I don’t know if anyone noticed, but I’ve stopped using Goodreads to review books. I thought I might read in private for a while and see how that went. So far, pretty well. Still, you have to tell people your favourite books at the end of the year, right? So, in no particular order, these […]

I’ll be talking about From the wreck at this La Trobe University symposium, on a panel with Ilka Tampke (Skin) and Kate Mildenhall (Skylarking). It’ll be held at the university’s city campus and it’s free, but you do have to book. Symposium: December 2016 Literary works have long taken historical figures as their subjects. Recently, a […]

If you’re in Melbourne and love being read to, come along to this event: Viva La Novella Readings at The Wilde  Presented by Seizure. Winners of the Viva La Novella Prize will be reading from their books. Join us for a drink and a listen to the next generation of unique Australian literary voices. Featuring: […]

My new novel, out in March, now has a cover and a blurb and all those other book-like things. You can also pre-order it from Transit Lounge. Peter Lo, Transit Lounge’s designer, is a brilliant person – this cover feels just how my book feels to me.

On 6 August, 1859, the steamship Admella was wrecked on Carpenters Reef, about 1km off the coast of South Australia. It had left Port Adelaide the previous day, making its regular trip to Melbourne. One hundred and thirteen people were aboard – 84 passengers and 29 crew. For more than a week the wrecked and […]

Thanks so much to the Spec Fic Snapshotters and to David McDonald in particular for including me in this year’s lineup: I’m flattered!

I haven’t been blogging much lately. It would be fairly ridiculous to think anyone would have noticed, but just in case you have it’s because I’ve been trying to finish a novel (I’m almost there) and write a few short stories.  Also, I haven’t had anything very thrilling to say. So apologies, but this is […]

Hello, I have a new story out, on a website that lives somewhere on the internet. They are SlinkChunkPress, and my story is ‘The Last Idea’. Go here if you would like to read it.

Australian writers are being assailed on all fronts at the moment. The government is keen to change the rules about whether bookshops can buy their books from an overseas publisher, rather than having to go to an Australian publisher. This has the Australian Society of Authors and many others super-riled. Proposed changes to copyright are […]

Avid watchers of the bookish pages will have noticed Nick Earls, who was a bloody big deal in my youth, has just released the first of a series of five novellas and has been all over the paper and virtual broadsheets talking about this thrilling new form. Inkerman & Blunt are the publishers, and it’s […]

  A quick post for International Women’s Day. Since March 8 last year I’ve read, oh, I dunno, about 100 books. Lots (most even) of those were by women. But these are my most favourite, most feminist reads of the last year. Links are to essays or interviews or other stories that focus on the […]

Yesterday I went to the office from 8-5 and wrote about electricity bills and women in energy and wind power policy and then I went to Embiggen Books and interviewed Jasper Fforde. Here’s me and Jasper talking about whether you can keep ten thousand ideas in your head at one time (me: yes, with notes; Jasper: yes, […]

This year I’m doing more writing and less talking about writing, but I am doing this neat event, thanks to Wayward Books and the super White Rabbit Record Bar (where much of ‘A wrong turn at the Office of Unmade Lists’ was written). Me and co-Viva la Novella winners Christy Collins and Marlee Jane Ward […]

Hello! Here’s an interview I did with Booktopia a while back, and which they’ve just published. They asked good questions. In writing news, I think I’ve just finished the first draft of something new. You’re probably not supposed to say that; I’ve doubtless cursed myself now. Anyway, I’m excited about doing draft two. In reading […]

Image by Magic Madzik/Flickr This is a long one so you might want to get a glass of wine before you start… Some books you could read The books I enjoyed most this year (not necessarily the best books I read, but the ones that meant the most to me) were: East of Eden, by John […]

Oh g’day. I’ve been doing Nanowrimo for the last month and my brain is utterly fried. Honestly, I doubt I’ll ever do it again, I think my brain is too old and brittle to deal with this kind of pressure. I can barely remember what my name is. I can, however, remember to do some […]

A little novella like Formaldehyde was never going to get much attention from book reviewers, so I’m really pleased to see a few reviews cropping up here and there over the last few months. Ed Wright, who was super-kind about A wrong turn at the Office of Unmade Lists a few years back, said Formaldehyde‘s ‘deliberate […]

Well, it’s almost November, so here’s a post about NaNoWriMo (if you have no idea what I’m talking about and wish you did, you can visit the National Novel Writing Month website here). I’m going to do nano again this year: it’ll be my (counts inaccurately in head) seventh go at this thing. Seven. I […]

It’s been a hectic year for me so far. I’ve organised and run a readathon, appeared at five writers festivals (Emerging Writers Festival, Willy Lit Fest, Bendigo Writers Festival, Melbourne Writers Festival and Write around the Murray), launched two books, read at a fundraiser for Visible Ink and done a bunch of interviews. It’s all good stuff – getting […]

Formaldehyde is popping its little preserved head up all over the place. Like where? Like here: On WritersBloc: Dear WritersBloc have chosen me for this month’s book club, which means you can read an excerpt from the book and join me and Geoff Orton online when we talk about it on September 29. On Seizure: another, […]