2025 major projects
What I’m building in 2025
Are you a reader, writer, or creative of some kind? Thank you for visiting my page. I’m so glad you’ve landed here.
Whilst I work on writing every day, I often wonder where the time goes (and what I have to show for it) as my ADHD brain is pulled in a hundred different directions—writing, re-writing, editing, and of course constantly coming up with new ideas.
Journalling, ever since I was a child, never lasted long for me. I’d write one page, and when I realised I wasn’t some kid Maya Angelou, Aristotlian genius, I’d rip the page right out. I had dozens of notebooks (I’m a slut for stationary) that were barely usable because the spine was damaged from too many torn out pages. I realise now too that this is also why I’ve especially always hated having a social media as a writer—my inclination is not curation of slivers, but a frustration in slivers not capturing wholeness of ideas.
Over past years, I’ve come to embrace keeping my scribbling reflections because looking back I wish I had more. But more importantly, I’ve come to embody this sentiment whereby I am the sexy notebook and creativity is the author of my production. If Calliope herself wants to give me a plot to work out, scene exchange, or character idea, who am I to deny the call? I am a willing recipient of any muse and it is enough to fill my cup.
I’m very much a believer that the work comes out how and when it is supposed to, so I don’t labour on these other flights of fanciful focus because I am assuredly (and who could or would tell me I’m wrong) sure that they are a part of the, at least my, holistic creative practice.
I play. That’s all I do.
So, here are some of the major projects I have going on:
Image description: a curved and dark road suffocated in dense, green forest.
DEEP FRIED
Deep Fried is a queer, bildungsroman, bookclub fiction, campus novel set in 1996 amongst the dense forests of rural Oregon. VAL, an obsessive 22-year old diner waitress, is the newcomer amongst a misfit ensemble cast of seven and perhaps their downfall. Following a year of unravelling, Deep Fried is Val’s exegesis on the rise and fall of her friends, steeped in complex relationship dynamics, explorations of sexuality and mental ill health, and commentary on the consequences of glamorising trauma.
Deep Fried is in the final stages of editing and in preparation for submission.
Image description: a grassy sports field with a crowd in the stands.
THE LOVE OF THE GAME
The Love of the Game is a queer, bildungsroman, literary novel set across 1993-present, from Melbourne to Brisbane, within the fishbowl of Australian rules football. Over 16,000 men have played AFL/VFL at the highest level and not a single one, playing or retired, has ever come out as gay. The Love of the Game is the conflicted story of the life, love, and grief of an in-the-closet AFL player.
The Love of the Game is in first draft stages with approximately 40,000 words complete as of January 2025. It’s continued development will be propelled by my placement in the 2025 Faber Academy - Writing a Novel program.
Image description: landscape image of where the cliffs and colourful town of Positano meets the sea.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
2025 is the year that I choose myself in earnest, that I invest in myself and my writing. Read below about what that involves and follow along as I get up the courage to post on social media.
Foremost, I will be undertaking the Faber Academy - Writing a Novel program as part of my ongoing dedication to learning about writing craft. In Australia, Faber&Faber have partnered with Allen & Unwin to produce this six month program, which will provide consistency, education, connection, and accountability. Throughout I will be working on The Love of the Game as well as other projects.
Additionally, I will be attending:
a weekend retreat with Elizabeth Gilbert. I discovered Liz in my early twenties on an episode of You Made it Weird with Pete Holmes. If you want any insight on who I am as a person, or if you’re looking for ways to manage stress, anxiety, fear, highly sensitive empathy, creativity, and just about everything, you can listen to it here. So I am feeling very big magic about the coinciding of this weekend retreat with her just as I am about to embark on my year of self-investment.
the 2025 Bali Transformational Writing Retreat, a week long international writing retreat run by authors Edwina Shaw and Kerstin Pilz. I have attended Edwina’s Gold Coast retreats numerous times and got nothing but gold and golden friends from them.
my bucket list trip which includes Thailand, Italy, and the almighty Greece—oh, and also Perth lol. A trip of a lifetime, I will see some of the greatest art and history in person, get to eat the most delicious, soulful food, play within new languages and cultures, be inspired by the most stunning landscapes, and most excitingly, walk in the footsteps of the Ancient Greeks—oh, and in Perth, I’ll also get to roar as my beloved Fremantle Dockers battle in the modern day collesseum of Optus Stadium.
Image description: a laptop, notebook, and mug on a table.
LIANABLACK.COM AND SHORT FORM PRODUCTION
In addition to my major fiction projects and professional development listed above, in 2025, I am committed to:
the curation of this website as a means of expression and the connection it brings me to you, my reading, writing, and creative friends.
producing one completed short story per month. You can read my first short story for the year, Roots, here.
creating space for poetry and reflections. I won’t make promises on the form or publication of these, but understand the need for these expressions and the desire to capture them. I have two poetry collections in mind that may become major project in future. Or may not, we’re just having fun here.
changing my view of social media, away from intangible external curation, and toward personal collection—just as I write for myself, I want to post for myself as an extension of my expression, creativity, and to capture and celebrate little joys and big magic.
