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After a huge weekend at the Australian Natcon, I’ve had some time to recover from what was an epic four days. It was great to catch up with some old friends and meet some new ones. After being in the fan scene…
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How To Be Creative (When You’re Not A Creative Person)
Have you ever said to yourself, I’d love to be creative, but I’m just not that sort of person? As a full-time creative professional, I hear this wish expressed all the time. I wish I was creative. I wish I…
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Researching an Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers’ Association
I’m currently researching the establishment of an Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers’ Association by surveying local authors and creative professionals. This research was part of my grant I got from the UNESCO City of Literature last year.
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Why comparing yourself to everyone else is stupid
I was having one of those days. Sitting there writing, thinking that even if I write and write and write, I’ll never be as good as [insert author name here]. Funnily enough, it seems like a bunch of other writers…
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Hardboiled Holmes: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Valley of Fear
In researching a new novel, I stumbled across a curious tidbit within The Scientific Sherlock Holmes by James O’Brien. It briefly mentioned The Valley of Fear, one of the four Sherlock Holmes novels, as an early precursor to the hardboiled novel. Intrigued as…
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The Terrifying Act of Making Resolutions
Since I was a teenager, I wanted to be the lead singer in a rock and roll band. It was something about watching Renee Zellweger rocking out on the top of Empire Records that did it for me. Everything in…