Jumble sales, writing inspiration and Almodovar

Yesterday was my writer's group meeting and it turned into a jumble sale.

We all cleaned out our wardrobes and brought in the clothes that we didn't wear anymore. Each piece was a gold coin donation towards our Christmas party. We raised over $50 and the remaining clothes went to charity.

We still managed a writing exercise. Using a couple of funeral notices for inspiration, we each wrote a dialogue between the two women at any point in their lives (or afterlives). It was fun and as usual my cynicism shone through. Here's my piece:

'Thank God, that's over!' said Dottie.

'What do you mean, dear? I'm rather sad to leave my grandkids behind.' Alice replied as she admired the wildflowers perched on Dottie's coffin.

'70 years!' she said. 'Can you believe it? 70 years? Washing John's socks and underwear, running about after him, making sure tea was on the table. When they said till death do you part, I never imagined it would be that long.'

'Look at him - he looks lost. What's he going to do without you, Dottie?'

'Wash his own socks for a start.' Dottie grumbled, thinking of all the years she'd spent in the laundry.

'You got a lovely turn-up. Wonder how many will turn up to my funeral this afternoon?'

'I'm sure there'll be a crowd, Alice. You can't hang around this earth for 92 years and not gather a few friends.'

'They might just come to make sure I'm dead. Work out how much money I've left them.' Alice laughed. 'They'll be disappointed when they discover there's not much but some old furniture and some photo albums. Geez, I had a good time after Gerald passed on. He has such a tight reign on the purse strings. It was nice to think about myself for change.'

The two women bow their heads respectfully as they walk past the coffin.

'Bit weird being at the funeral.'

'You don't say!'

'Who's the handsome young man with the long blonde hair?' Alice nudges Dottie. 'Is that one of your grandkids?'

'No, never seen him before in my life. But he is nice looking.' Dottie beamed. 'That'll keep them talking about me.'

Some of our newer members commented on how much the older members can write in a ten minute exercise. But it's all practice. It's years of being able to slip in and out of that creative momentum at will, and it is due to writing almost every day.

After the meeting, I went to the supermarket and was surprised when I rounded a corner to see Lisa, another member who hadn't made it to the meeting, holding out a DVD for me: Pedro Almodovar's Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. I love this movie. It's so funny, and has a very young and spunky Antonio Banderas. I haven't seen it for years but I'm looking forward to watching it again. Thanks Lisa!

I watched Volver a few weeks ago, and was pleased to see that Almodovar had returned to comedy. His dramas were just a bit too serious for me. I like his dark humour and silliness!

It also got me thinking. I don't watch a lot of foreign movies anymore. Not sure why. Maybe because I live in conservative regional Australia and we're just not exposed to them. But I have world movies on pay TV but that's no excuse. Maybe I've just frustrated with the quality of sub-titles. Maybe I just want to keep reading and movie watching as two distinct activities. Years ago, when I lived in Annandale, I used to spend Sunday afternoons at the double feature at the Stanmore Cinema. 2 movies for $6. You couldn't beat it. There would be a lot of foreign doubles. And they were great! Maybe I should surf over to World Movies more often.

4 days to the start of Nanowrimo....

Thank God its Sunday!

Thank God It's Sunday!

I couldn't say it on Friday, because I knew I still had the day at work on Saturday to get through. But now it's Sunday so I can say Thank God!

I usually work around between 35 - 45 hours a week depending on which week it is, and if there's a rostered day off in there. This week I've worked over 60 hours! Yawn! And it's been go, go, go (at least mentally) all week. Exciting, challenging and draining.

So today, I'll be doing work of another kind - reading! The spare lounge is moving from the spare room onto the back verandah so that will be where I spend most of my day.

I've also been making a collage of Diary of the Future and found the perfect picture to include in a magazine on Friday, so that's got to go on the collage today. It depicts one of the scenes set at the cinema perfectly. I hopefully will have the collage complete by the time November rolls around and will post it on the blog.

In the meantime, LittleGreyDragon on the Nanowrimo forums has designed me this gorgeous banner to depict my Nanowrimo project. Very pretty and inspiring. Can't wait to tackle those fairytales. Roll on November. October is just a holding pattern!

