My Favourite Reads of 2025
Hit my target of 52 books read for the year. You know what? I love reading. Completely trite to say so, but there it is. Several times throughout 2025, while I was lying on my couch (a battered yet fiendishly …
Category: Reviews
Two-for-One Sale – Multi-Award-Winning, Acclaimed Australian SF
This year, Ghost of the Neon God won both Best Science Fiction Novella at the Aurealis Awards, and Best Novella at the Ditmars. The Aurealis is a juried award, and genuinely features the best of Australian SF. The Ditmars is …
BookTube Interview – Five Sci-Fi Novel Recommendations
I recently did an interview with Jonathan, an Australian BookTuber who runs a channel called Words in Time. He’s got some great content, so I recommend you go and check it out. I’ve embedded the interview in this article, …
My Favourite Reads of 2024
Hit my target of 52 books read for the year. As I keep saying (because it’s true) reading is part of the job of a writer. I put aside a couple of hours every evening to do so. When I …
My Favourite Reads of 2023
Finally hit my target of 50 books this year. Reading is part of my job as a writer, and I aim to do so every evening. I’m not fast and wouldn’t want to be. I savour what I read (when …
The Six Best Books I Read in 2021 (and seven honourable mentions)
I got through thirty-one books this year, not including those I read as judge in the Aurealis Awards. Still, less than I would have liked. I try – and usually succeed – to write every day. But as an author, …
Angry Dad Cinema: An Appreciation
When Adam Liaw, an Australian celebrity chef (the only celebrity chef I know, I should add, and I have no idea what he cooks. I came across him because he is consistently funny and sensible on Twitter and perhaps the …
Six Favourite Books of 2020
Read thirty-three books this year, which is below average. The goal is fifty. They said lockdown was a perfect opportunity to catch up on reading and hobbies, to learn an instrument, compose a fucking aria, all that bullshit. I spent …
The Importance of Reader Reviews (for authors like me)
Word of mouth still matters. It matters a lot, to pretty much to every writer who a) isn’t famous, and b) doesn’t have a major publisher willing to spend a fortune on marketing. Even for those, it still damn well …
The Twenty Best Sword Fights, Ever
I developed a fascination with sword fights after taking up Kumdo (Korean sword fighting) a year or two back. Not that I didn’t quite enjoy a good duel already – especially if it was dynamic and revealed character, moreso again …