A fine, warm day, for this time in winter, and the tussocks in my garden beginning to stir with the breeze. “Where do you want to ride?” Bartali asks. “Up Lockhart’s Hill and back,” I say, without any thought to wind direction. On the slight uphill rise to the top of the valley the wind […]
Cycling Central Otago – Day 2: The Bridge
Less than three hours of sleep for me after nightshift and Bobet rings me. “Do you want to come out on the bike for half an hour?” “I thought you’d already been on the bike?” “I’ve come back to see if you want to come out.” Hard to say no to that dedication. Even without […]
Cycling Central Otago – Day 1: Back on the Bike
I wanted to begin this blog two years ago when I started cycling. I thought I could cover the build up from new cyclist to competing at Nationals. Last year I did make it to a few club races, took part in the 100km round Lake Dunstan and ended the season as senior woman champion. […]
There is A Way Home
What do you do when life as you know it has ended and you have the chance of a new life? One way to deal with these unasked for opportunities is to go somewhere you’ve been drawn to and help build a house with your own hands. This is what Jillian did, and her book, […]
Feeding the Page
A guest blog I wrote for Headland journal, in the midst of mud-making, helped me feel better about all the other things a writer needs to get done as well as writing… That’s one of the best things about being a writer – everything feeds the page: remorse, trout, my middle of the night hospital […]
A Writers Welcome to 2015
Welcome 2015: The wildflowers are out – it must be summer. And this morning snow on Mt Ida. This must be Central Otago, the Ida Valley, where it can snow in summer and reach 40 degrees C the next week. I didn’t stay up till midnight to see the New Year in and instead woke […]
Make Your Writing Stronger: Details
The right, imaginative and clear use of details in a book, to me, is the single most important way a writer can improve their writing. What makes a book become real to a reader, what transports them from the reality of their own life to the world of the book, are details. And the way […]
A Guide to Creating is Now on Kindle
A Guide to Creating was originally published in print form by Steele Roberts, NZ, as Fishing from the Boat Ramp – a Guide to Creating, and I am very proud to announce that after 5 years, it is now available on Amazon Kindle! You can download the book free for the next 24 hours here: www.agtc.jilliansullivan.co.nz […]
The Power of Seven – or of Just Keeping Going
I wrote and sent away seven short stories before my first story was published (Scaredy Cat, in New Zealand School Journals). My first novel took me seven years to write. (I had four small children, no family nearby and no childcare in those days. It was a long process!) I went on to write seven […]
Choosing Stones & Sorting Words
“Sorting words,” poet and neighbour Brian Turner said, “is like choosing stones; setting some aside, discarding some, placing others with care in the right place, to make something of craft and beauty that will last.” We talked about this business of word selection while cementing in the last selection of stones, collected in haste at sunset […]
About Jillian
Jillian Sullivan writes fiction and non-fiction for children, teenagers and adults. Her work has been published for over twenty years and includes four novels, three collections of short stories and over sixty short stories for children and adults, published in New Zealand and America.
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