ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize

The Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize is one of Australia's most respected short story competitions and generous too with the first prize winner being awarded $7000. Elizabeth Jolley was awarded many coveted prizes for her books and stories throughout the 1980's and 90's. She didn't publish her first book until she was 53 suggesting she was … Continue reading ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize

Tell a Fairy Tale Day

The 26 of February is National Tell a Fairy Tale Day. No point in resisting. We all know by now that fairy tales began as oral stories and have grown and changed with the times and for the audience.  Some people feel Disney has taken the dark soul out of the oral tales but I … Continue reading Tell a Fairy Tale Day

Story and song #4 Hilltop Hoods

I have my son to thank for introducing me to Australian hip hop music. I dismissed all that rap crap because of some stigma associated with Gangsta Rap. I don’t even know what that is. But my son, being the obsessive that he is, when he in to something he is totally engaged and nothing … Continue reading Story and song #4 Hilltop Hoods

Every wine has a story

I recently spent a weekend  on the Granite Belt in an amazing house overlooking Stanthorpe.  For me, the story of Stanthorpe is that growing up it was just another country town. One where some of the kids of I went to boarding school with lived.  To go there for a weekend was a silly idea. … Continue reading Every wine has a story

Robots replacing humans

Somewhere in the media recently, on TV I think, I saw a story about computers writing news articles. Apparently when given and article written by a computer and an article written by a human being, the human beings cannot tell the difference. The examples given, as I recall, were sport reports, and no I could … Continue reading Robots replacing humans