Critical examination of bookish events, news and debate.
I don’t often blog about the parts of my day I spend being a mum (wait, don’t leave! This isn’t a blog about motherhood!)… but today I’m going to share this much with you – it’s a bit of an invisible job. The meals I cook are eaten, the clothes…
What does it mean to be a writer living in Australia? It’s Australia Day today! A day when we celebrate everything great about Australia. As a writer, I love living in Australia. So do most Aussie authors. Or do they…? Last year, I asked some acclaimed Aussie authors about their…
Last week, I was wondering why I had such a methodical approach to reading short story anthologies. Having just read four anthologies back-to-back, I found myself adding up the number of stories I enjoyed, calculating what percentage that was of the whole, and the result reflected my reading enjoyment of…
A friend recently asked me to review a short story anthology. Never having done this before, I didn’t know how to start. So I got pen and paper ready, took notes. Having now read four anthologies back-to-back, I’ve discovered something about the way I read and enjoy them… For some…
Creating dreams, and pursuing them… Last Saturday at the 2011 NSW Writers’ Centre Speculative Fiction Festival, Pamela Freeman (Blood Ties, Deep Water and Full Circle) said that speculative fiction was: the kind of story that my mother would say weakens your hold on reality For me, this summarised the entire…
A multimedia storytelling project that might just inspire you. A short time ago, I received an intriguing message through the Northern Beaches Writers’ Group website (which is the critique group I run in Manly, Sydney). The message was from a rather clever cookie at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS),…
What I learnt at Conflux 7: From Here to There Looking back over the four-day writing festival that was this year’s Conflux, it might be quicker to list what I didn’t learn during my stay in Canberra. But I’m not a negative kind of person so, although it’ll take longer,…
