Critical examination of bookish events, news and debate.
Earlier this week, I appeared at the Mosman Youth Awards in Literature at the amazing Mosman Library, where I spoke to an eager crowd of 150 writers and their supporters. As my 9th year judging the awards, I wanted to share one central piece of advice about writing, applicable to…
Wow, thank you to The Tawny Frogmouth magazine for such a breathtaking interview in this month’s issue, ‘Local writing hero is an inspiration for living a better life’. I feel seen! I have always felt great empathy for those around me, whether it’s my community, writing tribe, friends or family.…
Every day I fail, and love it. I fail to write the amount of words I want to write. I fail to phrase meaning effectively. I fail to establish or maintain character and setting according to my intentions. I fail to edit my own work, being too close to the…
Congratulations to the 13 amazing writers published in this imaginative new anthology – Villain or Hero?, edited by me! The idea for this anthology started at last year’s NBWG writers’ retreat, where a group of us were discussing how unfairly some characters had been represented and judged over time. The…
Last week, I gave a talk at the 2023 Mosman Youth Awards in Literature about the value of the teenage mind. Thank you Mosman Library and Mosman Council for organising the awards night! As judge of the Senior Prose section, I wanted young writers to realise that their ideas, thoughts…
Oh my gosh, I have been so busy lately! Not only have I been preparing for my upcoming launch of When Dark Roots Hunt (pre-orders are welcome over here!), and doing copy edits for another new release (soon to be announced!), but I’ve been organising and judging the 2023 Northern…
This year, the CBCA’s Book Week theme was ‘Dreaming With Eyes Open’, celebrated with the rich illustrations of Jasmine Seymour. When asked about her engagement with the theme, Jasmine said it was based on how dreaming can be “now, then, and always”. This resonated with me, so when a local…
