Fairy Tales, Cats and Queermance 2015

I'm working hard on helping put together the second year of Queermance, which it occurs to me that I should help promote before March turns into April and then the weekend is upon us.

Last year, I wrote a short post about it. This year, we'll have exciting extra items in our line up, such as swag bags and a Queer Art panel. Tickets are still available, although food inclusive tickets are ticking down as we need to get final numbers to the Mecure Hotel. Daytime panels, will all be at the Mecure, Therry Street in Melbourne. Aren't available for the full weekend? Single day tickets are available. Evenings only or single panel tickets will be available right up till the day for as little as $20.




The venue for the evening events will be Hares and Hyenas on Johnston St, Fitzroy, which is still one of my favourite queer friendly venues in the whole city. It does help that books line the walls, and they sell tea. And, if you squint reeeaaaally hard, you can see the place at the back where we had the readings last year for the launch of Queermance Vol. 1.

Queermance Vol. 2 will be launched in the same space on Friday 17th of April, starting 8pm and we'll also be having some readings from authors from the first volume who weren't able to make it last year. Copies of both books will be available on the night, thanks to Clan Destine Press. I have my submission in. Do you?



As if that's not enough, there's other stuff going on in my life right now. Such as:

• Playing with cats (that's me there in the first picture).
• Reading.
• Finishing the world's longest Slytherin scarf.
• Volunteering at my local library's amazing Free iPad Program for Seniors.
• Having my fairy tales come out again to play.

For the first time since my Honours year, I'm curled up with old friends Hans Anderson, Marina Warner, the Grimm brothers and no shortage of coloured post-it notes. They're just as good a company as I remembered.

Unlike last time, when my focus was on Beauty and the Beast and other permutations, the enchanted slipper and the deformed foot have got my attention. I've lost too many hours to flicking through pages and writing notes. It's been sublime!

January 2014 - One Month Down

The year so far:

- We had my partner's daughter with us over from Perth.
- We had Christmas.
- And New Years.
- And cleared out our garage.
- I discovered the Pandora app on my phone, and that led to all sorts of new music.
- Saw Frozen.
- And Sherlock.
- And The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug, which was basically the same thing. ;)
- Compiled a truly intimidating to-be-read pile that is no longer under any control at all.

As for New Year's Resolutions... I have two. One of those comes in the form the above mountain. If I manage to at least pick up all of these titles to see if I like them by mid-year, I'll be happy. 

Notable mentions of good books read so far:



Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8: Retreat.

I'm not usually a huge graphic novel fan, but as soon as season seven ended, I knew I'd be buying all of season eight in comics. And so I did, and there they've sat for... far too many years. Every so often, I pick one up, wipe off the dust and commit to reading it.

Then, a Willow specific comic was lent to me (pictured in above pic, far right) and I felt I should finish the last three issues of season eight.

Well! I read it overnight. Kept on turning pages, so very, very compelled. The rest of the books have been a bit of a slog, to be honest, but this one made it all worth it!

Who's that on the left hand side of the cover? Why, it's the reason why I found this book so enjoyable. Oz is back! (full review..)

Daughter of Smoke and Bone, by Laini Taylor.


For people who have just picked up this book, please don't be alarmed by the first chapter. You are not about to read a young adult novel with a thin plot and sallow romance front and centre. Though I don't blame you for thinking that with the introduction of Kaz.

Thankfully, the book only grows better than that, and the plot hits such a point that by page 100 you will not be able to put this book down.

I had heard many wonderful reviews about this book, and I am thrilled not to be disappointed by it. This is a young adult novel, with the heroine set in Prague so the schooling system seems a bit skewed from what I recognise; much more adult and seeming like TAFE or college with subjects like life drawing. That only improved my reading experience. Karou is also a kickass heroine who can take care of herself, which is the best pairing in young adult fiction up to date.


I'd also like to keep a record of what I write and where, at least once a month, even if it's fanfiction. (NB: It will be fanfiction at some point. We've just had Season 3 Sherlock. So...)

This month, between 10th - 21st January, I wrote a short six part series posted on Tumblr: Delilah and Sansa.

Part 1.
Part 2.
Part 3.
Part 4.
Part 5.
Part 6.

Inspired by artwork by Fukari, music by Jasmine Thompson and The Dresden Dolls. Word count: 1,448.

From 17th - 21st of January, I also plotted a new novel, projected approx 70,000 words. The first chapter was something I scribbled down during NaNo. Hoping to start that off properly in February, if not before.

My Best Books of 2013 (for me)

It's almost Christmas, which means it's almost New Year's, which means it's almost the end of my reading for this year. I thought it might be a nice way to round out the year by listing my top reads in order of, well, awesomeness.

Five Top Books of 2013.

1. The Fault in our Stars.

From the minute I put this book down, I knew that nothing was very likely going to move this from the top of a list like this if I ended writing one. This was the first book I ever read from John Green. I found it at times hilariously witty and at others... challenging... (by which I mean I put it down for a week because I couldn't deal with ALL THE FEELS). I'm glad that I persevered, though. This book has stayed with me ever since I read it.

