July 2026 … I recently attended a Writers Victoria workshop about how to be successful in short story competitions. It was presented by Amanda Scotland, one half of the ‘Not …

June 2026 … I recently started participating in NYC Midnight short story competitions. This is a range of competitions spanning 100 word micro-fiction stories; 500-word ‘Flash Fiction’ stories; to more …

May 2026 … Recently I started drafting a new novel. I had outlined some characters, and centred the novel around some iconic scenes I’d created many months ago. However, I …

April 2026 … In recent months I have undertaken a new major creative writing project – writing a musical for the stage. Part of the reason was to help fulfil …

March 2026 … In February’s blog I presented the ‘What If’ question, used by Stephen King as a technique to reveal interesting story ideas. I have also been watching the …

February 2026 … I recently finished reading Stephen King’s non-fiction book On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. The work is often referenced in writing courses or other texts about …

January 2026 … During the holiday break I have been reading Stephen King’s much lauded and quoted book, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. One of King’s pearls of …

December 2025 … I’ve recently had the pleasure of reading The Creeper by Margaret Hickey (Penguin Random House, 2024). The novel is notable as it was the winner of the …

November 2025 … Recently I have been preparing synopses and pitches for my two manuscripts, which has led me to the question ‘what is their genre?’ In some cases, where …

October 2025 … One of the aspects I enjoy about being in a writers’ group is being prompted to explore the deeper ideas about why we read novels and stories, …