How do I write about my parents, Jock and Bess’, lives when they are no longer here, ethically, with credibility? How do I use their stories to examine universal issues such as the futility of war, post-traumatic stress disorder and …
The writer laid bare
How to keep your book alive. Reluctantly.
I’ll begin with a disclaimer. I’ve always experienced considerable tension between my writer-self and my book-promoting self. However you approach the task, when you promote your books you inevitably take residence in the kingdom of niceness, where the drive to …
What Screenwriters Need to Know: Guest Post by Saara Lamberg
Screenwriting is a very different practice to any other type of writing, and one that suits my personality. I mean, who wouldn’t want to sit under the palm tree being attended to by half-naked man-gods while typing away one’s fantasies?…
Ethical interviewing & self-care: Guest Post by Heather Morris
The Tattooist of Auschwitz is ‘based on an incredible true story’. Those words are stamped on the front cover of my novel. What they don’t say is how finding and telling a true story can change the life of the …
The map of creativity. Guest Post by Hazel Edwards OAM
Currently I’m between book projects. I don’t know what I’m going to write next. And it’s weird I’m experiencing again the ‘plateau of boredom’ that I’d described in my memoir about my writing life Not Just a Piece of Cake; …
Why I was hard on myself as the narrator of my memoir: Guest Post by Jenny Valentish
Lee Kofman is a straight talker. When she told me – over a refreshing beverage in South Melbourne – that she felt I was too hard on myself as a memoirist, my inward response was to bristle. I’d just written …