These days, I keep this blog – irregularly – for my own amusement. I write about books, TV series and films in languages other than English.
My other big interest is art, especially the arts of East Asian cultures. And many years ago I used to be a poet; poetry still interests me.
Elly McDonald 
January 14, 2016 at 2:48 pm
Fantastic blog! Do you have any tips for aspiring writers?
I’m planning to start my own site soon but I’m a little lost on everything.
Would you recommend starting with a free platform like
Wordpress or go for a paid option? There are so many choices
out there that I’m completely overwhelmed .. Any recommendations?
Thank you!
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January 15, 2016 at 12:12 am
Malinda, that is very kind of you. Thank you! I’m no guru on blog writing – I set up the Elly Takes A Stab (Telling Tales) blog to offload short memoir pieces, mainly for myself, and this one, Elly McDonald Writer, was originally set up to market my services as an editor and copywriter. But then I figured posting sordid tales of sex’n’drugs’rock’n’roll was maybe not the best way to promote myself professionally. Yes, I think there’s much to be said for setting up initially on a free platform, and WordPress works well. (I researched many others.) I upgraded to a premium site when I was serious about the marketing angle and wanted my own URL. Truth is, I only kept my sites active for a couple of months and then went into hibernation. I was very torn about whether I actually *wanted* readers! I did nothing to promote my blogs beyond adding tags. So I’d say the more important question as an aspiring blogger, beyond IT issues, is “Who am I writing for? How do I want to address my readers? How do I wish to engage them?”
A friend of mine has a blog called Master of Something I’m Yet to Discover. She has been extremely successful at using her blog to create relationships, to interact with her readers and to reciprocate. Seems to me she’s a model of how to blog as a writer, as opposed to as someone selling something commercially. Very best wishes for your blog and for your writing, Malinda.
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May 3, 2018 at 10:09 am
Malinda, it’s a very long time later, but if you liked the fantasy short stories this might interest you https://ellymcdonaldwriter.com/2018/05/03/the-lenny-novella-c-26737-words-2012-and-2018/
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September 23, 2018 at 1:41 pm
I have spent some time reading your blog today. You have an amazing life story and a wonderful honesty. Not that I’m into rock stars or that era of music, quite the contrary. But i found it fascinating. Thank you.
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September 23, 2018 at 7:14 pm
Carey, thank you, it’s so nice to hear feedback. I know what we have in common is football. Did you find my football blog posts? A Few Thoughts on Winning – Part 1 is relevant at finals time! xx
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September 24, 2018 at 11:16 pm
Just read it Elly. Brilliant. Winning isn’t everything. It can’t be so. To fail to win is not be ‘a loser’. But don’t give up. Give it your best. So valid. I deal with people in my humble life of small business and often I come off second best in a situation. I say,”I don’t have to win all the time.” Sometimes people need a little help and that is more important than me winning. I’ll look for more footy stuff on your blog one day. Thank you.
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September 25, 2018 at 12:42 am
I like Simon Goodwin’s line: Win or learn xx
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September 25, 2018 at 3:42 am
… btw not so sure you’d like this one
https://ellymcdonaldwriter.com/2017/10/15/siren-how-i-fell-out-of-love-with-football/
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April 30, 2019 at 1:23 pm
What a wonderful life you have. A fascinating read. I’m jealous of your rock and roll past.
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April 30, 2019 at 11:14 pm
Bryan, that’s so lovely. Thank you. I read your blog post about friendship, and Ellen, and let me say I don’t think “brushes with fame” mean anything compared with solid friendships, family, and love in all its forms. All best
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October 19, 2019 at 6:46 pm
Your reviews of Nordic Noir type films were thoroughly engaging, especially about the profoundly wonderful performances of the female actors who have gazing way too long into the ¨black hole¨ as you so described it. I too have been plunged into the cinematic dark side having been consumed with the desire to watch as many of the TV series you have mentioned as possible. It started with me with the Dept Q series then on to Bron-Broan, The Tunnel, Hinterland, Luther, The killing, Borderlands…+ Thank you for the time it took to set up a nice overview and comparison of quite a few of the Nordic, French, and British noir/drama/international intrigue/type series.
I have been searching for reviews such as yours thank you.
