A Little Life update #10

What am I reading/watching/listening to/wearing/going?

Reading

• Where Light Falls: An Anthology - RMIT Professional Writing and Editing (PWE) Students

I teach creative writing classes in RMIT’s Associate Degree of Writing and Editing, and my lovely students have a very hard final assignment/s … to literally throw a Writer’s Festival (called ‘Odyssey Lit Fest’) and for the editing stream students, publish an anthology of their classmates’ writing.

Every student contributes a piece of writing for the editing students to practice editorial guidance, and then they have to go through the whole gamut of typesetting, laying out, and navigating the printing of this behemoth collection. It’s a lovely testament to all their work, but also a very practical, hands-on teaching exercise.

I’m always so proud that they pull both off with such aplomb - the Festival and the Anthology - and in the case of the latter, it’s even available to purchase via Readings!

Light reflects, absorbs and refracts. It casts shadows, shaping our social and emotional landscapes. It is tint, tone and shade, the difference between cerulean and indigo, the shift between a kind of blue and blue-sky thinking.

This vivid anthology, written and produced by final-year students of RMIT’s Associate Degree in Professional Writing and Editing, brings together sixty-three diverse pieces of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. It explores light and dark – and a myriad nuances of blue.

So if you’d like to get ahead and a sneak-peek of Australia’s frothing emerging writing talent, pick up a copy ASAP!

Watching

• Ghosts Australia on Channel 10/Paramount

That’s right, what started as the British TV show Ghosts (written and performed by the collective group Them There, who had previously worked together on productions including Horrible Histories) have since adapted the storyline for the US market (also German and French versions) and most recently it’s been Australia’s turn as of November 2nd 2025, when the series premiered.

Always with the same basic premise, in the case of the Aussie show;

Kate inherits a haunted mansion and gains the ability to see ghosts. With her partner Sean, she plans to convert it into a boutique hotel, unaware of the spirits’ presence and their potential impact on their lives.

You can see from the below different Ghosts that the spirit characters change according to the region, and that’s what keeps the show so fresh and charming and specific for home-audiences. The French version clearly features a noblewoman from (I’m guessing) the period of King Louis XVI and the French Revolution, there’s French-specific military … the German version features a Roman soldier, and apparently a soldier from the Luftwaffe air force, the British opted for a neanderthal and the US has a viking raider.

The Australian version changes it up once again and makes it specific to us, we have (from the Wiki);

• Mandy McElhinney as Eileen, an Irish potato famine survivor, mother of 13 and publican

• Brent Hill as Gideon, a stoic naval officer

• Ines English as Miranda, a 1900s socialite/bride-to-be

• Michelle Brasier as Lindy, a vibrant 1980s aerobics instructor

• George Zhao as Joon, a Gold Rush-era Chinese miner

• Jackson Tozer as Satan, a misunderstood 1990s motorbike gang member with a heart of gold

I know when the Australian series was announced, some were concerned about representation of a potential Indigenous/First Nations ghost (given the Colonial frontier massacres in Australia between 1788-1930 were a genocide) and because the US version features an Indigenous ghost called Sasappis, played by actor Román Zaragoza (who is of Akimel O’otham and Mexican descent) … but there are many cultural sensitivities to take into account around depictions of deceased First Nations peoples.

The Australian series clearly didn’t want to show any disrespect (and in fact, the first episode opens with Acknowledgement of Country and on whose land they filmed) but they do have Indigenous representation, having cast Bundjalung and Lama-lama actor Tamala as the lead Kate who actually has the ghost-seeing ability! There’s some funny head-nods in there to things like smoking ceremonies which her partner Sean (played by Rowan Witt) suggests to get rid of the ghosts, and is obviously Australia and actor-specific references.

ALSO; really lovely connection - Tamala narrated my novel The Year the Maps Changed on audiobook! So I was already a very big fan of theirs;

‘The Year the Maps Changed’ audiobook

Ghosts Australia left me thoroughly charmed. I adored the UK version (which I genuinely think had one of the best finales to a TV-series, ever!) and I do also get a chuckle out of the American one, which is still going full-force into its 5th season with a 6th planned (one more than the original UK got). Here’s hoping the Australian has similar longevity if audiences here are willing to give the show a chance - it travels really well, is light-hearted and cozy humour - great comfort watch, and it definitely got a laugh out of me. Highly-recommend!

