When we published The House That Joy Built at the end of 2023, I included an Author’s Note in the book inviting readers to send me their questions about creativity, which I intended to answer in my long-neglected newsletter. I named our Q&A, The Joy Rise, and got very excited about it… then I went on book tour for four months. Finally, #TheJoyRise is almost here. Every month I’ll be writing about creativity, delivered straight to the inboxes of subscribers. In every issue I’ll also answer reader questions, like this one, about how to reconnect with our inner country of imagination and tend the seeds waiting for us there. Giving voice or form to the things that can stop us from creating can be difficult – your questions are safe and welcome. Please send yours to me via my website – the link is in my bio, where you can also subscribe. I’d love to hear from you. We’re on the countdown to the first issue coming soon on @substack. #JoyIsAnActOfResistance
This is how creativity (writing) happens for me: I put myself at my desk and remind myself I’m there because underneath everything else – fear, self-doubt, anxiety, inner critic – writing is joy. It is noticing. Feeling. Connecting. Imagining. It’s being human, reduced to a sentence, word by word making the bones and flesh and skin of story. Stories are alive. They breathe and grow as we do. Sometimes, very rarely, writing can involve little touches of joyous glamour. Like today’s lilac eyeliner. Other times, writing happens however I turn up. As long as I do. I remind myself of this all the time: Turn up for who you were when you didn’t know how to find courage to try but kept dreaming. Turn up for the stories and ideas that need you to bring them to life. Turn up because doing so answers every poem that’s ever given you goosebumps: what will you do with your one wild, precious life? I’m turning up, Mary Oliver. I remind myself: Everything you want in your soul only has a chance of becoming if you turn up. Summon the conviction to get out of your own way and let your imagination lead you. It’s not word counts or ticked off scenes. It’s not page numbers or plot lines. They all come later. Before anything else, writing is turning up. Because you want to. Because it brings you joy. Because it’s what you love. It’s the wonder of choosing to commit to something bigger than and beyond you. How beautiful an act, to have faith in yourself as you make something from nothing. Turn up. Turn. Up. First one word, then another. I remind myself. 🌅 I’ll be writing more about creativity in my newsletter #TheJoyRise on @substack. Every month I’ll also answer reader Qs about creativity. Send me yours or subscribe via link in bio – I’d love to hear from you. First issue is coming soon! #JoyIsAnActOfResistance
This is how creativity (writing) happens for me: I put myself at my desk and remind myself I’m there because underneath everything else – fear, self-doubt, anxiety, inner critic – writing is joy. It is noticing. Feeling. Connecting. Imagining. It’s being human, reduced to a sentence, word by word making the bones and flesh and skin of story. Stories are alive. They breathe and grow as we do. Sometimes, very rarely, writing can involve little touches of joyous glamour. Like today’s lilac eyeliner. Other times, writing happens however I turn up. As long as I do. I remind myself of this all the time: Turn up for who you were when you didn’t know how to find courage to try but kept dreaming. Turn up for the stories and ideas that need you to bring them to life. Turn up because doing so answers every poem that’s ever given you goosebumps: what will you do with your one wild, precious life? I’m turning up, Mary Oliver. I remind myself: Everything you want in your soul only has a chance of becoming if you turn up. Summon the conviction to get out of your own way and let your imagination lead you. It’s not word counts or ticked off scenes. It’s not page numbers or plot lines. They all come later. Before anything else, writing is turning up. Because you want to. Because it brings you joy. Because it’s what you love. It’s the wonder of choosing to commit to something bigger than and beyond you. How beautiful an act, to have faith in yourself as you make something from nothing. Turn up. Turn. Up. First one word, then another. I remind myself. 🌅 I’ll be writing more about creativity in my newsletter #TheJoyRise on @substack. Every month I’ll also answer reader Qs about creativity. Send me yours or subscribe via link in bio – I’d love to hear from you. First issue is coming soon! #JoyIsAnActOfResistance
