The Tall & True Blog & Writing of a Middle-Aged Dad & Dog Owner
To help overcome writer’s block and make a start on writing the first sentences of A Moveable Feast, Ernest Hemingway is said to have reminded himself: “Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now. All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.” Continue ReadingWriting First Sentences
In May of 1992, the local literary news in Australia was all about Tim Winton and his novel, Cloudstreet. I thought it an omen. Winton was thirty-one-years old and I was thirty. He’d grown up in Western Australia and so had I. He’d just won his second Miles Franklin Award and I was about to have a second crack at being a writer! Continue ReadingCloudstreet by Tim Winton – Omen or Inspiration?
There were old tea chests in a spare room at my grandparents’ house. In them, my younger brother and I found 78 RPM records, 1940s Film Fun Annuals and Biggles books, which had belonged to my father and his brother as boys. But for the 10-year-old me, the greatest treasure was a mint copy of The Gorilla Hunters by R.M. Ballantyne. Continue ReadingThe Gorilla Hunters by RM Ballantyne