When I first beta read, I was harsh. Not in my criticism. In my tone. Since then when I'm asked, I share both praise and critique, preferring to share my notes on a video call so the right tone is applied to my comments. Last week, a beta reader contacted me after reading my first …
Book Review – Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
This book is a time capsule. It is of an era when gay life wasn't part of the mainstream. The story is told by young American man, David, who is living in Paris during the 1950s, hanging around older homosexuals he criticises for being too effeminate. While his girlfriend is in Spain, he begins an …
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Book Review – The In-Between by Christos Tsiolkas
I read this straight after reading his previous novel, 7 1/2. These are the first Tsiolkas' books I've read (yes, I've waited that long) even though I'm familiar with his stories from various TV and film adaptations. 7 1/2 fascinated me with its stream of consciousness style, its raw sex scenes and fascinating prose, which …
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Writing Tin Men and Scarecrows – Part 4
This project gets bigger and bigger. I started a second draft before I finished the first, and even this draft is getting rewritten in ways which would normally happen later. My desire to complete this draft as close to perfect has come from using The Snowflake Method (see link at bottom of the page). It …
Writing Tin Men and Scarecrows – Part 2
I've just completed the first draft. Well, kind of. The final scene has been written but I haven't reviewed the manuscript yet. I'm about five thousand words less than my ideal word count, which is common for my first drafts. I'm considering adding a flashback sequence which will give more depth to the flawed relationship …
I’ve written several versions of the same short scene!
The scene is only several paragraphs long. It's the last time we're alone with just the gay characters in my work-in-progress set in the nineties. In the initial draft they talk about Australian politics at the final stage of that decade. Only one other chapter examined politics and that was in an overall 1990's way. …
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kevin klehr 