One of the many terrifying yet somehow oddly successful rides in Sideshow Alley at the Perth Royal Show (c) Marisa Wikramanayake, 2012 I can’t tell the screams of my friend apart from the yelling of the others. I’m just glad I have my feet firmly on terra firma, two showbags and a handbag (hers) wedged firmly between them and a ...

I need your help.  I am currently investigating the working practices of science journalists when they cover stories in the neuroscience fields for my Master of Communications degree at the University of Edith Cowan in Western Australia. I need science journalists and neuroscience researchers and scientists to help me out. I have separate surveys designed for each group that will ...

Kerry Greenwood’s Unnatural Habits I discovered Greenwood quite by chance somewhere around 2007. And ever since I have eagerly awaited the next installment of a Phryne Fisher or Corrinna Chapman mystery. You can just imagine how thrilled I was when ABC started airing the TV series of Phryne Fisher last year. Accordingly I was excited to find a new ...

So the other day I was teaching a class on social media and I was asked by one of the students to pause and go back to what I had said when I introduced myself about my creative writing. And when I... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

So I suddenly saw that the BBC wanted to cancel the science Q & A radio show The Naked Scientists and that they had organised a massive #savethenakedscientists mexican twave where they tried to get one tweet retweeted around the world within the hour that they usually have their show on the air. Here are the tweets because it’s going ...

Preparing a measles vaccine in Ethiopia by DFID – UK Department for International Development via Flickr Earlier tonight (1 Oct 2012), the program MediaWatch (a program that critiques the media in Australia), aired the fact that WIN TV in covering a story on the measles vaccine had stated that the vaccine was still thought to be linked to the occurrence ...

Helpful Leader by GrowWear via Flickr At a Society of Editors (WA) meeting tonight, I was asked to be a mentor by an enthusiastic wannabe editor. I was both amused and flattered. She made a distinction between advice and ongoing support – someone who would show her the ropes and keep her from freaking out too much along the way. ...

Marisa Wikramanayake announces her intention to participate in the Australian Women Writers Challenge for 2014 [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Speakers/Presenters: Sarah J H Fletcher, Abigail Nathan, Patrick Horneman, Karen Strain, Dinesh Aggarwal and Marisa Wikramanayake The idea originally came about via a Twitter discussion between... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

The challenge is to read, review and promote Australian female writers in 2013. You can sign up here. I guess a special part of this challenge is that as I am an Australian female writer, I should try to get my book finished as well. So I won’t just be reviewing, I will be writing as well. Wish me luck!

I WAS supposed to write something today but i have things to do. You know, like work. Like invoicing people so I get paid and, most importantly, the cat has kitty litter and cat food. And like a thesis. That the cat has only allowed me to work on in the hopes that it may boost my income somehow (I ...

If you’re starting out, feel free to use this list as a list of WHAT NOT TO DO. Some of these I have made and rectified, others are the ones I consistently see other people making that make me want to tear my hair out. Rush-hour in Moscow by hellostanley via Flickr Rushing in madly.Freelancing is hard. It’s tough. While ...

Montmarte by John Althouse Cohen via Flickr So,  as you know, I am now doing this Ultimate Blogging Challenge thing, as if I didn’t have enough to do as it is. So for October 2nd, my second post is… a guest post ...

Catherine Jan posed a few questions to find out about other bloggers' practices. Here are my attempts at answering her questions: 1. Do you correct grammar and spelling in people’s comments? This is going to sound odd because I will correct you if you're speaking to me or writing to me otherwise but in comments I will leave it be. ...

This entry is part 1 of 1 in the series Real ScientistsColour me terrified. @realscientists is the brainchild of a few people, namely @scienceupulie and @DrYobbo both scientists in their own right... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

I nicked the idea from the awesome Mags Lum. @Londonjustin asked people to list their #essential20 songs using Spotify and listing the criteria they used to choose them, why you chose each song, what you left out and what you learnt while making the list. Sounded too good to pass up, because I am bored and procrastinating at the moment. ...

The entry on the ClimateWatch iPhone app for Welcome Swallows (Hirundo neoxena) (c) Marisa Wikramanayake, 2012 It’s a chilly cold Friday afternoon on the top of King’s Park. I have enough time for a quick glimpse at the view over the Swan River and the Perth skyline under the grey blue sky before I dash inside the Botanicals Cafe. I ...

Because I had this conversation with my ex-college dormmate from the US: ECD: So what’s happening with you? Me: Nothing much – I am in the middle of packing because I am moving. ECD:... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

I am reporting on the National Carbon Capture & Storage Conference in Perth (part of National CCS Week) for Science Network WA. I am hoping to curate all the tweets live from the conference in this post so if it works and you cannot follow the hashtag #ccsconference then check back here and follow the conversation below. I am also ...

About two years ago I put my hand up to be conference convenor for the 6th IPEd National Editors Conference in Perth in 2013. We are now a mere four days away from the event and no one on the... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]