In the last week or so, I’ve written about 8,000 words on The Gate. Partly this was jump started by my having nailed Fiona’s underlying character motivation. But more importantly, I belatedly realised that the reason I’ve stalled on The Gate lately isn’t just because I’ve been madly scribbling away to get a pile of short fiction pieces submitted around the country, but because I haven’t been reading.

Well it seems obvious in retrospect, but I can’t remember the last time I sat down and read a book. Three months ago? Four?

Entries for the ABC Radio short story competition
are due at the end of next week.

I entered last year after discovering this competition a week before the deadline. I submitted "Vanilla", which was the only story I had that was complete and met the word count. It wasn't really appropriate (it's a bit raunchy), but it's funny and fresh. I'm not surprised that it wasn't chosen.

This year I started thinking about the competition two months in advance.