What does it take for a short story to win a writing competition? A lot. Not only does a story have to be incredibly well written, but the judge has to connect with it, and it has to be so memorable that they feel unable to turn away and award…
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…
It’s been a busy few weeks preparing for the 2022 Creative Open, for the fabulous Local Author Table and Publishing/Writing Q&A Booth I organised to support local writers and writing on Sydney’s Northern Beaches. I even did a little video to get readers and writers interested – what do you think?…
Did you know that in the 18th century, stories could only be printed and published in England if they were true? Powerful religious influences at the time otherwise deemed stories as ‘lies’ and thus ‘evil’. You can see the effect of this in the book titles published at the time,…
Of all the questions I ask my creative writing clients and students when mentoring and editing, this is the question I ask them the most. It generally has two manifestations, which I thought I’d share as insight into the storytelling process. 1. Studying Other Writers When reading and studying other…
This month, editor extraordinaire of Women’s Ink Magazine Jacqui Brown invited five authors – including me! – to talk about how we name our characters. Kristin Darell, who co-authored Into Tordon with me, was also featured; as was Valerie Pybus, Anne Benjamin and Australia’s climate fiction queen Cat Sparks. Our…
Wow, what an exciting month it’s been reading all the entries for the inaugural Northern Beaches Writers’ Competition! As the 2022 Northern Beaches ‘Art & Words Project’, the competition invited writers to submit both a written entry of up to 2,500 words on the theme of ‘tree’, and an image…
