Woohoo! Far North Queensland here I come! I love FNQ.

My earliest and happiest memories of childhood are from my childhood at Flying Fish Point near Innisfail and our regular family holidays too the sugar cane farm at Shaw’s corner. You can read a short memoir piece, Flying Fish Point HERE. And this more lyrical memoir piece “Storm Birds” from The Linden Review.

I’ve been lucky enough to return to FNQ every year for a while now, running retreats and workshops in the region, visiting family and friends and hiding out on Magnetic Island off the coast of Townsville to write.

Yes, Innisfail is rainy. An ongoing rivalry with Tully for wettest town in the north.

I’m super excited to announce I’m heading north again soon and will be doing a few events in the region. I hope you can make it, to one or other of them FNQ writers!

First I’ll be in Townsville for a Dear Madman launch event at Mary Who? bookstore. Thanks to the lovely Katie for organising.

Monday June 15 at 6pm for a fascinating discussion on the writing of Dear Madman with lots of tips for writing your own story.

TOWNSVILLE: DEAR MADMAN LAUNCH MONDAY JUNE 15. FREE but book your ticket HERE.

Then I’m heading up to Cairns to hang out and do some retreat planning with my wonderful Transformational Writing Retreats partner, Kerstin Pilz before we fly to Bali for our upcoming retreat.

Luckily the very lovely and indefatigable powerhouse of creativity and champion of the arts, Eve Stafford, has worked her magic so I’m able to offer two Life Writing Workshops while I’m up there.

KURANDA LIBRARY: Friday 19th June 9:30 am – 12:30 pm – and

CAIRNS, STRATFORD LIBRARY: Saturday 20th June 1pm – 4 pm

You can book for both HERE

These workshops are only $35 for a 3 hour workshop and includes some light refreshments. Come ready to write! Can’t wait to get people finding the heart of their family story and sharing lots of hints and tips for creating a compelling narrative from anecdotes.

Here’s the QR code which will send you directly to the booking page.

Me with my young mother and father, sister Natasha and our brother Matthew. My earliest memories are of Flying Fish Point.

I can’t wait to get back to my old stomping ground again and enjoy the slower pace and beautiful winter sunshine. (No one likes it in the summer up there! But it did prepare me well for my time working in Cambodia)

Hope you can come. Please share with your friends up north.

For more upcoming events including Bundaberg and Gympie, see HERE.

Also, a special deal for the Byron Bay Transformational Writing Retreat (September 19 – 24/2026) is in the works for subscribers to my substack newsletter. You can get a monthly dose of writing advice, publishing opportunities and a lot of writerly love HERE

See you in FNQ soon I hope!

Lots of love

Edwina 🙂 xx