Category: Uncategorised

One of the benefits of this pandemic we’re all in is that many live events have gone online. Because of this, I listened to a conversation between creative luminaries Julia Cameron and Elizabeth Gilbert. They have both written numerous novels and non-fiction books on creativity – way too many to mention but Julia is well… Continue reading Creative luminaries

Usually I share with you, dear readers, books that I’ve read. This time, I’m sharing books that I’m going to read. I’m in luck with birthday books from last month and a few others. Perhaps you can recommend my next book to read? Adult fiction Bluebottle by Belinda Castles – this is written by a… Continue reading Lockdown 2.0 reading

Escaping lockdown life in Melbourne isn’t easy – 5k boundaries, permitted worker permits, night curfews. But, my friends, we do have our books! I have recently escaped lockdown life in Melbourne by immersing myself in Janice Hadlow’s novel, The other Bennet sister, published a few months ago. Thanks to my well-read friend Steve for recommending… Continue reading The other Bennet sister – review

Dear readers, I hope you and your families are well. I really appreciate all the comments you leave on my posts and the emails you send me – it’s lovely to know that our words are connecting us. This week, I bring you a review from one of Australia’s great fiction and non-fiction writers –… Continue reading A room made of leaves – review

Maya Angelou defines success this way – Success is liking yourself, liking what you do and liking how you do it. Note that her definition doesn’t include wealth or power! In recent months, I’ve had more freelance editing work than I’ve had in the past sixteen and a half years since I left my full-time… Continue reading Maya Angelou’s definition of success

Sometimes editing is like cleaning your house – when the floor is vacuumed and mopped, the washing folded and the bathrooms cleaned, the effort involved is almost invisible. But when the bins overflow or the washing piles up, it’s noticeable. With editing, no one ever reads a book and exclaims, ‘My goodness, every word was… Continue reading Editing and cleaning

There’s a chapter in Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler where aging Pearl Cody, almost completely blind, asks her son Ezra to go through her boxes of photos and diaries as a young woman. It’s a chapter that doesn’t have much tension, doesn’t advance the plot, doesn’t make readers want to turn the… Continue reading Making memories

I am so late to the party with this book – Where the crawdads sing by Delia Owens. So many friends have read it and loved it – I don’t know anyone who said they didn’t enjoy it. Kya has lived alone in the marshes on the North Carolina coast since she was small. She… Continue reading July reads

It’s an odd thing to imagine, how one would edit an illustration. But readers, particularly young readers, need the illustrations to read meaning into the text. I checked some illustrations yesterday for a middle-grade novel. There was the odd punctuation mistake in the first round of illustrations, easily fixed. But then there was an incorrect… Continue reading Editing illustrations

A newsy post today for you, dear blog readers. Reading – The dictionary of lost words by Pip Williams. I loved immersing myself in this story about a young girl who grows up in the workplace of her father, a lexicographer in Oxford in the 1880s. I found myself bewailing the limitations of women in… Continue reading Reading, writing, teaching…