In case you want to come along, I will be appearing at the Melbourne Writers Festival on Wednesday 1st Sept at 10am with Kate Forsyth, 11.15am with Kirsty Murray and solo on Thursday 2nd Sept at 10am.

At the Brisbane Writers Festival I will be appearing solo on Friday 3rd Sept at 9.45am and at 1.20pm with Morris Gleitzman.

CYA Conference in Brisbane at 5.10pm for a workshop on using your imagination.

Would love to see you there.

I love Google Alerts because without it I wouldn’t have seen this great review of Little Paradise on ALPHA READER, MY SOLO BOOK CLUB. If only someone in the film industry would read the review too, it might just convince a movie producer to adapt the novel to screen. But that is purely wishful thinking on my part.

‘Little Paradise’ by Gabrielle WANG

Received from the Publisher

From the BLURB:

As Mirabel watched him, she could not bear the thoughts creeping up on her. JJ was in the Chinese army and his mission in Australia would one day be over. Then she would be just like the others, a girl left behind in the wake of war. ‘I’m afraid,’ she whispered. ‘When the war ends . . . what’s going to happen to us?’

He put his arm around her and stroked her face. She knew he could not answer that question. But she wanted him to lie, to say that he would take her with him, that they would be together always.

Melbourne, 1943, and Mirabel is seventeen. She’s leaving school, designing dresses, falling in love. Then fate intervenes, her forbidden affair is discovered, and JJ is posted back to China where a civil war is raging. Despite all warnings, Mirabel sets off for Shanghai to find him . . .

Gabrielle Wang’s YA novel ‘Little Paradise’ is based on the true story of how her parents met.

When the book begins Lei An is changing her name. She is a third generation Chinese-Australian (her grandparents came over in the gold rush) and she wants a more Aussie name. She settles on ‘Mirabel’, and visits a soothsayer to bless the name. But the soothsayer has only ominous words to offer;

Dressing the dead

Treasure not wed

Lost on the sea

To fortune you’ll flee

The novel skips ahead to Melbourne in 1943. War hasn’t touched Australia the same way it has Europe and Asia. American soldiers have made base in the city and school children are armed with air-raid kits. But Australia is otherwise far removed from the war, although people are still on-edge after the Japanese attack on Sydney Harbour last year.

Mirabel is in her last year of school and coping with a hectic home life. Her older sister Lola is dating an American soldier, much to her parents chagrin. Mirabel’s mother is having another ‘episode’, battling the highs and lows of her emotions that force the family to send her away to a facility in the country. Mirabel has her head in her art books, but decides to join the army cartography unit once school finishes.

Then Mirabel meets Lieutenant Lin. Lieutenant Jin Jing, or ‘JJ’ as he prefers, is a liaison between Chinese and Australian forces. JJ was a peasant in Shanghai, but left the city when Japanese forces invaded, now he is in Melbourne working a special assignment for the two governments. He and Mirabel cross paths a number of times, before being officially introduced by her father and told to escort JJ around Melbourne to show him the sights. JJ is tall, strong-jawed, and respectful and the handsomest man Mirabel has even seen – she falls in love instantly. Soon she and JJ are spending every spare minute together, including a clandestine trip to Tasmania. But just as war bought them together, it also tears them apart. JJ leaves for Shanghai in the midst of political upheaval with the communist party. In 1945 peace-time brings new immigration restrictions in Australia and no way for JJ to return… not even when Mirabel sends word of her pregnancy.

I loved this book! This is the sort of novel you wish had been on the syllabus when you were in high-school. There’s a lot of merit in the book, from Wang’s lyrical writing to the sweeping historic landscape. But at its centre, ‘Little Paradise’ is a wartime romance and addictive reading.

