A memoir is a magnificent way to forge your favourite stories in stone, and many people yearn to capture their best memories in a physical book for family members and future generations to enjoy. Time flies by so quickly and you have probably lived a life filled to the brim with fascinating stories and experiences, […]
Shortly before Christmas, I showcased some memoirs I’ve written for my clients at Bridgepoint Shopping Centre in Mosman. During the week I met some lovely people and learned so much about the lives of Mosman locals. It was an honour to have such wonderful conversations with people who have led amazing lives. Thank you Mosman.
A lovely article in North Shore Living Magazine about me winning the Faber Writing Academy Writing True Stories scholarship to help me fine-tune my biography of Emeritus Professor Michael Cousins AO, one of the world’s leading pain medicine researchers, clinicians, educators and advocates. The book is titled, Breaking the pain barrier: The extraordinary life of […]
As we head towards the dawn of a new decade, it is timely to reflect on the previous one—the special moments, ups and downs, challenges, victories and learnings. I don’t know about you, but the first decade of the 21st century, and particularly its final year, seemed like a time of extremes to me. The […]
As Christmas approaches are you struggling to find the perfect gift for your partner, parents or grandparents? Do your father and grandfather have enough socks and undies to last a lifetime and is your Mum’s bookcase and that of your Grannie bursting at the seams with recipe books they never read? Have you thought of […]
This afternoon as the insistent blustery wind buffeted the magenta bougainvillea on our balcony overlooking Balmoral Beach in Sydney, I listened to an interview with Oxford University’s Jeremy Hughes and Virginia Woolf’s biographer, Hermione Lee. Jeremy asked Hermione whether writers can employ similar techniques to photographers to produce different images of the same subject. Hermione’s […]
I often mentor people who are memoir writing and one of the questions they frequently ask me is: ‘How can I make my memoir more interesting for my readers?’ One way you can make your writing more compelling is to create vivid scenes full of sensory details. These scenes fuel a reader’s imagination and draw […]
Voice is integral to an individual’s identity, whether we write about someone else or ourselves. A person’s voice reveals a great deal and we make all sorts of assumptions about them because of this. In her chapter on voice in the book The Art of Memoir Mary Karr says, ‘a voice conjures the human who […]
I’m currently reading ‘ Working: Researching, Interviewing, Writing’, by Robert A. Caro, the multi-Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer of Robert Moses, who changed the urban landscape of New York with his massive bridges and freeways, and Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Jack Kennedy as US President after JFK was assassinated. In his book, Caro says that a sense […]
As Fathers’ Day approaches are you struggling to find the perfect gift for your dad or grandfather? Do they have enough socks and undies to last a lifetime and is their bathroom cabinet overflowing with aftershave you gave them as presents for the last few years? Have you thought of giving your father or grandfather […]
