Mar 16

Mar 16 4 reasons why 2020 wasn't a disaster

Amazingly, it wasn’t all bad news in 2020

In a year when almost everyone was dealing with one crisis after another, no one would be blamed for saying 2020 was a complete and utter disaster from start to finish.

I certainly didn’t have the best year personally. If it wasn’t one family member after another being admitted to hospital with life-threatening conditions and injuries, I was seriously challenged trying to cope with work demands and homeschooling primary schoolchildren, lockdown, anxiety about preventing COVID and all the rest of it.

Add to this the three-month hibernation most publishers went on, with people working from home, taking reduced pay and generally just trying to keep afloat, and 2020 looked like it was going to be truly awful for anything publishing and writing related.

But people were actually reading and buying books online, either of the print variety or ebooks. In fact, book sales were up, and by September, there was a terrific buzz in the industry about recovering from the disaster of lockdown and surviving COVID and all its implications.

And for me personally, I was kept flat chat with editing work, and as well as editing numerous wonderful novels, I got the incredible news of four authors I’d helped with development and editing, winning publishing deals for their fiction manuscripts.

Those Hamilton Sisters, Averil Kenny

From the moment I began reading this extraordinary debut novel by Averil Kenny, I knew that it was special. I didn’t just become immersed in this beautiful story, I completely fell under its spell and I had to abandon all attempts at editing in my first read because it was impossible.

Set in 1955, the story follows three sisters – Sonnet, Fable and little Novella Plum – who move to a small town in Queensland, Noah Vale, where they are immediately plagued by the terrible scandal that surrounded their mother two decades earlier.

Although they establish their lives in the town, suspicion and gossip follow them everywhere they go, and when Fable falls in love with Noah Vale’s golden boy, their scandalous history looks set to repeat itself.

This exceptionally beautiful novel will be released in April this year, and it really is a must-read.

The Piano Woman, Rozzi Bazzani

When I first read Rozzi’s manuscript, I knew there was something wonderful about it. It’s the story of an Australian writer, Maddison Browne, who has hit a roadblock with her writing and is recovering from a failed relationship, who inherits an antique piano from an English great-grandmother she didn’t know existed. In fact, until that point, she thought she had no family left at all, let alone an English connection.

The story then takes us on a journey of uncovering the truth about Maddison’s family history, and unearthing the secret that had torn it apart.

The Piano Woman was published in February this year, and is absolutely worthy of making your to-read list.

Susannah Hardy, Title to Come

I can’t tell you much about Susannah’s novel, because it’s with her publishers, Pan Macmillan, and publishing details are yet to be revealed, but I can tell you this: it’s gloriously fun and genuinely funny. So keep an eye out for Susannah’s book.

Kylie Orr, Title to Come

Likewise with Kylie’s novel, which is currently with her publishers, HarperCollins, and the title and publishing deets are to come. What I can say is that it’s a riveting, page-turning read, so definitely make a note of it for your reading list.