Well, apparently it's the first birthday of this blog. How nice. Some stats: Today, 16 views so far from 16 visitors. USA - 8 UK - 8 One each from Qatar, Germany, Italy, Austria and Netherlands. Total 63 followers, total 187 comments. Total of 3,936 views, best ever single day was 69 views (I think [...]
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Gone fishing
Back in a week chickens.
Colm Tóibín workshop – Melbourne Writers Festival 2013
UPDATE: It was announced yesterday that Tóibín's The Testament of Mary has been shortlisted for this year's Man Booker Prize. I haven't read it but it's 'on the list.'*It's a writing day today. I'm lucky to have taught my last session for term last Wednesday and so have been burrowing into my manuscript, wrangling with [...]
The Big Issue Fiction Edition launch – MWF13
Today was the launch for the Big Issue annual fiction edition. It was held at the Cube at ACMI and there was a panel which included editors Alan Attwood, and Thuy On and Rochelle Siemienowicz who worked through the initial pile of submissions and produced the shortlist of 28 stories. I'm thrilled that I made [...]
Workshop with MJ Hyland at the Melbourne Writers Festival
MJ Hyland has written three novels and I enjoyed all of them, particularly the second (Carry Me Down) and third (This is How). Her stripped-back prose and clever, clever management of points of view I find exciting. In an earlier writing course I did, in 2009, in between meetings every two months we read books [...]
Laurent Binet and HHhH
I read a bit more of HHhH last night, but I was so whacked I couldn't read much. (Twitter does seem a little quiet today, I think people are catching their collective breath after an amazing first few days.) The voice of HHhH is easy to read I find; the narrator, purportedly Binet himself, cast [...]
Melbourne Writers Festival 2013
Two days spent at the festival and any ONE of the following sessions would have been amazing. I've taken notes and will regurgitate later, but for now, let me tell you about what I've seen. Yesterday I went to: 1. An In Conversation with Laurent Binet. His first novel HHhH (which I just started reading [...]
Letter from TS Eliot to V Woolf
This is utterly gorgeous and comes via The Paris Review which I think is the Best Thing in the World. 38 Burleigh Mansions, St Martins Lane, London W.C.2. 27 August 1924 My dear Virginia, Forgive the unconscionable delay in answering your charming letter and invitation. I have been boiled in a hell-broth, and on Saturday [...]
Obsessions
My mother loves Dickens's works, and loves to read about his life. This morning on twitter among a conversational back-and-forth on Dickens, there was a link to an article about Dickens and his children. From the London Review of Books How Does he Come to Be Mine? by Tim Parks, which is a review of [...]
Marilyn’s books
Here is a list of Marilyn Monroe's literary inventory, found at http://blog.everlasting-star.net/marilyn-monroe/marilyns-library/ 1) Let’s Make Love by Matthew Andrews (novelisation of the movie) 2) How To Travel Incognito by Ludwig Bemelmans 3) To The One I Love Best by Ludwig Bemelmans 4) Thurber Country by James Thurber 5) The Fall by Albert Camus 6) Marilyn [...]
Hipster versus indie versus everything else
When the generation gap becomes apparent, we oldies need to go directly to the youngies to get things explained. Which is why I asked my 16-year-old daughter again to explain to me who hipsters are, and how they differ from the other groups. I'm not the only person to struggle with this, so here is [...]
Catching up on… The Writer’s Room Interviews
I've mentioned this fabulous suite of interviews before but really, they are such a great source of information and insight that it's worth mentioning them again. You really should subscribe. (It's The Writer's Room and you can go here to find out more.)Author Charlotte Wood established this project earlier this year? Late last year? A [...]
Re-organising myself here
So I've edited some of the tags I've applied to some of my posts to make sure that on the menu to the left, the categories of 'Reviews' contains any posts I've written that have been anywhere near the review/not review realm. I'm still working out what I want to do with my 'reviewing' but [...]
Not a review, on Don DeLillo’s COSMOPOLIS
This is an old not-review that I blogged elsewhere. Apologies if it's sweary, I do get a little more earthy over at the other place. And as for re-cycling it? Yes, I'm being lazy. Yes, I'm busy. Yes, I hated writing that other real review, and yes I'm uneasy about having that other 'real' review [...]
