Writers Life | Tarvydas or Temptation?

When writers think characterisation, they seldom think clothes designers. Whereas my peculiar imagination immediately connected them. Context It all began last Monday, while I fondly folded my 20-year-old Ruth Tarvydas designer dress into an envelope, wrapped it in fancy tissue paper and sealed it closed. Scene-by-scene of my life with this dress unfolded as I …

Writers Life | Stepford Stories

“A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer; it sings because it has a song.” – Maya Angelou The Future of Storytelling Until last week, my niggling concerns for the future of storytelling were contained. Sure, I have anxiously anticipated the loss of the long sentences of Virginia Woolf, the simplified prose of Ernest …

Writer’s Life | The Inspiration of Imperfection

It is the happiest of times. It is the saddest of times. It Is a period of genius. It is a period of ignorance. We are the epitome of empathy. We are a disgrace of indifference. It is a decade of growth. It is a time of regression. We are the enforcers of justice. We …

Writers Life | Karma Chameleon

The unlikely inspiration for my blog this quarter is my teenage crush, Boy George. I’m sure you’re baffled and wondering, dear writers, what on earth a left-of-centre singer of the 80’s has to do with Christian writing. Let me tell you. What’s in a Title? But first, allow me to fill you in on the …

Writers Life | Close Encounters of the Written Kind

To legitimise his very existence, 17th Century philosopher, Rene Descartes said, ‘I think, therefore I am’. It’s indisputable that books make us think, and applying Descartes philosophy makes reading more than a pastime. We ‘are’, by our encounters with words, existing in the worlds of the texts, and so are our audience. From this perspective, …

Writer’s Life | A View of One’s Own

What does Anno Domini (AD), Virginia Woolf and modern society have in common? Read on to find out. Stereotyping; the bane of our existence By now, we all see the stark reality that only a portion of us is represented in literature. And from that portion, only a portion is represented authentically. As a teacher …

Writers Life | Language or Literature?

To any avid reader, characters Dumbledore and Ishmael are household names. Whether you like wizardry and whales is beside the point, the ‘Harry Potter’ series and ‘Moby Dick’ are familiar titles. Unfamiliar to some is their status; while both novels use engaging language, only one is considered literature. Is one more important than the other, …

Writers Life | The Right Way

Do you ever wonder why our functionality as writers is so fragile? One person or emotion or season or frown or word, can transform Writer’s peek to Writer’s block. An unassuming experience made me believe that it’s our passivity and not our fragility that gets in the way of our writing flow. It gets in …

Writer’s Life | Doting the Dragon’s Eye in our Faith Writing

I wear a hijab every weekday and I’m a Catholic. Working in an Islamic school has taught me about the Quran. As a teacher who has spent the last 12 years working for organisations founded on Catholic, Orthodox, Buddhist and now Islamic beliefs, I have learnt that faith is faith. We all believe in love, …

Author Interview | Introducing Louise Crossley

Fast Five Long black or flat white? Soy milk latte if I’m feeling chatty and chai if I’m feeling reflective. Kiwis or koalas? Cute, Australiana koalas. Mangoes or kiwifruit? Mangoes are delicious but since kiwifruit got me through three bouts of morning sickness, I have to be loyal to my pregnancy panacea. Books or TV? …