I’ve been a professional writer for more than ten years, but it was only recently, when asked to produce a How to Write book by A&C Black/Bloomsbury, that I came to think systematically about this craft of ours. I mean ‘systematically’ in two different dimensions. First, there’s the whole area of technique. How, precisely, […]
I decided to extend the life of some of my short stories that have been published in journals/magazines over the last few years, by publishing them digitally. It’s a bit of a (fairly safe) experiment in self-publishing and the world of ebooks. I’m loving reading on my Kobo eReader, and I’ve made these stories available […]
Hardie Grant, 9781921690624, June 2011 (Aus) See also UK, US London Lane can remember the future, but not the past. This is the simple yet compelling basis for Cat Patrick’s debut YA novel, Forgotten. Each morning at 4:33am London’s memory is reset, erasing all events from the previous day. London relies on her knowledge of […]
The Emerging Writers’ Festival, in its usual form, has thus far been about tequila shots and one long drunken conversation about The Wall. Yesterday I went to some actual sessions. Here’s a write-up of two of those. Typecast The first session I attended yesterday was all about ‘typecasting’. Do the authors on the panel agree with […]
By Nightfall, Michael Cunningham, HarperCollins (Aus pb, Aus ebook, US and Kindle, UK) Over the past few days I’ve been in the audience of four sessions featuring my favourite American author Michael Cunningham. Cunningham’s latest novel is By Nightfall. I’ve drafted a few posts on it since I read it, but was never able to adequately […]
Today I attended the session ‘Au Pairs’ featuring writer-couples James Bradley and Mardi McConnochie, and Louis Nowra and Mandy Sayer. Bradley and McConnochie have been together for 20 years; Nowra and Sayer for eleven. Although the questions were not those you’d ask a lawyer-couple, as Bradley pointed out, people are often curious as to how a relationship works between […]
I’m sitting by the waterfront – Sydney Harbour. Sunstruck. That is, struck by this sunshine. Ill-equipped, in my wool dress. I’ve just seen Geordie Williamson interview David Mitchell, and I was going to go to another session (French Kissing – ooh la la) but the line for it was around the block and I was […]
I’m very excited to announce that a little haiku I wrote one morning is the winner of Australian Poetry’s haiPhone competition. It goes: Potential faces In steamy bathroom mirrors Residue of stars I’ve been invited to read it out as part of the Emerging Writers’ Festival on 1 June at the Poetry Cafe. G told me […]
Viking, May 2011 9780670075966 (Aus, ebook) Stead, a sailor, arrives in Sydney Harbour in 1943. He hasn’t seen Marina for five years, and yet he can’t forget the three days they spent together prior to the war. Some undeniable connection had been forged. He finds out she failed to enrol in the music school she was […]
Text Publishing, May 2011, 9781921758164 (Aus, US, UK) The parents of a young boy disappear in a small, strange town called Reception, in Christopher Currie’s atmospheric debut novel The Ottoman Motel. The townfolk don’t seem to be trying too hard to find Simon’s parents, and it isn’t the first disappearance in the area. Currie’s debut is […]