Michael Pryor

Christopher (Saruman) Lee’s great-grandparents founded the first opera company in Australia, in the 1850s.

Kalopsia: a state of mind where everything looks beautiful.

They scoffed and said it was a clothes rack.

We all have that special moment when we realise that not everyone shares their family vocabulary. I can still remember the ridicule I got at a friend's house when I pointed at a standing garment airer and called it a clothes horse.

Original Cover of Flowers for Algernon

Daniel Keyes, author of ‘Flowers for Algernon’ was once asked how he wrote such a poignant, moving, beautiful story. His response? ‘Listen, when you find out how I did it, let me know, will you? I want to do it again.’

Yellow-tailed. Latin name, Zanda funerea for its funereal cry.

Pro-tip: not every noun needs to have an adjective.

#writingtips

A better idea would be to do it by decades. The Top 100 of the 60s, then 70s, then 80s and so on. Might get some people listening outside their comfort years.
#Hottest100

The simplest and easiest way to make your dialogue sound more natural is to use contractions. 'Don't' instead of 'do not', 'couldn't' instead of 'could not', 'won't' instead of 'will not' and so on.
#writingtips

Reading it right now!

Keynote speaker: Garth Nix Garth Nix will share his experience of levelling up as a speculative fiction author, followed by a Q&A.

I'll be giving the keynote talk for the Speculative Writing in Focus day of the Willoughby Literary Festival, Saturday 26 July at 10am. It's free, but you need to register. There will also be a Q&A and a signing and more good stuff throughout the day.
libraries.willoughby.nsw.gov.au/Eventbrite/K...

The Country and Western singer who stumbled and was nearly run over by a huge truck because the back of his boot chose that moment to separate from the rest of the sole at least found inspiration for a new song when he cursed, 'You picked a fine time to leave me, loose heel!'

How to Write a Book
1.Write a captivating, engrossing, thought-provoking and engaging opening scene.
2.Write a poignant, complete, awe-inspiring and satisfying ending.
3.Fill in the middle bits.

We all want to be part of Story, either as a creator or as an audience. It's part of what makes us human.

Aurealis 181 — Science Fiction & Fantasy aurealis.com.au
A Playlist for the End of Humankind by JB Draper
The Muse Murders by Michael Pryor
Good Fences by Sarah Morgan

'What about George Bernard Shaw? You like Pygmalion?'
'It's okay, I guess, but I wouldn't want to make a song and dance about it.'

Aurealis #182 out now, with stories from Anthony Roberts, Aggie Novak, Gabriella Campbell and Iseult Murphy, illustrations from Kim Lennard, Zuzanna Kwiecien, Hannah Dunn and Joshua Hardie, non-fiction is by Lynne Lumsden Green, Claire Fitzpatrick and Rebecca Langham.
#aurealis

The HMS Shanghai battles the raging waters of the Cook Strait as something dark and mysterious approaches in the sci-fi adventure story, "The Land of the Long Black Cloud". Subscribe at www.aurealis.com.au

I'm thrilled to have the lead story in this month's edition of Aurealis #182, Australia's Science Fiction and Fantasy Magazine. "Land of the Long Black Cloud" is my first story set in Wellington, NZ, albeit 160 years from now. Illustration by Kim Lennard. 💙📚🚀 #scifi

Subscribe at www.aurealis.com.au

Working Class Magician: Rehired Imagine if hilarious TV shows The Office, Parks & Recreation, or Utopia were a live magic show! LJ is back at MagicSafe as your Working Class...

Went to see this show last night. Great fun, well worth seeing!

www.trybooking.com/events/landi...

Tawny Frogmouth, blissfully basking in the winter morning sun.

The Seven Basic Plots:
1. Love lost/love found.
2. Revenge.
3. Rise and Fall.
4. The Journey.
5. That one where it's the end - or is it?
6. That one where we wake up and it's all a dream.
7. That one with the talking cat.

I was talking to a uni Creative Writing student recently and she told me they weren't allowed to use sentences with more than twenty-five words.
I was taken aback. Twenty-five words was fine, but twenty-six - no way!
How arbitrary.

I think I'll make one of those Reaction Videos, but instead of me watching a song or a movie, I'll be reading a book. It could be long, a couple of days of me engrossed, occasionally going 'No! No, don't do that!' or giving a triumphant 'Yes!' at appropriate moments.
Winner.

When it's getting close to Winston's dinner time, he comes and deliberately butts the bottom of my office chair, swivelling me away from the keyboard so he can eyeball me about how hungry he is.

I'm thinking of writing a sitcom featuring two zany proprietors of a gym. I'll call it 'Abs Fab', probably.

Yes! Bike path, just south of Darebin Road bridge.

New episode of the Apocryphal Australia podcast is here: 'Suppressed'!
Thrill to stories of the Bligh Diaries Hoax, the tomato tsunami and the persistent poet. Disasters, triumphs and ambiguous results! Unknown, overlooked and disregarded!
Available wherever you find your most precious podcasts.

poorly cut timber panel

'The apprentice did this', creekside footbridge.

From 'A History of Feminine Fashion' 1920

I made some lime marmalade.
I turn the bottles upside down while the jam is boiling hot to extra sterilise the lids and to make a bit of a vacuum seal. No problems with mould ever since I started doing this - but I always make sure the lids are a good, secure fit to avoid a boiling hot jam spill.