Category: creativity

A new Kick-Start course to encourage you to dive into your creative writing

Feb 23, 2026

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by

Pen

in creative cross-fertilisation, creativity, Short stories, value of the arts, Writing

I’m holding a new creative writing series of workshops soon. See the poster for details and booking. It’s for the usual eight weeks but this time I’m experimenting with a new afternoon time slot of 2.00-4.00 because some people asked for that alternative to the evening one. I’ve been reading some books on writing and…
How creativity can save us

Mar 29, 2025

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by

Pen

in creativity

‘The world is our house. Keep it clean.’ That’s a Chinese proverb. The world is sliding into the mud of 1930s fascism, sleep-walking into Dystopia on a burning planet and Trump the puppet of various people even more malevolent than he is, with Elon controlling everything. (And that name? I imagine his parents liked the…
Driving Ourselves to Hell

Mar 3, 2025

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by

Pen

in art, capitalism, creative cross-fertilisation, creativity, health

My blog, this past decade and a half, has been focused on writing and creativity. An argument about the monster trucks that are taking over our towns and cities in Australia might seem a departure from this theme. But no. First, my article is an example of creative self-expression, albeit non-fiction and based rigorously on…
In Heinrich Böll’s cottage

Jan 10, 2023

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by

Pen

in Bookshops, Cook books, creativity, rural Ireland, writers’ residencies

In Heinrich Böll’s cottage on my Achill Island writer’s residency I wrote nearly 20,000 words. I was grateful for the newly installed under-floor heating as I touch-typed, gazing through the window at the rain and hail. In breaks between various types of precipitation I could look out at sudden sunlight spilling silver over the distant…
Wide windows and a wet, wet spring – Creativity flowering in Braidwood

Nov 16, 2022

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by

Pen

in art, arts and health, Australian novels, creative cross-fertilisation, creative synergy, creativity, gardening, Inequality, media negativity, optimism, Simplifying, sustainable living

Why garden? Why write? … ‘Set wide the window. Let me drink the day.’ American writer Edith Wharton said that and I think of it often since moving to the country. These days, still in La Nina, our well overflowing and the creek rushing and rising as rain continues to fall, drinking the day can…
Gently altering the world – the arts

Mar 30, 2020

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by

Pen

in art, arts and health, Common Good, creativity, humour, humour as medicine, rural Ireland, Stand-up comedy – Australian, stress management, value of the arts, writers’ health

Returning from a writing residency in Cill Rialaig, in Ireland’s County Kerry – https://cillrialaigartscentre.com/residencies/ – it was weird to be back yet not be able to hop on my bike and see friends, go to tango lessons, films, cafés and libraries or walk around the lake. I watched that ingenious ABC program You Can’t Ask…
Reinventing our lives: surviving with the help of literature

Dec 28, 2019

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by

Pen

in Andrea Goldsmith, Australia behind, Bookshops, capitalism, Charlotte Wood, creativity, depression, Inequality – Australia, mental illness, optimism, value of the arts, writers’ health

When I was in Dublin in September I bought some wonderful books. A favourite is the intriguing, personal and beautifully written Hidden City: Adventures and explorations in Dublin by Karl Whitney (Penguin, 2014). (I’ve lent it and others to friends and can’t take a photo of its cover or some other favourites at the moment!)…
Recipes for happiness

Apr 3, 2019

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by

Pen

in Bookshops, creativity, decluttering, libraries, List making, Living creatively, Simplifying

That warm glow of excitement and satisfaction It’s been a while since my last blog post and I make no apology. I don’t write them for click-bait – they’re for contemplation and the odd laugh. I’ve been working – writing non-fiction – and, of course, reading. One thing I read expresses precisely my situation about…
Swimming, dancing, writing – or What I Did on My Summer Holiday

Mar 27, 2018

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by

Pen

in Argentine tango, arts and health, creativity, social capital, writers’ health

Swimming Swimming every morning in the clear turquoise water, surrounded by trees – oaks, chestnuts, London planes and gums, with swallows and parrots flying about and ten ducklings following their parents across the grass – plus coffee on the deck afterwards with a group of convivial co-swimmers: is it any wonder it’s been a long…
Yellow horses: a story of thwarted ambitions and coming full circle

Aug 29, 2017

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by

Pen

in art, creativity, Franz Marc, Living creatively, Writing

Silver needles in my knees I’ve been working on a book about an abstract artist and having some minor setbacks. First, a previous writing job kept spilling over into the time I wanted to be researching the new, much bigger project. (And this keeps happening. They come back wanting more and I do more because…