It’s fair to say that most people think writing is a solo affair: writer, computer, room, coffee. Silence, and thought. No interruptions. And this model is true for some. But it doesn’t work for many writers, and I’m one of them. I need stimulation, including interruptions when I want them. I need to see other […]
News
The resolution
Lovely old friends from Melbourne visited us this Christmas, and as we approached the new year, we looked back at some of the resolutions Tara* had made over recent years. They went something like this: Get your shit together Get shit done Get rid of shit. We were mulling on what 2019’s resolution could be. […]
A Maze of Story
I’m really delighted to announce I’m a patron of A Maze of Story, a small non-profit organisation that provides creative writing programs for primary school children who might not ordinarily have access to such enrichment. I’m in the very privileged position of being able to go to schools regularly and meet kids, teachers and librarians and […]
Interview about editing & writing
I had heaps of fun talking with Margaret River Press about editing Charles Hall’s forthcoming debut novel, Summer’s Gone, and writing my first adult novel, set in Margaret River and Gracetown in the late 1990s, called The Break. Check it out!
Living vicariously
As a child, I often pictured myself in khaki, ranging through the Australian bush helping to protect our native animals. I’d hold the little creatures tenderly, measure them, note their sex, check for pregnancy in females, record the data, and then kindly, lovingly, release them back into the world. Well I would have. I would […]
Spectacular new book trailer!
When The Spectacular Spencer Gray came out last month, I knew I had to get in touch with an old colleague. I wanted to ask the young filmmaker who made the book trailer for The Amazing Spencer Gray to turn her hand to the task again, this time for Spectacular. The result? Well, today the book trailer […]
Early reviews for The Spectacular Spencer Gray are in!
Early reviews for The Spectacular Spencer Gray are coming in and it’s hard not to be delighted. I’m including a few snippets here for those interested. Thank you to readers and reviewers alike and I look forward to seeing quite a few of you, along with your wonderful librarians and teachers, during Children’s Book Week! […]
My seventeen-year-old self returns for a visit
Last year I had the enormous pleasure of meeting up with my favourite high school teacher ever – my English teacher from Year 12. It had been nearly 30 years since I sat, entranced, in her classroom at a suburban state high school in Perth. I was running creative writing workshops at another WA high […]
The power of family
Families really fascinate me. So much of my writing, looking back on it, has been about family. Family teaches, controls, contains, cushions, protects, lures and repels us — all at the same time. It nurtures and carves us, in all the best, and sometimes the worst, ways. As a parent, I am very aware of […]
A last word
2016 has been a very big year. I haven’t posted here as often as I’d have liked to, and I’m sorry for that. Big 2016 = crazy-busy + beautiful-wonderful + tumultuous-difficult, and I know I’m not the only one to come careering down the hill towards a new year feeling a combination of exhausted, relieved and […]
