Fatty and the Physicist

I just realised I forgot to Blog last night and my fan base of one would be disappointed. I was doing something constructive and finishing the first chapter of my book, so I feel I have been productive this weekend. I desperately need to get away from the distraction, however. I am torn between spending time with my family, who I don't see that much off due to my paying job,  and wanting some much needed me time so that I can run away and just write. I wish the weather was on my side so I could go outside somewhere in the sun and create, but the weather is so cold at the moment, my fingers freeze in rictus even when I type for an hour inside. My story so far was well accepted when I read it in Inklings. They liked my use of flashback and thought it flowed very smoothly and I received some great tips from the team as usual and they assured me I wasn't going to hell for blasphemy. Fingers crossed I can still keep the humour running through the book and not have it turn preachy.

Not mine, but some wonderful local authors. Fremantle Press launched six new children's books at the State Library yesterday and it was an awesome event where I got to meet some of our amazing local talent. I caught up with Deb Fitzpatrick again and bought both her Spencer Gray books, which I am looking forward to reading. I loved Deb's workshop last weekend and I am eager to discover her writing style. I also bought a book by Cristy Burne, who did an amazing reading of her book To the Lighthouse, which got everyone engaged and Yasmin Hamid's inaugural book, Swimming on the Lawn, which is about a little girl living in Sudan. Yasmin was particularly lovely to talk to. I also had the pleasure of meeting Kyle Hughes- Odgers, whose illustrative works we came across at the Heartlines Festival the week before. V was particularly fond of his work, so I purchased his book Can a Skeleton have an X-Ray, which has the artwork that was on display in it, and had it signed for V. T

It started out in a fashion, like a pantomime. I rose early after a great sleep, my back (which is taking it's sweet time to heal) feeling OK. I, therefore, decided (as after all I am meant to be in training) to go for a walk. There was no way on this earth that the dogs were going to let me go on my own. Everywhere I walked, I had one in front of me and one behind stuck to me like glue. After 10 solid minutes of trying to get Harper into her harness, we finally made it out the door. Then began the dance of dogs wrapping themselves around my legs, or zig-zagging from side to side, chasing after people and other dogs...by the time I got home again my back was a mess again. Thank goodness for anti-inflammatories! I downed two of those babies quick smart as I was a free agent that day! The Physicist was on Netball duty shuffling my littlest to her game and I was hitting the road to the Heartlines Festival to spend the afternoon with V. We signed up to attend a couple of worksho

It began Friday evening doing the shopping when out of nowhere my back decided to spasm suddenly turning me into Igor as my knees buckled and face contorted in pain and my right arm swung around to support my back and stop the twinge... from there it was all downhill. A restless night where no matter which way I turned, my back locked in pain which resulted in sleeping upright on the couch with a heated wheat bag jammed up against my back and a weekend of doing very little.  There was no excuse now. I had to write and write I did. So far I have planned every piece of writing I have done. Mapped it out, written a plot, all the good things I was taught to do in high school English class. And yes, for the most part, it works. I know where the story is headed and I know where it will end, but I never quite get the flow. It's an effort to construct a tale that starts at A and has to marry up with B for the plot to continue. I, therefore decided that I would wing it, or pants it as t

They say to be a writer, you just have to write, which is all well and good, but when I feel like writing, everything else is not willing to be placed on hold so that I can. Dinner needs to be cooked, washing needs to be done, and I have to start spending some time with the family or they are going to think I am just the maid and not someone who has an emotional connection to the other humans who dwell in the house. This weekend, though we had an extra day to while away, started rather dramatically with my daughter having a car accident on Friday afternoon (fortunately she was OK but her car will no longer see the light of day), and everything kind of piled on from there. I did manage quite a bit of quality family time, I even exercised every day of the weekend and I managed to deforest the front garden for green waste pick up. I cooked every night and managed to clean the house...but I did not write a single thing! I barely managed to read a couple of chapters of my book. :( I hav