So what’s it about?
This is what I'm grappling with now. A distillation of my second manuscript into one or two sentences that tell another person what it's about. A few years ago I did a Carmel Bird* workshop. We went around the class (natch) each saying what we were reading and what it was about. This is how [...]
BOOK REVIEW: Questions of Travel by Michelle de Kretser
I was in a pool in Bali earlier this month and had just read the opening pages of Questions of Travel. ‘I knew that in four or five pages that this is a work of genius,’ I said to my daughter, as I floated on some child’s pilfered foam noodle, filled with the expansion and [...]
Excited about MWF13
I haven't been this excited about the Melbourne Writers Festival in like, forever, and I haven't been to anything at any festival for ages. No offence to previous organisers, but this year is pretty dang fabulous and I've diarised a total of 16 spots. This is what caught my interest this year: There are various [...]
Oh hello rainy Saturday
I just tried 're-blogging' for the first time, see results below. I don't LOVE the images that came with the posts, but the content of each is worth reading. I also don't love the font that my comments are in down the bottom. Yuck. It's clear I'm going to have to force myself to start [...]
The Pros And Cons Of A Two-Book Deal, by Alison Booth
Interesting post on two-book deals. I'd like to know if the same sentiments would hold if the situation was NOT for a sequel... I had a writing teacher advise not to accept a two-book deal, but maybe that's coming from a person established and with a high profile. New writers are at the mercy of [...]
The Single Largest Cause of Writer’s Block–Might Not Be What You Believe
This is good, from Kirsten Lamb. Useful even for literary fiction writers, not just plotters & genre peeps.
Today, I’d like to talk about the single greatest reason for writer’s block (aside from laziness and fear, but we can chat about those another time). I spent years as an editor, and I believe I’m a pretty good one. I’ve taken stories that were train wrecks and helped the author create a best-seller. Just ask Piper Bayard about Firelands, LOL.
I had a unique ability to pull apart a story and locate what wasn’t working and why. Then I could guide that writer to the best book possible (without altering that writer’s voice). Editing is a skill, but it’s a different skill from creating. For instance, a person who restores historical houses isn’t necessarily someone who can draw a blueprint and build a new house. The restorer looks to the bones of the house and fixes what’s already standing to help create what the owner envisions.
Same with…
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Hello.
I am back from hols and happy to be home. I do love Melbs, even though it's chilly and grey. This week I have to hit the ground running; teaching three gigs, getting a thing cut out of my back on Friday and then a mighty Tour de France dinner with my sister and her [...]
Gone fishing. Back later.
Not really fishing, but yes, back later.
A not-review of Jill Stark’s HIGH SOBRIETY
I was going to be very clever with this. I thought to use a 12-step framework to present the review. Geddit? I got to two steps and then stopped writing (but not reading, finished it like that [snaps fingers] and have been proselytising about it all over the city.) I've also decided this will not [...]
Writing when you’re not a writer who can’t ‘not write’
It's a convoluted title but it expresses, once you penetrate the layers to get to the exact meaning, something I've thought about before. I know a few writers and most of us would say that we can't 'not write' but there must be some who write for reasons other than not being able to not [...]
The Review Page, still in the factory
I'm still trying to work out how to drive this bloody wordpress. I've created a new page at the top for 'Reviews' and I want to have pages linked off that, for each review I write. Not so easy it seems but I shall prevail. Somehow. The last couple of days I've read two blog [...]
Are you, like me, tinkering with a novella?
I've got so many things on the go, including a novella. Australian and NZ writers can submit their novella ms by 2 December this year to Seizure and be one of 4 winners. If nothing else, the writer submission page answers what a novella is (well for their purposes): 'a slim 20 - 50,000 words. [...]
During the whilst
While looking for pictures to use in the review section, I found this:Annotations on Hemingway's A Moveable Feast which contain page references, links to youtube clips, photos and extra quotations.It's quite simply extraordinary.I know Ernest Hemingway is passé and a lot of people bag him and/or his writing but if anyone wanted a taster, A [...]
Friday wrap with lettuce
Over the weekend I am going to begin carving out a space on this blog for reviewing. I'm quite excited about how to approach it. I know, I know. All talk and no action. Sorry about that but I've been writing. I'm working like crazy on my second thing, let's call it The Sugar Men. [...]
