I'm having some trouble with my website here. A wonderful wonderful designer is doing things with it to make it better but I managed to muck it up a bit by fiddling. So bear with me/us as I/we get it how I want it. But for now. A list: I am reading Bruce Pascoe's [...]
Category: Miscellany
Willy Lit Fest 2017
It was a good couple of days. Saturday I saw Leah Kaminsky, Rachael Guy and Andy Jackson talking poetry, the body, chronic illness and disability. It was interesting and moving. All smart people with brilliant things to say, and all gorgeous readers of their own - and other - work. Then it was my [...]
Monday musings
Melbourne is very cold at the moment so I'm sitting propped in bed, 'working'. And as usual I have a bunch of pages open in my Mozilla browser. I'm always envious of anybody who has gotten to see The Museum of Innocence in Istanbul. I know I'll get there, and I've known about it since it opened. [...]
What I’ve been reading, what I stopped reading, what I want to be reading
But first, congratulations to Sofie Laguna for her Miles Franklin win, for THE EYE OF THE SHEEP. You can read more about that here at Allen & Unwin's website. I found out that Sofie had no idea she was going to win, in fact had been told not to expect a win, so what a triumph, and [...]
Saturday links
Melbourne's evening skies at the moment are so gorgeous. I think that what are lot of us are doing with the internet, with twitter, blogs etc, is curating. We are collecting links to articles of interest, stories, pictures, as well as trying to collect people of like mind, making connections with people. It really is a [...]
Game of Thrones Saturday
Because I am trying to post here twice a week (and probably failing at it) and because I am pretty lazy, here are two things that I found in my facebook feed today. If you are up to date with GoT: watch and enjoy most uproariously. If you are not up to date, or haven't [...]
Long time, no blog
Melbourne has been particularly beautiful over recent days. Last week I went to Rickett's Point to get some author photos done. This is how gorgeous it was: The photographer had said 'Let's wait for a dark, stormy day, get some moody clouds.' Well, Melbourne [shakes fist at sky] you aren't behaving. I am, apparently, one of [...]
Well, hello 2015
It's a massive understatement to say I'm looking forward to 2015, but I am because: 1. Something is happening with my book and I'll be able share I hope soon. It's coming, I promise. I PROMISE. 2. but not too soonish because I'm going travelling in a couple of weeks, and it looks something like this: London, Budapest, [...]
Friday wrap, with lettuce
Ouf how time is pressing against me, with lots of things clamouring for my attention. Once I worked in a place where a (wonderful) graphic designer used to call out to the room "priority conflict!" when deadlines were ticking closer and she had heaps to do and now it's what I feel like shouting too, [...]
Friday wrap w/ lettuce
Well, what news have I other than that my sleeping time is being sucked by the Tour de France and I am finding myself wanting to cook and eat Franch food? Not much other than I've been reading (nothing stops me reading). So how heinous are these book covers? Wuthering Heights (like Lolita) has so [...]
Flashback to 30 June, 2005 ‘What’s beside my bed’
This is from my journal about three years before I started to realise if I didn't start taking my ideas about fiction writing seriously, nothing would ever happen with it. I still circled it for a few more years (the mention of Edward Said means I was doing my thesis reading and therefore all energies [...]
Bits & pieces
READING At the moment I have a lot of books partially read, and plenty unread, but that doesn't stop me bringing more into the house. I bought Wild Things by Brigid Delaney earlier this week, one of those 'how has she done this?' purchases, as well as Jennifer Egan's A Visit From the Goon Squad [...]
Going Global, ASA Seminar held Wed 14 May, Melbourne
Anne Beilby, Rights Manager at Text Publishing.I went along to this not quite sure what it was about (my fault, no one else's.) But I knew two things:1. Anne Beilby from Text Publishing was the speaker and 2. she is a guru when it comes to all things to do with publishing rights.Actually I knew [...]
Sleepers Almanac No. 9
The Sleepers Almanac is being launched tonight. I have a poem in it, which is weird because I don't really write poetry. But I did write this one, and it got in. Come along tonight if you're in Melbourne and aren't so tightly diarised that you can go to something with two hours' notice. I [...]
Literary bits & pieces
This is quite good but the best quotation is the first one from Elizabeth Wurtzel. Never mind the bizarre photo accompanying it. You glance at it: something's not quite right. You look closely at it. Yep, it's weird. It’s really hard to be a writer. You have to be born with incredible amounts of talent. [...]
