Archives by Tag 'Hachette Australia'
Help! I’ve lost the pause button…
Help. I’m in desperate need of a pause button – or a rewind would be even better. Where has 2011 gone? Somewhere in the last twelve months I’ve been checked to line on a new aircraft, have published my second book, have written my third novel, completed countless simulator sessions, had family visitors all the [...]
Join me for the QWC Year of the Novel 2012
I’m a bit of a sucker for writing courses and workshops. I love the feel good glow as I’m blinded by the multitude of light bulbs going off in my mind. I love the inspiration that floods through me – even when it leaves me incapable of putting words on the page for several weeks. [...]
Fiction or Faction
Did you ever going looking in the back of wardrobes to see if you could find a way into Narnia? I did. Frequently. I’ve stopped now… Two unrelated posts on Face book and a friend’s blog made me pause this morning and contemplate how some stories become part of our ordinary world. Kylie Griffin posted [...]
A long time to heal
Long after a cyclone or a natural disaster the devastation still remains. Yasi’s destruction has been all but forgotten except by those who are still rebuilding their lives. The rest of us move on. I spoke to a woman recently who said she lived at Mission Beach. ‘How are you doing?’ I asked, thinking she’d [...]
What Qantas did for Australia
It’s a funny old world. A week ago the average Australian probably didn’t even know what Fair Work Australia was, let alone how it impacted on them. Since Alan Joyce staged his company ‘stop work meeting’, most Australians are now experts on our Industrial Relations laws. Over the last three days I’ve had animated (and [...]
A spammer’s life…
Briefly (and embarrassingly) yesterday I joined the ranks of spammers. When I woke up in the morning it wasn’t on my To Do List. In fact it’s never been on a TD list and hopefully won’t be again. There were important things on my list – mow the grass, do my aircraft manual amendments, pay [...]
Perception is king…
I’ve been immersed in editing Burning Lies for the last two weeks which means skipping the blogsphere to a large extent. I’m surfacing today because of a story my sister sent me. (She’s in France and knows more about what’s going on in Australian newspapers than I do…) The article is in the Sydney Morning [...]
Writing Races?
They say writers need to exercise their writing muscles to keep them strong, so what better way than to sprint for an hour or two! Queensland Writers Centre has an online department called Australian Writer’s Marketplace Online – AWM Online. It’s a wonderful resource for writers covering everything from advice to on-line courses, to forums. [...]
Authors Compare
It was remiss of me not to post a link earlier… Steve from The Australian Literature Review has created a new site called Authors Compare. Ever wondered how other writers see their characters? Do they have favourites? Just how do they balance narrative and dialogue? Is setting allowed to take on a life of its [...]
Pan-pan, pan-pan, pan-pan
With the reliability of modern aircraft, advanced engineering systems, and components that are replaced long before they wear out most airline pilots will never experience an engine in-flight shut down in their careers. We spend a lot of time planning for that eventuality – completing emergency procedures training, and flying flight simulators where we deal [...]