Heartfelt congratulations to the hundreds of people behind the screen adaptation of The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart – 4 Logie Award Nominations! Huge, celebratory congratulations to Sig and especially to @leahpurcell on her first Logie nomination. Roaring standing ovations for @alylabrowne. And wholehearted congratulations to @asherkeddie on her Gold Logie nomination for Most Popular Personality on Australian Television. This year there will be a few changes to the awards, with the public now able to have their say on every award that is up for grabs on the night. The three ‘Most Popular’ awards will be decided purely by public vote, while the ‘Best’ categories will be decided by a combination of industry judge scores and public votes. Voting will open for all awards from 6.00pm AEST Sunday June 23 and remain open until 7pm AEST Saturday 17. The Graham Kennedy Award for Most Popular New Talent, which Alyla is nominated for, closes 7:30pm AEST Sunday 18 August 2024. Vote at tvweeklogies.com.au ❤️🔥🌸
Heartfelt congratulations to the hundreds of people behind the screen adaptation of The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart – 4 Logie Award Nominations! Huge, celebratory congratulations to Sig and especially to @leahpurcell on her first Logie nomination. Roaring standing ovations for @alylabrowne. And wholehearted congratulations to @asherkeddie on her Gold Logie nomination for Most Popular Personality on Australian Television. This year there will be a few changes to the awards, with the public now able to have their say on every award that is up for grabs on the night. The three ‘Most Popular’ awards will be decided purely by public vote, while the ‘Best’ categories will be decided by a combination of industry judge scores and public votes. Voting will open for all awards from 6.00pm AEST Sunday June 23 and remain open until 7pm AEST Saturday 17. The Graham Kennedy Award for Most Popular New Talent, which Alyla is nominated for, closes 7:30pm AEST Sunday 18 August 2024. Vote at tvweeklogies.com.au ❤️🔥🌸
Heartfelt congratulations to the hundreds of people behind the screen adaptation of The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart – 4 Logie Award Nominations! Huge, celebratory congratulations to Sig and especially to @leahpurcell on her first Logie nomination. Roaring standing ovations for @alylabrowne. And wholehearted congratulations to @asherkeddie on her Gold Logie nomination for Most Popular Personality on Australian Television. This year there will be a few changes to the awards, with the public now able to have their say on every award that is up for grabs on the night. The three ‘Most Popular’ awards will be decided purely by public vote, while the ‘Best’ categories will be decided by a combination of industry judge scores and public votes. Voting will open for all awards from 6.00pm AEST Sunday June 23 and remain open until 7pm AEST Saturday 17. The Graham Kennedy Award for Most Popular New Talent, which Alyla is nominated for, closes 7:30pm AEST Sunday 18 August 2024. Vote at tvweeklogies.com.au ❤️🔥🌸
Heartfelt congratulations to the hundreds of people behind the screen adaptation of The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart – 4 Logie Award Nominations! Huge, celebratory congratulations to Sig and especially to @leahpurcell on her first Logie nomination. Roaring standing ovations for @alylabrowne. And wholehearted congratulations to @asherkeddie on her Gold Logie nomination for Most Popular Personality on Australian Television. This year there will be a few changes to the awards, with the public now able to have their say on every award that is up for grabs on the night. The three ‘Most Popular’ awards will be decided purely by public vote, while the ‘Best’ categories will be decided by a combination of industry judge scores and public votes. Voting will open for all awards from 6.00pm AEST Sunday June 23 and remain open until 7pm AEST Saturday 17. The Graham Kennedy Award for Most Popular New Talent, which Alyla is nominated for, closes 7:30pm AEST Sunday 18 August 2024. Vote at tvweeklogies.com.au ❤️🔥🌸
Heartfelt congratulations to the hundreds of people behind the screen adaptation of The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart – 4 Logie Award Nominations! Huge, celebratory congratulations to Sig and especially to @leahpurcell on her first Logie nomination. Roaring standing ovations for @alylabrowne. And wholehearted congratulations to @asherkeddie on her Gold Logie nomination for Most Popular Personality on Australian Television. This year there will be a few changes to the awards, with the public now able to have their say on every award that is up for grabs on the night. The three ‘Most Popular’ awards will be decided purely by public vote, while the ‘Best’ categories will be decided by a combination of industry judge scores and public votes. Voting will open for all awards from 6.00pm AEST Sunday June 23 and remain open until 7pm AEST Saturday 17. The Graham Kennedy Award for Most Popular New Talent, which Alyla is nominated for, closes 7:30pm AEST Sunday 18 August 2024. Vote at tvweeklogies.com.au ❤️🔥🌸
