For a slightly impatient reader and writer like me, this past week has been a bit of a challenge. It was the week in which I had to slow down. I like to see progress in quantifiable terms, whether it’s numbers of words written, or pages read. But this last few days have been all about the one percent. Fixing…
There is no doubt, ‘The Other Side of the World‘ is one of my top picks of the year so far. Author, Stephanie Bishop, has the most beautiful, poetic writing style and the book, as a whole, has much to say about nostalgia and the way in which people long for a place and time in their lives they can…
A book launch is a slightly fraught occasion. There are nerves. There is excitement. There is celebration. There is anxiety. But overlaying all of this is a tremendous feeling of inspiration. Get a crowd of readers and writers in a room and the love of books starts to feel palpable. At least, that was the feeling in the room at…
I’ll be honest. I am not a massive fan of editing. I put a lot of thought and effort into first drafts and in many ways, I edit as I go. But as I mentioned in my last post on editing, even the most amazing first draft is going to need revising. And so I doggedly persist. If you want…
Thanks to this blog, I’ve recently diversified my reading habits to include genres and titles I wouldn’t normally pick up, like young adult fiction. What a revelation! Re-visiting your teenage self is both an exhilarating and confronting experience – which pretty much sums up the reaction I had to Trinity Doyle’s Pieces of Sky (read the review here). So, I’m absolutely…
The first draft is done! Hoo-freaking-ray! Recently on the blog, I wrote about how it felt to write the words ‘The End’ on a novel I’ve been working on for two years.
Now what?
Now the real work begins.
“Every first draft is perfect, because all a first draft has to do is exist.” — Jane Smiley What kind of crack was Jane Smiley (a Pulitzer Prize winner, no less) smoking when she said this? – was the first thought that popped into my head the other day when this ‘inspirational quote’ came through my twitter feed. My second,…
I have to admit, there were a couple of moments in Claiming Noah that brought me to tears. The novel tells the story of Catriona and Diana, whose fertility challenges are just the beginning of a rollercoaster ride into motherhood. The novel explores the issue of embryo donation, but in fact asks the central question – what does it mean…
Monica Dux wears many different hats. She is a columnist with The Age, a social commentator, speaker, and author of ‘Things I Didn’t Expect (when I was expecting)’, co-author of ‘The Great Feminist Denial’ and editor of the anthology ‘Mothermorphosis‘, which I read (and loved) earlier this year. It is the book I wished I read when I was pregnant, and I’m so thrilled…
I’ve told my friend, Simone Pregellio, that she needs to write a book or a blog, ’cause she’s as funny in print, as she is in person. Luckily, she’s too busy being a corporate high-flying communications executive to listen my silly ideas. However, when she told me she was attending this year’s Sydney Writers’ Festival, I had a light bulb…