The Nightly Ritual

Spring is here and the weather is certainly starting to warm up. The magnolia tree is once again filled with leaves, and the white snowdrops of wisteria have also given way to greenery. But with the warmer weather comes the parasites which necessitates the ritual on the left.

I'm yet to find a weapon that beats these pesky little fellas although I'm sure Dorkus would like me to keep looking. We've swapped from Frontline to Revolution this month to see if it makes a difference but we still need to do a nightly comb through to remove the resilient ones.

At the same time, work has also heated up. And in fact, I never imagined we would be as busy as we are. Hard work, long days moving quickly into nights. Before I know it, it will be my birthday and then Christmas. Life is certainly not dull at the moment.

Laptop is back

The universe heard my plea for my laptop. They had phoned me at work that afternoon to say it was ready to be picked up but I'd already left for the day. I couldn't pick it up till Thursday but now I'm back on the laptop. There was nothing wrong with the computer brain. The screen was replaced instead. So I'm happy to say I did not have to reload any programs and I can get to work on my new t-shirt designs before Nanowrimo is upon me.

But when I started using it, it did some very odd things. I was hitting the letter keys on the right hand side of the keyboard and numbers were appearing. I could see it was a 'function' key thing but I couldn't work out how to turn it off. So not-so-tech-savvy me discovered the laptop num lock function that she didn't knew existed before and after about half an hour finally worked out how to turn it off. I guess those two keys had never been hit in combination before!

Now I'm looking forward to getting the router so that I don't have to be chained to the modem/phone outlet to be on the net.

I suspect that today is the only day I'll have at home this weekend (I'm expecting that I'll be called in to work tomorrow) so I need to make the most of it and get a lot done. Which includes my father's BAS statement, the newsletter for the writers group, the new designs and watch at least one DVD from Quickflix (Safety in Numbers, Ten Canoes, or The Kingdom - Lars Von Trier). No surfing for me today. It's back to work.

Novelled out

There have been strange noises coming out of the study lately (or the cave as I like to refer to it.) Sirens, screeching tyres - Holy Batman - you'd think there was a whole city in there. And then the swearing! My partner has discovered computer games! At least it will keep him out of my hair while my mind is occupied with Nanowrimo.

I want my laptop back! Still no news and it's been more than two weeks. They had to send it away for repairs. I'm sick of this huge monster sitting on my desk. It does not make me inspired to write or edit. And although I've had a heap of ideas for 'writing' t-shirts to add to my Chickollage store, I need software that is not on this computer to create the designs. We're also looking at going wireless for our internet connection (not roaming wireless but within the house wireless). That way once I have my laptop back, I can make use of my 'idle' time watching TV by updating my Cafepress store.

I've been thinking about fairytales again and fracturing some more for this year's Nanowrimo. I had such fun writing Beyond Happily Ever After and discovering what happened to Cinderella and Snow White after they found their princes, I would like to explore some other modern fairy tales with a chick lit twist. Well, that's this week's idea! I've pulled out a book that my parents gave me in 1975 called World's Best Fairy Tales and will be reading that for inspiration. (This must be the only book I still have from my childhood). But it's only Oct 9. Much can change between now and the start of Nanowrimo. And if I do write 50,000 words of themed short stories, maybe I'm really doing NaShoStoWriMo.

All I know is that I'm novelled out. I can't keep writing reams of first draft, without committing to the second and third draft, and however many more it takes to polish it up for submission. Yes, I can say I've completed a novel. At least until 1st or 2nd draft stage. But not to the point where I'm ready to send my babies out on the street to find a home. And that's what I have to do. I've managed the gestation and the giving birth part. I just haven't quite brought them up right yet.

So it's a very conscious decision not to add to the work in progress pile but also not to let the opportunity of the Nano community pass me by. Bring on the short stories.

Nanowrimo again

It's that time of the year again. Time for sign-ups to the Nanowrimo challenge. Write 50,000 words in the month of November.

What? Are you out of your mind? I can hear you thinking it now. Especially if you haven't heard of Nanowrimo before.

But I'm throwing down the gauntlet! If you've always thought you could be a writer, here's your chance to see what amazing things lie in your subconscious. Plot and plan before November 1st hits, or just wait till the beginning of the month, trust your muse and dive right in.

