Writer, editor & reader
Fremantle Press and WA arts magazine Seesaw are offering four lucky bookworms the chance to win one of their new crime titles including The Night Village. All you need to do is email competitions@seesawmag.com.au with the title of your preferred book in the subject line and your name and phone number in the body of … Continue reading Win a new-release crime novel from Fremantle Press
Recently I wrote a piece for an online writer’s group about how I finally achieved a publishing contract for my novel, The Night Village (out in August). It is easy to see the path to publication in retrospect, and to polish over the missteps and times when it was barely visible, or so cluttered with … Continue reading 5 ways to clear your path to publication
The word ‘mischief’ has always summoned up for me an unpleasant memory of being in the stuffy, bureaucratic waiting room of the local teacher’s union with my little sister as my mother went to another room for a meeting. Looking back, I can imagine her reservations about leaving us alone in the waiting room, and … Continue reading The History of Mischief by Rebecca Higgie
Sylvia Plath lived her short life at break-neck, ravenous speed – she was a star student who went from Smith College to a nervous breakdown to Cambridge University as a Fulbright Scholar, where she met her future husband, the poet Ted Hughes, then back to the USA and then to Devon and London where she … Continue reading Red Comet – The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath by Heather Clark
Recently I listened to author Tara June Winch talk about her Miles Franklin Award winning novel, The Yield. Here are some notes from the evening.
‘My dad says that being a Londoner has nothing to do with where you’re born. He says that there are people who get off a jumbo jet at Heathrow, go through Immigration waving any kind of passport, hop on the tube and by the time the train’s pulled into Piccadilly Circus they’ve become a Londoner.’ … Continue reading Why leaving a place is good for your writing
The One Thing is a New York Times bestselling self-help book, written by Gary Keller. It came out in 2013 and the central idea – that you find and prioritise the One Thing you’re good at – is worth thinking about in 2020, when it’s so easy to despair at so much loss, yet crucial … Continue reading The One Thing
A couple of months ago I was blogger of the month for Margaret River Press, a local West Australian small publisher with a track record for publishing short stories in both single-authored collections and their annual anthology. On my final week I had an online chat with young Perth author Emily Paull, who published the … Continue reading In conversation with Emily Paull
Writers are always told to read as widely as they can. As a teenager, I devoured books, but thinking back to my endless free time and zippy neurons, I sometimes wish I’d drawn a line. At Flowers in the Attic, perhaps. Anyone who has conversed with a four-year-old will know that a child’s brain is like … Continue reading Your teenage reading will haunt you forever
Some good news from a while ago – two of my short stories, The Ibis Bedroom Tree and More River, were shortlisted for the 2020 Newcastle Short Story Award 2020, and are now published in their annual anthology. I recorded an excerpt from one of my stories, The Ibis Bedroom Tree, and you can listen … Continue reading Two of my short stories find a home
Zoe Deleuil 