Tag: Simmering Season

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A Release Day Dedication and Apology

Dan and Benny Acton in action cira 1970

My special release day blog is both a dedication and an apology!

The dedication first …

“To Dad—my moral compass—for letting me travel my own path through life, for loving me no matter how I strayed, and for letting me make my own choices even when you didn’t understand them.”

These words might make more sense after reading the novel (and to those who know me). Suffice it to say, Simmering Season examines the impact of the choices we make and the paths we take. For my lead character, Maggie, a school reunion brings home more than memories when the past and present converge with the unexpected to form the perfect storm, blowing the lid of a lifetime off small town secrets.

While Maggie is facing stormy times – fictionally speaking – my gorgeous dad has endured his own perfect storm this past year. Many of you will remember I lost Mum 12 months ago, two weeks before my very first book launch. But there was my dad on my big night, alone in the crowd and proud as punch.

Well, it’s my turn to be proud of him – for all he’s achieved, all he’s taught me, and, more recently, all he’s endured while coming to terms with losing the woman with whom he’d shared 60 years of married life.

Although the first draft of Simmering Season was written some time ago and well before my own experiences – a story in which Maggie’s dad is coming to terms with loss, while the onset of dementia is stripping him of his treasured independence – the editing process last year came very close to home, mirroring reality in so many ways.

On a happy note, Dad inspired my love of music, and despite his efforts to teach the piano, it turned out the computer was my keyboard of choice. Writing Simmering Season, however, has allowed me to combine both passions and finally show Dad some of his amazing talent did manage to rub off. (At least I hope you agree something rubbed off when I release the Simmering Season song I wrote – the recorded version coming to a blog post soon!)

Now …  about that apology.

I did that thing every writer dreads. I forgot to thank someone for their contribution in the acknowledgements last year. I remember the day I realised that House for all Seasons had gone to print and I’d left out one important name.

With Simmering Season I can now correct that omission. As I thank my many writer friends who show their support everyday by sharing the love, especially early readers of this novel, Annie Seaton and Tracey Alvarez, I am able to FINALLY acknowledge the special author friend who was instrumental in helping me through an early (frantic) draft of House for all Seasons and without that help Simmering Season would not exist today.

With that job done, I thank you – lovely readers – for getting this far down a very long but important (to me) blog post and hope you enjoy Simmering Season.

Watch the trailer… 

Click to tweet or: Read a chapter, buy the book.
[Tweet “Watch out! It’s here. Simmering Season. Out now. @simonschusterAU @curtisbrownaus http://wp.me/p1zse7-1uz”]

 

Oh, and if you got this far, you might like to leave COMMENT AND WIN A COPY of Simmering Season or House for all Seasons. Your choice.

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Jenn’s not-so-perfect cover!

You’ve all seen the fabulous cover for my April 1 release – Simmering Season. Not even the lovely Roberta and Larissa (Simon & Schuster) — responsible for the real thing — know about this ‘other’ cover.

When Dianne Blacklock and I were ‘talking’ on her blog recently about our planning/plotting process, I explained that part of my creative process includes making up titles and tag lines to get me into a story. In the early days I would go so far as to design a visual to stick on the wall. (I dug this pretend cover from the archives the other day and had a giggle.)

It seems Maggie/Magpie was always going to find her way into a story and she finally has – in Simmering Season.

Maggie’s story (a vague resemblance) began close to a decade ago. At the time I was toying with a book series using bird titles: magpie – the protector, bower bird – the collector, koel – the home wrecker, kookaburra – sadness behind the smile. Get the idea? (Hmm, you can see why that bird brain concept didn’t get me anywhere with a publisher!!!)

But I was stuck on the magpie idea. I love the birds and I knew there was some merit in a magpie storyline: territorial, maternal, desirous of human interaction, the magpie’s courtship tends to be devoid of all the drama that accompanies so many matings (dance, song, quirks). In fact, the female magpie will generally build her nest alone and often in the most exposed parts of the tree with full exposure to the sun and sky – a kind of bold strategy to prevent ambush. Mother magpies do it all.

Enter Simmering Season’s lead character – nicknamed Magpie – bold and protective:  a devoted mother, daughter and wife grappling with her responsibilities as well as being the reluctant town publican and community event organiser for the town’s centenary and school reunion.

Lucky for me (and Maggie) my lovely publishers have a better idea about book covers which means I can now leave the visual creative stuff to them so I can focus entirely on the story telling (while finding new ways to procrastinate – namely Facebook and Twitter).

But I thought you might like to know a little about my Maggie.

