And that’s a wrap

My 2017-2018 summer reading pile

This year is about to end and in some ways I feel like it has only just begun. So much has been packed into the year and time has slipped away. It’s really easy to only focus on the things that haven’t been completed and the things that went wrong, but I need to also remember all the things that went right.

Publishing highlights

This year I had some poetry and an essay published in Shaping the Fractured Self: poetry of chronic illness and pain. I bravely volunteered to read one of my poems at the launch at the DAX Centre in Melbourne. Up until the moment I read it out loud, I wondered how on earth I managed to have words of mine sit alongside such accomplished Australian poets. The feedback I received from the audience, and since from members of the public, was overwhelming. It has been absolutely heartwarming to hear people say that I was telling their story and that I had put their chronic pain into words. My own chronic pain (migraines and neck and shoulder pain) continue, but I refuse to let them take control of my life. Many of the other poems and essays within this anthology remind me that it is important to live life to the full, but to also know when to shut the door, and take some time for self-care. There is a wonderful review of this anthology by Kevin Brophy in The Conversation.

Post-study reflections

2016-09-28-05-28-49It’s an incredible time for me right now that feels like a beginning, more than an ending. I’ve just submitted my final piece of assessment of my Associate Degree in Professional Writing and Editing at RMIT. I should feel relieved, excited. I do, but there is a sense of sadness, and a great deal of reflection. There is also a nervous excitement about the time ahead of me, the unknown.

My last four years have been tremendous in all senses of the word. My life has changed in so many aspects, and lives around me have changed. Mum died, throwing my and my offspring’s worlds into chaos. My kids transitioned from children to teenagers, jumping normal adolescent hurdles, and fumbling through more tricky ones. I wrote a tonne of words and found a stable part-time job in the communications world.

2015 in review

cubes-529831_1280

It’s been a long time since I last posted. Life’s been a bit crazy, and there just didn’t seem like there was time, or energy to post here. But, as the year draws to a close (only a matter of hours now), it feels appropriate to wrap up 2015.

Back on track

Back on trackIt’s been a chaotic year to say the least, and having some deadlines is helpful in providing distractions.

These last few weeks I have been back at uni (RMIT) and work (comms work at a local high school). Not surprisingly, life has rushed on at great speeds without waiting for me to catch up with it. There are things that were screaming at me for attention. So that is what I have given them.

Silvia Kwon’s take on writing

The Return by Silvia Kwon

The Return by Silvia Kwon

One of the great joys of doing the RMIT Professional Writing and Editing Associate Degree program is the connections made. As a part of on of the Developing a Writing Project course, we have masterclasses with published graduates of the program. They are student-run panels with the author and graduate talking about their process, book and anything else on writing.

Kurt Vonnegut’s Shapes of Stories

In my pursuit of story knowledge, I found this cool graphic. It explores Kurt Vonnegut’s thesis of the story shape, and how the character’s ups and downs reveal the shape.
Read more about this over here

Kurt Vonnegut - The Shapes of Stories

Reading different genres

sweet-valley-high

Some books from the Sweet Valley High series – teenage romance

Do you avoid certain genres when you are looking for a good read? I do.

I am generally a wide, across-all-genre reader and in fact that is one of the things I have loved about being in a book club: reading books I would never consider picking up, and then thoroughly enjoying them. The one that sticks in my mind most is Joan Richmond: The Remarkable, Previously Untold Story from Melbourne to Monte Carlo and Beyond.

Sharpen the pencils and the focus

RMIT

Old map of Melbourne Technical College, now RMIT. I think Annex 2 may be where I go, which is now Building 94

It’s time to sharpen the pencils and the focus. Classes begin for me tonight. This semester I’m tackling Advance Manuscript Editing and Developing a Writing Project. I have the pleasure of having Stephanie Holt, Editor extraordinaire, and Olga Lorenzo, author and, I have heard, brilliant teacher.

I’ll have the pleasure also of attending Masterclasses with the likes of Sian Prior, Silvia Kwon, Di Websdale-Morrissey (she’s great, I’ve had her previously), Kate Richards, Toni Jordan (also had previously and great teacher), Chris Womersley and Ilka Tampke.

I’m looking forward to really sharpening my nearly complete second draft of my manuscript and gaining insights from this great line-up and class mates.

It is looking to be a brilliant semester. I’m just hoping my daily migraines will settle so I can concentrate.

Travel writing

Travel writing is a good way to earn money as a writer as many places publish them.

Tourists don’t know where they’ve been, travellers don’t know where they’re going. Travel is only glamorous in retrospect. – Paul Theroux 

Writing food reviews

According to Ruth Reichl good reviews (whether food, travel, books or art) prepare the reader for the experience and the most important rule is to review what they are trying to do, not what you wish they were doing.