Oooooof – the joy of seeing readers transform my books into their own artworks! Slide #1: @nolasco_jon riffing on @edithrewa 2. Tanya Cox riffing on @its__not_safe_here 3. @katie.reads.things riffing on @katedehler All designed by the one and only @hazellam___ There’s a cyclic, flow-on quality to this joy: these expressions of creativity in response to my books inspire me to want to create more, write more stories. Make more art. Maybe you know the feeling with your own creativity? What a humbling, fascinating, and generous truth: when we create and feel joy, we stir up creative inspiration in other people. Like courage and fear, creativity is contagious. 🧡 I’ll be writing more about creativity in my newsletter #TheJoyRise on @substack. Every month I’ll also answer reader Qs about creativity. Send me yours or subscribe via link in bio – I’d love to hear from you. First issue is coming soon! #JoyIsAnActOfResistance
Oooooof – the joy of seeing readers transform my books into their own artworks! Slide #1: @nolasco_jon riffing on @edithrewa 2. Tanya Cox riffing on @its__not_safe_here 3. @katie.reads.things riffing on @katedehler All designed by the one and only @hazellam___ There’s a cyclic, flow-on quality to this joy: these expressions of creativity in response to my books inspire me to want to create more, write more stories. Make more art. Maybe you know the feeling with your own creativity? What a humbling, fascinating, and generous truth: when we create and feel joy, we stir up creative inspiration in other people. Like courage and fear, creativity is contagious. 🧡 I’ll be writing more about creativity in my newsletter #TheJoyRise on @substack. Every month I’ll also answer reader Qs about creativity. Send me yours or subscribe via link in bio – I’d love to hear from you. First issue is coming soon! #JoyIsAnActOfResistance
Oooooof – the joy of seeing readers transform my books into their own artworks! Slide #1: @nolasco_jon riffing on @edithrewa 2. Tanya Cox riffing on @its__not_safe_here 3. @katie.reads.things riffing on @katedehler All designed by the one and only @hazellam___ There’s a cyclic, flow-on quality to this joy: these expressions of creativity in response to my books inspire me to want to create more, write more stories. Make more art. Maybe you know the feeling with your own creativity? What a humbling, fascinating, and generous truth: when we create and feel joy, we stir up creative inspiration in other people. Like courage and fear, creativity is contagious. 🧡 I’ll be writing more about creativity in my newsletter #TheJoyRise on @substack. Every month I’ll also answer reader Qs about creativity. Send me yours or subscribe via link in bio – I’d love to hear from you. First issue is coming soon! #JoyIsAnActOfResistance
To choose to make art, when there’s so much grief, despair, suffering, cruelty and tragedy in the world, is to choose to connect with the best parts of ourselves and each other as humans. I hope this weekend you have resources you need to choose to create whatever brings you joy. Your joy is the reason. 🌸 I’ll be writing more about choosing creativity over fear in my newsletter #TheJoyRise on @substack. Every month I’ll also answer reader Qs about creativity. Send me yours or subscribe via link in bio – I’d love to hear from you. First issue is coming soon! #JoyIsAnActOfResistance
I wrote these words in 2021. Still, they hold. My day-to-day conversations are woven with the same threads: grief, burn out, overwhelm, anxiety; fuelling hope resilience in a surrounding sense of hopelessness; reflecting on gratitude, finding courage in spite of fear. Searching for magic, the reprieve of laughter, medicine of nature goodness in humans. How to walk the line between continuing to show up taking the rest we need to continue. I return to the ritual of adornment. Over the last 20 years, cultivating self-expression this way has been a form of liberating my life from the trauma of male-perpetrated violence; restoring life – joy, colour, desire – to a lifeless state, so to speak. Now, for me, adornment is how I practise embodying creativity. It’s also a massive ‘fuck, no’ to apathy. It’s my way of preserving a sense of wonder and finding strength to be present, feel discomfort, stay vulnerable and curious, give a shit, and keep showing up, however I can for myself and others. On this particular anxious day in 2021 (pictured) adornment was wearing a crown made of my hair, a duster coat of dreams walking in a breeze on Gadigal land. Adornment reminds me: you can feel sick with grief wear flowers in your hair. You can be struggling with trauma find joy in the art of self-decoration. You can feel misunderstood, shut down simultaneously deeply connected. You can be unsure of every shaky step, yet feel strong infinitely possible. Mess magic. Grief joy. Fear resilience. We can feel it all, all at once. This is the power in you. Me. Us. Rest when it’s too much. Rest. Don’t give up. I’ll be writing more about ritual creativity in my newsletter #TheJoyRise on @substack. Every month I’ll also answer reader Qs about creativity. Send me yours or subscribe via link in bio – I’d love to hear from you. 1st issue coming soon! #JoyIsAnActOfResistance