It's exhilirating, stressful and fantastic. Some of what you write is absolute drivel but some of it is truly wonderful, and comes from a place you barely knew existed.

Year 1, I wrote 25,000 words. Year 2 - 38,000. Year 3 - more than 50,000. Year 4 - made it to the finish line with a complete first draft.

Let your muse free. She's bored. She needs Nanowrimo!

Need some more encouragement? Read No Plot, No Problem by Nanowrimo founder Chris Baty.

Okay, so I'm still looking for a plot. And it would be lovely if I could scan old notebooks and hard drives, and come up with something as offbeat as Jenny Crusie's discovery. I'll dip in but I can't promise anything. Although last year's manuscript Diary of the Future was based on an idea I had around 7 years ago. And I'll hang out in the Plot Doctoring forum on the Nanowrimo website. I may just find the catalyst to my whole unwritten novel in the Adopt a Plot, Adopt an Opening Line or The Dares thread.

So are you in it? Or not? Leave me a comment!

My long weekend

Something shifted today and instead of spending the public holiday glued to the keyboard, I went out to the Buskers Festival at Woolgoolga and soaked up the sun. Now I am not a sun baby, I've always preferred to get a moon tan rather than a sun tan, but a couple of hours of vitamin D should have done me good. Well, I had a great time watching the acts even if my legs had gone to sleep and it was great to be amongst an enthusiastic crowd watching grown men humiliate themselves in public.

I paid for my time in the sun this afternoon with the beginning of a migraine, but once I'd taken a couple of tablets and eaten a decent meal with vegies, I was alright again.

I didn't quite achieve all the writing goals I wanted to. I allowed myself some time off this weekend which was enjoyable. The time off included the Festival, and watching 8 episodes of the second series of Dead Like Me. I love that show and I cannot understand why it wasn't shown on free to air TV in Australia. Actually, I do understand - the TV stations are run by morons who think reality TV is the answer to everything and show quality drama such as The Sopranos and Six Feet Under at midnight. So now, I'll print out a coy of my work in progress and take it to work to edit during breaks.

When I went to Byron Bay Writers Festival, I saw Richard Flanagan speaking about Research for Fiction Writers. He was very funny, so I borrowed his latest book The Unknown Terrorist from the library.

Wow! This is an amazing but scary story when a pole dancer is implicated by a chain of events and the whole nation believes she is a terrorist. In today's climate of fear-mongering and security alerts, the premise of the novel was all too realistic. Richard Flanagan twists the plot with some incredible metaphors that capture contemporary Sydney.

Although this copy will be returned to the library tomorrow, I will be purchasing a 'keeper' copy soon. The book is that powerful.

Dead technology

Well after decluttering my office, and the laptop, I'm afraid to say that neither appears like the photos anymore.

Three days after the decluttering when I thought the laptop was humming along nicely, it proved me wrong by dying completely. All I would get at startup was a grey screen. So the laptop is back at the shop (hopefully whatever's wrong will be covered by the extended warranty) and I've hooked the old monster computer up to the internet, and seriously thinking of buying an LCD screen for it, because the monster takes up the whole desk.



Dorkus the cat is not impressed. He can't take up his usual position on the desk (as above) and has retreated to the desk behind me.

In moving the monster computer back out here, I've got printers on the floor and stuff all around. Hopefully, it will look better again by this afternoon.

I'm sure that Mercury is not retrograde at the moment, but I've been hearing of a lot of computers going kaput. A technical mutiny perhaps?

I can't believe its the last day of September already. I'm hurtling towards my 40th birthday and another Nanowrimo is just around the corner. Seriously, where has this year gone? It'll be 2008 before we know it.

I plan to do Nanowrimo again - I like the impetus and the momentum that being part of the Nanowrimo community gives me and my writing. I have a very vague idea about a young woman and an obsession with classified ads. That's all I have so far. In the meantime, I received my feedback from the Chick Lit competition and have been absorbing all that Jenny Crusie had to say at the RWA Conference, so I'm rewriting and reshuffling and polishing Diary of the Future for submission. Also using that story to participate in Candy Haven's Revision Hell workshop. So October will be over in a flash for me as well, because I'll be busy with work and rewriting.

