Cover by Jess Gately Issue 27: Case is here On page 6 you’ll find this issue’s book review by yours truly, then our fabulous fiction begins on page 8, continuing with our Case theme until you reach the bumper selection of opportunities for writers down on pages 22-25. We hope that this issue will help…
Tag: Jess Gately
What to do when you receive feedback on your writing, by Jess Gately
Image from Canva Free Stock Images Receiving feedback can be a painful process. As writers, we should actively seek it, but there’s no taking away that sting when your feedback says something isn’t working. And it’s ok to feel that sting. It’s only natural when you’ve shared a project you’ve worked hard on and feel passionate about…
7 Indigenous Books that changed the way we think about Australian History, by Jess Gately
NAIDOC Week and Black History Month are a time for us to reflect on the achievements, contributions and history of the Australian Indigenous People and to consider how we move forward towards reconciliation. This year’s NAIDOC theme of Voice. Treaty. Truth. ties in with the United Nations International Year of Indigenous Languages and asks us…
Freelance Writing Series Part 12: Creative Briefs
Article by Jess Gately Image from Canva Free Stock Images In our last post, we discussed pitching for those of you who are looking at article writing but this post is more useful for those of you who are looking at copywriting, real estate writing, advertising, social media management or other such roles. Jobs like these often…
Review: My Father’s Shadow by Jannali Jones, by Jess Gately
Title: My Father’s Shadow Author: Jannali Jones Genre: YA Mystery/Thriller Favourite Part: Just when you think you’ve figured it out, Jones throws a curve ball at you! The Black&Write! Fellowship has produced some cracking reads so of course I couldn’t wait to dig into Jannali Jones’s debut. The blurb for My Father’s Shadow doesn’t give…
Freelance Writing Series Part 11: A word from the professionals
Article by Jess Gately Image from Canva Free Stock Images The last few posts have been a whirlwind of information! While it may feel daunting and overwhelming, our resident professional freelancers Ruth Dawkins, Lindy Alexander and Abby Alexander are here to help you break it all down. So, what do they have to say about portfolios, pitching, and…
Writing Advice from 7 Contemporary Australian Authors, by Jess Gately
Image from Canva Free Stock Images We’ve all seen those lists of lovely quotes from classic writers telling us all we need to know about writing. But what about writing in the modern world? What about the dangers of submitting too quickly and dealing with instant feedback? What about marketing yourself and building an author platform? What…
Freelance Writing Series Part 10: Pitching
Article by Jess Gately Image from Canva Free Stock Images In our last post we discussed finding your first clients and getting your first paid gig. If you’re looking to write for magazines, blogs or newspapers, a large portion of your career is going to be spent pitching. So, what is pitching? Pitching is when you put…
Freelance Writing series part 9: Getting your first paid gigs
Article by Jess Gately Image from Canva Free Stock Images In the last post we discussed ways that you can start a portfolio of your writing by incorporating articles you may have written for university, for your personal blog or things you’ve written for former employers, or by listing previous ‘clients’ you’ve worked with for free. In this…
Freelance writing series part 8: Building a Portfolio
Article by Jess Gately Image from Canva Free Stock Images Your business is now pretty much set up and ready to go, but there’s one last thing you’ll normally need to attract clients—a portfolio. Just like in any business, people want to know that you can actually do what they’re asking you to do and the best…
8 Aussie Podcasts for Writers, by Jess Gately
Image from Canva free stock images Writing is something you can learn in many different ways and while many will tell you to learn by reading, we can also learn by listening! The rise of the podcast means that speciality shows catering to all your passions, learning and entertainment needs, are just a click away. So, of…
Interview: Kerri Turner, author of The Last Days of the Romanov Dancers and Underground Writers Alumni
Interview with Kerri Turner, author of The Last Days of the Romanov Dancers and Underground Writers Alumni In 2017, Kerri Turner submitted her short story The Cause and an Effect to Underground Issue 17: Hitchhiker. Now her debut novel, The Last Days of the Romanov Dancers, has just been released and the second is on…
Planning a Novel, by Jess Gately
