That song in your ear - Every Move playlist

Music – do I use it to write?  The answer is yes, when I need some inspiration, or to get back into the groove of something I’m writing.  Then I’ll hit my playlist of songs that bring back the atmosphere of whatever I’m working on (usually while I’m driving).  The answer is also no, because when I’m actually writing I just can’t seem to tolerate lyrics in my ear.  Sometimes when I’m concentrating hard on getting words together, even instrumental music can change the tone in my head.  So I don’t listen while I’m writing.

But I do have a playlist for every book I’ve written – it seems to be a good way of sustaining the mood of a piece, especially over a long period of time (months or years).  Here’s a few of the songs that I used to sustain me for Every Move.  Some are character or scene specific.  Others just seemed to be a good fit for the book.  I’ve listened to all these songs dozens of times, and by the time the book was written, I felt like I’d milked all the goodness out of them and could barely stand to listen to them!  Now, after the book’s release, I can finally add them to my playlist again J

Wolf – Pyramid

Definitely scene specific: it’s the getaway scene, when Rachel and Mycroft and Harris escape to Five Mile.  Mentioned by name on p223.

White Noise – Disclosure

‘A new song by Disclosure comes on over the tinny PA system…’ – yep, it’s the chaos of Harris and Mycroft’s punch-up at the school dance.

Carried Away by a Moonlight Shadow – Mike Oldfield

On p231, Rachel is hearing Harris’s story while ‘Through the car speakers, a woman sings plaintively of being carried away by a moonlight shadow’. This is a really old song, but it’s odd and weird, and a strangely good fit for this scene.

Nanganator – Drunk Mums

You know Mycroft has to have a song for every book, right?  Well, in this book he kind of had two songs – this one for his anarchic moments at the start…

What I Like About You – The Romantics

…and this one, for his lighter, more funny moments with Rachel.

Jessie’s Girl – Rick Springfield

Folks, if you haven’t worked out that this is totally Harris’s song for this book, then…well, I mention it specifically on p251. (NB: This video is from Glee, and I think it's pretty much a perfect version by Cory Monteith - miss you, Cory)

Riptide – Vance Joy

Rachel ‘exercises [her] wooden fingers on a Vance Joy tune’ when she finally starts to recover her mojo after self-defence training.  Actually, this song was everywhere while I was writing Every Move, and I started to think it was the book’s theme song.

Bonfire – Knife Party

In Mai’s room, ‘Some Knife Party song is playing, the electronic effects groaning out like a continuous belch.’  This song has a nice, ominous tone which I liked.

Strong (High Contrast remix) – London Grammar

This is a sad song, but this remix is high energy, and the soaring feeling of it was a good fit for Rachel in her recovery period, and closer to the end of the book.

Hope you like ‘em!

And wow, the launch is next week!  I’m actually not excited yet, more flabbergasted that it’s all happened so quickly.  Right now I’m thinking about food, and drinks, and door prizes, and trying not to say anything too sentimental at the launch (because then I will start getting all weepy – I’m a bit pathetic like that).  If you haven’t RSVPed to Readings Carlton, and you’d like to come along, please do - then the lovely Readings folks will know what they’re in for!  The Every Move launch is on Monday 16 March from 6-8pm, and you can call 9347 6633 to come along (it’s free), or sign up at the event page on Facebook.  If you’re dropping by, please make sure you grab me and say hi – I will be a bit frantic, but I do want to make sure I get to say hello to everybody.  The next day I get on a plane to present workshops and hang out at Somerset Celebration of Literature, so if you're in Queensland, I'll be with you soon.

Thank you to everyone involved in the blog tour – huzzah!  It’s been a great week, and if you’re keen to see what people are saying about the book, go check out some of the reviews:

YA Midnight Reads: has a review and a giveaway happening...

Delicate Eternity: also has a review and a giveaway...

Novels on the Run: had a fun time trying to keep Mycroft 'on task' during a character interview with Rachel (and a great review)...

The Rest is Still Unwritten: has a review and giveaway going as well

Also, Birdee Magazine are running an Instagram competition for Every Move – go here to their post, and enter for a chance of winning $300 worth of books!  I think that’s a prize I could happily live with J

Have a good week, and I’ll update again soon.