If the old adage is ‘write what you know’ then it’s obvious why Gabrielle Wang chose to tell this story. She has clearly grown up hearing the tale of her parent’s meeting and star-crossed love, and their romance is grand-scale and incredible enough to merit book-form. JJ and Mirabel’s romance is swoon-worthy, playing out during World War II and the impending communist take-over of China – theirs is an epic love story. Wang did well to not lose these two characters amidst the historic back-drop; she beautifully describes their first meetings and timid affection, which eventually grows into a heated romance.

“One day we will be together again,” JJ said.

She put a finger on his lips. No, they could only talk about this room, this bed, their love, and the sad note that lingered on the strings of the Chinese violin.

But a tiny seed of hope had been planted.

Melbourne is my home-town, so I loved reading about the city in 1945. Wang offers a little snatch of Melbournian history and brings the wartime town to life. Wang also does a wonderful job painting a picture of a third-generation Chinese-Australian family. She touches on Anglo prejudices, Melbourne’s ‘melting pot’ and the strict familial obligation Mirabel has to her parents. Wang offers a fascinating glimpse into Chinese family and tradition, and sets up many seemingly impossible obstacles (both familial and historic) for Mirabel and JJ to overcome.

Melbourne’s Flinders St. Station, 1945

Though the first-half of the book is set in Melbourne during war-time, it’s the second-half based in Shanghai that really captivates. China is on the brink of revolution, and the Kuomintang government are trying to weed out communists and sympathizers to curb the red fever. Mirabel and JJ find themselves caught in the midst of revolution, when the country is on the precipice of the communist take-over. This was fascinating reading for me, as Wang brings this giant historic event to a more personable level through Mirabel and JJ. The second-half of the book also offers some of the most heart-rending scenes, like Mirabel’s visit to the devastated city, Hiroshima. In the second-half Wang really stretches her literary wings and absolutely soars with the plot and narrative.

‘Little Paradise’ is an epic saga of wartime romance, revolution and one girl’s destiny. I really did love this novel, and wholly wish something like ‘Little Paradise’ had been on my reading list when I was in school.

5/5

http://alphareader.blogspot.com/2010/07/little-paradise-by-gabrielle-wang.html

I always find dialogue the hardest of all to write.

Here is some excellent advice from Janet Fitch- A Few Thoughts About Dialogue

For those of you who maybe interested in making a DIY book trailer, here is how I went about it.A book trailer is a teaser, a peephole into the world of your story.

Little Paradise book trailer was a collaborative effort. My son, Ren used imovie, the movie software that comes free with a Mac. I purchased the music from stockmusic.net a royalty free music site at very reasonable prices. I listened to hundreds and hundreds of demos before I chose one that I thought just fitted the mood. Other sites I used were Getty Images and Dreamstime. Getty is expensive, especially if you are looking for a vintage shot. For example, an image of 1948 Shanghai would have cost me $306 for just one year of use. So I found another photo of Shanghai on Dreamstime. It’s not historic, but still has the atmosphere of old Shanghai with the boat, the river and the city in the background without the huge skyscrapers.

As well as using the beautiful photo of my mother, I also used an image of my father in soldier uniform standing outside my mother’s Carlton house.

The image of Melbourne 1943 came from the State Library of Victoria. They have a wonderful collection of digitalised photographs that are no longer under copyright. The library is also in the process of converting their images to jpeg. Instead of filling out a permission form, sending it in and waiting 15 days to receive a good copy, many photos are now ready for immediate download at high resolution. As long as you acknowledge the library, you are free to use the image. They also have a wonderful service where you can speak to a friendly librarian either online or by phone.

There are many other stock photo and music sites on the web. There are also professional book trailer makers like Paul Murphy at Book Tease. He has made trailers for authors such as Kate Forsyth and Andy Griffith. It all depends on your budget and whether you can find family and friends who are willing to help you out.

The downside? Making a book trailer yourself can be a fiddly process especially the editing. Unless you have taken your own images and write your own music, you need a fair bit of time to go through hundreds of stock photos and music clips. All together, my book trailer took Ren and I about three days to make, which I guess in the whole scheme of things is not that long. With the experience we have gained, I know it will be easier the next time around.

