Photo by: Paul Cristina
Great to read Tony Abbott’s spirited endorsement of books and reading in his article ‘Books shape ideals, dreams’ in today’s (Wed) Australian, page 12. It’s encouraging to know that the Leader of the Opposition believes that ‘the book symbolises our aspirations to learn, to teach and to understand. I salute the book, without which a…
This article has now been published in Write4Children, the journal of the University of Winchester, see link: www.write4children.org and click on Vol 3 Issue 2. I spent some time in Winchester while researching and writing The Janna Mysteries, and I loved my visits there, walking in Janna’s footsteps. In those times (1140s) the royal treasury…
Today I’m talking to the Society of Women Writers (Sydney) about my experience with publishing The Janna Mysteries online with CreateSpace in the USA – a LOT of information to cram in! Bottom line: so far as the Janna Mysteries are concerned, most of my book sales (on amazon) come from paperbacks rather than e-books,…
Today I joined an engineer and a rep from NPWS to meet with architectural students at UNSW to see their brilliant (computer) presentations on a variety of sites connected with the fort at Middle Harbour which is undergoing renovations. Through a variety of programmes, the students presented detailed plans of the sites as they are, along…
Yesterday I met with the wonderful penguin protectors along with reps from NPWS and the Manly Environment Centre to talk about the book I’ve been commissioned to write on Manly’s fairy penguin colony. I am so impressed by the knowledge and care for the penguins shown by everyone associated with this project. And I am…
It’s been a while since we visited our favourite site near Bateman’s Bay – I’d forgotten how beautiful those forests are. Chilly cold, but really fun sharing it with my beautiful granddaughters, Chloe and Amy. Too cold for swimming but they were very inventive keeping themselves amused, and taking a trizillion photos of all the…
It seems a long time ago that I finished writing this novel – a time-slip love story set on Norfolk Island with a flashback to the 1850s and the brutal 2nd penal settlement there. But we’re making progress! Today I sent back the revised copy edit, and I’ve also seen the really beautiful cover planned…
Trust the universe and see how it conspires to help you! I discover the truth of this over and over, most recently yesterday. For various reasons I’ve been feeling fairly flat creatively for some time. Yesterday I walked past a new Vinnies and, on impulse went in to see what I could find. I usually…
CBC north’s first meeting of the year was so inspirational as author and playwright Wendy Blaxland described her writing journey, successfully publishing a heap of children’s books as well as writing plays for the greatly beloved Marion St. Youth Theatre founded by her parents. She finished her talk with a memorable quote from Guillaume Apollinaire: ‘He…
I discovered that it’s impossible to insert a header plus a page number on a mss in the new Word programme without deleting one or the other. Lots of cursing and hair-tearing later, I’ve now been given a tip on how to do it (thank you, Robyn!) Go to insert page number, select top (or…