Hi, Y’all… Bec here with a bit of *FRICKIN’ FANTASTIC* news…
This just in:
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Belinda follows up her written review of this book with her first video mini. It’s a lot more fun when you can see your reviewer isn’t it? Stand by for more from Bel and Jamie.
In the information age where much of the world is connected electronically and physically
with the ease of travel, we’re coming into contact with people of different races and cultures more than ever before. We can’t control who we fall in love with, so stands to reason that you’re more likely to fall in love with someone from a different race than anyone in your family before you. As this site has pointed out, dating outside your species (vamps, ghosts, merman etc) can be easier with tips, so here’s some tips about dating outside your race.
Racism can be a real issue, and how bad it will be for the two of you depends on where you live. I’ve been dating my African girlfriend for four years and we live in Queensland, Australia.
It’s not quite as accepting as some places we have travelled to, like England for instance. People often stare at us when we walk down the street, which admittedly can be funny if they’re driving. I’ve seen people just about fender bender the person in front of them because they were too busy staring at us and not keeping their eyes on the road. We stop traffic!
I’ve heard people make comments about my partner when we’re on public transport, which is silly if you think about it. When you’re the only black person on the bus it’s not hard to figure out which black person people are talking about. The worst instance of racism we experienced was when a man screamed at me in the middle of the street for “betraying Australia” by dating an African girl. Even a few African friends of mine tell me they would never date outside their race because their family would never accept it.
Racism can be hard because you can’t control other people’s behaviour. My tip would be to simply ignore such people. It can put stress on you and your partner, so we don’t pretend it doesn’t happen, but we try not to let small minded people get under our skin.
The second major issue is culture clash. It might sound trivial until you run into one, but both of you have to understand you were raised in two different cultures, and there will be some things you find hard to understand. For example, my partner comes from a culture that puts a much higher emphasis on family bonds than most western cultures, and I have to accept that I won’t understand that completely. In my experience, arguments thrive off miscommunication and miscommunication thrives off ignorance. My tip would be to try to keep an open mind and be prepared to compromise.
That’s the best advice I can give to anyone on interracial dating. Good luck out there, and don’t let small minds control your heart.
Please leave me a comment if you’d like to share your experiences.
Kade Morton is a Brisbane based author writing graphic novels, manga, short stories, reviews and political articles. He
has a BA in Criminology from Griffith University as well as having studied at Keele University in the United Kingdom. After discovering Ghost in the Shell, Kade became a huge anime fan, and the only genre in any format that rivals this love is urban fantasy. He dreams of contributing to the urban fantasy literature base with his own projects in the near future, and you can view his blog here.
Nansi Kunze grew up surrounded by books in Australia and the UK. After studying languages and ancient history at university, she spent several years teaching foreign doctors how to pronounce rude words and teenagers how to mummify each other, while cultivating a taste for manga and video games in her spare time. Unsurprisingly, her early attempts at writing serious adult fiction failed. Fortunately she proved to be much better at writing slightly zany Young Adult fiction, and her first YA novel, Mishaps, was published by Random House Australia in 2008. Her second, Dangerously Placed, has just been released. She lives on a small farm overlooking the Victorian Alps with her husband and son.
1. Congrats on the recent release of ‘Dangerously Placed’, Nansi. A YA mystery novel (that our reviewer loved), this is your second book. 2008’s ‘Mishaps’ was met with very favourable reviews, including many remarks about your keen sense of humour. What makes you laugh? How difficult is it to translate your own sense of humour to your audience?
I’m blushing now! Well, I’ve got to admit that I’m easily amused – a lot of things make me laugh. Some of my biggest influences, though, are classic school-based films and TV shows (John Hughes movies, Buffy and so on), and the greats of British humorous writing, like Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams. One of the elements I enjoy the most about those forms of humour is that the characters don’t take themselves too seriously. If your protagonist makes a fool of herself in front of her friends, sure, that can be entertaining – but it’s even better if she has a ready quip to make about the situation.
The funny bits of a novel are usually the easiest parts for me to write, because I’ll often note down ridiculous situations and cheeky remarks I want to include in a novel while I’m still in the early planning stage. I don’t really think much about whether what I’m picturing as funny will seem that way to my audience, to be honest – I guess I just assume that it will. I probably should be more worried about that! Fortunately, I have great test readers and editors to bounce my ideas off and to help me realise if any of it falls flat.
2. I’ve read that you weren’t always an aspiring writer. Your academic background includes Ancient History and European languages & your CV includes a pretty eclectic mix of job positions! What impact has your prior research and work experience had on your creative writing and do you continue to research now?
It’s true that I wasn’t one of those people who grew up writing stories all the time and dreaming of being a writer – it was more just something I started doing one day and got hopelessly addicted to! Having had an ‘eclectic mix’ of jobs can be useful if you do end up becoming a writer, since it gives you a wide range of experiences to draw on (although I must confess that I’ve yet to find a good use for the time I spent teaching rude slang to overseas-trained doctors). The most useful job I’ve had in terms of my writing was being a high school teacher – the first YA story I ever wrote involved a teacher mummifying a student in toilet paper, which I used to do with my year 8 History students – but I probably draw on my experiences as a high school student just as much.
