Rants, Raves and Updates
**Please note, this whole post was written sporadically over a good month or more…
Rants
I’m back and we’re going to ignore the fact this is my very first and very belated post for 2026. Honestly, every time I sat down at my computer and tried to write this post, the words were refusing to come out. I’ve been trying to think of why that is and, when I think back to January of this year, I realise there was a lot of heaviness in the air. It was a time when Craig Silvey was exposed as being involved in the ownership AND distribution of child exploitation material. As someone whose favourite book was always Jasper Jones, this was gutting for me. That news stayed with me for weeks and I felt sick. He was always held to such high esteem when, behind the scenes, he was clearly something completely different to what we all imagined.
Following that, I learned about Mem Fox’s husband. I never knew he was a groomer and abuser. But, once I found out and read Mem had stuck by him and supported him while he was found guilty of abusing his young male student, who had turned to him after being sexually abused by someone else, I was done.
I recycled all my Mem Fox and Craig Silvey books.
Except maybe I wasn’t done, because then Oliver Phommavanh was found guilty of using his author fame to groom and explicitly text young girls. And then another pile of Epstein files were released and, from what I’ve seen, they are absolutely horrifying.
Of course add to all of that the images of starving children and war crimes that were flooding my feeds for months on end and now a new war has taken over and, my God, it just feels like surely enough is enough.
I’m sick of things feeling miserable.
And, so, I think when I sat down to write, I wanted to address all of the things but my brain would go into meltdown mode and nothing would happen.
I’m finally here now, spewing out all the things that have been consuming my brain and making me angrier and angrier as the months go on. My other rants will be dot points, because I’m sure you don’t want to be here all day…
MAFS. I don’t think I need to say much about it because I think anyone who watches it is in the same boat. It’s exhausting. It’s disgusting. This year has gone off the rails for me and the women on the show should feel ashamed. The bullying and the feral behaviour has been an embarrassment to women everywhere and we do not want you on our side. Go away now, please. And take the sayings ‘ride or die’ and ‘receipts’ with you…
We now officially have less than a month until daylight savings ends and I’m not happy. I can feel the days slowly starting to shorten again and the weather is starting to cool down. Unlike MAFS, daylight savings, I’d like you to stay!
I’ve been really excited for the footy to start back again, but, as a Dees supporter, I am so annoyed at the fixture AGAIN! Once again we have sooo many Sunday afternoon games and they are the worst!
Raves
I’ll keep these pretty brief, but I’ve got some TV, books and a writerly event to discuss.
The Housemaid (spoilers): I finally read the book that I think everyone else on the planet has read now and I snapped it off my TBR pile so I could watch the movie before I saw too many spoilers. Firstly, I really enjoyed the book. It was the first physical book I read in a long time that didn’t take me months and months to read. It was an easy book to read, kept me wanting more and I didn’t guess the ending. As for the movie, I didn’t love that the character of Nina wasn’t a bigger girl and more disheveled like had been described in the book. I wish Enzo had been a bigger character in the movie and that they had kept Millie’s punishment as having to keep the heavy books on her stomach, rather than having to watch her disfigure herself with a shard of broken plate. I did like the ending better, though, in the movie, where Millie kills Andrew after he begs Nina for another chance. It felt like a bigger and more important moment and I think that was necessary for a screen adaptation.
Tell Me Lies: I kept seeing trailers for this one and a lot about it on social media so I watched it. It’s basically just about a group of friends in college, but no one is likeable, they’re all keeping secrets and most of them are literally just awful people. And yet I kept watching. I was hooked actually. I think it’s because there was always a twist, you could never know who to trust, and it was just a ‘truly ludicrous toxic erotica’ (The Guardian) that I couldn’t look away from. Although, I did fast forward a few sex scenes. Seriously, a show only needs so many of those and this show had WAY too many. Once I got to the final episode, though, the payoff was worth it, with one of the wildest finales I remember watching in a long time!
The Hunting Wives: Again, this was trash done well. Another one I got sucked into because I like Brittany Snow and there was intrigue, blackmail, murder, and rich stay-at-home wives who like to go hunting. This was another one with WAY too much sex. I lost count of the amount of times I saw Malin Akerman without her clothes. Again, I started to fast forward. I’m not sure why these directors think we want to watch that much! But it’s a fun whodunnit with an unreliable narrator, so I liked it.
The Stranger at the Table by Cassie Hamer: I really enjoyed this book. I know I did, because, listening to the audiobook in the car one day, I sat for another ten minutes when I got home because I was too riveted to pause it! A family gathering. Someone dies. Who? It could be any of them? Who did it? Again, it could be any of them. It had so many things I love, like secrets, lies, addiction, revenge, a narrator with a past… Highly recommend.
