Wandering round my Head

I found out today that my father died in an accident back in October, 2008. As you will no doubt assume from the fact that it was a year and a half ago and no one has tracked me down to tell me, I never really knew my father. He and my mother married in January 1966 and had me in 1973. Ten months later their marriage was over and I didn’t see him again until I was 15, when my Aunt and Uncle (on my mother’s side) accidentally came across him when they where holidaying up the Queensland... More...

 Home hunting in Sydney is proving harder than we expected, and we expected it to be difficult. There is a little something extra in it when you don’t have anywhere to live if you don’t find a place before the company funded apartment stops being funded. At the end of the first week things were looking pretty bleak – our dreams... More...

Urgh. Feeling very much in the midst of this at the moment. We are pretty much in the same position as we were when I wrote this post from Sydney in Jun 2008 – the packers are coming on Tuesday morning at 9 (four hours after Brigid will be picked up for her trip to Aussie Quarantine) and we are in preparation limbo. Our days are a blur of... More...

Even if we don’t write historical stories, or military suspense with technical details, all writers have one subject which they must all research: happiness and how humans pursue it. Even the most evil of evil villains, we believe, is motivated by their own belief that their actions will bring them some form of happiness. In this fascinating... More...

Because nothing should take itself too seriously, especially conventions about innovation and ideas, here is Tom Reilly taking a comic look at the TED in 2006. Enjoy!

We’re returning to Sydney January 8th 2010. I haven’t written about leaving Japan yet because, frankly, I’m quite sad about it but some boxes have arrived (for what purpose we aren’t quite sure) and the packing company is coming Tuesday to estimate how much space we’ll need on a container so I guess it’s about time. I can’t quite bring... More...

Okay so the tardiness of these is getting ridiculous but I’m totally immersed in my writing atm so I promise that things more important than my blog are also being left by the wayside. Apologies. This weeks’ TED talk comes from Amy Tan, author of “The Kitchen God’s Wife” among others. A warning for those of you who thought... More...

For those of you in the midst of NaNoWriMo and for the rest of us in the midst of writing anything, here is J.J. Abrams talking about the blank page as the ultimate “mystery box” and how technology inspires him. What mystery boxes are you creating for your audience? Enjoy! And, yes, I’m aware that these TED Tuesdays are being... More...

This week’s talk is from Elizabeth Gilbert, author of “Eat,Pray, Love” and many others and is a must watch for all writers or anyone who loves a writer (or artist for that matter) and would like to understand them a little better. Let me explain. Each week from 7-10pm Sunday GMT (5am Monday, Japan time) there is a Tweetchat under the hashtag... More...

Wow! With the writing jag induced by Superman’s business trip to Oz (and thus no need for me to have normal sleep patterns) followed a day later by the arrival of his parents, the week has flown! These weren’t meant to be back to back posts but… there you go! This talk is one of my favourites – again insightful as well as funny. Ad-exec... More...