A Writer Afoot » tasmania

1 day till THE SECRET OF EVERYTHING arrives in stores

Barbara Samuel — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 18:19:05 +0000

Not long now!

I get so excited when it gets so close. I’ve known Tessa and Sam (oh, you will love her father!) and Vince and Natalie (darling, troubled Natalie) for more than two years. Very happy for you to be able to finally meet them.

Here’s my favorite review of the week, from the B&N.com website:

“December 21, 2009: The Secret of Everything is a beautiful story about love and family, good food and gorgeous landscape, faithful dogs and a mysterious town. Tessa is a hiking tour guide who is recovering from a traumatic, near drowning experience. As she recovers strange memories from her mysterious childhood begin to surface. She sets out for Los Ladrones, the small town in New Mexico where she was born, in an attempt to uncover the truth.

“What a gorgeous book! The strength here is in the real, down to earth characters. I just fell in love with them and then became so wrapped up in their stories I couldn’t put the book down. The detailed descriptions of New Mexican landscape, its ferocious storms, and the enticing food are icing on the cake. The plot is unique enough to be interesting and only requires a little suspension of belief. Barbara O’Neal writes the kind of captivating novels that keep me up late at night turning pages. I will anxiously await her next one!”

Alchemy

Barbara Samuel — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 03:59:58 +0000

I’ve had the flu all week, my annual pre-spring collapse, which seems to be brought on by the blustery winds and fires and my longing for March snows. Instead of writing, as I planned, I’ve been curled up in my bed, watching movies and reading books. One of the things I’m reading is Geraldine Brooks’ PEOPLE OF THE BOOK, which is every bit as marvelous as THE YEAR OF WONDERS. The funny thing is, I discovered Brooks while in Australia last August, and took THE YEAR OF WONDERS with me to on the plane to Tasmania. Tonight, reading around her site, I found this:

Not long after my son was born, I sat down to try to write my first novel. It was to have been set in Tasmania, amid the wild temperate rain forests of Australia’s southernmost state. Instead, I found myself writing about Derbyshire. The fictional voices in my head were English voices, and they kept shouting the Australians down. There was a story that had intrigued me for years, of a village that voluntarily quarantined itself to stop the spread of bubonic plague. It was this tale, rather than the Australian one, that most wanted to be told. When I gave in to the impulse and started to write, it came to me so much more readily than the Tasmanian story. The bright shards of Dryden and Pepys, the vast swathes of Shakespeare lodged in my memory, made it easy to hear the cadences, the rhythms, to know the meanings of archaic words without even looking them up.

Which I thought was just kind of funny and lovely. Currently, I’m writing a protagonist who wandered far away around the world and landed for a long stretch in Tasmania, because it so captured me when I was there, even more than I expected.

Funny how material goes in, and how it emerges into the work. Alchemy.

Tasmanian Devils

Barbara Samuel — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 05:24:40 +0000

P1000710

Originally uploaded by A writer afoot

Since I can’t figure out any other way to do it, and I’m stuck waiting for a plane out of Ayers Rock, here’s the photo that should go with the Devils post.

Darling little devils

Barbara Samuel — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 10:35:28 +0000

One more note on Tassie: we saw the famed Tasmanian Devils. Check out these adorable little faces:

They were waiting for lunch, which was hunks of wallabee (fur still attached) and furry little baby chickens. Watching them eat, you suddenly understand the Walt Disney Tasmanian Devil, swirling around in that whirlwind, all flying spit and no brain to speak of. Savage and not all that bright.

But still. Really cute. And endangered, thanks to a virus that has infected 90% of the population. They’re working on keeping one section of population uninfected, and will repopulate when the infected Devils die out.

Journeying inward

Barbara Samuel — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 21:48:58 +0000

I’ve crept out out of the hotel room, leaving behind my sleeping roommates, and am writing this from the lobby of the Hobart Quest Hotel. Last night, we sought out the Lark Distillery, where we sampled the local specialties, some whiskey for the others and a taste of the pepperberry (?) liquor, which one of the guides on the hike yesterday recommended. He gave us all a leaf to sample, sweetly peppery and pleasant (also tiny red mountain berries, which tasted like the smallest apple in the world). I tried an alcoholic ginger beer, which didn’t taste appreciably different from the regular, and we played cards. Rummy, for which we had three different forms of rules (imagine that! A Brit, an American, and an Australian) and listened to the Celtic band that set up. A good time all around. You can also play bolles on the lawn, if you’re so inclined.

We travel to see who we are as much as to see the world. Hiking in the dark-and-light day yesterday, I was as peaceful as it is possible to be, my feet on the trail, my pack filled with heavier clothes and water and some rations, just in case. A knowledgable pair of guides who spend their lives outside, who know what the bushes are, and the berries and the age of the trees. A couple out of Melbourne, just in Tassie for the weekend, trying on lives to see where they might fit.

Sometimes I forget I am not in America, and then I’ll hear the cadence of voices around me and think peacefully, “oh, yes, this is Australia.”

Where is the writing in all this? This morning, I noted that I feel like there is fresh lava moving in me, deep and rich and hot, full of power. But I think it’s more like the growing forest, full of new birds and plants I’ve never seen before and 800 varieties of trees that offer oxygen to the skies.

We are headed for Uluru in the morning. Talk about contrast!

Still working on those photos. And I realize I haven’t blogged about the conference at all, which was absolutely wonderful.

Red boat

Barbara Samuel — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 06:51:15 +0000

Back from the hike, and I think I might finally have figured out how to upload photos, though not how to edit the size. So here is one I took last evening:

Most of the photos are still on my camera, but I’ll be adding them to Flickr as we go.