Words of wisdom from Kim Wilkins and Kimberley Freeman
In episode 15 of our top-rating podcast, So you want to be a writer, Allison Tait spoke with two authors at the same time: Kim
Menu
Menu
In episode 15 of our top-rating podcast, So you want to be a writer, Allison Tait spoke with two authors at the same time: Kim
We love hearing from our students no matter what they have to say, but when we hear of a student being published, we just want
We’re thrilled to announce that Life Writing graduate Robyn Windshuttle is celebrating the launch of her book Dancing with a Cocaine Cowboy – and she’d love for
In Episode 33 of So you want to be a writer, Why typewriters captivate authors, Amazon gets in on the crowd-writing game, the one big reason
Laura Greaves’ Facebook page name says: “Laura Greaves Writes Books”. And actually, it’s pretty appropriate because she says that’s all that she has ever wanted
One of our Australian Writers’ Centre community recently asked us to clarify the use of the term “plan ahead” as being somewhat redundant. This led
A few weeks back, we spoke with established author Elizabeth Farrelly on the release of her first young fiction book, Caro Was Here. Elizabeth completed
Earlier this year, in episode 4 of our top-rating podcast, So you want to be a writer, we spoke with internationally published author Allison Rushby.
Now, many writers begin self-publishing and end up with a traditional publishing book deal. However, Allison has done it the other way round – choosing after 14 years as an author to self-publish for the first time this year when the rights to four of her earlier books reverted to her. Then, on a roll, she chose to self-publish her new young adult novel, Being Hartley, at the same time.
Allison provided some valuable insights into the relative strengths of both of these two publishing methods, and writing in general – which we have summarised here.
We spotted Trisha in Royal Auto Magazine recently! Thrilled to see @writerscentreau grad Trisha Bui’s travel story about her home town of Melbourne in this months’ Royal
Spring is well and truly here, and many graduates have sprung into action!
First on the brag board is Magazine and Newspaper Writing Stage 1 graduate Linda Moon, whose travel article on Halong Bay in Vietnam made it to the pages of Sydney Morning Herald – great stuff! This was a story written when Linda was first starting and she is thrilled to have found a home for it.
If you think that manuscripts are judged solely on the merit of the story alone, we think you should be sitting down for this next paragraph.
It doesn’t matter how many on-trend zeitgeist-welding hipsters your story possesses, if a manuscript offends in some other way, it may never be read. We’re talking about things that distract a reader from delving any further.
You see, for editors, it’s hard work wading through countless manuscripts each week. And your goal as a writer is to not make that job any harder!
In Episode 32 of So you want to be a writer, sleep in your favourite literary home, the Times to bring back typewriters…kind of, the business
Hachette wants to read your Young Adult manuscript. Yes you. So it’s time to pull your manuscript out of wherever it’s hiding and get it in shape!
From the press release:
Hachette Australia is proud to publish amazing YA authors from Australia and around the world, including Jessica Shirvington, John Marsden, Rainbow Rowell, Laini Taylor, Ally Carter and James Phelan – and we’d love to add your name to that list. Throughout October, we will be accepting submissions of YA novels in all genres. If we fall in love with your manuscript, you will receive editorial feedback, and you may be offered a contract for publication.
Once a lawyer, then an actor, now a writer, it’s fair to say that Australian author and playwright Sofie Laguna has worn plenty of hats over the years. And even within her writing persona, she has never been one to stick to the same thing – bouncing from picture books to plays, young reader series to adult novels.
With such an interesting journey to date, we figured she’d be an interesting person to chat with – especially with the release of her latest adult novel, The Eye of the Sheep. And we weren’t wrong.
Following up from her haunting 2013 debut novel, Thornwood House, author Anna Romer has delivered a fairytale with a twist, in Lyrebird Hill. Yes indeed, this one also delves into the dust and shadows, once more introducing the reader to a rural Australian setting and generation-spanning tale that is hard to put down.
We have two copies of Lyrebird Hill to give away. But first, let’s get Anna in here for a few questions. Anna, quick synopsis of your new book?
For two decades, Ruby Cardel has been haunted by the fear that she was to blame for her sister’s mysterious death. Needing to discover the truth, she returns to her childhood home at Lyrebird Hill. Here she finds a box of letters written by her great-grandmother, who was imprisoned for murder in the late 1890s. Fearing that she has inherited her great-grandmother’s violent nature, Ruby must confront the past and face a truth that will shock her to the core.
