I received two Aurealis Awards nominations, and it is fair to say I’m pleased. These are (easily) Australia’s premiere speculative fiction awards. They are also juried – which while carrying its own flaws, I’d take any day of the …
I really enjoyed this interview on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) with host Kim Huynh. Kim is a man of many talents. He lectures in international relations at the Australian National University; has written about the refugee experience – both …
Read about forty books* this year, which isn’t bad. I try to read every day – the second most important part of the job of being a writer is reading widely – but unfortunately I am also human. As a …
Delayed (by you-know-what) a couple of months, I launched my debut novel in Canberra on Sunday, 29 May. To be blunt, I find these things exhausting – unless you’re a superstar, you organise the entire event yourself, which is a …
Very happy to have received a nomination in Australia’s premier speculative fiction awards, the Aurealis. I was shortlisted in the ‘Best Science Fiction Novella or Novelette’ category for A Vast Silence, which first appeared in the Magazine of …
It’s done. Five years, working on this novel. Giving up on it, coming back to it, agonising, creating, drafting and re-drafting, and the bloody thing is done. Now – marketing BS aside – it’s out of my hands and up …
Breaking out the begging bowl and approaching successful authors for a book quote was one of my least favourite parts of finalising 36 Streets. In fact I hated it. “Hey, you don’t really know me, but could I …
The space between selling your first novel, and publication day, is long and exhausting. For me, the gap was about 18 months. I’ve written this article throughout the process, while the experience is fresh. It is fair to say …
Paul Schrader’s The Card Counter came out earlier this year, which prompted me to reflect on one of my favourite sub-genres of film: the gambling flick. They are an obsession of mine, in part, because so many of these movies …
Ideas had always come easy to me. So-called ‘blank page’ writer’s block had never been a problem I’d faced. The reason was, in part, because I started writing relatively later in life – in my mid-30s, and had a career …