Xx Ellie

Release

This is the week of Every Move’s release.  Wow – there were times when I didn’t think this book would even happen.  Again and again I’m reminded: writing is hard.  We wouldn’t keep doing it if we didn’t love it.  It’s work – deeply satisfying work.

My son has reached that age when he’s making decisions about the things he wants to do and be.  I don’t mean he’s consciously making those decisions – I mean, he’s following his gut instincts towards the things he likes, gravitating towards the things he enjoys, and slowing dropping out of the things he finds a bit ‘meh’.  We all reach that stage.  Sometimes it takes us longer, so the things we really like and enjoy get sidelined for a few years, to focus on the things we need to do.  But they simmer away there inside you, those things you are drawn to, the pastimes you love, or the hobbies you wish you had more time for.  If you’re really lucky, and you have good circumstances and the right encouragement, you find a way to utilise those talents early.  But for many of us, me included, it sometimes takes years of trial and error before you figure out just what exactly you’re hankering for, what it is that really fires your passions.

I have worked many jobs, and I have liked quite a few of them.  But there has always been something else there, bubbling in the background. I remember writing stories on sheets of foolscap paper in a special folder that I kept in my bag especially for the long trips to and from school on the bus.  I did it all through primary and high school, and I used to hang out in libraries a lot.  I read everything I could lay my hands on during this time, and used to hound the school librarians for the next books when they arrived on order.

By the end of high school I knew that saying I wanted to be a writer was a like saying I wanted to be an astronaut – one of those things that little kids say, not realising how far out of reach a goal like that could be.  So I looked at law and journalism and education and other things, all those stupid pamphlets they used to give you in high school when you’re trying to figure out your direction after Year Twelve, while surreptitiously sneaking the ones about writing and publishing into my bag.

But in the end it came down to two things: determination and patience.  By the time I had my first child, I was thirty, and knew that somehow I wanted to keep writing.  And then when I’d been patient a long time, and had developed a dogged level of persistence, I figured it was now or never.

Ultimately, if you want to follow the thing that inspires you, you have to be determined.  You will not be given the chance to pursue your dream or talent or whatever because some Fairy Godmother gave you a wish, or put an opportunity in your lap.  You will have to work for it.  You will have to be determined, and just stick with it, despite tedium and bad luck and frustration.  You will have to become a bit of a bloodhound about it. Because nobody owes you anything, nobody will give you anything for free.  So you will just have to suck it up and do it.

Fortunately, if you’re following the dream of your heart, the thing that inspires you, your passion, you will not find working at it a chore.  You will keep going because you love it. 

So here’s some of the new reviews for the thing I created out of love J

Here at UnfinishedBookshelf

A full series review at Behind the Pages

Here at Written Word Worlds

At Fictional Thoughts

And at DaringDamsels

I've also had some amazing reviews at ALPHAreader's blog and at Kid's Book Review. There will be more reviews coming in as the blog tour continues, and also in print media like Dolly and Birdee.  If you'd like to join in the giveaway, you can click on the link to GoodReads at right, or go back to my previous post, which tells you how to enter.

Tonight, I know lots of people are going to see Roxane Gay speak at the Wheeler Centre – I so wish I could be there!  She’s amazing!  But if you can’t make it to Roxane’s talk, and you’re around Castlemaine tonight, please feel free to come along to the Castlemaine Library, where me and three other female crime writers (Sandi Wallace, Kathryn Ledson and Sue Williams) will be having a lounge-room chat for the Killer Queens event.  It’s free, it starts at 6pm, there’ll be a door prize and refreshments, so please feel welcome!

I’m also gearing up for my visit to Queensland as part of the Somerset Celebration of Literature on the Gold Coast – I’m flying out the day after the launch party for Every Move.  It’s gonna be a massive week, and I hope to see you there.

