Author Archives: Jenny

About Jenny

I'm an Australian writer. My latest obsession is steampunk (what a way to mis-use my history degree!), but I also write romance, random short stories and poetry.

Old Things

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A couple of weeks ago I visited the Azelia Ley Homestead Museum which is a small museum in one of Western Australia’s old houses. The idea was to take some photos that I could rustle up into a post come October when “Courting Trouble” releases. However, I became a tad side tracked and took photos of some fascinating items from other time periods (ie not the 1890s) that I thought I’d share now.

An electric footwarmer from the 1930s

A woodstove like Grandma used to cook on...I loved opening & closing the little doors to add wood or make the fire burn hotter

A sewing table...its beauty reminds me how important the sewing machine was in many households

My herb garden - Now how did that get in here? Basil, marjoram & flat leaf parsley

 

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A New Map of the Universe by Annabel Smith

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A New Map of the Universe by Annabel Smith is a novel about the silences within and between people. The title comes from a wonderful sentence, “He gave her a new map of the universe and then he left her to navigate her way through it alone.” (p. 65)

Annabel writes in a spare poetic language. Initially, I found the use of present tense distracting, but it does give a sense of immediacy. You are invited into the character’s personal world.

The opening is strong, seducing the reader (and Grace, the heroine) with stories of the stars and with the intensity of a new love affair. The ending balances the opening and together they pin the structure of the book.

On a personal note, I enjoyed the mention of Teresa of Avila. I admire her books, how her personality crosses centuries and translation from the original Spanish.

A New Map of the Universe is a lovely book with a strong sense of place.

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Inside the Vacuum Cleaner Bag

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The spider squats.
Some cyclonic wind has sucked it
from sunshine and buzzy flies,
greedy feasts and blood fizz,
to shadows and dust mites.
So it spins its web and waits, egg sacs quivering.
Its young shall feast on human flesh.

You have to change the bag some day.

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Promises by Cathryn Hein

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Promises by Cathryn Hein opens with a perfect balance between an absorbing portrayal of the world of horse training and the slow reveal of secrets. The tension sustains beautifully and becomes the emotional journey to maturity of the heroine, Sophie. There’s drama in the journey, but I could believe the ending. And I have to confess, I sniffled at times. I do love a story that engages me to that extent–though only when I trust the author to deliver a happy ending!

A wonderful Australian romance.

 

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The Transportation Problem

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[This is a bit darker than usual for this blog. So you may or may not want to read on ... transportation was the name given to the eighteenth and nineteenth century policy of shipping British convicts out to the colonies.]

The Transportation Problem

Poor old nags. They shuffled in
on a gust of gin. Sobbed, swore,
died. Rotten blood, everywhere.
Pox-riddled clocker’s yard.

Rip out their guts. Add
shiny gears — worth a fortune,
worth eight lives –
the rubber bladder, the mercury.
Pour your tea,
sip and watch the moon call out
unbreakable bones, silver skin.

Sell ‘em on. The toffs adore
riding high on silver whores.

 

[There's an edginess to steampunk that attracts me, but I tend to like my fictional dramas balanced with a happy ever after. I guess poetry is the natural fit for me in exploring steampunk's PUNK.]

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“Off to the Antipodes” #steampunkchat

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The gorgeous people at the Steampunk Writers and Artists Guild have invited me to host their next #steampunkchat on Twitter. These are weekly one hour chats held on Friday at 9pm (New York time). Everyone includes the hashtag #steampunkchat on their tweets and that keeps the discussion (semi) organised. As host this week, I’ll be the one herding clockwork cats ;)

[For Australian and New Zealand readers, and you are who I'm trying to lassoo, the time conversion means the chat is on 5 May (Saturday) at 11am Sydney time and 9am Perth time.]

I would love (which is code for “I am begging, pleading and grovelling”) for a great turnout of Australian and New Zealand steampunk enthusiasts. I’ll prompt discussion with questions like:

What is steampunk in the Antipodes? themes? motifs? issues?
What do you think of when you hear “Antipodes”? kangaroos?
What got you interested in steampunk?
What would you like to see in Antipodean steampunk?
As Antipodean steampunkers, where do you find your inspiration?
Are the Antipodes more than a dumping ground for troublesome fellows?

I know communicating in 140 characters isn’t easy, but you’re steampunkers. You can do it!

At the end of the hour, there’ll be five minutes for a self-promo tweet from everyone (please hold off on self-promo till then or as a newbie host, I’ll become fumble fingered with stress).

These #steampunkchats are a lot of fun. You can read transcripts of them here. If you have any questions beforehand, please leave a comment on this post — or tweet me @Jenny_Schwartz.

And while I’m thinking about Twitter … I’ve started a public list of Australian and New Zealand steampunkers on Twitter. If you’d like to be on it, just tweet #Ozsteampunk and I’ll add you.

