I teach you how to write heaps good - for FREE!

How cool is this house? Do you want me to teach you how to write in it?

Beautiful Thirning Villa

This is Thirning Villa, Ashfield. It's where Ashfield Council are presently employing me to write beautiful things for the people of the Ashfield Council Area (that's Ashfield, Summer Hill and Haberfield, and bits of Croydon and Ashbury, Sydney). 

It's also where I'll be teaching a *free* drop-in creative writing course for interested persons starting VERY SOON MAY 10 OMG. Sponsored by Ashfield Council, for six weeks, I'll be running a course on EITHER Tuesday nights (7pm - 9pm) OR Wednesday mornings (10am - 12 noon). Yes, free, completely free. I'll teach about storytelling, structure, imagery, action and suspense and I'll even lend you a pen.

All the details are below. Numbers are STRICTLY LIMITED, so if you are interested, let the organisers know ASAP by dropping us an email below. Here's the press release:

CREATIVE WRITING CLASSES AT THIRNING VILLA

Got a story to tell?

Think you have a book in you?

Love reading and want to learn more about writing?

Internationally-award-winning novelist and playwright Van Badham is Ashfield Council’s Artist in Residence for May and June.

Van will be running free creative writing classes out of Thirning Villa, Pratten Park Ashfield for six weeks, beginning Tuesday, May 10.

Van’s classes are fun and dynamic way to improve your creative writing and communication skills, whether you are a novice, a trained writer lacking discipline or just someone interested in exploring your own creativity.

All ages and levels of ability are welcome. Materials are provided.

Numbers are limited, so register your interest by emailing Jenni on theashfieldbeehive@gmail.com, or phoning council on 02 9716 1866.

Indicate which timeslot best suits you:

Tuesdays (night programme): 7-9pm (May: 10, 17, 24, 31, June: 7, 14)

OR

Wednesdays (day programme):10am-noon (May: 11, 18, 25, June 1, 8, 15)

You can learn more about Van (OMG that's MEEEE!) via her website: www.vanbadham.com

... and PS I recently reviewed the wonderful movie, Thor. If you need an excuse from me to go and see it, it is here.

My Night of Terror

Hi all,

White Rain is almost finished. Almost. So nearly very almost that it's breathing down my neck like a shapeshifting monster with a blood appetite... or an exboyfriend wanting a job reference. Toasty.

Now, imagine this room with a slime demon crawling out of the wall.

The amazing Fangtastic Fiction team have been running Aussie Author Appreciation April activities through their website this month, and they were kind enough to ask me to participate. Which I did, giving an interview, here.
In the interview, they asked whether writing my books ever creeped me out. Having recently experienced the joy of hallucination during my recent bout of swine flu, I wrote up a detailed description of a night I can only summarise as Swine Flu 1, Van Badham 0, which puts into context how very, very creeped out I can get.
Fang gave the account its own page, as it somewhat... darkened the tone of the rest of the interview! If you're curious to know why everyone was making such a hoo-haa about swine flu, it may go some way to explaining it for you. Additionally, it involves scenes of me sweating and calling my mum. Those curious can visit... here.

Remember Me?

What? I haven't posted since February?!

Clockwise from top left: 
Jack Finsterer, Staten Evans, Caroline McKenzie, 
Jacinta Acevski, Felix Williamson and Aimee Horne in Swamplands 

Easy to do, when you get off a plane from London and walk straight into a rehearsal for a new play in Sydney - in this case, my new one Swamplands at the National Play Festival, which ran in March.
It's quite a departure from working on a new play about the CIA to continuing the saga of Sophie Morgan and her very complex family in my new novel White Rain, the sequel to Burnt Snow. That is, however, what I've been doing since the National Play Festival ended. Oh, that and devising a musical about a lizard (not joking), writing the occasional article and preparing a new play to start once White Rain is FINALLY FINISHED. Book fans, please note that release dates will CERTAINLY feature on this blog. And then I'll be writing the as-yet-untitled third book. Maybe I should open a competition to name it - what would you think OF THAT?

Unsurprisingly, a lot of deadlines has led to a lot of stress, and to calm myself I've been remorselessly feeding myself on this very special Lavender Cake invented by my friend Jess.

For those of you who haven't discovered the joy of lavender, do (unless you are pregnant or lactating, in which case don't, for a bit!). Long reputed for its relaxing properties, it was so precious to the Romans that they brought it with them to Britain, so precious to the Christians that they included it amongst the holy oils used to annoint the Temple and so precious to insomniacs like me that I spray it as an essential oil on my pillow at nighttime when even warm milk, almonds and turkey meat fail to knock me out (it works! Also handy to dab the oil on your temples if you're trying to fall asleep on a plane).

Lavender sachets in drawers keep away bugs, and a visit to a traditional Korean bathhouse is not complete without a lavender bath. Lavender oil on the temples can cure headaches and its mild antiseptic properties make it a good treatment for insect bites or acne if you mix it 1:10 with rosewater or witch hazel and dab. 

Did I mentioned that Jess' cake contains honey icing? Trust me - being stressed never had such a sweet consolation...

Here are some more pics from Swamplands. It was directed by Andrew Lewis, head of perforance at WAAPA... and it was the best fun a playwright can have.