2016 speeches #2: Rashida Murphy’s The Historian’s Daughter

February 13, 2017 by Frances Macaulay Forde

I’m talking, Amanda… with great enthusiasm.

Here is a second speech from 2016, made on the delightful occasion of the launch of Rashida Murphy’s novel The Historian’s Daughter (UWA Publishing) last August. I decided not to edit out my concluding comments—a few tips on how readers can help books make their way in the world—as people often ask me about this…

Historian_s_Daughter_Cover_grande The Historian’s Daughter is a special book. First, and most importantly, it is a beautifully written, page-turning, multilayered novel with engaging characters and something worthwhile to say.

Second, it is a debut novel, which always occasions a particular kind of interest, because reviewers, the media, bookshops, readers are not only wondering What story do we have here? but also Who do we have here?

Third, this book started its life as a PhD. It has been loved and laboured over, even cried over, throughout many years and it has been the centre of…

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Oscars 2017: La La Land

February 13, 2017 by Frances Macaulay Forde

Excellent review of why I thoroughly enjoy the film.

The Fluff Is Raging

The Film:La La Land

The Pitch: A Star ~~is Born~~ Works Really Hard and Suffers Intense Humiliation and Rejection

Number of Nominations: 14

Which Categories? Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Production Design, Best Editing, Best Original Score, Best Original Song (two nominations), Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing

Will it Win? Yes: it’s going home with a clutch of Oscars, including the Big One.

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Hollywood loves nothing more than celebrating itself, even when a film viciously satirizes the city and the industry (The Player, Swimming With Sharks), so a major movie about a couple of ambitious young talents trying to get ahead in movies and music in Los Angeles was always going to appeal. With an astonishing fourteen nominations, critical praise and good box-office, Damian Chazelle’s follow-up to Whiplash is almost certainly…

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Competition! Win an in-season double pass to Jasper Jones

February 11, 2017 by Frances Macaulay Forde

Another local writer hits the screens… and your chance to win tickets.

Cinema Australia

Thanks to Madman Entertainment we’re giving away ten in-season double passes to Jasper Jones, the story of Charlie Bucktin, a bookish boy of 14 living in a small town in Western Australia.

Shot in Australia’s South West and adapted from Craig Silvey’s best-selling Australian novel, Jasper Jones features a stellar cast including Toni Collette, Hugo Weaving, Levi Miller, Angourie Rice, Dan Wyllie and Aaron McGrath.

In the dead of night during the scorching summer of 1969, Charlie is startled when he is woken by local mixed-race outcast Jasper Jones outside his window. Jasper leads him deep into the forest and shows him something that will change his life forever, setting them both on a dangerous journey to solve a mystery that will consume the entire community.

In an isolated town where secrecy, gossip and tragedy overwhelm the landscape, Charlie faces family breakdown, finds his first love, and discovers what it…

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A Street Cat Named Bob

February 11, 2017 by Frances Macaulay Forde

Wow – I love how you find these gems then share them. Thanks CJ.

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Rosanne Cash, Eric Bibb, John Phillips and Scott McKenzie sing Hedy West : 500 Miles

February 6, 2017 by Frances Macaulay Forde

Always loved the song. Sang it sitting in a circle on our lawn when I was a teen with folky friends… Thanks for this in depth appreciation.

The Immortal Jukebox

‘We leave something of ourselves behind when we leave a place, we stay there, even though we go away. And there are things in us that we can find again only by going back there’ (Pascal Mercier)

‘The desire to go home that is a desire to be whole, to know where you are, to be a point of intersection of all the lines drawn though all the stars, to be the constellation- maker and the center of the world, that center called love.’ (Rebecca Solnit)

‘You can’t go home again.’ (Thomas Wolfe)

‘Lord, I’m one, Lord, I’m two, Lord, I’m three, Lord, I’m four,

Lord, I’m five hundred miles away from home.’ (Hedy West)

Much meaning can be expressed in so few letters of the alphabet

Just four will do.

Good. Evil. Luck. Fate. Time. Fear. Hope. Hate. Womb. Tomb. Life. Love.

