What strange creatures we are.

My deadline is looming. By the 20th of February I have to have furnished my lovely publisher with the manuscript for Containment. That is only 26 days away.

It is school holidays, the kids are home, I've had guests to stay, the house looks like a bombsite, courtesy of my resolution to avoid housework. That resolution has driven home the realisation that if I don't do it - no one else does. Bum. I've been working frantically in snatches between the lovely demands of being Mum and host and wife and sister and friend and everything and by rights I should be freaking out about now!

But I'm not.

The freaking out sensation has been replaced by excitement.

I find myself excited by the prospect of racing towards a target, that this novel which has been, to be honest, a struggle for me is finally coming together, forming into a cohesive whole. And if I was going to be completely honest, I'd have to say I'm going to thrilled when this one is over and I can get cracking on the next one which is banging around in my head and demanding my attention more and more and I've had to say, no, get back you buzzard, wait until I've finished the other book before you take over my life.

Sometimes I think I'm a strange little critter. Maybe I'm the type of person who needs pressure to be able to really crack on and get the job done. That might explain why I let my life get rather full. What ever the reason, I find myself reveling in the fact this date is looming and I'm busy as hell, and working my butt off and still have a heap to do, and I wouldn't swap it for the world.

Odd crime bits from the news

There's the dumb and the plain unlucky in these little snippets from the news:

If you're going to lie, do it properly :

A teenager caught shoplifting decided to give a fake address to the police. Didn't quite work out as planned.

Thief caught out giving policeman's address.


This kid's a sitter for a career in law enforcement:

Little Mr Eleven-month-old had been playing with the telephone and accidently rang 111. When the police arrived, they found a little bit more than a cute toddler.

Baby dobs in dad's dope crop

Is she back from the dead?

Patricia Cornwell was one of the writers who fueled my love of crime fiction. It started with her first book, Post Mortem, way back in 1990. I had a science background, with a degree in Pharmacy and was fascinated by the science behind the forensics, this book combined all the things I loved and characters who captured my imagination. I was faithful in buying each new Scarpetta title for quite some time before I eventually grew to feel she was beginning to lose her edge and my interest wavered.

A while back I decided to give her another shot and read Predator, and was quite disappointed. That book seemed to confirm my belief Cornwell had become tired with Kay Scarpetta et al.

But lately I seem to have had all these comments from people, have you read the latest Scarpetta? It's great, she's back to her best. And when my publisher was busy gushing about it when we were chatting on the phone, and saying I must read it, I thought, hmmm maybe I'll have another shot at her after all.


It just so happened I was in the University Book Shop today (go figure) and I just so happened to see a copy of Patricia Cornwell's Book of the Dead, and it just so happened to jump into my hand and find its way, with my wallet to the counter. I just so happen to find myself feeling quite excited by the idea Patricial Cornwell is back to her best. In fact I'd give a big three cheers and a good on ya, gal to her if I find the book unputdownable.


I'll give you my post mortem of it later...


A post script - I'm now thinking did I buy the right book, or was it Scarpetta everyone was talking about?! Do I have to go and buy another?

Buried treasure

I have mentioned several times previously my tendency to accumulate piles of cra.... I mean stuff that I'm not sure where to file, or what to do with, but cannot under any circumstances bring myself to throw out.

I went looking through one such pile, and found this book, which I had forgotten I'd purchased. Out of sight out of mind, as they say.


Hard Cases by Bryan Bruce.

This is a true crime book looking into some of New Zealand's most notorious murder cases including the David Tamahere case, the Thomas murders, and the murder of Kirsty Bently, amongst others. Bryan Bruce created the television series The Investigator, and I presume this book is a follow up to that series.

Now I have rediscovered this acquisition I look forward to having a good read. There are plenty of photographs to accompany the text, and the peeks I've had look interesting.

Hopefully I'll discover a few more, ahem, forgotten purchases buried in other piles around the house.

Retail therapy - the sequel

My name is Vanda - I am a stationery-o-holic.

