For four months now, I’ve been commuting full time to Sydney. My commute is long, about two hours uninterrupted train time each way. And every time someone asks me how I’m coping with the commute I say I’m fine because it’s four hours, five days a week of guilt and distraction free writing. For the …
2018 in Review
I write this on the early train to Sydney. It’s my first day back at my new job, at a major publishing company, after Christmas. It’s the second of January 2019 and I already know this year is gonna rock my life like no other… But lets not get ahead of ourselves. This post is …
4 questions to ask before you give up on a story
I get it. Rejection is tough. Sometimes you start to wonder, is my story good enough? Is it good at all? Should I just give up and move on to the next thing. I’ve talked about rejection before. I’ve talked about how sometimes a rejection letter can be the most motivating thing you receive, I’ve …
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Why I Wish I liked Annihilation
I watched Annihilation the other night. Horror/thrillers where the cast gets picked off one by one until only the protagonist is left standing is not usually my jam but I really wanted to like this one. I wanted to like it because the core cast was entirely female in a genre and narrative structure that …
Can you only have one creative passion?
Can you only have one creative passion? If you’re a writer can you be a painter too? Can you be a musician and a sculptor? Yes, of course you can. Now that was a short post, perhaps I should go into more detail. For a very long time now I have identified as a …
NaNoWriMo 2017: Day 23 – 28
I know, I know, I promised daily posts in November and it's almost been a week! My excuse is this... my mum came to visit. And for me that means, DROP EVERYTHING! We went to waterfalls, fed calves, shopped, did a 6km coastal walk and drank lots of coffee. Today she's left and I'm sad …
NaNoWriMo 2017: Day 6
It's a rainy day here on the south coast of NSW. And today is the first day since NaNoWriMo began that I have nowhere to be. Yes, I still have some freelance commitments to attend to but other than that... it's all novelling, baby! Let's see how I went. November 6 Pre-prepared chicken for dinner …
Sweet Rejection
Being a writer comes with the bitter knowledge that you're going to be rejected... a lot. I have been lucky enough to have six short stories accepted (so far) but I also received 17 rejections this year alone. Those form rejections certainly sting but I take it in my stride, it's all part of the …
Letters from the Road: Emerald
Dear Dreamers, I'm busting out the WordPress app on my phone for the first time. I really should have done it sooner. You may have gotten more regular updates that way. Oh well. Since last I wrote we have travelled from Townsville to Cape York and back again... and then down to Emerald. We've started …
