You know how people often say that kids teach you a lot? Well, turns out that it’s true. I’m not sure they meant what I’m about to say though. I learnt something from my little boy’s T-shirt the other day. Have a look:

Yes, I’d bought this cute little T-shirt thinking that it’d be sweet to show the world what I think of him – that he’s Mr Perfect. But the universe, a slightly oversized T-shirt, his squirminess and one letter hiding under the armpit all combined to make him Mr …

I’m not sure why it is that online college websites are obsessed with making lists of resources for writers – last year a similar site put together a list of Top 100 Creative Writing blogs and featured Becoming A Fiction Writer on it – but I’m glad they do it, because these lists are actually full of useful and interesting sites.
Recently someone from the Online Degree site emailed me to let me know about their list of 100 Online Resources That Will Make You A Better Writer. I don’t usually …

It’s quite a long time ago that I blogged about the benefits of a fiction writer getting creatively divergent (or doing “creativity cross-training“, which sounds a bit too athletic!). But just because I haven’t blogged about it, doesn’t mean I haven’t done it.
As I see it, getting your right and left brain working together in ways other than writing has got to be a good change and (hopefully) benefit your writing. For some reason the craft of amigurumi has popped up on the internet in front of me quite a …

Books are not usually the stars of cool photos, but this is really an exception. Recently at Bondi Beach in Sydney (oh, how I wish I could have popped over to Sydney and seen this in person!) a furniture store (one I like, but nonetheless won’t plug on my blog) set up this display of bookshelves and organised a “book swap”. You could bring your own books and swap them for ones on the shelf, or just take a book and give a gold coin donation, with proceeds going to …

Sara, one of my cats, who doesn’t talk in her sleep
Inspiration for fiction writers can come from all kinds of places. I’m always on the lookout for quirky stuff that might just set my creative juices flowing when I’m not feeling in such a creative mood. And there’s nothing like a bizarre website like Sleep Talkin’ Man to inspire you.
Apparently this British guy talks in his sleep pretty much every night, and his American wife records what he says (not sure when she sleeps!). She then blogs it the next …

To Facebook, or not to Facebook, that is the question that many people around the world have asked themselves recently. Personally, I love using Facebook to keep in touch with the large number of people I know in many different parts of the world, but that’s mostly because I’ve travelled a lot, lived overseas, and now teach people who return to their home countries, so it makes sense; someone who has most of their friends living within reach could quite easily convince me they didn’t see any use in it …

Just before Christmas, a colleague of mine excitedly recommended a book she was reading (thanks, Kath!): The Doorbells of Florenceby Andrew Losowsky. It’s quite a special book to look at – a small hard back with nice quality paper, full of colour photographs, graphics and an attractive font. And it’s not only attractive physically, but the whole idea of it is absolutely adorable.
Basically, it was inspired by Losowsky’s random decision to photograph a bunch of doorbells in Florence. Fortunately, Italian doorbells are a lot more beautiful than my rather uninspiring …

Recently I was listening to a series of radio broadcasts that Bill Bryson made a couple of years back, bundled together with the title Journeys in English – it’s fascinating stuff about the development of the English language, and interesting for me both as a writer and as an English teacher. (Yes, I recommend it!)
Anyhow, while any number of interesting points remained in my mind after listening to the programmes, one fact stuck out that I felt I should have known already. I kind of knew that Shakespeare had invented …

I just read an interesting post at Christina Katz’s Prosperous Writer blog about creative couples – husband and wife/partner teams who are both working in a creative area. Christina mentions that her husband also works in a creative area (in theatre) and they’re able to provide each other with mutual support, which is pretty important.
Which made me reflect that I’m lucky, too. My husband actually works as an engineer (some might argue they make some creative building decisions, but he would definitely not say that it’s a particularly creative job) …

We recently spent a couple of days staying with my father at his property about an hour and a half away – way, way out of the city. Being a much earlier riser than anybody else there, I usually had about two hours of free time in the morning before anybody else in the house got out of bed. This was perfect for some uninterrupted writing time – and this is the view I had to enjoy while I did it. Complete with birds, (unwanted) rabbits and lizards to observe, …