Cheeky Frawg: Here, there, everywhere in 2011

Ann and Jeff VanderMeer’s latest publishing venture, Cheeky Frawg e-books, is very exciting. Between now and the end of 2011, this imprint will publish or reprint an eclectic array of titles, by an equally diverse selection of authors. You can read an e-version of Amal El-Mohtar’s wonderful collection, The Honey Month; a sampler of Women…… Continue reading Cheeky Frawg: Here, there, everywhere in 2011

Three fingers write, the whole body suffers…

When I went to Iceland and Sweden a couple of years ago, I had already started formulating ideas for the novel I’m currently working on. As I travelled from place to place, I filled a notebook with thoughts, observations, snippets of scenes. These weren’t just for this story, but were also general responses to my…… Continue reading Three fingers write, the whole body suffers…

Sunday of Gothic Luxury

Sometimes weekends are just splendid. After yesterday’s productive writing session working on The Familiar (there’s plot to this novel after all! and twists! and characters I want to learn more about!) today I had the pleasure of joining company with a group of engaging, intelligent Ladies for a private viewing of the ‘Imagining Interiors’ exhibit,…… Continue reading Sunday of Gothic Luxury

Clickety click!

Today has been a hodgepodge of crazy busy-ness, so it somehow seems fitting to post a hodgepodge of links in the hope that, in your own crazy busy days, you might find a moment to clickety click: Support ChiZine: “ChiZine.com has been free to readers since its inception in 1997. We want to keep paying…… Continue reading Clickety click!

Gobsmacked.

Jason Nahrung has reviewed Bluegrass Symphony over at ASiF, and whoa. I’m gobsmacked. It’s hard to single out a ‘taster’ to post here because, well, the whole thing is incredible. For example… ‘Down the Hollow’ resonated with memories of another great short, Margo Lanagan’s ‘Singing My Sister Down’: here is a ritual involving farewell, horrible…… Continue reading Gobsmacked.

Twenty-first century beauty: Piccinini and ‘Once Upon a Time’

It’s an elusive thing, beauty. Artists and scholars have devoted forests of paper, kilometres of canvas, gallons of paint – not to mention years, and often lives – to defining and capturing ‘the beautiful’. Is a litter of mutant babies beautiful? How about a single babe with flippers instead of feet, an elephant’s trunk instead…… Continue reading Twenty-first century beauty: Piccinini and ‘Once Upon a Time’

Holy. Crow. It’s all happening.

Bluegrass Symphony was reviewed by Publishers Weekly today! Whoa. It’s actually happening: I’ve written a book and now people are reading it. I know that’s how it usually works, but still. It seems like such a long process, between writing and publishing, that to realise that strangers are going to read and comment on what…… Continue reading Holy. Crow. It’s all happening.

Paisley Stitchington’s Speculative Buggle

Hot off the WordPress! New Australian Spec-fic webzine, with a pitch that goes a little something like this: “Paisley Stitchington’s Speculative Buggle is an online journal publishing fiction and “not fiction” from Australian authors. No longer will you have to go on uncomfortable journeys to the local haberdasher just to acquire an underhand copy of…… Continue reading Paisley Stitchington’s Speculative Buggle

So much fun, I lost my voice

I arrived in Sydney late on Friday evening after a full day’s work — a full week’s, really — ready for a weekend of fun, friends and celebration. This was my third Aurealis Awards, but the first time I’d been nominated, so I was pretty excited. Angela (aka Brain) had a barrowload of nominations this…… Continue reading So much fun, I lost my voice