Gemma Franks

If we’re all worms, what kind of worm are you? Do you think you’re like Richard Scarry’s delightful Lowly Worm, able to solve any situation? Or, do you have the same self-belief as Winston Churchill, who declared: “We are all worms, but I do believe that I am a glow-worm.” Or do you see yourself […]

Someone recently remarked that a manuscript assessment is a professional assessment and it is not the assessor’s job to elevate you. This provided grist for the mill, food for thought, and a whole bunch of other clichés and idioms. Suffice to say, I decided to contemplate what a manuscript assessment entails, what it means to

“You might aspire to art but it better start as craft.“ So says Geraldine Brooks, one of my favourite authors, in a Nieman Foundation interview.  I’m sure the judges who awarded Brooks the Pulitzer Prize for her novel March, consider her an artist, as do her readers. Brooks has honed her craft to a fine

An old timer once said, “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” I saw this love for one’s job play out amongst presenters at two conferences I recently attended. Passion, and love for the work they were doing, seemed to provide the writers, editors, and

I’ve been mousing deep into the witching hours: brewing Ems, pixels and dark purple hexes. It took long hours of muddle and toil to cast a new gemmafranks.com site. I chose WordPress. It can’t be that hard to create your own bespoke website thought I. It’s not as if I’d have to learn how to