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Do you want a DWoA writing group?
I want to talk about writing groups today. As you may or may not already be aware, I do attend a regular writing session/group with two friends of mine every Friday. We sit in a bar, I write my book, they write their PhD theses and come four or five pm we have beer.
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Sulari Gentill’s A Few Right Thinking Men
I grew up on a literary diet that had a healthy portion of crime fiction in it and these days if I see one crime novel that sparks my interest then the entire process of hunting down the whole series one by one begins. This is also one reason why I am so glad that the first book in Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series never fully grabbed me in the same way – I would still be trying to get through all of them decades later.
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New project: Guys Read Gals
First off, I did not come up with the name. That was all Rob Kennedy‘s fault. Second, last I checked I am not a male member of the species so I am not actually an active participant – I am just there to make sure everything runs properly. And to carry a metaphorical whip so that the guys involved behave like the gentlemen that they are. So what is it? It’s a website. For men. To post reviews of the Australian female fiction authors they have read. And for women and men. To contribute insightful articles, interviews and opinion pieces on the topics of men reading and/or Australian female fiction…
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Real men do read – they just don't let the sexy, geek goddesses know.
Rob Kennedy, an Australian poet (and male for the purposes of this discussion) asked this question in a blog post recently: Do real men read books?* He had several issues with this question: What the hell constitutes a “real man” anyway? To which I nod my head furiously because yes, what the hell are we discussing when we talk about “real men”? What makes one man more “real” than the next, apart from the fact that maybe he isn’t some intangible figure in your brain…… moving on. The reason he asked the question in the first place was because he had found a lot of American based programs and websites…
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International Women's Day: "Woman"
“Woman”. That word scares me a bit. I don’t know what it means to be a woman. No, wait. Scratch that. I do know what it means to be a woman. But I don’t fit. Years ago, I was writing a weekly column for a newspaper. One day, someone asked me if I was a feminist. The question stumped me. I knew I was all for equality but I had never really bothered with the concept of feminism before. I knew the very definition of it had altered so fast over three decades. But this was a good idea for a column and hey, those were in short supply. So I…
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International Women's Day: And the backlash has started…
Note: This is my second attempt at writing this so it isn’t as wonderful as the first one was. Also these articles were originally posted as part of the blogging challenge for International Women’s Day on Emergen. It’s almost half past eight. Most of my friends have now woken up and headed off to work and have logged on to at the very least wish each other “Happy IWD day”. I’d like to think that they knew about the date and event because I’ve been harping on about it on FB for awhile. But as with anyone supporting any cause, there is a backlash. There have been a few negative…
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International Women's Day: What do we talk about?
When the invitation was waved in front of my nose, to blog for International Women’s Day (if I hadn’t jumped in willingly, I am sure Janine Ripper would have twisted my arm or blackmailed me somehow), I was excited but I felt at a loss. I don’t think gender should be an issue – as in that it is such an accepted part of life that it ceases to be part of what identifies you unless you wish it to be. And so, I wondered, “What am I going to discuss?” especially as I see a lot of issues as being human issues, complicated, yes, by gender inequality and…
