A life of prose

Easy to Use Methods for Captivating Time and Place I’ve been crafting sensory rich Australian historical settings for several years now, and everyday I’m still learning the craft and, especially how to really bring those settings to life. But if you’ve ever tried to capture the essence of Australia’s past in your fiction, then you’ll, no doubt understand how it can be a real uphill battle. So… I thought I’d share some techniques, that I’ve picked up along the way

A Writer’s Guide The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there ~ L.P. Hartley One little anachronism and the spell is broken— These words provided me with the perfect kick in the pants when I first started writing historical dialogue . They captured the challenge for me, but I’m guessing that’s something we’ve all faced when crafting historical dialogue. But have you ever noticed how readers react when they spot words that kinda sit like a square

A Step-by-Step Research Guide for Historical Fiction Finding Primary Sources for Historical fiction research can be one of the deepest and darkest rabbit holes a writer ever dives down. Trust me, I know! With over 26,000 historical pamphlets from 19th century Britain alone, the task can seem insurmountable. My style is to research as I write. The approach has its own rewards, but damn, does it have its pitfalls too. Diving into primary sources can be absolutely paralysing. And that’s

I’m a sentimental fella, and history has always captivated me. So, it goes without saying that I fell straight into learning what is historical fiction when I began my writing journey. Now I’m here, I find that it’s an amazing genre that blends made-up stories with real historical events. And I absolutely love how it teaches, and entertains in the very same breath! Many readers might think this genre is pretty recent, but guess what? Its roots stretch back thousands

A Guide to Rich Sensory Details: And Tips on Australian Settings   Like many of the literary giants, I entered into my own journey into Historical Fiction Writing through the short story, believing that if it were good enough for Hemingway, Bukowski and even James Joyce, then it was well and truly good enough for me. But with that being said, historical short stories are still relatively new to the literary world of historical fiction (where I now choose to