Shirley Patton: The Sisterhood and It’s Never Too Late to Follow Your Dreams
I’m thrilled to be able to shine a light on another début author, one with whom I have a few things in common—we’ve both moved states, although Shirley moved from Western Australia to Tasmania and I did it the other way around, and we both came to writing...
Kate Murdoch: From Painting to Writing—Change and the Creative Path
I’m so pleased to introduce you to Kate Murdoch, the author of Stone Circle, a historical fantasy novel set in Renaissance Italy. As you’ll read in this essay, writing wasn’t Kate’s first artistic pursuit. Prior to becoming an author, Kate had...
Lauren Chater: Survival Lessons—How Writing Changed My Life
Riding the ups and downs of the lead-up to publication can be rather nerve-wracking and is much easier if done with a friend, so as authors whose début novels came out within a couple of months of each other, Lauren Chater and I have become friends over the past...
Writers in the Attic: Michelle Johnston
I’m happy to say that Writers in the Attic is back for 2018! To ease the pressure on myself a little, I’ve decided it will be more of an occasional series, but I promise it will be just as interesting and varied! My dear writing friend, Michelle Johnston,...
Louise Allan: Music, Always
This is #65 in the series for Writers in the Attic and the final post for 2017. This series has been the most successful I’ve ever started on this blog, in terms of duration and readership. Each post has had well over 300 views and some over 2,000! It’s...
Milly Schmidt: On Stapling Your Rejections to Your Chest (and wading into battle)
My last guest in the attic for this year is Milly Schmidt. I’ve become an avid follower of Milly’s blog since I first came across it earlier this year. I hasten to add that I’m one of more than 5,000 followers—we all love her down-to-earth, honest...
Stephanie Parkyn: On Building Heart (and finding writing wisdom in unlikely places)
Today’s writer in the attic, Stephanie Parkyn, and I have much in common: we’re both debut authors, we’re both published by Allen and Unwin (or soon-to-be), and we’ve both lived in Launceston,Tasmania—I grew up there, and Steph now lives...
Shahina Braganza: Converting Chaos Into Order
Most of the guests who visit the attic are people I’ve met relatively recently, but today’s guest and I first met many years ago in Hobart, Tasmania, when she was still a schoolgirl thinking of studying medicine and I was a much younger mum and doctor. We...
Kali Napier: Getting Personal
My guest author this week is Kali Napier. I can’t remember exactly when Kali’s path and mine first crossed, but over the past six months or so we’ve become friends as our books are being released within a month of each other. There’s nothing...
Theresa Smith: The Bend in My Writing Road
I have a very special guest today, one well known to almost every female writer in this country through her work as Historical Fiction Editor with the Australian Women Writers Challenge. You couldn’t find a bigger advocate or a more generous supporter of...