Hugh Howey is the author of the best-selling book WOOL, which started life in the ebook jungles of Amazon as an online novelette. This was
We spotted Josefa in Sunday Life recently! Well done to @writerscentreau magazine writing grad Josefa Pete for a fab article in today’s Sunday Life magazine! A photo
Great news: our new half-day course, Writing Australian History is coming up in November! So to get the inside story, we asked presenter and historical guru, Pamela Freeman, a few questions around this fascinating genre…
Hi Pamela. There seems to be lots of Australian historical stories appearing in mainstream media currently (e.g. Gallipoli and ANZAC Girls etc). Why do you think they’re so popular at the moment?Historical fiction generally has become more popular worldwide, often due to television shows like The Tudors and Da Vinci’s Demons (although I wouldn’t call that history!).
In Australia generally, people are becoming more interested in history; the number of people going to the Dawn Service for Anzac Day, for example, has gone up and up over the last ten years or so. And then, of course, we had the 60th anniversary of World War II, and now the 100th year anniversary of World War I, which is sparking even more interest. The media are riding the centenary wave, but I think they’re being successful because people are genuinely interested in the past and, in particular, in the people from that past – how they differed from us and how they were the same.
We have some very exciting news to share this week. Our West Australian State Director Alecia Hancock has been chosen as a finalist for the WA Telstra Young Business Women’s Award for 2014. Well done Alecia!
Alecia joined the Australian Writers’ Centre family at the start of 2014 when she launched the Centre on the west coast. In a little over six months, we’ve already had hundreds of students through our Perth doors and we’re looking forward to meeting a lot more of you in the months to come.
Wow, winter sure brings out the writers! Here’s the latest selection of successes from our graduates. Prepare to be inspired! It could be you next time…
First up, Gabriel McGrath has been a man on a mission of late – proving that parent posts can indeed come from dads too! Heeding the mantra of matching a story to something topical, Gabriel latched onto Coeliac Week, and his piece about his own son’s experience with gluten issues was snapped up by the Essential Kids editor and its readers too – generating plenty of great comments.
Good morning Anita Heiss; published author of fiction, non-fiction and poetry; winner of many awards, and speaker of many keynotes all in the past decade. Gosh that was a big chunk of exposition, wasn’t it? Thanks for sharing your desk with us today. Just…shuffle over a bit, thanks. That’s better. So, your latest novel – Tiddas – was released this year. What’s it about?
Tiddas is a story about the role female friendships play in our lives. Set in Brisbane and focussing on five women who have been friends since childhood, the novel revolves around their personal and shared journeys as they all head towards turning 40.
We spotted Cassy in Feast Magazine recently! Sitting at the hair salon and first article I flip to in Feast mag is by @writerscentreau grad @csmall80 Cassy
We spotted Cassy in Sunday Life recently! So fab to see Australian Writers’ Centre grad Cassy Small @csmall80 ‘s article in today’s Sunday Life mag! A photo
We spotted Jo in Sunday Life recently! Then I flip the page and there is Australian Writers’ Centre grad Jo Hartley’s article in today’s Sunday Life mag!
In Episode 31 of So you want to be a writer, HarperCollins accepting unsolicited manuscripts, Cleo’s man of the year, it’s never too late to be
In episode 15 of our top-rating podcast, So you want to be a writer, Allison Tait spoke with two authors at the same time: Kim Wilkins and Kimberley Freeman. But rather than talk over each other, it was all very orderly. That’s because it was the same person. Dr Kim
We love hearing from our students no matter what they have to say, but when we hear of a student being published, we just want to shout it from the rooftops! We’re a little scared of heights, so we’ll go with a blog post instead. Lisa says: I sold my
We’re thrilled to announce that Life Writing graduate Robyn Windshuttle is celebrating the launch of her book Dancing with a Cocaine Cowboy – and she’d love for you to join her! The story of how an Australian showgirl became entangled in her boyfriend’s European cocaine ring and how it changed her life
In Episode 33 of So you want to be a writer, Why typewriters captivate authors, Amazon gets in on the crowd-writing game, the one big reason why blogs succeed, first class train travel for 24 lucky writers, the book ‘Blog It! The author’s guide to building a successful online brand’ by
Laura Greaves’ Facebook page name says: “Laura Greaves Writes Books”. And actually, it’s pretty appropriate because she says that’s all that she has ever wanted to do. Her latest book is Be My Baby and we thought we’d sit her down and ask her precisely nine questions about that with
One of our Australian Writers’ Centre community recently asked us to clarify the use of the term “plan ahead” as being somewhat redundant. This led to more examples of tautology and somehow a party invitation… Q: Hi there AWC. I want to talk to you about the term “Plan Ahead”.