What a week!

So I got through quite a bit of the decluttering/spring cleaning the office last Sunday and I've posted some before and after pictures. 11 boxes is down to 8 boxes and yesterday I also bought a paper shredder to get rid of century old bank statements and personal docs that I don't need.

Before: collage stuff, magazines, boxes and who knows what else.

After: magazines I can access, my collage box full of cutouts, scrapbooking bits and pieces in the drawer organiser. Much better.


Before: Ugh! What can I say.

After: I do have a floor, and Dorkus likes having somewhere clear to sit.

Everything was going to plan. I'd written a 'to-do' list and a lot of things were crossed off. Remaining was rewrite my synopsis (didn't happen) and watch some DVD's from Quickflix.

I started Monday with everything planned out. Take my car which was playing up to my father for repairs and do his accounts.

The universe had other ideas. My car completely carked it half an hour into the 2 hour journey. The radiator shat itself, luckily in a place where I could pull over safely. My partner was about five minutes behind me because he'd stopped for petrol, so I waved him down when I spotted him. After waiting half and hour and filling the radiator again and watching it all drain out, we realised the car was going nowhere. Suprisingly I didn't stress out and get upset. It was one of those things that happen when you drive an old car and at least I wasn't stranded.

That afternoon the universe rewarded me for my calmness, and my unconscious decision not to go against the flow. I bought a new car after Dad phoned his car dealer friends. This car was running a bit rough, so he said have a look at it, you can have it for $500. We brought it back to my father's workshop, Dad fiddled about in the engine, doing up bolts here and there, adjusting this and that, cleaning spark plugs, put it up on the hoist and checked the front end. And now she's going like a dream. And there are several firsts with this car for me: it's my first station wagon, and it's my first automatic. And I'm very happy. The breakdown was meant to be for without it we never would have found this new car!



So this weekend I've been decluttering my computer and it took a lot more than 15 minutes. When it started going at snail's pace I suspected that the load of my Chickollage graphics and Jen's photo collages, plus my snap happy digital pics were weighing the hard drive down. I only had 2 GB left on it, and the computer was extremely unhappy. So I got an external hard drive and started shifting stuff on it. After moving all my photos, and Chickollage stuff, I'd still only reclaimed 2 more GB. So then I moved into my partner's side of the computer and discovered a folder which had 16 GB all by itself. All his video stuff which had hidden itself into this innocuous looking folder - the My Videos folder was empty. So I moved that as well. Then went to a defrag. The computer told me it didn't need it. It was happy again and humming along, and now I am too.

Decluttering

Visitng Aargh Ink the other night, I found out that Jennifer Crusie is decluttering her office, flylady style. It's a relief to see pictures of other people's clutter because then I don't feel so bad about everything that is accumulting in my writing room. At least I can see my floor, if not my surfaces. And the bookcase is generally neat. My problem is the boxes around the perimeter full of paper with stuff on them, and who knows what else. Finding someone to store these in an organised manner is my dilemma. If they do even need storing.

So to tackle this clutter 15 minutes at a time, I'm going to start with this desk. This is more a storage desk, than a working desk but it would be nice to see the surface. My big plan was to use this desk as a collage workspace. Trouble is my cat Dorkus has taken a liking to it, and whenever it is clear (or not) he sits upon it, blessing it with his cat hair.

He likes sunning himself on top of the blue storage drawers, right in front of the window.

15 minutes later and I'm not done yet. And I have to wonder how much hair one furry little fella can have. When I moved the blue thing, there was cat hair everywhere so the vacuum cleaner came out.

Now half an hour later, the desk is clean althought there is still some stuff that I have to find a home for. Just not on this desk!

I've also cleaned the oven, vacuumed the dining room/kitchen floor in preparation for the mop, vacuumed the hallway and lounge room. Definitely took longer than 15 minutes but just found out the landlord's are paying a visit tomorrow to check what needs fixing so not too soon at all.

However, I think I'm now going to hop down to the chemist...my hayfever is playing up as a result and that I can live without.

