My Depth Year is about noticing the everyday and acknowledging what goes on. This afternoon in the space of ten minutes, I saved a lizard from drowning in my watering can, buried a dead bird in the fairy garden and planted a row of black hollyhocks at the foot of a fallen mulberry tree. So…
Read More
Remember that song by The Waterboys? The Whole of the Moon. ‘You know how it feels to get too high, too far, too soon… Whatevs I’m dickin’ around. Here are three backstory problems as I see them: 1 Too much backstory Are you trying to tell your reader too much, too soon? Are your opening scenes…
Read More
What a finale! The judging in the Scribbles Creative Writing Awards is over and our beautiful certificates are winging their way to our winners and highly commended. Other prizes are also being dished out! Sheesh. We don’t just give you a certificate and send you on your way! That is so NOT the Scribbly way!…
Read More
I’ve been thinking about teaching. I think about it a lot. You see, I’ve been gathering notes for another tutorial to add to the girl & duck Institute. This one’s about voice. Voice is one of my FAVOURITE topics. It should be every author’s favourite topic. Well. Top five at least. By the way… Do…
Read More
Melbourne, Australia. May 2018 Weather? Yeah, right. Big weekend for the children’s book industry. Kid Lit Vic. Scribbles Masterclass. Book launches (Jess Racklyeft, Lucinda Gifford). I cooked roast lamb. Himself cooked parsnip soup. As I said, BIG. Following the ruckus, there have been heaps of posts and comments and ruminations flying around the Duck…
Read More
Hello! I like writing blog posts at Christmas. No one expects much. Do they? Writing: I finally finished Truly Tan: Baffled! (book seven) and delivered it to my publisher on time (working right up until December 15, the day it was due). Phew! Next year I’ll be waaaay more organised. Ahem. Finalising: We signed off…
Read More
Up until a couple of months ago I had severe website shame. My author website was a shambles. It was out of date. It was clunky. It was a technical nightmare, built around grids and tables, unwieldy fecking boxes that made me wail every time I tried to tinker with them. Because I couldn’t access…
Read More
Sometimes we refer to people as ‘real characters’. How weird. Is this uniquely Australian? Is it an Australianism? ‘Oh, my great aunt was a real character!’ Either way, it’s nearly always a term of endearment. There are loads of characters in my daily circle. The old bloke who wears a duster coat, drives a 1950s…
Read More
I run a business. It’s called girl & duck. It feels weird to call it a business. I didn’t know you could love a business. But I do. I adore it. I’m obsessed with it. When I’m creating stuff for girl & duck, I’m in my genius zone. (Have you read that book? The one…
Read More
A while back, I wrote a blog post. You know why? Because I had a nice photo of bulbs in pots. You know. Flowers and stuff. Here it is. Pretty, hey? I thought, how can I write a blog post around this image? I love this image. I want to use this image! I must, I must,…
Read More