February
Although I don’t know Fiona Wood, I did meet her briefly in the Queenscliff bookshop a couple of years ago. We’d both taken part in National Bookshop day where the lovely former owner Marylou had invited various local authors along for guest spots…we didn’t meet many fans but we met each other! So often the way at these sorts of things. So I’ve just looked up Fiona’s bio and discovered we have quite a lot in common – both studied screenwriting at RMIT, both studied law (ergh!) and have both tried our hand at freelance journalism.
Fiona Wood
Cloudwish is her third YA novel and I’m looking forward to reading it, partly because it won the CBCA award for best YA last year. But mostly because it features a Vietnamese character and I’m keen to see how she’s incorporated this ‘diversity’ into her fiction while obviously not being Vietnamese. It’s kind of the elephant in the room for writers these days because publishers are so keen on ‘diverse voices’ and yet so many of us are white, middle-aged women. Anyway, I’m curious and that’s always a good thing, right?
But by the by of nothing, I just read a YA novel for book group called The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson which was kind of a grief love-triangle. It was much better than that sounds. I loved it. But I know at least one other book groupie was er, not so keen (yes, I’m outing you Kate Constable) so looking forward to a fiery discussion when we meet again on Tuesday 
