Excitement here as one of my short stories, Calling Time, has been published on WORDLY Online. WORDLY Online (and its print counterpart WORDLY Magazine) is a literature publication of Deakin University. The publication includes everything from short fiction (like sci-fi piece Orb of Desecration), creative non-fiction (such as Eilean Donan which blends personal essay and…
Tag: writing
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You may have noticed that I’m not posting much at the moment. Or maybe you haven’t. It’s cool either way. You’ll always be welcome here. 🙂 Anyway, I thought I’d drop in to let you know that the reason I haven’t been around much (actually, there’s more than one reason, but that’s something for another…
All in the name of research
I’d have to say that one of the best things about being a writer is that you can justify anything under the guise of ‘research’. Okay, maybe you can’t justify anything anything, but you can pretty much justify most things. As long as it isn’t illegal. Or immoral. Or bad taste. But everything other than…
Rarely linear, sometimes chaotic, always meaningful
One of my dear writing friends wrote to me recently, saying that she thought she shouldn’t be blogging because she felt that her semi-regular posts which touched on a range of topics made it look as though she had five personalities. ‘Your posts don’t strike me as being inconsistent at all,’ I reassured her. ‘If…
The Sometimes Diary of Nina Thirkettle
Tuesday 24 May Forgive me, Diary, for I have not written for many weeks now. If you could have the good grace to grant me some absolution or whatever it is that you diary types are empowered to bestow, I would be much obliged forever in your debt less inclined to throw you in the…
The pseudonymous Elena Ferrante
I recently delved into the ‘unveiling’ of pseudonymous author Elena Ferrante and the impact the revelation had on reviewers and readers alike. Perhaps not surprisingly it’s got me thinking about pseudonyms on social media but more on that coming soon. Claudio Gatti’s proclamation in 2016 that pseudonymous author Elena Ferrante was, in fact, Anita Raja,…
The long and the short of it
Here are the wee stories I’ve written for the first five days of Writers Victoria’s Flash Fiction comp. Initially, my intention was to use it as an exercise to pull together some juicy sentences that I could expand on down the track. Then the working week started, reality hit and despite only needed to come…
Running late
She ran her hands down her thighs, trying to smooth the creases in her suit trousers. She’d have to go as she was; there was no time to change now. I’m gearing up for Writer’s Victoria Flash Fiction competition running for the month of April. If you like writing flash fiction, prompts will be released…
Day 28. Tick.
Today marks the final day in my ‘post everyday for a month’ challenge. While I have absolutely enjoyed pushing myself to get something up each day, I’ll happily admit to finding the schedule rather brutal. It’d be fair to say that I’m not unhappy to have the pressure off for a little bit. To those…
A literature clock … literally
This is one of the coolest things I’ve discovered lately and it’s all thanks to Jane Friedman and her Electric Speed newsletter. If you are not already signed up for her newsletter DO IT NOW. Each edition of Jane’s newsletter is packed full of useful information relating to the publishing world and writing generally. And…
Writing yourself into the story
I expect there’s more writing rules and pieces of writing advice out there in the world than there are writers. So, figuring out what works for you can be a bit of a trial-and-error process. As someone who spends most of my day in the business writing space, I’m still trying to figure out how…
I’m just going to start here …
I was rummaging around in my drafts folder this morning and found this snippet that I’d scribbled down at some point. Unfortunately, I left myself no clues as to what ending I had in mind – or even if I had an ending in mind – so I guess this is a teaser until the…
The Sometimes Diary of Nina Thirkettle
Tuesday, 22 February Today I had one of those weird-arse out-of-body experiences. One of those ones where you feel completely inside, yet completely outside of your body at the same time. I was both genesis of and unknowing witness to everything I did and said. Every sensation, every stimulation, was amplified, as though I was…
We spend our lives not seeing what we saw
It’s writing exercise time, again! This time the task was to use the prompt We spend our lives not seeing what we saw to draft three micro pieces – some poetry, some fiction, and a personal response. As always, I did these under time pressure and with the understanding that exercise of any kind isn’t…
Calling Time
I’m currently working on a short story called Calling Time about a woman caring for her ill mother. Underlying the love the woman has for her mother, there is a real sense of exhaustion and a ‘I don’t know how much longer I can do this’ feeling. In the excerpt below, she wakes after a…
My Grandmother’s Teapot
This was my Grandmother’s teapot. I can’t recall ever going to to her house and not seeing this little teapot sitting on the kitchen table, alongside her tannin stained teacup. As was the custom among her generation, she always used tea leaves and she always, always, steeped her tea way too long for anyone of…
Drawing energy from others (or a few of my blog discoveries)
As a newcomer to the blogosphere, I’ve been blown away by the willingness of established bloggers to visit my site and to leave me a ‘like’. Along with the warm fuzzy feeling this gives me, the other rather awesome benefit is that it has introduced me to some interesting/informative/fun blogs that I might not have…
Playing with perspectives: The girl in the hood
I’m not sure about you folks, but when I start a story, I usually have a clear idea of what POV it should be from, then invariably I get part way through and wonder if a different POV would tell the story better. Despite thinking about this a lot, I have to say that I…
The System
UPDATE: I’ve just seen that Baby Teeth Journal has their blackout poetry competition on again. So, if you think you can do better than my entry from last year (and let’s face, probably all of you could), head over to their site now! You have until 1 March 2022 to enter. The System the system…
Not. Not. Not. Not.
