24 December 2019

2020 has been a rough year for many. So to ensure the year finished on a positive note, I teamed up with some amazing (and incredibly generous) indie game developers to throw a huge indie game giveaway. Merry Christmas!

05 November 2019

Mordhau is a multiplayer hack'n'slash game by indie developer Triternium. Mordhau is a masterpiece, I would argue the best in its genre so far, and boasts a wide range of personalisation options, game modes, mind-blowing maps, and an incredible nuanced combat system.

31 October 2019

Another fantastic night at the annual Foundation for Australian Literary Studies dinner. As always, A Touch of Salt put on an amazing spread and we enjoyed the company provided by the lovely ladies from Mary Who? Bookshop. Well done to the winner and see you all again next year!

20 October 2019

Character and fantasy world building workshops, and a literary dinner with Kylie Chan ! Not a bad way to spend a weekend.

21 September 2019

For those not in the know, IMXPRS, who had otherwise been an absolutely awesome webhost, decided way back at the start of the year to "upgrade" their website building services. Unfortunately, the upgrade meant I could no longer paste large bodies of text, which is kinda the only thing I really need a website to do. The change really hamstrung the reception of the massive collaborative interview (in the end I had to link people directly to the document which they were understandably reluctant to visit!), and I ended up postponing all future work until I could find a solution. For whatever reason, I could only find one web hosting service which allowed text dumping, and it was ludicrously expensive - until now! Google sites have recently revamped their services, and are suitable for my needs so I've made the switch and am back in business. I've taken the opportunity to change the look a little, and to include more imagery. Hope you enjoy the new website!

22 July 2019

Compelling lecture by Bri Lee . Food for thought and prompt for action. Cheers Foundation for Australian Literary Studies for the invite, always top notch.

01 July 2019

Well, okay, its a new house. But it's where I do most of my writing so it counts, right? Got some work ahead of me to get everything the way I like it, but I'm thrilled at the prospect. Decent size shed for all my camping gear, lovely little outdoor area with a fire pit surrounded by trees and gardens where I like to take my breakfast or sit and read or write, a sandpit for the kids ... and it even fits the theme colours!

07 May 2019

Was out bush for the long weekend and missed my own launch party! Never mind. Looking forward to the official release.

02 May 2019

The TWPC will soon be publishing its first official anthology and my latest short story, "Saint George" is in there, as well as some short stories written by an RWA (romance) emerald award winning author, the author of Reivers Moon, and a bunch of other talented local writers.

Digital copies can be purchased via the link. Print copies will also be available but for now let me know if you want one and I'll add it to the pre-order.

12 February 2019

Townsville flooded again. Nowhere near as bad as the 1998 floods, but we copped an astounding amount in the catchment resulting in the river overflowing and eventually the dam had to be released to avert breach. We were extremely fortunate: I had to drive out in the deep of the night to evacuate my grandparents to a safe location as a precaution, but nothing eventuated. We lost power for a few days, one of our vehicles copped some water damage, and we lost a couch to mold. Our greatest tragedy was that Riverway shut down due to substantial water damage and we lost our office as a result, but that was it. The rest of our families were untouched, although many of our friends suffered substantial damage to their houses and property, and some unlucky souls amongst the wider Townsville community lost absolutely everything.

15 January 2019

With the aid of Will Walquist from Revolution Productions, Mark Enders from Townsville Classic Films, and professional actor Michael Sams, I have created a new writing group under the Townsville Writers & Publishers Centre banner: The Scriptwriters! Our first meeting was tonight, and it looks like we have a promising year ahead of us.

09 January 2019

I am very pleased to present you with my latest interview, courtesy of some incredibly talented adventure game designers – some of the best in the business. Joining me is Chris & Nic Bischoff from The Brotherhood (Stasis, Cayne), Francisco González from Grundislav Games (Lamplight City, Shardlight), Christian Miller from Silver Spook Games (Neofeud), and Mark from Wormwood Studios (Primordia). I selected these four developers for the interview because, while they are all very accomplished, they have also taken very different approaches to game design which I thought would lead to some very thoughtful discussion. During the interview, we talk at length about puzzle design, interactive storytelling, tutorial design, dialogue in video games, the evolution of adventure games, and finish up with some shameless plugging (and a couple of teasers for some upcoming games). ​

09 January 2019

What a fantastic workshop with a great bunch of authors in the making. Thanks so much to headspace Townsville for providing us with such an amazing facility to work in! Some highlights included (according to the teens): - The "Eye of Argon" parlour game - Planning new stories using the 7 point and Hero's Journey structures - Focusing our stories using the MICE Quotient - Writing in the Dopamine zone - Smashing out huge wordcounts with the Pomodoro method - Having a go at micro fiction & scene writing using image and sentence prompts - Round Robin, Throwing Words, & other writing games. - Chatting about books and movies with other writers, and listening to each other's stories Some really talented young writers here.