Just when you think it’s safe to have a bad hair day …

Daily checklist: Dacks of track on and slightly soiled? Check. Face devoid of makeup? Check. Hair lank and unloved? Check. Clearly it’s a writing day. And just as I happily tap in the 44,999th word of the w-i-p, the call comes in. Could you do a 15-minute interview on bookish matters on 612 ABC Drive [...]

A slice of heaven(ly feedback)

  Pinetrees Lodge Lord Howe Island Dear Dani and Luke Sorry for not returning the guest feedback form I so diligently filled in while the kids played with a giant lobster that washed up on Ned’s Beach. I must have packed it away with my snorkel and the wetsuit that made me look like a [...]

Writers afloat

It’s been all hands on deck for the hard-working crew of the Queensland Writers Centre. While extreme flooding in Brisbane’s Southbank area has closed the office, staff continue to man the writing pumps at home. Writing Queensland Magazine, QWC’s flagship publication and compulsory reading for those interested in the craft of writing, has gone to [...]

Out of the literary ghetto

Australian author Garry Disher once observed that the Australian literary community tends to ghetto-ise children’s writers, herding them into separate programs at writers’ festivals, and giving them little coverage in the mass media. He’s published more than forty books, across a range of genres, including crime thrillers, literary novels, short-story collections, novels for adolescents and [...]

First reviews of Triple H

The nervous pit has gone from my stomach; first reviews of Henry Hoey Hobson have hit the streets: ‘Henry Hoey Hobson’ by Christine Bongers is a funny, fast-paced story, built around a likeable protagonist. Henry is an engaging narrator, who learns the importance of having people on your side, no matter what they look like. [...]

Reviews of “dust”

‘Astonishing and fascinating . . . Christine Bongers has created a gripping and intriguing story which is difficult to put down and even more difficult to forget.’ 5-star review, TOWNSVILLE BULLETIN ‘This is a fierce, snarling, lively little tale, like being squashed into the backseat of an old Holden with a bunch of sticky kids. [...]

Mayday mayday…

I had a moment at about 12.35 today. I was strapped into a headset in the ABC Radio Studio at Toowong, about to be interviewed live on Queensland Country Hour. The gracious and discerning Robin McConchie, Queensland’s Executive Producer, ABC Rural, had invited me in to talk about my novel Dust.  She had read it, [...]

And they’re racing!

Everyone thinks I’ve been on holidays, but really, I’ve been on writer’s boot camp, training for a guest spot on Writing Races, the Australian Writer’s Marketplace online forum. I thought it was an inspired bit of fun aimed at getting the procrastinators up and writing, if only for an hour, between 8.00 and 9.00 pm [...]

Bumper crop of Qld debut authors

If you’re quick, there’s still time to grab a copy of today’s Courier Mail (28 March 2009) and check out the etc lift-out’s cover story and two-page spread on the current infestation of debut novelists coming out of the Sunshine State. Yes, I am one of them, and yes I do rate a quick mention. [...]

From Dust to Dead

I just had to steal that caption from Gary Kemble’s article in the March edition of Writing Queensland, because (she says, trying to keep the excited quiver out of her voice) he is talking about me. Well, my books. Or, to be more precise, my soon-to-published novel Dust and the WIP. Avoiding ‘Second-Novel Syndrome’ looks [...]