Archive for June, 2010

Review: f2m – The Boy Within by Hazel Edwards and Ryan Kennedy

f2m The Boy Within

Ford Street Publishing is certainly not tying itself down to just one genre for its YA readers. There’s been Foz Meadows’ “Solace and Grief” (vampires), George Ivanoff’s “Gamer’s Quest” (fantasy/SF/gaming) and now “f2m – The Boy Within” – a transgender coming of age story.

f2m is the first-person story of Finn – born Skye – who decides, on his 18th birthday, to finally take steps to becoming the male he knows he is, inside the female form he was born with. It’s not going to be easy, though. What will his family think? And what about the punk band for which he plays lead guitar, the Chronic Cramps? Will his oldest friends see this as a betrayal of their feminist principles from their female friend Skye, or will they learn to embrace Finn in their formerly ‘all girl’ band?

There’s a lot to learn in this book: about being transgendered, the choices that can be made, and the challenges transgendered people and their families can be faced with. It would be a great book for anyone going through those changes, or their family and friends, because it offers so much insight. It’s a great, easy read too – I gobbled it up in less than two days!

However, it would be a dull book if it was only some treatise in educating the public about transgender issues. Instead, it’s is about being true to who you really are, even when that’s really hard (and even if you’re not entirely sure who that is yet). It’s also about friendship, family secrets, unconditional love, courage and compassion. Those are themes that any person can relate to regardless of age, gender, sexuality or preferred brand of music.

While the book is not autobiographical, co-author Hazel Edwards has known Ryan Kennedy for over 20 years – since Ryan was an 11 year old girl.

Find out more about f2m, including how to buy it at Hazel Edwards’ website.

EDIT: The  f2m: The Boy Within is also available at Amazon.com, or as a Kindle book at f2m (NA). f2m will be launched in New Zealand on 21st July 2010 and will also be getting an e-release there.

2010
06/29
CATEGORY
Reviews
8 comments

Always delighted to see a good review!

The Literate Kitty has given The Opposite of Life a wonderful review: Werewolves in London? Try bloodsuckers Down Under.  It starts with a discussion of the four Noble Truths of Bhuddism, works through a fantastic precis of Lissa’s background and ends with “Life may be hard and cold… but it still has the ability to surprise and delight, as Lissa finally realizes. It’s up to her (and each of us) to make that be enough.” It’s a really neat review. :)

2010
06/25
CATEGORY
Gary and Lissa
Reviews
The Opposite of Life
vampires
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GaryView: Classic Pop-Up Tales – Dracula by Bram Stoker

Gary: What on earth possessed you to buy this book?

Lissa: It’s for your collection. Look! POP-UP CEMETARY!! (pops the cemetary up in his face)

Gary: Yes, I can see that.

Lissa: Come on, it’s hilarious.

Gary: It’s kind of weird.

Lissa: I know! Look at this! POP-UP GIANT DOG! (pops the giant dog up in his face)

Gary: Actually, that was scarier in the novel.

Lissa: Well, the novel is several hundred pages long, and this is about a dozen pages of images and text and POP-UP DRACULA! (pops Dracula up in his face)

Gary: Would you stop doing that?!

Lissa: (contrite) Sorry.

Gary:  It’s okay. I just don’t want to tear it or anything.

Lissa: By reacting with that extreme fright you’ve been displaying?

Gary: Yes.

Lissa: (sighs)

Gary: Seriously, who thought of this? It’s completely unsuitable for kids.

Lissa: I don’t think it’s meant for kids.

Gary: When I was a kid, pop-up books were for kids.

Lissa: I think they’ve become a kind of nostalgia thing for grown ups, these days.

Gary: I had a pop-up book about trains. It was great. Until it…. um… broke.

Lissa: My brother Paul would have loved a Dracula pop-up book. Actually, Belinda would have loved it too. Look at this… (considers, and very carefully opens and moves the book) you can repeatedly stake the Count in the last chapter, if you really want to.

Gary: I like the little pop-up bits on the half pages you fold out from the sides. The ship’s log has all these pages, and there’s pop-up ocean swell. And… (takes the book and stares closely)… I wonder how they folded that bit in…

Lissa: You just want to know how it works.

Gary: I sort of know how it works.

