I drove out of Sydney on Monday noon. The day overcast, a light drizzle settling in as I passed the airport. Further down the highway, where the speed hits 110km/hr, the drizzle became heavy fog. I slowed to 40km/hr. Couldn’t see more than 50ft in front of me. Switched on the hazard lights and willed the mist to lift. Should…
Five days before Christmas, I closed the manuscript I’d been working on after a furious final day where I cranked out 3,000 words while the kids were at their last day of vacation care for the year. For the next seven weeks, I did no writing. I thought deeply about the manuscript, but I didn’t touch the computer. I walked…
Firstly, apologies for spreading this story over two parts, but it’s a fairly long, and hopefully not too boring, tale. I generally love reading other author’s publication tales, because they are little glimmers of hope in what can sometimes feel like a fairly futile activity. Though, it must be said, publication is not the sole objective of writing. I could…
I’ve written the headline for this post, and I’m shaking my head because I’m still in a bit of shock that I am going to be a published author with Harlequin Australia. To be frank, that post title is also probably a little misleading. Did I actually secure the deal? Or did I just happen to win the lottery? It’s…
In March 2016, my husband and I went on a holiday together to Tasmania for five nights. It was the first time we’d left our young children for more than a night. My parents stepped up to mind them. The occasion was my 40th birthday and Tasmania was a ‘bucket-list’ destination. The scenery, the food, MONA – it seemed to…
When I think about my life BC (before children) I feel slightly ill. All those idle hours! BC, my weekends consisted of little more than reading the newspaper, doing a little exercise, maybe going for dinner. Yes, it was lovely. But my life outside of work was also extremely unproductive. BC, I could have busted-out a novel in 5 seconds…
If you want to get to the really interesting part of Small Great Things, you need to turn to page 459. That’s not to say the preceding 458 aren’t great. They are. You don’t get to be a globally best selling author without the writing chops and Picoult has them in spades. Small Great Things is a cracking moral dilemma…
It is said that everyone has a book in them, and I tend to agree with that sentiment in the sense that everyone has an interesting life story to tell. Given a quiet room, a laptop and a few thousand hours of solitude, I think pretty much everyone could produce something compelling, or at least interesting. Then, there are other…
Every fortnight, my daughter’s school assembly begins with an acknowledgment of country and ends with the singing of the national anthem. It’s easy to sing Advance Australia Fair and not think about the words. Then you read a book like The Dry, and you start thinking. The first verse of Advance Australia Fair is almost all about agriculture. There’s our ‘golden…
I have to admit to cringing a little (lot) when I re-read my first (and never to be published) manuscript. What I dislike most about it is that it’s written in the first-person, present tense. Here’s the first paragraph: I watch the stream of water snaking its way down my body. It used to take a more direct route downwards,…