Danielle Wood

The diver’s clothes lie empty – book review

February 19, 2016 by Karen Comer 12 Comments

This is the first time I’ve read a novel written in second person. I’ve read a couple of short stories written this way, and I’ve attempted to write one myself and failed miserably. The tutor in my online short story class and several of the other students told me it just didn’t work.

Cate Kennedy wrote a fabulous short story, ‘Dark roots’ in her short story collection of the same name about a woman who started seeing a much younger man.

For a while now, you’ve avoided looking at yourself in the full-length mirror in the bathroom by neglecting to put the ventilation fan on. You hurry to dry yourself and get out of there before the mirror unsteams. Life, if we hold it up to the light, contains many of these foolish rituals. Like the one you notice lately where you always turn off the bedside lamp before you slide into bed with him, and the way you don’t wear your glasses at the movies.

Danielle Wood wrote the prologue ‘The good mother’ in her Mothers Grimm in second person.

So your partner moves out, just as your maternity leave expires. Your plan had been to go back to work part-time, but now that you’re a single mother you have to work full-time to afford childcare for two kids. The economics of this confuse you, but you’re too busy thinking about how you’re going to manage to worry about that as well.

Danielle told me in one of her writing classes that the secret to writing in second person was to make sure you were saying something specific to a specific someone.

It makes sense, doesn’t it, because often in conversation we use second person. ‘So you know how easy it is to forget where you put your keys? If you’re driving the other car and you don’t put the keys in the door pocket when you strap the kids in? Or if you’re wearing clothes with no pockets? That’s when it happens to you – you forget where you put your keys.’

Even though it’s not often used in novels, it’s still a familiar kind of voice. Or maybe it’s just me, talking to myself!

The diver’s clothes lie empty by Vendela Vida is a novel written completely in second person. It’s about a young woman who is travelling by herself and has her passport, money and identification stolen as soon as she arrives at her hotel in Casablanca. This is the catalyst for a series of events which take her further and further away from her life as she knew it.

I couldn’t help but like the main character, even though I wanted to yell at her for being so gullible. A perfect character – flawed and loveable.

The writing style drew me in, deep into her day-to-day dramas living without identification in a foreign country and also deep into her past which is gradually revealed.

You are picturing yourself at seventy, looking back on your youth. You will remember that you were young once, that you were thirty-three. You were in a movie in Casablanca. Now that you are on the cusp of being a full-fledged adult, as you now see adulthood, your youth has been documented. Your youth will be defined by the events of the last several months.

If you are looking for something different to read, then this book might be for you.

Read any other short stories or novels written in second person? Does this style appeal to you?

Thank you, SP, for this Christmas present – great choice!

98 and counting …

December 29, 2015 by Karen Comer 9 Comments

This year I have kept a tally of the books I have read. With three days to go until the end of the year, I am up to number 98, and I have every intention of reading my way to 100 books by midnight 2015. Silly isn’t it, to think that 100 books is somewhat better than 98?

At the Sydney Writers’ Festival this year, Anne Buist – who writes under the pen name Simone Sinna and who is married to Graeme Simsion, author of The Rosie Project – told an audience of 500 that she usually read about 200 books a year. There was a collective gasp, then silence as we all took in this amazing accomplishment.

I do read a lot of children’s fiction, and some of those books are reasonably slim. It always takes me longer to read non-fiction as I need to focus more to understand the content rather than enjoy a story.

I’m grateful to all my friends and family who give or lend me books. Big thanks to the family members on both sides who gave me wonderful books for Christmas – thanks C and SP!

Below is a list of my favourite adult fiction books I’ve read this year. I’ve added a link if I’ve reviewed the book earlier and I’ve tried to give a mini book review here in a couple of words because it’s holidays and I’m feeling a little lazy!

Burial rites by Hannah Kent – gripping, original – account of the last woman hanged in Iceland in 1829.

In the quiet by Eliza Henry Jones – heartbreaking, evocative – a family in grief after their mother and wife dies, narrated by the dead woman who is able to observe her family.

The natural way of things by Charlotte Wood – stirring, original, unsettling, horrifying – ten woman are imprisoned in the middle of nowhere for past sexual experiences.

Goldfinch by Donna Tartt – detailed, gripping, sad, 800 pages long – the story of a thirteen year-old boy who is caught up in a horrible event which is the catalyst for the next decade or so of his life.

