JM Donellan

Category: Books

  • 100 Stories for QLD

    Dearest humans of earth. These are times, no question about it. We've had floods and cyclones and enough strange and near-apocalyptic weather that people are beginning to wonder if that terrible John Cusask movie 2012 wasn't actually a documentary filmed in the future.   The good news is that there is something you can do…

  • The Price is Free

    Dear the Government, How are you?  I know that you are rather busy unreasonably oppressing refugess in direct violation of the UN charter that you signed, but I wondered if you might address something for me.   The thing is; I love libraries. At a library I can instantly attain one of the things that…

  • Dying’s 1st birthday

    "I am 1 year old today! Waaah! Waaaah! Bring me things and focus all your attention on me constantly." Dearest humans of earth. Today is the one year anniversary of the release of my novel A Beginner’s Guide to Dying in India. Like many one-year-olds it is currently demanding a lot of attention and keeping…

  • THE INAUGURAL JM DONELLAN AWARD FOR A SHORT STORY ABOUT ANYTHING EXCEPT VAMPIRES.

    You may have heard of vampires. These lovable sun-loathing scamps have populated the pages of novels ever since the early something-forties. I used to be quite found of vampire stories, the intrigue of immortality and all that gaff, but I am now, unequivocally, irrevocably, MOTHERFUCKING SICK of vampire stories and every jerk who is jumping…

  •   I'm in the latest edition of The Big Issue Australia, out today! If you buy it, you'll be supporting the homeless and literally making the world a better place, whereas if you buy A Beginner's Guide to Dying in India you'll just be supporting some jerk who writes 300 page lies for a living.

  • UNINSPIRATIONAL QUOTES EPISODE 2

    "No matter how good you are at your job, there will always be someone much less talented than you making a lot more money." This might seem like  cop out statement for an artist, but I feel it's never a bad idea to reiterate just how terrible the taste of the general public is. Just…

  •        I've temporarily adopted my disguise as a full-time worker in order to vanquish the debt demons and stock up on mi-goreng to get me through writing the next book. Don't worry though, I'll still be the same cynical hermit with mildly alcoholic tendencies. In the meantime I'll be appearing as part of Black Cat…

  • How to Turn Your Child Into a ninja-scientist-guitar-soloing-human rights champion in one easy step.

    Last week I finished my first ever children’s novel, Zeb and the Great Ruckus. I don't want to give too much of the story away, but I can tell you it will feature the following:   This is a story for parents who aren’t white picket fence upper middle class starbucks and sunday paper trim…

  • 'Dying in India' got a pretty top notch review in this week's Rave magazine if I do say so myself. And I do, because I'm a writer, I say stuff, that's my frigging JOB. http://www.ravemagazine.com.au/content/view/18423/192/

  • THIS IS THE EIGHTH OR NINTH WORST THING THAT COULD POSSIBLY EVER HAPPEN.

      A bad thing happened last week. One of the worst things that can happen, actually. Well, almost. If you wrote a list of the 100 worst things you could possibly imagine occurring with ‘stepping on a thumbtack’ at the bottom and 'nuclear holocaust' or 'waking up next to Kochie'  at the absolute top, then this…