I was excited to see that my book had reached number 3 on Action Manuscript of the month and is Number 4 – Action Manuscript of the year.
This is on coverfly which is a database for screenwriters to host their screenplays or manuscripts.
“Our goal is to become the most efficient way for writers to be discovered by the entertainment industry, and the most trusted guide for emerging writers to achieve their goals…In addition to hosting your projects for free, Coverfly uses your project’s reviews from submissions to top-tier festivals, competitions, fellowships and coverage services to provide a measure of our confidence that an Industry professional would be interested in your screenplay.”
So, it is nice to have this opportunity to have my book up on this site. 🙂 My place has been earned by being the semi-finalist for the Cinematic Book Contest with Screencraft that I was informed of a few weeks ago.
Anyway, thanks for reading! If you’re curious about my book Where the Sun Rises it is available everywhere online in print and ebook. I will include an amazon link, but you can get it in print on Book Depository all around the world.
I have already mentioned about how I am going to the New York Pitch Conference, but I wanted to talk a little bit about my novel Where the Sun Rises. In 2015 I became fascinated by the women soldiers fighting in Syria against ISIS. After watching a lot of documentaries on these amazing women, I began to think, imagine if we could see things through their eyes. What if we could feel their decisions and why they felt they had no choice but to take up arms. What if one of the women was a mother? How did they show so much courage? What was this idea of courage anyway? It was obviously not just a male trait. There was a lot of coverage of female soldiers in non fiction, but nothing in fiction and told from their point of view. I began to research and completed thousands of hours of watching documentaries and reading articles or information about Syria, culture, Kurdish language, being in combat, weaponry, history, geography, and modern life.
I decided I needed to travel to the region so I could feel the air around me, see the colours of the middle east, experience the desert, taste the food, and see directly into Syria. In 2016, I traveled to Israel to be on the border, the Golan Heights, so I could look into Syria and I did. It was devastated. It was flattened, the landscape was barren and the buildings decimated and desolate. My trip to Israel was profound and enlightening and it filled in many sensory details that you can’t do through research. Using this experience and my extensive other research I continued to write. I was writing my novel for my masters under the supervision of Dr. Rebecca Giggs at Macquarie University. This was a refining and rewarding experience. Following completion of this and receiving a good mark, I continued to write and develop the narrative.
After this, in 2017 I consulted the Kurdish community in Brisbane and was able to get feedback about the Kurdish language. These contacts all stated they were extremely happy and honoured that I was writing about the Kurdish women in this struggle. I contacted the YPJ Women’s soldiers on Facebook and received messages back that they were very honoured and pleased I was standing in solidarity with them. Then I was given a few other contacts on Twitter I will be following up within the soldiers and also more groups in Australia.
My novel Where the Sun Rises, is about two Kurdish women who are forced to choose between their families and fighting ISIS. When ISIS closes in on their hometown of Kobani and kills their brother and husband, Karin a medical student and Roza, an English Teacher and mother, choose to take up arms. Once joining the battle, death is a spectre that hangs over them every day. After they discover their best friend’s sister Ashti has been taken into sex slavery, Karin and Roza find themselves in even greater jeopardy in conducting rescue missions. A western journalist, Sarah and her camera technician Marcel cover the dangerous battle throughout. When many die around them and friends begin to pay the ultimate sacrifice, their resolve becomes shaken and Karin and Roza learn what courage, loyalty, self-sacrifice and love for their homeland may really cost them.
(This is a shortened blurb, a longer one will come in the future. Today, I registered the copyright to my novel in the USA. Yay!).
After I had written the novel, I looked up pitch conferences in New York and found this excellent one, the New York Pitch Conference. I told my writer friend, Alison Quigley about this and we are now attending together which will be amazing! Then I received some funding from the Sunshine Coast Council and Arts Queensland to pitch my novel to the conference. I am very excited and grateful for this!
I am passionate about this novel and telling the stories of these brave, strong, women who took up arms to defend themselves in Kobani. This particular battle was completely successful and was fought by 85% women. It is an amazing story of the friendship of these women more than anything. Their courage, loyalty and friendship.
This is a brief summary of my novel, as I have not talked too much about the plot yet. Now, as I am going to the New Pitch Conference I thought I would be more specific.
Who knows what will happen with the Pitch Conference, hopefully it will lead to positive publishing connections, but either way this novel will be published in the future.
My next workshop, next month is going to be about my passion, which is novel writing. We will look at how other phenomenal writers have achieved in my opinion perfection in their novels. Come and be inspired and we can work together on bringing your vision to fruition.
I am completing my novel that I started in December 2015 and I wrote it in conjunction with my Master of Arts. I will share my knowledge and experience with this process.
Join with other writers to take your writing seriously but also have a lot of fun. 🙂
Information for the workshops:
Have you ever wanted to write a novel or novella? Does it seem a bit daunting? In these two workshops we will examine what makes a quality work of fiction, how we can create effective and compelling characters, narrative movement, structure, voice, vivid description and much more.
Have you started a novel and become stuck in how to structure it or wonder if it is on the right track? We will discuss how to structure our novels and make our readers feel completely immersed in the worlds we are creating.
These workshops will get you writing and exploring the kaleidoscope of aspects that form good novels. Suzanne has recently completed a Master of Creative Writing and is currently completing a novel about women fighting in Syria. She will share the knowledge gained through her novel and through her Masters study. Come and join this fun, friendly creative environment to help you complete your masterpiece. 🙂
It is $110 for two morning sessions from Sat May 5, 12- 9:30-11:30am.
Venue: Goodlife Community Centre, Buderim
Cafe available downstairs.
Contact Suzanne on strong.suzanne@gmail.com to book in. Pre-booking is essential.
The last three or four years I have been completing my Master of Arts in Creative Writing. I have learnt a lot in this time. I am a single parent so it has been challenging at times, working, teaching, writing and studying and being a parent. But it has been amazing. In the past year I have written my novella about the war in Syria. It is still being developed, and I am adding some more chapters at the moment.
I am very excited to say that after three years of intense study, full time work, and being a single parent to two beautiful kids – I have now have achieved my Masters! It is a good feeling  I am very thankful for everyone who helped me along the way. x
This is how I feel about my novel, there is a story within me that had to come out.
Though I might say, that I feel as if I am channeling the stories of these real life women fighting in Syria. I am endeavouring and putting all my energy into telling their stories in the most authentic, accurate and faithful manner. To honour them in a way, but ultimately to simply tell their story.
(If you are interested in William Faulkner here is a bio page:Â William Faulkner Bio)
Hello everyone,
Suzanne Strong 