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Hello, much-neglected newsletter subscribers! It's been a minute, that's for sure. Sorry. I was frantically editing Kill Your Boss, and then once I submitted it I was frantically editing I Know What You're Hiding, and then my whole family got the flu, and by the time I'd recovered, Boss was back in my inbox, and then... | | | |
Get it together, Jack. Your readers demand more interesting stories than this. OK, here's one: last week I had a work experience student. Her name was Annie, and she was extremely diligent. I gave her the manuscript for Hiding so she could practice editing while I was working on Boss, though I had arrogantly assumed her edits wouldn't be all that helpful. "I have 20 years of experience," I told myself. "Surely this admittedly enthusiastic upstart won't come up with anything better than what I wrote?"
But actually she did a terrific job, and I reckon some of her edits will probably make it into the final version. Touche, Annie. ("Teenagers don't really say 'Oof' anymore," she told me. "It's 'yikes' now.") Anyway, if Scholastic asks any of you, tell them I'm definitely still the best and they shouldn't replace me with a younger, more energetic writer. OK?
To recover from the realisation that I'm old and out of touch, I rented a little cabin at a beautiful caravan park (pictured) and spent three days editing Kill Your Boss. I typed until my fingers bled - or, rather, I bit my nails until my fingers bled. By the end, my eyes wouldn't focus, I had a near constant headache, and something weird was going on with my right shoulder. (Listen to me, whinging. The life of a bestselling author is soooooo tough, you guys.)
But the results were great. I submitted the book yesterday, and I couldn't be prouder of it. Audible will start casting soon, if they haven't already - just like with Kill Your Husbands, we're going to have a variety of talented actors tackling all the characters - and I can't wait to hear the performances. I'm always amazed by the nuances a really good actor can find, deep within a character. | | | | Speaking of Boss, you can now pre-order the print edition! How cool is that cover art? It's not final - we're hoping to find a couple more quotes from famous writers who like the book - but I just love that adorable dead rat.
Anyway, you can support your local bookshop (and me!) by asking them to pre-order a copy for you. If you don't have a local bookshop, you can also find it online: | | | | | | | | I've been reading an utterly wonderful novel: Ghost Cities, by Siang Lu.
It's hard to describe, especially in the time I have (I can tell the staff in this cafe are keen for me to move on) but let me try my best. A Sydney-based translator named Xiang Lu gets fired by the Chinese embassy, who have discovered that he speaks barely any Chinese. (They actually noticed almost immediately, but kept him on for months just in case he was someone's nephew.) This story catches the eye of an eccentric - OK, megalomaniacal - film director, who brings him to China, where Xiang is made to live in a film set the size of a city, grappling with the culture he's lost. He also falls in love. | | | | Meanwhile - or rather, a thousand-odd years earlier - a Chinese emperor goes mad with power. Over the course of his hilarious-yet-bloodthirsty reign, he orders all the chickens killed (because the previous emperor choked on a chicken bone), promotes a baby to the role of royal taster, and invites all the imperial city's unsheltered population to what would come to be known as "the poisoned banquet"... and that's just the first chapter.
I like the chapters about Xiang, but I love the chapters about the mad emperor. As skillfully as the emperor's long-suffering chef savant, the author has expertly blended absurdist humour into a profoundly moving fable, and the results are pure magic. This book has just been shortlisted for the Miles Franklin, and I want it on the record that I was reading it before that. | | | | OK, now they're literally cleaning the table I'm sitting at. But I do need to tell you that I'm having a book launch on July 25! And it's going to be extra special. The book is Doctor Who: Frankenstein and the Patchwork Man, and in addition to the usual book launch stuff (books for sale, speeches, drinks and nibbles, etc) there will be costumes! Jewellery! A TARDIS! Maybe a red carpet?? If you're a nerd like me, you won't want to miss this. | | | | So come along, grab a book, get your photo taken with the TARDIS, listen to me geeking out with award-winning fantasy author Amy Laurens, and check out the jewellery (seriously! My wife, Venetia, is providing her jewellery shop as a venue for this, so please check out all the shiny and sparkly things).
Actually, she has more newsletter subscribers than me, and she's already invited them. So you'd better grab a ticket before they snap them all up: | | | | | | Speaking of audiobooks, Doctor Who and pre-ordering stuff... My Doctor Who book is getting adapted for audio, and you can now pre-order it on Audible! I can't wait to hear it in all its timey-wimey glory. | | | | | | | |
Speaking of Canberra... I'll be at the Canberra Writers Festival this year! Plus I'll be teaching a writing course for Varuna, and appearing at Once Upon a Festival in Adelaide. You can find all the details on the events page of my recently refurbished website, which I'd also love your opinion on. Too many emojis? Not enough? Let me know! 🥐🥐🥐🥐
Oh, hey, and I'll be at the Marion ACT Literary Awards tonight - anyone else coming to that? | | | | | | | | Are you reading this on my website? You clearly enjoyed it, since you're still here. Subscribe, if you haven't already! | | | | This newsletter is free, and I won't sell your information under any circumstances, ever. I'll just send you nonsense like this every month or so. There is no archive of these posts, so subscribing is the only way to collect them.
Why is there no archive? Because I hate reading old posts full of broken links, and so do you. Also, I want my lasting body of work to be my novels, which are ruthlessly edited, and not my newsletters, which aren't even spell-checked.
See you next month-ish, Jack 🖋️ | | | | Written on unceded Ngunnawal/Ngambri land. I acknowledge elders past, present and emerging. Always was, always will be.
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.jpg "Ghost Cities, by Siang Lu")
