#AusQueerYA
Seventy-Seven Saturday (#) Clancy of the Undertow
Every Saturday we will bring you a short snippet from page 77 of a book. It might be a book one of us is reading or perhaps just the book closest to us.
The Rules:
- Pick up a Book (your current read, or the closest book to you, or your next read, etc)
- Turn to page 77(or 77% if you are on an e-reader)
- Find a Snippet, Sentence or Paragraph you like.
- Share it on your blog or Twitter or Instagram and link back to us (AusYABloggers) and use #77Saturday
Sarah's Choice
Author: Christopher Currie
Released: November 16th 2015
Publisher: Text Publishing
Add it to Goodreads
I wrench open the screen door and it bashes against the cladding and I hear Mum's voice rising in the living room and I burst in ready to free Dad or throw my body in front of a bullet or lift a fridge off a baby or whatever it is you're meant to do in emergencies.
Sarah's Thoughts
Since I claim Clancy of the Undertow as the first book I actually saw myself in, I figured sooner or later I better do a 77 using it :-)
Banjo’s 1889 Drover and Christopher Currie’s 2015 lovable self-loathing newly out teen have nothing in common, other than my eternal love and a semi-unusual name.
Follow Sarah at Sarah Says, Twitter, Instagram, and Goodreads
Seventy-Seven Saturday was inspired by The Friday 56 by Freda's Voice. If you decided to share your Seventy-Seven Saturday on your blog please link back to us and tag us on Twitter of Instagram @AsuYABloggers and #77Saturday
Seventy-Seven Saturday (#7) The Surprising Power of A Good Dumpling
Every Saturday we will bring you a short snippet from page 77 of a book. It might be a book one of us is reading or perhaps just the book closest to us.
The Rules:
- Pick up a Book (your current read, or the closest book to you, or your next read, etc)
- Turn to page 77(or 77% if you are on an e-reader)
- Find a Snippet, Sentence or Paragraph you like.
- Share it on your blog or Twitter or Instagram and link back to us (AusYABloggers) and use #77Saturday
Star's Choice
Title: The Surprising Power of A Good DumplingAuthor: Wai Chim
Released: 5th August 2019
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Add it to Goodreads
As Baba unlocks the door, I spot the new addition to the storefront. "What's that?" I point at the A4 paper scrawled with black marker. Help Wanted. Weekend only. Local. Must own car. Good English. No Chinese is okay.
Star's Thoughts
Sounds like the main character is about to go through a work change at her parents' restaurant.Follow Star at Blog, Twitter, Instagram and Goodreads
Seventy-Seven Saturday was inspired by The Friday 56 by Freda's Voice. If you decided to share your Seventy-Seven Saturday on your blog please link back to us and tag us on Twitter of Instagram @AsuYABloggers and #77Saturday
Top 5 Tuesday – Star's Top 5 Favourite Tropes
Hi, Star here. I thought I’d share my top 5 favourite tropes
1) Enemies to friends to lovers.
The first book that comes to mind is Tell Me How You
Really Feel by Aminah Mae Safi. This book so completely captures this trope for me.
Sana and Rachel start out hating each other, and it’s only when they’re forced to work
together that they start to become friends… and then more.
It’s cute, it’s fun, it has lesbians which is amazing and I just loved this book SO
much.
An honourable mention goes to Her Royal Highness by
Rachel Hawkins.
2) Fake Dating
The classic, and my favourite example of this trope has to be the To All The Boys I’ve Loved
Before book.
I fell in love with this book series last year, and it
still holds a close place in my
heart. I absolutely loved Lara Jean,
and she got up to some crazy things, but she was so adorable and fun to read,
and I loved her relationships with her sisters, too. Also, I have never adored
a male character as much as I adored Peter Kavinsky.
3) Chosen One
This one is pretty obvious for me – Harry Potter from the
Harry Potter series is half a reluctant chosen one, half embraces it. It’s
thrust upon him from before he even knows the wizarding world exists, but if
there’s one hero that I love with my entire soul, it is Harry James Potter.
4) Quests
The entirety of The Raven Cycle is one big quest to find
Glendower and wake him. But my favourite part of the quest is the friendships
the four main characters made along the way. This is one of my all-time
favourite series, and I think it will continue to be for as long as I’m alive.
