How To Make Yourself Creatively Accountable
If you are trying to make a living with a creative endeavour you need to hold yourself accountable for what you do. Writing requires enormous dedication. There is a large percentage of the population who have thought about writing a book. Supposedly this figure is...
How to Surrender to Triumph and Failure
I am about to spend another weekend in the recording studio. A few months ago we began working on a new album. At that first recording session, I was forced to question whether what I was doing was a triumph or a failure. The owner of the studio is a guy called Milan....
Patti Smith Does The Paradiso
First off, it’s not called the Paradisio. It’s the Paradiso. Ok, it’s only one extra syllable, but if you know it, it’s irritating. I’m sure she knew it, or maybe it was just another one of those times when a tourist misinterprets something. She was in a foreign...
The Not So Great War
Over a hundred years ago, my grandfather went off to war. He was young, and possibly, panting at the bit to go. He may have gone earlier if it hadn’t been for age restrictions. It was to be a great adventure. Every able-bodied man wanted to be part of...
10 Best Films At Rotterdam Independent Film Festival, 2016
For the past few years I have religiously spent a few days at the end of January in Rotterdam at the International Film Festival. This year was no different. Well, it was a bit different. I usually go at the beginning of the 10 day festival, this time I went at the...
Hobby Is A Dirty Word
Yesterday, I had a bit of a moment. My so-called hobby was challenged. Over the past few months I have steadily been building up momentum as an author. I set up a website. I have had my book edited, I have had a cover designed. I have absorbed oceans of tips on...
Writing From An Indigenous Perspective: Part 1
My biggest struggle with writing Loreless has been the question whether I have the right to write from an indigenous perspective. There are many opinions on this subject. The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith One of the authors I researched when I started was Thomas Keneally...
We Can Be Heroes
The week that was, last week, was quite something. We lost, or I lost, I don’t know what your opinion is on this, two heroes. If I stand corrected, it was actually three. One was buried and the others actually did the passing on. I suppose you could consider them...
Hope Rules, OK?
Loreless is about hope. The tantalising thought that change can still happen drove me to write the book. I still hope. I still believe that change will come. The basic idea for the book came to me almost 25 years ago and my feelings have not changed. I continue to...
How To Become A Publishing Expert
There seems to be no end of people online with an opinion on writing. And not only about what the best methods are for putting words on the page, there are also literally thousands giving advice on publishing. I’m no publishing expert but it is clear to me that...
Why There Is A Left And Right Way To Be Creative
As a child I had a learning disability. Somehow it was picked up at a very young age. I have very vague memories of it. I was sent to a specialist as there seemed to be a problem with how I used my brain. I was using both sides of it at will. I would do certain things...
The Infancy Of A Novel
Loreless, the novel which I have struggled to complete, began a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Well not exactly, but I was on another part of the planet and it was a great distance from where I am now. It actually bothers me how long it has taken to get to...
The Bureaucrat
He peered up at me from his little hole and hissed, “Tip”. “Huh?” Again, this time a little louder and a lot more snake-like. “Tip!” The penny dropped. “Aah.” We had just spent the best part of an hour trying to get...
Research and Memory
Research takes a lot time. It also involves an enormous amount of reading. Most of it goes in and gets lost somewhere in the recesses of your brain. You can’t absorb everything in detail. Somehow your brain filters out the unimportant stuff and you’re just...
Rainbow Wanderer
Rainbow Wanderer My whole life has been about the journey. I never know exactly where it’s leading, but that is of minor importance to me. I get off on the trip. I get off on going somewhere. Of course, I do have goals, but over time they change. Most of them...
Emerging from a Musical Wilderness
Emerging from a Musical Wilderness We have been in the wilderness. It’s been five years since the last Whittlesea album was released. This means that it has been more than six years since we were in the studio. That’s an incredibly long time between recordings. It...Discover a part of Australia you never imagined existed.
Read Loreless
Do you like stories about witches? Ghosts? Powerful entities? You must meet Anaïs Blue.
