Have you ever thought about the legacy you might leave for others, or the legacies passed down to you by previous generations? Whether or not we have direct descendants, or know our ancestors, our lives and stories have the power to connect with and impact others in numerous ways. Last week, I had the opportunity […]
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 […]
I’ve recently been running a series of workshops on writing memoir and family history at the City of Vincent Library and Local History Centre. In our first session, I led participants through a series of activities to help them stare down the blank page and start writing. It was fabulous to see just how many […]
I’ve just finished a series of workshops with a wonderful group of family historians. We met fortnightly over the space of a term, and I heard some truly extraordinary stories, not only because of the particular people and events included, but also the way in which those stories have been told. This post is partly […]
NB: This post is an edited version of a speech I gave at the launch of the anthology, Truth or Lies, for the KSP Writers’ Centre Past Tense group on 11 June 2016. I still have to pinch myself that I’m primarily an author of non-fiction – because I always dreamed of being a novelist. […]
Earlier this year, I heard Australian author Claire Zorn speak about her YA novel The Sky so Heavy at the Perth Writers Festival. I bought a signed copy for my teenage son, only to discover he had already borrowed it from the library (‘But I’ll read it again. It’s good.’) – and wound up reading it […]