5) Famous/Non-famous
This is coming straight from my love of fanfiction – but
I love me a story when one half of
the couple is famous, while the other isn’t. It’s fun and usually has me hooked
right from the start. I can think of two Jen Wilde books that fit this, and
they’re both as incredible as the other. Queens of Geek and Going Off Script
are perfect descriptions of this fun and incredible trope.
Hi there. Do you have a Top Five you want to share?
We know we would love to read them!
We are asking for our readers to share their bookish Top Five’s for the group blog.
We are hoping to get enough interest to make this a regular post – email your Top Five ideas to australianyabloggers@gmail.com to be featured.
Conversations 001: Queer Book Chat
Over the month of June – Pride Month – Star pointed out to me how most books being promoted were M/M. Until she pointed this out, I hadn’t noticed. Once she pointed it out, it was all I noticed. I’d even been guilty of it! There are so many fantastic M/M books that I’ve read, but sadly not as many F/F. I didn’t think they were out there. But Star proved me wrong with reading recommendations, and I intend to read them all.
Hi. I’m Sarah, one of the AusYABloggers group moderators and today I’ve asked fellow queer Aussie book blogger, the above-mentioned Star, to chat to me on the group blog.
Star is an out and Proud Lesbian who I think the world of. I am a quiet bisexual who can no longer stand to be quiet.
Sarah: During Pride month we had a few discussions about how we were mainly seeing M/M books in people’s Pride month posts. I think we basically deduced that this is what mainstream media seems to push and thus it is a trickle-down effect – yuk.
Star: You’re absolutely right. While a huge part of me is so excited that LGBT+ are getting any representation at all (though it is seriously lacking in full diversity), it makes me a little sad that it’s only M/M and the majority of the time, the M/M books are written by cis straight white women. Give me M/M written by own voices M/M and I am all for it!
Sarah: Yes! #OwnVoices – While I want as varied array of diversity in my books as there is in the world (so Cis whites get on diversifying your characters please), It does feel so much more meaningful when a story is #ownvoices, regardless of what the voice is.
Star: I couldn’t agree more! I was thinking about this again and the more I thought about it, the more I saw that the only F/F book (not even plural) that people were recommending was Leah on the Offbeat and it makes me sad because that is as far from #OwnVoices as you can get.
Sarah: Clancy of the Undertow by Christopher Currie was the first book I read and thought “Oh shit, this girl is me”. This teenage girl is teenage me. Her snarky self-loathing. Her failed attempts at F/F romance. I wanted to hug her and tell her we’d figure it out together.
What was the first book you saw yourself in?
Star: This is hard because I didn’t actually see myself in any books as a kid, but it was fanfiction I first saw myself really represented. Since then, I have been feeding my inner teenager with every single queer book I can literally get my hands on for that representation I so desperately craved as a teenager. The first F/F book I read, however, was Empress of the World by Sara Ryan. It still holds a dear place in my heart because it was my first ever F/F book.
Sarah: I’m hearing ya. And I’m thankful you were able to find a home for yourself in the fantastic world of Fan Fiction. I didn’t find any F/F until a was an “adult” and already married to a man. I often wonder about if in my teens I’d had access to the wonderfully queer books had I have access to now, how different my life may have turned out. I think that’s probably what drives us both to actively search out and promote queer books now. We want today’s teens to have the reads we didn’t.
Star: Absolutely! People who have representation in every single media form rarely stop to think about those that don’t, and it makes me sad. Because everyone deserves representation and to see themselves in a book, movie, tv show, etc.
Sarah: The Dyke word. I can remember you telling me about a book where the POV referred to herself as a Dyke and It wasn’t a positive reading experience. I was horrified when you told me. I think we can agree that we are fed up with derogatory bulls*** and want more positive examples for our teens.
What was the last book you read where the POV lesbian’s status was treated as a positive thing?
Star: My latest and most favourite book – These Witches Don’t Burn by Isabel Sterling. The MC identifies as lesbian and says on page “I’m a huge lesbian” and I’m like “YES, THIS IS ME!”. More often than not, books will use ‘gay’ and ‘queer’ and even the d-slur over actually using ‘lesbian’. Because apparently “lesbian” is a porn category for men, not a sexuality that actually, you know, pertains to women who love other women.
Sarah: The lesbian word. We’ve spoken before about how meaningful it is for you when a character calls themselves a lesbian and it’s a positive thing and I’m with ya!
Do you think the publishing industry is heading in the right direction, are we seeing more positive examples rather than negatives these days? Because there certainly was a time when all queer stories had sad endings (which we know is bulls*** in the real world, queers can and do live happy meaningful lives).