A pre-sleep post

Well, I was going to blog tonight but then I got distracted by Californication -remove the first two syllables and you get the essence of the show - chopping up magazines, and now it's time for sleep.

I could be counting my blessings but at the moment I'm adding a parking fine to a car that won't start (looks like it needs a new battery) to forgetting to pick up my keycard before the month ended and then not being able to use Eftpos. Whoops! Interesting week.

I finished reading Blind Submission yesterday. Really enjoyed it and I didn't guess the mystery author although I suspected at least one person that the protag didn't even suspect.

I've been a naughty girl and bought The Sims 2. It's highly addictive and I have to ration my time or I will never ever get anything done and will just spend my spare time in a virtual universe, simulating life. No Sims during the week and I've had my fill of tv for the week. Goodnight for now.

Human again

It is so good to be feeling human again. The flu hung around for about ten days but it only took a meeting with my writers group to start feeling energised again and then two days later I was back at work.

Mind you, it was hard to get back into that mindshift of getting up in the morning and going to work, instead of sleeping half the day. That's the trouble with being an owl instead of a lark. Mornings are torture.

So now I've rejoined the human race, I have lots to do. Besides catching up with sleep while I was sick, I also watched a few movies: Music and Lyrics (never say no to a Hugh Grant movie), Stranger than Fiction (especially interesting from a writer's point of view). I haven't brought myself to watch Volver yet - the fact that I'd have to read the movie and that it's over 3 hours along is a bit offputting at this point. Maybe Sunday. Plus I read Undead and Unpopular, Oh my Goth, Seven Steps on the Writers Journey, Pen on Fire, and I'm now halfway through Blind Submission.

Last year when I created Chickollage as a term for my chick lit collage poetry, I also started the Chickollage blog, talked a bit about it here and there, opened the Cafepress shop, and then about a month later looked up chickollage.com to find that someone had bought the domain about a week after I started the blog. I guess they were waiting for me to make millions and then sell the domain back to me for squillions. Well, I haven't made millions and their registration has expired so I'm now the proud owner of the domain, trying to work out what I'm going to put on it. Yet another thing on the to do list, but I'm imagining it will soon feature my favourite collage poems, a daily poem (yes, got to get back into the daily habit), and links to the big wide collage poetry world.

And yes there is writing to do. I'm anxiously waiting for feedback from the Chick Lit writers competition for Diary of the Future, to see if I'm on the right track or not. And I need to rewrite the synopsis. I'm going to break it down to the three act structure then use the turning points to construct the skeleton of the synopsis as Jenny Cruisie suggested at the Romance Writers Conference. Then I want to rewrite the beginning two more times (with different starting points) and events to see which one works best. I need to get this one polished up and out the door by the end of October so I can dive into another round of Nanowrimo in Novmber.

It's all happening...

It's raining, it's pouring

It's a bit wet here at the moment.

So wet, we can't even drive out and get a loaf of bread.

This is the road to the local shop. There is a bridge under all that water.

And this is the road to the local supermarket. You can see a couple of broken down cars on the other side of the water. I guess they drove through it.

There are only two roads out and they are both underwater so I guess we just have to hibernate for a while. I'm glad our house is on higher ground although the backyard is very soggy.

Not our backyard!

Back from Sydney

I'm back from Sydney with a souvenir that I didn't want - the flu! But other than that piece of baggage the trip was great.

7 days seems like a lot of time in a city when you start planning a trip but then I took out 3 days over the weekend for the Romance Writers Conference, another day to travel across the city for a meeting with Aurora TV, a day to recover from the conference, a day to travel out to the burbs to meet the new nephews and a day to have another meeting, a visit to the doctor for my partner and the Chris Wilson gig at The Vanguard, and suddenly its time to come home again. Sorry for anyone that I did not manage to catch up with. Being busy on the weekend meant that I really couldn't catch up with friends who were working. Next time.

The conference was fantastic and it was lovely to meet so many enthusiastic writers. The Jennifer Cruisie workshop was awe inspiring and left me with a lot of food for thought. Other workshops were just as informative - in fact I wrote pages and pages in my notebook.

