Studying Popular Romance: It Takes Two

Posted on May 14, 2009 by Bron

I’m delighted to spread the word that the International Association for the Study of Popular Romance is now up and running. People interested in the study of romance in fiction, film, television, etc are invited to join the IASPR – the membership fee is $25USD for the year. The IASPR is sponsoring a conference in Brisbane in August this year, and apparently there are also plans afoot for a conference in Brussels next year.

As a new organisation, the IASPR is also seeking to raise some funds to support scholars travelling to conferences, and to assist in honorariums for keynote speakers and other similar expenses. To that end, Eric Selinger, one of the founders and a regular contributor to the blog, Teach Me Tonight, has invited people who would like to support the work of the Association to donate in the ‘It Takes Two’ campaign; in honour of your favourite romantic couple (real or fictional) donate $2 or more by clicking on the ‘Donate’ button on the IASPR website. Donations can be made by credit card through Paypal, or there’s a snail mail address on the blog link here. Eric very generously matched the first $250 of donations; I believe the fund has now raised around $700 in just a couple of days – which is great, but since international travel is expensive, it would be even better if more could be raised to assist scholars, especially young scholars, to attend conferences. There is some great research now being undertaken on the romance genre, and an academic conference in Princeton University last month generated a great deal of interest – including positive media interest.

I’ve joined the Association, and have also donated $20 in honour of one of my favourite couples, Barbie Cazabon and Jack Fascinatin’ Kippilaw from D’Arcy Niland’s classic 1957 Australian novel, Call Me When the Cross Turns Over. It’s out of print now, and not a well-known book to the current generation of readers, but it’s worth trying to find a copy in a second-hand shop. The ‘cross’ of the title is the Southern Cross, familiar constellation in the night sky for we southerners, and the book is set in the 1950s, in the gem fields and outback of New South Wales and South Australia. It’s not genre romance, and many would regard it as a Literary novel (the author also having the literary advantage of being white, male, and (sadly) deceased), but it has one of the strongest love stories in it that I have read, and both Barbie and Jack are well-drawn characters, tough as the harsh land they live in, and passionate with it. I’ve read it a dozen times or more, and can still cry in the black moments. (But be assured that the end will have you smiling, so hang in there!)

I love the opening description of Barbie:

“Her name was Barbie Cazabon, and she was brought up in a man’s world. She was dug out of this country and she’d be dug back into it. Some are like that. They belong nowhere else but in the land that bred them.”

I didn’t realise until years after I’d first read some of Niland’s books that he grew up in Glen Innes, a town in the region I now live in. Another of his books, The Shiralee, features many towns I’m familiar with – although they have changed since the 1950s. (Well, some of them have, anyway!) Australian readers may know that D’Arcy Niland was married to writer Ruth Park, and her books are definitely worth reading, too, including her autobiographies, A Fence Around the Cuckoo, and Fishing in the Styx.

I think Barbie and Jack from Call Me When the Cross Turns Over have been on my mind lately because we leave on Sunday for the outback – and will be passing through some of the places that Barbie travels through in the book – including Coober Pedy, Oodla Wirra, and Broken Hill. It’s amazing country, out there, and I love it – can’t wait to be on our way!

So, to get back to the topic of the post, if you’d like to join the association, or make a donation in honour of your favourite romantic couple to support it’s work, please do go and visit the website.

Posted in Romance genre | Tagged | 1 Comment

Afternoon Light

Posted on May 6, 2009 by Bron

It’s been a very busy few days, racing to meet my deadline to finish the copy edits on Dark Country, and preparing teaching materials, a lecture, and marking assignments in my uni job.

Yesterday afternoon, though, on my way home from town, I decided to take the ‘scenic’ route home. This is a dirt road, that leaves the main road about 10 kilometres before our turn-off, and wanders in a big, curvy loop through farmland before meeting up with our road, about 5 kms down from our place. It takes, probably, about an extra 10 minutes longer to go that way.

The late afternoon light slanted across the country, giving it a tinge of gold, the ducks were swimming in the river as I crossed the causeway, and pairs of rosellas and a flock of parakeets were pecking at the side of the road. I enjoyed the diversion; I haven’t travelled this way for a little while. I didn’t stop to take any photos, though, until I was almost home. This one is not far from our front gate, looking back along the way I’d come.

