Candace Davis's Blog

As a 30-something year old woman, I’m still quite partial to a good young adult novel. I often blame the zealous English teacher inside but deep down I know it’s the simplicity and innocence of fiction written for the young. Picking up a young adult novel takes me back to my childhood, painting a picture of a much less complex world where anything is possible.

Yet despite my love of young adult fiction, I had never picked up a Jackie French book … that is until a good friend recommended A Waltz for Matilda. Part of French’s range of historical novels, A Waltz for Matilda is set in the Australian outback during the turn of the 20th century.

French claims that is perhaps one the best books she has ever written. Although I can’t comment on this specifically (as I am new to the genius that is Jackie French) I can say it is one of the best young adult books I’ve ever read (and I’ve read a fair few in my time)!

A Waltz for Matilda draws on the well-known classic Australian poem by Banjo Patterson and tells the story of a young girl’s journey towards independence. Matilda must cope with the unrelenting harshness of life on the land however, her suffering is blended seamlessly with the love and enduring friendships that can also be experienced in such tough environments.

After reading A Waltz for Matilda, I think it’s fair to say I have become a late-blooming Jackie French fan and I can’t wait to feast on the next one. It’s a good thing French has been around for long enough to assuage my hunger for more historical Australian fiction!

The post Book review: A Waltz for Matilda by Jackie French appeared first on Candace writes.

So it turns out this shelf reading business is harder than I realised. It’s taken me close to a month now to chew through only half of the first book I planned to launch this project off with.

Last night, I found myself lying in bed trying to keep my eyes open and wondering if I should give it all up together when I decided to pick up the next one in line. Naturally, given my love of the Australian Women Writers Challenge, I decided to opt for a home grown tale.

It is with that heady satisfaction of finishing a great book that I say I’m glad I did. Tara June Winch’s debut novella Swallow the air was just what I needed to keep my spirits high while at home nursing a head cold. And it’s given me the motivation to persevere with the project.

Winch was only 22 when she published Swallow the air—a cleverly placed together collection of short stories that tells the tale of a young girl looking for her place in the world. Faced with violence, desperation and the lure of hard drugs, brave young protagonist May Gibson fights on to find her roots and put her family back together again.

Winch paints a beautiful picture of a broken life and her poetic words take her readers to some pretty dark places. Take, for example, her opening few lines:

“I remember the day I found out my mother was head sick. She wore worry on her wrists as she tied the remaining piece of elastic to the base of the old ice-cream container.”

You can see why I felt the need to read on. Winch’s timeless tale, now almost a decade old, won the 2005 David Unaipon Award, given to unpublished works by Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders.

Although I felt like Winch lost some momentum towards the end, Swallow the air seemed perfect for young adult readers (it’s the teacher switch inside I can never quite turn off). A little online searching confirmed it is taught in some Australian senior secondary classrooms, especially in New South Wales.

If you’re looking for a book to take you on a journey of the heart and soul, find yourself a copy of Swallow the air to get lost in the beauty of words for a few hours.

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Some of you may have heard about it already but I LOVE TO READ! I talk about it all the time and when I’m not talking about reading I’m well … reading!

Last year I set myself the challenge of reading 52 books in a year (basically one for every week). This year I’ve stolen someone else’s idea and I will be ‘shelf reading’.

Shelf reading for dummies

I saw this article on shelf reading in The Guardian Weekly and was instantly hooked. Basically, in the summer of 2011, just after Hurricane Irene, Phyllis Rose went to the New York Library looking for a book to read. What she discovered changed her life entirely.

Rose realised that there were stacks of authors she’d never heard of and thought an inventive approach could be to select a shelf and just read all of the books on it. What an inspiration! Rose set her own conditions to find the perfect shelf and so did I:

at least one book by a female Australian author
at least one classic
no more than two books by the same author
must include at least one book I wouldn’t normally read
should be a mix of contemporary and older works (that may no longer be in print).

I went trawling through the shelves at the local library and found one shelf that fit all of my criteria.

So, why shelf reading?

There were a couple of reasons why I chose to shelf read. Many of my reasons were similar to Rose’s—I love to read and I especially love to learn about new authors I’ve never heard of. I also wanted to read books that may now be out of print and I wouldn’t be able to typically find in a bookshop anymore. I like supporting my local library (aren’t libraries awesome?) and it seemed like a pretty unique project. Plus, it won’t cost me a cent.