A few weeks back, we spoke with established author Elizabeth Farrelly on the release of her first young fiction book, Caro Was Here. Elizabeth completed a course at Australian Writers’ Centre that provided inspiration for this one, and she chats about that and the book right here… So, tell us
Earlier this year, in episode 4 of our top-rating podcast, So you want to be a writer, we spoke with internationally published author Allison Rushby.
Now, many writers begin self-publishing and end up with a traditional publishing book deal. However, Allison has done it the other way round – choosing after 14 years as an author to self-publish for the first time this year when the rights to four of her earlier books reverted to her. Then, on a roll, she chose to self-publish her new young adult novel, Being Hartley, at the same time.
Allison provided some valuable insights into the relative strengths of both of these two publishing methods, and writing in general – which we have summarised here.
We spotted Trisha in Royal Auto Magazine recently! Thrilled to see @writerscentreau grad Trisha Bui’s travel story about her home town of Melbourne in this months’ Royal Auto mag! A photo posted by Valerie Khoo (@valeriekhoo) on Oct 3, 2014 at 9:23pm PDT Congratulations Trisha! If you have a success story to
Spring is well and truly here, and many graduates have sprung into action!
First on the brag board is Magazine and Newspaper Writing Stage 1 graduate Linda Moon, whose travel article on Halong Bay in Vietnam made it to the pages of Sydney Morning Herald – great stuff! This was a story written when Linda was first starting and she is thrilled to have found a home for it.
If you think that manuscripts are judged solely on the merit of the story alone, we think you should be sitting down for this next paragraph.
It doesn’t matter how many on-trend zeitgeist-welding hipsters your story possesses, if a manuscript offends in some other way, it may never be read. We’re talking about things that distract a reader from delving any further.
You see, for editors, it’s hard work wading through countless manuscripts each week. And your goal as a writer is to not make that job any harder!
In Episode 32 of So you want to be a writer, sleep in your favourite literary home, the Times to bring back typewriters…kind of, the business of digital life and death, we are the last generation to remember life without the internet, Moleskine embraces technology in their notebooks, blogging and the
Hachette wants to read your Young Adult manuscript. Yes you. So it’s time to pull your manuscript out of wherever it’s hiding and get it in shape!
From the press release:
Hachette Australia is proud to publish amazing YA authors from Australia and around the world, including Jessica Shirvington, John Marsden, Rainbow Rowell, Laini Taylor, Ally Carter and James Phelan – and we’d love to add your name to that list. Throughout October, we will be accepting submissions of YA novels in all genres. If we fall in love with your manuscript, you will receive editorial feedback, and you may be offered a contract for publication.
Once a lawyer, then an actor, now a writer, it’s fair to say that Australian author and playwright Sofie Laguna has worn plenty of hats over the years. And even within her writing persona, she has never been one to stick to the same thing – bouncing from picture books to plays, young reader series to adult novels.
With such an interesting journey to date, we figured she’d be an interesting person to chat with – especially with the release of her latest adult novel, The Eye of the Sheep. And we weren’t wrong.
Following up from her haunting 2013 debut novel, Thornwood House, author Anna Romer has delivered a fairytale with a twist, in Lyrebird Hill. Yes indeed, this one also delves into the dust and shadows, once more introducing the reader to a rural Australian setting and generation-spanning tale that is hard to put down.
We have two copies of Lyrebird Hill to give away. But first, let’s get Anna in here for a few questions. Anna, quick synopsis of your new book?
For two decades, Ruby Cardel has been haunted by the fear that she was to blame for her sister’s mysterious death. Needing to discover the truth, she returns to her childhood home at Lyrebird Hill. Here she finds a box of letters written by her great-grandmother, who was imprisoned for murder in the late 1890s. Fearing that she has inherited her great-grandmother’s violent nature, Ruby must confront the past and face a truth that will shock her to the core.