So my dear ones
I was going to write my first review on Jill Stark's High Sobriety. No, it's not a novel, yes it's like a memoir of a year without alcohol. But it was so important, I lent it to a friend this morning to read. So, I'm thinking The Great Gatsby will be my first review. Why [...]
Hi back to Lili and Domino
Dear Lili & Domino. Gigi says woof back, which means 'hey.' And you might be interested in this blog post from years ago, when she got onto my computer one time. It's quite doggy: Gigi guest post: My garden
This is good
6 Rules of Thumb (from an editor-turned-writer) This one too: 7 Interesting Links for Writers Funny how we are attracted to lists and posts that have numbers in them. And I'm not the only one thinking about book reviews. This from Cate Russell-Cole. That's it for today. I'm off to make pumpkin soup.
Okay, I’m back
This week I need to: - catch up on sleep - dry out from my boozy trip - 'keep my pecker up' - teach tomorrow, too early but a great group of Year 8 girls - start writing my first 'proper' book review or pike at the last minute and decide to just write a [...]
As promised, the book review post # 3
While I gird my loins to write my first, thoughtful and considered book review (and egads, which one to choose?), here is my third installment of notes and thoughts. It's messy and somewhat incoherent, something I will try to avoid when reviewing though I can't promise much. I haven't had a chance to proof this, [...]
My excuses and I do have several
Reasons why I have not yet posted on book reviewing: 1. I've been procrastinating 2. I've been writing (which is better, yes?)* 3. I've been teaching (a little bit) 4. I've been re-watching West Wing (a lot) 5. I've been reading heaps. Just finished abotu three in a row that didn't do it for me, [...]
Dragging my feet a little
I wrote this yesterday and then something happened and it didn't publish. Then I sat down to re-write and THEN I saw it in the drafts. So here it is. I've been woken early by my husband's chicken foot over my side of the bed. I wish he would cut his toenails. I also had [...]
While I’m cogitating on the next ‘How-to’ book review post…
I wanted to quickly list the books that I have on my shelves that I have found (variously) helpful in improving my writing skills but thought I'd also write a bit about my beliefs for revising work. Editing Knowing and clearly understanding what the different types of revision are is a first step and this [...]
Workshop in Brisbane – writing memoir
On Sunday I flew up to Brissy to attend a workshop at the Queensland State Library, run by the QWC. Facilitated by Patti Miller, it was on Writing the Real Story. While my focus is fiction, and novels (although am working on a novella en ce moment, god knows why, it seems from my reading [...]
Writing book reviews: How to post # 2
I have three new books: Madeleine: A Life of Madeleine St John by Helen Trinca The Memory Trap by Andrea Goldsmith All That Is by James Salter I don't know when I'll read them. I already have so many unread. But I'll put them into my inventory and put them beside the bed and get [...]
If you watch one thing today, watch this
The Crickets Have Arthritis by Shane Koyczan. I'm not a big poetry or spoken-word person. This is amazing and it will probably make you cry. My only 'not-like' bit is the mention of God but other than that, it's perfect. You can google the words too, but how they come alive when he speaks them. [...]
Learn with me: Book reviews ‘How to’ post #1
So, I feel I'm crap at writing the sort of book reviews I want to write. I know good ones when I see them, I enjoy lengthy and meaty reviews, ones where the focus can shift from the specific book at hand and include other works by the same author, and indeed relevant pieces by [...]
Game of Thrones – Friday video
While I'm getting my act together to put up some more stuff about book reviewing, please enjoy the interview below with George RR Martin, creator of the Fire and Ice series (Game of Thrones). Even if you are not a GoT watcher/reader, or 'fantasy person' (I'm not ordinarily but I will confess to loving this [...]
The art of reviewing
There's been a bit of talk around the traps lately about literary criticism, blog reviewers (or should I say bloggers who review) and readers who review. Also aspiring authors who review. I was recently asked if I would be interested in doing reviewing and my knee-jerk reaction was to say NO. There were various sentiments [...]
I’m back
Back from my quick LA/NYC trip. Six flights in 7 days with two long-haul, two 5-hours and two one-hours. Travelling with the Qantas crew was fascinating and about half way through I started taking copious notes. I learned a lot being in the crew bus with them from airports to hotels, during the milling around [...]