Star: The fact that more queer books are existing is a huge step in the right direction, I think. There’s always going to be sad stories, because that is how life works, but there needs to be a bit of a better balance. I’m sick of lesbians and F/F ending up dead, dying painfully, cheating on their boyfriends (to only go back to being with a guy because god forbid being bisexual actually exists, too!). There are so many ways that F/F can have happy endings, just like all the heterosexual books that are out there. Give me 500 years’ worth of cute contemporary F/F books (and LGBT+ books on the whole) like there has been for heterosexuals. No trope is too tired when it comes to it being re-imagined with an LGBT+ protagonist.
Sarah: Here Here. Agreed. Bring them all on. I think this is the perfect time to drop a list of YA F/F books for you to check out. It is by no means all the books that are out there. It’s a list of F/F I’ve either read or are planning to read. If you’ve got any favorites that I’ve somehow missed. Please let us know what they are below.
Blog Tour: Kindred: 12 Queer Stories #Loveozya - Guest Review and Interview from Amy
We are opening up our blog today from a Guest Review and Interview from Amy. Hope you enjoy her thoughts- Tash
Hey! I am super grateful to be a part of this tour with the
release of Kindred: 12 Queer #LoveOzYA Stories and I’d like to start off by
saying a massive massive thank you to Walker Books Australia and
AusYABloggers for sending me a copy of the book and allowing me to share my
thoughts. I’ve also had the delightful privilege of interviewing Erin Gough,
which you can find after my review.
About the book...
What does it mean to be queer? What does it mean to be human? In this powerful #LoveOzYA collection, twelve of Australia’s finest writers from the LGBTQ+ community explore the stories of family, friends, lovers and strangers – the connections that form us.This inclusive and intersectional #OwnVoices anthology for teen readers features work from writers of diverse genders, sexualities and identities, including writers who identify as First Nations, people of colour or disabled. With short stories by bestsellers, award winners and newcomers to young adult fiction including Jax Jacki Brown, Claire G Coleman, Michael Earp, Alison Evans, Erin Gough, Benjamin Law, Omar Sakr, Christos Tsiolkas, Ellen van Neerven, Marlee Jane Ward, Jen Wilde and Nevo Zisin.
Includes a foreword by anthology editor Michael Earp, resources for queer teens, contributor bios and information about the #LoveOzYA movement.
View Kindred on Goodreads | Walker Books Australia
Purchase Links
If you purchase Kindred from The Little Bookroom you can have it signed By Michael Earp. All You have to do is mention in the order notes that you followed the Kindred Tour and would like your copy signed by Michael.
This is a book for queer youth to know that they are not alone in
their experiences, that these incredible and diverse set of authors have lived
these queer lives and understand themselves and their experiences so much so
that they are able to articulate this understanding beautifully and capture it
in stories such as the twelve wonderful short stories in this anthology. We
read to know we are not alone, and to read a book like this instantly validates
experiences outside of the usual cishet bubble. As lovely as this tour it, I really
hope that this book finds itself in the hands of the kids who need it and for
them to know that it’s okay.
This book was wonderfully diverse and not just with a variety of
queer identities, but also featured disabled and First Nations authors and characters.
In the same way I feel validated by reading about the gay stuff, I know that
this extra level of inclusivity will mean worlds for the young people in those
situations.
I enjoyed certain stories more than others, which I think is fair when
reading an anthology like this with such a diverse set of very unique and
really very quite different stories. From dystopian worlds to first
interactions with crushes, relationships with family to magical quests, there
is a story in here for everyone. I think my personal favourites would have to
be Jen Wilde’s “Waiting”, Marlee Jane Ward’s “Rats”, Michael Earp’s “Bitter
Draught” and of course, Erin Gough’s “In Case of Emergency, Break Glass”.
Please make sure to check out the other stops on this tour with
plenty more in depth reviews and interviews by going here!
Interview with Erin Gough
Without further ado, I’d like to share my interview with the every
lovely Erin Gough. I am absolutely obsessed with her second novel, Amelia
Westlake, and adore her works, so this interview was particularly exciting.
This interview was completed before I had received the book,
however I had the absolute pleasure of meeting Erin at the Kindred launch in Melbourne
to say hello. Even as I got stuck behind the tables and had to rush off quickly
afterwards – heaven forbid we miss our train home (spoiler: we didn’t) – she
was very kind and welcoming.
