What can you CBC? A shortlist off the port bow!

2011 CBCA Shortlist

What excitement! Ye gads!

About a Girl, Graffiti Moon, Six Impossible Things, The Midnight Zoo, The Piper's Son, The Life of a Teenage Body Snatcher (pic below, my copy has gone walkies). How often does the CBC get it so right?*

You can go to the CBCA website for all the other categories. They are all good, but none like the YA section.

And isn't it so wonderful to see so many lady novelists represented? All other literary prizes are always skewed firmly the other way. And so many lovely lady novelists to boot! Bring on the cake and champagne! (shortlisted mans can have cake and bubbles too).


*(err...though extremely disappointed that Lian Tanner's The Keepers isn't on the Younger Readers list...)

interview: fiona wood

fiona wood is the author of six impossible things (my review here), one of the most exciting releases this august.

fiona is supremely nice and very funny (not to mention tres stylish) and her book had one of the best launches i've been to. not only did i help drink readings hawthorn out of red wine*, but i also sneezed some of it out of my nose laughing, first at kaz cooke's launch speech, then the reading from the book. after that, fiona made a lovely speech. if she was nervous, you couldn't tell.

Six (hopefully not impossible) Questions

Q1: Where did the brilliant germ of an idea for Six Impossible Things come from?

It started with the idea of Dan - although he didn't have a name them - a shy, wordy-nerdy character having a tough time, who kept coming to mind, and I wanted to give him a story. I was attracted to the idea of this unlikely guy getting to go to the ball (year nine social), and that's where his name came from - an anagram of Cinderella. The other image I had in mind was two houses side by side in a terrace, identical from the outside, but completely different inside. One family with lots of money and one family with none, and how that didn't matter at all to the kids. And I wanted some connection through the attics. The mother's wedding cake business idea (and her talking people out of getting married) had been floating around separately for a while, too, initially as part of a completely different story.

Q2:You mentioned at the launch that this book was three years in the making – yikes! – is there anything that didn’t make the cut that you really wish could have remained?
Q3: Likewise, anything added in at the last minute that you can’t imagine having left out?

Earlier drafts had the dog Howard's thoughts expressed. Even though Dan couldn't hear them, the reader could see them, and knew whether Dan was guessing them correctly or not. The book as it is now just has what Dan imagines Howard is thinking. This change resulted from a note from my editor, and he was right, it was a point of view inconsistency. It did give me a little pang when I chopped all that out. Something I added in the last draft are the scenes in which Dan nearly kisses Estelle in the cactus house at the botanic gardens, and then wonders what the hell is happening between them - if anything - when he goes for a run later that day. The story really needed those two beats to keep their building relationship bubbling along.

Q4: If they were to make a movie of Six Impossible Things, who would you want to play Dan?

I have to say, I'd like to cast Robert Pattinson at fifteen. I think he could play that slightly gawky, awkward, but potential for great cuteness well. And he'd play shy well, but also convey humour and warmth as Dan's confidence grew. He's got the whole social misfit thing happening, so all we'd need is a rewind button on his age.

Q5: Now that the book is out in the wild world is there anything you want to say, or to tell the book something?

About sending it out there: I'm so pleased when people read the book and like it - this will sound strange, but it makes me feel happy for Dan and the other characters. I've spent so long with them, they feel like people to me, and so of course I want readers to like them. But to the book I'd say, 'book, you are who you are, some people will like you, and some people won't. And that's okay.'

Q6: Can you tell us some (maybe six?!) things about your next novel?

1 The protagonist's name is Sibylla Quince, but she is called Sib or Sibbie by everyone except her oldest friend Michael Cassio who always uses her full name.
2 The first draft is about one third written, but fully plotted.
3 It's set over one term in an off-campus, live-in school camp for year 10 students.
4 Sib's best friend isn't as nice as Sib thinks she is.
5 Its themes are friendship and betrayal, and its working title is 'Pulchritude' - what an ugly word for beauty.
6 Lou from Six Impossible Things is in it.

v clever about dan cereill being an anagram of cinderella, i feel a bit stupid that i didn't get that. also very exciting news about pulchritude, or whatever it ends up being called in the end. lou is such a great character and it will be great to read more about her. i hope we don't have to wait three years.

thank you fiona, so much, for your excellent answers and agreeing to this wee interview.

i am fairly sure that more people will like your lovely book than not. i wish it well!
visit fiona's website!

p.s. if you don't believe me about how awesome this book is you can read another review here.
p.p.s. you can see photos from the launch here and here. i am not in any of the photos.

*not entirely true

review : six impossible things

Six Impossible Things, Fiona Wood (Pan Macmillan)

‘[Dan’s] life is a mess, but for now he’s narrowed it down to just six impossible things.’

Dan Cereal is a dickhead.

At least, that’s how the first day at his new school turns out for Dan Cereill (it’s pronounced “surreal”). He’s fourteen, skinny and smart. His dad has declared himself bankrupt and gay at the same time and Dan and his mum, now penniless, have taken refuge in a Heritage Trust Gothic Victorian Terrace scented with eau d’urine (de chien et de chat et de tante agée).

It’s not all bad, though. There’s the beautiful girl next door; Dan knows that he and Estelle are perfect for one another. They are! They like the same music! Other things! And ‘There’s this sky she likes.’ (one of my favourite lines…had me singing ‘excuse me while I kiss this guy’ à la Jimi Hendrix). Unfortunately for Dan, the reason for his great ‘in’ with the girl (next door) of his dreams is a shameful reality…he’s found and read her diaries.

The dialogue is perfect. I loved Fred’s plan for what they could do if they sold the antique desk belonging to Dan's late great-aunt: ‘So we could flog this, substitute a copy and get fake ID, plane tickets to LA, fake driver’s licences, and drive across America to New York, have ourselves a time, and be back in time for Year Ten. What do you say?’
‘Yeah, one little flaw – we can’t fake drive.’ (p.20)
The pop culture references are great and they actually work, which is rare. (Like Estelle, I too watched the final musical moment of Skins season one a number of times.)

What I particularly loved about Six Impossible Things is that it doesn’t limit itself to the relationship – or lack thereof – of Dan and Estelle. There is the wonderful support cast, who provide friendship, advice and antagonism. There is Howard, Dan’s inherited dog. There are the awesome best friends – pimply Fred and Lou and Estelle’s best friend Janie Bacon. There is the bully Jason ‘Jayzo’ Doyle. Oliver, the hipster-poseur replacement father figure/possible serial killer who lives down the back garden and his girlfriend DJ Pony.

But more importantly, on Dan’s list of the six impossible things he wants to accomplish, he wants to make his mother happy, he wants to support his family and knows he should patch things up with his dad. His mum’s wedding cake business isn’t doing well, probably not helped by the fact that she seems to be constantly able to talk the brides out of it. So Dan wants to get a job to support his little family. Like one of John Green’s endearing nerd heroes, like a perfect awkward Nick Earls character, Dan Cereill is a very smart young man, thoughtful and kind. This novel is fabulous.