What I Want to Write About …
Lately, each time I’ve sat at my computer the words haven’t come and I’ve ended up faffing. Yet my mind is overflowing with ideas and things I want to write about. So, in the end, I pulled out my notebook and pen and...
Marlish Glorie: Looking Back, Going Forward—Being a Writer at Sixty
I’m starting a new series on my blog, in which I invite writers into the attic to share their stories of what it’s like to be a writer. To kickstart the series, I’m thrilled to welcome: Marlish Glorie. (If Marlish’s story...
A Plug for the Booklength Project Group
I was just going to reblog a post I wrote on ‘Coping With Negative Feedback On Your Writing’ for the Booklength Project Group (BLPG), but then I thought I might as well give a plug for the group, which I convene. We meet at Mattie’s House, part...
Rewrite is Done!
I finished rewriting my novel last week. The elation and relief! I looked back over my blog posts and saw that I’d started rewriting it in early June last year, so it took me nearly nine months to complete. I won’t reiterate how hard I found it at times...
My Week: Story and Sculptures
I’ve interrupted the novel rewrite to show you this: That’s how many pages I have left to edit. It’s a thin stack, isn’t it? Only 25 pages thick. Twenty-five. That. Is. All. I’m a slow writer, and it’s given me a boost to see...
Magda Szubanski at the Perth Writers’ Festival
For the first time ever, I was able to spend the whole weekend at the Perth Writers’ Festival without worrying about children’s music or sport commitments, and without feeling guilty for slipping away on my daughter’s birthday—it...
My Week—Back-to-School and Back-to-Writing
1. It’s been back-to-school here, which isn’t anywhere near as frantic as it used to be: Only half my children are still at school, I only had one school to get them back to, and they’re now old enough to do most of it...
The Story Behind the Story
ON WRITING ‘THE SISTERS’ SONG’ My novel, ‘The Sisters’ Song’, has evolved and that’s the only way to describe how it came into being. It’s nothing at all like what I set out to write, and this draft, Final Draft 3.0, is very different to...
Thank You, 2015
Here’s a summary of my 2015—it was a good one … THE NOVEL As most of you know, my novel, Ida’s Children, was shortlisted for the 2015 TAG Hungerford Award. It didn’t win, so I sent it off to an agent, who gave...
Midweek Moment #19
Monique and I have been out and about with our cameras this week, photographing things with wings: With school finished for the year, and before the mad rush to Christmas, I’ve snatched a few days away to write. I’m out of range of internet and mobile...