This crash had been coming a long time and my retreat wasn’t a quiet withdrawal, it was more a full-blown defeat. My inner supply of whatever it was I needed to go on was done. Someone said to me recently, ‘But you don’t work. You don’t have a job.’ I know what he meant. I […]
In the tradition of Waleed Aly from The Project, there’s Something We Need to Talk About. At the launch of my novel Amazing Grace, I decided to give a speech, an editorial if you will, about faith and sexuality. The link to the live recording is here, but some of you have asked to read […]
Why are books like Love Warrior by Glennon Doyle Melton so popular? It’s a memoir, but it’s more a confession, an exercise in truth-telling. Glennon tells her story warts and all. We often associate confession with judgement, shame, and fear, but if we look at the Prodigal Son, his confession is a truth-telling exercise. He […]
My Confession In the hush of a Catholic church in Italy, surrounded by the light of holy candles and ancient relics, I had a moment of quiet reflection and meditation. I was looking for answers. I’d just finished writing Amazing Grace, a YA novel about a girl who questions her sexuality. In the process of […]
‘Would you like a digestif? Limoncello? It’s on the house.’ The waiter, dressed impossibly tight, black jeans, white-tight t-shirt, thick leather belt, ankles bare above leather loafers, hipster beard, sculpted hair—you get the picture—tilts his head and we shrug a why not? ‘ Si. Grazie. We would love limoncello.’ I sighed. How perfect. The sky […]
The Music of Life: Writing in Italy The pop of a cork from a Prosecco bottle. Soft, murmuring Italian voices. Cucina. Mangiare. Si Grazie. Bene. Words, food, sharing, friendship in a bookshop café in Florence. My friend and I sit and write. An iced café, served in an Italian wine glass, invites us to sip […]
There is a season for wildness and a season for settledness, and this is neither. This season is about becoming. Shauna Niequist I call myself a writer, but I haven’t written anything in the last two weeks. Travelling in Italy has been distracting to say the least, but that’s not the real issue. I don’t […]
Have you ever walked into a room and felt naked? Have you ever shown anyone something you created and cringed? Have you ever felt like running away and hiding in shame? Being a creative person means being vulnerable enough to enter the room and be naked (creatively) without shame. Elizabeth Gilbert tells us that fierce […]
It was 9am on the 26th of February 2010. I sat down at the kitchen table with a coffee and my notebook. I had an idea—an idea that I wanted to write a novel. I’d met a character in my early morning dreamtime. I pictured her. I heard her voice. I imagined what would happen […]
