Back in May 2017, Jesse Mulligan kicked off a new weekly feature on his weekday afternoon show on Radio New Zealand: Short Story Club. The idea for Short Story Club first came up, if I’m not mistaken, one afternoon a few weeks earlier when Jesse had frequent bookish guest and LitCrawl Queen (or possibly Pirate) Claire Mabey on the show. It works like … Read more…
event
AFTERGLOW: Regrets and other events
On their website, the folks at Unity Books in Wellington recap events they hold in-store with blog posts titled AFTERGLOW. So, stealing from Unity (this is, I promise, the only manner in which I steal from Unity), I’d like to look back at the gleaming afterglow of events I took part in while I was … Read more…
Short Story Book Club Live at LitCrawl Wellington, 11 November
I’ve been enjoying heading in to the RNZ studio now and again this year (here, here, here and here) to take part in Short Story Club, a weekly feature on Jesse Mulligan’s afternoon show. One of my stories, ‘Once had me’, has even been the story for discussion (not, obviously, a week I took part in the discussion; … Read more…
Tell it Slant workshop, FAWWA, Perth, 7 October
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…
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…