And finally, for those of you who don’t know, it is also the week of International Women’s Day.  IWD is actually on 8 March (which is the day my littlest son was born J  Happy Birthday Ned!).  IWD exists because we still live in a world where the pay gap between women and men is huge, and where here in Australia, the Minister for Women is a man (our illustrious Prime Minister, He Who Shall Not Be Named), who happens to have scheduled an IWD lunch at a men’s-only club (really.  I mean, really.  I hope Roxane says something about this tonight, I really do), and where women all over the world still live in fear and inequality.  With that in mind, I’d like to do a quick roll call of all the women writers who’ve influenced me in my lifetime.  And here they are, and many more besides, in no particular order:

Joanna Russ

Anna Livy

Sally M. Gearhart

Simone de Beauvoir

Sheri S Tepper

Margaret Atwood

bell hooks

Mary Fallon

Germaine Greer

Helen Garner

Kate Millet

Monique Wittig

Ngaio Marsh

Marie Lu

Helene Cixous

Alice Walker

Amy Tan

Lucy Sussex

Honey Brown

Kerry Greenwood

Kat Zhang

Diana Gabaldon

Katherine Mansfield

Angela Savage

Kendare Blake

Julie Kagawa

Patricia Cornwell

Judith Wright

Phillipa (PD) Martin

Maggie Stiefvater

Janet Frame

Margo Lanagan

Veronica Roth

Stephenie Meyer

Geraldine Brooks

Donna Tartt

Laurie R. King

Rebecca James

Leanne Hall

Laura Buzo

Cate Kennedy

Malinda Lo

Rebecca Stead

Madelaine L’Engle

Ursula Le Guin

Fiona Wood

Cath Crowley

Kim Kane

Kirsty Eager

Melina Marchetta

Emily Rodda

Lili Wilkinson

Carole Wilkinson

Catherine Jinks

Angela Carter

Jeanette Winterson

Finola Moorehead

Joanne (JK) Rowling

Sheila Rowbotham

Sheila Kitzinger

Val McDermid

Suzanne Collins

Melissa Keil

Gabrielle Williams

Simmone Howell

Ruby Langford

Jane Austen

Charlotte Bronte

Toni Morrison

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Emily Bronte

Nicole Hayes

Lee Kofman

Pamela Allen

Jackie French

Ruth Park

Miles Franklin

Nansi Kunze

Fleur Ferris

Claire Zorn

Zuzanna Budapest

Naomi Klein

Amie Kaufman

Sally Morgan

Amrita Pritam

Susie (SE) Hinton

Cassandra Clare

Suzanne Collins

Sandi Wallace

Sue Williams

Liz Filleul

Ella West

Kirsten Krauth

Lauren Beukes

Lisa McMann

Anne Buist

Alice Pung

Jenny Valentish

Valerie Parv

Felicity Castagna

Kathryn Ledson

Emily Dickinson

Maxine Beneba Clarke

Isobelle Carmody

Roxane Gay

Brigid Kemmerer

Maureen Johnson

Christina Rossetti

Holly Black

and all the women I’ve accidentally left out,

and most especially, poet and high school English teacher, Lorna Ferguson.

With all my love -

xx Ellie

THE BIG ONE – EVERY MOVE RELEASE GIVEAWAY

Yes, that time is upon us!  That special time, when I start running around in a frenzy like my dog when she’s caught a rabbit (or spots a kangaroo in the distance, or sees…basically anything with wheels.  She’s really into things with wheels.  We don’t know why.  She’s a dog, we’ve never asked her).

Yes, it’s release time! (duh-duh-DUH!!!)

Every Move IS ABOUT TO ARRIVE AT SHOPS, holy crap.  Soon it will be on shelves - in bookstores, at libraries, in schools – and in peoples’ hot little hands.  People will be reading it, my god (I mean, people are reading it now, for review, which is a-mazing, but by the end of the month other people – anybody, in fact – will be reading it.  Eep!)

And I am right in the middle of it all.  I’m prepping packages of be-ewdiful posters and book cover proofs and media release and stickers and badges and swaggy things, to be sent out to schools and libraries and bookstores (I’m sending them this week, if you’ve been waiting).  I’m doing interviews and guest posts and articles for the upcoming blog tour.  I am spending a lot of time on my phone.  And I’m getting really excited about the release, and the Killer Queens gig I’m doing with three other crime authors at Castlemaine Library on 5 March, and the chance to talk to students at Somerset Literature Festival in mid-March, and the party! Omg, yes, the launch party!  (it’s on 16 March – see my prev post.  My thoughts about it are currently running along the lines of What food will I buy?  How much booze will we need?  And – most importantly - which flannie will I wear??)

So right now, even if you can’t make the launch, and you can’t join in the fun elsewhere, you still get a chance to celebrate with me– cos I’m giving stuff away.