As in House for all Seasons, my female leads don’t necessarily fit the fiction heroine mould. Maggie, in particular, is not strong or brave. She is not rescuing anyone or saving the day; Maggie Lindeman is lucky to save herself. She’s far from perfect, desperate, but proud, the kind of everyday woman I hope resonates with readers, much like Poppy, Sara, Amber and Caitlin in House for all Seasons.

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Bar Yarns w/ Author Kylie Kaden

The things you find on Goodreads! Like Kylie Kaden, whose debut novel, Losing Kate, is coming out at the same time as my Simmering Season (April 1).

So I thought… why not share the love of good books and a beer or two?

First, here is a beer coaster, Kylie! Take a minute to jot down the blurb for your book. I must say, this blurb intrigued me on Goodreads and reads even better the second time around. (Readers – Kate’s book is on Goodreads as a giveaway, too. ONLY UNTIL 10 MARCH. Simmering Season giveaway goes until March 23 – see the link on my home page.)

Losing Kate

I’m the most authentic version of myself when I’m around Jack. We’ve known each other since we were kids, and our relationship was always one of mudpies and mocking. Then everything changed. Beautiful Kate, my best friend, disappeared on a moonlit beach after Jack dumped her for me. Jack was a suspect and, sure of his innocence, I lied to protect him. I know Jack didn’t kill her. Our betrayal did. Thirteen years later, I am thirty, childless and single, attempting to renovate my life rescuing a rundown worker’s cottage. All is as it should be in my safe little world – until Jack buys the vacant lot behind my house… and the feelings that we buried all those years ago – the guilt, the love and the pain – resurface. We can’t keep running away from the past – and to move forward we have to know what really happened to Kate.

 

This mesmerising debut is part love story, part mystery, telling the captivating story of two lovers torn apart by tragedy and the secrets they kept of one devastating night. 

Okay, grab a pew. I invited your super CP, Lily Malone, for a drink too. She should be here soon. In the meantime, what can I get you to go with your beer nuts? (Shandy? Wine Spritzer? Pink Lemonade?)

Sav Blanc thanks!

Hey, did you hear the one about … 

I preface this joke with a warning that the source was my 6yo.

What’s brown and sticky?

A stick. (It was either that or How do you get Pikachu on a bus – Pokemon, so you can see what my dilemma was?!)

I’m a beer nut nut! What bar snack would you be and why?

Can’t go past cheese!

Ahh, that beer hit the spot. Let me slip a drink coaster under your glass while you tell us—on a scale of 1 to 10—as a writer are you a messy desker or tidy desker? 

10. My desk is my lap. It walks around with me, so I can’t really keep mess on it, but is a little more padded than it used to be.


The publican offers you free drinks all night if you will:

•   Dance to Gangnam Style

•   Sing John Denver’s ‘Take me Home Country Roads’ on the Karaoke machine

•   Spend an hour washing dishes

Which do you choose?

Considering I do an hour of dishes a day for squat, number three sounds like a deal! (If I’m doing the first two, I’ve already drunk too much and someone should put me in a cab.)

Time to liven the place up. Got a buck? We can crank up the old jukebox in the corner. You get to pick three songs.

  1. Throw your arms around me – Hunters and Collectors.
  2. These Days – Powderfinger
  3. Stayin Alive – Bee Gees

(Huh! Huh! Huh! Huh! – yeah!)

An author, an agent and a chicken walk into the bar… how do you know which one crossed the road?

The chicken; the author would be at home Googling themselves, and the agent would be lost under a pile of manuscripts!?

There’s a stapler on the bar. Tell me what it’s doing there.

It’s doing what staplers do; trying to keep it all together, just like the rest of us 🙂

The pub is the heart of a small town and most locals would be lost without one. What are three things you’d be lost without?

  1. Laptop
  2. Chocolate
  3. Wine.

(Okay, I am kind seeing why you and Lily are CP partners!)

 

There are a few good prizes up for grabs in the bar jackpot. Do you have a lucky number?

83

(83? Weird, but okay!)

Last drinks, my friend! It’s been great. But before we go, tell us how we can find out more about you and your writing/books.

The official blurb of Losing Kate can be found at Random House Australia.

You can find me at: www.kyliekaden.com.au

Or check out Facebook at:
https://www.facebook.com/KylieKadenAuthor

Or buy Losing Kate from:

itunes , Amazon or  Angus & Robertson

 All the best with Losing Kate, Kylie.

In the meantime, watch out … It’s on the way …

This storm season, in Calingarry Crossing, a perfect storm is heading Maggie Lindeman’s way.  

Find out more, right here. Simmering Season: April 1, 2014

For emergency alerts and warnings for Simmering Season, subscribe to Jenn J McLeod’s blog before you go, or LIKE her Facebook Page.