Before I
get too into it, I thought I’d start off with some simpler easy questions first
just to let you warm up a little.
Yes or no
- Pineapple on pizza?
Yes. Bring it.
Do you
have a favourite word?
‘Agile’ is my current favourite. I am
definitely overusing it in my writing at the moment.
If you
could only ever listen to one artist for the rest of your life, what would it
be?
Nina Simone.
Alright
too easy (I hope?). I think that's enough of a warm up, here's some questions
that perhaps may require a bit more brainpower.
Exploring
and defining your identity can be a difficult process on its own without the
extra hurdles that can come along with being queer - such as potential mental
and internal struggles, or challenges from the world around you. How did you
navigate (or perhaps still are navigating) this process of exploring your queer
identity?
It was hard. It’s still hard at times,
but it’s a lot easier than it was when I was a teen. I was in denial for a long
time about my sexuality. I didn’t know any lesbians. I grew up in a fairly
religious community and being gay was not a legitimate identity in that
community. Even though I suspected I was a lesbian, I told myself it was just
that I hadn’t met the right boy yet. I decided I had to date a few boys to be
sure, which I did. Then I kissed a girl. It changed everything. I was at
university and living out of home by then, which made it a lot easier to
explore who I was. I don’t think I could have done that had I been living with
my parents.
And to
follow on from that, how do you identify?
As a cis lesbian.
And of
course, queer identities also generally have the extra element of them with
regards to coming out. How was your coming out experience?
It was pretty hard. I was 24. I waited
until I was living overseas to phone my parents. They were really upset and
said some hurtful things. When I came home a few months later I had a hard time
adjusting to being out. My friends were amazing, which helped. Some of them
knew already. My girlfriend and her family were incredibly supportive. I also had
some counselling, which was exactly what I needed. And I took up kickboxing,
which was awesome! I pounded a lot of anger into those punching bags.
What (or
who?) inspired the short story you contributed to Kindred?
The story is partly inspired by my own
experience of dating boys when I was in my late teens and early twenties and
trying to make it work. And then meeting someone who changed everything. That’s
what my protagonist, Amy, experiences. She meets this girl – in a hall
cupboard, of all places – and it is so life changing that the dead rise up, the
world floods, and people start speaking in rhyme. These surreal elements of the
story are a departure from my usual approach. I wanted to convey how incredible
it is to finally be with someone you’re attracted to, after denying that part
of yourself for so long.
Apart from
your own story, which is your favourite story from Kindred and why?
Marlee Jane Ward’s ‘Rats’ is amazing.
The voices of her characters are so strong, the language she uses to tell her
story is poetry, and her narrative had me on the edge of my seat.
And
finally, do you have any words of wisdom for young queer Aussie teens?
Be proud of who you are, because you
ought to be.
Kindred Tour
Walker Books Australia, together with Michael Earp and the #AusYABloggers are celebrating the release of the Kindred: 12 Queer #LoveOzYA Stories anthology. This is an #ownvoices tour featuring queer creators, bloggers, instagrammers, reviewers and youtubers from Australia and New Zealand, celebrating pride month with the release of Kindred.
Follow The Tour Below
About the book...
What does it mean to be queer? What does it mean to be human? In this powerful #LoveOzYA collection, twelve of Australia’s finest writers from the LGBTQ+ community explore the stories of family, friends, lovers and strangers – the connections that form us.This inclusive and intersectional #OwnVoices anthology for teen readers features work from writers of diverse genders, sexualities and identities, including writers who identify as First Nations, people of colour or disabled. With short stories by bestsellers, award winners and newcomers to young adult fiction including Jax Jacki Brown, Claire G Coleman, Michael Earp, Alison Evans, Erin Gough, Benjamin Law, Omar Sakr, Christos Tsiolkas, Ellen van Neerven, Marlee Jane Ward, Jen Wilde and Nevo Zisin.
Includes a foreword by anthology editor Michael Earp, resources for queer teens, contributor bios and information about the #LoveOzYA movement.
View Kindred on Goodreads | Walker Books Australia
Purchase Links
If you purchase Kindred from The Little Bookroom you can have it signed By Michael Earp. All You have to do is mention in the order notes that you followed the Kindred Tour and would like your copy signed by Michael.
For people looking to find a bookshop near them: Find A Bookshop.
Hashtags to check out and keep an eye on even after the tour is over:
#KindredStories #AusYaBloggers #AusQueerYA #LoveOZYA #OwnVoices
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