News & Blog by Michelle Hamer
Read the latest news and bulletins, essays, features, opinions from our bestselling authors. Find out what's being said, debated, and discussed in the world of books and ideas.
I bought a new notebook today. It’s small and red with a butterfly on the front. I don’t need it. I already have dozens of half-scribbled-in notebooks scattered around the house. They’re tucked into my handbags, buried in my bedside drawer, stacked on my desk, squeezed between the books in the shelves and flung under my bed. My name is Michelle Hamer and I have notebook issues. But I can stop any...
I’m on deadline – again. As always. And it’s just as well really. If it weren’t for the deadlines bearing down on me I’d probably never get a project finished. Right now I’m on deadline to finish this blog, and I’m trying; I really am, it’s just that all the kids have bowled in from school, full of chatter and squashed uneaten lunches, notes that need signing right now, and requests for food (I...
The pile beside my bed is growing taller every week. There’s another on the table in the hall, another towering stack in the family room, and of course there’s the overcrowded bookshelves where the unread tomes clamour for attention among those already read and loved. So many books, so little time. Sometimes to get a sense that I am working my way through the pile more efficiently I dip in...
We’ve found potato people growing in the bottom of our cupboard. They’ve clearly been there for some time, growing stealthily and silently in the back corner of the pantry. They’re like miniature trees, gnarled and twisted into impressive trunks and branches, from which sprout dozens of tiny potatoes. One has his branches outstretched like a marauding tuber monster ready to attack, but maybe...
I’ve moved my office this week. From the pokey back room with no view and mottled shag pile, I’ve relocated to our big timber kitchen table, which fills one end of the living room. From here I have large windows on three sides and a constant view of trees, garden and sky. It’s Autumn and the tree outside the glass back door glows as though lit from within, its leaves infused with a rich mellow...
