In September 2019 I self-published my fifth novel, Cross My Heart. Having had four books traditionally published before that, going down this path was not a decision I came to lightly. My writing career began in 2012 with the …
Events
Journaling the Novel: A guest post by Kate Mildenhall
Journaling the new book
Daylesford – Musk House Nov 11, 2016
5.26 and close to knock off time. Splendid sun shining on the deck before me and the sheep and the grape vine and I’m all chilled and stretched and …
Writing against redemption
By nature, I am a confessional writer. The more difficult, dramatic, my life is – the better I actually fare. Artistically that is. And yet… It has taken me twenty years to dare to tell one of the most transformative …
Writing Violence: A Guest Post by Ashley Kalagian Blunt
It was only after several years of studying the Armenian genocide, in an effort to write about my family’s history, that I learned about the terrorist groups. There were two – the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia, …
Writing Moral Ambiguity: A Guest Post by Kate Murdoch
When I sat down to write my second novel, The Orange Grove, it was the culmination of my love and preoccupation with everything French. I had studied the language for years and visited France numerous times. Yet what really …
What makes a good personal essay?
I’ve always loved the personal essay genre, especially because of the freedom embedded within it. A personal essayist can say whatever they wish directly; unlike in fiction, there is no need to couch their views, or research, in an imagined …
Writing Through The Tough Times: Guest Post by Claire Halliday
Once, when my mother-in-law was murdered by her husband, I dealt with the shock and subsequent anger of it all by writing it out of me. Dubious poetry poured from every pore, and my freelance writing for newspapers and magazines …
Re-discovering the joy of writing: Guest post by Louise Allan
Last year, a few months after the publication of my first novel, I began writing my second book. I thought it would be easier this time, as I was armed with knowledge and experience and wouldn’t make the rookie mistakes …
Truth. In Fiction. A guest post by Noe Harsel.
Over the past five years, I have written about 300,000 words of my current novel, and I have thrown out about 299,998 of them. This process has been one that I have carefully cultivated and developed, and in all honesty, …
Stop Apologising for Your Voice: A Guest Post by Cassie Hamer
In the months before my first book, a novel, went to print, my publisher offered to send a few preview copies to friends and colleagues in the writing world in the hope of generating early ‘buzz’.
I was both delighted …