Book Review: The Stalking of Julia Gillard by Kerry-Anne Walsh

In 2010, Julia Gillard became the first woman Prime Minister of Australia after an internal Labor Party leadership spill. In 2013, Kevin Rudd returned to the top job he had been deposed from in the same way. What happened in between was a masterclass in backstabbing aided by a press corps with an agenda and few journalistic ethics. Kerry-Anne Walsh, a former political adviser turned reporter turned communications consultant, was taking detailed notes along the way.

It’s clear from the start that this isn’t a traditional political biography. Walsh is obviously left-leaning (having worked for the Labor Party in the early eighties) and her tone throughout is a mixture of biting sarcasm and disbelief at the decline of her former media colleagues, in particular how they seemed to be steering the news instead of reporting it (particularly fascinating in the context of how news consumers in 2020 are becoming more aware of the undue influence being peddled by Rupert Murdoch’s News organisation and other conservative publications).

What Kind of Writer Do You Want to Be?

Hi, all. This is another chapter for my writing book for children. Any feedback is much appreciated.

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Saying you want to be a writer is a bit like saying you want to be an athlete. There are lots of different kinds of sports. And there are lots of different kinds of writing. Most kids start out by writing fiction (such as stories about aliens or adventures or animals) and non-fiction (such as essays about what you did over the summer). But by the time you’re all grown up, you’ll realise that there are a lot more – sometimes very specific – options for the kind of writer you might want to be.

Here are a few that you will have heard of and maybe a few that you’ve never even thought about.

The Thirty Books That Spark My Joy

Anyone who doesn’t live under a rock will have heard of Marie Kondo, the tidying expert. She helps people to declutter their homes and their lives and when it comes to books, she lives by the following motto: “I now keep my collection of books to about thirty volumes at any one time.”

As happens frequently on the internet, this statement went through a huge round of Chinese (or perhaps that should be Japanese, in light of her nationality) whispers and suddenly everyone was saying that Marie Kondo was telling people to throw away most, if not all, of their books.

She wasn’t saying that. Her general advice is that the items you do keep should spark your joy. And if books spark your joy, then feel free to have as many of them as you want.

Books spark my joy. I have thousands. I have an entire room just for my books. I could have bought a cheaper house if books didn’t spark my joy so much. Still, I thought it would be an interesting exercise to find the thirty books that really spark my joy.

The Fiction Versus Non-Fiction Debate: Is One Better Than the Other?

I recently spent time with a group of friends I see roughly four or five times a year and one of them asked me how my writing was going, knowing that I was doing it full-time. Well, I told her. Did I have a daily routine? she asked. Just to sit down and start, I replied. And when would my next book be out? In a few months. Non-fiction, I clarified. My next novel would be published in about a year’s time. Oh, she said with a hint of disappointment and then moved onto conversation with someone else.

That “Oh” gave me pause. Everyone else I’ve ever discussed my writing with (which isn’t too many people as I find it a little self-indulgent and difficult to do justice to when I’m the one talking) has had the exact same response, which is admiration – admiration at the fact that I’ve written and published books. After all, so many people talk about it and never get around to doing it but continue talking about it until anyone hearing them talk about it wants to beat them over the head with their non-existent book.

I also found it a little strange because I’ve always thought of non-fiction as a slightly higher, slightly more respectable calling than fiction (not my non-fiction, though, just the non-fiction of others) because it requires knowing what you are writing about (or it should) whereas in fiction you can just make up any old thing. Still, they both require effort and commitment over a reasonably lengthy period of time. Why would one let alone the lesser other (whichever you happen to think it is) elicit an “Oh”?

Project October 2017: Week Five

Yes, it’s that time of year again when I go on a partial hiatus to do a really intensive month of writing. Normal posts will resume in November but, in the meantime, I hope you’ll enjoy an insight into this year’s Project October.

Week Five: Abandonment or Accomplishment
It’s strange to say it but I think this Project October has resulted in both abandonment and accomplishment. No, I didn’t write a single word and ended up abandoning my plans to finish Trine but I’ve got some fairly well-developed plans for another book and a list of women wanting to participate, to have their stories told.

Project October 2017: Week Four

Yes, it’s that time of year again when I go on a partial hiatus to do a really intensive month of writing. Normal posts will resume in November but, in the meantime, I hope you’ll enjoy an insight into this year’s Project October.

Week Four: Roadblock
I’ve started discussing the idea of my book on motherhood with the people whose stories I want to include. The three sisters I’ve written about previously are all eager to participate and so are many other relatives, friends and friends of friends. My own mother is hesitant though. She’s a very private woman and judges herself and some of the motherhood choices she made harshly – I think she fears others doing the same.

Project October 2017: Week Three

Yes, it’s that time of year again when I go on a partial hiatus to do a really intensive month of writing. Normal posts will resume in November but, in the meantime, I hope you’ll enjoy an insight into this year’s Project October.

Week Three: Continuing

Week Three and I still haven’t written a single word. I can’t stop thinking about my sister and how much I want her to be able to tell her story. It probably wouldn’t support an entire book on its own but it would certainly be a powerful chapter in a book of motherhood stories from multiple women. And I know a lot of women with diverse and important experiences of motherhood.

Project October 2017: Week Two

Yes, it’s that time of year again when I go on a partial hiatus to do a really intensive month of writing. Normal posts will resume in November but, in the meantime, I hope you’ll enjoy an insight into this year’s Project October.

Week Two: Beginning
It’s amazing how something small and seemingly unrelated can destroy all of a writer’s good intentions. It’s Week 2 of Project October and I should have written between 3,500 and 4,000 words in the past week, a very attainable writing goal. Instead I’ve haven’t written a single word. And the reason is a phone call with my sister.

Project October 2017: Week One

Yes, it’s that time of year again when I go on a partial hiatus to do a really intensive month of writing. Normal posts will resume in November but, in the meantime, I hope you’ll enjoy an insight into this year’s Project October.

Week One: Preparation
Before I even start, I know this Project October won’t be like any other Project October I’ve done. Normally, Project October is about writing as many words as possible. Normally, I aim for 1,000 words a day, which equates to 31,000 words over the course of the month. But this isn’t normal. Because the book I’ve chosen to work on is Trine and I’ve already written 85,000 words. It doesn’t need another 31,000 words. According to my calculations, I only need to write another 7 chapters, another 16,000 words and I’ll be finished.

Project January

This is the titular chapter from my latest book, Project January: A Sequel About Writing.

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If you’ve read my book Project December: A Book About Writing or the various Project… blog posts on this blog, then you’ll know Project October is about intensive writing, Project November is about editing and revision, and Project December is about getting your book published. And, of course, I hope it makes sense that Project January is about starting all over again.

The pride and relief at finishing and finally publishing a book is wonderful. But the realisation that all that hard work, all the blood, sweat and tears that it took, all the back and forth, all of the begging for beta readers, all the doubt and belief and doubt again, the realisation that all of it simply rewinds to deposit you back at the beginning again can be hard.

Some people only want to write one book, only have one book in them. If that’s you and you’re okay with it, great. For the rest us who don’t want to be one-book wonders, we’re confronted with an entirely different set of problems from when we began writing our first books. So here are a few things to consider to help get you back on track to another Project October, Project November and Project December.