Welcome to my writing site. I was sixteen once (above left) and from that day to this (right) I’ve been writing: letters, diaries, memos, thousands of pages of essays and theses. I pursued an academic career, writing articles for learned journals and chapters in books. I publish more on occasion and am widely cited in many fields. I have said a bit about my academic writings on this site. Many are available online via the publishers and others are at Academia.edu.

I think of myself mainly as a creative writer now. It was my first love. I wanted above all to be a writer but many things stopped me, not least the need to support three children. The academic career was a godsend and although it took me away from what I most wanted to do it gave me a range of unique experiences which I draw on for my different writing projects.

After retiring from active University life I began to explore a career in independent publishing, learning to manage the world of websites, domains, social media and everything that goes with being “indie”. Why? Why not try conventional/traditional publishing? The answer is a long story, which I will write one day soon. Meantime, I went the Amazon route, just as an experiment, and found the whole business was demanding and complicated. Everything changes so fast. I set up several websites and published a couple of experimental short books to see what would happen. 

LINK TO MY AMAZON AUTHOR’S PAGE: here

Writing needs time, but it also needs place. I have been fortunate in having beautiful places to write in. I have lived in Sydney’s inner west since the early 1980s. The area has undergone a complete transformation in those forty years, definitely for the worse, but I still cling on. Living somewhere for so long creates an almost cellular link to place. Very few of us original residents remain in my street. Aboricide has continued apace. Most of the wonderful trees surrounding the property have been removed. There are still a few possums galloping across the roof although the owls seem to have departed.

There are other writing places in my life. My grandfather Owen John Arnold acquired a couple of blocks of land in 1923 on a very remote part of the Hawkesbury River and built a house there. The property is still in the family, and is a wonderful place to write. The banner photo above is a sunset view. Full moon nights are amazing too (below). I also write in the Blue Mountains, in the crispy air and swirling mists, but mostly I have been painting there in the past eight or so years, after finishing an Advanced Diploma in Painting at TAFE.

I also write about art. Visit Annette Hamilton Art Writing From Australia https://annette-hamilton-art-writing.com/

Instagram: There are two Instagram sites, although I haven’t managed them well. I wanted to keep them separated by topic but Insta has a “mind” of its own and cross-posts. Now it is creating “reels” and “stories” for me, without me even asking!

anndemot for art and life

here

and annette_hamilton_writer for books and commentaries.

here