I make it a habit not reading the back of books before I've started reading them for myself. Several years back, I went through a period where I kept reading the blurbs and turning myself off reading a number of books before I even opened the first pages. 

What I knew about this book was that John Green had written it. I knew that I loved a lot of the quotes I was seeing of him from this and other books and I knew that a couple of my friends had picked up books from him and liked them. Oh, and I knew he was one of the Vlog brothers, which I suppose didn't really have much to do with my choice to read the book, as they are completely different mediums.

What I did not know about this book was that it's a "cancer book". 

For the full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/596788262

2. Gentlemen and Players.

I've read other books by Joanne Harris before. None of them have come even close to touching me in the way that this book did.

In my experience with her books, I've come to learn that there is a place in the middle where the plot lags, or the characters irritate me, or something just slows down enough for me to put the book down and pick something else up before going back to it.

That point didn't happen in this book.

For the full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/662451038

3. The Book Thief.

I'm not usually a fan of stories told in a time of war. They usually tell too much about how awful things were without giving much in the way of either plot or characters.

Instead of being unrelentingly confronted by the atrocities that happened during this time, we are given glimpses into the life of Liesel Meminger - the book thief, as judged by Death, our narrator.

This is not just a 'war story'. Far from it. At times sad, at others uplifting, this book explores themes of family and belonging, loss that has nothing to do with the war, friendship, community and kindness. It shows a shared passion for books and stories and the power those stories can have for a wide range of people. 

For the full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/605049612

4. Delirium.

There have been a lot of different dystopian fictions to come out in the last couple of years. I've read them all and I can honestly say (as much as I enjoyed Insurgent particularly), Delirium was my very top favourite.

Delirium is set in a world vaguely similar to Hunger Games and Legend where the government has taken over and decided that certain changes must be made to the clumsy way life used to run. In this case, the change was to love and desire. It is discovered, more than sixty years before the beginning of this book, that love is in fact a disease, causing delusions, erratic behaviour and, in the end, death.

What is truly insightful about this book is that most of the arguments given early in the book are so hard to argue against. 

For the full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/544856971

5. The Night Circus.

This book is part young adult, part literary fiction, part mystery and all a very arresting book from an author I hadn't heard of before this.

I think that this novel is none of these things and perhaps all of them. That is the beauty of this kind of book. It's something that just kind of exceeds expectations.

Second person passages continue every so often throughout the book, giving the reader a sense of being one of the circus goers that eventually form a culture of their own within the story. From beginning to end, this story is breath-taking, whimsical, beautifully lyrical, evocative and a whole bunch of other adjectives I could fill the page with.

For the full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/616513683

December Reading List 2013

It's very quickly warming up over here now that NaNo (November) is over. I didn't write anything else. Thinking of trying to get some more work done today if the heat doesn't end up frying my brain.

I can't even believe that this is the last month of 2013. And the last month this year I'll be putting together one of these reading lists. Crazy.

An Ice Cold Grave

I'm very much enjoying this series of books. Much better, in my opinion, than the Southern Vampire Mysteries series and without all the drama. This series is only four books long, so I'll be finishing it next month.

Magic Bleeds

Getting through this series at a rate of knots because I'm reading it with some big fans of the series. After last month's book, however, I don't even mind. This book is going from strength to strength, just like Jim Butcher's Dresden books, and just like I was promised they would! People picking up this series: It's a slow burn, but it's worth it.

Dime Store Magic.

Just when you think I'd be done with paranormal fiction for this month, I pull out this old favourite. Kelley Armstrong's Bitten is being made into a TV series starting out in January. I've read most of the books that the series is going to be based from but, sadly, I've never actually finished this one. So, into the pile for this month it goes!

Neverwhere.

Next on my list is Neil Gaiman!! After the huge success that was reading through The Ocean at the End of the Lane two months ago, I've been looking forward to reading this one with a group with baited breath. Not to mention, this is the book that the radio play read by Benedict Cumberbatch, Natalie Dormer, James McAvoy and others was based from. :D:D

The Lives of Christopher Chant
.
This just wouldn't be a month of my reading if I didn't go in for some Young Adult fiction. I absolutely loved my introduction to Diana Wynne Jones last month when reading Charmed Life and so I figure this book will be one of the first that I pick up to follow that up with this month. These books are fantastic, even for adults readers who haven't read them before and so don't have the nostalgic value of their first time reading it.

Mistborn.

This is another book I'll be reading along with my group on Goodreads this month. I've never read anything that wasn't a Wheel of Time book from Brandon Sanderson before--even though I previously worked in a science fiction and fantasy book shop--and I've been told that this is something that needs fixing right away. Therefore, this is a book on my list for the month.

November Reading List 2013.

Yes, I am just crazy enough not to be slacking on books while writing NaNoWriMo this month. Boy, do I have a list of books I'm excited to read this month! I hardly think there's an author in here that I haven't been excited enough to either make a post about up till now, or plan to write about soon enough.