Listening

• Nobody’s Girl A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice by Virginia Roberts Giuffre

I purchased this for myself via Libro.fm (which makes it possible to listen to audiobooks directly from your independent bookstore of choice) - if you’d like a referral, I have a code. I had originally requested that my local library purchase it for BorrowBox or Libby listening, but annoyingly PRH have apparently put a 90-day suspension on it being made available digitally to libraries … grrr. But I really wanted to listen to it;

The extraordinarily powerful and unforgettable memoir by the woman who stood up and spoke out about Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.

And I will say; I genuinely think it’s one of the most important memoirs of the 21st century, but it’s a haunting and harrowing reading - and I genuinely felt ill listening to it, at times. You need to have a strong stomach to listen to what Giuffre went through, and I fully admit there were some days when I didn’t listen because I needed a break.

This memoir published posthumously, after Giuffre took her own life - and it was co-written with author Amy Wallace, who has been giving fascinating insight into what was left out of the book, and how much change there is still to campaign and push for;

• Virginia Giuffre’s co-writer says she knows ‘Epstein list’ names

It is an extraordinary book. But please be prepared for what’s inside …

Wearing

• Dirt.

I think this still counts as ‘wearing’ since it’s a revolutionary laundry product company whose entire mission is to help you get more longevity out of your clothing and linen!

I actually had someone recommend this to me, because they work for the company - but swore it was a genuine admiration for the products too, and now that I’ve been using it for a few months I can concur.

Life is dirty. That’s ok. We exist to embrace it.

The cleaning industry is dirty. That’s not ok. We exist to challenge it.

We asked, why are formulas the way they are, why does packaging look the way it does; what can we tweak and why should we?

We’re rethinking laundry, and maybe one day, cleaning in a broader sense. Can we have less of a negative impact on the environment? But more of a positive impact on the world?

Refillable, recyclable glass bottles. Minimal, clean design. A carry on stain remover. A lonely socks bag. Australian botanical scents.

Embracing Dirt is a better choice.

I absolutely love the clean smells of the products especially - it’s all so fresh, not that chemical-y scent or over-perfumed. The fabric spray is probably my favourite (I do the Scandi method of putting my doona out in the sunshine on the day I change my sheets - once a week - and give everything a spray down, it’s so nice!)

I also love that they do a Refill, Return program for the empty sachets of refill packs! And when you purchase from them you can opt to either get new sachets, or accept a ‘second life’ refill pack. So clever!

Going

• Beloved bookstore settles into new home in Brunswick East

Thanks to fundraising efforts, beloved Melbourne (and Australian!) institution The Little Bookroom has changed locations, but will live on;

• A new chapter for The Little Bookroom in Melbourne - The Little Bookroom, a decades-old bookshop specialising in children’s and YA books, will relocate thanks to fundraising efforts.

Bookselling is a tricky business, especially in this day and age (to quote a recent US campaign promoting shopping local; Don’t Buy Books From People Who Want to Colonize the Moon!) if you’ve seen the iconic movie You’ve Got Mail you’ll know that it’s still a David v. Goliath battle. I shudder to think how close we came to nearly losing this most beloved of children’s bookstores, and I am infinitely grateful that new owner (and previous bookseller there) Michael Earp was able to step up and take the keys/baton and continue its legacy.

As such, you better believe I’ll be supporting and popping in (and purchasing online when the Christmas crush becomes too much!) and I hope you will too.

I often think of a quote from this 2015 Adam Gopnik New Yorker article, whenever it looks like we might lose more local institutions and what makes up our community;

• When a Bookstore Closes, an Argument Ends

I’ll gift you this quote now too, to keep the fires burning;

At a minor level, once a bookstore is gone we lose the particular opportunities for adjacency it offers, determined by something other than an algorithm. It is rarely the book you came to seek, but the book next to that book, which changes your mind and heart.