KAT CLAY

Category: Writing

  • Why comparing yourself to everyone else is stupid

    Why comparing yourself to everyone else is stupid

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    by

    Kat Clay
    in

    I was having one of those days. Sitting there writing, thinking that even if I write and write and write, I’ll never be as good as [insert author name here]. Funnily enough, it seems like a bunch of other writers were having those days too. I checked into social media, where at least three author friends…

  • Hardboiled Holmes: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Valley of Fear

    Hardboiled Holmes: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Valley of Fear

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    by

    Kat Clay
    in ,

    In researching a new novel, I stumbled across a curious tidbit within The Scientific Sherlock Holmes by James O’Brien. It briefly mentioned The Valley of Fear, one of the four Sherlock Holmes novels, as an early precursor to the hardboiled novel. Intrigued as Holmes coming across a mystery, I immediately sought out the story. I’m a perpetual dabbler…

  • The Terrifying Act of Making Resolutions

    The Terrifying Act of Making Resolutions

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    by

    Kat Clay
    in

    Since I was a teenager, I wanted to be the lead singer in a rock and roll band. It was something about watching Renee Zellweger rocking out on the top of Empire Records that did it for me. Everything in that moment was thrown to the wind in the name of music. The movie finished,…

  • A Year of Good Reading: 2015 in Review

    A Year of Good Reading: 2015 in Review

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    Kat Clay
    in ,

    At the start of 2015 I wrote a blog post about my year of good reading – usually I try to read the complete works of an author in one year. This year was Edgar Allan Poe. How’d I go? Well, I failed.

  • Notes from the World Fantasy Convention 2015

    Notes from the World Fantasy Convention 2015

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    by

    Kat Clay
    in

    It’s been a month since I got back from New York and I’ve finally had a chance to read through all my notes from the World Fantasy Convention. I travelled there with a grant from the Melbourne UNESCO City of Literature, and part of my grant was to bring knowledge back to writers in Melbourne.…

  • A First-Timer’s Guide to the World Fantasy Convention

    A First-Timer’s Guide to the World Fantasy Convention

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    by

    Kat Clay
    in

    In which Kat discusses the World Fantasy Convention, writerly adventures and the joys of bagels. It’s been an intense, insane weekend and I’ve finally had time to sit down and collect my thoughts. Last weekend I attended the World Fantasy Convention for the first time. It was a fantastic experience, one of those defining moments in…