I HAVE TWO SIGNED COPIES OF EVERY MOVE AVAILABLE TO WIN ON GOODREADS

Wanna try your luck on Goodreads?  Click the linky-link (see over on the right)

I ALSO HAVE THREE EVERY MOVE GIVEAWAY PACKS TO OFF-LOAD

These are, I have to say, pretty spesh.  Each pack consists of:

*A full set of the Every series: Every Breath, Every Word and Every Move

*A set of three posters (one for each book)

*Three Every Move badges

*Three lovely Every Move postcards

*Six Every Move stickers, for your stickery enjoyment

*All these things come wrapped inside a totally sweet Every Move library bag (or it could be an anything bag.  I say it’s a library bag, cos I use mine at the library, but really – go nuts)

Wanna have a go at winning a giveaway pack?

You can do ONE of these things to enter:

1)    Tweet – gimme a mention on Twitter, using the name of the book, and I will put your name in the hat

2)    Comment – here on the the blog below this post

3)    Facebook – share the link to this post on FB, and let me know in a comment

Remember, you only have to do ONE of these ONCE (but hey, if you wanna tweet/comment /post and generally squee about the launch, please feel free!  I will be doing a lot of squeeing over here, in the corner…)

At the end of March, I will compile all the names from tweets/comments/posts into one big ginormicon-type list, and ask my kids to randomly select a name from the hat (trust me, there will be no cheating.  Those little buggers cheat like crazy at Uno and Scrabble and blackjack, but they take giveaway draws very seriously).

THIS GIVEAWAY IS INTERNATIONAL.  Yes, that’s right.  So you can enter from anywhere in the world.

I am not including Instagram in this giveaway – the main reason for this is cos there will be another giveaway comp via Instagram (I will update you on that very soon), and I don’t want people to get all confused.  But hey, if you’d like to tell people about the giveaway on Instagram, be my guest!

And that’s it!

Oh, before I go, I should say  I had the most incredible time on writing retreat.  Three whole days of just writing – no ‘fitting the writing around other stuff’, just writing.  Pure bloody magic.  When I got home, I discovered that the house had blown up…no, that’s not true.  But my partner got sick, the kids had multitudinous sporting engagements and were all running around like chooks, my parents were visiting, and the dog had (temporarily) gone missing, so I literally hit the ground running.  My partner also helped pull a guy out of a burning car by the side of the road in my absence (!!! And also ??? – yes, really. I’ll tell that story another time).  But hey, we’re all mostly back to normal now!

Anyway, I hope your week is not quite so eventful, and that you’re keeping well.  North American friends – stay warm!  Australian friends – stay cool! (well, you’re always cool, heh)  And see you next time J

Xx Ellie

This is hungry work

That’s a line from a Hozier song (yes, the one everyone has been listening to).  Writing work feeds into itself, to some extent, but the material that nurtures it comes from everywhere.  Writing work is hungry work, always seeking out new morsels.

I’ve started printing out the lyrics to some of my current favourite songs, and tacking them up on the walls of my office (using the term ‘office’ here in its broadest sense), so I can see the way words work in different combinations and contexts.  Poems go up too – although I’ve always thought that lyrics qualify as contemporary poetry – and sentences or phrases from books, photos, scribbled scraps of overheard conversations, pics of artwork, postcards, pamphlets, notes, business cards, newspaper clippings, drawings (usually done by my kids), jokes, Post-its, and other ephemera like feathers, leaves, and on my desk, random stones and mementos, including two conkers from a tree in Hyde Park.

I like the bower bird approach.  I’m not a tidy person by nature – tidiness is something that has instead been drummed into me by over a decade of householding for a large family.  When you have four kids, you maintain organisation or you flounder in a sea of chaos.  So I am tidy, but if you look around my work space, you can see that tidiness is an imposed state of being.

I collect things – knick knacks, oddsy-sodsy things…memories, I guess.  Do they help me work?  I don’t know.  I think so.  They remind me that for all the structured thinking necessary for daily routine - the mental order I apply to keep to diary dates and planned events, the discipline and compartmentalisation required to sort out work and parenting and weekly grocery lists and everything else - the part of me that writes needs randomness, and flow, and a certain looseness.  The mind has to be allowed to roam and wander and free-range if it wants to create.  It’s something I’ve discovered, or rather I’m discovering as I go along, that way of keeping ‘loose’ in my mind during the course of the day.