Checking in from ORANGE County
So we leave tonight. It's been a whirlwind trip but when my friend asked me what I had planned for when I got home, I said 'What, you mean after I take to my bed for a week, depressed?' I know that I couldn't do what he does - flying all the time. It's relentless [...]
Yes please
I would like to spend a year in Hemingway's attic and write. * Also, I am reading Hilary Mantel's Beyond Black. What a book. Like many others I suspect I tried Wolf Hall. I am just not that into historical fiction. let me try that again: I am not into historical fiction. But this, oh [...]
Overnight successes
Here is an interesting article/interview with The Rosie Project author Graeme Simsion, on how his wildly-successful debut novel came into existence. For what seems like an overnight success, this project was years in the making. It gives those of us working hard at our 'things' hope and reassures us too (or me, anyway) that persistence [...]
Isabel Allende & Friday wrap (with rocket)
I haven't read a lot of Allende but I remember being very taken with Eva Luna. I just saw a link to January Magazine, who have an alphabetical list of authors who have websites. There are a lot of names but not so many that I recognise. The Allende link I have below goes to [...]
Quick trip on horizon
I'm going to LA and New York for a flying visit (long story but I have a friend who works for Qantas, he gets flight benefits that he can give to friends, so a cheap business-class return ticket to LA is all happening. And cheap is like really cheap). We are leaving Easter Sunday. And [...]
Best one-stop (publishing info) shop I think I’ve seen
And that title is probably the worst I've ever seen. Never mind. I was googling around when I found Ian Irvine's website. He's a fantasy author and has most helpfully laid out, in order on one page virtually everything about the writing/publishing process, divided into three sections: Getting There, Surviving Publishing and Coping with Success. [...]
Not a Review: Most exciting read for a long time
Currently in the second half of May We Be Forgiven by AM Homes. Have struggled to lose myself in novels lately but this one is good. That is all. PS Here's a link to a recent comment thread at Devoted Eclectic (Elizabeth Lhuede's blog, who is also the founder of the Australian Women Writers Challenge) [...]
Gone Fishing
Back next week.
Edited – Not about Building web traffic and all that jazz
EDITED - I couldn't find that post again on building blog traffic. I'll keep trying but in the meantime, here is another link from Jane's site. I have to say, it's one of the most comprehensive 'writer support' sites I've seen. You could spend days trawling through the material. Below is a link to some [...]
TED Talk 2 – Elizabeth Gilbert
I might not be the only person in the world who didn't read Eat, Pray, Love. Yes, I poo-poohed it at the time. When I was in Bali on a family holiday in 2011, my sister was reading it. It seemed everyone had been reading it for years. You know that response you have when [...]
Now with blogroll
I've copied across many of my writerly links from my personal blog so that I can have them stored here because this is the space I'm shaping into the writing thing, the other blog is just personal blah blah stuff. There are a lot of helpful links to the left-hand side (in terms of writing [...]
Who are you?
I was looking at the CAL website today and almost joined but then thought I should wait and get some advice about it. But I got up to the 'select your title' bit. It is a drop-down menu and I don't think I've ever seen so many choices. I so desperately want to be a [...]
Friday wrap (with lettuce)
Things in my head today: 1. The Hilary Mantel 'scandal' 2. Coming-of-age stories 3. Getting away from the Internet A couple of weeks ago, I saw a link to an article by Hilary Mantel which was actually a speech she gave London Review of Books lecture series at the British Museum. I thought the article [...]
A reading plan for 2013
I have read a few books so far this year but the most memorable so far has been The Bell Jar. I'll say it again: I just finished reading The Bell Jar. I'll have to do a separate post on it once I've processed and digested but I thought it was fucking amazing. But get [...]
Robert Gottlieb, The Art of Editing No. 1
The Paris Review interviews are just fantastic. This is No. 1 on the art of editing, with Robert Gottlieb, published in 1992, and despite my best efforts at finding others on editing, it seems to be the only interview on that topic (there are lots on The Art of Fiction, and Poetry, Biography, Non Fiction) [...]
