Once upon a time, in an age few can recall, lived a boy who read books upside down sitting on his Nanna’s recliner chair; his feet dangling well above the carpet floor. The couch was warm and the house still. The midday movie had just finished and Gameboys had not yet been registered into existence…
Category: Dylan Dartnell
Review: Driving Into the Sun by Marcella Polain, by Dylan Dartnell
Title: Driving Into the Sun Author: Marcella Polain Genre: Literary fiction Publisher: Fremantle Press (2019) The novel that took some ten years to write, Marcella Polain is back with her breath-taking work, Driving into the Sun (Fremantle Press, 2019). The story revolves around an eleven-year-old girl named Orla on the precipice of womanhood. She, like most…
The Big 5 I Need for a Successful Year of Reading, by Dylan Dartnell
Reading Goals It all starts here! Whether we are deciding to read more of a particular genre or to read more widely, to read more of the classics or to read more Australian works, we need to set the goal and keep accountable. Goodreads is good for tracking the number of books we’ve read and…
What We Learnt in 2018
2018 was a big year for learning, and our editors were happy to discuss and share as much as they could. This post pulls together everything we learnt over the year about writing, reading and publishing. Take a look and check out the posts you may have missed or the ones you might want to…
Aussie Titles Reviewed in 2018
2018 was a huge year for reviews with our editors covering a range of genres, themes and authors. Take a trip down memory lane to see all the great Aussie titles we reviewed in 2018! Defying Doomsday edited by Tsana Dolichva and Holly Kench, reviewed by Jemimah Halbert Brewster Grace Beside Me by Sue…
Dylan’s Character List
I am a jealous reader. Those characters we share an affinity with, you should know, are mine, mine alone, and, no, I will not negotiate. You might argue that these manifestations of thought and feeling are to be experienced by everyone with access to language but if I could, I would selfishly hoard those scripts…
Dylan Dartnell’s TBR list – pt 2
Dylan Dartnell’s TBR list, part 2 You Belong Here, Laurie Steed I have seen this little number advertised quite a few times in the last couple of weeks, but what sealed the deal for me was when it appeared on Amanda Curtin’s blog, Looking Up/Looking Down. The story follows the lives of a couple who…
Writing: What You Need to Know for 2018, by Dylan Dartnell
If you are like me, a stupendous procrastinator with wild ambition, you might have exhausted Facebook’s ‘save’ function and now have an archive of writing tips and tricks, and a reading list longer than the Dymock’s Top 100. Soon, the heaping volume of saved articles, podcasts, and videos will be enough to incite an aneurysm….
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…
Review: The Fremantle Press Anthology of Western Australian Poetry, reviewed by Dylan Dartnell
The Fremantle Press Anthology of Western Australian Poetry My first real introduction to poetry was in my high school literature class. My teacher romanticised French winters, nestled by an open fire; drawing on a cup of tea. As she spoke, we could almost catch the fondness of the memory glimmer in her steely, blue eyes….
Dylan’s TBR List – round 2
A post by Dylan Dartnell A Kiss from Mr Fitzgerald, Natasha Lester A couple of months ago, Subiaco Library hosted a writer’s workshop on the power of setting. Like library books upon shelves, writers crammed shoulder-to-shoulder to glean whatever tips they could from Australian best-selling author, Natasha Lester, who is renowned for her ability…
Writing Community & Workshops, by Dylan Dartnell
Writing Community & Workshops By editor Dylan Dartnell Throughout primary school, every piece I wrote seemed to involve dinosaurs who betrayed each other incessantly with time bombs or incorporated an all-knowing, all-powerful wizard, which rendered the plot and any other character worthless. From memory, some of the feedback I received from my teachers went along…
Dylan’s TBR List
In this series we are sharing each of our To Be Read booklists, why we’re looking forward to reading them, and why we picked up those books in the first place. Read on to discover editor Dylan Dartnell’s next three books To Be Read! Murder on the Orient Express Agatha Christie I have a nasty…
Issue 12’s Review: The Power of One, by Dylan Dartnell
Issue 12’s Review The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay (1989) A review by editor Dylan Dartnell (this review can be found in issue 12: Small and Potent) Set in South Africa, The Power of One surrounds the character of Peekay during the closing years of WWII and well into the apartheid years following. We are…
Review: Ophelia by Breanne McIvor, reviewed by Dylan Dartnell
April’s Review Ophelia (2017) By Breanne McIvor (Illustration by Timothy Greene) A review by editor Dylan Dartnell I am sure no one remembers their first crush with much fondness. In fact, I am even more certain that those are memories we all suppressed until it was safe to laugh about without feeling the sting of…
August’s review: The Cuckoo’s Calling, by Dylan Dartnell
August’s Review The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith (pen name of J. K. Rowling) A review by editor Dylan Dartnell Warning: This review may be considered blasphemous in some literary circles. I apologise in advance. Robert Galbraith’s The Cuckoo’s Calling hit the shelves in 2013, and since then, we have come to realise that this…