing prompt? Share you story in the comments below:

Event Announcement - Dymocks Camberwell First Tuesday Book Club

I am so excited to announce that I will be a guest author at Dymocks Camberwell's First Tuesday Book Club on October 2nd. It should be such a fantastic night and I can't want to have a chat with readers about reading and writing!

There will be two other guest authors on the night - Alice Nelson, author of The Children's House and Liz Porter, author of Written on the Skin.

Find tickets to the event here: First Tuesday Book Club

Check out the well read people from Dymocks Camberwell here: Dymocks Camberwell

The Book Stash - Episode 16: Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, Haruki Murakami

We return to Murakami with a look at his book Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage. Steve also shares some writing tips from Australian-born, Dublin-based author, Monica McInerney.

Please subscribe and leave a review which will help more people find our podcast.

Join us on social media and share your stories, we're on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Links from this episode:

• Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, Haruki Murakami
• Read Ash's full review of Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage
• Listen to Li's Années de pèlerinage by Franz Liszt (as featured in Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage)
• Check out Dymocks Camberwell's upcoming Meet The Author events

Subscribe to The Book Stash on iTunes, TuneIn and Stitcher

Wrote a story from our writing prompt? Share you story in the comments below:

The Book Stash - Episode 15: Children of Blood and Bone, Tomi Adeyemi

We look at the debut novel (and New York Times bestseller) from Tomi Adeyemi, Children of Blood and Bone. Discover ten tips for writing compelling dialog and Ash shows off her new map for the Rachaya Series.

Please subscribe and leave a review which will help more people find our podcast.

Join us on social media and share your stories, we're on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Links from this episode:

• Children of Blood and Bone, Tomi Adeyemi
• Ash's editor, Element Editing Services (Kat Betts)
• See Ash's new map on Instagram
• Cartographer, Soraya Corcoran

Subscribe to The Book Stash on iTunes, TuneIn and Stitcher

Wrote a story from our writing prompt? Share you story in the comments below:

Book Review - Colourless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, by Haruki Murakami

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In my mind this is one of Murakami's finest pieces of work. I immediately want to read it again, much as I did Norwegian Wood. This story is nostalgic, visceral, and true to a Murakami novel, leaves you with more questions than answers. Unlike some of his other novels there were no dragging descriptions to slow down the story (or at least none that I noticed - in 1Q84, for example, he would often spend several pages describing a meal), so it was quite fast paced. It was interesting and kept me guessing all the way through.

If you have never read a Murakami novel, this may be a good place to start.

I have a strong feeling I may be gushing about this book to Steve in a future episode of The Book Stash podcast. For now I need some time to mull it over.

View all my reviews

The Book Stash - Episode 14: Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel

In this special half hour episode, we take a look at Hilary Mantel's Booker prize-winning novel, Wolf Hall (and its TV series). We also talk about the card game Once Upon A Time and Vladimir Propp's fairy tale functions.

Please subscribe and leave a review which will help more people find our podcast.

Join us on social media and share your stories, we're on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Links from this episode:

• Our writing prompt in card form (Instagram)
• Once Upon A Time - The card game
• Once Upon A Time - The writer's handbook
• Vladimir Propp's fairytale functions on Wikipedia
• Wolf Hall, the TV mini-series
• Wolf Hall, By Hilary Mantel
  

Subscribe to The Book Stash on iTunes, TuneIn and Stitcher

Wrote a story from our writing prompt? Share you story in the comments below:

The Book Stash - Episode 13: The Artisan Heart, Dean Mayes

We take a look at Australian author Dean Mayes' heart-warming new book The Artisan Heart. Find out how to be a good beta reader and how to get the best out of your own beta readers. Plus, map out your fantasy world.

As always, please subscribe and leave a review which will help more people find our podcast.

Join us on social media and share your stories, we're on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Links from this episode:

• The Artisan Heart, Dean Mayes
• You can follow Dean Mayes on his website, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. 
• 'Before You Were Funny' the podcast Steve mentioned

Subscribe to The Book Stash on iTunes, TuneIn and Stitcher

Wrote a story from our writing prompt? Share you story in the comments below:

The Book Stash - Episode 12: The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman

In the face of sickness, Ash digs out The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, where we discuss context for language, awesome illustration, 6 tips for getting your book written and sticking with it.