I have notebooks piled up around my study. One of them is my ‘Book of Memories’, where I scribble down random memories that pop up, usually triggered by some current event. Another, my commonplace book, records words and phrases that I like (I’ve talked about my commonplace book before). Yet another captures story ideas, in…
My treasure chest of life
In an earlier post, Fictional words with real-world swagger, I talked about how we can apply made-up worlds to our everyday lives and achieve real-world outcomes. Today, I want to give a shout out to the sentences that take your breath away; not in a oh-my-god-that’s-horrendous type of way, but in the I-have-to-go-back-and-read-that-again type of…
Embracing the bad
Kyle A. Massa’s recent post on his most embarrassing writing fails is a cracking read. But it’s not the writing fails that makes it so good; it’s Kyle’s retelling of events and his ability to look past the cringe of reading back through old writing to find the lessons therein. Those lessons being, if I…
A 28-day month has its advantages
Back at the dawn of the new year, I wrote a post explaining why this blog and why now. TL;DR The blog is my driver for writing more often and getting past the fear that strikes when I think about sharing my writing with, well, anyone! Since that post I’ve managed to post just twice….
Language and power: Margaret Atwood’s ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’
Today I’m going back to my academic roots to take a look at the use of language in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. I got on a bit of a roll so it is a long one. Sorry! ‘But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.’ George Orwell, 1946 Language is loaded with…
Grey Box remnant
Like the Girl in the cafe, this piece riffs on the work of another. This time, my inspiration is from David Foster Wallace and the opening sequence of his unfinished novel The Pale King. His poetic first sentence is something else. Past the suburban chaos and false borders of ill-claimed land and past the bleak…
This is why I’m here …
For those that have followed my blog since its inception (quick pause here while I yell a big thank you into the bloggerverse), you’ll know that my posts tend to be a bit all over the place. In fairness, I do give a heads up on this in my ‘About’ page, so I don’t feel…
See you on the other side
I came into December thinking that I might just be able to keep up my blogging schedule if I was really, really disciplined. What’s become apparent is that I’m really, really not. Not at this time of the year, anyway. So I’ve decided to wave the white flag, take a little time off, and get…
Today I celebrate my tiredness
Today I woke up tired. It’s the end of the week, I didn’t get a great sleep last night. I have hay fever, client deadlines, parents to worry about. And this covid thing still won’t go away. Enough. It isn’t often that I wake up tired, which is great, but sadly it means that I…
Girl in the cafe
It’s easy to get into a bit of funk with your writing practice but it’s not always easy to find your way out again. One of the things I’ve learned to do when creativity goes missing is to pull out some writing from someone I admire and to try and imitate their work. I find…
Richard
This flash fiction came out of a writing exercise where one of the key characters had to be unable to speak. I’ve left it in its raw form – I’m trying to be brave about sharing first drafts! Richard heard the click-clack of Dr Johnson coming up the corridor. He buoyed at the thought of…
We have only this life
My jumping off point for this poem was a quote from ‘Three Steps on the Ladder of Writing‘ by Cixous (1994). ‘We spend our lives not seeing what we saw.’ heart ruptures released from its anchor I close my eyes to banish the vision exorcise the demons but they hold fast to my being infiltrating…
Summer TBR pile is good to go
Is there anything better than holding a new book from one of your favourite writers in your hands, anticipating the feeling of being completely absorbed into another world, whether real or imagined? Nope, I can’t think of anything better either. Needless to say that it was an absolute delight to head to my local bookstore,…
The freedom to explore, change course and back-track
This post is a bit of a muddled reflection of how conditioning in childhood to ‘never give up’ can impact how we exercise our ability (and right) to change our mind in adulthood (of course, these days we like to call it ‘pivoting’ or some other inane descriptor in an attempt to make the fact…
Fictional words with real-world swagger
By any measure, I’m a pretty analytical person, someone who deals in facts and data. I studied science; I manage a small business; I’m very fond of excel spreadsheets; I don’t believe in the afterlife. Despite all this, I never pass up an opportunity to read my horoscope every morning. Of course, I only ever…
Her time was coming
Her time was coming. Like a wave gaining momentum as it roars towards the beach, it was building within her. She didn’t know what her purpose was—she hadn’t figured that out yet—but she felt calm about it. Content in the knowledge that it would come. The universe would guide her, steer her to a calling….
Morning reflection
My home. My land. My space. My life. The kookaburras rouse us from our sleep with their staccato laugh and zest for the day. It is not possible to wake up unhappy here. The magpies greet us as we venture out onto the verandah with our coffee. They show off the newest additions to their…
The first feedback …
This is a diary entry I wrote some time back. It seemed like the perfect piece to kick-off this blog. I am writing this now, in this moment, so that down the track my more experienced, more writerly self can read it back and laugh about my humble beginnings. What momentous event has driven the…
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