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The remembrance of things past
As someone who has kept a diary from the age of thirteen (and, more importantly, resisted burning them since), I have developed a possibly unhealthy obsession with dates and anniversaries (although not, to the disappointment of my extended family, birthdays.) It’s...
Chess nuts
After months of writing and weeks of wondering whether you’ve written a dog or a winner (or something in between that is going to cause you a lot of work and grief), it is unbelievably delightful to get an email from your publisher and editor with the words, ‘We love...
Cheerful for the Chomp
After a rather tense and difficult week in the dayjob, I was beyond delighted to receive an email today from Penguin’s editor, LR, saying they would publish a reworked manuscript (tentatively titled Famous!) as part of their Aussie Chomps series in 2009. After...
Police and poetry
For reasons to do with my dayjob, I had the privilege of spending two days this week at the Police Academy in Joondalup. I was sitting in with the newest of the new recruits, and it occurred to me, while listening to various instructors talk about what policing is...
If you’re ever depressed …
go here.
Writing is rewriting
John Updike* once said, ‘Writing and rewriting are a constant search for what you are saying.’ As I’m in the throes of rewriting a story that will hopefully become an Aussie Chomp, and knowing I’m in for more with the chess novel, this is particularly apt. Even with...
Why I didn’t give up my day job
No, I’m not talking about writing this time, although there’s no danger of me giving up my day job for that, either (thanks, Australia Council). I’m talking about this, from the 1995 Sandover Medal presentation at Burswood. Were we the most inappropriate...
I love Philip Pullman …
because he said this here: My basic objection to religion is not that it isn’t true; I like plenty of things that aren’t true. It’s that religion grants its adherents malign, intoxicating and morally corrosive sensations. Destroying intellectual freedom is always...
Rant alert
I haven’t written a genuine* letter to the editor since I was sixteen, but I was moved to do so by this article by Rosemary Neill in the Australian’s Review liftout. While I understand that journos must find a controversial line in any given issue, the article was...
Sage advice
I used to play classical guitar. I stopped when I realised I couldn’t make the sounds in my head come out of my fingers, and I’m still not sure whether this was a wise or foolish decision. Perhaps by now the Bach Preludes would have untangled themselves and I could...