These past few weeks, I have been counting my blessings. In a writerly sense, this year has already brought me a shortlisting and publication of four short fictions. Later this year, I will be a Writer-in-Residence at the Peter Cowan Writers Centre, thanks largely to my 2017 FAWWA residency and my refusal to be genre-bound. I … Continue reading
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Word magick.
It’s a bit like Rumpelstiltskin, isn’t it? While everyone else is sleeping, you channel ideas into golden threads, weaving them into stories and settings. Because writing fiction is a mysterious act. Being able to conjure entire worlds, let alone characters and plots, from beyond one’s own mind is a kind of magick. “Writer” seems an … Continue reading
She’s done this to it.
In 1984, a six-year-old girl who fancied herself a writer attended a school she didn’t like with a crotchety teacher she liked even less. The adults in her life convinced her that she should learn to fit into this school-shaped hole and find something other than writing stories to earn real money, because money was … Continue reading
A simple wish.
She watched her mum preen and pick out a dress, putting her hair up, looking her best. “Why can’t I come with you? I don’t want my bed. I want to be an adult right now!” she said. Her mum replied softly, “My dear heart, don’t fret. You have plenty of life ahead of you … Continue reading
Sharer’s block.
I don’t get writer’s block: I get sharer’s block. I missed last week’s blog post because of it, the first one I have missed all year. Sometimes I write a piece and I think, ‘That’s pretty good!’ But, by the time I have given it a day or a week to ferment, it morphs into … Continue reading
Three quirky sites for writerly ideas.
I am regularly asked, “Where do you get your ideas from?”* and I get eye-rolls when I provide my dull-but-true answer [usually: “I don’t know”, “life”, or “my head”]. Because I want to be able to regurgitate a wholly modern yet fabricated response next time I am so accosted and my response is disbelieved, I … Continue reading
Thank you, Mattie.
I wrote a daily diary during my FAWWA residency, which is sadly at an end. To follow, are snippets of my days. Thanks so much to FAWWA for allowing me into this special space, and to the critters who put up with my too-hard typing. All photos are from Mattie Furphy House and surrounds. Day … Continue reading