I do still research quite a lot. While some of it is just Googling the technologies I base the speculative elements of stories on, other parts are a bit more hands-on. The book I’m working on now is set in several different locations around the world. Later this year I’m travelling to England to visit family and stopping off briefly at each of those places along the way to do a little book research (yep, it’s a tough life as a writer!). My background in languages helps a fair bit with that kind of information-gathering, but I also love finding out about things I didn’t study at uni, like the genetics I looked into for Mishaps. It’s one of the great privileges of being a novelist, I think: knowing that absolutely anything you learn or experience is potentially useful for your work!
3. Now that you’ve written two YA novels, do you think you’ll continue writing for that audience? What other sorts of writing do you do? Who do you read?
Oh, it’s YA all the way for me! I feel like I belong in the world of teenage fiction. It’s got an intensity that I think is often missing in writing aimed at adults, and I don’t feel that the scope I have to play with as a YA writer is any less broad than I’d have if I were writing for adults. I don’t really do any other kind of writing at the moment. except the occasional blog post or interview! Being a mum to a preschooler takes up a lot of my time, so when I have the chance to write I head straight for my current YA manuscript. The novel I’m writing at the moment is full of glamour and intrigue, so it’s extra-fun to write, and I never feel sad that I haven’t got the time to start any other stories.
I mostly read YA too. I don’t usually stick to one particular sub-genre – I wander along the Teen shelves at the library every week looking
for anything that catches my eye. I often bring out old favourites to re-read: any of the Discworld books that feature Granny Weatherwax, Diana Wynne Jones’s works for older readers, my collection of Rosemary Sutcliff novels. I read a lot of manga too; right now I’m desperate for the next volume in Bisco Hatori’s awesome manga Ouran High School Host Club to be released. I don’t think I’d ever have the patience to write a long series – it drives me mad just waiting for other people to finish theirs!
Q. 4 Which of all your fictional characters Burns Brightest in your mind and why?
That’s a tricky one! I suppose, like a lot of authors, while I’m working on a particular manuscript the main characters in it seem all-consuming … but by the time their book hits the shelves, I’m already focussing on new ones. In each novel there’s someone I find particularly fun to write. It’s usually the one with the fewest inhibitions, because a lot of the excitement in being a novelist is in living vicariously through your characters. In Dangerously Placed, that character was Kiyoko. She’s unashamedly academic and very self-confident, and her Goth style makes me nostalgic for the days when I had a wardrobe full of black and my fringe covered half of my face (or at least one lens of my nerdy round glasses – I wasn’t quite as stylish as Ki!).
I’ve also got a lot of affection for the guys in my books; I think it’d be difficult to write a guy your protagonist is going to fall in love with if you didn’t have a bit of a soft spot for him too! But I think the character who really burns brightest for me is the Gianna, one of the two main characters in the novel I wrote before Mishaps. She’s brilliant, fearless, beautiful, indecently rich and has major issues – what could be more fun than that? When a character means a lot to you, their story is always in the back of your mind. It’s my dream to one day polish that novel up until it burns as brightly as Gianna does.
“Her beauty is a weapon–and Fire is going to use it”
The second instalment in Cashore’s Seven Kingdoms saga introduces us to a whole new bunch of terrifically terrifying beasties and a cast of new characters to fall in love with, or to loathe with all our being. Our protagonist, Fire, is the last human monster. A stunningly beautiful creature with the ability to read minds and control others through implanting her own thoughts and will, Fire easily could have been the villain of the piece, just like her father before her. Fire’s strength of character and strong sense of right and wrong instead give us a heroine to fall head over heels for; and she teaches us a few valuable lessons along the way.
Fire finds herself on a path of destiny where she must embrace her powers and cast her fears aside to play her part in saving her Kingdom. Having spent most of her life hiding away, at first Fire comes across as full of insecurity and deep self loathing for what she is and what she is capable of. Fire not only has to come to terms with the awful legacy her father left behind but also carve her own niche in a world where just what she is gives most enough reason to do away with her.
While being the second in the series, Fire is set in such different circumstances to Graceling that it works well as a stand-alone or first trip into Cashore; it is an intoxicating and brilliantly woven world full of magic,murder,mayhem and intricate court politics. Fans of Graceling will also find themselves breathless with meeting the Infant Leck and rising along as his early life unfolds. This frightening look into the young mind of such an evil and dangerous Graceling adds an enjoyable extra dose of spice.
Fire packs a powerful punch. It will hold you transfixed and let your imagination soar in a blur of pages. I certainly can’t wait to see just what magic Cashore weaves next.
Fire–Kristin Cashore
Published 1 July, 2010, by Orion Books
Paperback, 400 Pages
ISBN: 978-0-575-08513-8
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