Rebecca Jessen's Blog, page 5

News: Guest-blog, New poem & the AMP Tomorrow Fund

I’ve been a busy bee lately, writing guest-blogsand poems, so I thought I would take the chance to talk about it all in one post.

A little while ago the lovely Aussie author Jenn J McLeod got in touch with me after reading my article in WQ magazine. Jenn asked if I would like to participate in her Author Harvest guest-blog series.Jenn is the author of two novels with her third novelSeason of Shadow and Light to be released May 1st this year.Her debut novelA House For All Seasons was the 5th b...

SEVENTEEN (Other People’s Houses)

Today I have the pleasure of bringing you a guest post by my lovely friend and fellow writer – Kathy George. Kathy and I first met at QUT while studying creative writing. We have since kept in touch and exchange writing from time to time. She blogs over at Dappled Dewand I’d encourage you to check out her blog and find some of her wonderful writing to read. Kathy’s piece ‘Other People’s Houses: Number 12 of Innumerable’ was inspired by a job she once had, going door-to-door checking the elect...

SIXTEEN (Halfway House)

If you didn’t already know, today is World Poetry Day, so it seems only fitting that today’s post be a poem to honour the occasion. I wrote this poem a couple of years ago, inspired by a tripfrom Brisbane to Sydney on a Greyhound.

—

Halfway House

I

A bus full of wanderers
driving through Surfers Paradise
that place hasnt been paradise to me
since I was ten
sun-bleached blonde
freckles on my cheeks

paradise was
beating my brother
to finding ten bucks on the beach

now its too much concrete
not...

Overcoming Second Novel Syndrome in WQ

I’m pleased to say that I have an article in the latest quarterly issue of Queensland Writers Centre magazine WQ. The article talks about dealing with and overcoming��‘Second Novel Syndrome’. If you are a QWC member you can access the article in the latest issue��here. Check out the rest of the issue while you’re at it, there’s plenty of great content for writers, both emerging and established. Happy reading!

FIFTEEN (Remain Nameless)

My sister is dying. It���s an ugly sentence that is less painful to write down than to utter aloud. There are only two places in the world, two moments in every day that I allow myself to be reminded of this fact. When she is sleeping in the next room, and every afternoon as I finish work at the docks and I am on the pier, staring out to sea with the impenetrable stare of someone who has lost almost everything.

Of course, everything is not lost, at least, not just yet. She is still here with m...

FOURTEEN (Never Let Me Go)

Is it selfish to be this young, with this much life to live and to sit on this dock every evening as the sun disappears, looking out to sea and to be so completely tempted by the endlessness of it? To yearn for the absolution of nothingness. The water, high above my ears, roaring through my body. They say in those moments, your body chooses to fight, chooses life over anything else. Even if life means pain, uncertainty, even if life has gripped you by the shoulders and held on too tight and y...

2015 Australian Women Writers Challenge

This year I’ve decided to jump onboard and sign up to the 2015 Australian Women Writers Challenge. In short,��Elizabeth Lhuede started the initiative in 2012 in response to the lack of women’s writing being reviewed (by men and women). You can read more about the background of the challenge here. And, if you’re interested in signing up, it’s free and super easy and you can do that here.

I have signed up to read at least eight books by Australian women writers and to review at least four.��I’ve...

THIRTEEN (Ming Hua Memories)

Today I’m very excited to be posting a guest-blog by the immensely talented Nike Sulway.��Nike is the author of several novels, including Rupetta, which���in 2014���was the first work by an Australian writer to win the James Tiptree, Jr Award. The award, founded in 1991 by Pat Murphy and Karen Joy Fowler, is an annual award for a work of ���science fiction or fantasy that expands or explores our understanding of gender���. She blogs at��Perilous Adventures.

I’ve been a fan of Nike’s work long...

TWELVE (Howl)

Today’s post is up on the lovely and talented Nike Sulway’s blog Perilous Adventures. Tomorrow I’ll be posting a guest-blog by Nike and telling you a little more about how awesome and talented she is. Nike has generously agreed to having me write a guest-post on her blog, you can read it right here and check out some of the other awesome content��while you’re at it!

ELEVEN (Heartlines)

To say that Eleanor would become my mentor, my confidante, my everything, would be telling you the premise of a story without ever giving away the ending.

I first saw Eleanor on a busy main road, through the sunlit glass of a crowded bar at dusk, she was with another lover then. Or was it before that, through the stacks of a beloved bookshop? Perhaps it was even before that, at these very tennis courts that still remain, even after all this time, after all that has happened.

Of course, the play...