Where does the time go? I can't say I have written much at all this week. Oh plenty of emails, texts, facebook comments, notes on lunches, school notes and a list or two, but nothing really creative and I feel the same way I feel when I haven't gone to the gym for a while (oh and you guessed it, I haven't done much of that either!!). I really do have to find my mojo again. It's a little lacking in all departments this past week, culminating in a very upset digestive tract on Friday (TMI...yeah sorry, but it is funny how some things manifest in different ways). If I want to look at positives though, I did finish a book, start another, had some family time with the people I love the most, and may have lost a kg (we shall see...weigh-in is tomorrow). So there was a little sunshine in the gloom of my foggy mind and I will take that and be happy with it hoping for finer weather this week and the fog to lift completely. Things to look forward to this week; well it woul

...and what a week it was! Wednesday was our inaugural Creative Collective meeting and from some people's perspective (insert Physicist), it may have looked like we had just gone out for drinks. I corrected him of course and said no, it was more than that, and he responded 'Oh that's right, you had dinner as well'.  Well it was a little more than just an evening with dinner and drinks.  There was a lot of discussion and time spent getting acquainted with each other, and with our amazing waiter who looked like Roberto Benigni, but had in fact been his personal waiter in a restaurant when he was writing either a book or film. Our waiter (who was French) certainly knew his wines and V and I had the benefit of his attention when we spent an hour together whilst waiting for the rest of our party to arrive. We both concluded that V has an expensive taste in wine when the wine she was drinking was being sold for $75 per bottle. Myself, on the other hand, would highly recomme

So I have come to thinking that perhaps my style of writing (insert humour perhaps) may not be quite what Fremantle Press are after.  Much of their work is Australian orientated and they especially love works that involve Western Australia in some way. I appreciate that, so I have decided to tackle one of the bigger publishing houses and see if I can submit my work there. Of course, a bigger publishing house means a greater volume of work coming in across their desks. The nice thing about it is that I can submit my stories online (this saves a heap on postage), they also don't mind if you submit to multiple publishing houses at the same time (as long as you tell them if it has been accepted elsewhere). The downside is they just can't let you know if your work is unsuccessful and will only contact you if you are successful.  Understandable with the volume of work they have to sift through but you still feel you are sending your work into an empty hole never to be seen again. L

Ah!!!! What a week! It started with my birthday on Monday and has not stopped since! It's been crazy but enjoyable and I most definitely have felt the love these past few days. One of the bunches of love for my birthday Another bunch of love The highlight of my week would have to be Inklings, the writer's group I have discovered. A great group of people and I think not just a forum for people to hear each other's work, but a place to learn different techniques. Carolyn and Gemma I thank you for creating this group, really, I am over the moon! This week was the second fortnight where we were learning about In media res. As this was the first week for me, I, unfortunately, missed last fortnight's lesson, but I think I have caught up. I do also have to catch up on the Foreshadowing workshop that was held the two previous fortnights. I have, as I tend to do, gone in guns blazing and full of eagerness and have volunteered to write a piece for next fortnight&#

It's been a busy weekend this weekend and will be a busy week ahead as my birthday celebrations (real or imagined :) ) will continue through the week. Yes, tomorrow is my birthday and I can say that I am at a point in my life where I am happy that I have got to the stage where I am following my heart and doing what makes me happy. Today I attended the Write Around Armadale Meet-up, which brought together the Armadale, Kelmscott and Gosnells writing groups. I have been searching for a writing group for some time and it has been a difficult task as many groups meet up through the day during the week. This is great for the retired and unemployed, but this doesn't work for me. Fortunately, a local break away group from the Armadale Writer's Group has been created called Inklings and it is meeting up on Thursday evenings, every fortnight. I am so there!!! I can't wait to be involved and have a chat with some like minded people (who's average age doesn't hover aroun

...they said my ass was competing with the moon and affecting the tides...so, I have done something constructive and have joined Weight Watchers. Now, instead of lamenting that hormones at this stage in my life are affecting my ability to lose weight as I shove something carby and sweet into my mouth, I now have to be accountable. I know it works, it has worked before and now that it is costing me money I will make sure it works a second time around...watch this space. Hopefully, I will be occupying less of it. :) But to be honest, today, on Day 1, I could kill for a cookie! I am fortunate to have a few more days off ahead of me (and this time with internet access.. our lines have been down and the Physicist has been close to committing homicide on any poor unsuspecting Telstra employee). Phase 1 of editing my long-short/short-long story (hoping to be an early reader book), The Cereal Killer, will commence and I hope to get some more writing done. My days have been a little hectic of

