GIFTS

Another birthday comes around.

Fifty treated me well. I wrote a lot, did some amazing work with Brent Wilson which we’ll start talking about in 2025, published a little, mainly focussed on finishing off what I hope is the next novel (nearly there), won an Aurealis Award for the Stone Road (!) and ended the year with a Creative Australia grant large enough for me to take next year off work and spend the time writing another book.

Fifty was also the year that I learnt that I could decide to do a project with someone and actually see it through. It's just a matter of working with the right person. Since it's taken me three decades to reach this conclusion I guess it's easier said than done, but it's about the most fun I've ever had artistically.

Time is the most precious thing. And getting it to work on a book I’ve been putting off for years because it’s a real stretch of my skills is an absolute gift and one I won’t be taking lightly.

I’ve made do with moments snatched between childcare and work and weekends and there’s a real power in friction of competing needs, but I am looking forward to days of writing in a row, and being able to give deeper thought to what I am doing. I guess we’ll see how that goes.

I'll also have more time to make sure that I actually promote the work I have coming out. I sometimes let that slide. And I'm going to be giving the old webpage a bit of a polish too. With so many other things going on it often gets neglected.

I'm also working on a series of essays. It's a weird little project that I'm aiming to write 200 essays of 200 words each, all about writing and art as I see it. It's either going to be fun or repetitive. Not sure what I'm going to do with it, but I'll actually have time to think about that too.

Now, a child has just gotten up, so time to get breakfast. But here's a link to a story of mine that came out earlier in the year. Hope you enjoy - if you have time :)

https://www.sundaymorningtransport.com/p/fierce-happening