mello Raised in a family of 5 children, money was in short supply. To entertain the children, Anna’s father created a make-believe world and made up stories. He invited the kids to name an object or element and he would weave a story to include that element. Combine that imagination with the discipline and skill involved … Read more
Mind mapping and creative writing go hand in hand. Each uses the same side of the brain to flesh out ideas into a fully-fledged product. I used mind-mapping extensively, even taught it, but confess to letting the practice slide as my linear mode took over. I was reminded of it while reading a brief article by … Read more
Published July 2018, Scrublands was Chris Hammer’s first published crime novel. Just over a year later, Chris Hammer – the author has won the 2019 John Creasy New Blood Award for best crime novel by a first-time author. The award was part of the UK Crime Writers Association Dagger Awards, one of the top awards for crime … Read more
The Weight of Water by Sarah Crossan, published by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc in 2011. Strange how you don’t plan to read a book but it draws you in to its inner world and consumes your time. Intrigued by the cover and the title of this book, I took it off the shelf to flip through. … Read more
Writing advice is everywhere: good writing advice from people who have actually been in the trenches is the kind you want to pay attention to. I first came across Kayte Dunn as a presenter at the 2019 Byron Bay Writers Festival. Kayte ran a half-day workshop targeted at commercial and historical fiction – areas of … Read more
My Daily Word Count I’ve got to admit I wasn’t good at keeping to a daily word count or writing morning pages or anything that smacked of discipline. I was one of those who waited for the Muse to take me into a creative flow. Trouble was, The Muse didn’t have my address. As a … Read more