Like most writers, I’m a magpie, taking shiny things from the world around me and making them my own, absorbing and transforming them in my writing. So, in addition to the acknowledgements printed in the back of the book (reproduced at the bottom of this page), I wanted to acknowledge some of the sources, resources … Read more…
Writing
Writing workshop at 2016 WORD Christchurch Festival
The programme has just been launched for WORD Christchurch 2016 Writers & Readers Festival, which runs from 26 to 28 August. I’ll be teaching a writing workshop on the Friday of the festival. Teaching the monster to speak: Writing believable fictional characters Writing fiction is a licence to invent and transform. When we write, we might choose to … Read more…
Lena Gaunt by any other name
Names are funny things, important things, and they fascinate me; indeed, my second novel, The Hope Fault, is at least partly about names and naming. I spend a lot of (aka too much) time mulling over character names in my writing. I love to name my chapters, too, title them rather than just giving them numbers … Read more…
The merry month of May
O, the month of May, the merry month of May, So frolic, so gay, and so green, so green, so green! ‘The Merry Month of May’ by Thomas Dekker (1599) The month just past (So frolic. Much gay. Many green. Wow.) would’ve warranted a celebratory skip around the maypole, if it hadn’t been a bit chilly … Read more…
‘The Undercover Soundtrack – Tracy Farr’ guest post
Writer, editor and writing blogger and teacher Roz Morris hosts The Undercover Soundtrack series, where she invites writers who use music as part of their creative environment, ‘perhaps to connect with a character, populate a mysterious place, or hold a moment still to explore its depths’. In a post for The Undercover Soundtrack (27 April 2016), I write about some of the music that helped … Read more…
Writing workshops at 2016 Perth Writers Festival
I’ll be teaching two writing workshops (and taking part in a couple more sessions) at 2016 Perth Writers Festival (PWF), part of Perth International Arts Festival (PIAF). Teaching the monster to speak Writing believable characters Writing fiction is a licence to invent and transform. Tracy Farr‘s novel, The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt, has been described as ‘a … Read more…
‘Meet Tracy Farr’ interview for WordMothers
Nicole Melanson is an Australian-based writer whose WordMothers blog is, in Nicole’s words: …dedicated to showcasing women’s work in the literary arts around the world. It features female author interviews and women in the book industry discussing what they’re really passionate about. Nicole invites women writers to discuss their writing process, their latest books, and other female wordsmiths, … Read more…
‘Loss and Love’ at 2015 Auckland Writers Festival
I’m looking forward to heading up to Auckland next month for Auckland Writers Festival. This’ll be my third time heading up to Auckland for the writers festival (I wrote about the 2014 festival here and here), but my first time on the programme. The festival has got bigger and better each year that I’ve been, … Read more…
The hissing swan in the manuscript drawer
I spent the first two weeks of March at Varuna, the Writers House in Katoomba in the Blue Mountains, a two-hour train ride from Sydney. I was lucky enough during my Second Book Residential Fellowship to work in Eleanor Dark’s garden studio, a short enough walk from the back door of the main house that … Read more…
Under the pohutakawa
Lately I’ve been keeping a low profile, online and in real life. On 1 January this year I officially became a full-time writer — if only for six months — thanks to a CreativeNZ grant. In November last year, when I was looking ahead, imagining this time, I wrote about being hunched at my writing … Read more…