The Melbourne winter seemed to hit colder and faster this year and we explored ways to stay warm without breaking the bank. Living in a mostly gas-powered home, we are trying to minimise our use and our carbon footprint which is very hard to do. We purchased an electric throw rug which, for $65 is worth every cent. The throw rug by Jason (as pictured above) heats up quickly and is ideal to drape over two people on the couch. It is machine washable, turns off by itself in case you forget, and feels very plush. No need to have the gas central heating on and it’s a fraction of our electricity bills. Jason is life-changing (in winter anyway), and I don’t know how we lived without it. Get one if you can.

Theatre: The Sound Inside

I was fortunate enough to attend the play, The Sound Inside by the Melbourne Theatre Company written by Adam Rapp.

Yale student, Christopher turns up uninvited to the office of his creative writing professor, Bella Baird. She is a published writer and he, an author wannabe. The two are lonely and mismatched but Christopher’s earnestness and persistence breaks down Bella’s barriers and the two strike an unexpected friendship until a life-changing dilemma is thrown into their connection.

The play was unexpectedly riveting despite the chunks of monologue by Bella who often spoke to the audience about her friend despite he being right there. This in itself was an interesting method employed by the playwright although somewhat taking the audience away from the story. That aside, the acting was superb, the story compelling and thoroughly enjoyable. Highly recommended.

Author Talk

I attended a fabulous event hosted by one of my favourite authors, Lyn Yeowart who wrote The Silent Listener (see my earlier review). The event was held at Robinson’s Books in Glen Waverley. Lyn was in conversation with another Australian crime writer, Rae Cairns. The discussion was riveting and entertaining. Having just finished Rae’s debut novel, The Good Mother it was really interesting to hear how she came to write it by drawing on her years as a youth worker in Ireland in the mid-90’s during “The Troubles”. Watch out of my review in the next couple of weeks.

Reading.

I should have increased this months reading but Crossroads is a meaty novel, equivalent to at least two short ones. That’s my excuse anyway. Watch out for my forthcoming reviews on these two during July.

Writing

My novel The Palace Hotel is due to come back shortly with lots of great feedback from my beta readers. So I’ll be polishing, enhancing and playing with my new novel in July.

Until next month…