After a quarter of a century in research science, sticking with the facts, the biggest kick I get from writing fiction is the freedom it gives me to invent, to make stuff up (to lie?). I love working at the interface, too – the space where fact and fiction blend or join or mix, or where … Read more…
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Author talk at The Grove library, Perth, 4 October
I’m heading back to my reading roots on 4 October, to The Grove Library in Cottesloe, to talk about ‘writing, reading and everything in between’. I grew up in North Cottesloe in the 1960s and early 70s, and the little old library that was then on the site of the fabulous shiny current Grove Library was my … Read more…
What’s on in September
I’ve had my head down lately, trying to avoid social media (it was making me anxious) and write a book. I’m still working on both. But I’ll be working on them from Western Australia for the next month or so, as next week I take up a month-long writing residency at Fellowship of Australian Writers … Read more…
The Bad Diaries Salon Volume 3, Perth, 27 September
Melbourne literary phenomenon The Bad Diaries Salon (BDS) is coming to Perth this month, in its first outing beyond Melbourne. The Bad Diaries Salon Volume 3 Perth: Regrets features Brooke Davis, Laurie Steed, Annabel Smith, Jenny Ackland and me reading from our early, unedited works, on the theme of REGRET. The BDS is a salon series where writers read from … Read more…
State of Origin workshop, FAWWA, Perth, 23 September
‘Where’s home for you?’ is a question that I (Melbourne-born, Perth-raised, New Zealand-based) often find hard to answer. As I settle in for a month as FAWWA CAL Established Writer in Residence (on the edge of Allen Park, just around the corner from where I grew up), join me for a workshop exploring State of Origin. Workshop: State of Origin … Read more…
In conversation with Tracy Farr, Dymocks Busselton, 21 September
I’m thrilled to be In Conversation at Dymocks Busselton on 21 September, talking about The Hope Fault in the place this book has its beginnings. You won’t find The Hope Fault‘s Cassetown, Little Casse Bay or Point Geologue on a map. Cassetown is a fictional place, made up for the novel. Cassetown isn’t the Busselton suburb of Vasse, but – … Read more…
In conversation at Beaufort Street Books, Perth, 19 September
I’m delighted to be returning to Beaufort Street Books on 19 September, to discuss The Hope Fault. We launched my first novel, The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt, at Beaufort Street Books with an ‘in conversation’ event with the wonderful Geraldine Blake four years ago this month, so I’m thrilled that they’ve asked me back to talk about … Read more…
Writers on Mondays – Hopeful Animals, Wellington, 14 August
I’m really excited about being part of the International Institute of Modern Letters (IIML) Writers on Mondays programme this year, which includes – as well as a whole mob of great New Zealand writers – Australian writer Charlotte Wood (24 July – see programme). Writers on Mondays has been running for nearly a decade now, … Read more…
‘Family Dynamics’ at Auckland Writers Festival, 21 May
The programme has been launched for Auckland Writers Festival 2017, which runs from 16 to 21 May. I’ll be there — this’ll be my fifth time attending AWF, my second time as a guest of the festival. I’m in one of the Four for Fifty Readings sessions — fifty-minute events in which four writers read from their recent work. Each session is themed; … Read more…
‘The Hope Fault: family and faultlines’ event at National Library, Wellington, 9 May
I am told there are people who do not care for maps, and I find it hard to believe. — Robert Louis Stevenson I’m like RL Stevenson in that respect. I love a map. Maps, diagrams and geological bulletins (one bulletin in particular) caught my imagination and took over the reins while I was writing my novel The … Read more…