Image from Canva Free Stock Images Take what you will from this process and build upon it in a way that best suits you. You may wish to use all of the steps, or you may wish to use only some, but the key is to work in a way that is best suited to you and…
Freelance Writing series part 6: Tax & Superannuation
Image from Canva Free Stock Images Article by Jess Gately Those dreaded words. The ones that fill our heads with question marks and swear words. For many people tax is frustrating, confounding and unintelligible. Having a tax agent is a really good idea when you’re freelancing, but there are still lots of things you can do to…
Freelance Writing series part 5: Setting Rates, Quoting and Invoicing
Image from Canva Free Stock Images Article by Jess Gately Here we are at part 5, and we still haven’t even started writing yet! And sadly, there’s still lots to do before you do start writing. In this post we look at the finance side of things like quoting and pricing structures. For some of you keeping…
Freelance Writing series part 4: Business Set-up
Image from Canva Free Stock Images As you’ve seen in the previous posts, there’s a lot more to freelance writing than just writing. Setting up your business correctly is the first and possibly most important step to ensuring your success as you step out into the freelance world. In this post we’ll cover the set-up of some…
3 things to consider when choosing books for your loved ones this Christmas
Have you ever heard of Jolabokaflod, the Icelandic tradition of giving books on Christmas Eve? Translated to ‘The Christmas Book Flood’, Icelanders spend months pouring over book catalogues in the lead up to Christmas before exchanging books and chocolate on Christmas Eve and spending the night reading together by a cosy fire. Ok so the…
Freelance Writing series part 2: What to know before you start
Image from Canva Free Stock Images Freelancing isn’t an easy gig. There’s no job security, no sick pay, no holiday leave, and you’re in charge of literally everything to do with your business. All those departments you see in an office are now you: legal, accounts, marketing, admin… So, it’s good to know a bit…
Freelance Writing series part 1: Types of Freelance Writing
Image from Canva Free Stock Images One of the most common topics we get asked to cover at Underground is freelance writing. It’s never a straight up question, rather it’s a somewhat vague ‘tips on freelancing would be nice’. When someone asks about being a freelancer my first question is always: what type of freelance…
Review: Terra Nullius by Claire G. Coleman, by Jess Gately
Title: Terra Nullius Author: Claire G. Coleman Genre: Fiction/Science-fiction Favourite part: Esperance reflecting on how the Settler’s colonisation methods set the Natives up for failure. Favourite quote: ‘He knew now though, that when you plant bones, nothing grows from them. Nothing but pain.’ For all the fiction in this book, it is the truths that…
Writing big topics for the small page, by Jess Gately
[Image Description: A silhouette of a soldier carrying another soldier who is presumably injured or dead across an empty battlefield. The text reads ‘The bigger the issue, the smaller you write. Remember that. You don’t write about the horrors of war. No. You write about a kid’s burnt socks lying on the road. You pick…
Jess G.’s Character List
A Character List by Jess Gately Have you ever read a book and when the character died you cried, or when something good happened to them you smiled, and when they didn’t get the ending you thought they deserved you were angry? I love a character-driven novel, and I love to fall in love with…
Underground Writers announce bold new initiative to support debut Australian authors
Underground Writers have announced that they will launch an online bookstore called Underground Books which will only stock debut Australian titles. All profits from the store will go towards supporting the group’s projects which provide information, education, and encouragement to emerging Australian writers. Underground Operations Manager and Editor-In-Chief, Jemimah Halbert Brewster, said the bookstore will…
Review: The Sisters’ Song by Louise Allan, by Jess Gately
Title: The Sisters’ Song Author: Louise Allan Genre: Historical Fiction A review by Jess Gately If you’re struggling to understand why gender roles are so persevering, this book might be a good place to start. As more and more mothers admit to feeling judged, Louise Allan’s debut novel can tell us a lot about the…
Writer’s Block. Is it real and how to get past it? by Jess Gately
Writer’s Block is the bane of all writers. Whether it takes the form of staring at a blank page not knowing what to write, or helplessly writing and rewriting the same line over and over again and never actually moving forward, writer’s block can be very destructive to those who allow it to rule them….