Some snippets about On Writing Well
I'm reading through On Writing Well by William Zinssen. It's for non-fiction writers and journalists really but I think there are parallels and transferences to be made. I've probably broken several of his usage versus jargon 'rules' just in that one sentence (not sure if transference can be used in that way and as a [...]
GIRLS update
Sorry I am a bit obsessed at the moment. It seems the most recent episode of GIRLS has got people in lathers all over the world. The problem seems to be this: how could someone who looks like this: possibly seduce and spend two days with someone who looks like this: There's all sorts of [...]
So I’m sleeping very well
Which is a little strange, I thought I'd be unsettled. Tonight, I caught up on the last two eps of GIRLS. I'd seen a couple of comments on twitter from Bret Easton Ellis and this is what he said: Bret Easton Ellis @BretEastonEllis GIRLS: the almost unbearable pathos and honesty of the last two episodes [...]
I failed statistics: 1982, 1st year Arts Degree
It was 1982 and I was doing Arts at Melbourne Uni, straight out of school. My subjects were History of Revolutions, English, Psychology and Politics. When it came to the end of year exams, I turned up at the Exhibition Buildings for my statistics exam (part of psychology) without my calculator. I tried to do [...]
New: Sydney Review of Books
There's a lot of good stuff going on right now in the Australian reading/writing world. First came the Australian Women Writers space, created by Elizabeth Lhuede in 2012. Elizabeth blogs at Devoted Eclectic. The AWW have a 2013 reader challenge that you can sign up for, which follows the inaugural challenge last year. The AWW [...]
All about the process
I'm all about the writing process at the moment and am working my way through the wonderful Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. Part memoir, part users-guide, it covers a lot of things including the shitty first draft and how to actually do it. With the internet these days, and articles linked all over the [...]
Scattered
I remember a few years ago feeling I had reached the point where I was so stuffed with fiction I couldn't read it anymore, and turned to NF. I am wondering whether it's not happening again. I feel like my reading is flighty, agitated and skittish. I can't commit, I flit around, looking for something [...]
My literary agent, Virginia Lloyd
[This isn't Virginia, this is me now that I have an agent. Der.] This morning I saw that Virginia announced on twitter that I am now on her client list. I can't tell you how much it thrills me to have an agent, and for that agent to be Virginia. There's a lot to be [...]
First interview with Amanda Lohrey from The Writer’s Room
Writer Amanda LohreyIf you haven't already subscribed to this new publication, and you are a keen student of learning as much as possible about 'the craft' (and also if you are a nosy sticky-beak like me and love to read about writers and their writing processes) then get thee here and subscribe. If you do, [...]
January over, what does Feb have in store?
Disclaimer: this is a meandering post and it's really quite self-absorbed. You have been warned. Last night on twitter I saw someone write: A writer is someone who has agreed to do homework every night for the rest of their lives. This stuck with me, because it does seem as if I am constantly 'doing [...]
First plot point, mid-point, second plot point. Etc.
I'm doing a bit of reading about screenwriting and how a person might apply structural and plotting strategies to novel writing. I've ordered a book about 'story engineering' because I want to learn how to be able to make conscious decisions about plot and structure while not losing my instinctive organic processes with characterisation and [...]
Catching up to the rest of the universe
Just finished reading Gone Girl, and I really mean just; about half an hour ago. This is NOT a review because I can't be bothered putting too much effort into writing about this. Not because it's not good, not because I don't have plenty to say, simply because after a bad night's sleep and a [...]
Life of Pi
Quite an extraordinary movie even if only for the visuals (especially the realism of the tiger; how he swam accurately, how his facial expressions shifted, how his eye colour changed as he became deteriorated — his coat thinning, nose drying out and becoming pink and his form becoming emaciated). It made me want to re-read the book, to [...]
This is an interesting article.
I read this article via twitter not five minutes AFTER I'd sent off my revised thing to an agent... There's more stuff on this (different) lit agent's blog which looks like it deserves exploring. I'm in an in-between place, where I haven't been offered representation in a formal, overt way yet the agent is interested. [...]
Advice from The Times on writing well.
This is an excellent article on writing, from The New York Times. I reckon you could spend a day reading it and following the links and making notes and having either light-bulb moments where you go 'ahhhhh' OR affirmation moments where you go 'yes, that's right, that's what I think.' It's one article that encapsulates [...]
