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Literary techniques

The importance of tone

July 7, 2010 / Whispering Gums / 29 Comments

And I'm not talking muscle tone, as important as that is! This is a litblog after all, and so what I am talking about is the tone of a piece of writing. It's important to me - it's often what engages me first and what can keep me going when, say, the plot is weak … Continue reading The importance of tone

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  • Stella Prize 2026 Winner announced

Latest comments

  1. Grab the Lapels's avatar
    Grab the Lapels on Monday musings on Australian literature: Graphic nonfictionMay 26, 2026

    The work on unions sounds interesting. I'm surprised how multi-faceted these all sound. A lot of US graphic nonfiction is…

  2. Grab the Lapels's avatar
    Grab the Lapels on George Kemp, Soft serve (#BookReview)May 26, 2026

    Someone else reviewed this novel, possibly Karissa from Canada, and I added it to my TR then. You've only further…

  3. Whispering Gums's avatar
    Whispering Gums on George Kemp, Soft serve (#BookReview)May 25, 2026

    Oh thanks Brona. I think I have that book on my TBR but have never got to it.

  4. This Reading Life's avatar
    This Reading Life on George Kemp, Soft serve (#BookReview)May 25, 2026

    The only 2019 bushfire book that springs to mind right now is The Performance | Claire Thomas. One of my colleagues…

  5. Whispering Gums's avatar
    Whispering Gums on George Kemp, Soft serve (#BookReview)May 24, 2026

    Haha Carolyn, I put the footnote precisely because you had told me you didn't know the abbreviation, so thankyou for…

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Australian Literary Awards for (mostly) Fiction, 2026


The Age Book of the Year:
ALS Gold Medal:
Australian Book Industry Award (Literary Fiction):
Barbara Jefferis Award:
Indie Book Awards (Fiction):
Miles Franklin Award:
NSW Premier's Literary Award (Christina Stead Prize):
Patrick White Award:
Prime Minister's Literary Award:
Queensland Literary (Fiction) Award:
South Australian Literary Awards:
Stella Prize:
Victorian Premier's Literary (Fiction) Award: Omar Musa, Fierceland
Western Australian Premier's Book of the Year Award:

Acknowledgement of Country

I acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the traditional custodians of the nation in which I live, of land that was never ceded. I honour and respect their cultural heritage, customs and beliefs, and am truly thankful for their ongoing care of this country.

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This work by Whispering Gums is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 DEED Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareALike 4.0 International

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I am careful about the images I use in this blog. Some of them are my own, some I've specifically obtained permission to use from an owner, and some book cover thumbnails are used under fair use provisions. However, I have used others under Creative Commons (and similar licences) when the owners have indicated on their sites/pages that they release their material under such licences. Where possible, I have tried to properly attribute the owners/creators of uploaded images. If you think I have breached your copyright in any way please let me know. Any photos not attributed to others or to public domain are mine. Unless otherwise specified, you are welcome to use them under the Creative Commons license described under Copyright on my content above.

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