Poppy Gee is the Brisbane-based author of two literary thriller novels – Vanishing Falls and Bay of Fires – and one of my favourite humans! Not only is she a ridiculously talented writer (she probably won’t like me saying that), she is a big supporter of other authors and an all-round fabulous person. Poppy has also managed to do the …
The day humour was outlawed was a happy one for Irma Maddex Otic. She celebrated by working three hours of unpaid overtime in her data entry job, logging the serial numbers of thousands of microchips. Irma is a no-nonsense woman who values hard work and takes her civic duty seriously. So on her lunch break, she marches down to the …
The bride wore a second-hand wedding dress from Vinnies that had to be altered. The groom wore a clip-on tie and no pants. ‘Cut!’ the videographer shouts at his assistant like he’s directing some Hollywood blockbuster instead of filming the most ridiculous wedding in history. I’ve been in the wedding photography business for longer than I care to admit, so …
Job title. My pen hovers over the form as I wrestle with what to put down. I’d like to say ‘Writer’. Being a writer is my dream job and I do write … when I can. I take a deep breath ignoring the searing pain in my jaw and scrawl ‘Writer’. Then my inner voice takes grip. Fraud! You’re no …
One of the best things about being an author is meeting and making friends with other authors. I’ve talked many times here about how authors are great supporters of each other. Most importantly knowing other authors means you’re never short of good stuff to read, and the work of Lee and Amanda Breeze is no exception. I caught up recently …
Five years. That is how long there’s been peace. No more warring factions. No more grief and pain. Then the dragons came. I’d always wanted to start a story like that. As an author of fantasy novels, I believe every good story needs a dragon…unless it’s these dragons. Forget Game of Thrones. Forget the Hungarian Horntail. These dragons are a …
A life-size, paper mache Shrek donkey, on rollerskates, ridden by a bloke dressed as Xena: Warrior Princess – that’s the strangest thing I’ve seen on the side of the road…until now. Actually, the donkey isn’t even in my top five of weird things I’ve seen during the graveyard shift at the Roadhouse. The Roadhouse is a local icon situated a …
‘The trick to telling a lie is to keep it believable. There has to be some truth in the lie. And don’t elaborate with too much detail.’ I want to please my dad but my mother told me it was wrong to lie. Dad must sense my hesitation because he crouches down and puts his hands on my shoulders. ‘Sometimes …
‘Mirror, mirror on the wall. Who’s the biggest loser of them all?’ The answer is clearly the single, unemployed 47-year-old, disguised as a drowned rat, staring back at me in the public toilet mirror. Clumps of hair stick to my forehead. One of my false eyelashes is missing. And my Zimmermann silk-chiffon dress clings to me like wet toilet paper. …
I came across Catching Teller Crow as part of a research project looking for young adult fantasy novels set in small town Australia. Dealing with some hefty themes of grief, colonial history and violence – told mainly through the eyes of a girl who happens to be dead – this isn’t the kind of book I’d normally gravitate to. Also, …