Introducing WIC–WIN

As I walked the aisles of the local library I found a number of shelves that appealed to me. Some had books I’d always wanted to read, others had interesting covers that caught my eye or stacks of books by authors I’d never heard of. I started at ‘A’ but then quickly found myself at the other end of the library at ‘W’. WIC–WIN eventually caught my eye and I checked that it met the criteria before scanning the rest of the shelves to make sure there weren’t any others.

Unless there was a book already borrowed from the shelf I counted 25 books. I will need to keep a running track of the ones I’ve read (perfect job for a list-maker) and also make note of any new ones that turn up on the shelf but here’s my list to date:

Sophie’s Heart, Lori Wick
The picture of Dorian Grey, Oscar Wilde
Whispers through the pines, Lynne Wilding
Garden of the purple dragon, Carole Wilkinson
Thicker than water, Kerry Wilkinson
Pastures new, Julia Williams
Boy in the world, Niall Williams
Boy and man, Niall Williams
The passions of Emma, Penelope Williamson
The orchid affair, Lauren Willig
The first horseman, D. K. Wilson
Robopocalypse, Daniel H. Wilson
The unquiet spirit, Derek Wilson
The place of dead kings, Geoffrey Wilson
The riot, Laura Wilson
Treason’s tide, Robert Wilton
Swallow the air, Tara June Winch
The surgeon of Crowthorne, Simon Winchester
The homecoming of Samuel Lake, Jenny Wingfield
Satori, Don Winslow
Birds of a feather, Jacqueline Winspear
An incomplete revenge, Jacqueline Winspear
The baby proposal, Rebecca Winters
Dirt music, Tim Winton
Eyrie, Tim Winton

When I got the list home, I was surprised just how many of the books I really wanted to read (and might never have read if not for this strange challenge).

There are a few on the list that don’t really appeal to me (The baby proposal, The passions of Emma and Robopocalypse for example) and there was one book I had already read (Dirt music by Tim Winton) but I decided to read it again because I didn’t remember any of it. There were two Australian female authors (Tara June Winch and Lynne Wilding) which was great for the Australian Women Writers Challenge and one classic (The picture of Dorian Grey) which I’ve always wanted to read.

Now I’m set. The first three books I chose to take home were The surgeon of Crowthorne, The riot and Swallow the air. I’ve already started on The riot … it’s somewhat of a detective/murder mystery set in post World War II England.

Now I just have to find the time to read them all.

Do you have  a reading challenge for 2015?

If you’re interested, the Australian Women Writer’s Challenge is a great place to start. If you live in Roma and want to join me in my shelf reading please get in touch—I’d love to share the journey with a fellow reader.

There are plenty of other challenges you can set yourself (perhaps read a book a week for a year or read half of the top 100 books of all time).

Please share your ideas in the comments section below.

The post Shelf reading: my 2015 challenge appeared first on Candace writes.

Okay fellow list makers, this one’s for you (or should I say for us!).

It’s almost the end of 2014 and we’re about to start a new year. What goals did you tick off your list in 2014? Or what plans are you making for 2015?

I’ve been trying to pull myself out of that end-of-year low by thinking about all the things I’ve achieved this year and trying to come up with some new things to add to my life list. It was a real buzz to realise just how many things I have done this year … you should totally try it!

Items checked off the life list in 2014 (in date order):

Go to a festival (Falls Festival January)
Taste 100 different fruits (okay, this list started years ago but it was completed in January this year)
Make chocolate from scratch (January)
Contribute to someone’s crowd funding campaign (January)
Be in a book club (I was lucky enough to be in two: Jan–April AND June–December)
Learn how to make coffee (Barista course, February)
Learn beginners’ ballet (Feb–April)
Judge in a writing competition (March)
Perform poetry (Slam poetry at the Writing Group Celebration in April)
Write a book (July–September)
See the bone ossuary in the Czech Republic (June)
Visit a new place at least once every year (there were heaps this year but the highlight was Budapest, Hungary and Bled, Slovenia in June)
Live car free (June/July in Paris)
Understand the basics of a foreign language (French, June/July)
Visit the cafe where they filmed Amelie (July)
Complete my Masters (July)
Be a speaker at TED (August)
Hand make a towel topper (September)
Be a tourist in my home town (October)
Do a 365 day project (read 52 books in 52 weeks)
Create and manage a writing blog (here it is folks!)

