Category Archives: Uncategorized

I’ve always been aware of Malta, of its history and beauty, largely because of family friends and colleagues, whose parents and grandparents emigrated from Malta to Australia. They’ve returned to Malta on visits, to reconnect with family history or on stopovers between Australia and Europe, staying for a few days or a few weeks. ThisContinue reading “Lela goes to Malta”

As a romance writer, I’m fascinated by romantic relationships—the way they work, how people meet, what creates a spark or a connection, why one relationship lasts and another fails. However, perceptions of romantic love and how people feel, think, and behave are influenced by culture. I’m an open-minded heterosexual white woman in Australia. I’m also a mereContinue reading “Hanging out, Hooking Up or Happily Ever After (HEA)”

For a variety of reasons, I’ve been thinking about backstory lately. Backstory is the history that has made your characters who and what they are. In last month’s blog I paraphrased Shannon Curtis who conducted a craft session on backstory at the Romance Writers of Australia Conference. Backstory, of necessity, includes the emotional shrapnel embeddedContinue reading “Backstory”

Over the long weekend of 10-12 August Romance Writers of Australia held its annual Conference in Sydney—All That Glitters. My resident pedant says the line originates with Shakespeare “all that glisters is not gold”, but perhaps organisers were inspired by Kate Earl’s, All that Glitters with its links to 1930s jazz tones. Doesn’t matter, the conference offeredContinue reading “Collective Creativity”

I was scanning social media the other day—that essential in an author’s toolkit—when someone mentioned winter sneaking around the corner. The writer was in the northern hemisphere, so for them winter is ahead. My initial response was—ah, open fires, doonas, hot chocolate, adoring companions, snuggling down in the corner of a sofa to read, orContinue reading “Bathing in nature”