Writing
February 4, 2020
I’m ditching social media. Actually, that’s a little misleading. It’s not exactly fake news. And it’s not a deliberate deception. However, it is quite possibly hyperbole. Let me explain. For some time now, I’ve been struggling to consistently apply ‘bum glue’, which Bryce Courtney often said was the necessary ingredient to finishing a novel. For […]
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January 7, 2020
Although these prompts could be done any time, the beginning of the year seems a great time to reconnect with your memoir or family history project. You may still be in holiday mode, or just trying to motivate yourself to get going again after the Christmas break. None of these involve much writing, but all […]
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January 7, 2020
It’s a new year, and potentially a new decade, depending on your definition of when one begins and ends. My hope for you is that you’re able to kick creative year off to a good start, especially for those of you on school holidays and with time to spare. However, I am also aware that […]
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September 3, 2019
Are there authors you believe you should read simply because they’re considered one of the literary greats, or have appeared on best seller lists? For many years, Isabel Allende was that author for me. At uni, I’d studied the magic realism of Gabriel Garcia Marquez in 100 Years of Solitude, but never quite managed to […]
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August 20, 2019
Creative Prompts #5
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You may be aware that I continue to update my list of Competitions for Young Writers, as old competitions inch past their closing date and new ones come to my attention. The following creative prompts draw on some of the themes identifiied in the competitions open at the time of publishing this post. Regardless of […]
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July 23, 2019
When author Judith Kerr passed away on 22 May 2019, there was an outpouring of accolades, obituaries and memories in print, online and across social media. I confess that while her picture book, The Tiger Who Came to Tea and her semi-autobiographical novel, When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, were vaguely familiar to me, I’d never […]
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