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…
Last Thursday night, the NSW Writers’ Centre took their tutors out of their comfort zones and asked them to create a story, mashing together two very different genres. My challenge was to mash up…
A few days ago, I watched Bill Gates on Q&A (a high-brow Aussie talk show). On it, this very witty and down-to-earth man answered questions about wealth, charity, capitalism, the environment and technology. It was the questions about technology that of course got me sitting up in my seat. Here…
Lots of people have been talking with me lately about social media. Probably something to do with all the courses I’m running here and there on the subject (see my Event Schedule)! I love social media, it nullifies the existential loneliness I’d otherwise feel sitting alone at my computer all…
Copying. It’s a nasty word that hasn’t changed in meaning since the 1st century, when the Roman poet Marcus Valerius Martialis used the Latin word plagiarius (literally ‘kidnapper’) to complain that another poet had “kidnapped his verses”. When I was at school, the repercussions of copying were severe, and not…
A recent post on io9.com asked what science fiction could tell us about the future of social media: http://io9.com/#!5781908. Annalee Newitz started the post by pointing out that, right now, you are reading a piece of social media, which can be passed around various social networks and thus be read…