Lately, amidst all the bustle of book launching, I’ve been feeding myself with music, and with some great books – I just read Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel, and it was beautiful, full of poignant desperation and starlight.  It reminded me strongly of On the Beach by Nevil Shute, not just for its themes (which are similar to Shute’s, although not as grim) but for its evocation of human fallibility and longing and nostalgia.  I was gifted my copy of Station Eleven by Kirsty Eagar – a gorgeous gift, thank you! – and now I’m thinking deeply about a book I’d like to gift to her (we seem to have started our own little book club).  I’m going to be doing a longer post on workspace and working habits for Kirsty’s blog in a few weeks – when it goes up, I’ll let you all know.

First review: I was given a heads-up (thank you, Sera!) about the first review of Every Move, which I’m thrilled to say was glowingly positive, in Kid’s Book Review.  What a relief it was to find out that people are enjoying the book!  After all my nerves and anxiety, I’m starting to relax a little – it’s a great weight off my shoulders.  Thank you to everyone who has tweeted/texted/pinged me to say that you’re loving Every Move!  There’s nothing more satisfying than finding out that the work you’ve put in has been worth it.

Blog tour details: Ahh, okay, now this is still being finalised, but I can reveal some of the blog tour stops now.  More fine-tuning will be reported on soon, but here’s the schedule so far -

1 March: The Unfinished Bookshelf

2 March: Behind the Pages

3 March: Fictional Thoughts

4 March: Speculating on Specfic

5 March: Genie in a Book

6 March: YA Midnight Reads

7 March: Delicate Eternity

8 March: Novels on the Run

9 March: The Rest is Still Unwritten

10 March: The Loony Teen Writer

Please do drop in at the tour stops and say hi (or, y’know, read the articles and reviews) – I know most bloggers enjoy it when people leave a comment or two!  Some of the tour stops will involve giveaways as well, so if you’d like a chance to win a copy of the book, keep a lookout.  I’ll be doing a giveaway of the book here, as well, sometime in the next few weeks.

And you’re coming to the Every Move launch party, right?  I hope you are, if you live in Melbourne (or especially if you’re coming from afar), because me and Adele Walsh would love to see you – remember, it’s at Readings Carlton in Lygon St, on Monday 16 March from 6-8pm.  I’m trying to think up some nice food to give people who have gone to the trouble to come, because I don’t reckon corn chips and strawberries will cut it this year…should I go the kabana and cheese platter?  I know some folks who would like cake too (*cough* Allen and Unwin team *cough*), so I’m gonna aim for variety J

Anyway, I hope you’re having a good week, and if you have any catering suggestions, please leave a comment below!  Take care –

Xx Ellie

EVERY MOVE BOOK LAUNCH OMG OMG FLAILY HANDS

Hi again!  Okay, are you ready?  Here we go…

Please join me, and special host  Adele Walsh, for the launch of Every Move, the finale in the Every series!  The launch will be at Readings Carlton (Lygon Street, Melbourne – see map) from 6-8pm on Monday 16 March 2015.

There will be feasting, speechifying, book signing, general silliness, and probably my kids running around like dervishes.  All ages gig, nibbles (nicer than last year! I promise!), drinks on the house, a door prize giveaway, and Adele and me have sworn a sacred oath not to make speeches that are too long or boring.  Maybe if I can get just a bit more organised, I will make a cake.  If you’re round and about in Melbourne, please feel welcome to come along.  We’d love to see you!

If you’re on Facebook, you can join up here; otherwise, please RSVP to Readings Carlton on:  (03) 9347 6633  so we how know much booze food and stuff to buy.  I hope you can make it!

There is no other news that is more exciting.  I mean, I got a new phone tree for my son’s class, and my parents are coming to visit, but the part-ay is the big news, baby.

But I should mention that I received my author copies of Every Move – new books always smell so nice! – and copies have gone out to bloggers and reviewers for the upcoming blog tour. Which means that right now, people are reading the book.  So I am remaining calm, yes, very calm *hyperventilates*

Anyway, I’m supposed to be writing this very second!  So please remember to come along to the launch, if you’re able, and have a most excellent week.  I will tell you about the blog tour as soon as I have more info.

Xx Ellie

Every Move, PTSD, and the deep breath in

First, I have to say I’m excited.  Like, hugely.  Every Move is about to be released into the wild – uh, I mean, the world – and it’s thrilling to know that in a few short weeks, people will be reading it.

