“Champions” award-winning story FREE to read!

Yay – I won the Glen Miles Short Story prize! What could be better?? Being able to read my winning story for free, of course! Here’s the opening paragraph of “Champions”, the story that just won me my seventh national writing competition (squee!)… “Can you believe it? Twenty-four years ago…

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5-Step Book Fair Survival Guide For Kids

Last weekend, I took my two kids to a book fair. In the interests of book-loving parents everywhere, I thought I’d share with you what made this particular book fair so very wonderful! 1. Stock plenty of kids’ books! Kids love looking at and buying books! If you’ve got a…

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Free: Author Writing Toolkit!!

As regular readers will know, there’s a lot of practical writing advice, secrets and encouragement on this blog. So today I thought I’d open the vault and create a free ‘Author Writing Toolkit’ from some of fantastic posts I’ve collated over the years. Even regular writer-readers should find something useful…

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Northern Beaches Writers’ Group – In The News – Twice!!

I’m so proud of *my* writers – the members of the Northern Beaches Writers’ Group. I’m proud of them because they come from many different backgrounds and bring a wealth of experience to their stories. Some of them write crime, romance or speculative fiction, some write children’s, young-adult or teen…

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How The World Needs The Insides of Writers

It often amazes me how similar we writers are to one another. Whether we’re confident and smiling on the outside or visibly nervous, on the inside most of us are the same – we’re full of self-doubt, sensitive and highly analytical. We have to be these things in order to…

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Big Plaque Mojo

When I was a little girl, I always thought I had the same chance as everyone else to win a prize, the lottery, votes, competitions, etc. When I was a gloomy teenager, I still hoped this was true, yet felt it wasn’t… Every time I entered a competition and lost,…

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On Readability, Writing and Consulting with Others…

Today, I’m over on the fabulous blog by travel author extraordinaire Walter Mason, talking about readability, writing and consulting with others. Thanks for letting me visit your blog again, Walter – I love chatting with readers and writers online! As a reader myself, I’m always interested in the insights that…

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