There are days when I sit and it's like my head has gone to dust. Nothing motivates me, nothing inspires me no matter how hard I think, but really inspiration can be found anywhere. Like this morning for example. The sun was rising, I had decided (for the first time as my hubby usually does it) to take both of the dogs for a walk; Harvey who is about 3 1/2 years old and Harper who is about 6 months old. It was still dark out when I left, so walking through the park with the sun coming up, I snapped this picture to keep as something to inspire me at another time.  However, what proved to be more inspiring is the pantomime trying to get the dogs collared and leaded up before we left the house. Harper (the youngest) in all her hyperactive puppiness, decided to jump up on Harvey whilst his collar was on, where she proceeded to get her foot wrapped in his collar and twisted so that she was choking Harvey as she struggled to get her foot our whilst yelping because she was hurting

Feed me! Feed my mind, feed my soul! Two days of information and creativity. Two days talking with like minded people and the absolute pleasure of catching up with an amazing, verbose and thought-provoking friend. Two days of awe listening to someone who made it, and is published and knows their craft. I am at this gluttonous point of just wanting more and more and I'm not ashamed to say it. The course was awesome! Annabel Smith did a fantastic job in taking us through our Creative Writing Course. She made the course interesting and it was great that she has had personal experience with the publishing world. Of course, I bought a couple of her books, which she signed and her message made me love her even more, but what I loved was that she was real, and her journey was real. You could relate her anxieties, and emotions and the sheer frustration of editing and re-editing. I am very lucky that I am on leave this week so I can spend time absorbing myself in reading, writing an

One more week to go until my creative writing course and I can't wait. I have seriously been distracted by life in general, these past two weeks, which explains why I didn't blog last week, so I am looking forward to a full two days of creative thinking with no interruptions.  Through the week I managed to scrawl a shell of a story which I would like to develop, and I have started to work on my mum's memoirs again, but unfortunately the need to get constitutions completed for the Netball Club has taken precedent over everything and this is the first chance (at 7.15pm on Sunday evening) that I have had any chance to write anything remotely creative this weekend. Next week is also lining up to be a hectic one, but I am holding my breath for the weekend, where after my course, I have a week annual leave and all the time in the world to write! write! write! My friend V has taken the plunge and has signed up to complete an illustration course which I am super excited about

Ever since our netball club's AGM and me standing down as registrar I have been dodging the inevitable. Our Club was without a President and there were no takers. There were, however, many sets of eyes in the room looking at me. So I hid for a few weeks, said no, nope and not on your life more often than I am comfortable with, trying very hard to adhere to the advice of Sarah Knight, who's book I have been reading religiously, "The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a F##k" until I caved and said, "Sure I'll be delighted!" A great book, but the hard part is putting it into practice Since then I have been writing like there is no tomorrow. Not creative writing mind you, but immersing myself in the riveting and complex world of Constitutions and By-Laws. I figure it's all writing. I am still practicing sentence structure and punctuation..and formatting...God, I hate formatting!!! I should be an expert by the time I am done, or bald from pulling

Writing is such a singular pursuit but because I can be quite introverted, I enjoy the opportunity it gives me to be by myself and create. However, nothing gets the creative mind flowing than shooting the breeze with a fellow creative soul and that is where V (my artistic friend) and I come together and feed off each other's ideas. Much of our time of course, is taken talking about how wonderful it would be to have a studio dedicated to our individual passions. A writing/art studio where we can escape from kids/husbands/chores and be free to do what we love the most. Then after the initial day-dreaming, checking the lotto ticket yet again, realising the reality of needing to keep our day jobs, we settle down to throwing ideas around and inspiring one another. One of these sessions resulted in the creation of a new picture book called Flu at the Zoo (yes I know, another rhyming book...just can't help myself!!). Flu at the Zoo was created to give V an opportunity to practice