A few weeks ago the newspaper I work for won six awards at this years’ Australian Catholic Press Association conference. Three of them were for stories I wrote last year, which was nice. In December I visited Forbes, Parkes and Condobolin in central west New South Wales and met kids, parents, teachers, and priests who…
Category: Writing
Best stories of 2018 and a request
When I was a little girl of 10 or so and people would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up I said ‘ teacher’ or ‘singer’ or ‘lolly shop owner’ or ‘ writer’. I’m now over 40 and all of those things have wound their way into my life in some…
How writing a regular column has changed my life
Over the last couple of weeks in spare moments I’ve been making an inventory of my Catholic Weekly columns, entitled Pitter Patter. I started writing it when I was five months pregnant with my first child at the suggestion of the then-managing editor, Kerry Myers. That little bean on the ultrasound imaging machine I described…
My year of mercy (and the best posts from 2016)
This time last year I was relieved for having got through Christmas and nervous about getting through the remainding weeks of the school holidays. I was tired, physically and existentially fragile, and wrote about how for me, the Year of Mercy which Pope Francis had opened might just be about showing myself some mercy. I wasn’t…