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 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 …
Today I read an article in the SMH about the hidden and often forgotten places under the streets of Sydney and it brought back memories of the original source of inspiration for my first novel, The Drain Brains. I have written elsewhere that I still have some original copies of the Cave Clan newsletters from …
Jarryd Hayne made a good start to his NFL career with the San Franscisco 49ers so far. I’m happy for him because he has such a special story to tell. Growing up, he lived in a few suburbs of Campbelltown NSW Australia*, a place which for me is a great place to grow up because …
K-141 Captain Lieutenant Dimitri Kolesnikov in the ninth section of Kursk K-141, silence, stale air, shivering cold, of dim, dwindling hopes for any salvation. Blue pen and paper, scrawling a note (They would have loved words easy to quote, explaining why, this Messianic boomer, cruising at depth, off the Kola Peninsula…) His last entry ends: …
it was great this week to catch up again with Hilarie Lindsay. I called her about midday the other day and it was as if she was sitting there waiting for me to ring so she could fill me in on all that had happened since we last spoke about six years ago. Hilarie at …
As an emerging writer, I’m happy to celebrate the 100th sample download of my verse novel Mostly Friday Nights this week! I stand by the work as an homage to the great tradition of long verse in the form of ottava rima, and that reminds me, I really need to make time to re-read The …
I am happy to see my recently completed novel Jade is my Stone was accepted into the premium catalogue of smashwords. See https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/492332