What else does a Canberra based author do as the cold weather creeps in, but escape to warmer climes? Okay, light the fire, pop on your favourite fluffy jumper, heat up the hot chocolate... I actually really like the colder weather (with the caveat that I have access to comfy firesides, fluffy jumpers, and hot chocolate) but this weekend away in warmer climes held further enticements. Greenleaf Press were hosting a VIP Book Marketing Weekend. Yes, yes, I know. Marketing. Ughh

Did I say last time that I wasn’t keeping up with my blogging schedule? Did I say that I had started trying to set some priorities? Hah! Who was I trying to fool? Mostly myself, I guess. ...in my dreams... Have you ever heard the saying about what is urgent is seldom important? I somehow managed to reach the stage where I had some important things that had become urgent as well. This resulted in my recent school holidays being turned into a race to finalise a course I (or two

Planning is one of those vexed questions that some experts on writing can become quite passionate about, even resorting to saying unkind things about writers who do it differently to them. I’ve read quite a lot about planning, however, and I’ve come to the conclusion that EVERYONE plans (or, possibly, doesn’t plan – but I’ll come to that in a moment) differently. At the two extremes are writers who plan their story to the nth degree with everything that is going to happen nea

When I ambitiously started this little project, apart from ruthlessly choosing to split an infinitive or two in the quest for conversational style, not to mention other grammatical anomalies, I had visions of a neat, linear group of posts that would follow one from the other and provide a guiding light for others who, like me, are on the never ending quest for knowledge. Ha. Ha. And then I started thinking. Learning to write is not a sequential process. It is an amorphous who

This is me at the moment... it's school holidays, but I've got most of the planning out of the way for next term after something of a marathon effort over the last few weeks of term, and the first week of the hols. There are still one or two things I should probably get done, but I'm comfortable we're all set for a good start... so, time to write? I can hardly believe it. I sit in front of the computer... bliss... ...and check facebook. I've a couple of friends who are travel

Being a 'morning person' is tricky. It means that all my energy is at its peak in those first hours of the day. If I want to get anything done, it has to be in the morning. If i want to achieve any housework or gardening? Morning. Exercise? Morning. Writing? Morning. The downside? I also work full time as a teacher. Morning. To get to work, I need to be leaving home at 7:30 ish, and before that I am usually trying to motivate my non-morning person type husband and son i