The invention of wings by Sue Monk Kidd – compelling, detailed – account of a southern American family caught up in slavery riots and changes.

Big little lies by Liane Moriarty – hilarious, perceptive, page-turning – story of three women with children at the same primary school, with themes of bullying, domestic violence, friendship.

The eye of the sheep by Sofie Laguna – sad, beautiful – told through the eyes of a small boy – themes of family violence and family love.

The beast’s garden by Kate Forsythe – gripping, horrifying, page-turning, evocative – set in Berlin during WWII, a love story.

Mothers Grimm by Danielle Wood – original, thought-provoking, perceptive – four ‘long’ short stories with a modern take on fairy tales, centred around the idea of the ‘good’ mother.

The women’s pages by Debra Adelaide – interesting, detailed, quiet – a story within a story, focuses on details of women’s lives in different generations.

After rereading my list, I’ve noticed that most of my favourite books are on the serious side. There’s the horror of war, imprisonment, children’s fears, death, grief. I would read all of these books again – for the story and for appreciating the writing craft. I love a page-turning book, where I care about the characters so much that I want to find out what happens to them. I am probably – definitely – guilty of cooking a late dinner for my kids or staying up way past my bedtime, thanks to the wonder of these books!

Perhaps there might be a book here which would make perfect summer reading for you or perhaps you have read some of these books, too? Let me know in the comments if you have a favourite book for 2015 that I could read for 2016.

Stories within stories

November 10, 2015 by Karen Comer 4 Comments

I read two books this week which had stories within stories, and saw a musical on Saturday night which had a story within a story. I love it – stories are fabulous enough but a story within a story is pure magic! Let me explain.

Miss 9 put Angelica Bank’s Finding Serendipity on my bedside table with a note saying, ‘Mum, you really should read this – it is so good.’ It is so good because it is about a writer called Serendipity and her daughter Tuesday. When Serendipity goes missing from her writing room, Tuesday decides she needs to be as brave as Vivienne Small, the heroine in her mother’s children’s book series. So she ends up having an adventure within the pages of her mother’s books and meets her mother’s character, Vivienne Small, confronts Vivienne’s antagonist and writes her own story. Real life taking place inside the pages of a book. As with all fantasy books, this works because the characters are strong and true and believable – so I was more than happy to follow Tuesday in her magic adventures. I loved the mother-daughter relationship – Serendipity is a famous writer, a magical adventurer herself and also a typical worrying mother. But she does eventually trust that Tuesday can look after herself. I am looking forward to reading the second book, A week without Tuesday, and the third book is coming out next year. Angelica Banks is the pen name of Tasmanian writers Danielle Wood and Heather Rose. I attended two writing workshops with Danielle a couple of months ago. Warning – if Miss 9 is invited to any birthday parties for nine or ten-year-old girls over the next few months, this book will be the birthday present!

Then I read The Women’s Pages by Debra Adelaide, another mother-daughter story, which alternates chapters between Dove, who has recently buried her adoptive mother and is feeling lost, with an abandoned job and no family now. The alternative chapters are about the story Dove tentatively starts to write, with no experience of writing. Dove writes the story of Ellis, a young woman living in the 1960s, who feels trapped in the conventional life of being a wife and mother. I don’t want to spoil the ending, but I will say that Wuthering Heights also features in this book as well, so that’s another story within the main story. This story reminded me again of how limited the choices were for women in the 60s. This book is a quiet one – there’s lots of thinking and reflection and small moments. It would be a fabulous read for a bookclub because the rich themes of mothers and daughters and babies and adoption and Emily Bronte and family secrets and women’s choices offer so much to think about.

Then on Saturday night I saw the musical City of Angels, about a writer living in Los Angeles in the 1940s, adapting his book for a Hollywood screenplay. Half of the play focused on the ‘real’ world of the writer – the actors wore coloured clothes. The other half of the play showed the characters from the screenplay – dressed in black and white. To add to the complexity, some of the characters from the ‘reel’ screenplay were based on the characters in the ‘real’ life of the writer. And then to add to that complexity, the actors played dual roles, often the ‘real’ life person and then the ‘reel’ character from the screenplay. The orchestra was fabulous, the jazz singing soul-stirring, the script witty and the plot so very clever. One of my favourite moments was when the writer, typing away at his typewriter in an argyle patterned yellow and brown vest with matching socks, was forced to write some really terrible lines, as directed by the film producer. The main ‘reel’ character, a fabulous womanising detective delivered the terrible line, and then turned to look at the writer as if to say, ‘Mate, you’re kidding me?’ This happened just before intermission, and in the second half, the ‘real’ writer mixed with the ‘reel’ characters.