Today I fell off the wagon.

I looooove back to school stationery time. When the retailers have price wars and you can pick up your year's worth of goodies for ridiculously little dosh, I enjoy doing a stationery crawl around the town. In fact, I'm sure we pay less now than when I was a kid at school. I can remember my mum shuddering each year when the stationery requirements list came home from school, and her wondering which body organ she'd need to sell to fund it. I can even recall the horror at a $14.00 school stationery bill from high school. I could get a heck of a lot for that now.

Amongst today's purchases were ten of those large manilla art folios. I need them to tame the piles of newspaper clippings and magazine articles that have been accumulating. What do other people do to restore order to their newspaper articles? If anyone has some handy hints on coping with them all, please enlighten me!

I also got a cool lava lamp ruler, because every girl needs one of them.

Retail therapy

Christmas book vouchers + University Book Shop = Happy Vanda

Two new titles added to the bedside table high rise sculpture today are:



The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson

Bookman Beattie and others keep telling me I must read this, so I shall be obedient for once in my life. I have read so many great reviews, and being the type of gal who is easily swayed by popular opinion, I felt it my duty to read it and form my own view.





The Janissary Tree, by Jason Goodwin

This title has been lurking in my Books of Interest notebook (a black notebook with a stylish paua shell koru inlay) I spotted it on the shelf and it kind of jumped into my hand.

I had wanted to get Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith, so I could read it and see what a crime writer needs to do to get nominated for a Booker, but UBS were out of stock, so I've placed an order. I'll have to wait a bit before I can discover his secret.

Confessions of a slow reader

New year's resolutions are made to be broken. In fact the only New Year's resolution I've managed to keep so far is the one to stop doing housework - but even that's going to have to give sometime soon.

One of the vague generalisation resolutions I made was to try and read more this year. I read a lot, or so I thought until I tallied up my reading record (the one in the boring spiral bound grey school notebook) It fell far short of what I'd perceived to have read, and yeah, sure, it didn't take into account the short story collections I dip into but haven't read every single one so can't in all honesty write in as completed, or text books, or magazine and journal articles, but all the same, I was disappointed with my effort.

I think part of the problem is when it comes to reading, I am a savourer. I have friends who can polish off a novel in a day, no problem, but do admit to missing out on the intricacies of the language and the careful details. I envy them though, their ability to plough through their book lists and experience all those authors who I would love to read, but am realistic enough to know I will never make the time. I like to chew on the words, roll them around in my mouth and enjoy their flavour before swallowing and moving on to the next morsel.

So how does a savourer train herself to be a bit more of a gorger? I'm open to suggestions here!

My resolution to read more books is off to a shaky start. It's already half way through January and I have opened my first novel this morning. Yes folks, I have been through the entire summer holidays without even opening a book! Part of that was the need for a break, but also, most of the places we stayed at on our holiday didn't have bedside reading lights! I know, what were they thinking?!


This morning I finally opened and have started to read Joanne Drayton's Ngaio Marsh: Her life in Crime. I Brought this book in September, and it's been loitering on my bedside table since then, and finally reached the front of the queue.

I have a lot to read. There's the Ngaio Marsh novels from my Ngaio Marsh challenge. The books I read as research for the Write On radio show, books for reviewing on Dunedin Diary for Channel 9 television. Then there's the pile of books I brought last year and haven't got around to yet. (By the way, does anyone know the average stats for percentage of books actually read in any one person's library?)(Mine would be appalling.) Then there's those temptations you see in the shops and have an overwhelming need to possess, or the books reviewed on blogs that pique your curiousity, let alone the books that you think you should read to be a rounded reader, that everyone kindly refer to as classics.

Hmmmm.

So wish me luck in my quest to read more. I'm realistic enough to not put an actual number on my target, that's just setting yourself up for failure. But I would like to beat last year's 50ish. (The vagueness due to my belief I must surely have forgotten to record some titles.)

I shall endeavour to up my spead from snail to amble.