Some news from my speck! When we published The House That Joy Built at the end of 2023, I included an Author’s Note in the book inviting readers to send me their questions about creativity, which I intended to answer in my long-neglected newsletter. I named our Q&A, The Joy Rise, and got very excited about it… then I went on book tour for four months. While I was touring in Canada, the US, and Australia, I loved – possibly more than ever – connecting with readers. The kindness, generosity, humanity and warmth I received from people in response to my books – in response to the sharing of our stories – kept me believing in how necessary joy and connection are to our resilience and capacity to stave off apathy. Finishing tour and having some time and space to look after myself, rest, and reflect on moments I shared with readers has given me a gift of realisation: my little newsletter community I first set up in 2014 while I was writing Alice Hart is due its own era. Now is the time. The Joy Rise is coming! Swipe for details. If you’ve ever subscribed to a newsletter with me, you don’t have to do anything – you remain an original subscriber (thank you!). If you haven’t subscribed to a newsletter from me and you’d like to, follow the link in my bio to sign up on @substack, or go to my website, where you can both subscribe and send me your questions about creativity. I’d love to hear from you. The first issue of The Joy Rise drops in a few weeks! With a light left on, Holly
Some news from my speck! When we published The House That Joy Built at the end of 2023, I included an Author’s Note in the book inviting readers to send me their questions about creativity, which I intended to answer in my long-neglected newsletter. I named our Q&A, The Joy Rise, and got very excited about it… then I went on book tour for four months. While I was touring in Canada, the US, and Australia, I loved – possibly more than ever – connecting with readers. The kindness, generosity, humanity and warmth I received from people in response to my books – in response to the sharing of our stories – kept me believing in how necessary joy and connection are to our resilience and capacity to stave off apathy. Finishing tour and having some time and space to look after myself, rest, and reflect on moments I shared with readers has given me a gift of realisation: my little newsletter community I first set up in 2014 while I was writing Alice Hart is due its own era. Now is the time. The Joy Rise is coming! Swipe for details. If you’ve ever subscribed to a newsletter with me, you don’t have to do anything – you remain an original subscriber (thank you!). If you haven’t subscribed to a newsletter from me and you’d like to, follow the link in my bio to sign up on @substack, or go to my website, where you can both subscribe and send me your questions about creativity. I’d love to hear from you. The first issue of The Joy Rise drops in a few weeks! With a light left on, Holly
Some news from my speck! When we published The House That Joy Built at the end of 2023, I included an Author’s Note in the book inviting readers to send me their questions about creativity, which I intended to answer in my long-neglected newsletter. I named our Q&A, The Joy Rise, and got very excited about it… then I went on book tour for four months. While I was touring in Canada, the US, and Australia, I loved – possibly more than ever – connecting with readers. The kindness, generosity, humanity and warmth I received from people in response to my books – in response to the sharing of our stories – kept me believing in how necessary joy and connection are to our resilience and capacity to stave off apathy. Finishing tour and having some time and space to look after myself, rest, and reflect on moments I shared with readers has given me a gift of realisation: my little newsletter community I first set up in 2014 while I was writing Alice Hart is due its own era. Now is the time. The Joy Rise is coming! Swipe for details. If you’ve ever subscribed to a newsletter with me, you don’t have to do anything – you remain an original subscriber (thank you!). If you haven’t subscribed to a newsletter from me and you’d like to, follow the link in my bio to sign up on @substack, or go to my website, where you can both subscribe and send me your questions about creativity. I’d love to hear from you. The first issue of The Joy Rise drops in a few weeks! With a light left on, Holly
