I turned forty-one last year in the middle of lockdown, alert level 4, and it was one of the best birthdays I’d ever had...
Life After Lockdown — A Year On
personal thought
Notebooks
Writing in a new notebook feels like a strange parallel to your life. The first page, of course, will always be the best; the cleanest and neatest, the one with the most promise.
So You Think You Want To Be A Writer?
A dear friend of mine who has been writing since the 1980s once told me that there are no rules when it comes to writing. "A writer only writes for themselves and does their best to create the books they want to read."
THE WAR ON BLANK-PAGE TERROR: a personal approach to scriptwriting by Jamie Delano
All writers must confront that blank-page terror. Daily. Unless they’re soulless hacks content to shovel junk food. Feed undiscerning appetites with fast-fiction plotted by committee. At least I assume they do. I speak only from my own experience. - Jamie Delano
Online Connections: On Going Viral
I’ve been on Twitter on one way or another since November 2010. Like a lot of people, social media is a conflicting place for me. Sometimes it’s a fun and exciting playground where I can make connections and find new friends. Other times it can feel like a toxic sandbox overrun by spiteful trolls. I
Saying Goodbye and Looking Ahead
As the festive season really begins and 2019 draws to a close, I wanted to make my last post of the year about goals and challenges. I’m not always very good at seeing the “bigger picture”, I usually tend to focus on what’s immediately ahead of me and what I need to do to tick
This Year’s Best Of Me
I think it can be terribly easy to fall into the trap of feeling embarrassed or unsure about celebrating your achievements. For a long time I would laugh and say any wins on my scoreboard were a fluke, or a mistake. I would deflect the compliments and play down my hard work. I can’t even
When the Universe Calls Out To You, Answer It
It was a glorious, sunny day in Wellington yesterday. I had planned to spend most of it writing and editing, but common sense told me that I should make the most of the pleasant weather before it changed again. Locals may say, “You can’t beat Welly on a good day,” but equally, you don’t really
Things I Didn’t Do…
This weekend ended up being the One Where I Didn’t Do Things. I didn’t go to a social meet-up I had been planning to go to due to feeling unwell. I didn’t send off a story before a submission deadline because I realised it needed a lot more work to properly shine. I didn’t work
Knock, Knock! Imposter Syndrome Calling…
I woke up this morning to find I had been tagged in an awesome yet terrifying tweet — a friend of mine had included me and my anthology, “Dark Winds Over Wellington,” in a list of must-read female dark fiction writers. I’ve read all of the other books she listed and they are absolutely tremendous.