 

What I have planned for 2015

Be a mentor
Hit a bullseye on a dartboard
Finish my second book
Read a whole shelf of books at the library (anyone from Roma want to join me)?
Give only handmade/recycled/repurposed gifts for an entire year
Cook every item in a cook book (nearly there already)
Be part of a local production/play
Write a letter to myself on my birthday every year (and read it the following year … started this year)
Read a book on something I never thought about reading (any suggestions?)
Have my portrait painted
Go on a completely unplanned road trip
Visit a new place at least once every year
Visit all capital cities in Australia (I’d like to tick off the east coast and get down to Hobart)

Fellow list makers, have you got any ideas to share?

I’d love to add some more items to the list and I’m always on the look out for more. If you have any ideas please write them in the comments section below.

The post This one is for all the list makers out there appeared first on Candace writes.

A few of you have been wondering why I haven’t been writing much lately. Well, the answer is I’ve been reading. And by reading, I mean reading!

Part way through this year I realised that I was reading to fill in time … days when I wasn’t called into work, hours in airports and weeks when I was on my own for various reasons.

I decided to write them down and I realised I’d read 32 books! I do love a good challenge (see Australian Women Writer’s Challenge) so I thought I’d see if I could read another 20 books—making it 52 books in a year (or an average of one book a week).

Here are some stats on the books:

59% were women writers
17% were Australian writers
3% were classics (that’s a bit embarrassing)
21% were non-fiction
30% were young adult novels
19% were by authors that I’ve read more than one book of theirs

Now, it might just be because I’m a nerd but it was really interesting to break down the books I’ve read. If you’re into reading (and stats) I’d encourage you to do the same.

What else you ask?

Aside from reading I’ve been teaching full time this term and organising my book launches. I just finished my Lismore launch earlier this month and I’ve now sold more books than I originally planned for.

Plans for a second book

Now that I’m on holidays again, I’ve decided to start writing my second book. It’s going to be a young adult novel (an idea that sprung from a conversation with a few of my students and grew from there). I’ve been writing for a couple of hours every day and already have just shy of 10 000 words.

Social media update

And lastly, I’ve taken a bit of a social media hiatus. It recognised that it started to have a negative impact on my life so I thought I’d manage my usage a little. I’m trying to find a balance so we’ll see how it goes.

 

The post End of year update appeared first on Candace writes.

As most of you are aware, I had my first book launch in Warwick a few weeks ago. A lovely group of readers came to Cafe Jacqui’s to hear me read the first chapter, have their books personally signed, and ask some questions about writing and self-publishing.

A good friend of mine wrote a review for the paper that I thought I’d share with a few photos from the event.

Love is in the air

Candace Davis, a local teacher and author, held a launch for her first novel “Love: A Collaborative Memoir” at Cafe Jacqui’s on Sunday 2 November at 4 pm.

In front of an enthusiastic literary audience, Candace read the first chapter of her semi-autobiographical novel and answered questions on the catalyst for, and the context of, the novel. She discussed the pros and cons of self-publishing and whether or not her attitude had changed about love since the writing of the novel.

Quite apropos of the subject material, the novel was written in the city of love, Paris, in a short four-week period over the European summer. She returned home to self-publish after a successful crowd-funding venture through Pozible earlier in the year.

Candace integrated anecdotes from both young and old into a narrative cohesively connected with personal anecdotes. Having recently completed her Masters of Education, Candace admitted that the novel had changed her ideas of love and hinted that this would possibly not be the only book in the series.

The novel is available in town at Cafe Jacqui’s and Emporium Lane, and at Bridget Bunchy (at the Summit) as well as online at Vivid Publishing. An e-book version of the novel is also available here on my website.

Want to catch me at the next book launch?

The next book launch is in New South Wales at 5 pm on Thursday 4 December at Noah’s Arc Books in Lismore. I hope to see some of you there!

The post The first book launch appeared first on Candace writes.

As a high school student I didn’t care much for the rules of the English language. Later, as an all-knowing, impressionable young writer, I broke all the rules. And now, as a teacher, I am responsible for teaching those damn rules to the next generation of writers. And it really scares me. Although I don’t think I turned out too bad …

Strange sentence coming up: teaching has taught me how little I actually know about what I’m supposed to be teaching. (There’s something to be said here about the ignorance of the young but that would make me old.) There are so many out-dated English usage rules that are now suddenly becoming new to me because we’re still teaching some of them in schools. Yet at the same time they’re becoming obsolete (I’ll get to that in a minute).