Some news from my speck! When we published The House That Joy Built at the end of 2023, I included an Author’s Note in the book inviting readers to send me their questions about creativity, which I intended to answer in my long-neglected newsletter. I named our Q&A, The Joy Rise, and got very excited about it… then I went on book tour for four months. While I was touring in Canada, the US, and Australia, I loved – possibly more than ever – connecting with readers. The kindness, generosity, humanity and warmth I received from people in response to my books – in response to the sharing of our stories – kept me believing in how necessary joy and connection are to our resilience and capacity to stave off apathy. Finishing tour and having some time and space to look after myself, rest, and reflect on moments I shared with readers has given me a gift of realisation: my little newsletter community I first set up in 2014 while I was writing Alice Hart is due its own era. Now is the time. The Joy Rise is coming! Swipe for details. If you’ve ever subscribed to a newsletter with me, you don’t have to do anything – you remain an original subscriber (thank you!). If you haven’t subscribed to a newsletter from me and you’d like to, follow the link in my bio to sign up on @substack, or go to my website, where you can both subscribe and send me your questions about creativity. I’d love to hear from you. The first issue of The Joy Rise drops in a few weeks! With a light left on, Holly
Some news from my speck! When we published The House That Joy Built at the end of 2023, I included an Author’s Note in the book inviting readers to send me their questions about creativity, which I intended to answer in my long-neglected newsletter. I named our Q&A, The Joy Rise, and got very excited about it… then I went on book tour for four months. While I was touring in Canada, the US, and Australia, I loved – possibly more than ever – connecting with readers. The kindness, generosity, humanity and warmth I received from people in response to my books – in response to the sharing of our stories – kept me believing in how necessary joy and connection are to our resilience and capacity to stave off apathy. Finishing tour and having some time and space to look after myself, rest, and reflect on moments I shared with readers has given me a gift of realisation: my little newsletter community I first set up in 2014 while I was writing Alice Hart is due its own era. Now is the time. The Joy Rise is coming! Swipe for details. If you’ve ever subscribed to a newsletter with me, you don’t have to do anything – you remain an original subscriber (thank you!). If you haven’t subscribed to a newsletter from me and you’d like to, follow the link in my bio to sign up on @substack, or go to my website, where you can both subscribe and send me your questions about creativity. I’d love to hear from you. The first issue of The Joy Rise drops in a few weeks! With a light left on, Holly
Last month, Catherine Milne, the woman behind many of the books we’ve all loved in the last decade, won Commissioning Editor/Publisher of the Year, at the 2024 Australian Book Industry Awards. Judges comments: “The judges were undoubtedly impressed by Catherine Mine’s success in 2023. Her track record consistently showcases her respectful collaboration with authors, and her adeptness in shaping their careers and bodies of work for the better.” Since 2016, everything I’ve learned about how important a publisher is for an author, and how profound the relationship between publisher and author can be, is because of the honour and privilege I’ve had writing, editing, and publishing books – sharing stories and life – with @catherineishome as my publisher. A year ago, we were taking a dusk walk in a park (pictured). I noticed a sculpture of a woman ahead of us and remarked on her raised arm. Catherine said something like, “She held something once. But it went missing. See how her hand is empty?” We kept walking and chatting, but the sculpture’s empty hand lodged in my heart. Gave me a feeling that I recognised in my body in a deeply familiar, old way. Her empty-handedness. That sense of loss and absence. Of theft. Thinking now of how the sculpture made me feel that day makes me realise, this is who Catherine is as a publisher to me, made of stories as she is: she points me towards what I thought was gone from me in my stories, and she says, look again. And with the power of her conviction, I realise, I see for myself, I was never empty-handed all along. The author I am, and the writer and storyteller I am ever-becoming, is because of how transformative it is having Catherine’s belief, support, spirit, enthusiasm, love, respect and care at my back and in my stories. Putting our heads together and working on Alice Hart, Esther Wilding, Joy, and my future books that are coming, is one of the greatest joys I have ever experienced. Congratulations, Catherine. This recognition is utterly correct. Thank you for the heart you pour into your work. All of us – your authors and readers alike – are bettered because of you.
