I’ve been tagged to contribute to the Terrible Titles Blog Hop by the lovely Kirsty Eagar, word-whisperer and surf-siren (check out Kirsty’s terrible titles here). Eight times, you scroll through a work in progress and let your cursor land on a random sentence, then use part of that sentence as a title. (Disclosure: to maintain a […]
Category: General
Kid Attack!
I wonder how many of us can remember when we first dared to dream about growing up to be a writer/illustrator? I know I didn’t get past the dreaming part for a very long time. I’m so pleased to share the work of a talented young graphic novelist, Ewan, who’s getting on with the business […]
On book angels…
A couple of days ago I posted a vague tweet about ‘book angels’ and promised to follow up. I’m always interested in the stories behind stories, so here’s some insight into mine. I’ve been lucky with the people I’ve met on my writing journey—either that, or the YA/children’s writing and publishing community is populated by […]
Rant: ain’t nobody’s business…
It’s not often I get filthy-mad after watching current affairs programs. I don’t watch a lot of TV. 60 Minutes is the exception, mostly because Sunday night is my night off and it has a good mix of human-triumph stories and the hard-hitting stuff, plus the odd prod to my social conscience. Last night’s combination […]
‘The Next Big Thing’ meme…
Thanks to Paula Weston and Fiona Wood for asking me to sign up to this. I wasn’t going to participate in this meme because so many other wonderful authors are on the brink of a new release and I’m barely out of the gate, but here we go – it sounds like fun. Here’s my […]
From the archive…
Here are some old pics I discovered when I was cleaning up my phone. They played a part in some of the setting and action scenes in Friday Brown. They were taken on my father-in-law’s property at Mt Jagged, Fleurieu Peninsula, SA. This was how I imagined the scrub surrounding Murungal Creek, but perhaps a little less green. […]
Rant: The quiet people…
I write because I love it. I write because I can’t paint. I write because it’s a solitary profession, perfectly suited to an introvert like me. But I’ve discovered it’s no solitary profession—for every hour I spend writing, I spend the equivalent speaking in public, or preparing to speak in public, or having a nightmare […]
Is reading overrated?
This question will be posed to a panel of authors, including me, at the Byron Bay Writers’ Festival in August. I imagine the discussion will be decidedly against—like asking a scarecrow if he really needs all that straw. Well, yes. The essence of the scarecrow is in the straw (I’m gunning hard for the Bad […]
Lost in translation
Voice recognition Message Bank—leave a voice message and it’ll be translated to text. Very cool, so Back to the Future. I must order a flux capacitator. Except here’s a message I left for my brother yesterday: Hey Bro. The whipper-snipper is behind the gate with a tin of fuel on the buggy. Thanks, Sis. Here’s the […]