Misrule

Very neglectful lately, so here I am to catch up.

First of all, children's lit roundup. It's probably all old news, but anyway...

Shaun Tan, as expected, won the Premier's Prize (overall book of the year) and the Children's Book Award in the WA Premier's Book Awards for The Arrival.

My US blogger colleagues have been busy with a Summer Blog Blast Author Tour. A running schedule of author interviews were posted on ten or more blogs, a fabulous schedule with the likes of Chris Crutcher, Holly Black, Hilary McKay and several Aussie authors as well. What a fantastic idea! I'm going to get in touch and find put how they organised it, and see if I can set something similar up here for our summer. Stay posted! (It's winter here, of course, the first really cold and wet winter we've had in years—and here I am back on the commute!)

I missed this year's Reading Matters conference, alas. (One year they might even let me chair a session—then I'll definitely go! Oops, they're reading this...) Anyway, I've only been once, but it was a wonderful conference, world class in fact. One of the biggest buzzes to come out of the conference was David Levithan's serve (listen to the podcast before proceeding) about the lack of glbt Australian YA fiction. Quoting Jenny Pausacker, he observed that he had found Australia to be "homosocial but homophobic". It's pretty tough to hear an American criticise Australian society for being conservative and lacking—I'm not fond of this word, but anyway—tolerance. Who, us? Land of the fair go?

I think I might take some issue with this characterisation of Australia as a nation (although not, alas, with the fact that we've become an increasingly conservative society in the past decade), but David is dead right about our YA lit. Do not misunderstand me—I think we have world class YA writers. I blogged about this issue a year ago, and there was some good discussion initiated in the comments, but I still think our YA books have been safe for a while now, particularly in terms of sexuality. (Not that I expected for a moment that this blog would have such influence to change the face of Aus publishing, despite the wise and challenging things readers had to say on the subject.)

Whe I was in the US in 2001, I met (agent provocateur) Marc Aronson in the Bank Street Bookshop. He told me that he was a great admirer of Australian YA fiction, that our writers were "cutting edge" and braver than US YA writers. Nice to hear, and at the time I accepted his comment, but I don't believe it's true any more. Again, I am not commenting on the quality of YA writing in this country, but I am concerned about the content.

Hhmmm. What do I mean by that, exactly? I can think of some pretty tough Australian YA. Bill Condon has never been known to pull a (narrative) punch. Anthony Eaton and Julia Lawrinson tackle some big political issues. John Marsden hasn't been shy—in the past—and Sonya Hartnett has her trademark dark view of humanity.

So maybe I am really just thinking about books that deal explicitly with glbt sexuality. Nick Earls does a fine line in straight male sexuality, of course. James Roy has also waded into those waters in The "S" Word, and I can think of plenty of YA novels that explore straight female sexuality (Marchetta, Lawrinson, Lanagan, Horniman...)

In response to David Levithan's throwing down of the gauntlet (please, listen to that podcast!), Justine Larbalestier (amongst others) sought relevant Australian titles, and all the ones I could think of were out of print. I have read a stack of US YA books on the topic—and trust me, I am not making a plea here for "issues" books, god forbid—but I do wish Aussie writers were representing/exploring this experience for Aussie readers. I recently interviewed Anita Heiss about her book Yirra and her Deadly Dog, Demon, and she observed that "brown (Aboriginal) kids want to read about brown kids".

Don't glbt kids want to read about glbt kids in a local context? What are we writing and/or publishing for them down under?

The everlasting thesis, that is.

I know there's more work to be done: there's one chapter I am really not happy with, but this is a remarkable day nevertheless.

Hurrah!

My first story, that is! I'm a Real Journalist! (albeit one with heaps to learn...)

It's been a great week at the new job. Everyone has been very welcoming and helpful and friendly—did I say that already?—and I am finding my way into a new routine. Producing a newspaper involves very different approaches and procedures and schedules than a magazine. It's far less orderly, I suppose you would say, but also far more varied and, in different ways, challenging. I'm learning the different types of stories—news; features; briefs etc—and the different writing techniques for each. I'm learning how to juggle a dozen or so stories on the go—phone calls in and out; taking notes (without shorthand); keeping track of which contact belongs to which story; developing a weather-eye for an angle and a lead-in and a workable quote. I'm trying to figure out a good filing system and how to manage the damn idiosyncrasities of bloody Windows!

Speaking of "weather"—the universe had a good old laugh at me this week. I've been so perversely pleased to be back commuting on the trains (more walking, more reading time) that I forgot what it's like to be a commuter in the kind of torrential winter weather we've been experiencing the past two days. Of course, that's partly because we've been in drought for so long I forgot weather could be like this! And I forgot how Sydney streets can become total wind tunnels. Walking up Young Street this morning, I felt like Marcel Marceau—"woman walking against the wind". Kind of scarey, actually, and it turned out today that it was better to get soaked than to battle an umbrella against such strong, high winds.

Anyway—my first story. Stories for the newspaper come from all sorts of sources—our own contacts; the media unit; and increasingly, from direct contacts from schools. I'd been advised by my new editor, and it's becoming increasingly obvious to me, that an apparently simple, straightforward story can reveal all sorts of interesting depths and tangents once you start researching and talking to people. A school's individual pilot project turns out to be a first for the state. A syllabus-based activity reveals itself to be deeply entrenched in, and a marker of, values education and personal development for the students involved.

