Welcome 2016

final proofs of the Ghost Girls manuscript (November 2015).

It’s a new year and a big one for me.  Ghost Girls, my first novel, will be out on March 1. Already, I feel the rumblings of this via internet mentions from strangers in possession of advanced proof copies of the book. No opinions yet, but the feeling of knowing my book is out there on somebody’s summer reading or 2016 review pile is a curious one.

I think I expected to feel terror.

Instead, I feel an odd sense of calm and a slightly more understandable impatient anticipation.

My book, following an exhilarating editing process (yes, I do chose the word ‘exhilarating’: I found the editing of Ghost Girls to be a profoundly satisfying experience and I’ll write more on this later) is at the point it was always supposed to come to.

It’s ready.

A writer friend of mine said recently that ‘a writer’s first book is the book that has taken their whole lifetime up to that point to write.’ She didn’t mean this literally, in a time frame sense, but that the ideas, themes, character traits and tone of a first novel have often been shaped by the author’s lifetime of ‘wanting to say something’.

This is true for me in that so much of what is in Ghost Girls has been influenced by personal experiences and journeys going back decades. 

For starters, there's an attraction to dark and mysterious stories and strong female characters that goes back to my childhood, as well as a lifetime’s interest in relationships developed across cultures and distances.

In writing this novel I was inspired also by my deep 20-year love affair with the work of Hong Kong auteur Wan Kar Wai, whose film Chungking Express influenced the book's visual style.

As well, my long interest and connection with China and its food and people was also instrumental in the writing of this book.

So, yes, Ghost Girls is a novel that contains many threads and experiences and ideas from the seams of my life thus lived.

I think it’s also a great story.

I’m ready and pleased that 2016 has ticked around and that Ghost Girls is starting its journey into the world. I’m very much looking forward to all this year has to offer and to sharing more of this journey with you.

See you soon!  Cath.

judge my cover

it’s the saying we all grew up with: ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’.

perfectly okay if the cover is something nondescript, with a background only for the text announcing a title.

completely fine, also, if the cover offers decorative promises that are never realised by the narrative or language of the words within.

me? i think the idea of the cover is to serve the book - to add an additional layer to the words and  to draw people in via the ‘teaser’ aspect of hinting at the themes and stories on the pages. it’s a creative image produced by the designer in collaboration with the publisher.

does the author have input? yes, via the words of her novel, and sometimes, if invited to make them, via initial suggestions, but ultimately the cover is the extra layer that provides a novel with its package.

this is a good thing. take me: i know nothing about design or image or colour matching and when I wrote ghost girls I didn't give a thought to the possibility the manuscript might one day have a cover. my concerns lay with finishing the book, acquiring an agent and eventually finding a publisher.

i did those things and am now in the fortunate position to learn about the book business as an author. my early observation is this: it takes a team to make a book and the designer is a key player. so while the people at echo publishing were kind and polite enough to ask for my suggestions in relation to a potential cover, the creative and technical work of it fell to renowned australian designer, sandy cull.  

i feel that sandy and the echo team got it spot on. the cover perfectly evokes the tone and setting of ghost girls while also suggesting something about the story. it is visually exciting and the graphic choices reflect, at least to me, some of the themes and ideas threaded through the narrative. 

i feel so privileged to have had sandy design the ghost girls cover.  before i saw the design, i met and talked with her and learnt that she'd read the novel. she highlighted a scene that involves the australian bush - it is one of my favourite scenes in the book.  when she told me she liked that scene, I knew my cover was in very safe hands.

as for judging a book by its cover, well,  I hope you will do that for mine, at least initially. this is because i think the ghost girls cover rocks and that it truly does serve the story: I’m thrilled with it.  

best, cath.