Meet Jennifer Smart, ex-Home & Away assistant director and scriptwriter. Jennifer's first novel The Wardrobe Girl is out now and she dropped by to share her thoughts on writing that first book... " 'Write what you know, is the very sound advice offered to aspiring writers on the subject of their first novel. I guess [...]
Its been a torrid week. Firstly still no rain, secondly we switched dog biscuit brands with ordinary results. I keep telling the two-leggeds, dont let some shop-keeper tell you what I like. I know what I like. Ive always been a two hat dog at the least, anything under and it doesnt make the grade. [...]
Author Tracy Chevalier had a 16-year relationship with Vermeers Girl With a Pearl Earring before she ever decided to write her novel of the same name. She purchased a poster of the painting when she was in college, and then brought it with her and hung it every place she lived for the next 16 [...]
With the drought on-going there's been very little happening stock-wise. My tw0-legged mates are out feeding cattle everyday, which while it has to be done is very boring for us dogs. So I decided it was time to get my half-sister Jill a bit motivated. Now that the mornings are cooling off a bit I've [...]
I love art. Had I not been born with the ability to draw stick figures with all the panache of a dyslexic caterpillar I would certainly have attempted more than the few contemporary canvases I painted at boarding school. I once even had go ala Pro Hart. However throwing tins of paint on a piece [...]
This year marks the centenary of World War One, 2014-2018. From an Australian perspective over the next two years a number of historic commemorative services will be held, the first in 1915 for the fateful landing at Gallipoli and the second for the Australian Imperial Forces move in 1916 to the Western Front in France. [...]
The outback has always evoked themes of struggle and survival, epitomised in tales of bushrangers, drovers, rural women and lost children. Certainly any debate about National Identity usually gives consideration to rural Australian life, particularly as it is portrayed in painting, music, literature, film and most importantly, foods. To an extent rural Australia still helps [...]
It's always a joy to meet someone special. I met prize winning professional artist Christine Porter some ten or twelve years ago in Mungindi of all places and selected one of her marvellous paintings as a gift on my father's 70th birthday. Christine tells visual stories about rural Australia and is known for her on-farm residencies [...]
Lynn Lucas loves art. She's been doing it for a long time, first as an escape from a dysfunctional step-mother as a child and then, heading into her adult life simply because she loved to draw and paint. Lynn classes her painting as a hobby, which is the way many self-effacing creatives tend to categorise [...]
It's a while since I've blogged. I've no excuse other than being time poor like most people. I'm getting my teeth into book number 5 at the moment and becoming slightly stressed with a deadline looming... on the property front we're still moving cattle around and watching the clouds roll in and roll out, yep still [...]