I’ve had these characters hanging around for a while now, but each time I tried to write them they always petered out… It was never right. Alison and Celia Griffin fought back each time I tried to put them into a book. They didn’t like what I had in store for them, and each time […]
Recently I had an amazing catchup with my writing buddy Renee Dahlia (http://www.reneedahlia.com/) who is well on her way to becoming a prolific romance author. Now I do romance as part of my overall plots, and I love to read them, but it’s not my jam to write. My jam is fantasy, as well you
See that picture? That’s me in 2000. With the long hair up in a ponytail (that hasn’t changed) and the bedroom wall positively covered with posters of movies and movie stars (Joseph Fiennes was the man of the moment I can see) and the grim look that says taking selfies with an actual camera is
Last week, while on a zoom with a few friends on mine, one asked “what are you writing?” I was a bit stunned at the question. I’m always writing, to start with, but also I didn’t realise this particular friend knew that I wrote at all. “Anything sci fi?” they asked. “Yeah,” I said. “A
Dying natural fibers in ancient ways using all kinds of natural stuff like Madder and Woad and Berries
At the end of last year, my family had decided that we would go for a family holiday to Fiji in June. We had it all planned: flights, accommodation, swimming costumes and blow-up rings for the kids to float around in. We were all looking forward to the break. But then along comes a global
During February, we heard rumours of this Coronavirus thing. We shared jokes about Corona beer and thought it wouldn’t come to much. During March, it was declared a pandemic and everyone started stockpiling toilet paper. My kids got sick from a generic daycare virus, and we stayed home just to be safe. A week later,
I got halfway through a second draft the other day and then stopped, unable to think of how to go next. When this happens, I usually put it aside, let my brain do some thinking, and pick up something else. In this case: another first draft that needed a second swing. So I picked up
2007 Entry into a short story competition that unfortunately did not win because apparently short story adjudicators don’t like fantasy… I hung up my oilskin with relief. It dripped on Bruce’s bunyip, who scrabbled closer to the door and watched me suspiciously. I sat down, elbows on the bar, as my staff balanced itself on
I have shed blood enough to soak this dark soil four feet deep I have shed skin enough to fill a bathtub until it overflows and drips and covers the bathroom floor in an ooze of epidermals Enough of my hair fell and balled into the carpet to weave a carpet of its own I