Happy book birthday to my friend, Liv Rancourt, whose m/m novella The Secret of Obedience launches today. I was lucky enough to read an ARC and it's wonderful... My review: This exquisite little novella packs a solid punch of sass and feels. I love the frank narrative voice of Ronnie, “gay country boy” and ex-footballer, … Continue reading Book launch & review: The Secret of Obedience
I'm in the middle of a nice little creative phase at present. The dayjob work levels went from one extreme to the other, and the latter half of November has presented lots of lovely time for me to catch my breath. And lots of lovely time to work on finishing the second draft of this … Continue reading Journal ~ update on words, song, Mockingjay
Ever since I discovered the existence, some years ago, of the punctuation mark known as the interrobang, I've been intensely captivated. It's basically a hybrid question and exclamation mark. I think it would be very useful for writing dialogue; but, after being invented in the 1960s, it has (alas) fallen out of favour. More info … Continue reading Let’s bring back the interrobang
ZILLAH [14 Feb] All going well, we should arrive in Kelsen tomorrow. All going well... Gah! Who am I kidding? Nothing ever goes well for us. It's taken us a week to get this far and it's cost a lot of gold. I guess I'm lucky I'm not in this for the money, because this … Continue reading D&D Chronicles: Making friends (and not friends) in Kelsen
On the occasion of Remembrance Day, here is the fifth installment of my grandfather's World War II memoir (see Harry's WWII memoir). The first post told the story of him getting captured in Italy, the second was about life in the German POW camp Stalag 383, the third detailed his daring escape and teaming up … Continue reading Harry’s WWII memoir: Arrival of the American Army
It's been hard to avoid horse racing in Melbourne this week. The Melbourne Cup carnival seems to get more hyped every year, and all week it's been a frenzy of fashion, ridiculous weather and thoroughbreds. I largely ignored proceedings (although I'm regretting that now, given the inaugural win of the main event by a female … Continue reading A day at the races, Mongolian Nadaam style…
ZILLAH I’m staring into the fire in Climber’s camp of outlaws, searching desperately for light in the depths of my shattered soul. They want me to tell the tale of our recent adventures. They want it to be full of heroic action and rousing arse-kicking. They want me to banish their despair and replace it … Continue reading D&D Chronicles: Tale of the Dark Tree
Once again celebrating Australian Women Writers, today's review is focused on the Red Dirt Heart sequence from N.R. Walker. It comprises four m/m romance novels set on a massive cattle station in the Northern Territory (north-east of Alice Springs), and deals primarily with themes of 'being gay in outback Australia' and family. I love this … Continue reading Book review: Red Dirt Heart sequence by N.R. Walker
It's been a while since I've posted. Three and half weeks. The longer it went on, the more apathetic I became. Did anyone notice, I wonder? Instead, I have been reading. It's much easier than writing blog posts at the end of a brain-intensive working day, don't you know? As is my wont, I got … Continue reading Journal ~ Spitting out sand
ZILLAH We camp a few hours upstream from the goblin village. I have the goblin chief's dirt map memorised -- the all important directions to the troll lord we seek, and the Dark Tree as well. We will likely face at least one of them tomorrow. I try to mentally prepare myself for the task … Continue reading D&D Chronicles: Triumph over the troll lord
Ellen Gregory 