I’m writing an action scene at the moment for my book, and I’ve mostly been just going with my gut and writing what I can see in my imagination, but today I thought ‘hey, there are probably some tricks to writing a great action or fight scene that I’ve never heard of. If I knew about [...]
Some authors have been accused of generating buzz for their books using made-up online identities. It’s known as “sock puppetry”, and here’s why I think it’s abhorrent.
Happy weekend everyone! I’ve got a treat for you today. I interviewed the delightful Kate Forsyth this week about her novel Bitter Greens and she’s come back with some brilliant, thoughtful answers you’ll love. There aren’t really any spoilers – so feel free to go crazy whether or not you’ve read the book yet. (And I really do recommend [...]
This is just a quick post. I’m off to see Jeffrey Eugenides speak at the Sydney Writers’ Festival in a couple of hours and was doing a bit of background surfing when I came across this great Guardian interview with journalist Sarfraz Manzoor about Eugenides’ latest novel The Marriage Plot. Which I shudder to confess I haven’t [...]
Australian author Honey Brown spent years living in small towns all around Australia, “following the work” with her husband. A “dreamer” from an early age – she thought about things, and wrote about things. But writing wasn’t her day job. Then 10 years ago, her life changed when a cow fell and crushed her on her property [...]
After much wrestling and ado with sound equipment and software, I’m delighted to present an 80-second “get-to-know-you” with up and coming Aussie author Honey Brown. I had the pleasure of chatting with the talented Ms Brown the other week, about writing, her latest novel The Good Daughter, cabbages and kings. But before I post those [...]
The digital revolution may be raising publisher and bookseller hackles, but it’s a boon for new authors, says Adrian Deans. Deans, whose debut novel Mr Cleansheets came out in March, said the evolving publishing environment was frustrating at first. “The first thing to say for a person like me, being confronted by the digital age, is [...]
Australian independent booksellers are powerless to join the e-book revolution, according to Gleebooks co-owner David Gaunt. Booksellers are becoming increasingly frustrated by their inability to enter the e-book market because there is no affordable internet “cloud” available for them to sell from. “It sounds a bit weak [not] to say we should just be dynamic [...]
Against all odds, I have just had the great fortune to return from a little real life globetrotting of my own. I’ve spent a whirlwind two weeks in the territory of none other than Mr Phileas Fogg and took some time to tread the cobbles of Covent Garden – once the motherland of booksellers though sadly lacking these [...]
As the author of Around the World in Eighty Days, French novelist Jules Verne is the inspiration for our own world tour. So here are 5 things you should know about the great man himself. These facts will either change your life, or they won’t. That’s a promise. Verne was a pioneer of science-fiction. Along [...]