Gone fishing
Heading West today for some of the following: Also publishers, editors, other writers, readers. And that. Also maybe this: certainly this and for sure a drop or two from somewhere like here Back end of next week, chickens.
How Orhan does it
Manuscript page from Orhan Pamuk’s notebook for “The Black Book." “There is no constant formula. But I make it my business not to write two novels in the same mode. I try to change everything. This is why so many of my readers tell me, I liked this novel of yours, it’s a shame you [...]
My piece in the current Kill Your Darlings journal
I've got a piece in the current KYD Journal called The Primordial Place: Me and Jardo by the Lake. It's about a trip to Lake Eyre I took in 1989 which coincided with the sour end of a long and unrequited crush. You can subscribe here, or purchase hard copies. I also believe there is [...]
I do so love Bill Murray
As part of my education of my daughter, we watch lots and lots of movies together. She's seen all the good '80s ones, and all the bad. The comedies, the dramas and the horrors (think I scarred her recently with The Exorcist. Yes I am a liberal parent when it comes to movies and books.) [...]
Back into it
Am back from the beach and into the writing. Have a bit of urgency about it and today was stressful. I hate Word. I don't know how to drive it properly, with formatting and the editing feature, and I don't have time to work it out so I have to do it in a really [...]
Going fishing, again.
Well, not really but you get my drift. That man in the middle above is holding what *might* be a 'Pirate's Capriosca.' I like to think it is, because that's what we'll be drinking on the hot nights down the beach. Melbourne is staring down the fishing-rod of a run of hot days - tomorrow [...]
Tracing influences
TS Eliot said Mediocre writers borrow. Great writers steal. I have, on order, a book entitled Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative by Austin Kleon. I'm interested in the idea of stories being recycled but also in the idea of plagiarism (am writing a new manuscript which has plagiarism [...]
2014
I've got a problem. You're going to think I'm crazy but let me explain. My agent has read and loved my second novel manuscript. This is great, really good. I'm waiting for her editorial notes and I'll do another revision and then she'll send it to the publishers, the same ones who saw the first [...]
Messages from 2004 – no one is taking a punt any more
I have several large ring binder folders that are stuffed with clipped newspaper articles, book reviews, my handwritten notes from courses and other printed material, mainly pieces on writing that I've found online. Sometimes when my mind is too buzzy to settle on fiction when I'm in bed at night, before sleeping, I pull out [...]
Tracing influence
It's almost the end of the year but I've still got stuff to do. Teaching finishes this week — my final session is Thursday. But there's writing, always writing. I'm not complaining. It is the thing I most love to do and I feel really lucky to be able to do it, not just as [...]
Monday musings
Here are some things I've come across in my internet wanderings this morning: 1. A wonderful piece on Hilary Mantel. It's from last year but it gives you a lot of info about her as a person and a writer. Lots of bits in it resonate for me, but when she's talking about taking a [...]
Wagner’s The Ring Cycle
Brünnhilde Last night the Wheeler Centre hosted another event at The Capitol (I've been to a bunch of them lately around the city) and it was Julia Zemiro talking to a panel of people about Wagner's The Ring Cycle. (Panel being director Neil Armfield, foodie Maggie Beer, poet and writer and Australian Book Review Editor [...]
During the whilst
Over the next few days I'm really busy but was conscious I hadn't posted here for a week. So in the meantime, until I can get something else up, here are some snippets to keep you going. 1. I've just been browsing through Virginia Lloyd's website. Again. Yeah yeah, I know she's my agent but [...]
Daily Rituals by Mason Currey
What more fascinating thing to read about than how artists work? I bought a book about the daily rituals of a long list of writers and painters and it is wonderful to be able to browse details on how they approach(ed) their craft. Anthony Trollope — a writer I haven't read but whose books my [...]
Ramona Koval talking to Susan Sontag
Most writers... do their best work in their first twenty years of writing... Many exceptions, but I'd say that's by and large the case. What happens with writers is they start repeating themselves, and they have less experience, they stay home all the time. They just get bogged down in their private lives and then [...]
A good week
Last week was a good one. On Tuesday I heard that a piece I submitted to Kill Your Darlings journal had been accepted. It's about a trip to Lake Eyre I made in 1989, and it's also about the sour-end of a one-way crush, flowing in the direction of me to him. Oh, unrequited crushing. [...]
Gone fishing
Back in a week chickens.
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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.
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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. [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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. [...]
Understanding metafiction
Metafiction is on my list of things to learn more about. Here is a great post on it from Ryan O'Neill.
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 [...]
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 [...]
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
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 