CATHERINE McKINNON

Are You a She-oak? Good novel writing takes time, and often it’s true that good writing is rewriting. Sometimes, though, the length of time it takes to complete a manuscript causes a writer to wonder whether their novel is worth writing. I was discussing this issue with a writer friend. Both of us had spent…

This is my first ‘Birdbook Notes’ newsletter for the site. Apologies that it took so long! I’m  going to start off with a little debrief flashback on what happened in the 2024 To Sing of War Book Tour, and then let you know about the events coming up for the book in 2025.   (This newsletter…

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 –…

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…

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…

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.…