It’s also NERVE-WRACKING, like whoah.  I don’t think I’ve been this nervous for a book release before – I don’t think I was even this nervous with Every Breath.  I’m worried that readers won’t like it, or won’t find it a satisfying conclusion to a series in which they’ve invested time and love.  I’m worried about typos (every book has ‘em.  Me and Sophie tried our utmost, but like head lice, they’re really really hard to thoroughly eradicate.).   I’m worried about the spicy bits – I’ve tried to judge it right, but I can’t cover all folks’ comfort levels.  I’m worried about what reviewers will say (I know! I shouldn’t read them!  But I can’t help it).

So, yeah – stress.  Nerves.  But exciting ones.

Speaking of stress, there was one thing I wanted to talk about before the book came out: it’s the subject of Rachel’s PTSD.  I think it’s pretty clear, from the blurb on the back of the book, that Rachel has had a reaction to all the trauma she went through in Every Word.  Which stands to reason, yeah?  She and Mycroft had a pretty horrifying time in London. 

I’ve always tried to be true to the characters in the series: that’s been really important to me, that it’s obvious to the reader that chasing after murderers and hunting down clues isn’t totally risk-free.  It’s a fictional world, but I’ve tried to keep it real.  I haven’t glossed over the danger, or the injuries that both Rachel and Mycroft have copped in the series.

They both carry some physical scars.  But in Every Move, Rachel is suffering some of the psychological effects of those experiences.  Safe to say – without spoilers – that she is still having a rough time many weeks after England, and is exhibiting a lot of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder symptoms.  Mycroft too, although he is coping with it in a demonstrably different way.  I wanted it to be clear that Rachel and Mycroft are just ordinary kids, who’ve experienced something terrible and have a reaction to that.  There’s no way I was going to just write it like ‘ok, we solved that one, la-li-la, now everything’s fine!’  In real life, it wouldn’t be fine.  In Every Move, it’s definitely not fine.

At this point, I need to credit someone here for some help, someone who (unfortunately, and my deep apologies) didn’t get a credit in the Acknowledgements.  Braiden Asciak – who is, I have to say, a superstar - provided me with some fantastically useful info on PTSD and how it’s diagnosed and treated.

PTSD sufferers display some classic symptoms, and I’m gonna detail them right here: recurrent distressing memories, recurrent distressing dreams, disassociative reactions (flashbacks), intense psychological distress in response to cues, marked physiological reactions to cues, persistent negative emotional state and exaggerated negative beliefs about oneself/others, diminished interest in significant activities, irritable/reckless/self-destructive behaviour and emotional outbursts, and hypervigilance.

These are only a few of the issues around the disorder.  It was my job in Every Move to write Rachel as coping with the problem, and hopefully finding her way out of it. 

There are readers out there who will find Rachel’s struggle difficult to read.  I wanted to say that I didn’t include ‘trigger warnings’ with this book, for a couple of reasons.  One is that they’re not in common use in print publishing – in Australia, or anywhere else that I know of.  Two is that I’m with Roxane Gay on this issue: I don’t think that trigger warnings are useful.  They provide the illusion of safety.  Just about anything is a trigger for somebody.  It’s clear from the Every Move blurb that the issue comes up.  I will trust the reader to make the decision about what they’re okay to read.  In the end, no one can make that assessment and decision except the reader themselves.

I also wanted to point out that there are no links at the end of the book to PTSD support organisations.  I did suggest it, but again, it’s something not frequently done in Australian fiction.  But I’m getting in touch with organisations like Beyond Blue, SANE Australia, ReachOut (for teenagers and children), and headspace (the National Youth Mental Health Foundation) to let them know the book is coming out, and that it deals with the issue.

Something else I wanted to say is that I’ve experienced PTSD myself.  My partner and I lived in Indonesia for a long time, and we lived and worked in Jakarta during the fall of President Soeharto in 1998-99.  It was a period of dreadful political and social upheaval.  We didn’t live in a gated expat enclave, but in an apartment building right in the middle of the one of the most riot-prone areas of the city.

