I’m pretty tall. I’m also fairly physically fit and I like to think that if chased I would have a chance of outrunning any potential attackers. I could maybe stand a chance of fighting someone off. Maybe with enough eye-gouging and groin-kicking. Maybe. I don’t really walk anywhere at night, anymore. I have small kids and hey, I live in Wollongong, not really known for its night life. The last time I walked through city streets after dark was in Paris a few months ago. I was with two female… Read more On Safety →
Hey there readers. What a week. My condolences especially to any Australian women who might be reading this, for it has been a truly awful week to be female in this country. Although maybe we should all take heart in the positives – maybe if one hasn’t had ones body mocked by a creatively titled menu item, one should be grateful. If you happen to be fortunate enough to have spent the last 48 hours under a rock, let me enlighten you as to the great state of gender equality… Read more Condolences if you happen to be a woman →
I am late to the Game of Thrones bandwagon. Partly because of a lack of Pay TV in our house, but mostly due to an aversion to all things fantasy-based. If there’s any form of sorcery or conjuring, for example, I’m not interested. One glimpse of anything supernatural and my brain switches off. I have no truck with cauldrons, spells, magical powers etc. ‘Wait!’ I hear you say, ‘aren’t you mistaking Game of Thrones for Merlin? Similar hairstyles, DIFFERENT SHOW.’ Well yeah, but I watched the first episode of GoT… Read more In which I attempt to challenge my own prejudices – Featuring popular TV show, Game of Thrones!! →
Like most of the Western world, I’m a fan of Modern Family. I’m also a fan of Instagram. What happens when these two collide? Crazy hijinks? Insightful glimpses into behind-the-scenes larks? New season clues? Well, sometimes. But today it was a selfie of one of the teen stars in her bikini. Yep, Ariel Winter – who plays studious, bespectacled Alex, who is fifteen years old and has 120,000 Instagram followers – posted a picture of herself in a skimpy yellow bikini for all to see on the photo-sharing site. Now,… Read more Modern Fail? →
I once read that Peter Carey needs complete uninterrupted silence for eight hours a day to write. My first thought was: what luxury, the second was that he needs to… Read more Writing and music and radioactive snow →
Well blog readers, it’s been a while. Probably a lot longer than I anticipated, definitely a lot longer than I would have liked. Turns out caring for a four-year-old and a baby whilst rewriting a manuscript is actually quite time consuming. I am only able to write this now because the rewrite has gone back to my editor and my baby seems quite content to sit in his highchair while I type and intermittently toss him pieces of chopped-up grape*. Yes, you read correctly, dear reader: the rewrite of the… Read more Rewriting, bubbles and termites →
First, some background. This post was going to be about my over-use of the phrase ‘for a moment’ in my writing. As in ‘She stared at the aardvark for a moment.’. It then occurred to me that this subject was probably of very little interest to just about anyone unless they happened to be an aardvark. (In which case they would have been thrilled to have been mentioned, because lets face it, aardvarks don’t get a lot of press.) The topic did, however, remind me of the time I went… Read more Character, voice and aardvarks →
Having done both twice, I can declare to you dear reader that giving birth is not as similar to writing a book as one might be led to believe. That… Read more Birth: baby vs book →
