Why on earth do we have Christmas-themed decorations covered in snow when we celebrate the festive season in the middle of summer?

Let’s settle this once and for all!

We’re all busy. Is this excuse symptomatic of a bigger issue?

Every November, writers around the globe participate in a unique challenge known as National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). The goal? To write 50,000 words in just 30 days.

Lenny starts on the bench, his stomach in knots as he watches his team grab the ball after the first bounce. The siren goes at quarter time and he joins the huddle. The coach is yelling commands and the assistant holds a white board. Lenny’s name is on a magnet down the bottom, outside of the oval.

I try to support every author I meet by buying their books, even if I wouldn’t typically choose that genre. It’s my way of showing support and celebrating the years of work involved in getting a story to a shelf. But it also means my shelves are overflowing with unread titles.

Talking about weight is SUPER boring. Body image is something women have struggled with since forever. And for women my age (Gen Xers), who grew up in the 80s and 90s, we are still shedding the layers of shame associated with the narrative of society at the time.

In the world of book publishing, guiding a manuscript from a writer’s desk to a reader’s hands is like a trek across rugged mountains and winding valleys, navigating the peaks of creativity and the pitfalls of market demands.

I am so tired. Stupidly tired. It’s frustrating and often times debilitating. My husband seems to have boundless energy. What’s the deal?

Do Australian authors need an agent? What are the benefits to signing with one?

During the past 21 years, I’ve learned that shit can hit at any moment, and not all things we do as parents—or merely humans—can stop the faecal spray life sometimes delivers. But the desire to offer suggestions when they’re not wanted is a fast track to a shitstorm and not standing your ground when the advice is coming, is weathering it without an umbrella.

The opportunity to meet readers in real life can be both exhilarating and a little daunting. Some authors despise in-person events where public speaking is involved, much preferring to stay in their writing nooks where it is safe and warm and far from criticism and critique.

I am not one of those authors.

In the year 2000, two Silicon Valley engineers launched Hot or Not to rate a female’s attractiveness. Four years later, Facebook threw itself into the ring based on this same premise. It would be easy to say these initiatives reflected the deeply misogynistic world at the time, but it has continued 20 years on. We should be beyond this rubbish, but we’re not and I want to scream and cry rage tears like the hysterical woman these men think I am.

I have been asked this a lot at my events over the last few months. I don’t plan my books, so when it comes to editing … well, things don’t always go smoothly. But are editors the ogres some make them out to be? What exactly do they cover in an edit?

Writers (and creatives in general) get asked to do a lot of things for free.

“Can you just write me a quick blurb for XYZ?”

“Could you read my opening pages and tell me what you think?”

“Could you come and chat to our staff/students about your writing path?”

Is this reasonable?

A library is so much more than a building housing books. Here’s all the things I love about libraries.

From Sunday morning runs to walking home from work, women are constantly surveilling their surroundings. We are tired and we are sick of it.

I gave my protagonist, Gracie, in The Eleventh Floor synasthesia. Find out what that is and how I heard about it through this fascinating insight into the mind of someone who has the magical gift.

In a month of incredible highs and some frustrating lows, I have yet again been alerted to the significant power imbalances that exist in our society.

I’ve been lucky to have both my novels recorded as audiobooks. I’m ashamed to admit it but prior to the recording of my debut, Someone Else’s Child, I’d never listened to an audiobook! Here I pick the brain of my narrator of The Eleventh Floor.