It’s not just the writing, it’s finding the time, finding the right head space, and sometimes finding the energy. I’ve had trouble finding both the physical energy and the emotional energy. Who’d a thunk you’d need both types of energy to write. Last Monday I had a meeting in the ...

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One thing that has been on my mind a lot of late is plagiarism. If I look I can find a number of examples of plagiarism but I’ll only give you one example because it’s fairly recent. John Hughes was nominated for the Miles Franklin award. At some stage it ...

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Tonight I’ll be showing off. Not that my writing is any good, because in this story it’s entirely the opposite. I currently have no books waiting for me to scribble words about them. I’m currently on page 532 of a book of short stories, there’s only 1,229 pages in this ...

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There are some basics that make every book easier to read. Text free from typos and good grammar are two of these basics. This is what Laura Goodin has to say about grammar: Good grammar and punctuation are both the CAUSE and the EFFECT of clear understanding. When they’re right, ...

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Here is yet another reason I dislike Amazon. They own Audible. You may have heard of Audible, you might even use it. And if you’ve returned an audio book through Audible I hope you’re going to think twice about doing it again in the future. When we return purchases to ...

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It feels time for an update. The photo is of my Read Pile. It started a few years ago when I found I wasn’t reviewing books or magazines as I finished them. This may or may not have coincided with me studying VCE. I’m not game to admit to anything ...

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Something I used to do in the dim, dark past i.e. before I started studying at university, was to write an occasional article about what was happening in the book industry. I’ve had a couple of interesting things come across my desk recently so I’m going to share some of ...

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This virus has everyone in a tizzy. People around the world are going into self-isolation or mandatory isolation. What we’ve seen in China and Italy has been awe inspiring. China seemed to do everything they could to limit people’s exposure to the virus, they built two new hospitals and closed ...

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Hello and hello! In all the fun and games to do with the Seventh Australian Discworld Convention a week and a half ago, followed by the upheaval of Passover I completely forgot to write for my blog. I shouldn’t have forgotten, Monday this week was the tenth anniversary of me ...

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I’ve picked up a book that at over 900 pages might possibly keep me going for a few weeks. It is dense reading with many short stories and some critical articles about those short stories. The first few pages are about Writing About Fiction. As I was reading those pages ...

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I write this just prior to going to bed. I’m not planning on staying up to see the new year in, it’s not something I see relevant to me in 2018. I might regret this decision in 2019 but my body is telling me I’m tired and I’m going to ...

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I’ve been trying to catch up on my magazines. I know this one is rather important so I really shouldn’t get behind but it’s so easy to put it on the stack and continue with my books. This is the publication put out by Writers Victoria, it comes as part ...

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I’ve been a little slack with writing over the last few months. I’m part of a writing group and we meet online every two weeks to catch up and discuss each other’s writing. When I say ‘discuss’ I really mean ‘pull it apart and give each other ideas on how ...

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Last night was the launch of the magazine that has my short story. I know you’ve been waiting and waiting but there isn’t an online version of it and I’ve been asked not to share it until after the next magazine comes out. In three months time after the launch of the ...

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I was talking to Arnold Zable the other week and happened to tell him I hadn’t seen his books in op shops or secondhand bookshops too often. I’ve seen so many other authors but not his. A couple of authors I’ve seen come up so many times are Dan Brown ...

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