PINK HEART SOCIETY COLUMN Two days ago was 'Australia Day' – a national public holiday that’s all about unifying a nation, but is also a pretty contentious occasion. January 26 is the date the First Fleet of convict ships arrived from Great Britain in 1788 and the Union Jack was raised at Sydney Cove. But although for the British, that day was something to celebrate – conquering a new land and offloading their prisoners while they were at it – it was a disaster for the country’s indigenous population. Given the oppression and humiliation, the slaughter and disease, and the loss of lands, languages and culture that followed for Australia’s First Peoples, it's little wonder they refer to Janua
FROM THE GET LOST IN A STORY BLOG SITE A Canadian once told me you could always tell the Aussies apart from everyone else living in Canada: they were the ones out firing up the barbecue and pouring the beer the minute the temperature eased a degree above zero Celsius (32 Fahrenheit). I knew exactly what he meant: we Aussies love food; we love booze; and we love coffee (to the point of actual snobbery) – but we prefer to have it al fresco, thank you very much! But because I live close to the heart of the city of Sydney, where yards are either small or non-existent, that generally means going out – a lot – to restaurants, bars, pubs and cafes. Two years ago, for example, I bought my husband a
COLUMN FOR LOVE IS THE BEST MEDICINE Romance writers get to play with plenty of fabulous words – for example, ‘I love you’, ‘I want you’, ‘You hurt me’, ‘Marry me’ and ‘I’m pregnant’, in all their various permutations. But the two words that fill me with a joyful satisfaction like no other are: ‘The End’. The joyful satisfaction, however, is all about knowing exactly when you can let yourself type those two beautiful words. I'm actually quite superstitious about it, and can't seem to whack them down just because the first draft is finished. That's because the frustrating truth is that my first draft never – as in never! – bears much resemblance to the version I ultimately send off to my edit
