Books + Films

BOOKS + WRITERS

I spend most of my time with my nose buried in a book, or traversing words on my laptop. I write book reviews for a range of publications, but I also love to just read, whenever I can squeeze it in. I love all genres. And I love to engage with other writers’ ideas.

If you’re keen on debut novelists, see Friday Night Fictions.

• I’ll Show You Mine if You Show Me Yours: Dawn Barker’s Fractured and Walter Mason’s Destination Cambodia
• Writer for a Day: Leonard Cohen
• The Lure of Introversion: Susan Cain’s QUIET
• Move Away from the Computer: Nicholas Carr’s The Shallows
• YA, Nostalgia and the Folk Song: Simmone Howell on Girl Defective
• Talking Writing: an ebook featuring great Australian writers (like John Safran, Emily Maguire, Arnold Zable)
• Do You Remember the First Time?: tips for first time novelists (aka the mistakes I’ve made)
• Do You Remember the First Time? Part 2: readings + The Voice (aka overcoming your fears)
• Ampersand Project: new voices in YA (an interview with Melissa Keil and Marisa Pintado)
• Compelling or Repelling?: Award-winning novelist Jon Bauer talks about Rocks in the Belly
• Beyond the Bonkbuster: Australian erotic writing
• The Next Big Thing: my novel just_a_girl (out 1 June 2013)
• The World According to Lee Gutkind: the Australian edition of Creative Nonfiction magazine
• Grieving For the Book: stage one=denial
• Top 5 Australian Children’s Picture Books: to re-read until you go mad
• Crafting the Truth: Jeanette Winterson and Kate Holden
• The Art of Collecting: turtles, autographs and The Hare With Amber Eyes
• Tasting the Erotic: Krissy Kneen

FILM + TV

Jon Hamm as Don Draper, Mad Men

I majored in film at university, worked at the Australian Film Commission, reviewed films for publications like RealTime, Empire, Metro Screen, Screen Education and Inside Film, and I’ve never lost my passion for cinema and television. I’d be hard pushed to choose between literature and film.

With small kids you don’t get to ‘the pictures’ as much, but there’s so much great content on DVD and iTunes, I think I’ll be watching US TV series for the rest of my life in small increments. At the moment it’s Dexter (series 2) and Girls (series 2). It takes me a while but eventually I get there. When something strikes me on the big or small screen, I write about it.

Here’s a selection:

• Addictive Films: Silver Linings Playbook and Shame
• Get Lost Ya Moll! Puberty Blues hits TV
• Nothing Like a Good Spanky: A Dangerous Method
• Vulnerability in the Digital Age: The Sopranos, Mad Men, Nurse Jackie, Breaking Bad

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