For those of you who have been hanging out to see how I fared in the next round of the NYC Midnight Short Story Challenge following my success in the first heat, I am pleased to announce that my next story, Crossing the Thin Blue Line, just won through the second heat! This time the…
If you, like me, love receiving a barrage of writing-related emails, or adding more expert writing advice to your already-can’t-quite-keep-up-with-it-all Facebook/Twitter feed, then have I got a belated Christmas gift for you. Below are five of my favourite online writing resources. Don’t dally – go sign up to their e-newsletters and social media feeds right…
Another article I wrote for the ACT Writers Centre, this time about my experience at the inaugural Canberra Writers Festival over 26-28 August 2016. The 2016 Canberra Writers Festival was my first major writing event. Among all the author interviews, book launches, panel discussions, writing workshops, festival artists, pop-up bookstores, signings, corridor networking, macaron towers,…
Last night I spent two fabulous hours with author and academic Gillian Polack. Although our time was brief, Gillian quickly demonstrated why she is a renowned authority on the subject of world building. Here are the three lessons that most resonated with me (with my own little comments and extrapolations added): Start with the rocks…
I was fortunate enough to attend a brief writing class with Jack Heath last night. According to his website, Jack Heath is the author of sixteen action-packed novels for young children. From my own experience I can add that he is also a clear and engaging presenter who is well-versed in his craft. It was…
My final post as blogger-in-residence for the ACT Writers Centre can be found here (or below, as usual). Thanks for coming along for the ride, and prepare for the brutal honesty… Keeping the Dream Alive I want to be a writer. For the longest time I found this difficult to admit. I guess I thought…
Another one of my posts from the ACT Writers Centre’s CAPITAL LETTERS blog. The link to the article is here, or you can, as always, read the full text below: Latin verbs, letters home and Stephenie Meyer: an interview with Daniel O’Malley I went to the same primary school as Daniel O’Malley; he was…
My fifth CAPITAL YARNS blog post is up. This time the topic is how to raise children while also trying to find time to write. If you have kids, this should all sound horribly familiar. If you don’t have kids, stop reading now because this may put you off entirely… Original post is here: actwritersblog.com/2016/04/19/writing-with-kids/….
My next CAPITAL LETTERS blog entry is an interview with Capital Yarns author Sean Costello. The original post can be found here, or, as usual, you can read it all below! I was in Harry Hartog’s in Woden the other day when I came across something unusual on the counter. Neatly folded in a…
Ever thought about setting your fiction in the place you live? My latest blog post on the ACT Writers Centre website (actwritersblog.com/2016/03/23/setting-your-fiction-in-canberra/) looks into this very issue, weighing up the pros and cons. It is about my hometown – Australia’s capital of Canberra – but most of the concepts apply wherever you live. In case…