And one four letter word might contain…

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“Small Great Things”

February 6, 2017 by Frances Macaulay Forde

Jodi Picoult’s Small Great Things to be adapted for film.

by Anastasia Hadjidemetri |February 6, 2017

Julia Roberts and Viola Davis are set to star alongside each other in the film adaptation of Jodi Picoult’s Small Great Things.

Marc Platt, whose work has included La La Land, is set to produce the film with Adam Siegel. A screenwriter has yet to be announced. READ MORE.

#SmallGreatThings #JodiPicoult #BookToFilm #AdaptedForScreen #ScreenNews

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Oscars 2017: Best Original Song

February 4, 2017 by Frances Macaulay Forde

Loved ‘La La Land” and all the music…

The Fluff Is Raging

As with almost every other category this year,La La Land is going to be the one to beat. While Justin Hurwitz is probably going to win a statue for Best Original Score, he faces a bit of a challenge in the Original Song category. He is in fact nominated twice for Best Original Song, so it’s possible that one might cancel out the other.

Among his contenders are some pretty big names: Sting, Justin Timberlake and Lin-Manuel Miranda, so at least the performances on Oscars night should be decent (we shall see how Ryan Gosling fares when he has to sing live).

Justin Hurwitz, “City of Stars”, La La Land

Justin Hurwitz, “Audition (The Fools Who Dream)”, La La Land

Justin Timberlake, Max Martin and Karl Johan Schuster, “Can’t Stop the Feeling”, Trolls

J. Ralph and Sting, “The Empty Chair”, Jim: The James…

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REVIEW: OUTBACK BLAZE BY RACHAEL JOHNS

February 3, 2017 by Frances Macaulay Forde

Love the characters Rachael creates, always a good read.

Write Note Reviews

OUTBACK BLAZE

Author: Rachael Johns
Harlequin MIRA Aus RRP $29.99
Review: Monique Mulligan

Rachael Johns is fast cementing her place as a romance writer to watch in Australia and I sense there are big things in store for her as she stretches her writing wings further. Outback Blaze, the second in her Bunyip Bay series, is an immensely likeable book and will win her many new fans, as well as keeping her established fan base crying out for more.

Readers of Outback Dreams would not have been surprised by the decision to focus on secondary characters Ruby and Drew this time around; Johns cleverly set that up in the first book, and the signs are there in Outback Blaze for the focus of the next romance in the upcoming Outback Ghost. It’s cleverly done, without being overt. Back to Ruby and Drew … here there are two characters hiding or recovering from events in…

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Oscars 2017: Hacksaw Ridge

February 2, 2017 by Frances Macaulay Forde

Have to see this.

The Fluff Is Raging

The Film:Hacksaw Ridge

The Pitch:The Passion of the Sergeant York

Number of Nominations: 6

Which Categories? Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Editing, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing

Will it Win? Welcome Home, Mel Gibson … it’s been too long. Sure, you had a few problems, what with your drunken rants about Jews and the whole sugar-tits thing and your general air of awfulness and bigotry, but this is Hollywood, and we have a short memory, and we just love comeback stories, and you’ve been in the wilderness for so many years now, none of us can quite remember what you were doing there, and we hate to see your talents wasted in shitty B movies, and we love war movies and simplistic tales of heroism, and frankly, things are getting a little too diverse this year, if you know what I mean, so to keep things equal…

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REVIEW: THE WOMAN NEXT DOOR BY LIZ BYRSKI

January 31, 2017 by Frances Macaulay Forde

Another book I must add to my list… anything by Liz is worth your special time.

Write Note Reviews

Reviews on this site will now comprise a book blurb and a short response.

9781743534939

One thing I’ve always admired about Liz Byrski is the way she tackles themes like friendship and ageing in a realistic, but warm, manner. After hearing good things about The Woman Next Door, I welcomed the chance to read a friend’s copy.

Over the years, the residents of Emerald Street have become more than just neighbours, they have built lasting friendships over a drink and chat on their back verandahs.
Now a new chapter begins with the children having left home. Helen and Dennis have moved from their high maintenance family property to an apartment by the river with all the mod cons. For Joyce and Mac, the empty nest has Joyce craving a new challenge, while Mac fancies retirement on the south coast.
Meanwhile, Polly embarks on a surprising long-distance relationship. But she worries…

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