Amra Pajalic
  • Home
    • Blog
    • About Me >
      • My Newsletter
      • Press Kit >
        • Alma's Loyalty Media Kit
        • Sabiha's Dilemma Media Kit
        • The Climb Media Kit
        • The Cuckoo's Song Media Kit
      • Articles
      • Book Me >
        • Aspiring writers >
          • Six things writers should do
          • Young Adult Books
          • Writing tips for young people
      • News & Events
      • Za Bosance
      • Resources for Teachers >
        • Remote Learning >
          • Narrative Writing
          • Poetry Writing
          • Fun activities
          • Spelling activities
    • My Books >
      • Young Adult >
        • Cuckoos Song
        • Sassy Saints Series >
          • Sabiha's Dilemma >
            • The Good Daughter
          • Alma's Loyalty
          • Jesse's Triumph
        • The Climb
      • Memoir >
        • Things Nobody Knows But Me
        • Growing up Muslim in Australia
        • Meet Me at the Intersection
        • Rebellious Daughters
      • Romance >
        • Return to Me
        • Hollywood Dreams
      • Dark Fiction Horror >
        • WomanOnTheEdgeShortStory
    • Contact
    • Pishukin Press
    • Grant Writing Course

Writing progress on my WIP-Silver City

28/9/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
The past month or so I haven't been able to do much writing. Was feeling very tired, had a few viruses and some emotional trauma that really ground me down. School holidays have been a much needed oasis to recalibrate and get back to my writing life.

I have been working on a novel for the second year now. The working title is Silver City and it is about a 14 year-old girl and her life in the city of Srebrenica during the Balkan War.

I have written about 10 chapters that were synthesising the research I had undertaken reading first-person accounts from Srebrenica. Each chapter was in a sense stand-alone, with no continuity. Character names were changing, character arcs were changing. I was getting to the point where I had no clarity about what I had written and what I needed to write.

It was time to take stock. I paused with writing and wrote a synopsis, figuring out the story arc and what I was aiming for. I have been using this resource to write a synopsis and have found it so helpful with all of my books. 

Now for the hard part: to go back to the beginning and undertake revision, joining this chapters into a narrative that read like a book. 

This is what I've been doing for the past week. Every day I have been revising for two hours or more. Today I finished revising chapter 6. So I now have six chapters, a proper extract that is readable like a book. Total word count so far is 29,010.

I'm feeling quite content with my progress so far. Hopefully in the second week of holidays I’ll complete revision for all the chapters I have and then can focus on finishing my draft.

I'm feeling such a sense of relief and accomplishment at my progress.

If you're wondering what my novel is about here's a blurb:
"Seka Torlak is like any other regular 14 year-old-girl: she has her first crush, falls in love, and struggles with making new friends after her best friend moves away. What makes her unique is it all happens during the Balkan War while her city of Srebrenica is under siege and she faces starvation, shelling, and sniper attacks."

And if you want to read some an an extract of my work in progress published in The Bronzeville Bee click here. 

0 Comments

What I've been reading: The Surprising Power of a Good Dumpling by Wai Chim

10/9/2019

0 Comments

 
The Surprising Power of a Good DumplingThe Surprising Power of a Good Dumpling by Wai Chim
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a beautiful novel that explores the reality of being a young adult with migrant parents and cultural bias about mental illness. Anna knows that something is not right with her Mum. She lies in bed for weeks at a time and experiences uncontrollable rage at others, but Anna has no words to deal with it. She struggles to be a good sister to her younger siblings and a good daughter, not leaving much time to be herself. When she meets Rory she gets an inkling of what a regular teenage life is like but as her mother's condition worsens all is put under threat.

Chim writes so beautifully about the reality of being caught between two cultures as Anna tries to be the good daughter and sister, and the misunderstandings of mental illness in migrant communities. The shame and embarrassment that makes it a taboo subject and means that treatment is harder to come by.

Chim doesn't take the easy way out in displaying the reality of mental illness and its toll on the sufferer and the family. The last pages of this book made me cry. I absolutely adore this book and it is such a great addition to the loveozya cannon. It needs to be taught in schools to demystify mental illness and open up conversations with young people.

I also love the way she depicts relationships between young people and validates the relationship between Rory and Anna as real and true. Rory is a beautiful character and their love story was so tender and heart-felt. But where this book shines the most is in the way she writes about families and she has created such real characters in Baba, Anna's father who is working so hard to provide for his family, Lily-her younger sister who is so smart and full of ambition, and her younger artistic-loving brother Michael. Their struggles and interactions ring so true, there is so much love, even when there is so much pain. A beautiful book and a spellbinding read.

View all my reviews
0 Comments

Things Praise

2/9/2019

0 Comments

 
It's been four months since the publication of my memoir Things Nobody Knows But Me. Writing this book was my life's work, getting it published was my legacy, and honouring my mother's life as a Bi Polar sufferer was my dream. Taking a moment to reflect on the amazing reception this book has received, which is even sweeter in light of the fact that this baby clocked up five rejections before finding a publisher. Living out my motto "try, try, try again."
Picture
0 Comments

    Author

    Amra Pajalić is an award-winning author, an editor and teacher who draws on her Bosnian cultural heritage to write own voices stories for young people, who like her, are searching to mediate their identity and take pride in their diverse culture. She writes memoir, young adult and romance under the pen name Mae Archer.

    Remote Learning
    Sign up and receive free books.
    Picture

    Subscribe to My Newsletter

    * indicates required

    Twitter feed

    Tweets by @AmraPajalic
    Follow Amra's board On Teaching on Pinterest.
    Follow Amra's board Memoir Blog Post series on Pinterest.

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    October 2021
    August 2021
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    September 2018
    April 2018
    October 2017
    August 2017
    March 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    June 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    December 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    Author Feature
    Book Review
    Essay
    Memoir
    My Life
    My News
    Pishukin Press
    Plugs
    Poetry
    Publication
    Publishing
    Teaching
    Writing

Copyright Amra Pajalic 2023
  • Home
    • Blog
    • About Me >
      • My Newsletter
      • Press Kit >
        • Alma's Loyalty Media Kit
        • Sabiha's Dilemma Media Kit
        • The Climb Media Kit
        • The Cuckoo's Song Media Kit
      • Articles
      • Book Me >
        • Aspiring writers >
          • Six things writers should do
          • Young Adult Books
          • Writing tips for young people
      • News & Events
      • Za Bosance
      • Resources for Teachers >
        • Remote Learning >
          • Narrative Writing
          • Poetry Writing
          • Fun activities
          • Spelling activities
    • My Books >
      • Young Adult >
        • Cuckoos Song
        • Sassy Saints Series >
          • Sabiha's Dilemma >
            • The Good Daughter
          • Alma's Loyalty
          • Jesse's Triumph
        • The Climb
      • Memoir >
        • Things Nobody Knows But Me
        • Growing up Muslim in Australia
        • Meet Me at the Intersection
        • Rebellious Daughters
      • Romance >
        • Return to Me
        • Hollywood Dreams
      • Dark Fiction Horror >
        • WomanOnTheEdgeShortStory
    • Contact
    • Pishukin Press
    • Grant Writing Course