Just discovered this great discussion of/around Rupetta. The podcast discussion includes two episodes, one discussing various ideas and para-texts prior to reading the novel, and the other a post-reading discussion. It’s always a little disconcerting listening to/being privy to other people’s discussion of your work, but I really enjoyed hearing Adrian M Ryan and Charlotte Geater…
Category: Rupetta
Salt Lane witches, wagons and ditches
In my 2013 speculative fiction novel, Rupetta (2013), Henri, a history student, completes a small thesis after undertaking research into the lives of a pair of women know as the Salt Lane Witches. This post provides a few little tidbits of the intertextual backstory that went into the (re)writing of those characters and their (fairy) tale. The ‘Salt Lane Witches’ name…
Uchronic, or queer in no time: wilful subjects in historical fiction
And one more. This is a draft abstract for a paper I hope to deliver at the annual conference of the Australasian Association of Writing Programs (AAWP), in Melbourne this November. The conference title is: Writing the Ghost Train: Rewriting, Remaking, Rediscovering. Abstract: Uchronic, or queer in no time: wilful subjects in historical fiction Works…
Death and the m(AI)den
The following is the abstract for a paper I’m hoping to deliver at the upcoming inaugural conference of the Australasian Death Studies Network: Death, Dying, and the Undead: Contemporary Approaches and Practice. The conference (which I’ll be attending either way!) will be held at UCQ’s Noosa Campus on October 25 this year. Paper Title: Death…
Tiptree Award News & Reflections
Last year, my life got shaken, rattled and stirred. It was one of those years that changed the very foundations of my life. One of the amazing things that happened was that I won the 2013 James Tiptree, Jr Award for my novel, Rupetta. This award is presented annually by a panel of judges (overseen by the…
Bragging (not so ‘umble)
Guess what? Rupetta got a favourable mention in The Washington Post. In a fabulous article by Alyssa Rosenberg called ‘20 ways to fix Hollywood’s woman problems‘ (no, the answer is not that Rupetta will DESTROY THE JOINT). This is super double awesome because two years ago today I was in York, in a superbly strange ‘haunted’ pub,…
Galactic Chat
Have you been listening to Galactic Chat? A while ago I was interviewed by Alex Pierce for this wonderful program. I can’t bear to listen, but you should go ahead. I’ve really enjoyed listening to recent Galactic Chat interviews with Angela Slatter, Rosaleen Love and Alan Baxter. Go, listen. And explore the archives, too. It’s an embarrassment…
transcendence and uncertainty
Many moons ago, Jessica White tagged me in a ‘blog hop’. I only had to answer five questions, but it has taken me more than a month to get to it. In my defence: the questions were HARD! What am I working on now? I’m a bit of a bower-bird as a writer: always attracted…
Galactic Chat
I talk to the divine Ms Alex over at galactic Chat about lots of things: Rupetta, feminism, Wiscon and the Tiptree Award.
Rupetta – reviews and copies
Well, it’s not every day you receive a lovely full page review in the national newspaper. George Williams reviewed Rupetta in The Australian this weekend. A lovely review. I was working in the kitchen when I received a message on my phone telling me to check out the weekend paper. I was expecting to find…









