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I am a Melbourne writer of fiction, poetry and creative non-fiction. I am currently working on a novel based on my First Fleet Ancestor who was a single mother. The novel explores the mother-daughter relationship and what mothers do to ensure their child thrives.

Other works in progress are a story for young adults set in a city in extreme drought and a picture book that explores sharing and another about being responsible.

I have had writing published in Writers Victoria publication The Victorian Writer, the Hunters Writer Centre Grieve Anthologies, in Shaping the Fractured Self: poetry of chronic illness and pain (published by UWA Publishing) and other anthologies. I write to understand the world around me.

I also work as the Library, Communications and Marketing Manager in a Melbourne secondary school.

Read more about me here, see my awards and publications, or read the blog series I wrote while my mother was dying here. My blog posts are usually about writing, reading and musings from the heart, and sometimes about other things.

Find me on social media platforms LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Goodreads.

And breathe…

Lockdowns are tough but there are some things that can help with the deep anxiety that we all feel. Breathing slowly and deeply is one.

by megdunley

Aiming for more rejections

A few years ago I shifted my thinking from trying to get some marks on the publishing board to aiming for more rejections. It was an important shift in thinking as it forced me to understand that this publishing world is one that is full of rejections with the occasional win. There must be something…

by megdunley

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Can anyone top this ridiculous 2 kilo zucchini baby? More lazy holiday days in the outdoors as we continue to duck and weave to dodge covid I still haven’t settled on my 2022 goals, but I’m enjoying the extra time @matthewdunley has off which has never happened before. So, we’re out embracing each day. Today it was a walk through Plenty Gorge. Stories read over the new year break. All link with themes of men behaving badly or not; roles women play as mothers, lovers, daughters and survivors; and what it means to love. For some ‘The End of Men’ might be too much right now with its pandemic setting but made me think about what it would mean to have a world with only 10% of the men left and certainly started a number of great fireside chats with our camping crew. ‘All My Mothers’ is a beautiful heartfelt read that had me sobbing as I sat in my chair in the creek last week. I highly recommend it (thanks @staceymaloneymccall for recommending it for our next book club read). ‘Believe In Me made me ache. One of the joys of coming home after being away for 9 days is seeing the blooms in my temporary garden. It was great to slow down, read (The End of Men, All My Mothers and Believe in Me), sit in a creek, catch up with friends and stay off the socials. It was the salve I needed after the last two years. End of year traditions start with a new diary (old school but I love it) and reflecting on the year and thinking of the year ahead. (Image 1 is two red Moleskin daily journalers. One says twenty twenty one Meg Dunley. The other still has the 2022 Moleskin wrapper on it) So good to see this rainbow lorikeet enjoying the seeds in my tree My heart is full after a night away with my writing crew who are among the strongest women I know. Besides being amazing writers, they are amazing women. We have supported each other through the toughest of our days and celebrated the best of our days. So great to be with them again. What to do when one manuscript is finished and out with readers and you have to wait for three months? Start on the next one. Trying the 90-day novel method to see if it’s as good as others have said.

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