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October 19, 2019 at 10:17 pm
Wow, Frank. Thank you. I just woke up this morning to a string of Bitcoin and random spam infecting my ‘About’ page and I expected yours to be another one. Also, ironically, I woke up comparing Scandi-noir, and other noir, unfavorably with some Korean TV series I’m engrossed in at present. I was thinking maybe I should shut down the blog, partly because of the spam, partly because… because. Maybe instead I might write some Korean reviews? 🙂 Thank you.
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October 19, 2019 at 10:26 pm
… btw Frank, I quite liked Below The Surface S2 and Danish-Belgian-German coproduction The Team S2, both with the same head writer. The Team S1 (different writers) is shite. I *loved* the Belgian heist-with-twists series De Dag (The Day).
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March 26, 2020 at 10:10 pm
I wish you had said more about the film and novel ending in Tell No one. I think I understand the film, but the novel is a mystery. I mean aside from genre! I loved your writing about both!
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March 26, 2020 at 10:19 pm
Lorraine, it’s so lovely to have feedback! I’m not sure why I keep this site online. Then I hear from someone and I think, yes, sometimes someone out there finds something here of interest xxx Thank you
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September 9, 2020 at 1:05 am
Elly:
I just read your spirited review of Paul Lynch’s Grace. The freshness and urgency of your review was like a breath of fresh air.
Michael Howley
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September 9, 2020 at 1:09 am
Michael, thank you, that took my breath away. Too often I think I’m pompous and ponderous. My only excuse is that I write just for me. It’s so wonderful when someone else reads it and likes 🙂
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September 9, 2020 at 1:15 am
… is this you?
https://www.ideasonpurpose.com/about/people/michael-howley/
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September 9, 2020 at 6:57 pm
Yes. Most of the first sentence is mine. The rest is advertising copy.
I will have a book of poems coming out from a small publisher called Three Mile Harbor Press.
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April 21, 2023 at 9:36 pm
Good Morning Elly. I really enjoyed reading your work about Michael. from 1978 I started a band in Melbourne “The Nicest People”, I had been at CIT doing a Fine Art Diploma and in 1977 my classmates were Nick Cave , Nick Seymour and Michael Harvey in fact one of their first gigs was at our breakup in a house in Caulfield.Our band was the support when INXS played their first gig at Macy’s Melbourne. 1979? This began a great friendship and we did many gigs together and would do 2 week stints with INXS and the Numbers via NMA around Sydney. When underneath the colours came out they gave me the tape and Tim’s walkman to listen to while they went to Adelaide. When they came back they asked me what I thought and would I play with them on a tour as a second Bass Player as some songs had extra Bass tracks and detuned low D notes. Michael sometimes stayed at my place in Prahran with usually Tim and Kirk. Those days they lived on a $5 per day allowance. Michael told me that he did an interview with RAM but I could never find anything. He said that he was asked which Bands he liked in melbourne he said Nick Cave and Nicest People. I have never been able to find anything. I wondered if this was your interview? Tim Hannaford
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April 22, 2023 at 12:09 am
Hi Tim, thank you, I’m pretty sure I saw your band with INXS and the Numbers. I did an early interview with INXS that appeared many months later, 6-9 months, in Adelaide-based rock mag Roadrunner, and I did an early INXS review for RAM, but I think the first RAM interview article was by Jenny Hunter Brown, who was then Don Walker from Cold Chisel’s partner. These days she’s Jen Jewel Brown. I did some stuff a little later – I remember reviewing Original Sin, and I did a RAM cover story, can’t remember off the top of my head whether it was for Shabooh Shoobah or The Swing, but I don’t keep back articles. I’ll ask Greg Taylor about Nicest People mentions. Greg edited RAM across INXS’s early years.
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April 22, 2023 at 12:32 am
… Tim, Greg came back as follows: “Hiya Elly. I did the initial RAM story with INXS, 1979 or 1980; it was probably their first rock press interview. I’ve never heard of the Nicest People. Could well have been Jenny.”
I definitely DID hear of the Nicest People so maybe it was in something I wrote? Don’t recall. Roadrunner editor Donald Robertson combed the Roadrunner archives not so long ago for a compilation so I’ll ask him.
