Category: Tips for writers
Bron Bateman’s latest collection of poems, Blue Wren, is structured around a suite of Frida Kahlo paintings that provide a powerful way of healing, of reclaiming the past and of embracing the beauty of now. But in this article, Bron shares how the collection might never have been without some key advice from a friend. […]
I am not a reluctant reader. Quite the opposite, in fact. For as long as I can remember, given the choice between just about anything and a good book, the pages always win. And yet somehow I write books that engage reluctant readers. I didn’t set out to do this – I didn’t even realise […]
Synchronicity – it’s a ‘thing’ for many authors. During the research and writing of each story in my historical ‘Light’ series I’ve experienced delightfully unnerving coincidences, making me wonder how books come about. Do I choose the story or does the story choose me? In the case of The Last Light Horse, perhaps it’s the […]
Chosen as Apple’s Book of the Month in April, one reviewer described Brigid’s book, A Year of Loving Kindness to Myself, and Other Essays, as ‘an exquisitely unembellished Zen lesson in the art of attention’. As Brigid explains below, cultivating that attention can be a key source of inspiration for students in creative writing. Lists […]
He’s over there! I recently finished reading How to End a Story, Helen Garner’s third volume of her edited diaries. I read it as my daughter was studying Monkey Grip for her VCE. In a captivating February session at the Perth Festival Writers Weekend, Garner told interviewer Gillian O’Shaughnessy that some reviewers complained that Monkey […]
Ethics of Representation panellist Rashida Murphy.
Sharron Booth had been working on her novel The Silence of Water years before it was shortlisted for the City of Fremantle Hungerford Award in 2020. In this post she shares a deep dive into the research techniques she learned along the way.
Surrounded by books and authors at the gorgeous Fremantle Arts Centre, the Perth Festival’s Writers Weekend kicked off with the much anticipated ‘The Business of Being a Writer’ event. Emerging authors spent several hours hearing from industry professionals on topics from marketing tips to building your profile to business advice for those just starting out. […]
‘The Business of Being a Writer’ added another topic to its list of panel discussions this year: ‘In the Writers’ Room’. Moderated by Holden Sheppard, whose 2018 YA novel, Invisible Boys, is currently being adapted for television, the panel featured documentary filmmaker Victoria Midwinter-Pitt, director and screenwriter Ben Young and writer-director Maziar Lahooti. Victoria started […]
The Perth Festival Writers Weekend provided West Australian readers and writers with the opportunity to hear from a diverse range of authors, creators and professionals in the industry. I attended the Fremantle Press event ‘The Business of Being a Writer’ on a lovely Friday afternoon at the Fremantle Arts Centre. With the ever-evolving nature of […]
The Sawdust House is my third historical novel, following on from The Coves in 2018. I’m normally a crime fiction novelist, but my crime novels have an historical element too, with most of them set in 1970s and 1980s Perth and Fremantle. All of the novels require a fair bit of research, but it’s research […]
In this article, Fremantle Press publisher Georgia Richter interviews a Mills & Boon author. When my friend was fourteen, he used to go to a mate’s place to read his friend’s mother’s Mills & Boons. Thosebooks with the purple spines taught my friend a lot. When he tells me this, it occurs to me that […]
When the curtains don’t match the carpet ‘It glinted like the Star of Bethlehem as the throbbing incandescent light strips of the office hit his winkle with a twinkle. Belinda dove into his pubes, running the ringlets through her fingers like grated carrots.’ – Rocky Flintstone, Belinda Blinked, 2021 Christmas Special, Part 1. What is […]
Now’s the time for Western Australian writers to add the final touches to their manuscripts! Opening on 3 February 2022, the City of Fremantle Hungerford Award is for an unpublished work of adult fiction, narrative non-fiction or young adult fiction by an unpublished writer. The winner receives a cash prize of $15,000 and a publishing […]
Karen Herbert took to the stand on Wednesday 6 October to discuss her debut crime novel, The River Mouth, a small-town noir where long-kept secrets are bubbling up to the surface as part of this year’s A Shot in the Dark series. Karen was quizzed by Jane Seaton of Beaufort Street Books in Perth, with […]
In which, via a series of plot twists and non sequiturs, a prose editor gets around to asking a poetry editor about how and why she does what she does. Metaphors abound.
Setting is one of the tools in an author’s kit. Those of us who studied literature at school have all written essays on setting analysing how it contributes to mood and atmosphere, signalling what we can expect to happen in a scene. In Kate Atkinson’s book When Will There Be Good News? we know immediately […]
With support from WA’s Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries, an exciting initiative between Fremantle Press and four local writing centres will continue to provide Western Australian writers with the opportunity to improve their chances of publication.
Written while travelling the globe over five years, Locust Summer was shortlisted for the Australian/Vogel’s Literary Award (2017) and was developed through a fellowship at Varuna, the National Writers’ House. In this blog post, David Allan-Petale invites you along for the journey.
One of the questions I get asked about my picture books is ‘Why are they about animals?’ The automatic response for me would be ‘Because I love animals’, but the truth is a little more complex.
A Year of Loving Kindness and Other Essays by Brigid Lowry is a beautifully presented and uplifting book of contemplative, wry, sometimes funny essays about living thoughtfully and with care amid life’s challenges. In this article, Brigid shares her winding path to becoming the warm, wise and witty writer she is today.
In the wake of releasing the book she co-wrote with Deborah Hunn, How to Be an Author: The Business of Being a Writer in Australia, Fremantle Press publisher Georgia Richter has been busy chatting to writers in a new Facebook group aimed at making the Australian publishing industry more accessible.
A few short weeks after the release of her first novel, Eye of a Rook, Josephine Taylor paused to reflect on her path to publication.