What is it about Helen?
I wanted to go to the Helen Garner talk at the NonFictioNow Conference in Melbourne last year, but couldn't, so was very pleased to see this video via Virginia Lloyd's twitter. I can't seem to embed the video, so here is the link to the Wheeler Centre website, which will take you directly to the [...]
Emotional fiction with moral heft
From a recent New York Times piece on writer George Saunders, I took a few notes. I found it fascinating what he says about fiction and the idea of 'emotional fiction' especially. The thing on the table was emotional fiction. How do we [Franzen, DFW and Ben Marcus] make it? How do we get there? [...]
Understanding metafiction
Metafiction is on my list of things to learn more about. Here is a great post on it from Ryan O'Neill.
Just like Eminem in 8 Mile
Finding the time to write can be difficult. If you're like me, sometimes it can take a full day or so to get 'into the zone.' This means trying to avoid the static of real life, which unfortunately can include interactions with other human beings including husbands and children and relatives and friends, as well [...]
Helen Garner’s True Stories
I am re-reading True Stories, a collection of essays and other non-fiction snippets written by Helen Garner. It contains an essay titled A Scrapbook, An Album which I read first in another collection, called Sisters, edited by Drusilla Modjeska and published in 1993. I have my mother's inscription on the inside: To Dearest Jen, Much Love Mum, [...]
Flawed memories
Sometimes, as a person who likes to write things, I collect stories and end up telling it to others and in the telling, I make it better than the original. The thing is, I'm not lying; what's happened is I've misremembered the details and then filled in with other bits. Sometimes this includes the conflation [...]
Our Quentin
I am really excited about Tarantino's next movie, Django. Partly, because it's Tarantino, partly because it's got Di Caprio in it. I had a big response to Inglourious Basterds, (feel uncomfortable saying I loved it because it was so chilling in parts) and wrote a long post about it on my WOS blog. This is [...]
Throughlines
I first heard about throughlines (in fiction) last year (2012). Today, I am focusing on my own, making sure that the unraveling of story is perfectly paced. To me it's about keeping a story connection going, a character's development; managing the revealing of information and then tying it up (or not) at the right time [...]
That in-between space
I love the time between Boxing Day and New Year's Eve. It goes quiet then gets busy again, but it's a perfect time for drifting around the house, calmly pottering. The house usually empties a little at this time of year; two thirds of the children go to stay with grandparents, husband works through. I do [...]
Christmas Eve
I've spent the day thus far cleaning. All is done so I can relax now and make potato salad and rice salad and start drinking champagne around 5pm. I was vaccuming the rug beside my bed (I should say our bed, shouldn't I?) and it has two medallions and floral motifs and is a gorgeous [...]
Great things
Found $450 pushed up the back of my bedside drawer - excellent. This morning, I think I solved my structure question about the next thing I'm working on. It's another novel, it's the first of my Turkish stories. I have the first draft completed, it's rawther polished but still is really just the base now [...]
Tracing influence
I'm reading an interview with Michel Houellebecq in The Paris Review. These interviews are marvellous; along with First Tuesday Book Club catch ups on iView, these Paris interviews I think will take up much of my eyeball time over summer. I've never read any of Houellebecq's novels; I can barely spell his surname, there's a [...]
What’s in a name?
Bought Middlemarch today at Readings for my 16-year-old daughter for Christmas. She's quite the precocious reader. In addition to ALL the vampiric books she's read: The Russians - she's reading Anna Karenina now and has read Lolita. The English - Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Persuasion, Sense and Sensibility and Northanger Abbey. She's read Great Expectations [...]
Easy
American Psycho, almost unreadable
[I have the cover on the left but the one on the right is super creepy and disturbing, don't you think?] I'm almost finished Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho. It is as bad as they say. At times it is simply unreadable and I have physical reactions - gasping and putting hands over my eyes. [...]
Influences – I feel strongly about John Irving
It's time to own it, I suppose. I have to say, his early stuff was fantastic and then it did get very self-indulgent which is disappointing but I did just recently see a quotation from someone saying that a writer does their best work in the first twenty years. (Maybe? maybe not.) If you want [...]