As always, please subscribe and leave a review which will help more people find our podcast.

Join us on social media and share your stories, we're on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Links from this episode:

• The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman
• Chris Riddell's artwork from the book on Pinterest
• South Australia YA author Matt J Pike's website
• National Novel Writing Month

Subscribe to The Book Stash on iTunes, TuneIn and Stitcher

Wrote a story from our writing prompt? Share you story in the comments below:

The Book Stash - Episode 11: A Darker Shade of Magic, V.E. Schwab

This week we're talking about the captivating book A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab. We also talk about the creative process behind designing a book cover, the science behind hand-writing your drafts, and the surprising effects of wisdom teeth extraction on Ash's productivity.

As always, please subscribe and leave a review which will help more people find our podcast.

Join us on social media and share your stories, we're on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Links from this episode:

• A Darker Shade of Magic, V.E. Schwab
• How the Cover Was Decided for V. E. Schwab’s New Book A Darker Shade of Magic
• Plotboilers: Book Reviews and Writing Life by Emily Brady

Subscribe to The Book Stash on iTunes, TuneIn and Stitcher

Wrote a story from our writing prompt? Share you story in the comments below:

The Book Stash - Episode 10: Norwegian Wood

Kombanwa. Good evening. In this episode of The Book Stash, Ash talks about the shadows cast by the Haruki Murakami classic, Norwegian Wood. There's also beautiful odd metaphors, integrating religion in your world building and a particularly fun writing prompt.

As always, please subscribe and leave a review which will help more people find our podcast.

Join us on social media and share your stories, we're on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Links from this episode:

• Norwegian Wood, Haruki Murakami (translated by Jay Rubin)
• Listen to Norwegian Wood by the Beatles on YouTube

Subscribe to The Book Stash on iTunes, TuneIn and Stitcher

Wrote a story from our writing prompt? Share you story in the comments below:

The Book Stash - Episode 9: Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, #1)

We take a look at Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff's compelling sci-fi world in Illuminae. Ash has put together five essential tips for planning your stories, combating misconceptions in your world and Lord of the Rings.

As always, please subscribe and leave a review which will help more people find our podcast.

Join us on social media and share your stories, we're on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Links from this episode:

• Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, #1)

Subscribe to The Book Stash on iTunes, TuneIn and Stitcher

Wrote a story from our writing prompt? Share you story in the comments below:

The Book Stash - Episode 8: Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom

Ash has been binging and now we have two books in one episode, Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo! We also talk about subverting the hero's journey and tips for researching an idea without getting lost in the details.


As always, please subscribe and leave a review which will help more people find our podcast.

Join us on social media and share your stories, we're on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Links from this episode:

• Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
• Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo 
• The Hero's Journey

Subscribe to The Book Stash on iTunes, TuneIn and Stitcher

Wrote a story from our writing prompt? Share you story in the comments below:

Supanova Melbourne

Another Melbourne Supanova has been and gone and I had such a fantastic time talking to people who are as crazy about dragons as I am. I would like to say a special thank you to those of you who came over to say hello after meeting me last year.

This Supanova was a very special occasion for me because it doubled up as the book launch for The Lost City, book 2 of The Rachaya Series. Many copies of this shiny new book made its way home with readers over the course of Supanova, and I am so happy to see it finally out in the world. If you missed out on your copy, it is also available for purchase online.

I also had many people enquiring about Fyrebyrne Island as an ebook. It is available here on amazon. Even if you don’t own a Kindle there is an app for your phone and tablet. The ebook for The Lost City is coming soon.

We had many winners for out knitted dragon competition this year. Congratulations to those of you who drew the lucky token!

My email competition had two winners, who have been emailed privately. Congratulations to Miriam and Hannah. Your dragons will be posted to you shortly.

For those of you who are fans of podcasts, don’t forget to check out The Book Stash, where I look at books from a writer’s perspective, provide writing tips, talk a little about my own writing and offer some writing prompts.

Thank you once again to all of you who made this Supanova experience so fantastic. I look forward to seeing you all again at my next convention.