Swimming with Books

Wonderful new book blog over HERE by author Susan Pearce. Thoughtful reviews from the point of view of a reader and a writer, for example this extract from her latest post entitled 'Where do ideas come from?' Fascinating stuff. Bring it on, Susan!

Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat Pray Love) is of the opinion 
that ideas and creativity circle the world like gulfstreams, looking for ‘portals’, and if you’re not open to them, they’ll go and find someone who is. I get the impression that she means actual gulfstreams of ideas, just as she seems to mean actual angels when she talks about angels.

I too entertain some unverifiable ideas, though I don’t have Gilbert’s ability to believe in discrete, human-like supernatural entities. But for writing purposes, I’ve found that pretending to believe can be useful. Our imaginations believe and act on what we tell them.

The post continues here. 

Writers on Monday

The International Institute of Modern Letters has been running a wonderful Writers on Monday winter series over the past few years. This year it's at the National Library Auditorium at 1 pm.

The opening gig last Monday was a line-up of poets who have appeared in the latest Best NZ Poems. This Monday July 21 it's time for fiction and here's how the IIML describes it:

First Fictions - Mary McCallum & Susan Pearce
Two of last year’s most highly praised début novels were Susan Pearce’s Acts of Love and Mary McCallum’s The Blue, a finalist in the 2008 Montana New Zealand Book Awards. They track the lives of women isolated by religion (Acts of Love) and remoteness (The Blue).The two writers discuss the long hard process of producing a first novel with fellow novelist Kate Duignan.

I reviewed Susan's novel for National Radio when it came out. It's a terrific read -- polished and powerful with a delicacy of touch on domestic issues and the stuff of family love. If there had been a shortlist for the Montana Best First Book of Fiction Award this year, she would have been on it.

Susan is also one of those clear and clever thinkers who has a thorough understanding of what makes fiction work. She is a tutor in short fiction at the IIML -- she was my son's tutor, in fact, this year -- and I find her insights always stimulating and useful (okay, so I read his notes ...).

The Writers on Monday series is free. Why not come?