I was working at an international school at the time: all my students and I had overnight bags in a locker in case we couldn’t leave, after a nearby school’s bus was overturned and set on fire one afternoon – all the kids made it out, thank god.  I rang my partner every day to find out if the roads were clear of riots, so I could make it home.  I rode a motorbike, and needed to know if I would have to dodge rocks, Molotov cocktails, military forces or angry crowds.  My partner and I were at home on the day a large contingent of tertiary students staged a protest march along our main road.  Military forces fired on that rally, and many students were killed – and we watched it all happen, hiding behind the concrete balcony of our apartment.

It was not a good time.  It was a horrible time, and when we finally left the country, we were heartsore and traumatised.  The country we loved to be in was tearing itself to pieces.

We left Indonesia and went to India, for a six-month hiatus.  Unfortunately we arrived in the middle of Diwali.  The constant explosion of firecrackers made both us edgy.  We jumped at loud noises, and had bad dreams.  We recovered to a large extent, but it’s still a time of my life I remember with a great deal of anxiety.  Typing this out now, my hands are shaking.  When I try to explain it to people, they look at me like I’m joking, like it’s exaggerated recall, or something I saw once in a movie.  But it was real, and I still get a reaction to the memory.

These experiences made me try really hard to do justice to Rachel’s story in Every Move.  I hope I’ve gotten it right.  How does Rachel find her way through?  Well, I guess you’ll have to read the book to find out :)  But I do hope that it strikes a chord with some readers who need to know that it’s possible to recover.

Phew!  Okay, it was great to have a chance to talk about things before the book comes out.  I hope you like the book, and I’d like to say again a huge thank you to all of you, especially all the readers out there who’ve come this far on the journey with me and Rachel and Mycroft.  I’m feeling the love!  Now I better get back to writing (I’m getting there on the new MS), and I’ll be in touch again very soon to let you know about the Every Move launch party (probably March 16 – that’s gonna be the next post) and the upcoming blog tour.

Have a good week, good luck to everyone who’s back at school, and hooray for March!

Xx Ellie

Welcome to 2015 and keeping the plates spinning

Hey folks, I’m back :)

We had a lovely family camping trip over Christmas and New Year - I hope your end-of-year celebrations were peaceful and fun.  And I hope you got lots of books for Christmas!  I managed to get a copy of The Beekeeper’s Apprentice by Laurie R. King (if you’re a Sherlock aficionado like me, why haven’t you read it already? – Go, go read it right now), The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion (yay Graeme!), and Forensics by Val McDermid (great, but I think I need something with more specifics).

It’s been a sobering start to the year so far.  A lovely community friend died recently after a struggle against cancer (it’s always described as a struggle, or a battle or a war, but he really did fight so hard), which threw a great deal of perspective on life.  I’ve loved having this rest time, but it’s made me realise how ridiculously busy I was last year.

About three years ago I read a blog post by Becca Fitzpatrick (who is huge, and goes on book tours and stuff, so she has it way worse than me, obvs) about how she was trying really hard to figure out a better work/life balance, and I didn’t really get what she meant.  But by Christmas last year, I was exhausted – I finished a book (Every Word), wrote another (Every Move), started another (new standalone), and edited the first two for publication, as well as launching Every Word here in Australia and Every Breath in North America and the Philippines.  I also did speaking and teaching gigs at schools, went to festivals and launches, did all the other promotional stuff for the books (launching and already-released), and spent a lot of time on social media (which is fun, I admit – I’ve made a whole lot of new friends on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram *waves*).  I also parented, worked my other job, and helped manage a household of six.

I know I’ve got less on my plate than some other writer-people I know, but it was hard work (and I should say to everyone who missed out on email replies and stuff from me last year – my deepest apologies, I’ll try harder).  Somehow I still found time for my four boys and my partner - BUT I didn’t do lots of normal stuff.  I didn’t exercise, I didn’t watch TV, I didn’t garden.  And my partner carried the can a lot (beyond the call of duty, really) and I felt really guilty for not giving my sons more time.