Try this one on for size

Have you ever ended a sentence with before, across, to, next, beside, since, with or by? Sure you have. There are others, many others, if you’re still shaking your head.

They’re called prepositions and they can relate to a word, or phrase, to another. They usually communicate place (to the classroom, in the bag, on the television) or time (before the fire, after the revolution, within the year). Prepositions are typically followed by an object (as per the examples above).

I am guilty for finishing a sentence with a preposition. And unfortunately in this case it’s not a case of knowing and breaking the rules. It’s complete ignorance. Shame on me.

Yet I can’t help but wonder why I should sacrifice a perfectly good sentence for the sake of an old-school grammatical rule that dates back to the 17th century.

Guardian grammar and style guru David Marsh is helping me put out the preposition fire that burns inside some grammarians.

”In the 17th century, John Dryden, deciding that ending a sentence with a preposition was ‘not elegant’ because you couldn’t do it in Latin, set about ruining some of his best prose by rewriting it so that ‘the end he aimed at’ became ‘the end at which he aimed’, and so on. Like not splitting the infinitive, this became a ‘rule’,” he said.

”Ignore it. As HW Fowler observed: ‘The power of saying ‘people worth talking to’ instead of ‘people with whom it is worth while to talk’ is not one to be lightly surrendered’.”

To recap: prepositions usually express place or time in a sentence (and in relation to an object). So long as your sentence makes sense feel free to use them where you please. The year 2014 may have introduced us to words like bestie and honkers, but it also removed this rule from the anally retentive grammarians among us.

Amen to that.

The post The rule for prepositions appeared first on Candace writes.

 

I’m quite a fan of words. Spoken, written, acted … so long as they’re words I love them. Well, most of them.

Some of my favourites include serendipity, felicitous, dulcet, envelop, lovelorn, quintessential and mellifluous.

I don’t like moist (seriously, I detest this word), maggots (I’m not alone on either of these, in fact, moist rates a number of times). Oh and penetrate (what about piece, puncture, perforate or infiltrate?).

So, why do I love words?

Good question. Sometimes I love words for their definition, other times it’s for their pronunciation, spelling or how they’re used. I love nothing more than when someone uses the perfect word for what they’re referring to. I also think many of my favourite words are  not overused … you don’t hear words like dalliance and ephemeral every day do you?

Words and Pictures

I share a mutual love of words with Clive Owen’s character in the 2013 film Words and Pictures. If you haven’t seen it, let me start by saying you’re missing out! We stumbled upon the Fred Schepisi-directed American drama on Friday for date night and I think it’s changed my life.

Owen’s character, Jack Marcus, teaches an advanced writing class at a wealthy private school and is starting to lose his touch and become disenchanted with life when artist and advanced art teacher Dina Delsanto (Juliette Binoche—who doesn’t love her?) arrives on the scene and challenges his love of words with her love of pictures.

Marcus plays a few word games with his colleagues and students and is forever parroting word origins and meanings to whoever is within earshot. He basically left me wanting to be a better person. And a better teacher.

In one particular activity he challenges his students to make up a new word and he inspired me to try and do the same with my English classes. One of my favourites was emblend … you’ll have to watch the film to find out what it means.

My history with words

In past jobs as a feature writer and marketing officer I was encouraged to write for the masses. That basically meant I had to make sure my writing was understandable for as many people as possible. To do that I always had to find the simplest word and structure my sentences to the reading level of an eight-year-old.

When I became a teacher the same rule applied. I had to make my teaching accessible for my students—using words that they would be familiar with and only extend them when the timing was right (which wasn’t as often as I’d have liked). I think I’ve essentially lost touch with those bigger, more challenging words. It’s time to reignite that flame.

Our love affair with the written word

I love a good crossword. You know the ones, like The Guardian Weekly’s quick crossword, that get you thinking of synonyms, working out cryptic clues, or looking at the same old stale words in new ways. And it’s not just me … there are lists of people’s favourite words and people who talk about them. Like did you know J. R. R. Tolkien thought ‘cellar door‘ was beautiful? And according to the British Council ‘mother’ is the most beautiful word followed by passion, smile, love and eternity.

Then we have word games like Scrabble, Boggle and Banagrams that we play with our friends and family to challenge our vocabulary and books dedicated to the art of the written word.

Up for a challenge?

Why not try to come up with a new word and share it on my blog? Or simply share your favourite word/s … I’d love to hear them!

