The Darren Groth Blog
June 6, 2017
Navel Gazing #CripLit, #NoVoices, #OwnVoices, #WeNeedDiverseBooks, Disability, Diversity, Exchange of Heart, Intellectual Disability, Munro vs. the Coyote, Neurodiversity, New YA Lit, Special Needs, YA, YA Lit Leave a comment
#OwnVoices is an essential movement. If you don’t know about it, you should read this. Incontrovertibly, marginalized groups must be afforded every opportunity to tell/write/publish/sell their own stories. Privileged, able, cishet, white, middle-class, dude scribblers like me do not have to stay out of the imaginative lanes of these groups, but we must drive with extreme care. It bears repeating — #OwnVoices is an essential movement.
No less important are those groups with #NoVoices.
March 7, 2017
News August 2017, Book Covers, Books, Coming Soon, Exchange of Heart, New Book Covers, New Books, New YA, YA Leave a comment
A second round of cover goodness has arrived – this one, the Aussie front for my new YA novel out later this year, titled Exchange of Heart in Oz.
Fans of Are You Seeing Me? might be pleased to see the similarities in style, design and font. I’m pleased to see that I did indeed write Are You Seeing Me? and it wasn’t all just a lovely dream.
If you’re in Australia and wish to pre-order Exchange of Heart, you can do so here.
If you’re in Canada/US and wish to pre-order Munro vs. the Coyote, you can do so here.
January 31, 2017
News #WeNeedDiverseBooks, Assisted Living, Book Blurb, Coming Soon, Disability, Diversity, Exchange of Heart, Fair Go, Heart Problems, LoveOzYA, New Books, New YA Lit, Special Needs, Student Exchange, YA Leave a comment
Sometimes, Life takes on a life of its own…
Since the sudden death of his younger sister, Munro Maddux has been stuck. Flashbacks. Anger. Chest pains. And a voice – taunting, barking, biting – that his counsellor calls ‘the Coyote’. Munro knows a student exchange will not be the stuff of Disney movies. But in Australia he intends to move beyond his troubled past.
Forced by his new school to join a volunteer program, Munro discovers the Coyote is silenced in one place: Fair Go, an assisted living residence in Brisbane’s west, where Munro gets to know his team of residents: dogged designer Bernie; sleeping refugee Shah; would-be wedded couple Blake and Dale; comic creator Iggy; and self-defence tutor Florence. As this unlikely group shows Munro the sights, Munro’s notion of what it means to be a big brother begins to change.
But the burden Munro carries is not so easily cast aside, and unexpected developments at Fair Go prompt a devastating flashback that threatens to end the student exchange. Will the Coyote ultimately triumph? Or can Munro find the fortitude necessary to mend his heart?
‘Funny-sad, authentic and uplifting – Groth is a writer who can pivot from heartbreak to humour without missing a beat.’ Vikki Wakefield, author of All I Ever Wanted
January 26, 2017
News Books, Coming Soon, Munro vs. the Coyote, MvtC, New Books, New Releases, New YA Lit, October 2017, Orca, Orca Book Publishers, YA, YA Lit, Young Adults Leave a comment
My brand new YA novel is coming out this year. In North America, it’s titled Munro vs. the Coyote and the cover looks a little like the awesomeness above.
Not bad, eh?
Every image within the Coyote’s head speaks to moments, elements and characters in the story.
I can’t wait to see this jacket on the real deal come October.
July 4, 2016
Fireproof Garage Podcast Author Reading, Books Podcast, Brothers Groth, Infinite Blue, New YA Lit, Pitches, pod, Podcast, RL Stine, Works in Progress, Writing Collaboration, Writing Podcast, Writing Process, Writing Sample, YA, YA Lit Leave a comment
November 21, 2015
News 2015 CBCA Shortlist, 2015 GG Finalists, 2015 QLAs, 2015 White Ravens, 2016 Bologna Book Fair, Are You Seeing Me?, AYSM, GG Books, Good Job, International Youth Library, Literary Awards, Shortlists, YA, YA Awards, YA Lit Leave a comment
Back in April, I posted about how 2015 had already achieved ‘house on fire’ status in the Are You Seeing Me? chase for literati glory. Given we’re now in November, I figured I should update you on the six months that have passed.
What a caper.
While still coming down from the CBCA shortlist clouds (it rightfully took several months), I discovered that AYSM was a finalist for the Griffith University YA Book Award in the QLA’s. To receive this nod from my state of origin was very gratifying and took me back to my very first brush with literary acknowledgement: a shortlisting in the 2004 Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards’ young adult category for Most Valuable Potential.
Next came two very cool pats on the back.
July 25, 2015
Navel Gazing Are You Seeing Me?, ASD, Autism, AYSM, Daughters, Disability, Diversity, Fathers, Journal, Kids, New Release, New YA Lit, Sons, Twins, YA, YA Lit, Young Adults Leave a comment
11.00am, July 21st 2001. In the too-familiar confines of Brisbane’s Wesley Hospital, my daughter is born. Three minutes later, my son follows.
How to properly mark the arrival of my children into the world? What can I do to let them know they are loved from the first second forward?
I will write them a journal. One each. Until their fifth birthdays. It makes sense; I have so few skills, but seeing lives, conjuring thoughts, assembling words – these are my staples.
I write. Moments of hilarity, of poignancy. I fill small pages with tiny details and big imagination. Flickers of a technicolour film in its formative months. I write fast for ten months.
Then I am slow.