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April 22, 2023 at 1:29 am
… to Tim, agai, Donald responded:
“I looked in Ther Big Beat but they are not listed in the index and are not mentioned in your INXS article from July 1980. The name does ring a faint bell, but without trawling through all the issues I wouldn’t know where to find it. Tim is welcome to have a look himself https://archivesonline.uow.edu.au/nodes/view/3493/ “
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December 24, 2023 at 2:19 am
The eighties were a wonderful and sublime time followed by the ninties that were not so kind. I have only just stumbled across you writtings and been taken backed in time. l am fortunate, for l get to read poetry and see artworks everday from my friends. In 1997 l was sadly reminded of the poet Yesenin’s death by the death of someone else that on ocassion read his poetry and passed in somewhat very similar circumstances. I had met Michael on a number of occasions and liked his philosophical outlook. It is funny how the stars orbit around each other for l had also met Paula years prior to their union. I was once caught without transportation north of the Queensland border out west. A car pulled up about midnight at the service station l was standing, a bubbly blonde English girl asked if l wanted a ride. It was freezing and gratefully accepted, l sat in the back of the old Holden car, the driver appeared drunk, one hand was on her lap the other on and off the steering wheel between sips of the drink between his legs. I couldn’t understand a word he said his hair was was everywhere and so was the car all over the road. After 20 minutes the car came to a stop after they came to the realisation we were almost out of fuel and that was one they stopped at the service for and had forgot. We turned around and went back and got and as did not feel safe l advised them that l jump back out and let them on their way. All l will say is that a thick Irish accent when inebriated is very hard to understand… the people that have sent the thousands of messages to my email will attest to the fact that l never read them nor reply. I am on fb but once again l seldom reply to many messages. I can say but that l was contacted before her death regarding a follow up biographer she had written and that her original was amended and republished after her death.
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March 11, 2024 at 4:37 am
Hi Elly,
I have found your name (and blog) by chance. I am researching my family history which includes Mary Cavanagh (daughter of Luke C and Mary Malone) born 1822 in Ireland. When I googled these details the information in your blog came up. What a surprise! This is definitely my family member. Mary McDonald (née C/Kavanagh) died in 1894 aged 72 and is buried with a headstone at Sandon Cemetery near Newstead, Victoria. I know a lot about the family in Victoria and had found the earlier information from SA, but have not been able to find anything from Ireland. Your family recollections are fascinating. Would you mind responding to me, say be email, so we can compare notes. My name is Cheryl and I live in Middle Park in Melbourne,
best regards
Cheryl May
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June 19, 2024 at 5:21 am
Dear Elly,
I am the editor of Signals, the magazine of the Australian National Maritime Museum. In the September issue we will publish an obituary of your uncle Hugh Edwards. I am writing to ask if you have any images that we could reproduce – would you please email me at the address provided?
Thanks and regards,
Janine Flew
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June 19, 2024 at 7:07 am
Hi Janine, I’ll email some through this evening. Thank you. Elly
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June 19, 2024 at 8:05 am
Hi Janine, thank you, I’ve selected a few photos, none of them wonderful I fear… address provided is where? (I tried the NMM website but couldn’t find an email specific to Signals or to you) x Elly
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July 30, 2024 at 3:05 am
I just read your page about Steve Prestwich. I’m glad I stumbled on it. Thank you for sharing this personal journey with Cold Chisel. I love that band. They broke up just as I started getting into them at high school. Your writing is beautifully honest.
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July 30, 2024 at 4:19 am
Thank you. I’ve often teetered on the edge of taking that one down. Sometimes I set it to ‘Private’. I’m not sure it’s in “the world needs to know” category, but hey, it all happened 🙂
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October 8, 2024 at 10:29 am
What was wrong with Paul Hewson I wish I had have met him
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October 20, 2024 at 9:54 pm
I can’t really comment on Paul Hewson. I met him only once and he was vile to me. What was wrong with him? Drug addiction is up there.
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November 22, 2024 at 1:01 pm
Hi Elly, I’m a bit new to this blogging thingo (its a generation thing i guess!!) so please hang in there.
I was doing a little research about the Nor 6 sinking and the incredible survival tale of the Nor 6’s shipper the late Jack Drinan.
Your late Uncle Hugh Edwards interviewed Jack and had written about his gripping survival story.
So after after my 2023 trip to Steep Point and seeing the Nor Memorial on the Steep Point once again I was determined to see when I returned to Perth if I could have a siting with Mr. Edwards only to find out I was two weeks too late.
The Shark bay coast line has always intrigued me with its uniqueness and your late uncle was an amazing man with his diving and underwater discoveries.
