What we learn in sorrow
In Australia at the moment many are grieving. Bushfires have swept our country, taking out huge tracts of land, homes, and many, many lives, both human and wildlife. I have stopped looking at the news because the images are too distressing. My heart grieves at so much loss. And now I have learned that a friend passed away, suddenly and unexpectedly. This year weighs on us all, bringing deep sorrow. It’s hard to see a way forward.
The sorrow of losing a friend
A dear friend, Wendy Dunn, introduced me to Elizabeth Jane Corbett, in 2016. We had both recently signed with the same publisher and Wendy thought it would be good if we could get to know each other and support each other through the journey to becoming published authors. My first impression of Elizabeth was that she was incredibly striking – very tall, with strong, beautiful features. Red was her signature colour. She had a direct way of speaking – you always knew where you stood with her. Over the next three years we spent time together at various writerly events. We shared market stalls at the Mythic Market and Supanova. We shared a room at Conflux in 2017, both newbie authors feeling imposter syndrome big time. Our late night chats were deep and insightful. And we reconnected at the Historical Novel Society conferences.
Elizabeth was an extraordinary writer. Her debut novel, The Tides Between, was shortlisted by the CBCA. It is a migration story, and a coming of age story, but to categorise it as that would be to fall far short. Woven through its tapestry of beautiful, beautiful writing are also Welsh myths and tales, which help young Bridie come to understand the world. At times devastating, Elizabeth’s book is one of those rare ones that I will take with me, in my heart and on my bookshelf, wherever I go. I interviewed Elizabeth on this blog in 2017 – you can read the interview here: An Interview with Elizabeth Corbett.
Living with passion
As I sit in sorrow, the thing I remember most about Elizabeth is her passion. It was a passion that seemed to have crept up on her unexpectedly. Elizabeth started learning Welsh as research for The Tides Between. But when the book was finished, her learning didn’t, and it reached the point where she was actually teaching Welsh herself, and travelling to Wales regularly. Incredibly, she was interviewed about her book in Welsh on BBC Wales! That’s dedication to research. Next she started researching her second book, the story of Margret Glyn Dŵr, wife of the last Welsh Prince of Wales. And it turned into an obsession that led her to a Masters degree. It was on the verge of leading into a PhD. You can read all about it in her own words here.
I was in awe of Elizabeth’s passion. She found what she loved and she was completely true to it, pursuing it as far as she possibly could. When I look back now, and contemplate the loss of someone like Elizabeth, my sorrow arises as much from the loss of her friendship as from what she would have contributed in the future as a writer, historian and passionate Welshophile. I hope that her pursuit of her passion can inspire me to embrace my own, because in the end, a passionate life is one that is true to yourself. And that is one way to honour the life and legacy of someone like Elizabeth.
All up, according to chart 1 emerging writers get more time to write (red and blue bars) than anyone else. Mid-list authors get the least, so they appear to be the ones most likely to get caught up in marketing misadventures.
The biggest development for new authors in the last ten years, from what I can see, is the push for them to have a social media profile, and to be actively promoting their books and their ‘author brand’. This is a big shift from the days of big publishing companies doing the marketing work for you. I frequently hear that this requirement applies to ALL authors too, not just those who self-publish or are with a small press. Even the big publishers expect authors to do a lot of their own marketing.
Responses to this question were via a sliding scale, where the author could choose 0 (all the author’s responsibility) all the way to 100 (all the publisher’s responsibility). In graphing this, I have divided the responses up by quartiles, so the blue block represents an answer of 0-25, the red 26-50 (where the author is mostly responsible but the publisher contributes more) and so on. I’ve left off self-published authors for this graph. The more established the author, the more the publisher takes on some of the marketing. The average was 27 – that is, most of the time, the author carries most of the responsibility. This isn’t hugely surprising in a neoliberal economy where everything is outsourced to shift costs away from the producer (publisher).
Using the same data (ie the sliding scale from 0-100) I looked at the impact of publisher type. A similar pattern emerges – the larger/more established the publisher, the more they take on a percentage of the marketing. Anecdotally I’ve been told that there are still hierarchies within the big presses – if you are a ‘name’ author the publisher will do more marketing whereas if you’re newly signed with them you have to do a lot of it yourself. This isn’t surprising (follow the money…) but it is frustrating across the board, as the more established you are, the less you need the exposure, while the newer you are, the more exposure you need. It’s a Catch 22.
Last year I interviewed an author every month. For 2019 I’ve decided to shift my focus from writers to artists for a bit of a change of scene. Today I’m excited to introduce Jai, whose weekly comics offer insight into living with a brain tumour. With plenty of humour as well as fantastic illustrations, Jai’s work is definitely worth following. (I’ll put links below to the usual social media.) Jai is unable to work, and his tumour is unable to be completely removed, which means future medical issues are not a question of if, but when. So if you enjoy his comics, please consider supporting him on Patreon: 
Long ago, I wanted to take the sort of advice that can be found in the Self-Esteem and Motivation style of books, which I read but often found to be a bit too earnest, even precious, and to present the ideas I thought most helpful as light hearted axioms with pictures. This plan did not get far. Instead the ‘something’ I am listening to keeps taking me back back to the sad times that every bear (or person) sits through. In their different ways, each of my bears becomes convinced that their particular shape and stuffing and being-ness is not enough. They seek and quest for some other way to Be One’s Best.
My very special guest today is Kate Forsyth, named one of Australia’s Favourite 15 Novelists. Kate is the author of 40 books for adults and children. Her most recent works re-imagine loved fairy tales. The Beast’s Garden sets Beauty and the Beast in Nazi Germany. Beauty in Thorns takes Sleeping Beauty into the world of the pre-Raphaelites. But writing is only the beginning. Kate is a storyteller and runs magical writing retreats in the Cotswalds, England. She also co-hosts 
Which mythic archetype or magical character most resonates with you and why?
I first met Lauren Chater in 2015 at the Historical Novel Society of Australasia inaugural conference. She had entered their ‘First Pages’ contest, and I read out a portion of her debut novel, The Lace Weaver, to a very appreciative audience. Lauren went on to win the contest and this year The Lace Weaver was published by Simon and Schuster. It has been described as heartbreaking and poignant. You can read more about Lauren and her books at her 
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A very special blog post today as I interview historical fiction writer, dear friend and mentor-extraordinaire, Wendy Dunn. Wendy has been obsessed by Anne Boleyn and Tudor History since she was ten-years-old. She is the author of three Tudor novels: Dear Heart, How Like You This?, the winner of the 2003 Glyph Fiction Award and 2004 runner up in the Eric Hoffer Award for Commercial Fiction; The Light in the Labyrinth, her first young adult novel, and Falling Pomegranate Seeds, the first book in a series about Catalina (Catherine) of Aragon. To read more about Wendy and her books, click here to visit her 
Letting go, breaking the circle of the past, the sorrow of unrequited love, the power of forgiveness and the search for identity. Completing my PhD in 2014 also opened my eyes to the fact that my works can be explicated through Feminist Standpoint Theory.
The Commedia has one-act and three-act performances. Whether short or long, scenes contain a proposition, then development, and finally a solution. One act scenes focus on a single theme. Usually this is love, money or vengeance. Longer performances are more complex. In my novels, to clearly distinguish between shorter and longer types, I use the name canovaccio for a one-act scene, and scenario for a longer one.
If you’d like to meet death face-to-face, head over to Shelley’s