Review: Songs That Sound Like Blood by Jared Thomas, Jess Gately
Title: Songs That Sound Like Blood Genre: New Adult Fiction Themes: Coming of Age, Change, Coming Out, Racism Favourite quote: “[Dad] always said that people are supposed to move, that it recharges and calms us down. He explained that our ancestors formed our country perfectly to give us everything we needed. Water and bush tucker were…
Issue 21: Mythological Figures
Issue 21: Mythological Figures is here! This issue is packed full of poetic goodness form MTC Cronin & Peter Boyle, Alys Jackson, Elise Kelly, and Maddie Godfrey; with room to sink your teeth into short stories from Jude Bridge, Sian Tondut, and Antony Millen. There’s a whole lot of re-tellings, re-visitings, revisions, and cheeky adn…
Jess G.’s TBR list – round 2
The great thing about the New Year is that I get a chance to re-evaluate my reading goals. In 2017 I had two main goals: to read more and to read things outside of my usual genres. Whilst I accomplished my second goal, I did not accomplish my first. Looking back I realise that the…
Australian titles reviewed in 2017!
Below are all the Australian titles reviewed by Underground Writers in 2017! The Other Woman by Kylie Jones, reviewed by Kate, Shelley, and Jess Rae That Eye, the Sky by Tim Winton, reviewed by Kate Lomas Glendenning Rubik by Elizabeth Tan, reviewed by Jess Gately Portable Curiosities by Julie Koh, reviewed by Jemimah…
3 Things I Learnt During NaNoWriMo, by Jess Gately
3 Things I Learnt During NaNoWriMo By Jess Gately Over the years I have participated or skipped NaNoWriMo as I see necessary. For me, NaNoWriMo has always been an opportunity to fully explore an idea and get the groundwork going for a novel. It’s also a great time to build your writing skills, identify your…
3 Tips for Generating Ideas During NaNoWriMo, by Jess Gately
Stuck for ideas during NaNoWriMo? Here’s 3 tips to get you back on track… Whether you’re pantsing it and having a bit of a dry spell or planning it and need a little something to fill the gaps, it’s almost a given that at some point in NaNoWriMo you’re going to be stuck for ideas…
Review: Watching Cartoons With Boys by Emma Michelle, reviewed by Jess Gately
Issue 20’s Review Watching Cartoons With Boys by Emma Michelle A review by Jess Gately (this review can be found in Issue 20: Nostalgia) It stands that any book that introduces it themes using The Simpsons and links it in with such classics as Pokemon and Futurama was always going to grip me from the…
Issue 20: Nostalgia
Issue 20: Nostalgia is here! This issue you’ll find some excellent poetry by Allan Lake, Jan Price and Bradley Baronner, a few delectable short stories by Sarah Widdup, Jane Downing and Caitlin Farrugia, and a whole lot of fond and bittersweet Nostalgia: from places and people to time and things. We’re especially excited about our…
Review: The Good Girl of Chinatown by Jenevieve Chang, reviewed by Jess Gately
Earlier this year I mentioned this book as part of my TBR list. Its blurb about a journey through Chang’s past peppered with themes of racism and reverse-racism intrigued me, but whilst it certainly delivered these things, this was not the book I was expecting. This was much more the story of a lost soul…
Review: Bad to Worse by Robert Edeson, reviewed by Jess Gately
Winner of the T.A.G. Hungerford Award, Robert Edeson’s style of fiction is unlike anything I’ve ever read. His latest book, Bad to Worse, is the story of a vendetta that dates back to the old American West. When a pilot insists that the crash of his plane is the result of a collision with an…
5 Faux Pas That Will Prevent You Getting Published, by Jess Gately
5 Faux Pas That Will Prevent You Getting Published By Jess Gately At Underground, we deal with a lot of emerging writers, who are submitting their work for publication for the first time. This means that we’re generally pretty forgiving when it comes to some of the faux pas that new writers make when they…
Underground is part of the WA Literary Youth Festival!
This Tuesday 11th April Underground Writers will be participating in a panel as part of the Literary Youth Festival in the Cultural Centre of Perth! The panel is entitledåÊLit. Laptops, and explores the field of online Podcasting and Blogging. The panel will discuss how they started their blogs and podcast, and share some of their…
Perth Writers Festival 2017 – Big Bold Ideas
A review of this year’s Perth Writers Festival by Jess G Big Bold Ideas was the theme of this year’s Perth Writers Festival, held from February 23rd– 26th as part of the Perth International Arts Festival. Packed full of passionate and courageous writers covering a multitude of political topics, the cornerstone of the festival was…