Holidays, Writing Festivals and Conferences

Yeehah! I'm on holidays for a week!

I've been working really hard so these holidays seem more of a luxury than before, and well-deserved.

On Thursday, I go to the Byron Bay Writers Festival for my yearly pilgrimage of stocking up on writing mojo. Four days listening to writers, talking about writing, eating out every night, and sharing writing camaraderie. Twelve of us are going, sharing two cabins and there's a mixture of the usual faces who have trekked to Byron every year and then number of Writers Festival versions. Should be a great time.

But in the meantime, I have four days off and much to do. I'm reading my friend Roby's fantasy trilogy to be published with Pan McMillan next year and the writing is beautifully evocative. I don't usually read fantasy as a rule because of all the description necessary in world-building but this could just about turn me on to the genre. I finished book one last night, and will start book 2 today.

I also have the final three episodes of series 2 of Hex to watch. A very likeable British series - not many out there that can boast having lesbian ghosts.

After Byron Bay, I go back to work for a week of working hard, with a couple of twelve hours days packed in there....and then I go to Sydney to meet new nephews, to catch up with family, and to attend the Romance Writers of Australia conference. I joined Romance Writers after the Cinderella story won 2nd prize in the Mid North Coast Writers Association short story competition. I will be attending a full day workshop with Jennifer Cruisie and four other workshops over the weekend. Really looking forward to immersing myself in learning about the craft of writing.

On the Friday evening, is a masquerade cocktail party, so I got all inspired and decided to create a collage mask. Here are the raw ingredients.

I will bewearing a black dress with embroidered roses, so I decided the colours needed to be black and red to complement the dress, and have rose details, and fit in with the theme of romance.

Because I do collage poetry, I thought that incorporating collaged words would make the mask uniquely 'me'.

I love the result: there's a few more bead strands to add, and I will probably lacquer it to give it a shine, but the process has already sparked a few more 3-D ideas to play around with Chickollage Decoupage.

Speaking of Chickollage, Cafepress is currently having a special promotion: buy 3 t-shirts and get one free. So head on over to the Chickollage shop and while you're there take the time to browse our new section devoted entirely to greeting cards - you now have the option of buying one card, a pack of 10 or a pack of 20, as well as notecards and my Chickollage partner Jennifer Gordaon has come up with some stunning new photo collage designs.