Freeline is a group for Australian freelance journalists. And this is a blog swap started over email where journalists somehow try to write guest posts for each other’s blogs despite the difference in specialisations, niches and beats. This is Robert Pepper’s swap with me – 4WD for science and he owns this material. You can also read my post on ...

In case you missed it, I got interviewed by my Honours buddy, entrepreneur, day dreamer and all things film and marketing knowledgeable, Fay Ann D’Souza of Thousand By Ten Days. Apparently I managed to say something useful in the middle of all the rambling. On what not to do: I have also learned never to attempt the madness of three ...

This entry is part 10 of 10 in the series Australian Women Writers Challenge 2013Amanda Curtin is the author of Inherited, which I reviewed a couple of weeks ago for the AWW 2013 challenge. I first met her through the Society of Editors (WA) on whose committee she had served for something like 16 years. Amanda is also taking part in the ...

Votive Lamp, Sri Lanka by A. Davey (Alan Coogan) via Flickr Today is Independence Day in Sri Lanka. A commonly held idea is that most of our problems as a nation come from the colonists and so that therefore today is a day to celebrate our freedom from being a colony. Coconut trees in Sri Lanka by YoTuT via Flickr ...

So Dale tagged me. Feel free to consider yourself tagged to answer these questions if you a) have a blog and b) have a book in the works. 1) What is the working title of your next book?

 ‘Tis called Sedition. 2) Where did the idea come from for the book? 
 I think I have mentioned this before but there ...

Marisa Wikramanayake takes part in the Australia Day Book giveaway Blog Hop for 2014, giving away a choice of two books from the never ending giveaway pile. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

For those who still don’t know since you know I practically have bombarded you all with information about it – I was judge and editor for Viva La Novella 3 this year and I chose Jane Rawson’s work Formaldehyde and bravely brought her into the land of book titles with less than three words in them. You can buy Jane Rawson’s ...

Don’t be afraid to fail. Before you freak out on me about what horrible consequences there are to failing, listen. 1) A fear of failing often stops people from trying in the first place. So they fail to follow a dream, to move to a new place, to start a new life, to leave an unpleasant situation, to ask ...

Here’s a secret: I don’t really like the idea of Valentine’s Day. Why? Well, because I think it can, if we are not careful enough, end up being an excuse to NOT work on our... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

If you came here via the MEAA e-bulletin link, you have come to the right place. If you are a freelance journalist working for Australian publications, we would like to hear from you. We want to know how much you are being paid at each publication as a freelancer, how often and everything else related to it. And we don’t ...

Last week’s review for the Australian Women Writers Challenge 2013 was Marj McRae’s Not A Man. This week, I got to ask Marj a few questions about her writing process and about the novel itself. Marisa: Where did you get the idea from? It’s about an eunuch.  Marj: Not a Man is about a eunuch, and so many people have ...

Rob Kennedy, an Australian poet (and male for the purposes of this discussion) asked this question in a blog post recently: Do real men read books?* He had several issues with this question: What the hell constitutes a “real man” anyway? To which I nod my head furiously because yes, what the hell are we discussing when we talk about ...

Earlier this week, the Sri Lankan blogosphere’s main blog aggregator/planet/definitive index Kottu turned 10. No one seemed to notice – I certainly didn’t know till Cerno and Yudhanjaya posted about it online. So let me explain something to my non-Sri Lankan readers: I started blogging in 1998. Sometime in what must have been say 2005 or so though I barely remember ...

I thought I should write this because I went to an event today and ran into someone in their mid-twenties who was grappling with this question. I know it’s a question you constantly ask from... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Marisa Wikramanayake reviews author Marianne de Pierres collection Glitter Rose for the Australian Women Writers Challenge 2014 [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

This entry is part 9 of 9 in the series Australian Women Writers Challenge 2013Ann-Marie Priest’s Great Writers, Great Loves I am not entirely sure where I picked it up from. But I live in Fremantle where there are three Elizabeth Bookshops and a plethora of other bookstores and secondhand bibliophile’s havens (or heavens if you prefer). Its prior home ...

Inspired by the fact that Fremantle’s Dymocks has just closed. Posted here because people found it on Facebook and loved it and asked that it was posted on the blog. So here is a Monday Musing... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Or any other conference really. And by network, I mean meet, chatter, gossip with, not just pop up, deliver your 15 word elevator speech, exchange cards and dash off again. And for those who are still a bit behind, this is the 6th National IPEd Editors’ Conference we are discussing which will be held in Perth in Fremantle in April ...

Marisa Wikramanayake writes about the latest reading and reviewing challenge: the South Asian Women Writers Challenge 2014 [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

This entry is part 16 of 16 in the series FreelancingCalista Bruchi, an editor I met at IPEdCon2013 (who has her own blog here) had these kind words to say about a guest post I wrote for Katy... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]