Lissa: You took apart that train book when you were a kid to see how it they did the pop-up stuff, didn’t you?

Gary: Um. Yeah.

Lissa: How much stuff did you destroy as a kid trying to figure out how it worked?

Gary: … a fair bit.

Lissa: How on earth did you resist pulling apart your computer when you got it?

Gary: I didnt, for the first one. After I replaced it I left it alone. I can’t afford to keep doing that sort of thing.

Lissa: I wish I could have seen that.

Gary: I’ve got something you can see.

Lissa: What’s that?

Gary: POP-UP VAMPIRE! (bares his fangs and waggles his hands in her face, pop-up Dracula style)

Lissa: *shrieks*

Gary: Ooh. Shit. Sorry.

Lissa: Jesus Gary, you … you…. (starts to laugh, then folds up giggling)

Gary: No, really, sorry. I didn’t meant to scare you.

Lissa: No, it’s cool. I deserved that. (folds up laughing again) Pop-up vampire!!!! Hey, hey look at this! POP-UP LIBRARIAN! (jumps up in his face) YOU HAVE AN OVERDUE BOOK!!!

Gary: (blinks) You’re definitely scarier than pop-up Dracula.

Lissa: That’s my mysterious librarian powers working their mojo.

Gary: Thank you for the book, Lissa.

Lissa: You are very welcome, Gary.

Buy your own POP-UP BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA!

*For newcomers, the GaryView is a review of books/films/TV/entertainment carried out as a conversation between Lissa Wilson (librarian) and Gary Hooper (vampire) , characters from my book ‘The Opposite of Life’. Visit my website for more information

2010
06/25
CATEGORY
Gary and Lissa
Reviews
vampires
1 comment

Gary and Lissa are talking to each other on Twitter again

LissaWilson83 @garyhooper44 If this was based on you, what would it smell like? http://www.vampirefantasies.com/

GaryHooper44 @LissaWilson83 You can be weird sometimes. Um. Maybe… craft glue? I’m making models today. And Old Spice?

LissaWilson83 @GaryHooper44 Why Old Spice? That’s an aftershave isn’t it? You don’t shave do you?

GaryHooper44 @LissaWilson83 No. Hair doesn’t grow now I’m undead. But I used to use Old Spice. Still put it on sometimes. When I smell of craft glue.

LissaWilson83 @GaryHooper44 I’ll get you something decent for Christmas, okay? Then you can smell like Armani or something.

GaryHooper44 @LissaWilson83 As long as it doesn’t smell like craft glue. That would be good.

2010
06/23
CATEGORY
Gary and Lissa
Twitter
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All in a good cause

I decided that last night, for a change, I would get to bed early. Which means that I actually got to bed at about 3.30am – about an hour and a half later that my usual effort.

On the plus side, I spent the time writing almost all of a new short story, about a mummified hand, and not watching multiple episodes of Stargate Season 2. So that’s okay.

2010
06/22
CATEGORY
writing
2 comments

GaryView: The Wolf House – Roads and Crosses by Mary Borsellino

The Wolf House: Roads and CrossesLissa: Who’s your favourite character in this one?

Gary: I don’t know, really. They’re all interesting.

Lissa: That is not an acceptable answer, Gary. You’ve got to have a favourite.

Gary: Why?

Lissa: … I don’t know why.

Gary: Well, who’s your favourite character?

Lissa: As if you couldn’t guess.

Gary: …

Lissa: It’s Will, you dope. WILL!

Gary: And why would I guess that?

Lissa: Because he’s a book guy! He keeps diaries about vampires! He’s an adorable little nerdy guy!

Gary: Okay, I see why you like him. Book guy. Yeah.

Lissa: (grins).

Gary: Though I don’t know what the grin is for.

Lissa: Oh, never mind. This book was incredible. I loved Will and Lily’s story.

Gary: I liked it but I thought it was a bit…. it made me… a bit… sad, I guess.

Lissa: It is sad. Parts of it are so terrible and heartbreaking. But it’s so hopeful, too. After everything that happens to them, everything that they do to each other, and they can still find something to hang on to afterwards. I like that they can find… I don’t know… diamonds in the ashes or something.

Gary: Oh. Um. I meant, about Bikini Kill.

