Category: Journal

  • December

    December

    It’s a delight for any author’s novel to be put on ‘end of year shortlists’. My delight also comes because To Sing of War in 2024 is shortlisted along with other authors whose work I love and admire, and also because the nominators – Kate Evans and Michaela Kalowski – are critics I have great…

  • Oh thank you, Michaela

    Oh thank you, Michaela

    My final event of the year was with Michaela Kalowski at the Woollahra Library, Double Bay, Sydney, with the very brilliant Jane Turner from Gertrude and Alice and her good friend Paula Marcon supporting the event by selling copies of To Sing of War and Storyland. The whole event was arranged by Jaime Harrison –…

  • ARA Historical Novel Prize EVENT

    ARA Historical Novel Prize EVENT

    It was great to learn that after longlisting, To Sing of War was ‘Highly Commended’ in the HNSA 2024 ARA Historical Novel award. I went along with fellow writer and traveller Lauren Chater, whose wonderful book The Beauties was also ‘Highly Commended’. The ARA Historical Novel Prize is the richest genre-based literary award in Australasia, incorporating both…

  • ARA Historical Novel Prize

    ARA Historical Novel Prize

    I was thrilled to be long-listed for the ARA Historical Novel Prize, with such a fantastic collection of authors. 

  • FREEDOM

    FREEDOM

    I have a new short story in the Saturday Paper this weekend (3rd August 2024). It’s called ‘Freedom’ and it’s about an encounter Kitty Oppenheimer has with a spy. I came across Kitty when I was researching  my novel To Sing of War. The novel braids stories from New Guinea, the US (New Mexico), and…

  • Craft Braiding

    Craft Braiding

    Recently a reader wrote to me through the website and asked me to talk about braiding. This is how I replied: I talk about the braided novel a lot in my author talks or ‘in conversation’ discussions. Braiding is a little different to sub plots. For me a braided novel has distinct stories that connect…

  • Field Trip – Travelling the Sepik River

    Field Trip – Travelling the Sepik River

    When on a research trip in PNG (for To Sing of War), my partner and I both loved travelling by canoe. It was such a different experience to the way we travel, from one destination to another, in Australia. We canoed along the Sepik River looking for the village where (in World War Two) my…

  • Field Trip to PNG

    Field Trip to PNG

    I went with my partner, Gary Christian, to research in PNG. One of the first trips we did was to the village of Aitape. We went there by jeep from Wewak. The road was filled with potholes. Often, before we could cross, we had to stop to wait for a flooded river to go down.…