MSing About

Producing podcasts with advice and tips on how to write has led to Ian writing about topics he never thought he would and today he chats with Katrina about a current non-fiction project about Indigenous Australians called They're Not a Weird Mob.

This podcast looks at the amazing yet frightening world of AI and its threat to human creativity. 

In this Write Now podcast Ian flies solo and talks about arguably the easiest writing genre to get published, plays.

A blog these days can be print, audio or video and people make money out of writing blogs for others or for themselves. In this podcast, a few tips on how to blog and what to blog about.

Write Now Podcast. Songwriting. Katrina and Ian both have written songs. Ian has co-written seven albums. Where do those lyric ideas come from?

Write Now Podcast. Heard of a stream of consciousness? It can be a great way to get writing.

Write Now. Ian was recently invited to present a workshop on writing comedy at an author’s expo called Word Fest and in this week’s podcast Katrina and Ian chat about that and what makes people laugh.

This Write Now podcast is a chat about developing characters.

This podcast is about how to write non-fiction and make it engaging and entertaining.

Historical fiction is a fun genre. Move over Gone with the Wind, Tale of Two Cities and Forrest Gump because Write Now is writing Her Name Was Lola (She Was a Showgirl). It is the true story of Lola Montez, an exotic dancer on the Victorian goldfields in the 1850s, served up with extra spice!

With Katrina out of town, Ian goes solo today and looks at writing a birthday speech for someone else and a birthday wake for himself. 

Having made short films for the Focus on Ability short film festival in 2021, 2022 and 2023, Katrina and Ian decide to make another for the 2024 competition. In this podcast they look at the restrictions and requirements that go into making a film of less that five minutes duration.

In this Write Now podcast, Katrina and Ian look at what you should write about and the answer is simple, write about what you know and/or what you are passionate about. Sure, J.K. Rowling may not know everything about wizardry and magic but she knows about people, human nature and conflict - she is just throwing wild imagination at what she knows. You don't have to be a serial killer to write...

 In this Write Now podcast Katrina and Ian discuss the basics to start becoming a writer and set a small task for the beginner scribbler. 

A sneak peak at what the next series of podcasts will be about - weekly audio writing workshops called Write Now!

After 40-odd podcasts about nothing in particular, discussions are afoot to make the next series about something!

In a previous podcast Katrina talked about her day job as a train driver... in this one she opens up about being a singer.

Australian history is peppered with interesting people not many know about, like  indigenous female bushranger, Mary Ann Bugg... King Billy of Tasmania... exotic dancer, Lola Montez... linguist, composer, author, gold digger and leader of the Eureka Rebellion, Raffaello Carboni... Captain Moonlite's male lover, James Nesbitt... and Snowy Baker, sportsman, silent movie star and our first expor...

A couple of podcasts ago, Katrina turned up with a bunch of trivia questions to test Ian's MS short-term memory loss. It worked out okay but this week Ian turns up with a bunch of questions to ask Katrina in a game he has called Revenge Trivia!

1972, the year Katrina was born and the year Ian turned 18. The 70s could be called the decade of decadence with organised underworld crime, corrupt politicians and police but, hey, what a great time we had! 

Katrina turns up with a whole heap of trivia questions to test Ian’s MS-challenged short-term memory. Will he pass with flying buttresses or have to go and stand in the corner? 

Katrina may be a singer, a pianist and a train driver and Ian may be a writer but, between them, they have had dozens of other jobs, some that don't even exist anymore.

Sometimes you can have failure within success and sometimes it can be downright failure that, with hindsight, is far more entertaining than success.

Katrina quizzes Ian about the awards he has supposedly won. Ian would rather talk about the Darwin Awards, which go to individuals who have contributed to the world's gene pool by removing themselves from it.

Are you superstitious? Black cats. number 13, stepping on cracks, walking under ladders, broken mirrors? Oh!!! Don't open that umbrella inside!