In her closing address to the Sydney Writer’s Festival, Hanya Yanagihara, author of the dazzling and disturbing novel, ‘A Little Life’, reportedly spoke about violence and hope. She argued that violence belongs in novels because novels are about life, and violence is part of human existence, and so is fair game to the writer. No problem ...
Some years ago I sailed to Fiji with my husband. After sixteen days at sea, we arrived in yachting heaven, stocked up our provisions at the markets in Nadi and then spent three weeks exploring the inner and outer islands, perfect dots of paradise in perfect coral seas. The day before I was due to ...
These images dropped into my life during the week in that serendipitous way that sometimes happens when we’re searching for something—or being led somewhere—but don’t actually know we are. The bent pine trees are part of the Crooked Forest, a strange stand of nearly four hundred trees located outside the town of Nowe Czarnowo in western Poland. ...
Vincent cut off his ear, Ernest put a gun to his head, Sylvia used a gas oven. Does creativity always sit close to psychoses? Last week I finished a long term writing project. The final full-stop. The final edit. The neat, white stack of printed pages sitting beside me on my desk. How to describe the wonderful ...
Excuse the holes in Ernest's head. He's been on my pin-board since 2002 when a writer friend sent me this postcard from the Hemingway home/museum in Key West, Florida. I keep it in front of my computer as a reminder not to be too precious about how and where I write. Evidently Ernest preferred cats ...
Remember the hilarious scene in the movie, 'When Harry Met Sally', where Meg Ryan fakes an orgasm and the woman in the diner says: 'I’ll have what she’s having?' I’ve just finished reading a brilliant book and I’m green with envy. Or maybe jealousy. I want what the author’s got. A Little Life, by Hanya Yanagihara, ...
After The Lost Child was published, a friend approached me in a slightly embarrassed way and said: ‘If it’s not a dumb question, how do you begin writing a novel?’ I assured her it was actually a very good dumb question and I probably said something sensible and encouraging about beginning with one sentence and ...
Lately I’ve become obsessed with photographing ships at the end of my street, mostly big blocky cargo ships moving up and down the bay. My husband can’t understand my new passion. He says today’s ships are more like floating apartment blocks than the graceful, streamlined carriers he sailed on when he was in the Swedish ...
The Writing Process Blog Tour is a great way to connect with writers around the world by responding to four questions about writing process. Today, it’s my turn to share my secrets and idiosyncrasies. What am I working on? I’m just getting back to my writing after the publication of my first novel, The Lost ...
