I’ve been listening to Adele a lot recently (getting into character for a writing project), and her lyrical songwriting reminded me of school – but not because of any teenage heartbreak. I was sweet sixteen – into poetry, candles and boys – and my school had no writing club (shock,…
With the festive season only days away, I just wanted to remind writers, editors and their colleagues in the publishing industry, to look out for each other this year. We’re a sensitive bunch, we wouldn’t be able to write and edit and rewrite as well as we do without that…
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…
We’re entering ‘The Age of [What]?’ After posting my blog “Times have changed for fantasy writers… or have they?” about the timeless struggles authors endure because of genre-restraints, one of my readers posted a very clever discussion point in reply, relating to the rise of urban fantasy. I love a…
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),…
