The Creative Life Podcast: Episode Twenty-Nine Patreon is an ongoing crowdfunding platform. It helps fans and supporters support their creative favourites while offering those artists a stable and user-friendly platform on which to facilitate this model of earning money while engaging with a fan base. A lot of artists are doing very well on it and there…
No, don’t worry. June isn’t almost over already. I know this post usually comes out at the end of the month, but I’ve moved it forward for a couple of reasons. The first reason is that I have a lot of books on my pile at the moment and it’s helpful to stop and reflect on…
Photo, left to right: Speculate Director Joel Martin, Alison Goodman, Trudi Canavan, Jay Kristoff, Earl Livings I love a good literary festival. Without a doubt, they’ve helped me as a writer, especially in my early years. As I wrote in Trust the Process, “I quickly discovered how valuable festivals are for learning, socialising, networking and…
The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo is a verse novel about a Harlem high school student, Xiomara, who is struggling with her faith, the Church and her mother – all while beginning to navigate the waters of first love. As one who’s struggled with my own issues with being brought up within Catholicism, I recognised…
On the 12th May 2018, my grandmother passed away just a month shy of her 91st birthday. Time has sped past so quickly since I’m having trouble keeping up with the days; it’s hard to believe that this time a week ago I was home, helping in what small ways I could with the funeral…
A few years ago I wrote a post about which literary accounts I recommend on Twitter and I think it’s time for another one! Why? Well, as I say in Trust the Process: 101 Tips on Writing and Creativity: “…here’s some good news. I would say that emerging writers today find themselves in a terrific…
Hello, it’s May, we now have a fourteen-year-old in the house and I don’t think I’ve taken a deep breath in a long time. So writing this post is my way of taking the opportunity to do that. 2018 has been a funny old year, hasn’t it? I feel like I’ve been busy, and I…
If you’re familiar with local (and international) bestselling book lists of late, you’ll recognise the title The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris. This widespread regard is well-deserved, for the novel handles the balance between the intimacy of the central love story while accounting for the atrocities that were occurring at the same time. As I was…
“What’s this place?” Riley asked me this question as we arrived and it was hard to give a short answer. I mean, sure, I replied, “It’s an art museum”, but in hindsight that feels reductive and even a little… wrong? Yes, there’s art everywhere. Yes, it has all the things one expects of such places…
