Have you ever wondered just what goes on at a writer’s conference? I spent last weekend learning about the ins and outs of commercial fiction publishing, with bestselling author Fiona McIntosh and an impressive panel of industry heavyweights who’d come along to share their wisdom with 120 bright-eyed writers just like me, at Fiona’s inaugural national conference: ‘NatCON’. Read more
What’s happening?
What’s happening?
— Read on leifeshallcross.com/2018/04/21/whats-happening/
I’m currently working on a short story to submit to a speculative fiction anthology. My protagonist finds herself returning to her homeland, where the big skies fill her lungs and flows in her veins, and she is forced to face dark secrets she’d hoped to leave buried in the red dirt.
While looking for an outback photo to illustrate the image of my fantasy world, I came across this one I took of Horse by Jumber Jikiya, which sits in the sculpture symposium in the Living Desert at Broken Hill, New South Wales. Horse was apparently created as a tribute to rare Georgian horses slaughtered during Stalin’s rule. I realised this sobering history draws some parallels to aspects of my story.
The symposium consists of twelve sandstone sculptures, which change with the sun’s rise and fall in this amazing landscape. I’m always awestruck by the beauty and harshness of our natural world, and how it becomes its own character in my worldbuilding and writing.
Please leave a comment to let me know what you’re writing now – what inspires your writing and settings?
This photo of Great Oyster Bay was taken at Swansea, Tasmania, the day before we ventured over to the Freycinet Peninsula (seen here across the bay) for a hike down to iconic Wineglass Bay. Tasmania is a huge source of inspiration for my fantasy fiction writing, with its beautiful, fierce wilderness and even fiercer convict history.
Faran Silverton 