I think most writers are quiet about their ambition. It's a big ambition. Writing a book and getting published is a huge and difficult thing. Perhaps I am projecting, but for me, there seemed to much chance of failure to go bragging about something I may never achieve. I have achieved 'it' though and yesterday, … Continue reading Publication Day
Category: Cassandra
Cover Reveal – Cassandra
Boy or Girl? That is what people want to know when you are pregnant. When you are publishing a book, people want to know - what is the cover going to be like? Being published by a small press like Odyssey Books meant I was perhaps more often consulted on potential covers than if I … Continue reading Cover Reveal – Cassandra
Smile and/or Panic
It is almost launch time for Cassandra. On the outside I am smiling. On the inside I am panicking. People say to me that I am such a calm person. The truth is I have a calm exterior. Inside this head of mine is a hurricane of worries and anxieties. People like me, weird old … Continue reading Smile and/or Panic
I did not nail this one – reading aloud
The first time public speaking went wrong for me was in grade 6. I was doing a presentation on dairy farming. I had a lovely piece of white cardboard with drawings and glued on pictures. The problem was the word 'teat'. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew this word would be a … Continue reading I did not nail this one – reading aloud
Draw a line through your imagination
What I have learnt is that when I am writing, I need to know the place I am writing. I have to have a picture of it in my head. Where I went wrong was letting the place in my head change. In the first draft of Cassandra, the characters did things in the space they lived … Continue reading Draw a line through your imagination
A Ute is a real thing
As an Australian writer, I am sometimes surprised by what gets lost in translation. Most recently, it was my assertion that a character could walk straight from her classroom to the outside. One of the wonderful critters in my international writers' group found this odd. It never occurred to me that our Australian schools are different. … Continue reading A Ute is a real thing
Editors are like nutritional supplements
In the olden days, when I was in high school, we wrote out our assignments by hand. Pen and paper. We even ruled a red line along the edge of the page as the margin. My friend Shelly said to me one day, the difference between her and our friend Victoria was that if Shelly's … Continue reading Editors are like nutritional supplements
My smile is a grimace
I am jealous of people who can smile for a camera. It is like running. Some people run with grace and elegance. They are born for it. When I run, it is like I am plodding in the mud. Some people smile, and their mouths actually turn up at the sides. How do they do … Continue reading My smile is a grimace
Brands are for cows!
Now there is a book on the way (see There is a book stuck in my birth canal), apparently I am supposed to get serious about 'brand'. Being a farmer's daughter, I just want to say, branding is what we did to cows. We lit a little fire, put the brand in to heat up, and … Continue reading Brands are for cows!
There’s book stuck in my birth canal
If writing a book is like pregnancy, then conception is the spark of ideas, exciting and new. Gestation is the long haul of writing, the all-day morning sickness, the lumpy lugging around of the protruding manuscript, and the occasional joyful kick and the happy knowledge that something is growing. When the thing is fully cooked, … Continue reading There’s book stuck in my birth canal