Coleen Kwan

The Marketing for Romance Writers group is holding two marketing classes.
How to Plan a Blog Tour on 31 March
Introduction to Triberr on 27 April

To attend these classes just join the MFRW yahoo group here.

I have to admit I picked this book purely because of the title and the cover, both of which intrigued me.

Misskaella Prout is a witch living on Rollrock Island. She has a special connection with the seals that visit the island. The other islanders shun her, but everything changes when the men realise she has the power to turn seals into humans, and not just any humans, but beautiful, bewitching women. Every man hungers to have one of these seal-women for himself, happy to pay whatever price the witch demands. Even married men desert their human wives and children, forgetting them as soon as they leave the island. Soon the island is inhabited only by the men and their sea-wives, and Misskaella, who grows ever richer.

But the sea-wives are unhappy. They long to return to the sea in their seal forms but cannot because their husbands have locked away their seal coats. The sea-wives bear the men children, but only the sons are kept. The daughters don’t thrive on the land and must be returned to the sea to be reared by the seals. The witch knits blankets out of sea weed, which the sea-wives use to comfort themselves. The sons collect sea hearts, their mams’ favourite food from the sea. Eventually the unhappiness of the sea-wives grows too much, and everyone must pay the price.

Ms Lanagan’s writing is lush and evocative, and the images her prose conjured were powerful and haunting. Unfortunately I didn’t enjoy the story as much. This was such a dark and disturbing tale with a rather uncomfortable subtext. I really felt for the unhappy and lamenting sea-wives. Their trapped existence moved me, but at times I wished they would be more proactive. The husbands, although they are enchanted by their wives, don’t seem too bothered by their growing unhappiness, and ultimately it is left to the boys of these sea-wives to act on their behalf.

Although this wasn’t a story for me, I was impressed by Ms Lanagan’s skill in telling it. Readers who like dark, fractured fairytales will enjoy this book.

I've recently received the gorgeous cover for my June release Asher's Invention:

And in other news, I've sold a contemporary romance to Entangled Publishing's Indulgence line. No release date as yet, but I'm pretty happy.

I'm over at Maggie Nash's blog today talking about book buying habits. Click here to read it.

Thanks, Maggie!

Show, don't tell. I'm constantly struggling with this one, but movies can often provide good examples of how to show without telling.

Recently I watched Crazy, Stupid, Love, and right near the beginning of the film is a scene of a teenager babysitting a girl. The teenager mucks about with the girl, chasing her around the living room, where the girl accidently knocks over a framed photo. There's the sound of glass breaking. The teenager tells the girl never mind, she'll look after it, and the girl bounces off. Alone, the teenager picks up the photo. It's a picture of the married couple she's babysitting for, and the glass has splintered down the middle. Slowly, the teenager slides her hand across the glass to cover up the wife's image.

It's a really short scene, but it shows so much:

• The  teenager isn't too grown up; she's still just a big kid
• She has a crush on the dad
• She's rather sweet and naive

And of course the splintering of the glass down the middle of the photo echoes the previous scene where the married couple are having one of those awful 'date night' dinners where they have absolutely nothing to talk about.

In fact during this dinner the wife (Julianne Moore) tells her husband (Steve Carell) she wants a divorce. The audience doesn't see this bombshell being dropped. All we see is the couple driving home after the dinner and the husband choosing to roll out of a moving car rather than talk to his wife about their marital problems.

Those opening scenes are so cleverly done. I loved the movie (though I have no idea why there's an extra comma in the title).

Today I'm reposting a great infographic from copyblogger's post 22 Ways to Create Compelling Content When You Don't Have A Clue


Like this infographic? Get more content marketing tips from Copyblogger.

My fourth review for the 2012 Australian Women Writers Challenge:


Reading this book was like drinking a mug of cocoa in the depths of winter — warm, cosy, and satisfying. Elm Tree Road is the second book in the series which started with Cherry Tree Lane. It’s the kind of English historical saga I used to devour as a teenager. ETR is the story of Nell, the second of three sisters who are forced to run away from home because of their brutal father. Nell is pregnant by her lover, Cliff, and they plan to run away up north and get married. Renie, Nell’s younger sister, is going with them, but Mattie, the eldest sister, must somehow fend for herself.

So Nell finds herself moving far away from her hometown to Lancashire and married to a man who becomes less lover-like with each passing day. Alone, isolated, and impoverished because of her husband’s niggardliness, Nell endures her hardships, hoping better times will come for her and her family. Set in the 1910s, this story reminds us of the limitations upon women’s lives even at a time when technology was increasingly changing society. Nell is a product of her times. Even though she’s experienced the sharp end of women’s lack of autonomy, Nell herself says of running a house — “That’s a woman’s main job.” But when forced to she’s also capable of defending herself, showing her determination not to be cowed by any man after the harsh treatment of her father.

Nell endures hardships and tragedies with stoic endurance. When she does something illegal (but perfectly understandable) at the midpoint of the story, I kept waiting for some kind of punishment to fall on her, but it never does (or maybe it will in a later book).

I read this book very quickly because of its indefinable page-turning quality. This is an engrossing, heart-warming story which I’m sure will please Ms Jacobs’ legions of fans.

Note: It isn’t necessary to read Cherry Tree Lane first. I didn’t, and still enjoyed Elm Tree Road.