The upside? Although I’m forever hoping that a Hollywood producer will phone offering me a mega movie deal, a book trailer is probably the closest I’ll ever come to seeing my book on the silver screen, even if that silver screen is only Youtube. Music and images add a whole new dimension to your story. And seeing it in this format is a thrilling and satisfying experience.

Last week I asked a publicist whether she thought book trailers enticed readers to buy books. Her opinion was in the negative.

I’ll let you decide that for yourselves.

VIEW THE TRAILER

I loved the process so much I am now making a trailer for A Ghost in My Suitcase. Even though this book came out last year, I think it will be a very useful promotional tool to have when I visit schools and talk at writers festivals.

I received new copies of Little Paradise Audio book today from my publisher, which is always very exciting. But my excitement is often tinged with trepidation.

What if I don’t like the voice?

Also, in this book more than any of my others, the reader needs to speak with a Chinese, German, French, Italian and Polish accent as well as say some sentences in those languages. This is a huge ask.

But the reader, Miriam Glaser, has done a wonderful job. I love her voice. She is the perfect Mirabel.

Last week I spent five days teaching a bunch of very talented teenagers about writing. They were truly inspiring to work with and their enthusiasm knew no bounds. They had given up a week of their holidays to do the workshop. About half wanted to be authors, the others didn’t know yet.
When I was their age, I wanted to be an artist. I failed Year 12 English first time around so, being an author, was as far from my mind as becoming a doctor (no good at maths either) or a pilot (scared of heights) or a vet (love animals but hated the sight of blood). I did consider other occupations like archaeology, film making, social work and kindergarten teaching. But my real love was art so I studied Graphic Design.
Now, looking back, I see that writing for children has fulfilled all of those needs. I dig up stories. I write for children. I talk about relationships. I use my imagination. And I draw. I found what I love to do late in life but I consider myself very very lucky.

Above is a photo of zines my students made in class. Zines are such a wonderful way of self expression. One student wrote lines on a piece of paper and scrunched it up. This was his response to homework. Another student tore strips of paper and wrote single lines of prose that she had written during the week, another made a single white lotus on a white pond with the word Lili written in Chinese characters. There were books filled with prose and poetry and song, movie tickets, receipts and gum wrappers. That’s what I love about zines, anything goes.

I have just received an ARC – that’s an advanced reading copy of Cath Crowley’s new YA novel Graffiti Moon. I can’t wait to read it. I have the pleasure of launching Cath’s book when it is released in August. I love her books. I love the voice and the humour in her writing and the strength of her characters. And what a distinctive cover!

Last year, I worked with a group of students from migrant and refugee backgrounds in a series of creative writing workshops at Maroondah Secondary College.

The project called Living Between Cultures, was organised by Cassy Polemini who has worked tirelessly to bring it all together.

The students amazed me with their stories which ranged from life in a Karen refugee camp, to playground love in Sudan. With the aid of their teacher, Lynne Dyer, their stories and essays came to life in the written word.

Journalist, writer and editor, Daan Spijer also worked with another group of refugee students.

The stories cover themes of freedom and belonging, love, loss and lessons learned from parents. These tales have winged their way to Australia via Burma, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, India and Sudan.

And now it will be launched at THE WHEELER CENTRE by ALICE PUNG on Thursday 5 August.

Event Details:

6.15pm, for 6.30pm

Thursday 5 August

The Perfomance Space

The Wheeler Centre

176 Little Lonsdale St

Melbourne

Guest speaker: Alice Pung

Free, but booking is essential. Contact cassy.polimeni@gmail.com by Thurs 29 July.

Note: As the project was primarily about raising awareness, the collection is not currently for sale, however if you are (or know of) an organisation or media outlet that would be interested in this project, either to adapt it, or to write about it or help spread the word in any way, please let us know here and we’ll do our best to get a copy to you.