kazan – capital with a k – i remember

I so enjoyed watching the Australian Soccer team play France in Kazan in their first game of World Cup 2018. I visited Kazan in 2001 and remember it as a wonderful regional Russian city even then. The day after Australia played France, I heard sports commentator Francis Leach talking on the radio about how Kazan …

review: born to fight by mark hunt

In the final analysis, this is a book review. But I also have to tell the story about how I found the author and the book. So it’s not any simple review. I have been reviewing a whole range of biographical writings lately as I prepare for my next project which is a personal account …

my indie author manifesto

We indie authors believe all writers are created equal, that all writers are endowed with natural creative potential, and that writers have an unalienable right to exercise, explore and realize their potential through the freedom of publication. I hold these truths to be self-evident: I am an indie author I have experienced the pleasure and …

splitting apart: some background notes

Here are some notes on a talk at UOW given in 2012 on the research into the writing of Splitting Apart.  They were previously on a Tumbla blog but that has faded away. I’m reluctant to dwell in the past too much, but this was such a fun adventure I do want to share it. …

‘pick up the pearl’ free download now!

pick up the pearl is a collection of martial arts poems. It observes on a broad range of martial art applications and exponents, including karate, boxing, street fighting, kung fu, aikido, judo, ba gua quan (pa kua chan), wrestling, qi gong and more. Pat, the author, is a long term tai chi enthusiast. Noticing that …

the transnational story hub: between self and other

The University of Barcelona’s Centre for Australian Studies has just published The Transnational Story Hub: Between Self and Other (edited by Merlinda Bobis and Belen Martin-Lucas) a multi-stage project that ran from 2010 to 2015 between teams from the University of Vigo and the University of Wollongong, and of which I was so fortunate to …