Sweet & Sour
Posted on November 30, 2005
School holidays are now screaming towards us. It’s a sweet and sour experience for most parents, I think. On one hand it’s nice to be free of the tyranny of the school and after-school routine and be able to go out and do fun things with the kids. On the other hand is the constant mess, feeding and watering, cleaning up and entertainment demands. Normally I spend school hours writing in my little 10×10 office above the fish and chip shop with the soothing sounds of the extractor fan in the background but, of course, I can’t get to my ‘villa on the seafood’ over the holidays. I guess I’ll just have to go the movies, read books and take the kids to the beach - I’ll live.
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Lil’ Dazzlers
Posted on November 28, 2005
Always a great start to Tuesday because it’s my teaching day. I teach creative writing as a volunteer at my son’s public school, although not to his class. I teach what is euphemistically called the ‘Opportunity Class’ which means it’s where all the rocket scientists hang out. We do different fun exercises each week; last week they were writing to music and this week I took in some fabric that had unusual texture and colour, some rather zany earrings and some little bags of Allspice. Their job is to experience each of these things and write for the senses. It seems to me that as a child the imagination is at its peak and it just goes downhill from then on - each and every one of these kids has a fantastic imagination and I‘m regularly dazzled by their work.
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Go Me
Posted on November 25, 2005
Whoa! Things are hotting up all of a sudden. The news today is that an overseas publisher has made an offer on the book, so it will be translated into another language and published in Europe. How exciting is that? There is apparently also a good review in Good Reading magazine out today, which I haven’t seen yet , but that’s also excellent news. One step at a time, it’s good to know that it’s finding its own path. Better still, it’s very nice when things happen as a result of other people’s efforts - not just mine. I’ve never subscribed to the idea that the universe will take care of me - after all why me?
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Long Way to the Loo
Posted on November 23, 2005
Took a walk on the wild side today to see the tattoo artist as background research for a character in my new book. I had an hour to kill and made an interesting discovery. In this particular part of town you can get any part of your anatomy massaged, have your lap danced upon, have your nose pierced, your body tattooed and buy toys that defy even the most imaginative mind but you won’t find a loo. I guess to prevent people doing despicable things in the privacy of a public toilet they finally decided to get rid of the problem - the toilet! Fortunately I did my pelvic floor exercises when it counted, so I survived.
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Worn Out
Posted on November 23, 2005
I used to be frustrated that I could only write in the scrag ends of time left over after everything else. Now I have more time but I find that if I sit and write day after day for hours on end it’s as though the juice is being sucked out of me and I start to dry up. Part of the process is getting out and talking to people, hearing stories, being ’in the world’. Tomorrow I’m going to visit a tattoo artist to talk about symbolic and tribal tattoos - now that should make a nice change.
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