True readerly confessions
It's not fashionable or cool or literary, but I cut my readerly/writerly teeth on the following authors as a young person (amongst other more 'socially-acceptable' classic ones). I still love them all and at a drunken dinner party, would defend their goodness to the bitter end where you'd want to stab me with the butter [...]
Notes on a Scandal, part 1
Jumping the gun here because I haven't finished reading this yet BUT I just had to mark my enjoyment of this book by a mini-post about the language used in this slender, satisfying novel. Am I the last person on earth to read this book? Published in 2003, the movie (I saw) came out in [...]
House of Sticks by Peggy Frew
I really enjoyed House of Sticks. It's about a mother who has put aside her music career to look after her three children. She has a husband, Pete, who is a fairly equal partner in the domestic running of things, and he is a solid and loving presence. It was refreshing to see a male [...]
All serious writing starts from within
This is a quotation from an article I just read on The Times Literary Supplement, on a talk given by Richard Ford yesterday. All serious writing starts from within. This is contained within the concluding paragraph: Ford concluded that “to define and detail and to push and extend what can be said is the essential [...]
What publishers want
Australian literary agent Virginia Lloyd recently visited Sydney (Virginia lives in Brooklyn) to have a series of meetings with agents to find out: what they want more of and what they are sick of reading or not interested in. In short: helpful information for writers wanting to get published. There are no huge surprises - [...]
Huffington Post article on Australian writers of the female variety
Elizabeth Lhuede's article is a good'un. Read here.
Writing & 2013
Last night, my writing group met at Walter's Wine Bar (try the coq au vin. Delish.) to finish off the year. We discussed some things we want to do for next year, our goals if you will: 1. We all committed to a stated number of hours we will put in on our writing per [...]
Lola Bensky by Lily Brett
I was going to write only a few of paragraphs on this because I want this wordpress space to be pithy but I simply can't harness myself with this one. As Lola Bensky's father Edek would say: Oy, cholera. Lola Bensky is a rock journalist for an Australian publication. No doubt elements of Lola [...]
Day of achievements
In the morning, read the papers. The worked on four short stories getting them ready to send off into the world. Then, this afternoon, cleaned all the windows and even the brickwork of the house with a pressure-hose-thingy. I have never lived in such a cobwebby house but it's sparkling now. Quickly gave the roses [...]
My old diary – sometime in 1986
I wrote this: D said she also saw me on Rock Arena last Tuesday, said it's really good and I'm chatting to Russell from Gas Babies and D described him and it's the nice guy from the Oxford who had wrestling bubble gum cards NOT the Columbo trench-coat wearing man. Relief. I didn't want to [...]
Brain Pickings
I came across this on twitter - what a blog, so much stuff, nice layout too. Brain Pickings
The Lighthouse by Alison Moore
I read two books last week and this 2012 Man Booker short-listed novel was one of them. The main character, Futh, is a man who is contained and restrained, and Moore's writerly hand was so light it was as if she left him alone to wend his way through the narrative. I am still haunted [...]
The Bridport Prize 2012
They finally have the 'shortlisted' names on their website. My name doesn't appear twice, but I had two stories in the shortlist: Click here to see the page. I'm pretty happy about it.
Missed a few days
So, yesterday I did [another] writing workshop. This one was more to meet people than to learn, though I did learn some things so that was a bonus. The workshop was run by Rebecca Starford from Affirm Press/Kill Your Darlings and Jon Bauer, who wrote Rocks in the Belly. I took my copy of Rocks [...]
Maybe I’ll do a little something each day
So it's not often you experience an 'AH FUCK' moment in a book or film these days. Maybe it's my age - my jaded feeling that nothing much can surprise me, that things are usually predictable. Not saying there's not a HEAP of pleasure to be found in many many things, including books but I [...]
Day two of my lovely wordpress
Look how fresh and clean it is. And dull. I'm not sure what I'm doing, just want to get a few more pages on here. Let me tell you about the books I bought yesterday: The Mother's Group by Fiona Higgins. I think this one is going to surprise me and I like that. Not [...]
New to WordPress. Be gentle with me.
So after seven years using blogger I am having to learn the WordPress way. Here I will blog under my name and thus flesh out my triumvirate of social media positioning, for they tell me it is the new thing. So, you can find me on twitter and facebook and now here. Aren't you lucky?
SERAGLIO 