Tag: featured
From Private Investigator to Author
I knew I wanted to be a singer at age nine, and so I practiced singing every day. At age 13, I learned to play guitar and began writing songs. My mission: write a song of love, peace, hope that would heal the world. A grand dream that led me on a journey of frustration […]
Novelist Or Poet?
When I was thirteen years old, I announced that I was going to be a poet when I grew up. I had already been writing poetry for years – since the age of 10 – and both my fifth grade teacher, Mr. Alexander, and my sixth grade teacher, Mrs. Melchior, had encouraged me. Mrs. Melchior, […]
Dialogue: Say, Say, Say What You Want, Although …
Most writers would agree they love interacting with other writers. After all, who understands the trials, tribulations, crippling self-doubt and (at times elusive) euphoria better than a fellow author? But ask us scribblers how we feel about writing dialogue and it seems the group is split clean down the middle. Half of us love to […]
On Finishing What We Start, and Other Writerly Myths
I often joke with friends that if you don’t finish what you start, you’ll end up with a trail of half-eaten sandwiches around the house. I don’t remember where I first heard this analogy for unfinished work, but it’s such a vivid image that it’s stuck with me all these years. Can you imagine how […]
Blogging On And On…
I have to thank Clare Mackintosh. Not only for her brilliant books (I Let You Go and I See You) but for a class she did last January in conjunction with Writers & Artists. Her talk was about social media and building an author platform. At that stage, I had written one book and was […]
Live Intentionally to Write Purposefully
One of the most frequent questions I get asked is, “What is your writing process?” closely followed by, “How do you make time for your writing?” Although I’m prepared for these questions, I dread them. Not because they’re bad questions; rather, it’s because my response is often a long-winded diatribe to cover up the real […]
The Challenges and Joys of Writing Historical Fiction for Teenagers
Flying through Clouds is my new historical novel for young adults, and follows on from my first novel, Racing the Moon, which was published in Australia in 2014. Although both novels share the same main character and are set mostly in Sydney in the 1930s, the stories are quite different, and so were my […]
My Birth Father’s Double Life
Growing up adopted, I often fantasised about my back story. The scant information the social worker gave my parents, shortly before they took six-week old me home, provided only the barest of bones: My birth mother was ‘creative’; her mother, my biological grandmother, was uncommonly supportive. My birth parents wanted to marry and keep me […]
Q&A with Colleen Oakley
Colleen Oakley is the author of CLOSE ENOUGH TO TOUCH (Gallery, 2017), BEFORE I GO (Gallery, 2015), and LOVE NOTES: 1OO GREAT WAYS TO GET KISSES, CUDDLES, AND REALLY GREAT SEX (Hearst, 2010). The interviewer honestly cannot introduce Colleen better than she does. Isn’t she magnetic? In her words – If a fairy granted me […]
Five Things I Did Wrong In My (First) Novel
Like many writers, my debut novel, Everything But The Truth,is not really my debut. I always feel like a fraud admitting that, but I am sure I’m not alone. The truth is, however latent your talent, however strong your drive, writing is a skill, and knowing how to write a book needs to be learnt, […]
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