I just turned on my kindle to see what I've read this year — or part-read — and here is my list in reverse chronological order (please excuse me not always listing author, I'm being lazy. Also I'm not going to ever style things properly like italics for book titles, and there WILL be typos. [...]
Tag: fiction
Blog… resurrected! Apparently this will be emailed to 30 subscribers. Please leave a comment because I don’t know who you are! Let’s get this blogging thing back to mid-2000s action, why not.
Surely I'm not the only one who is totally -- seemingly -- done with Instagram. And Facebook is a thing of the past it seems. A relic. But still I want to tell people things. I want to share stuff. That impulse has never left me. Like this morning. It's Tuesday 23rd December 2025 (I [...]
When writers… critique
So there's been a bit of a thing on Twitter about Sally Rooney's next book (yeah, yeah I'm not tweeting but I'm still reading). The flurry of responses has been about a 'review' of Rooney's upcoming book, Beautiful World, Where Are You. I put review in scare quotes because some people say it's not really [...]
Battling on with Sir Salman
I am in the final stages of Midnight's Children and what a struggle it is. This is not a novel that will give itself over to me in any way. Just when I think I'm getting a grip, it slips away from me, like one of the frequent snake motifs scattered through the book, or [...]
Signing off, festively yours
It's that time of year to go quiet, but before I do, here are my top 5 reads for 2015: A Little Life, Hanya Hanagihara The Wonder Lover, Malcolm Knox A Strangeness in My Mind, Orhan Pamuk H is for Hawk, Helen Macdonald All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr Yes, they are [...]
Reading plans for 2016 – the Year of Reading India
While I was in Ubud recently, I decided that next year will be my Year of Reading India. I plan for 2016 to be the beginning of a new type of reading approach for me. Why India? Because I have a bunch of books written by Indian authors already, including a few of Salman Rushdie's [...]
Reading catch-up, almost end of 2015
But I will squeeze a few more books in by the end of the year. Last book I listed was Pamuk's A Strangeness in My Mind, which was book 44. Then, I went to Ubud. In my suitcase I took one bottle of champagne, and several books, including Lucy Treloar's Salt Creek; Hanya Yanagihara's A [...]
2, 2 and 2 at Amanda Curtin’s blog
The lovely Amanda Curtin (who I met at the recent Ubud Writers Festival) asked me if I'd participate in a series she runs on her blog, looking up looking down. The idea is you write about 2 things that inspired your book, 2 places connected with the book (geographical or metaphysical) and 2 favourite 'anythings' somehow connected [...]
My first author Q&A for The Secret Son
My publicist at Allen & Unwin was approached by a reviewer, who'd read my book and reviewed it on her website. Would I consider answering some questions, about the book and how I wrote it? Oh, yes I would! The questions were fantastic, and it's made me realise that after so long with a book, so [...]
The Fishermen, by Chigozie Obioma
Book 42: I finished this earlier today and did so with tears in my eyes. None rolled, but they were there. I found it moving, at the end, and also found that it seemed perfectly paced, the last quarter of the book. I felt doom, I felt apprehension and I felt admiration. It's a fine [...]
The Secret Son, review in The Australian newspaper
Was very happy to see this review of The Secret Son (alongside Leah Kaminsky's first novel The Waiting Room) in the paper over the weekend. An author dreams of reviews, and they don't always happen, small or big, positive or negative. They don't always happen quickly, and they don't always happen at all. With 400 new [...]
Another book giveaway
Goodreads is hosting another Allen & Unwin book give-away of my novel, THE SECRET SON. Twenty more copies are now up for grabs, so head there if you'd like to be in it. Competition is open until 16 August (AUS and NZ only). But hey, good luck! Enter here.
So there’s this
Allen & Unwin just tweeted this. How is the beauty? And I was so happy to see the bee. Just the week before I'd seen another book with bees on the cover and thought wistfully 'I wish I had a bee on my cover' and then forgot about it. And there it is. Meant to bee. [...]
Long time, no blog
Melbourne has been particularly beautiful over recent days. Last week I went to Rickett's Point to get some author photos done. This is how gorgeous it was: The photographer had said 'Let's wait for a dark, stormy day, get some moody clouds.' Well, Melbourne [shakes fist at sky] you aren't behaving. I am, apparently, one of [...]
Reading, reading and more reading. And some editing.
My edits are done. Again. So next stage will be proof pages and seeing some cover artwork. Fingers crossed for that. It's been school holidays and while Term 2 has started today, I'm not teaching until Thursday, and then it's only a couple of sessions in the middle of the day. Easy. I've been reading, [...]
Goodbye 2014, you’ve been pretty amazing
EDITED: to include Donna Tartt's THE GOLDFINCH. Below I mention the risk of not recording what I've read through the year. This year, Tartt's book divided readers, quite violently. Some people were in critic James Wood's camp - surly haters all - but there were others who loved it, including me. I read it twice. The first [...]
What I’ve been reading
I've been reading a lot lately, probably because I'm not writing en ce moment (more about that later, or soon, I hope. There are a couple of reasons for it and one is that my daughter is up against her Year 12 exams, beginning Cup Day, so maman has been in attendance, on the couch [...]
Workshop in Brisbane – writing memoir
On Sunday I flew up to Brissy to attend a workshop at the Queensland State Library, run by the QWC. Facilitated by Patti Miller, it was on Writing the Real Story. While my focus is fiction, and novels (although am working on a novella en ce moment, god knows why, it seems from my reading [...]
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