Late afternoon light

Late afternoon light

Now another day is done, my lecture and seminar are over for the week, the copy edits are finished and posted, and tomorrow I’ll work from home, marking assignments.

It’s time now to put the dogs out into the run, and head to bed – and we’re hoping that the mouse that’s been running around the house at night the last few nights keeping us awake will either be quiet, or get caught in the new mousetraps I bought today. It’s been merrily munching the bait off the other traps without setting them off for days, though, so we’re not holding out a lot of hope for the new ones!

Posted in Landscape, Life, Photos | 4 Comments

Literati on the Gold Coast Event

Posted on May 2, 2009 by Bron

I’m delighted that I’ll be taking part in the Literati events on Queensland’s Gold Coast at the end of this month, organised by the Gold Coast Libraries.

The Literary Feast is on Friday, 29 May, at 7pm at the Gold Coast Arts Centre; around 30 authors will be there, moving between tables to talk about books, writing and reading with the other guests. Tickets for the dinner are $75.

The following day, Saturday 30 May, there are a series of author talks at the various Gold Coast libraries. I’ll be on a panel at Broadbeach Library, at 10am, with authors Toni Jordan and Karen Foxlee. Our topic is writing a follow-up to a best-selling debut novel. (Technically mine isn’t a best-selling novel – not yet, anyway! But it’s doing quite nicely.)

The full program of events – and there are some great authors participating – is available as a PDF file. The author talks are free, but bookings are essential.

And, in a nice gesture, I received a parcel yesterday: Text Publishing, who publish Toni Jordan, had sent me a copy of Toni’s novel Addition via my publisher. It looks like a great read – as soon as my copy-edits are finished, I’ll delve into it!

Posted in Events, News | 3 Comments

Mentoring young writers

Posted on May 1, 2009 by Bron

Each year, my university runs a mentor program to support Year 12 students in the region who are taking the English Extension course for their Higher School Certificate, for which they have to write a major creative work – a (long) short story, a series of poems, a speech, a film script being some of the options.

I’ve been involved in the mentor program for the past three years. I really enjoy it – there’s an online discussion board, plus we have full-day workshops when the students travel to the university to work in small groups with the program mentors. Because we’re in a regional area, some of the students travel quite some distance, arriving here the evening before the workshop, and staying in the University’s residential colleges overnight. As well as the workshop, it gives them a chance to experience a taste of uni life.

For various reasons, we’ve only got a small group this year, and therefore had only one workshop – which was yesterday. Eight students and their teachers from three different schools came, so Martin, the other mentor and I had a group of four students each to work with during the day. The young people in the program are always bright, interesting students, with great ideas for their major works, and yesterday’s group were no exception. It was a real delight to work with them.

So, thanks, Rosalie, Sarah, Sophie and Maree for a great day! I hope you went away with some useful ideas for your projects, and a boost to your inspiration and motivation. I sure did!

Posted in Writing | 3 Comments

Simple pleasures

Posted on April 23, 2009 by Bron

A day working at home today, the first in almost two weeks, filled with many small pleasures:

  • the spinebills on the red flowers of the pineapple sage outside the kitchen window – it flowers in autumn and through early winter, and the native birds love it;
  • knitting for twenty minutes in the sunshine on the front veranda, blue fairy wrens darting in amongst nearby bushes, and a large lizard, enjoying the sunshine, watching me from just 6 feet away;
  • chai tea in my favourite pottery mug, with a piece of chocolate fudge;
  • a kangaroo and a wallaby, grazing in the late afternoon between the house and the small dam, while I watched from the sunroom while treadmilling;
  • hanging out towels and sheets on the washing line in the sunshine – and bringing them in, with the fresh,warm sun-smell still on them;
  • walking the dogs at sunset, kangaroos in the paddock, small birds settling for the night; several kookaburras laughing in the distance.
Sunset in the west paddock

Sunset in the west paddock

(And I still have dinner of atlantic salmon with honey & mustard dressing and steamed greens to look forward to, plus (I hope) finishing the last 6 rows of the beautiful lace shawl I’m knitting this evening.)

Posted in Life, Photos | 6 Comments