How Liz Gilbert Won Me Over
Firstly, let me confess: Confession #1: I hated 'Eat, Pray, Love'. It irritated me from the outset, but I persevered until chapter eight (of the 128 chapters in the book) when I closed the covers once and for all, and I have not...
TAG Hungerford Award—Post Script
Last Thursday, after an agonising three-and-a-half month wait, the winner of the 2014 City of Fremantle-TAG Hungerford Award was announced at Fremantle Arts Centre. The winner was 'Troppo', by Madelaine Dickie, which will be...
Mateship With Birds, by Carrie Tiffany
Mateship with Birds is Carrie Tiffany's second novel. Her first, 'Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living' (2005) was shortlisted for numerous awards including the Orange Prize, the Miles Franklin Literary Award, the Guardian First Book Award, the...
Dr Bob Brown at the Perth Writers’ Festival
Dr Bob Brown and I go back a long way—not that he knows that. Not that he even knows who I am. Growing up in Tasmania as I did, I've admired and respected Dr Brown—or Bob as he introduces himself—since the early '80s—as a man, as a politician,...
Thoughts on ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’
As regular readers would be aware, I have dubbed 2015 the ‘Year of the Classic’, or YOTC. I’m trying to read one ‘classic’ per month, as well as at least one book by an Australian female author. I chose 'The Handmaid's Tale' by Margaret...
The Sun Sets on the Holidays
Tonight, the school holidays draw to a close. No more long days in our bathers. No more serene afternoons with a book. No more evening walks and swims under a reddening sky. It's back to the daily grind of uniforms and books, and lunches and bags, and music...
Camping at Lucky Bay, WA
We've just returned from our family holiday. This year, we camped at Lucky Bay in Cape Le Grand National Park, about 800 km southeast of Perth. We're experienced campers now, and I've come home recharged and refreshed. There's also a few more freckles and an...
2014 AWW Challenge Round-Up
I completed the 2014 Australian Women Writers' (AWW) Challenge. I signed on to read ten books by Australian women and review six, but I ended up reading and reviewing fourteen. Towards the end of 2011, Elizabeth Lhuede, the founder of the AWW...
Thank You and Happy Christmas
Dear Reader, Thank you for joining me on this long-haul writing 'safari'—you've jumped aboard even without the promise of a destination, and I can't thank you enough. Each time you read my words, or 'Like', or comment, you...
Shortlisted for 2014 TAG Hungerford Award
I'm finally allowed to tell everyone that my novel, 'Ida's Children', has been shortlisted for the 2014 City of Fremantle-TAG Hungerford Award. This is the nicest present I've ever been given, and a wonderful way to end...
Snapshot Poetry #8—Graveyard Dreams
I posted this snapshot poem on my Facebook page a few weeks' ago, but I've since slightly changed the wording. To tell the truth, I went back to the original wording, as it came out of my brain and onto the page. Sometimes tinkering with the words spoils the...
Parenting Lessons Learned in 2014
All the calendars tell me it's December, but I'm not ready for the end of another year. Time is not just marching on—it's moving so fast, it's exceeding the speed limit. I want it to slow down and return to the interminably slow...
Snapshot Poetry #7—Soft Dawn
I took this photo with my phone at about 5am, facing west, with the sun rising behind me. The sky had a soft, muted appearance, but the air was thick and humid, and thunder rumbled periodically. There was a heavy sense of foreboding, as if something...
Book Review: Shy, by Sian Prior
"Shy. It's such a shy word; a timid little word that begs to remain unnoticed. Only three letters long and it begins with an exhortation to silence: 'shhh'." Sian Prior is accomplished. She's a journalist and broadcaster, a professional media consultant, a...
How to Become the Favourite Child
Some of you have already seen these when I posted them on my Facebook page (Louise Allan - Writer if you want to slip over and 'Like' my page). For anyone who didn't see the Facebook posts, here they are. The story is, I gave my...