Released just this week, Marrying Ameera is the latest YA novel from award winning South Australian author Rosanne Hawke. Whatever you read this year, put this novel on your MUST READ list. Ameera, 17 years old, is the daughter of an Australian mother – a Christian – and a Pakistani father who is a devout [...]

Some writers complain that although they want to write, they just don’t know what to write about. In another life (as a classroom teacher) I constantly heard this complaint. I rarely have this problem. In fact, I usually have far too many things to write about. My problem is choosing which one to write about [...]

Today’s quote: “Everyone is a moon and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.” Mark Twain Mark Twain has touched on the very essence of what it is to be human. Yes, we do all have a ‘dark side’ – that part of our nature that rarely, if ever, sees the light [...]

At long last I have returned to do some concentrated editing and rewriting of the children’s novel I wrote last year. This is the novel I am writing for my Master of Arts in Creative Writing degree. It is now in its 7th draft (and counting). You can read about how I went about the [...]

I bought this novel The Slap by acclaimed Australian author Christos Tsiolkas late last year as a birthday present to myself. I had heard so much comment about the novel that I wanted to read it. It was also short listed for the 2009 Miles Franklin Literary Award and was winner of the 2009 Commonwealth [...]