Lissa:…. but nothing bad happens to the kitten.

Gary: I just meant that cats don’t actually like real vampires. Neither do dogs. Animals react very badly to real vampires. Like they know we’re… wrong.

Lissa: You’re not wrong.

Gary: Tell that to my dog.

Lissa: You had a dog?

Gary: Yeah. But after I… you know. We had to give him away. He kept biting me.

Lissa: Oh.

Gary: (wistful sigh) I like dogs.

Lissa: I’m sorry mine keeps trying to bite you too.

Gary: That’s okay. He’s just doing what he’s supposed to do and looking out for you. I guess.

Lissa: Can you have any other pets? Like goldfish?

Gary: No. They all jumped out of the bowl when I tried to feed them, when Mum and I tried it this one time.

Lissa: Oh.

Gary: (shrugs) Oh, that’s something else. About Will. I used to wear glasses too. I haven’t needed them since I became a vampire, but I wore them for reading.

Lissa: So you are finally making the connection that I like Will because he reminds me of you.

Gary: He reminds me of me too.

Lissa: Does Lily remind you of anyone?

Gary: No, but I bet Cora and Magdalene would get on well. Or try to stake each other.

Lissa: Yeah, that one could go either way.

Buy Wolf House Book 2: Roads and Crosses as an e-book at Amazon.com

2010
06/19
CATEGORY
Gary and Lissa
Reviews
vampires
2 comments

GaryView: Blood Angels (aka Thrall)

Lissa: Out of a whole range of very dumb vampire films, this one has got to be one of the worst.

Gary: You remember Vampires Anonymous, don’t you?

Lissa: Vampires Anonymous had Michael Madsen in it. What does Blood Angels have?

Gary:  Lorenzo Lamas.

Lissa: (*looks*)

Gary: Okay, that’s a fair point… I don’t remember him being so awful in the 80s. He was in this show about surfers and cars I used to watch. Then he was in Falcon Crest. I watched that with Mum a bit, to keep her company.

Lissa: Didn’t he end up in some other soap opera?

Gary: I don’t know. I never watched them after Mum died.

Lissa: But you’re always saying you’ve got all that time to kill.

Gary: Yeah, but I don’t need to spend it watching soap operas. I’m a vampire, not a zombie. Besides, there are still lots of books I haven’t read.

Lissa: I wish I’d read one instead of watching this. I mean to say, scantily clad half-vampire women kept prisoner in what looks like a minimalist art exhibition space, until they collectively and literally chew through the ankles of one to escape from the manacles.

Gary: I suppose it made a kind of sense.

Lissa: Slightly more sense than their business plan of running raves, seducing guys then drinking their blood through their penises.

Gary: That was… that was really weird. And gross.

Lissa: And all that “Oh we don’t kill them, and they say they like it!”

Gary: Actually, Magdalene says that some guys at the club…

Lissa: Oh, please, Gary, do not finish that sentence! And there was that really horrible scene where the fanged worms burst out of one girl’s breasts.

Gary: I closed my eyes for some of that bit.

Lissa: I should have known it would end badly when it started with that cheesy voiceover.

Gary: Yeah. I think doom-laden voiceovers about demons and ancient evil shouldn’t sound like it got copied from Scooby Doo.

Lissa: I think I missed something at the end, too. Several somethings. I’m not sure what Lorenzo Lamas was playing at, with the whole ‘I let you escape and now I recapture you’ thing. What purpose did that serve, apart from filling up most of the hour of the plot?

Gary: I’m not sure if they explained what the ritual of Belial was meant to really be about either. Or maybe I stopped paying attention.

Lissa:  We don’t even need to discuss the relative accuracy of the vampire stuff in this one, do we?

Gary: Not when it can be summed up as ‘non-existant’.

Lissa: Can we read another one of those Wolf House books next then?

Gary: Yes please.

Get  Blood Angels from Amazon.com.

2010
06/17
CATEGORY
Gary and Lissa
Reviews
vampires
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Review: Scary Kisses edited by Liz Grzyb

Cover of Scary Kisses

Cover of Scary Kisses, designed by Amanda Rainey

Another of my Swancon 2010 purchases, Scary Kisses was launched with cupcakes and readings by contributing authors. Not only was there a lot of promise in those snippets, the cover was gorgeous and it promptly went into my stash – and to the top of my very, very, very large to-read pile.