As an ex-teacher, I am so enjoying talking to fellow "schoolies" and getting back in touch with the fantastic, challenging and satisfying work being done out there on the coalface. Today I talked, on speakerphone, to some wonderful Year 9 design and tech students about a project they are involved with, developing needs-based technology for spinal injury patients. (Yup, this is the first story I've filed!) I also interviewed their (very passionate and committed) teacher and the school's DP. It's so cheering, so invigorating to talk to these folk! I don't mean to get all chardonnay-swilling-lefty-sentimental (OK, maybe I do...), but it's really enforced my long-standing belief in the great good that is public education at its best.

And speaking of the weather...

It's pelting down. And it's Friday night, so I am about to settle in with a large glass of merlot and a few episodes of Bleak House. Shake me up, Judy!

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Reading on the train:

My fellow commuters have been reading Dan Brown, Mary Higgins Clark, a big fat book about the Yorkshire Ripper, romance novels, chicklit and various university guides. Me, I'm still on the (totally brilliant) Brockmeier and a thesis-related paper about foot-binding.

A few years ago I discovered that someone I knew from the Diana Wynne Jones mailing list had recently entered into a relationship with my old mate (and one of my favourite YA writers) Jenny Pausacker, and that Jenny had moved from Melbourne to the UK to join Ika. Jenny and Ika are in Australia at the moment, and in Sydney for a few days, so of course we had dinner tonight. Great to meet Ika, great to see Jenny again, and we had a lovely evening at El Bulli, a fabulous Tapas bar recommended to us by the concierge at Jenny and Ika's hotel (and thanks, Concierge—the lamb was as delicious as you said!).

As you can imagine, Jenny and I spent a lot of time catching up on news and gossip from the local (and international) children's lit scene, and the three of us chatted happily about all sorts of stuff—our various tastes in reading (Ika and I share an antipathy for Big Fat Fantasy Books, with some Notable Exceptions; Jenny doesn't care for The YA Problem Novel, which Ika and I have a yen for...); some Politics Lite (too happy to see each other to really put the boot into the Howard Government); the ethics of reviewing (and the problem with online review sites and careless bloggers); the idiosyncracies of the CBCA Awards; the reasons why Sydney has never been successful in setting up a centre comparable to the Victorian Centre for Youth Literature (a personal and professional disappointment I have had to put behind me).

Jenny and Ika are settled in Bristol, where Ika lectures and Jenny writes. I have several online friends in Bristol now, so one of these paycheques I really must visit. And we had a double reason to celebrate tonight—my first day at the new job, and Jenny has a new Sydney-based agent! She's just finished a long cross-over novel, which I can't wait (but will have to) to read, a political novel set in Australia. Congratulations, Jenny—hope that glass and a half of champagne didn't go to your head!

Here, from left to right, is Jenny, me and Ika at El Bulli. And behind Jenny's head (indeed, piercing her cranium) is The Sword of Charlemagne. (Honestly—the plaque said so!) Aren't we beautifully colour coordinated! (And it's a MUCH better photo of me than on my new staff ID tag, not that that's saying much!)

Yes, today was my first day at Side by Side, the NSW Department of Education and Training's staff newspaper. There I was, back on the trains, wearing my brand new-topcoat, my brand-new commuter-shoes, my brand-new jumper and my brand-new Girl Reporter satchel. (I spent a LOT of money last week!) My train was reasonably uncrowded, and the lads from Newington lightened things up by telling very silly and (mercifully) very clean jokes. I get off at Circular Quay and have a short walk up the hill (after buying my breakfast fruit at a stall where I soon hope to be a Known Regular) to the beautiful old sandstone DET building in Bridge St.

Everyone was very helpful and welcoming, and it turns out I know many people in common with some of my new colleagues. I already have three or four stories lined up for me to write—I think I'm really going to enjoy this job. And I love working in the city! I've got a nice, roomy workspace and a decent chair. My email account was transferred over before lunchtime. Tearoom's a bit dodgy, so I will have to sort out a new lunch regime—I am NOT buying city priced sandwiches every day. Problem solved tomorrow—we're going out for lunch as there are three June birthdays in the team.

The only draw-back? I'm back on a PC. Waah! I miss my Mac already. And I'm already getting my keyboard shortcuts confused.

From time to time I am going to log what people are reading on the train. Today was:

Penny Vincenti, An Absolute Scandal

Hugh Lunn, Vietnam

And me: Kevin Brockmeier's The Brief History of the Dead

Susan Beth Pfeffer, author of Life As We Know It (and 70+ other books!) has a new blog. LAWKI is a terrific book, and there's a sequel on the way next year. Author blogs are fun—I'm looking forward to keeping up with this one.

There's been a lot of criticism in the comments section of my blog entry on the SMH's coverage of the NSW Premier's Literary Awards—or rather, the lack of coverage of the Book of the Year, Shaun Tan's The Arrival. So it seems only fair to note that there was a feature article about Shaun's win in the Herald yesterday, written by the SMH's YA reviewer Angie Schiavone. Angie reviewed The Arrival late last year.

And just a reminder that Jonathan Shaw wrote an excellent entry about the awards dinner—read it here. (Scroll down to find it—I can't work out how to link to the exact entry. Any tips, JS?)