My new word is lovelop (to surround someone with love).

The post Yes, there is such as thing as favourite words appeared first on Candace writes.

I have received my first book review on Good Reads. View it here or read on below. And thanks Troy David!

A strange but beautiful alchemy

Love has been on the mind of many writers, all the way from Romeo and Juliet to Fifty Shades of Grey, and everything in between. No matter how long this universal theme has been written about, we are left with more puzzling questions than answers to that most asked question “what is love?”. In her debut piece, Candace Davis boldly poses the question in this part biographical memoir, part collaborative project. To gain some insight, Davis has travelled to Paris, the ‘city of love’, to draw some inspiration for her musings. If you enjoy stories along the lines of ‘Eat, Pray, Love’, this might be a book to add to your reading list as you follow Davis on her physical and metaphorical journey through the ‘city of love’. The author mixes personal stories with stories from others that range from those that have a fairy tale ending with their ideal partner to those who reject the idea of love. This collaborative memoir is mixed in with a blend of research from poetry, philosophy, psychology and science.

In the process of writing this piece, Davis may have created an alchemy of unexpected literary influences to create a fresh approach to writing about love.

Davis shares with us a very earnest insight into her awkward teenage romantic misadventures. The wit and honesty are almost reminiscent of the emotional reaction of reading a John Green novel. I can’t help but feel that these sections alone could be fleshed out into a very readable young adult fiction piece. On the other hand, the sometimes humorous, but honest perceptions that are drawn from the love stories of others are reminiscent of the observations that are made from Carrie Bradshaw so succinctly at the end of a ‘Sex in the City’ episode, where our main character reflects on the misadventures of her close friends. To put ‘Sex in the City’ and John Green fiction in one review sounds like a ridiculous notion, but the process of writing can be like alchemy, with the mixing of ingredients that you would never expect would go together.

This new book will appeal to a wide audience. Those who enjoy John Green’s fiction may find a story or two within this memoir that will remind them how awkward it is to be a teenager in love. Those who enjoy ‘Sex in the City’ or ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ may also find something in this debut that will resonate. Even if you reject the notion of love, you will still find some like-minded people within these pages, who share their opinions candidly about being alone in a world that may seem to try and shove romantic ideals down our throats, thanks to the lucrative flower and greeting cards industry. Whether you’re a hopeless romantic idealist or a hermit, you will find stories within this collaboration that you can connect to.

At no point in this piece does Davis try to give the reader a definitive answer to the questions that have plagued poets and philosophers since the dawn of time. On the contrary, it is the questions, rather than the answers that will appeal to the reader.

The post My first book review: A strange but beautiful alchemy by Troy David appeared first on Candace writes.

I think the excitement of starting a new project has worn off.

I struggled this month to not only come up with something I’m grateful for, but to remember to write it down. I’m up to Day 65 now, which seems like a lot, but it’s only one sixth of the project!

It probably hasn’t helped that I’ve been sick for the entire month. But if I’m one thing it’s stubborn and I continued to carry on with my project, to look for the beauty in the world around me.

Month two of the gratitude project:

People who offer to help without being asked
Homemade quiche
Birthday cards that arrive early in the mail
People who try to save you money
Lazy afternoons on the couch with a good book
My new website went up without a hitch
No snails have eaten my new veggies
The World Wide Web … seriously, I’m grateful for this one every day
Birthdays
People who tell you that they miss you
Compliments when you’re having a bad day
Getting home just before the storm hits
Baked apples
Finding designer clothes at op shops
Book recommendations
People who offer their advice when you really need it
Cheeky humour
New spring growth (my veggies are nearly ready to eat)
Fresh local produce
Intelligent conversations
Vegetarian pies that I don’t have to make myself
Good movies to watch when you’re sick
Being invited to dinner parties
Soft tissues
Sitting around the table with family
Unexpected gifts
Hearing back from someone famous when you thought they’d be too busy to bother
People getting behind my book and supporting me
Upbeat 80s music that makes the day seem brighter (yes Billy Joel, I’m talking about you)
My homemade ravioli working out (even more exciting because it’s from my cookbook challenge)

I’ve come to realise that just because something is getting more difficult doesn’t mean it’s not worth doing. Every time I stop and think about what I’m grateful for I’m overwhelmed by how wonderful life is. Given the stage of the world I should be looking for the things I’m grateful for now more than ever … well, at least another 300 of them!

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