New Website

Please click here to be redirected to my new website. www.belindajeffrey.com

Alain de Botton – The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work 1.6

The truly lovely Alain de Botton talking about his latest book at the Queensland Irish Club, Brisbane, 22 April 2009. This event was presented by Brisbane’s Better Bookshops and we would like to th…

more about "Alain de Botton – The Pleasures and S…", posted with vodpod

Out with the Old…

This should be my last post from this particular website. You’ll still be able to find me at www.belindajeffrey.com but it will soon take you to something a little spunkier (yes, I’m an 80’s girl) than this site. I have been spending days and nights expanding my mind to the new possibilities of website presence. I have sworn, laughed – almost cried – and pumped the air when I managed to get things to work. I’m happy with the new look and hope you will be too. Only thing is I’ll need you all to re-subscribe to continue to receive my blog posts…but you all will, right?

Here’s a sneak peak.

All you have to do is sometime over the next few days click onto my site, scroll down till you find the subscribe icon on the left, click it and sign up for email or RSS feed. You’ll be able to sign up to follow me on facebook, twitter, linked in, dig it, delicious, you tube and flickr.

Cheers from the old site. No, I’ll not miss her, though she has been good to me.

B

Brown skin

For those of you who’ve read Brown Skin Blue you’ll know that my main character, Barry, has dark skin. His mother is white and, not knowing the identity of his father, wonders where he comes from.

Barry and I share this mystery of our cultural origins. I have dark skin, my son’s skin is even darker, and I have only stories passed down from my father and aunties about where our dark blood comes from. But today I received this photograph from my grandmother on my mother’s side. She is the baby in the picture, sitting on her mother’s knee. Is it just me or does this woman look dark, too! My grandmother said she had always suspected, but growing up under the White Australia policy makes you tune out to those suspicions.

I’ve always had a nagging, burning question deep inside me. I’ve been the one in my family to wonder and ask and scratch at the surface about where we’ve come from. I’m beginning to think I should dig a little deeper, push a little harder.

Sneak Peak

Here’s the opening paragraph of my new book.

When Tom was grown he would say he had been born three times.

Once to his mother, once to his Pa, and last to the river.

Like he couldn’t make it in life until he’d earnt each piece of himself.

One letter at a time.

Belinda Jeffrey does bake cakes.

The fist day I started my BBB job, I went into Coaldrake’s and introduced myself to the girls at the counter. They apologiesed for not having me in sooner to do a signing.

That’s alright, I replied, I
haven’t got my book out yet.

They were, of course, confusing me with Belinda Jeffreys the cook, former host of Better Homes and Gardens.

This was not to be the last time.

When I got off the Q150 train in Cloncurry – where there was, finally, espresso, a woman came up to me and said,

I couldn’t work out why they were sending that Mix and Bake lady. I’m glad they sent you.

And apparantly someone called a bookstore asking about the fiction book that the Mix and Bake lady has written.

But, alas, I am not her, and she is not me. I am also not the clairol colour stylist either. But I do make a mean chocolate cake and colour my hair. And I am open to hosting anything on television so long as it doesn’t involve sport. And if my publicist gets a call asking whether Miss Mix and Bake would like to do Dancing With The Stars, she will say ‘yes’ and we can explain the mix up after I win.

Not me

Tim Winton, Miles Franklin, Parallel Importation

Check out the video of Tim Winton accepting his Miles Franklin award. He uses the opportunity to advocate for the preservation of Australian publishing and culture. The video link is here on my site. What do you think? Leave a comment.

Crocodile story

I’ve got a new section on my website called VODPOD where I’ll be posting any interesting snippets of video I find. I’m collecting crocodile stories for the sequel to Brown SKin Blue, so if you find any good links, send them my way. Oh, and you can also click on the share buttons at the end of my posts and link the content to your twitter, facebook, diggit, delicious – or any other strange brand of social media you have. And if you belong to any of these networks, hook me up!

Radio National

It’s been a strange and wonderful month. My book is out there in the world – selling, I hope – and I’ve had some great reviews. I’m re-writing another manuscript at the moment and glimpsing the possiblity of a complete story, the way it was meant to be told. Quite the most enjoyable sensation. Ideas are great endorphins.

I’m doing a radio interview on Radio National’s Life Matters Tomorrow morning. Monday 13th July at 9:30am. If you’re free, tune in and listen as I try to be interesting and coherent (yes, I’m a little nervous).

And finally, some pictures of my book launch. If you were there, thanks so much for braving the cold and being a part of it. I managed to break the Avid Reader sales record for this year which is not a bad way to kick of the journey of Brown Skin Blue. Thanks to the fabulous team at Avid Reader and, especially, Krissy Kneen and the fabulous Nick Earls.