A fervent thank you for reading this far — and I hope to see you Saturday! :)

[For everyone who is not an Aussie or Kiwi ... do not think that let's you out! The Antipodes are for everyone and the chat won't be any fun without you ... I'm thinking if things get slow we could have a discussion on Antipodean and steampunk slang :) ]

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A Taste of Life & Love in Australia by Margaret Lynette Sharp

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Participating in the Australian Women Writers Challenge has set me on a bit of a short story kick, which is fantastic because I didn’t read nearly enough before. Short stories fit perfectly into snatched reading time, but they also allow writers to showcase their talent and to put out there ideas that maybe don’t have quite enough punch to carry a full length novel. Short stories focus on a single idea/theme and I find that means it lingers with me long after I’ve finished reading a good short story.

A Taste of Life and Love in Australia by Margaret Lynette Sharp is a collection of gentle, heartwarming stories that quietly reflect on life.

There is an effective simplicity to Margaret’s writing that means she, as author, doesn’t get in the way of her characters connecting with readers. Lines like “…the deep, limitless blue of our summer sky” from the short story, “A Storm in Summer”, draw you into a personal experience.

I can’t put my finger on why these stories feel distinctly Australian to me (I’m a woeful reviewer!), but they do. I think it may be the easy rhythm of the dialogue. It feels like natural speech to me as an Australian reader. That being said, as I read the collection I found myself searching for an elusive memory of where I’ve read such pleasant, companionable short stories before — the answer is the UK magazine, The People’s Friend. Margaret’s stories have the same compassionate, entertaining humanity.

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Writing Poetry

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This is not a how-to guide. If you want that, I recommend Stephen Fry’s excellent An Ode Less Travelled. This post is more selfish. I realised that since I intend to post a few of my poems on this blog (why yes, that is an easy way to think up a blog post topic! ;) ) I would quite like the chance to chat about these poems … or maybe, excuse them.

The thing is, I don’t think my poems are amazing must-read creations. Sometimes I don’t even think they’re finished creations. For me writing poetry has a two-fold purpose.

First, poetry is about playing with words. It’s my way of listening to how words sound when they’re put together and finding ways that put them together strongly and with emotional impact.

The second reason I write poetry is because sitting there with a pen and a scratched over page of paper is one way of breaking down a complicated idea or nailing an elusive one. Writing poetry is a way of exploring an idea from the inside out.

So there you go, that’s what I’m doing with the poems I’ll be sharing on this blog … you’ll be seeing how I think. You know it’s going to be messy, right?

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@Ozsteampunk

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I was email chatting with Jaymee, Lia and Joyce from SWAG this morning about hosting one of the weekly steampunk chats on Twitter (they happen Fridays at 9pm, New York time –  hashtag #steampunkchat — everyone welcome!). The result, I’m happy to announce, is that on Friday 4 May the hour long chat will be on the theme, “Off to the Antipodes”. Please note, for those of us who live in the Antipodes (by which I’m talking of New Zealand and Australia), the chat is actually Saturday morning — 11 am in Sydney, 9am in Perth. Aren’t timezones a wonderful confusion?

#steampunkchat is very relaxed and exceptionally welcoming. Everyone is encouraged to join in — even if like me, you’re more “audience” than “creative artist”. The world needs people like us who gasp in awe and applaud. You can find transcripts of the chats here, if you want to know more about them.

I’m keen that the 4 May chat on “Off to the Antipodes” introduces a range of Australian and New Zealand steampunkers to the world. So whatever kind of creative artist you are (hat maker, jewellery designer, steam-automobile engineer, musician, author) I want you to be part of it. In the last five minutes of the chat I’ll shout out for everyone to share one self-promo tweet. Before then (i.e. for 55 self-disciplined minutes) the conversation will be a conversation and I’ll expect you all to shine with witty repartee and bemusing Antipodean slang ;)

However, for all this to happen, I need to reach Australian and New Zealand steampunkers who are willing to tweet. This is surprisingly difficult. I decided what I need is a list of such rare and priceless beings. So I’ve put out a call on Twitter. I’m creating a public list of everyone who tweets the hashtag #Ozsteampunk. That way everyone who tweets it self-identifies as a steampunker from Down Under and happy to join the twittering community of creative imaginations.

I hope this helps build the Antipodean steampunk community.

Of course, there is always the embarrassing risk that such a Twitter list already exists and I’m reinventing the wheel. If I am, can someone quietly nudge me? Thanks

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Black Glass by Meg Mundell

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Gorgeous cover, isn’t it?

Black Glass by Meg Mundell definitely met the Australian Women Writers Challenge to read outside my comfort zone. Dystopian YA with no guarantee of a happy ending? To prove I’m no coward I cracked open the book (thanks to my local library for getting in a copy :) ) and started reading.

It was good. Vivid writing with sharp landscapes and characters. The jagged scene and point of view switches helped to build the mood of a disjointed world.

Black Glass is a dream of the future where the only salvation is in committing to a relationship. People survive within a society structured to destroy them.

Maybe it’s a theme for all dystopian novels (maybe you’ve gathered I don’t read them much), but I noticed the issue of morality — of creating and abiding by something — seemed fairly explicit.

It was the little points — like the difficulty of clean drinking water — that made Black Glass so compelling. This was an ordinary world with big and little dramas. The big ideas drove the story, but it’s the details that make you care.

The scary thing was how easy it is to see today’s Australia in Black Glass.

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