Unfortunately, the show only went for four nights and it’s finished now, so I can’t recommend that you go and see it!

Stories within stories, characters living lives as real and authentic as their creator – this has been my theme for the week and I am trying to apply it to my own life, to make the kid characters in my book seem as real as the three kids in my home.

Writing workshops – Danielle Wood

September 22, 2015 by Karen Comer 4 Comments

I went to two fabulous workshops through Writers Victoria with Danielle Wood last weekend. Danielle is a Tasmanian writer – she has written a couple of collections of short stories for adults – Mothers Grimm and Rosie Little’s cautionary tales for girls – as well as an adult novel, The alphabet of light and dark and a biography, Housewife superstar, the very best of Marjorie Bligh. She has also written a trilogy for children with Heather Rose, under the pen name Angelica Banks. Finding Serendipity and A week without Tuesday are the first two books in this series for 8-12 year-olds – the third book is coming out next year.

Friday’s workshop in the Wheeler’s Centre in Little Lonsdale Street was called the Goldilocks Zone – trying to achieve the fine balance between showing and telling. Like many writers, I have heard numerous times the advice to show, not tell. As Anton Chekov said, ‘Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.’

BUT, Danielle taught us that there is a wide spectrum for showing (image-based, indirect writing) and telling (factual, direct writing) and neither one is good nor bad. It is the balance between the two, even if you err on one side or the other.

I am definitely a teller – I overwrite and in subsequent drafts, often delete that second sentence, because it says exactly what the first sentence did, just in a slightly different way. For me, it’s like trying out a few different ways to express the same thing and I need to do it in the first draft so I don’t forget it.

Danielle gave us a few writing exercises to focus separately on telling or showing, using one of our own short stories. Telling a story usually means a flat, boring sort of work while showing can leave the reader with no framework, no understanding of what the characters are actually doing. The last exercise focused on blending all the exercises together, using the best of telling and showing techniques. I was so happy with the piece I wrote around my Alice in Wonderland short story – definitely more telling but with considered, specific images to show the reader the scene. It seemed like a magic formula to me – I can still be a teller but with more evocative imagery! I also started to write a new short story – a good beginning to something worth working on. And I came up with a killer dark sentence for the beginning of another short story … no doubt I’ll be writing this one during the school holidays at the skate park …

For Sunday’s workshop, I drove down to the Mornington Pensinsula for a workshop on fairy tales. I am working on a collection of short stories for adults, loosely using motifs and symbols and stories from fairy tales as a starting point. I love the imagery of dark woods, three attempt quests, spinning wheels, straw and gold, red capes … the list goes on and on, and the ways to incorporate it into modern fiction is endless too.

I have written a short story based on Rumplestiltskin, and used that fairy tale for the writing exercises in Danielle’s class. Danielle taught us how to use our memories to write an emotional piece of work, create a mindmap to generate ideas for writing and use the architecture of fairy tales to create a structure for our writing. The strong imagery for me from Rumplestiltskin is the chaos of the straw surrounding the miller’s daughter, the impossibility of her task, and the order of the gold, spun neatly onto bobbins in the morning. My first Rumplestiltskin story was based on the idea of names but I’m planning to write at least another one now, using the idea of impossible tasks and turning chaos to order. There’s also the big theme of anxiety, of the miller’s daughter not being able to please the king … again, something to be explored these holidays while supervising kids at a park!

At the end of the class, Danielle asked us to fill in a survey about what we had written that day. She then gave each of us a personal assignment, based on the answers from our survey. I have been to many writing classes and I have never seen a presenter give individual assignments. It felt like a gift.

And then Danielle signed books for Miss 9 and me, as well as for a friend.

I drove home with fairy tale imagery floating through my head, to my own small castle with tired, happy children and a prince who had cooked roast lamb! Wonderful literary weekend!