Narrelle M Harris: writer | editor | songwriter | crafter
Words are like oxygen
While not everyone gets a break over summer, it’s always a good time for a reading recommendations list. And given I managed to read (as of 24 December) 159 books and novellas in 2018 (let’s see if I can make it 160 by NYE), I thought I’d share some of my favourites with you! Seasonal delights I don’t generally make […]
» Read moreThe end of the calendar year is coming, bringing with it school holidays, the Christmas break, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, the solstice and other observances and festivals, including the new year! Whatever the occasion – it’s always a good time for a book, am I right? Seems a good time to suggest a recommended reading list of the books I’ve enjoyed this […]
» Read moreI spent the middle of August in Queensland. Respite from Melbourne’s very chilly winter was a bonus but not the purpose. Instead, I was attending my first ever Romance Writers of Australia conference, and then loitering a little longer so I could join Tim on the Sunshine Coast for his conference with the Australian Society of Travel Writers. And then […]
» Read moreEvery writer needs a bit of encouragement – wherever they are in their career. We all like to know what techniques other writers use to get started, to keep going, to get motivated and to write even when we’re not. I contribute from time to time to an excellent little newsletter called Spark! Distributed by Improbable Press, it’s designed to […]
» Read more“I learned something recently,” my friend Wendy said to me during her visit to Australia. “Some things are just big black piles of shit, and they’re everywhere, and sometimes there’s nothing you can do about that, so sometimes you just have to turn your back on it. You have to face the other way. Towards the light.” We were talking […]
» Read moreNo doubt the topic of writerly insecurity has been covered before. And it will be again. And we will probably all quote Neil Gaiman’s story about calling his agent to say how awful his latest book was. But the thing is, this writerly insecurity is a persistent infection. It’s a nasty little bastard that makes life hard. So we need […]
» Read moreIn the last two weeks I’ve seen far too many back-to-back episodes of Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares. The damned things are addictive. Who can resist the pull of The Dilemma of the Failing Restaurant, the arrival of The Expert and the inevitable Confrontation as a restauteur discovers just how bad everything is? Not me. There is the whole dynamic of […]
» Read moreI think of myself as a sort of realistic optimist. I mean, I’m not a complete Pollyanna, thinking that everything will be just fine if you just think positively about it for long enough. Life is complex, pain is real and bad people do exist, after all. But I do think that most people are fairly decent, and that good […]
» Read moreSherlock Holmes has taught me many things. For a start, that fictional source material is often better than the version of it you’ve seen on the telly; but also that some TV creators do understand the source material and do a brilliant job of recreating it for the small screen, as discussed in my previous post. But there are other, […]
» Read moreIn December, the always thoughtful Ross Gittins wrote about studies on how spending money on gifts and donations makes people happier than just buying things for themselves. It’s one of many studies that show how economics and altruism can combine to make people more satisfied with their lives. However, while the art of giving is the subject of much analysis, […]
» Read more