Last month, Catherine Milne, the woman behind many of the books we’ve all loved in the last decade, won Commissioning Editor/Publisher of the Year, at the 2024 Australian Book Industry Awards. Judges comments: “The judges were undoubtedly impressed by Catherine Mine’s success in 2023. Her track record consistently showcases her respectful collaboration with authors, and her adeptness in shaping their careers and bodies of work for the better.” Since 2016, everything I’ve learned about how important a publisher is for an author, and how profound the relationship between publisher and author can be, is because of the honour and privilege I’ve had writing, editing, and publishing books – sharing stories and life – with @catherineishome as my publisher. A year ago, we were taking a dusk walk in a park (pictured). I noticed a sculpture of a woman ahead of us and remarked on her raised arm. Catherine said something like, “She held something once. But it went missing. See how her hand is empty?” We kept walking and chatting, but the sculpture’s empty hand lodged in my heart. Gave me a feeling that I recognised in my body in a deeply familiar, old way. Her empty-handedness. That sense of loss and absence. Of theft. Thinking now of how the sculpture made me feel that day makes me realise, this is who Catherine is as a publisher to me, made of stories as she is: she points me towards what I thought was gone from me in my stories, and she says, look again. And with the power of her conviction, I realise, I see for myself, I was never empty-handed all along. The author I am, and the writer and storyteller I am ever-becoming, is because of how transformative it is having Catherine’s belief, support, spirit, enthusiasm, love, respect and care at my back and in my stories. Putting our heads together and working on Alice Hart, Esther Wilding, Joy, and my future books that are coming, is one of the greatest joys I have ever experienced. Congratulations, Catherine. This recognition is utterly correct. Thank you for the heart you pour into your work. All of us – your authors and readers alike – are bettered because of you.
