Creative Differences and Other Stories by best-selling Australian author, Graeme Simsion, offers the reader nine short stories and a novella. The author explains in his introduction that most have been written for various assignments, competitions and invitations. Fans of his Rosie books will be pleased to know that two of them feature incarnations of Don Tillman, while four of this collection are memoir or inspired by events or people in Simsion’s own life.

In The Klara Project: Phase 1, Don describes the social error that leads to a date with Klara, a graduate student, and several more that ensue, to surprisingly good effect. Readers will recognise some scenes from the Rosie books, and Don’s now-famous Standardised Meal System also gets a mention.
In A Confession In Three Parts, a doctor follows the instructions of her aunt about her burial, and learns some important things about the life of the woman whose name she shares.
Three Encounters With The Physical, a story told in the second person, then third person then first person, of a debut marathon run that does not go as planned.

The Perfect Gift is a love(?) story in 140 characters.
Like It Was Yesterday is a tale of unfair primary school corporal punishment that demonstrates just how malleable memory is.
The Life And Times Of Greasy Joe is a story about that different, perhaps quirky, certainly memorable, character whom we all recall from our youth.

Intervention On The No 3 Tram is a delightful tale about an encounter on a tram that involves a clarinet player, a cellist and an origami swan/crane. And two well-meaning strangers who decide to intervene. It also happens to be a much more detailed version of The Perfect Gift.
Heartbreak Hotel describes a couple’s experience as the only guests of a deserted-looking hotel along their Chemin d’Assises walk.
Christmas Is Cooked is the Don and Rosie Tillman solution to hosting a large gathering for a Christmas Day meal.

Creative Differences: they say opposites attract, and that seems true for Emily Glass and Scott Solera. When they meet, Emily is a freelance copywriter trying to write the Great Australian Novel; Scott is trying to get his screenplay produced. Scott is a planner: technical, analytical and invested in structure. Emily’s writing is intuitive, instinctual, brilliant prose. They team up to turn Scott’s screenplay into a novel, have an international bestseller on their hands, and are in love.
Three years on, Scott’s solo novel is flopping badly; Emily has a stubborn case of writer’s block. Both their publisher and readers would like to see another joint effort, and that would solve a problem their publisher has not shared, but Emily wants to succeed in her own right. Both do some teaching, and Emily is somewhat irritated by a stalky Canadian student in her class: Piper sees Emily as her role model, her literary crush, then manoeuvres herself into Scott’s mentorship.
Emily is resistant to accepting Scott’s help with her novel, and they start to wonder if writing together was really all they ever had…
With insight and subtle humour, this novella gives the reader an intimate peek into how two very different writers might collaborate.

While the (very enjoyable) novella is almost two hundred pages, the short stories vary in length, with most are only a few pages long, small but delicious bites of Graeme Simsion’s literary talent. Highly recommended.
This unbiased review is from a copy provided by Text Publishing.