-
Day 4: Freedom to write, freedom for writers
Day 4 already. Well, nothing was going to happen on Day 1 given how tired and jetlagged I was. Today, most of the day was pretty boring. I had not slept well the night before. So the day was full of waking, sleeping, doing things I needed to do like eat and so on. I thought about the book a lot. And then I did my makeup, changed, called an Uber and went to see my friend Vicki Laurie interview Peter Greste at the WA State Library. So three things happened today on Day 4: Peter Greste pleasantly surprised me. I was very happy about that. Thank you Peter Greste.…
-
Day 3: So many emotions
Day 3 and I am just grateful. I didn’t get to sleep until five am because I was just so thrilled that I had met my goal. You get a high after you write and type everything in. But I did sleep in bursts till about noon. I would wake up, do some work related things, sleep a bit, write a bit and so on. I woke up at noon and went over to the main house and the office to meet Shannon who is the director here at KSP Writers Centre. I gave her some things from Sri Lanka and she offered to do a pharmacy run for me.…
-
Day 2: A cat is here!
Day 2 and I woke up joyful today. Joyful because it was such a wonderful thought that I could write and everyone was going to be mindful of that. That no one would disturb me, no one would interrupt me, no one would think to themselves “She is free – let’s get a hold of her.” Also annoyance because my article was overdue and I needed to get it done so I knuckled down to do that while battling my ear going strange again. I made a mental note to see my doctor as soon as I get back to Melbourne. I figured out the A/C and I had a…
-
Five years!
It’s been five years since I started freelancing. Or at least it was on Saturday. Five years. Wow. A lot can happen in five years. I started freelancing because I knew it would take awhile to get my foot in the door and work in-house and also because I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to. Freelancing is great – it allows me to work with a lot of different people, it allows me to meet different people and it allows me to mentor some and be mentored by others. It allows me to try new things and to keep constantly learning. And I am reminded that it also means that…
-
How to get started in journalism
While meandering through Facebook one day, I noticed that a younger friend of mine had tagged me in a status post. I clicked through to see what it was about and why he would feel the need to mention my name. It was the status of a friend of his, a young university student and he had offered my name in the comments on it as part of the advice he had offered to this student’s query. The query was this: Made another application but it doesn’t look like I’ll even get an interview how the fuck am I supposed to become a journalist if no one will hire me without…
-
Day 1: Explosions, books & how to keep kids keen
[<a href=”//storify.com/571811/day-1-explosions-books-and-how-to-keep-kids-keen” target=”_blank”>View the story “Day 1: Explosions, books & how to keep kids keen” on Storify</a>]
-
Curation of @realscientists starts tonight!
Colour me terrified. @realscientists is the brainchild of a few people, namely @scienceupulie and @DrYobbo both scientists in their own right and also science communicators. Which means they blog and tweet and podcast about science all the time. @realscientists is a rotation curation Twitter account which means one scientist takes over each week and tweets about his/her work, whatever field of science it may be. The curators are introduced and farewelled each weekend on the Real Scientists blog and their tweets are usually storifyed for posterity as well. Last week it was sharks with @WhySharksMatter taking over for the week. From next Sunday it will be a virologist who likes to…
-
Best places in Fremantle to write
A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction. – Virginia Woolf, ‘A Room of One’s Own’ And if you need a change of scenery, then here are the best places in Fremantle in which to write. They are in no particular order and I am only listing the great things about them – find the one that is your particular nesting ground. As for criteria – warmth, wi-fi, food and drink and a general sense of people being around is the bare minimum for me as well as minimal distraction. Dome cafe, South Terrace/Cafe Strip, Fremantle What is awesome about it?…
-
Crimescene WA & Real Scientists
I am really rather excited about the second week of October this year. Why? Well, the week starts on the 6th of October. And at midnight sharp on the 6th of October, I take over the @realscientists account on Twitter. The @realscientists account is curated/run each week by a scientist, science writer, science artist, science communicator, science illustrator… you get the idea. The aim of the project is to get more information about science, all sorts of science, out to the public. And I am part excited, part terrified, part nervous about taking over tweeting about what I do to do with science for a whole week. If you have…
-
25+ ways I automate my workflow, or how I am trying to become a cyborg
Calista Bruchi, an editor I met at IPEdCon2013 (who has her own blog here) had these kind words to say about a guest post I wrote for Katy McDevitt’s PublishEd Adelaide. I have just read your guest post on PublishED Adelaide and have to tell you I really enjoyed it. I’m sure I read it with your voice and your enthusiasm in my head as I was going along, and it was a really lovely insight into who you are. I was particularly interested in how you try to ‘automate’ as much as you can and I’d love to know more about how you do this – I have no…