Knowing that I was going to finish 4 months of touring with a final event in my home state at @briswritersfest felt so sweet and so good that as it drew closer, I started to let myself romanticise about the high I wanted to end on. Beautiful audience? Check. Wonderful host? Check. Great venue? The State Library of Queensland – check, check, check. What did I not envisage for myself in my concluding hour of glory? Sitting on stage and gagging for the first time ever as I read aloud from my own book (words I wrote and have read over countless times before) about what dung beetles rolling the shit of other animals can teach us about our own creative processes. But there I was. Gagging and giggling and gasping for air as I read about these little beetles who not only need shit to survive but also navigate by the stars through said shit. And, of course, Sam caught the precise moment on camera. I realised afterwards It was obviously a perfect conclusion to this utterly extraordinary, exhausting time. To the Meanjin/Brisbane crowd who joined us, you were such a delight and filled my heart. Thank you so much for coming. Thank you @becmacstudio for hosting our conversation with such kindness, generosity, energy and wonderful questions. To all the festival staff, volunteers and booksellers, thank you so much for taking care of us. And to everyone who waited in the signing line and were so lovely, kind and supportive, you’re a sky full of stars. It is an incredible thing to write a book, have it published and meet the readers to whom it matters. The power of it will never wear off for me. 🪲💩🌟
Knowing that I was going to finish 4 months of touring with a final event in my home state at @briswritersfest felt so sweet and so good that as it drew closer, I started to let myself romanticise about the high I wanted to end on. Beautiful audience? Check. Wonderful host? Check. Great venue? The State Library of Queensland – check, check, check. What did I not envisage for myself in my concluding hour of glory? Sitting on stage and gagging for the first time ever as I read aloud from my own book (words I wrote and have read over countless times before) about what dung beetles rolling the shit of other animals can teach us about our own creative processes. But there I was. Gagging and giggling and gasping for air as I read about these little beetles who not only need shit to survive but also navigate by the stars through said shit. And, of course, Sam caught the precise moment on camera. I realised afterwards It was obviously a perfect conclusion to this utterly extraordinary, exhausting time. To the Meanjin/Brisbane crowd who joined us, you were such a delight and filled my heart. Thank you so much for coming. Thank you @becmacstudio for hosting our conversation with such kindness, generosity, energy and wonderful questions. To all the festival staff, volunteers and booksellers, thank you so much for taking care of us. And to everyone who waited in the signing line and were so lovely, kind and supportive, you’re a sky full of stars. It is an incredible thing to write a book, have it published and meet the readers to whom it matters. The power of it will never wear off for me. 🪲💩🌟
Knowing that I was going to finish 4 months of touring with a final event in my home state at @briswritersfest felt so sweet and so good that as it drew closer, I started to let myself romanticise about the high I wanted to end on. Beautiful audience? Check. Wonderful host? Check. Great venue? The State Library of Queensland – check, check, check. What did I not envisage for myself in my concluding hour of glory? Sitting on stage and gagging for the first time ever as I read aloud from my own book (words I wrote and have read over countless times before) about what dung beetles rolling the shit of other animals can teach us about our own creative processes. But there I was. Gagging and giggling and gasping for air as I read about these little beetles who not only need shit to survive but also navigate by the stars through said shit. And, of course, Sam caught the precise moment on camera. I realised afterwards It was obviously a perfect conclusion to this utterly extraordinary, exhausting time. To the Meanjin/Brisbane crowd who joined us, you were such a delight and filled my heart. Thank you so much for coming. Thank you @becmacstudio for hosting our conversation with such kindness, generosity, energy and wonderful questions. To all the festival staff, volunteers and booksellers, thank you so much for taking care of us. And to everyone who waited in the signing line and were so lovely, kind and supportive, you’re a sky full of stars. It is an incredible thing to write a book, have it published and meet the readers to whom it matters. The power of it will never wear off for me. 🪲💩🌟
Knowing that I was going to finish 4 months of touring with a final event in my home state at @briswritersfest felt so sweet and so good that as it drew closer, I started to let myself romanticise about the high I wanted to end on. Beautiful audience? Check. Wonderful host? Check. Great venue? The State Library of Queensland – check, check, check. What did I not envisage for myself in my concluding hour of glory? Sitting on stage and gagging for the first time ever as I read aloud from my own book (words I wrote and have read over countless times before) about what dung beetles rolling the shit of other animals can teach us about our own creative processes. But there I was. Gagging and giggling and gasping for air as I read about these little beetles who not only need shit to survive but also navigate by the stars through said shit. And, of course, Sam caught the precise moment on camera. I realised afterwards It was obviously a perfect conclusion to this utterly extraordinary, exhausting time. To the Meanjin/Brisbane crowd who joined us, you were such a delight and filled my heart. Thank you so much for coming. Thank you @becmacstudio for hosting our conversation with such kindness, generosity, energy and wonderful questions. To all the festival staff, volunteers and booksellers, thank you so much for taking care of us. And to everyone who waited in the signing line and were so lovely, kind and supportive, you’re a sky full of stars. It is an incredible thing to write a book, have it published and meet the readers to whom it matters. The power of it will never wear off for me. 🪲💩🌟
