Over a decade ago I heard an interesting radio interview. The guest did his thesis on how Bob Dylan and The Beatles shared a public conversation. The key was to the titles of their songs. Dylan would release a track, then the Beatles would respond to his ideas with their new hit. The dialogue would …
Dreaming up a Gay Angel
One evening a friend asked me about my writing. I talked about my surprise at how my gay angel character, Guy, seemed to win many readers’ hearts. And as the night flowed with much conversation and wine, I had an epiphany. You see, back in the mid-80s when I moved to Sydney,... I met a …
Saints and Sinners
This blog was published back in 2013, but it's a good reflection on what it feels like being an author attending your first literary festival. Okay, in social media terms it's a bit late to post about an event that was held early last month, but as I've just made it home from an extended …
Reviews – A Living Terror!
When I was studying acting many years ago, one of our drama teachers put us through an interesting exercise. She asked each of our classmates to critique each other's acting. So one by one we sat and heard advice from each of our fellow students. Did the sky fall? Did we want to bury ourselves …
Thoughts I Had When I Was Drunk (Part 2)
There are two presents given to me by different people to help me with my writing. One is a beautifully bound notebook while the other is a dictaphone. But somehow its the dictaphone that comes out for pearls of wisdom when I'm far from sober. This second collection of thoughts come from me and my …
Americanisation or Americanization
It all began when my editor gave me my notes for my novel. One main complaint was the spelling mistakes. I was surprised. I was certain I had ironed out any errors, but there were her notes in black and white. All over my latest draft were bizarre corrections. Realise became realize. Single L’s were …
Eight Drafts, and the one we don’t talk about…
About ten years ago I started writing a fantasy novel on Thursday nights, as that was the only free time I had (My partner, Warren, had started playing tennis on those nights). It was handwritten in a journal and called Staging Life. I had written about five chapters when a friend bought me a ‘How …
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