Hugh Howey is the author of the best-selling book WOOL, which started life in the ebook jungles of Amazon as an online novelette. This was before it became a global sensation and the first instalment in a three-book series known as the Silo series. Hugh’s second book in this series,
We spotted Josefa in Sunday Life recently! Well done to @writerscentreau magazine writing grad Josefa Pete for a fab article in today’s Sunday Life magazine! A photo posted by Valerie Khoo (@valeriekhoo) on Sep 27, 2014 at 5:13pm PDT Congratulations Josefa! If you have a success story to share with us, you
Great news: our new half-day course, Writing Australian History is coming up in November! So to get the inside story, we asked presenter and historical guru, Pamela Freeman, a few questions around this fascinating genre…
Hi Pamela. There seems to be lots of Australian historical stories appearing in mainstream media currently (e.g. Gallipoli and ANZAC Girls etc). Why do you think they’re so popular at the moment?Historical fiction generally has become more popular worldwide, often due to television shows like The Tudors and Da Vinci’s Demons (although I wouldn’t call that history!).
In Australia generally, people are becoming more interested in history; the number of people going to the Dawn Service for Anzac Day, for example, has gone up and up over the last ten years or so. And then, of course, we had the 60th anniversary of World War II, and now the 100th year anniversary of World War I, which is sparking even more interest. The media are riding the centenary wave, but I think they’re being successful because people are genuinely interested in the past and, in particular, in the people from that past – how they differed from us and how they were the same.
We have some very exciting news to share this week. Our West Australian State Director Alecia Hancock has been chosen as a finalist for the WA Telstra Young Business Women’s Award for 2014. Well done Alecia!
Alecia joined the Australian Writers’ Centre family at the start of 2014 when she launched the Centre on the west coast. In a little over six months, we’ve already had hundreds of students through our Perth doors and we’re looking forward to meeting a lot more of you in the months to come.
Wow, winter sure brings out the writers! Here’s the latest selection of successes from our graduates. Prepare to be inspired! It could be you next time…
First up, Gabriel McGrath has been a man on a mission of late – proving that parent posts can indeed come from dads too! Heeding the mantra of matching a story to something topical, Gabriel latched onto Coeliac Week, and his piece about his own son’s experience with gluten issues was snapped up by the Essential Kids editor and its readers too – generating plenty of great comments.
Good morning Anita Heiss; published author of fiction, non-fiction and poetry; winner of many awards, and speaker of many keynotes all in the past decade. Gosh that was a big chunk of exposition, wasn’t it? Thanks for sharing your desk with us today. Just…shuffle over a bit, thanks. That’s better. So, your latest novel – Tiddas – was released this year. What’s it about?
Tiddas is a story about the role female friendships play in our lives. Set in Brisbane and focussing on five women who have been friends since childhood, the novel revolves around their personal and shared journeys as they all head towards turning 40.
We spotted Cassy in Feast Magazine recently! Sitting at the hair salon and first article I flip to in Feast mag is by @writerscentreau grad @csmall80 Cassy Small! Go Cassy 🙂 A photo posted by Valerie Khoo (@valeriekhoo) on Aug 24, 2014 at 11:34pm PDT Congratulations Cassy! If you have a success
We spotted Cassy in Sunday Life recently! So fab to see Australian Writers’ Centre grad Cassy Small @csmall80 ‘s article in today’s Sunday Life mag! A photo posted by Valerie Khoo (@valeriekhoo) on Sep 6, 2014 at 5:06pm PDT Congratulations Cassy! If you have a success story to share with us, you
We spotted Jo in Sunday Life recently! Then I flip the page and there is Australian Writers’ Centre grad Jo Hartley’s article in today’s Sunday Life mag! A photo posted by Valerie Khoo (@valeriekhoo) on Sep 6, 2014 at 5:08pm PDT Congratulations Jo! If you have a success story to share with
In Episode 31 of So you want to be a writer, HarperCollins accepting unsolicited manuscripts, Cleo’s man of the year, it’s never too late to be published, Laura Ingalls Wilder memoir reveals truth behind Little House on the Prairie, how to use the Fairfax Media Style Guide, the Beer Bloggers Conference,
Connect with us