This year, I’ve still got lots of stuff happening – Every Move is launching in March (omg!!! So close now!!!), and Every Word comes out overseas in September; I’m going to Somerset Festival in Queensland, and Reading Matters in Melbourne, and the Romance Writers of Australia conference (I might be teaching a workshop – will keep you posted!), and I’d love to be invited again to Melbourne Writer’s Festival; I’m going to finish my first post-Every-series book, and prep it for publication; and I’m hoping to visit more schools and libraries this year as well.  But I’m going to do my best to balance things out a bit more, and give my partner, especially, a bit more time.  He works very hard – not just at his teaching job, but at home around the property, and most importantly, giving so much time to our boys – and has been so amazing in helping me achieve my own dreams for the last few years, I feel like he deserves to have his own goals and dreams prioritised more this year.  Being a couple is a commitment to negotiation and communication, and finding a balance that works well for both of us and keeps us both content: I’d like to make sure the balance is better this year.

I’m still excited about what's coming up :)  For those of you who’ve asked if I could come to visit your school or library or book group – sure!  Just click on the link over there (*points right*) to my speaking agency, Booked Out, or click on my webpage link for my publishers’ contacts (*points right again*), and let them know when and where!  And for those lovely people who’ve asked if I’m ever coming to visit in North America – well, anything could happen!  I’m still very open to the idea if anyone wants to invite me :)

So what other stuff has been happening?   Well, I said we went camping, right?  Our annual family beach-camping trip was amazing.  I turned off my phone for TWO WHOLE WEEKS – heaven – and spent a lot of time lolling around on the beach in southern NSW.  I know lots of people don’t like camping – insects! dirt! pit toilets! – but I LOVE it.  Vikki Wakefield and I have decided that camping-loving chicks like ourselves are an endangered species, but I think more people should just give it a try.

What else happened on this camping trip, you ask, apart from pit toilets, and lolling, and a delightful break from online shenanigans?  Well, in a nutshell:

* We saw seals, dolphins, manta rays, goannas, wombats, lyrebirds, and the usual complement of kangaroos and wallabies, of course.  The wombats were the cutest.  The seals were incredible.  A goanna nearly bit me on the ankle – yeah, gotta watch out for those goannas.

* I jumped in the sea, every morning and every evening – LOVED it.  I was hoping to do a nudie swim on the last night, but when I got down to my swimming spot at sundown, there were about a dozen teenage boys fishing nearby, so yeah…no.

* I started to feel a bit sticky and salty by about Day6, and I always have about a million mosquito bites by then – that’s okay, I’m used to it.  I won’t post pics of the mozzie bites on my butt, because that would be gross and unnecessary.

* Peeing in the bushes FTW

* I got a tick in my hair.

* Apart from ticks, hair also got very salty and frizzy.  Nobody cares when you’re camping.  I was feeling very WildGirl for the whole trip – golden and swimming-lithe and fit – and then when I finally got back home and looked in the mirror, I realised I actually looked like a sunburnt, birds-nest-haired crazy person.  Oh well.

(Side note: I actually love the break from mirrors that camping provides.  If I look at myself in a mirror every day, I start to get all self-conscious or particular about my appearance.  Having a break from mirrors, I feel like I can return to a real sense of self-perception, and let go of self-consciousness.  /End rant)

* Many fish were caught, and some were put back, and some were eaten.

* I received a full-body wetsuit for my birthday, and it has CHANGED MY LIFE.  My god, I can snorkel!  I can swim in the ocean for hours without my extremities freezing off!  This is such a revelation!

* I wrote every day (the pic at right was the view from my writing spot).  I wrote in little school exercise books, and added about 10,000 words to the manuscript that is slowly turning into (working title) No Limits.  It’s some of the most tension-filled, swoony, thrilling stuff I’ve ever written (I think) – this book is going to have all the feels.  I’m completely head over heels for my new leading man…who I’ll tell you about later.  Like, after March.

So that was camping.  Since I’ve come back home, I’ve kept up the exercise routine I tentatively began in December, watched the first season of The100 (and now totally get the obsession), spent a week in Melbourne working on No Limits (65,000 words and counting!) while my older boys were attending music summer school, and done plenty of lolling.  Now, I’m on fire for the New Year!  Bring it on!

And bring on the balance.  With a bit of luck – and a lot of negotiation and communication – I’m hoping my partner and I can keep all the plates spinning this year.

Xx ellie

PS: Christmas Prize-pack Winners – I haven’t forgotten you!  I’m posting out the prizes for you all this week, so keep your eyes out for a parcel in the mail.  If you haven't sent me your contact addy - please do it now!

PPS: If you're at ALA Midwinter this year, remember to go grab an ARC of Every Word from the Tundra booth (4829)!