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The Craft of Writing author invites you to access skills and writing passages that interest you, by exploring this revamped site in your own time. All posts are based on many years of practice and research into the art of creative writing
About the author
Anne Skyvington is a writer based in Sydney who has been practising and teaching creative writing skills for many years. You can learn here about structuring a short story and how to go about creating a longer work, such as a novel or a memoir. Subscribe to this blog and receive a monthly newsletter on creative writing topics and events.
Karrana
It’s the aftermath of the Second World War in the lush valley of Karrana, a fictional town on the north coast of New South Wales, Australia. This novel fits into the broad genre of Women’s Fiction, since it explores themes to do with love and family. It examines these issues through the prism of the postwar years in country Australia and in Sydney, but the themes are still relevant in society today. It’s about love, passion and the search for real fulfilment within a relationship. At a victory dance, Bridie meets and falls in love with Will from the other side of the river.
My Blog
Swimming Pools and Happenings in Coogee
The Mardi Gras festival for the Gay and Lesbian community (LGBTQ) occurred as usual in March, within stricter guidelines than in the past, because...
The Night of the Barricades
I open my eyes onto a strange world into which I’ve stumbled as if by chance. All is new and filled with an alien radiance, muted colours,...
A Useful Site for Readers and Indie Authors: Books 2 Read
Click on the following links: Karrana: https://books2read.com/b/3GeoKLWriting a Novel: https://books2read.com/u/m2r6Nj How does Books2Read work?...
How I Created My Debut Novel
The Story of the Novel Those in the know say Write about what you know. This could be my parents’ love story, with the boring bits left out....
Randwick Writers’ Group: Sharing Writing Skills
A book about writing groups Joining a writing group is very popular these days, at least in Anglo speaking countries. There are many different types...
5 Further Publishing Facts
NIELSEN BOOKSCAN In December 2000 the situation for publishers began to change a little with the establishment of Nielsen BookScan, a local...
5 Facts I Learnt About Self/Publishing
Someone said it takes a village to bring up a child; it’s the same for writing a novel. This was certainly true for me. Experts say you should write...
Births Deaths and Marriages
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio/Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.Hamlet [Act 1, Scene 5] Something extraordinary occurs at...
The Myth of Persephone and Demeter
Can this myth assist us in understanding a little better, and in coming to terms with what is happening here?
Discovering Karrana
A: As a little girl I was free to roam in nature, where I became a part of it — its rhythms, its colours.
What I learnt from writing a novel…
There’s an innate problem with writing about your life, and that is that your relatives might not want to be shown up, warts and all, in a publication. Clive James got around that issue by using humour to recreate his childhood narrative, which is part of an autobiography, Unreliable Memoirs.
Voices From the Past
Words in a book… Esther learnt of my existence and found me through words in a family history tome. My older brother had written and published...