‘The book is too perfect to disappear. Bookstores are fading, but there are also bookstores surviving.’ Annie Proulx ‘Living in a flat in the city it is almost impossible to have a sense of connection to place’ Tim Flannery ‘a still–Volcano–Life’ Lyndall Gordon quoting Emily Dickinson ‘the frontiers of consciousness, where words fail, but meaning […]
To begin with, I was drawn to the writers in the session entitled ‘Reverberations from the past’ more than the topic. Natasha Lester is a friend of mine, whose beautifully crafted book, What is Left Over, After, won the TAG Hungerford in 2009, and I’ve read and heard so much about Gail Jones’ and Jon Bauer’s books […]
On Sunday morning I attended a Perth Writers Festival session discussing the future of printed books in this world of rapid, almost rabid, technological change. I was completely engrossed listening to the panel of Geordie Williamson (chief literary critic of the Australian), James Bradley (novelist), Lev Grossman (novelist) and Angela Meyer (writer, Literary Minded blog) […]
My good friend Natasha Lester has invited me onto her blog to talk about that tricky business of the commercial/literary fiction divide. It’s a frustrating but necessary topic that both of us have become familiar with over the last year or so. To read our thoughts, click here, or visit Natasha’s blog at http://whilethekidsaresleeping.wordpress.com/ Thanks for having me, […]
I’m still pinching myself that now I have two books out in the big book-buying world. Friends keep asking me how it feels, and to be honest I’m not sure I’ve really taken it in. What with the busy promotional blitz and caring for a toddler, I’m usually doing something work or child-related from the […]
I was very excited this morning to read Jessica Rudd’s blog on Mama Mia, speaking out in defence of chick lit and commercial fiction. Go Jessica! While my books don’t fall easily into the chick lit category (they are a bit too dark, although they usually have at least one female chick-lit-style character doing her […]
Read my thoughts on writing ‘Book 2’ in my final outing as guest blogger on Nicole Alexander’s website. Thanks for having me, Nicole! http://nicolealexander.com.au/2010/09/sara-foster-on-the-difficult-2nd-novel/col-md-2
People who work in book publishing always have a ridiculous amount of reading to get through. I once worked on what is pejoratively termed the ‘slush pile’ in the HarperCollins fiction department, where I would often be the first reader. As such, I would get to decide if the story was worth further consideration by those higher […]
An older version of this blog also appeared on the Random House ‘Random Blogs’ website on 8th April 2010 For me, for a long time my writing was my hobby, and as such I would get through everything else first, promising myself writing time later, as some kind of reward. However, it’s far too easy […]
