About this time last year I went to an exhibition of prints, paintings and stained glass by Christian Waller, an art nouveau artist from Castlemaine, Victoria. The artworks were incredible. Absolute artistry: technique combined with expression. Each work had mythical underpinnings as Waller was interested in theosophy and expressed her studies in what she created. …
People often give me blank looks if I say my books are about the Commedia dell’Arte. Italian Renaissance improvised theatre is not well known today. Those who have done theatre studies or drama are likely to know about it, but most don’t. Audiences might remember seeing Commedia-style plays like A Servant of Two Masters and the hilarious …
CLIFF’S NOTES: Since there seems to be some misreading of this post, here’s the short version. I don’t like marketing. I recognise it is necessary. But authors telling other authors they shouldn’t be authors if they don’t like marketing are behaving horribly, and silencing or hurting people for whom writing is their chance to have …
This is probably a really stupid post to write for an author who uses social media to promote her books. But I am deeply interested in the practice and nurture of creativity. In my experience, the more time I spend on social media, the less I am able to draw on my creative abilities. And …
It’s been a bit more than a week (cough, cough, two months) but here are some more results from my author marketing survey. A quick recap – the survey grew out of my own misadventures as a newly published author. I thought I might have learned some things about what to do and what not …
Since I was first published in June 2017 I have run the gamut of the book marketing industry. Like most newbie authors, I was extremely excited that my book was out in the world, where people could read it. Over time I began to realise it was extremely hard to get ANY attention as a …
I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say the last two weeks have been amongst the strangest of my life. It has been a period of excitement and exhilaration, since the musical I wrote with Andrew Perkins, The Birds, had its world premiere. At the same time, I have been experiencing deep grief at the …
Julia Cameron’s book, The Artist’s Way, talks about writing morning pages. Dumping everything from your mind onto the page first thing in the morning. It’s meant to be uncensored, as a way of turning off your inner critic. I went through a period of doing this every day, but I had this weird thing going …
This is a strange week. I’ve sent off the third book in my fantasy trilogy to beta-readers. Once I get it back from them I will do the final edits before I send it to my publisher. And that, aside from proofreading the final version, will be that. The Tales of Tarya will be finished. I’ve …
I never dreamed of writing the “Great Australian Novel” or selling enormous amounts of books. I just wanted to tell stories. The world needs them. It always has. Stories reach people when all the arguments and debates don’t. There can be understanding and connection on an intuitive level. Points can be made without anyone feeling …