Wombat the Copycat: Ok, I’m cheating here because this is my book, but the reason I’ve put it here is because my two-year-old daughter loved it! I had it sitting on the table one day and she started pointing and saying, ‘Book, read.’ So I read it to her and, literally three times after that she said, ‘More. Read again.’ So, of course I did. She found it again the next day and demanded I read it a few more times, and I thought that was very cool. If you have kids that might be missing the Pig the Pug series then this could be a good one for you. Wombat wants to prove he’s more than just a furry lump to the Misty View townsfolk, so he decides to run for Mayor. Unfortunately, he has no idea how to campaign, so he steals all the ideas from everyone else. Of course, this goes very badly… Wombat the Copycat and the Sports Comp will be out this year, so stay tuned!
I’ve added something else my daughter loves to this list. She’s a huge Peppa Pig fan and she loves books. So, for Christmas, she was gifted the Electronic Look and Find reader. I love it too. It includes eight books and the little tablet that comes with it has multiple buttons so they can choose the story they read and then press the corresponding colour book pictures to read the correct page. It’s great if you’re a parent who wants their toddlers to be able to ‘read’ without you when you’re cooking dinner or folding the washing!
My final rave is regarding writer events. I rarely ever get the chance to go. Having small kids, living away from the city, having it fall on a convenient time or day and with costs involved for some, it’s just not feasible most of the time. But, finally, one fell beautifully into place for me to attend! I made it to the Mornington Library for an International Women’s Day event with authors/speakers, Anne Freeman and Kylie Orr. How fun this day was! I attended the event, which was funny, moving, and sprinkled with writerly speak, and then, afterwards, I got to go have lunch with the authors and three other fabulous bookish women (and a mum!) in the writing community. It was so lovely to chat (and meet for the first time!) and spend a lunch talking about writing and where everyone’s at in their work and what people are up to. I can’t wait to get to another, because it really filled my writerly cup!
Updates
Last year, I was floored when I got an email from a woman at SBS who had read my article on secondary infertility and wanted to speak to me. When I realised this wasn’t a scam, I hurriedly got back to her before any opportunities could disappear! It turned out she was from the show, Insight, and they were doing an episode around the topic of jealousy. As that was something I touched on in my article, she asked if I would be interested in being on the show. It was totally wild to me that someone would want to fly me to Sydney, put me up in a hotel and have me on an actual TV show, but of course I said yes!
It was such an exciting and surreal experience and I really lapped up the moment, getting my family in to have a look at the set, sharing the catering with them, enjoying having my hair and make-up touched up in the real TV make-up chair, and enjoying the travel around town with a cab charge voucher on SBS! It was very cool.
And while it seems like ages ago - October last year - the episode finally aired last week! You can watch it here. I wasn’t actually as cringe-worthy as I was expecting, haha. They did cut out some of what I taped, so, as the TV world goes, only part of what I did survived the cutting room floor, but, if you’re looking for me, I start to be shown around half way through and I speak around 40-45 minutes into the episode and then again near the end, briefly. Hopefully I get another opportunity one day to grace the screen again, because I certainly enjoyed my five minutes!
This year, I took part in Kelly Sgroi’s Instagram Edit Till Easter challenge. Just like her Write Till Christmas challenge, Kelly encourages us with Zoom catch ups and a private group chat as well as providing Insta templates to celebrate our wins and progress. This year she got K.M. Allan on board too to share her editing knowledge, which she also does with her fabulous writing and editing checklists.
While I can honestly admit, I haven’t written as much as I would’ve liked (Yes, I sneakily worked more on writing and admin than editing!), I wrote more than I would have otherwise, because I joined a lot of the Zoom catch ups and it’s such a great way to get words down. Seeing other people sitting there writing at the same time and feeling like you’re being accountable to a group is such a helpful practice. I’ll miss it when it ends!
I clearly got in the Easter spirit this year because I decided to run a giveaway, where I promised my Easter book, I Know Where the Easter Bunny Lives, a copy of Wombat the Copycat, and a plush Easter bunny toy. Well, I had so much fun with that giveaway that I ran another almost immediately, although, this time, I added a surprise bonus, another book from the Bold Author, Budding Artists series.
I was absolutely thrilled to be tagged in a post from the winner of the competition and then messaged to tell me she ‘love, love, love[d]’ how it was written and that they thought the student illustrations made it so special. It was such a beautiful message to receive and the winning photo absolutely melted my heart.
And, speaking of books, my latest release, The Honorary Hairy Fairy, is now available to watch on YouTube and purchase on Amazon. If you like your picture books sweet and funny, but with a great message, then don’t miss this story of two fairies who stumble across a real-life human boy. He wants to be their friend, but they’re not allowed to talk to strangers… How will he win them over and make the fairies see that, just because he looks different, it doesn’t mean he’s scary?
Here’s a message I received that says it all I think!
Finally got around to reading this newsletter and it was full of intersting info! Love your raves and how you've been out and about in the community. And thanks for the #EditTillEaster shoutout, I love writing with you!