two peas in a rocky pod

A couple of months ago my journo friend Victoria Heywood wrote a piece for Fernwood Magazine about the power of female friendships. Victoria 'interviewed' myself and one of my dearest, oldest buddies Lisa Russell. The pic was taken on the verandah outside Cam's Cafe at the Abbotsford Convent and there was much ado, dear reader, including umbrellas and fancy equipment and our requests (aka pleads) for the THICKEST filters available. To read the article click here and you will be spirited over to Fernwood online where you will read a little about our erstwhile marriages and the wonderful friendship that has sustained us through the tough (and not so tough) times. xx

notes on a film

I had a chickfest last weekend wherein only one chick attended aka MOI. So what did I do? I borrowed  the dvd of Notes on a Scandal. Have you seen it, dear reader? I recall the evening several years ago when Himself and I saw it at our lovely local Westgarth Cinema. I can honestly say that our eyeballs did not once deviate from that screen. So enthralled were we that we had to eat our popcorn entirely dependent on muscle memory.

On revisiting said film it is just as powerful. And can I add that I loved the time alone in which to ponder the costumes and styling. Cate and Judy were dressed by Tim Hatley and he did a brilliant job. He insisted that the women repeat their outfits just like in real life and stick to their old favourites just like us everyday gals. Cate is dressed entirely from vintage outlets and  'the High street'  (don't you just love that English saying?) and while she looks STUNNING she also looks real. Dame Judy was stuck with sour-faced school mam 'uniforms' I'm afraid, but the attention to detail wasn't lacking there  either (I was particularly impressed by her ill-fitting bra in one scene. It kind of said it all about poor, sad, more than a tad evil Barbara).  I have just this week popped down to see the lovely Heather at Fairfield Books and ordered a copy of the novel by Zoe Heller. I do hope it's even more powerful than the film; the issues it explores are so contentious, so explosive. If Judy Dench's narration is anything to go by the book will be a fabulously bitchy, twisted, poignant read. I shall let you know. xx

Trust me it's good!

I am proud to have contributed a short story to Trust Me Too an anthology recently released by Ford Street Publishing and edited by Paul Collins. The book contains an incredibly diverse range of Australian children's writing as well as some quirky illustrations including a frontispiece by Shaun Tan and a rhyming piece by my favourite Mr Chicken creator Leigh Hobbs. This is a wonderfully diverse anthology that makes for great winter reading. I can highly recommend it. Available, as they say, in all good bookstores.

weekdays with maureen

I am no longer the Queen of my Castle, dear reader! I am now sharing my little studio and it gives me such a fuzzy glow. My new roommate is fellow author and lovely friend, Maureen McCarthy. Those of you who are writers might be popeyed at the very thought of sharing. But yes we share our space and also we share our time; side by side we write. We have a clear rule about chatter —we don’t. Except in breaks and in the morning when we arrive and down in Cam’s café etc. Apart from that the rule is definitely working. Between you and me, I am rather in awe of Maureen and always on my best behaviour when we are in the studio together. I do not put my feet on the desk, I avoid eating twisties and playing loud youtube music, and when I have lost the thread of what I am writing, rather than get on the blower and gasbag to Himself, I silently, in a zen-like manner, excuse myself and slip out to take Thinking Time in the convent corridors. I feel ever so virtuous. At this rate I will churn out twenty books a year! Discipline, dear reader, discipline. If you don’t have it, get yourself a roommate—preferably one you admire. One you wish to impress. xx

ode to a new bag

Oh my new bag how I do love thee

You are orange. But not so orange as to be garish.

You are capacious yet understated; the kind of bag Lady Bracknell might have liked.

You hold a Penguin classic, an iphone, four shades of lipstick, an ailing wallet, three pens, reading glasses, sunglasses, panadol, tissues, two notebooks, a variety of dockets, a modem, a couple of bulldog clips, with the greatest of ease.

Your lining is fawn cotton therefore your contents POP. They do not descend into darkness and leave me bewildered.

You can be slung across the body for an urban look. Or clutched with shorter handles for casual elegance. 

The choice is ours dear bag!

You are squishy. You are malleable. You are sensual.

You have the tiniest hint of bling.

Oh my new bag

How you make my heart…sing.