Liz Grzyb has compiled a fabulous collection of paranormal stories about love. Vampires, zombies, ghosts, elder gods, witches, dragons and unnamed evil all get a place to shine, or lurk.  Some of the stories worked better for me than others, as always happens in any anthology, but the whole ensemble is a fine dish of literate goodies!

Standouts for me were:

  • Felicity Dowker’s “Bread and Circuses”, a dark, disturbing, moving story of love after the zombie apocalypse
  • Ian Nichols’ “Fade Away” pleased me by delivering an ending I wasn’t expecting
  • I find I want to read more set in the world created by Angela Slatter and L.L. Hannett in “The February Dragon”
  • Kyla Ward’s “Cursebreaker: The Welsh Widow and the Wandering Wooer” demonstrated a refreshing and lively prose style, and is another one with potential for a whole universe of fascinating stories
  • My fondness for “Date with a Vampire” by Annette Backshall bloomed the instant the heroine refused to play her part, and the Perth setting was nice. Let’s see more paranormal fiction set in Australia, folks!
  • D.C. White’s “Pride and Tentacles” is just the right fluffy bit of fun to round off the collection and for some reason I find I’m not the least bit surprised by Cthulu’s choice of book.

There’s a lot of great work coming out of Australian small presses at the moment, and Western Australian seems to be leading the charge with its SF and fanasy publishers, like Twelfth Planet Press and Triconeroga Publications. The latter has published Scary Kisses and it’s worth checking both publishers out for their back catalogue and upcoming books. In the meantime, buy Scary Kisses and support Australian small press, not because it’s Australian, but because it’s great.

2010
06/15
CATEGORY
Reviews
short stories
vampires
writing
1 comment

One of these things is not like the other one

I’ve just completed the first draft of a new short story, called ‘So hard to find good help’. It’s a vampire story, of course. The trouble is, it started out as a comic horror story, and ended up a gruesome little drama. In the rewrite I will have to find a way to make it sit as a drama, and then change the name. Or maybe I can up the humour, and keep the title. It’s a bit frustrating when stories go and change their sub genre on you without your permission.

It’s fun writing short stories again, though. I haven’t done it in nearly 20 years. My first attempt at it after the long hiatus, a zombie story called ‘The Truth About Brains” was picked up by a Canadian anthology, ‘Best Zombie Tales” and will be published in volume 2 later this year. My current plan is to write another four or so short stories, on horror/humour themes to submit to an Australian small press. I’d really like to work with them, but I don’t really have very long before the deadline, so I’ll have to wait and see if I produce enough material that is good enough to submit to them.

I’m also trying to cover some of the horror monsters I haven’t dealt with yet. I have a werewolf and a mummy story in mind, and I am trying to pull together some ideas for a ghost story of some description. Though I did write a play that was a ghost story once, and perhaps it would lend itself to prose. Hmmm.

2010
06/14
CATEGORY
short stories
vampires
writing
6 comments

Repurposed memories

I lived in Egypt in the early 1990s, when my husband and I taught English as a Foreign Language at a school in Cairo. When we left after two years (to go to Poland), as a farewell present I was given a watch which had the numbers in Arabic lettering. The strap was a slightyly odd design so when it broke the first time it was a bit tricky to replace it. Over the years it broke several times, and eventually a replacement couldn’t be found. I hung onto it for sentimental reasons but it sat in a cupborard.

Then my friend Mary began making jewellery. I gave her the watch and asked her to use her imagination, and this is what she made for me.

It’s so wonderful to have this memento of my life in Egypt made into a new memory, incorporating my friend’s creative gifts and her thoughtfulness in appling her talent and imagination to something that was meaningful to me. I also love the solidity of it, the weight of it against my skin, as though the memories associated with it have become more tangible.

If you like this, please visit Mary’s Etsy page, Subtle Lunacies. She gave me the pendant as a gift, and I would like to thank her by encouraging everyone to discover her work. Mary is also the author the The Wolf House series, the YA vampire series I so often plug on my blog.

2010
06/12
CATEGORY
creativity
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