It’s more afraid of you than you are of it. — He remembered it, in the way you remember things from childhood, part memory, part memory of the memory… (Neil Gaiman, Anansi Boys) I was four. The spider was probably older than me. The spider was probably from the dawn of time. My parents say they played it down when they…

I had an epiphany this morning, and I think it had more to do with the jellyfish than the coffee. — I’d just flipped the cover of Julia Baird’s Phosphorescence and was gazing at a gelatinous creature glowing on black pages. It took a few moments for me to realise what I was really seeing. Before me was something from the deep and dark, something that had remained secret for centuries…

“I just want someone to write this story down one day.” — Something made an Irishman stop and ask a young woman on a park bench, “Deep in interesting thoughts, are you?” (The white-bearded Sean was, as mentioned, Irish, and thus 100% benign.) I’d probably looked like I was contemplating the meaning of life. I was fairly upset. I let him have…

Are ya blind? How to see, include, and learn from “old” people every day… — There was Gwen, who graciously answered a question from a grinning 20-something she’d never met. “What’s your favourite fairy tale?” I’d asked the woman with white hair. She’d been smiling into morning sunlight at the coffee shop table next to me. (What? I was writing a fairy tale, and I…

Three famous fantasy writers give the details on meeting J.R.R. Tolkien — J.R.R. Tolkien knew that fantasy was the thing for a crazy, war-shocked world. The Lord of the Rings took readers to epic, marvellous places and showed them the courage and beauty they needed in real life. People couldn’t get enough of the trilogy! “My memory is that I read (the…

And how to be disgraceful at 80 — Joanna Nell’s bestselling debut novel blows away the cobwebs of social conditioning with a hilarious story of growing old disgracefully. Peggy Smart is turning eighty soon, and boy does her family know it. A walker frame, sent by Peggy’s daughter, turns up on her doorstep, and her son keeps telling…

Endangered tweets went viral in 2022… — I shoved my six-year-old face in the tree hollow and, “HELLO! Is anyone HOME?” SCREECH! I had feathers in my face: two rainbows shot from their hideout. Rainbow lorikeets are some of Australia’s more in-your-face birds. But I bet you weren’t aware of the Australian birds you’re about to listen…

So how should a novel start, Daniel Defoe? — “Opening lines can give you a good indication of whether you’re dealing with a word wizard or not,” writes someone who clearly adores first sentences. She puts a book down if the first paragraph doesn’t cut it. Does a novel’s first line really matter that much? I started pulling books…

My acquaintances say I must have supreme discipline. They speculate that I was not deprived of chocolate as a child, was allowed to eat it for breakfast and lunch and dinner, so that I now feel no compulsion to eat beyond the recommended serving of a chocolate bar. …