Would it be possible to obtain further info about your late uncles adventures and discoveries.
Kind Regards
Nic Perrella
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December 12, 2024 at 9:30 am
Hi Nic, I’m not able to help here. I can only suggest his later-life memoir Dead Men’s Silver: The Story of Australia’s Greatest Shipwreck Hunter, which is still available.
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December 12, 2024 at 10:39 am
Hi Elly.Thank you.CheersNicSent from my iPhone
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December 13, 2024 at 5:04 am
Hi Elly, thank you for your reply.
Cheers
Nic
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November 25, 2024 at 10:44 am
Hi Elly,
I love your words regarding Steve Prestwich. My family were on a holiday on the South Coast of NSW when it was announced that he had died. It was awful news!!
Anyway, I just want to thank you for your insight and contribution to the Steve Prestwich and Cold Chisel story. Steve needs to be remembered as he was a great Songwriter and Musician. His music has given me great joy for many years now.
Regards,
Mitch Spooner
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November 25, 2024 at 11:17 am
Thank you Mitch. I had the immense pleasure of being at Cold Chisel’s Myer Music Bowl show last Friday 22 Nov, and Steve felt very present.
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November 26, 2024 at 2:34 am
Hi Elly,
Just a thought from an old Chisel fan. Given that Don has written “Shots”, Jimmy’s “Working Class Boy” [& Man], Rod Willis with his book. Have you thought about writing your own experiences with Cold Chisel in those years of 1979 to 83? Just to add your perspective…. I just think you’d have a good insight on the personalities and put a lot of myths to rest, plus your opinion would be welcomed, from someone who was there.
It would be an interesting read, as I think you would have good insights, funny stories and experiences that fans only guess at this point in time.
Cheers,
Mitch
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November 26, 2024 at 5:50 am
Thanks Mitch, the older I get the more I realise how little I knew and how little of what I saw I understood. I’m not the person to write the Chisel inside story. But I do like the podcast Sarah McLeod (from The Superjesus) has put together that’s going out Tuesdays on the LiSTNR app 👍🏻
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October 9, 2025 at 8:23 am
Hi Elly
Just read your father’s piece on the 22 Jardine St.
my Grandmother Mrs Edna Bond lived 2 doors away at 20 Hedley St. In the 1970s when I was a small boy, we would sing Old McDonald had a farm walking past the big hedge and stone wall. I stayed there somewhere I think next door in I think 1982 with Ila who was good friends with my grandmother and remember the old Mr and Mrs McDonald. I remember blowing my nose in a hanky chief that was so full and wanted to throw it out, but she was saying it could be washed and hand it over..
did anyone in your family remember my grandparents?
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October 19, 2025 at 11:21 pm
Hello John, great to hear from you! Apologies for the delay in getting back to you, my computer has been out of action this last week. Yes, my sister Cathy and I remember Mrs Bond very fondly, she was a wonderful friend, particularly to our aunt Ila. We have especially vivid memories of the time we released Ila’s pet canary which promptly flew away. I remember the adults using a house to try to bring it down. Eventually, miraculously, the freed canary showed up at Mrs Bond’s house and was returned. Cathy says: “I think the ‘found’ canary was a new bird but we have no proof except we were upset the canary might die and lucky it went to her house”. The woman you remember as old Mrs McDonald was possibly my great-aunt Maude, known as Ainee (for “Auntie”), who moved in to care for Ila and my grandmother for 10+ years after my grandmother’s death in the mid-50s. I never met my grandmother. 22 Jardine Street was sold in 1973 and Poppa and Ila moved to a smaller house on Hedley Street opposite the Catholic Church. Old Mr McDonald died in I think February 1977, and within a couple of years my dad moved Ila to Point Lonsdale in Victoria, where my parents retired. It might be Ila was moved to Victoria in the early 80s, I had left home by then and was living in Sydney. Thank you for remembering Ila. The hanky story makes me laugh. This last week my mum had surgery and while she was in hospital I went through all her woollens, handwashing them. There’s been a moth infestation and about a third of her woollen have serious moth holes, but she is insistent they don’t need to be tossed. I am willing to hand some back but NOT ALL. All best, Elly
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October 19, 2025 at 11:23 pm
… um, “using a HOSE” to try to bring down the canary 🙂
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