Writing NSW and Festival Director Belinda Murrell brought together a who's who of Aussie authors, illustrators, publishers for the tenth Kids & YA Festival on Saturday and it was fabulous. Discussions ranged throughout the day. From the different pathways to... Continue Reading →
The first I'd heard of softly spoken and wickedly talented Nalini Singh was during last year's GenreCon organised by the Queensland Writers Centre. I added Wild Embrace (with the following cover), to my Speculative Fiction/YA/Fantasy/Paranormal Romance book pile: As my... Continue Reading →
Last year I asked a group of primary school students: 'What makes a great story?' Hands shot up and soon I had a white board full of answers like: adjectives spelling punctuation sentence structure My inner child was very confused.... Continue Reading →
Like winter, the school holidays are coming. You might have noticed parents huddling in groups, desperately clutching iPhones as they attempt to stitch together enough care options, activities and annual leave to get through to the end of January. I... Continue Reading →
Last week at the Genre Worlds: Popular Fiction in the 21st Century conference, which was held alongside GenreCon 2017, I was absolutely enthralled by a variety of academic papers examining a topic very close to my heart: genre fiction. My... Continue Reading →
Last weekend, over 240 writers, editors, agents and publishers packed the State Library of Queensland for GenreCon 2017; a three-day conference dedicated to genre fiction courtesy of the Queensland Writers Centre and the Australia Writer's Marketplace. The panels and workshops... Continue Reading →
After several weeks offline, I opened my social media accounts and was delighted to see students supporting poets, campaigners respecting our LGBT community and reviewers graciously accepting that not all books are going to be their cup of tea. Oh... Continue Reading →
A fountain pen is still the weapon of choice used by many writing greats (Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, Haruki Murakami and Isobelle Carmody to name a few) however, as any member of my writers' group can tell you, even with... Continue Reading →
Although I'm wary of reading memoirs in public (as I tend to dissolve into tears), I have gained so much, as a reader, writer and as a human being, from regularly stepping outside of my natural habitat of fiction to... Continue Reading →
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