A few months a discussion in a University of Iowa writing MOOC caught my attention. I didn’t contribute, because I was late to the exchange, and anyway, I felt a bit like an anthropologist, observing people around the world express their ideas about what they were learning. This particular discussion was about how cultures might … Continue reading What the hell am I doing here
Notes on Writing Related Stuff
Review: A Star Explodes
I saw Lady Gaga/Bradley Cooper's A Star is Born. I have many feelings. My friend thought we were seeing a 2018 version of Almost Famous. I imagined something about a musical. We were wrong. There are spoilers. So stop here. Firstly, the singing performances are everything. They soar. Obviously Lady Gaga can sing, but she is … Continue reading Review: A Star Explodes
Something old is renewed
You can never experience your own writing in the same way readers can. Writers know their own story, are often unaware of their usual or unusual foibles, and read what they want imagined, not what they put on the page. So they see the wood for the trees. Unless you write something and completely forget … Continue reading Something old is renewed
Doctor Who: Salad Days
Shipping steel There was plenty to relish in the first episode to feature Jodie Whittaker's Doctor The Woman Who Fell to Earth. These included the entirety of Whittaker's performance, but also the score, camera work and colour palette, and The Doctor building things, in addition to the sets. Plus Salad Man. The locations for filming … Continue reading Doctor Who: Salad Days
A week in the life
This week I've been up and down and around town. Things I didn't get turned into something else. Other potentialities I'd written off have re-emerged in a more positive light. And that's just this week so far. Hence, this, a partial view of most of a week in the life of me. Check email repeatedly. … Continue reading A week in the life
Any way the wind blows
Another day, another rejection. These are the days it never rains but it pours. There are a few journals I would like to be published in within Australia and yet again it's another one gone. There was a time yet another rejection in such a dire point in my life would have floored me. But I'm clear-eyed, … Continue reading Any way the wind blows
Some small Mediums at large
If you are interested in reading some work of mine that has only been published in print, a few short stories are now up over at Medium. There are also old stories previously published online, now Medium is their new home. As a platform it is easy to use, and sleek to look at. It's been … Continue reading Some small Mediums at large
Tho’ much is taken, much abides
There's little profit for idle writers, By still'd in boxes amongst much barren tabs, Match'd with wage strife, yet getting not the dole Meted through unequal laws of preoccupied politicians, Who hoard, and sleep, and debate, and know not us... Such as we cannot rest from the will to think plots and words and resumes: … Continue reading Tho’ much is taken, much abides
Rare or well done?
I've decided to put some of my writing work on Medium (you can visit my profile here. Some items will have been previously published, so these will be re-posts, or will have appeared in actual print, on paper years ago. Other things will be new fiction, or at least little bits and pieces that were … Continue reading Rare or well done?
Of myths, coincidences and writing histories
I was thinking the other day about author Sara Douglass. She had one of the best creative writing Genesis myths I had ever heard regarding the provenance of her book BattleAxe (and the subsequent Axis series). I could retell this story, but it is her's and she wrote it down for us. The entire concept … Continue reading Of myths, coincidences and writing histories
Writing Bec 