The Hodgepodge, a writer’s journal
-
What I’m reading…
I heard Emily St John Mandel talking on one of the digital sessions of the Melbourne Writers Festival – and congrats, MWF for keeping these going post-Lockdowns. I hope they continue! I ended up with small pile of books by the authors I’d heard online, including Station 11. This pandemic novel was written in 2014 ...
-
From Saint-Hilaire to Snow Daisy-bushes, Proust Project 2
How well do you think you know a given building? I would have thought that my recall of the State Libraries of Queensland – the old one and the new – and of various libraries in Victoria would be pretty good. Over the years I’ve spent a lot of time reading, writing and researching in ...
-
Trouser suits and infashuation.
Trouser suits are back. I suppose they never really went away, but they’ve made a resurgence in the sewing world and it’s enticing to imagine that I could sew one – using the Heather Blazer and perhaps the Chandlers trousers also by The Friday Pattern Company. It feels as though this could be an ambitious ...
-
Staying the distance
The route to certain books is serendipitous. At TAFE we’ve set Kate Spicer’s beautifully crafted memoir, Lost Dog; a Love Story as a set text for Write Creative Nonfiction. This is the first year for ages that we’ve set a text, but the book is so well-written and we thought the story would appeal to ...
-
Monsieur Proust, Memory and the Truffle
I’ve ordered a black truffle for my birthday. It was done in a post-Moderna-vaccinatin haze of fatigue and, admittedly, my birthday has past but still. It’s a seasonal culinary experience and as the household person who does a good ninety percent of the cooking, I figure I deserved it. ‘It’s your money,’ my husband said ...
-
Me Made May
Over May, sewists all over the world, (often) post their makes on Insta, vlogs, blogs and other social media platforms and (usually) pledge something about their making practice, even if that is simply to wear one handmade or refashioned item a day. It was a challenge started by a sewist in 2010 – you can ...
-
Raining outside and in
Oh my goodness, we’ve had a blast of winter weather here in Melbourne. We have woken up to mist so dense we’ve not been able to see our back hedge and we’re back to wiping Winter’s paws before we let her inside. That’s Winter the dog, not the season. It is an odd name for ...
-
Serendipity
is one of my favourite words. And my life was enriched by a serendipitous event last week. I’d been trawling through the Writers Victoria website looking for useful online courses to do – something that could be beneficial to me as a writer but, full admission, that I could also use for my vocational currency. ...
-
And that’s a wrap
Finally read Margaret Atwood’s Testaments which has been sitting on my shelf for the past two years. I know that the joint Booker Prize win was controversial, but I find it hard to begrudge Atwood anything. Her poetry has been such a constant presence in my life. I bought her first Selected poems at the ...
-
Too sad
I was going to write a tribute to the late poet, Jordie Albiston, who died earlier this week, but in truth it just makes me too sad. I met her when we were both at the beginning of our writing careers and she – and her work – remained dear to me, even though I ...