Q&A: Among vs Amid

Each week here at the Australian Writers’ Centre, we dissect and discuss, contort and retort, ask and gasp at the English language and all its

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Word of the week: Soporific

Soporific (adjective) “I love this word. According to the Macquarie Dictionary, it means ‘causing or tending to cause sleep’. So you might say that someone’s

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Word of the week: Stentorian

Stentorian (adjective) “Do you know what stentorian means? It actually comes from Greek mythology. A stentor was a herald with a loud voice. So the word stentorian is used to describe a loud voice or sound. So you might say that when Darth Vader was angry he expressed this in stentorian

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Q&A: Harry Potter and the Protagonist’s Stone

Each week here at the Australian Writers’ Centre, we dissect and discuss, contort and retort, ask and gasp at the English language and all its rules, regulations and ridiculousness. It’s a celebration of language, masquerading as a passive-aggressive whinge about words and weirdness. This week, we’re casting a protagonist spell…

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Word of the week: Bombastic

Bombastic (adjective) “I know it sounds like an explosion, but actually ‘bombast’ is an old word meaning material used for padding. These days, it often refers to pompous speech. Like ‘he had a bombastic way of talking’.” And to hear Valerie and Allison chat more about this and more on

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Isabelle Li talks “A Chinese Affair”

This week, we’re chatting with writer Isabelle Li – author of A Chinese Affair. So, tell us Isabelle, for those who haven’t read your book, what’s it about? “A Chinese Affair consists of 16 short stories, exploring the experience of recent Chinese migration to Australia – what it means to

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Q&A: Among vs Amid

Each week here at the Australian Writers’ Centre, we dissect and discuss, contort and retort, ask and gasp at the English language and all its rules, regulations and ridiculousness. It’s a celebration of language, masquerading as a passive-aggressive whinge about words and weirdness. This week, we’re amid the action… Q:

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Words of the week: Predilection and Propensity

Predilection and Propensity (noun) “Predilection is almost the same as preference. So you have a predilection for wearing black. Or a predilection for peanut butter on Cruskits. Propensity, on the other hand, is an inclination or tendency. Like someone might have a propensity to blame people for his mistakes. Or

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Author Rajith Savanadasa is in “Ruins”

Hot off the press is the first novel from Australian author Rajith Savanadasa, Ruins. “A stunning debut novel from a fresh voice in Australian fiction, for fans of Zadie Smith and Rohinton Mistry,” says the press for this one. So we asked around and tracked him down to answer a

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Q&A: A matter of principle

Each week here at the Australian Writers’ Centre, we dissect and discuss, contort and retort, ask and gasp at the English language and all its rules, regulations and ridiculousness. It’s a celebration of language, masquerading as a passive-aggressive whinge about words and weirdness. This week, it’s a matter of principle…

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COMP CLOSED: Win our “fabulous five” book pack!

Throughout the month of July, we have another book pack up for grabs. We’ve curated five fabulous female authors’ books and bundled them together with some twine for one lucky winner! The books in this “fab five” pack are: The Japanese Lover by Isabel Allende Rosetta by Alexandra Joel A

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Word of the week: Soporific

Soporific (adjective) “I love this word. According to the Macquarie Dictionary, it means ‘causing or tending to cause sleep’. So you might say that someone’s voice is soporific. Or a particularly boring television show is soporific. Or, for me, listening to my cat purr late at night while he’s cuddling

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Q&A: What does MOOT actually mean?

Each week here at the Australian Writers’ Centre, we dissect and discuss, contort and retort, ask and gasp at the English language and all its rules, regulations and ridiculousness. It’s a celebration of language, masquerading as a passive-aggressive whinge about words and weirdness. This week, our moot is on point…

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Word of the week: Nicotine

Before this week’s word, a special mention to the Build Your Author Platform graduate Facebook group, who each week have been trying their best to incorporate Valerie’s word of the week (mentioned on podcast and here) into something they write that week. Some very creative uses so far! Nicotine (noun)

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Q&A: Pronunciation vs Enunciation vs Elocution

Each week here at the Australian Writers’ Centre, we dissect and discuss, contort and retort, ask and gasp at the English language and all its rules, regulations and ridiculousness. It’s a celebration of language, masquerading as a passive-aggressive whinge about words and weirdness. This week, we’re charged up as we

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What we’re reading this month – June 2016

Each month, we share what we’re reading – fiction or nonfiction. (And you can do the same – details at the end of this post.) Here’s what some of us at AWC have been reading in June:   Bec: Memories of Silk and Straw: A Self-Portrait of Small-Town Japan by

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Q&A: Understanding bullet lists

Each week here at the Australian Writers’ Centre, we dissect and discuss, contort and retort, ask and gasp at the English language and all its rules, regulations and ridiculousness. It’s a celebration of language, masquerading as a passive-aggressive whinge about words and weirdness. This week, it’s time to bite the

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Using crowdfunding with Unbound to get your novel published

Guest post by Claire Scobie This a story about how I’m using crowdfunding to get my novel The Pagoda Tree published in the UK. I’m using Unbound, a UK publishing model with a distinguished past. Once known as “subscription publishing”, in 1688 the first edition of Milton’s Paradise Lost was

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Word of the week: Milquetoast

Milquetoast (noun) “I first heard this word when my friend referred to someone by saying: “She’s milquetoast”. At first, I thought she was saying milk (as in the white stuff you drink) and “toast” and was thinking it was some kind of breakfast thing! But it’s milquetoast and it means

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He’s written the “Perfect” picture book…

Children’s book author Danny Parker (also one of our fabulous AWC presenters) recently made the shortlist of the Children’s Book Council of Australia’s Book of the Year Awards 2016 as well as last month’s Australian Book Industry Awards shortlist – for his picture book, titled Perfect. With the book set

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