Community and Writers

New words, endangered words
Last January, I posted the Macquarie Dictionary’s new words for 2008. Now the New Oxford American Dictionary has announced its shortlist of new words for 2009, plus its  Word of the Year. At the other end of the vocabulary spectrum are words that dictionaries plan to remove because no one uses them. Word of the Year: [...]

Memoir: The ‘Barbie’ genre
Reading the online NY Times Sunday Book Review, I was taken with Susan Cheever’s description of why memoirs are so popular. The quote comes from ‘The Morning After‘, Cheever’s review of Mary Karr’s memoir, Lit: A Memoir. Memoir is the Barbie of literary genres. It exaggerates the assets and invites the reader into an intimate [...]

Writing advice: Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat Pray Love
After reading a positive review of Eat, Pray, Love, a memoir by US author, Elizabeth Gilbert, I reserved a copy at my local library. What a surprise to find I was 30th on the waiting list. Later I discovered that her book is popular world-wide, having sold over 7 million copies. About Elizabeth Gilbert After completing college, [...]

Last Day at Chez Varuna
I woke up to a cold, rainy day, as if the weather was sympathising with this being my last day here as a resident writer at Varuna Writers’ House in Katoomba NSW. An update on my goals for the week. The only one I haven’t achieved is thinking up a new story. However, the time here [...]

Baths and Writing
I’m starting my last full day of my week at Varuna Writers’ House (Katoomba NSW). I still have one goal to achieve, starting a new story.  Yesterday, I read over notes and scribblings, hoping a story idea would leap out. A few things were of interest, and I will jot down some ideas  today. This [...]