JM Donellan

Category: Books

  • Stories + cushions = best friends having amazing literary pillow fights forever

    Ladies and gentlememes, if you frequent this little corner of the internet on a regular basis then you may have heard that as part of the Brisbane Writers Festival I had a short story, Lenore Meets a Mack Truck, printed on a few cushions scattered around the festival thanks to the good folks at Tiny…

  • Blog Tour

    Hello there humans and approximate facsimiles, I am excited to tell you that this week I am in the middle of a blog tour. A blog tour is basically like a hedonistic punk rock tour except without all the hotel room trashing. Or chain smoking. Or public performance. Or actual touring. But what it does…

  • Library

    I originally wrote this poem when I was invited to do a speech to honour the opening of the Ann Christopherson library at Ipswich East primary school, and it’s been one of my favourites to perform ever since. Also, unlike most of my poetry, it’s very ‘clean,’ so it’s safe to perform for younger audiences (although…

  • Editing advice.

    One question I get asked a lot is ‘What advice do you have for someone writing their first book?’ I guess the main thing would be, however long you think it’s going to take to edit your novel, add 20%. Then double it. Then multiply that by ten (million). Then triple it. Then yell out…

  • Love Letter To Brisbane pt 1: Books & Bars

    Listen, here’s the thing; I love this city, and feel like a lot of people overlook the good things in their own cities and spend too much time complaining about the traffic and such. So I’m going to put together a couple of posts celebrating some of my favourite things about Brisbane, starting with this…

  • Book giveaway

    Dena over at Books for for Kids (who recently wrote this great review of Zeb) is running a giveaway where you can get your hands…ah…well, eyes at least, on a digital copy of Zeb and the Great Ruckus. Entry is freebies. Check it out here. In other book news, one of the highlights of my…

  • The Next Big Thing

    The Next Big Thing

    I was selected by my friend Rebecca Bloomer to be part of this blog chain called The Next Big Thing, where authors pick some of their friends and favourites to talk about upcoming works. Thanks to Rebecca for the nomination, I have in turn nominated Mandy Beaumont and Daniel Wynne. 1)   What is the working title of…

  • Goodreads Book Giveaway Zeb and the Great Ruckus by Joshua Donellan Giveaway ends November 30, 2012. See the giveaway details at Goodreads. Enter to win   Attn: the universe, Goodreads is currently hosting a giveaway competition! If you’d like to get your hands on a copy of Zeb for freebies just click on the link…

  • Dearest Ministers of Education: please buy 2 million copies of Zeb and the Great Ruckus.

    To: senator.collins@aph.gov.au, education@ministerial.qld.gov.au Dear Mr Langbroek (State Minister for Education) and Mrs Collins (Federal Minister for School Education), I’m sure that your political parties are very busy dismantling essential health services and implementing draconian internet security protocols respectively. I would, however like to borrow a few moments of your valuable time to talk about an important issue, which is the dire…

  • ATTN: THE UNIVERSE! ZEB IS HERE!

    Dearest internet. It’s been a long time coming, but my children’s fantasy novel, Zeb and the Great Ruckus, has finally arrived! It’s been described as ‘like 1984 for kids, but with more magic, music and explosions’ and will be available for your rapturous enjoyment from the 15th of September! FACT: Reading this book will give…