Category Archives: On Writing: General

Locus Awards 2022

I’m both delighted and amused to see my little (profanity-ridden) Brain Jar Press writer chap as one of the finalists for the Locus Awards for Non-Fiction!

The shortlists are here.

What To Do When You Don’t Have A Book Coming Out …

… & Even More Sage Advice!

Yes, my second Writer Chap is out from Brain Jar Press. A companion volume for Your Are Not Your Writing & Other Sage Advice.

Filled with unsolicited (but generally useful) advice, anecdotes, occasional subtweets, comments about writers
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You Are Not Your Writing & Other Sage Advice

Oh, hello, my poor neglected blog!

Just popping in to share a lovely review from Reviewers of Oz of my Brain Jar Press chapbook You Are Not Your Writing & Other Sage Advice! This little book is
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Watch Your Backlist: Five Points on a Theme

Art by Kathleen Jennings

You’ve been writing for a while. Several years, in fact. You’ve even been publishing some (or a lot) of what you write.

All those stories are defunct, right? After they’ve appeared, and gone through the awards
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Writer Chaps!

The latest project from Brain Jar Press is the Writer Chaps series, which is now up for pre-order. Season One contains writing advice from myself, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Kaaron Warren, Alan Baxter and Sean Williams. (Do
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All the Murmuring Bones: Reviewers!

Hi, All.

All the Murmuring Bones, my first novel for Titan Books, will be out on or about 9 March 2021 (in Aus, the UK and the US). It’s a gothic fantasy set in the world of the Sourdough and Bitterwood mosaic collections (from Tartarus Press).

Titan will have the novel up at NetGalley in the new year, so if you’re a
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Competitions, Crafting Through Critiquing, and the Short Story: Some Notes

Art by Kathleen Jennings

This is another redux article ( I wrote the original version for The Australian Writer’s Marketplace back in the mists of time).

Competitions, Crafting Through Critiquing, and the Short Story

I’m often asked how to win
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On the Ancient and Secret Art of Formatting – Redux

Art by Kathleen Jennings

I wrote this post back in 2010 – remember 2010? When we could travel and didn’t feel the urge to torch-and-pitchfork anyone who coughed near us? Remember airports? Remember complaining about them? Remember how bad
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Top Ten Tips for Curing Writer’s Block 2020 Redux

Art by Kathleen Jennings

We’ve all been there, had those moments when even cleaning the toilet seems better than writing. Some days the words are not interested in you at all and you reciprocate in kind. However, you’ve got
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How Long Does Stuff Take?

Art by Kathleen Jennings

And by “stuff” I mean a career as a writer.

To start off, remember this: it’s unlikely that the first thing you write – be it short story or novel or article – will be the
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