Tag: reading
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Human Writers in a Synthetic World: The persistence of the heart to write in the age of AI
What it’s like being an ageing emerging writer and writing in spite of AI (and why real writing has more value). You can probably tell that I enjoy using AI to create pictures to accompany my blog posts, because visual art creation is not my thing. If it hasn’t yet crept into your workplace, you’ve…
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Navigating Trauma in Literary Narratives
[Image: vecteezy.com] I have struggled for many years to fit my ‘novel’ to the parameters of traditional creative writing. When I was doing the Australian Writers’ Centre’s Write Your Novel course, I struggled to cram it into the paradigm (framework) we were being taught, rebelled against providing ‘Trigger Warnings’ without scooping the barefaced, confrontational horror…
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More Thoughts on Writing
I write lots of different things, but I write books for the same reason we read them—to find out what happens next. As carefully as I plan it, I never know, going into a story, exactly how it will end, nor even what twists the plot may take away from what I’ve planned. This makes…
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Reflections from the Writing Journey
We live in an era where it’s possible to receive instant gratification in many fields of endeavour, but except for a few notable individuals, it isn’t possible to decide to be a writer and find your inexperienced self on a dais having a Nobel Prize for Literature pinned to your instantly famous chest. Moreover, you…
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SKIPPY DIES: PAUL MURRAY
GENRE: CONTEMPORARY FICTION/SATIRE Paul Murray is a master of tragic-comedic satire. You laugh heartily, but a dark heart beats beneath the humour. I love this book at the same time as I am absolutely revolted by some of the characters. ‘Skippy’ is Daniel “Skippy” Juster, so nicknamed because of his unfortunate resemblance to a certain TV…
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THE BEE STING: PAUL MURRAY
GENRE: CONTEMPORARY LITERARY FICTION The Bee Sting would have to be one of my all-time favourite novels. It’s a poignant and unflinching portrayal of a family—the Barneses— in turmoil. They reside in a small town in Ireland during a time of financial chaos and against a background of climate change and environmental stress. It delves into…
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RETURN OF THE NATIVE: THOMAS HARDY
GENRE: CLASSIC TRAGIC BRITISH LITERATURE This book was a so-called classic— one of the books they ‘make you read’ at school that everybody loves to hate. I, however, loved it. I recently reread it because I couldn’t remember why and became lost in the description of the bleakness of Egdon Heath, which was in itself…
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ON WRITING: A MEMOIR OF THE CRAFT: STEPHEN KING
Welcome to my first book review. I have two confessions to make up front. The first is that my greatest introversion-driven two-pronged aspiration has been, for over sixty years, to be a writer and to live in a ‘chambre de bonne’—a garret room with a view over Paris. There’s a picture of me somewhere on…
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AN INTRODUCTION TO MY FUNNY AVATAR’S LIFE OF WRITING
Meg Blomfield was the person I was before I married The Sexy-Hot Kelly Nerd. She had a social media presence under her maiden name so students wouldn’t find her to send her friend requests on Faceflop, or Twittillations on Tweetie-pie or follow her on Instaspam. She is not a born writer, just an entertainer with…
Margaret R Kelly 