Grave Surprise.

This is the first of many of my continued series reads. Last year, I started the first one in Charlaine Harris' series after it was given to me for free. I've always meant to get back to it. Luckily, there are a bunch of readers on Goodreads who are happy to join me in that aim.

Magic Strikes.

The second continued series read. This book series just keeps getting better and better. Not quite as amazing as Patricia Briggs (I know, I'm a hard judge), but more in keeping with a female Dresden by Jim Butcher. As with that series, the more we get to know about this world, the more and more I'm being dragged into it.

Ship of Destiny.

This is actually the last book in a series, so at least one series will be closing up for me this month. Totally reason for me to start a whole bunch of new series? Whether it is or not, that's what I've got coming up this month!

Wideacre.

I first fell in love with Philippa Gregory reading The Queen's Fool. This is a very different time and type of story. Still historical, the main narrative point that has jumped out at me is that it involves incest between brother and sister. Intriguing, I say.

Charmed Life.

Another first book in a series. This also doubles as my young adult token read of the month. Apparently this is the woman who has taken a large hand in defining Young Adult writing as we currently read it. Published in 1977, I can't wait to see where Young Adult writing has developed from.

Five Quarters of the Orange.

For all I know, this is another young adult-ish read. Heavy on the "ish" as this is not usually the style of writing that Joanne Harris employs. However, what I do know about this novel is that it's meant to be a book primarily about childhood. So. It's not part of a series, but it is the second book I've read by her this year.

Shelf Life.

This book doesn't appear in the picture, largely because I have it on ebook format. Still, I have been waiting for the next great book from Stephanie Lawton, and I have been lucky enough to score an ARC just before release. Be assured, there will be more written about this book to come!

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As ever, feel free to follow my progress on Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6878229.Nicole_D_Fergusson

October 2013 reading list

I intend to read a lot of books this month.

Actually, there's one more book that should be here but which needed to be returned to the library when I went down yesterday. Insurgent was read really quickly this month. It was just that good. 

I know this post is just a little bit later than I usually post these, but there were some books that I didn't have in my possession until the library brought them in for me. What's truly funny about the above photo, though, is knowing how many books I have in this house, and seeing that I have pulled all but one of them out of a combination of local libraries. 

Insurgent.

5/5 - Much better than expected!
After reading the first one in this series, I was a bit wary about picking this one up, but it was one hell of a book! Much much better than the first. Enjoyable, easy to read, believable. Makes me want to dive immediately for the last one.

Scarlet.

4/5 - Really enjoyable. Can't wait to see what comes next.
Another sequel. Another young adult novel. After reading the first book in this series, I knew the second one was going to be a winner, and from what I've read so far, it is. Where Cinder was about the story of Cinderella in a future version of this world, Scarlet is, perhaps unsurprisingly, a retold story about Little Red Riding Hood. Usually, I'm sick of Little Red Riding Hood stories, having studied them to death in university, but this one definitely brings something new to the tale while keeping true to a lot of the old tropes.

Discovery of Witches.

DNF - There's at least one in every month.
Many people have suggested I read this one. Thankfully for me, I have a complete and utter weakness for books that people take the time to consider might be for me. So it's on the list.

The Book Thief

5/5 - Stunning. A book that stays with you.
Another book that too many people around me were talking about, so I just had to have a look. All I knew going in was that it was narrated by Death (look at the cover again :D). **Spoiler** It is about World War II in Germany. Just something I think people should get a heads up on.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane

5/5 - Evocative, thoughtful and somehow honest. 
I have only ever tried to read one other of Neil Gaiman's books, and it was American Gods. This book is much shorter and has a quasi-memoir nature to it that we don't usually find in Gaiman's books. I absolutely cant wait to crack this one open.

The Realms of the Gods

4/5 - Lots of fun to reread.
This is the last in a series of buddy reads I have been doing with friends online over the last several months. Usually, I try not to reread things because 1) there are just too many books and I feel behind as it is, but 2) especially for books I read so long ago, it is hard to review them like I try to do on my Goodreads account with every book read. Still, its been enjoyable to come back to this old favourite, and I'm probably going to be hard pressed not to return to other Tortall books after this month.

Magic Burns

3/5 - Pretty good, still don't feel like I've gotten into the series yet. 
Another book series I started last month and am continuing through on this month. Apparently, though, this series has six books in it so far. So it'll keep me busy for another couple of months yet. Just your run of the mill paranormal fantasy series so far. Not as good as Patricia Briggs, but it has the element of post apocalyptic world setting going for it.

The Secret of Ella and Misha

DNF - There's at least one in every month.
Jessica Sorensen is a name that just keeps popping up around everywhere lately, so when I had this chance to pick up her book this month, I made sure to do it. Also, it's a fairly short novel. How hard would it be to add an eighth  book to my month, right? (Especially when I'm more used to reading six books per month, no trouble at all!)

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Oh loyal readers of this blog, you should know how to get to my Goodreads account by now. However, if you don't, it's here: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6878229.Nicole_D_Fergusson