Don’t worry, I haven’t entirely sunk into a can’t-finish-a-novel depression – I just liked the idea of entering the How to be Miserable contest being sponsored by life coach Tim Brownson. But in fact, trying to becoming a fiction writer can certainly produce its moments of misery, so if you’re in the business of wanting to be miserable, here’s how:

Set yourself a goal of becoming a published fiction writer. Being just a writer is hard enough, but wanting to be published? It’s a guaranteed path to misery. I don’t know …

I’ve mused before about buying books online or from my local bookshop, and my preference is definitely to browse through my favourite independent bookshops and enjoy touching the books, reading the first pages, and discovering books I didn’t even know existed yet. But in recent weeks I’ve been a bit let down by this strategy and I’ve gone online again.
I really wanted to buy a particular Australian novel as a gift for a friend who had a birthday. I can’t tell you which book yet, because I’ve yet to give …