Why do we write?
When I was at university some fellow writers and I compared the importance of brain surgeons over writers. Although I do not deny the brilliance of brain surgery, I was quite disappointed in the...
View ArticleWhere does Nationalism end and Xenophobia begin?
Theorists are divided on whether nationalism is a result of our evolutionary tendency to live in communities or tribes, or it is a more recent behaviour caused by the way modern society is structured....
View ArticleWho is the real Zo Boone? A new Koan is born
This is my final post in the A to Z Challenge for 2012…a few days late, but better late than never. Zo Boone is one of the POV character’s in the Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson. She is the...
View ArticleA to Z Challenge – a retrospective
I have had my blog for over three years and have posted iregularly whenever I was inspired by something I’ve read, seen, heard, or thought but taking on the A to Z April Challenge meant writing 26...
View ArticleCharacter arc: like a scramjet, or a lead balloon?
I’ve been considering different methods for plotting the scenes in my novel and have come back to the Action-Reaction concept; that is, something happens and the character reacts. At a higher level...
View ArticleHow can a westerner come to understand Seppuku?
If there is one part of Japanese culture that alludes most westerners it is ritual suicide by disembowelment known as seppuku, or “Hara-kiri” as it is better known outside Japan. Seppuku became an...
View ArticleWhat might have been?
So much of the landscape of the Australian bush stinks of what might have been, even some areas quite close to major cities. It’s like we lost the fight against a harsh unforgiving environment, and an...
View ArticleWho would take a one-way journey to Mars?
Mars One is a not-for-profit organization whose goal is to establish a human settlement on Mars. In January this year they began the selection process for the astronauts who will make the one way...
View ArticleWhy do we yearn to create stories?
It cannot escapes except through new stories we must create, that we must write
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