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I’m not going to tell you my goals.  Some Guru’s say that telling everyone commits you to sticking to them. On the other hand it could commit those you tell to keep nagging you about them. That’s something I don’t need. But that may work for you. We all respond differently. I have written my goals down.  I’ve kept the list short.  Experience has shown me that when I read them a month later if I have too many I’m daunted. It looks too hard and most of them drift away. I’m not writing down ‘lose at least 5 kilos…

I have just read a piece by Australian author Ilka Tampke whose book, ‘Songwoman’ was voted the most ‘underrated book of the year’.  Her article in the Guardian starts by saying, ‘Writing is tough. My book went so unnoticed I won an award for it.’ Going unnoticed is the plight of so many of us writers. There could be an award for the most unnoticed book of the year. But I guess the underrated is better because not only was this book not noticed for some time, it was seen as a great book when it was noticed. Sadly, unnoticed…

Self-publishing?  Why do it? There are many answers to that question and one was delivered to me on plate, as it were, by a guy I had lunch with.  He’s a writer who has self-published one book and is working on his second. ‘It’s the arrogance of the publishing world, that gets me,’ he began.  ‘They treat us writers as if we’re nothing, not even human beings unless we look like a money.   If the publisher can’t hear the ‘Cha Ching, Cha Ching, Cha Ching’  of money falling into their laps you’re of no use to them. “Why be polite…

I have spent the last few days deciding on a cover for my novel, Mayhem in Melbourne. I had two very different concepts to choose from. So hard to choose! They are both great. But I’ve bitten the bullet and made a choice. Strangely all the men I asked chose one and the women the other one. There was no variation; men one way, women the other. I’m not sure what that says. I’m in this envious position of choosing a cover because I’m enrolled in a wonderful course with the Writing New South Wales (Writing NSW ) and called…