At the same time as giving Becoming A Fiction Writer a bit of a facelift, I’ve been (finally) doing more than just dipping my toes into social media. Once I noticed that even my husband was finally on Facebook and that I can follow Kevin Rudd, Paulo Coelho and somebody’s cat on Twitter, I figured these were the places to be. Or if they’re not, they’re at least quite fun, and great for a procrastinator like myself.
So if you want to follow my fiction writing life a bit more closely, …

This is my cat. She’s staring out the window, wondering when all the bird and wildlife action will start. This could be me, staring at my screen, wondering when all the writing action will start. My cat and I have just about the same philosophy on this waiting thing at the moment.
If you’ve met my cat (either of them, in fact) you’ll know that they’re pretty lazy. A lot of resting is involved in their lives, a bit of asking for cuddles and attention, and some eating. That’s about it. …

My search for books of various kinds takes me all around the web so when I come across a bookstore’s website, I know what I like and what I don’t. Now that we have a Borders store here in Perth, I’ve got interested in their books and  their style, because I don’t get that sinking “big chain” feeling with them the same as at other “big chain” stores (including the Aussie one I won’t publicise by naming, which doesn’t like little Australian publishers and therefore earns my distinct dislike!).
The Borders …

Unless you’re reading Becoming A Fiction Writer through an RSS feeder, you’ll have noticed that there have been a few changes. Yes, I bravely upgraded to a new Wordpress theme because I’m trying to make this site a bit more user-friendly – during the transition phase, it might be a little bit less user-friendly, but please hang in there. It’s all for the best, of course.
If you have any feedback on the new design (so far) or you find anything broken, do let me know. My skills in this area …

Just a few more sleeps and it all gets started: you might remember I’ve been waiting for the Perth Writers Festival for ages. I’m looking forward to getting a huge dose of inspiration both for reading and writing.
Special events – Some evening experiences

While most of the events of the Perth Writers Festival are free – and I have to say again how fantastic that is, and I hope that never changes – they usually hold some evening presentations, daytime workshops and special events like lunches that require tickets. And that’s …

This is the society I feel the urgent need to start today. Some days I’m just feeling murderous about people who misuse apostrophes or who say “bought” when they mean “brought”, but all of those sins are committed by people who are less able to do something about it. But when a novelist uses footnotes in a novel, they should know better.
The footnotes in novels that are annoying me
The reason I bring this up now is that I’ve been reading Marune: Alastor 993 by Jack Vance. This is the second …

So my husband invited a few guests to our place for a swim and a BBQ on the weekend. It sounds harmless enough and a typical Aussie summer thing to do. And we had a lovely evening floating around in the pool, eating sausages and barbecued eggplant and demolishing two cakes brought by the guests. But there was a bigger problem later that night: I couldn’t sleep.
Learning lots of new stuff

I didn’t use to be this bad, but recently, being exposed to a lot of new stimulation at once sends …

Something I’ve been meaning to blog about for ages is the Australian national broadcaster’s show called the First Tuesday Book Club. Since it’s only on TV once a month I often forget to watch it at the time (that, and the fact that it’s on at 10pm when I’m usually reading in bed!); luckily you can always catch up on the past episodes on their website. The host is Jennifer Byrnes and there are two regular “book club members” in Marieke Hardy (I love her on Triple J breakfast radio …

Yes, I’m blowing my own trumpet, but I am just a teensy bit pleased that the Best Colleges Online blog decided to list Becoming A Fiction Writer in their list of the Top 100 Creative Writing Blogs. Although I personally would have categorised this blog into the “Aspiring Authors” section, I’m perfectly happy to be in their “Fiction Writing” category too, since this blog clearly is about writing fiction.
The list also has sections on Poetry, Improving Your Craft and Published Authors, and it’s worth taking a look because there are …

All writers know the problem of getting hit with an idea and desperately needing to write it down somewhere so you don’t forget about it. My amused husband has got used to my odd nocturnal wanderings to write down an idea (and has also got used to telling me, after writing it down, that now I should shut my brain down and actually get some sleep. He has a point.).
Since a lot of my great ideas come in the shower, I’ve often contemplated a method for making notes there – …