I forgot to take my recharger and rechargeable batteries so I ran out of battery power just before the masquerade so I didn't take any photos that night. It was extremely colourful, full of sequins and feathers and I had a hard time recognising faces the next day. In fact, I didn't end up taking many photos at the conference at all - just lots of notes.

It was really odd hanging around Annandale, our old stomping ground. It has changed so much since we lived there. Our old abode, which was above and beyond the butcher shop is now a restaurant and two units. There is now a gourmet pizza bar, the North Annandale hotel is totally spruced up (and how much is it to hang around pubs now without the haze of smoke!)

While it was nice to be away and hang out with writers and meet new members of the family, its also good to return home. Dorkus the cat certainly thinks so. He didn't treat the cattery as a detention centre this time, going on a hunger strike. This time he ate as he was supposed to. But he's happy to be home and following me around everywhere. That is when I'm vertical. Because this flu is not allowing many opportunities for that.

One sleep to Sydney

One more sleep and then we're off to Sydney. Very exciting although I'm sure Dorkus is already cursing me and feeling very sorry for himself because he's already delivered to the cattery. Last time he was there, he reckoned he was in a detention camp and went on a hunger strike -- he's there longer this time so he better eat something! Mind you, it wouldn't hurt him to lose some of that extra fat.

Sydney is shaping up to be really good. Not only do I have 3 days with writers in writing workshops at the Romance Writers of Australia conference, I will get to see my new nephew Damon, my relatively new nephew William and my niece Abby.

Plus I've just had the pleasure of visiting Chris Wilson's website to check out his tour dates and he will be performing in Newtown on the 15th August. And I haven't seen him perform for approx 8 years. Plus it's a relaunch of that beautiful album Live at the Continental. This time - Live at the Vanguard. A very fitting night out for our anniversary. Certainly more appealing than driving back home for 7 hours in the car. That can wait until Thursday.

Major updates in the Chickollage shop - lots of new photo collage designs by Jennifer Gordon, with some Photoshop doctoring by myself. Check out the Cards for all Occasions section.

Will be back during the week with news and updates of the Sydney trip.

Byron Bay Writers Festival - I'm back

I took my mask out for a practice run on Thursday. It was the Coffs Cup and although I didn't go to the races, we were encouraged to dress up as if we were going to the races that morning at work. I had decided to wear my mask and put on some velveteen pants and a purple top. I was hunting around in my wardrobe for a jacket, when I swear a dress started to speak to me, insisting that I should wear it to work. It's a gorgeous long maroon/purple dress with a lace overlay and I haven't worn it for many years. I think the last time I wore it was to a winter wedding. So I took it out and put it on.

Dorkus discovers my mask has feathers.

Must've known something. I won a bottle of wine and a small box of choccies for being the Most Extravagantly Dressed. And the dress felt good. I may even wear it again to the Romance Writers' Conference Masquerade instead of the dress for which I'd orginally colour coordinated the mask.

Some of the Byron Bay pilgrimage.

I had a great weekend at the Byron Bay Writers Festival. Even eleven women with only two bathrooms didn't seem to matter. Actually, I didn't spend any down time in the cabin during the day. I was at the Festival from around 9.30 each morning until 5pm filling my head with writerly notions, literary aspirations and recharging my writing mojo. I ate at the site, I even braved the Kenny-style monster feet-pedal-flushing portaloos.


I resisted the urge of all those books in the Dymocks tent, although I mentally noted a number to track down at a later time. However I did buy The Shadow Thief by Alexandra Adornetto. What an amazing self-assured and gorgeous young lady she is! I got a shock several pages into the book to discover that the sister's name is Dorkus, the same as my cat. I sometimes see Dorcas but not spelled the exact same was as my boy!

Alexandra Adornetto on the Young and Female panel.

I was able to talk to Eva Sallis, who taught me Novel Writing many years ago in Adelaide, and thank her for setting me on the path. I really believe that people come into our lives at exactly the right time. And at that time I was ready to start on that path. In another session about publishing, they discussed the importance of having a writing community, and I know I have that with the wonderful Nambucca Valley Writers Group. So now I have my writing mojo back, and plan to have even more with the Romance Writers of Australia conference next weekend.

Blogoff post - VICTORY

It's not if you win, it's how you play the game.

So they say. But there is still a joyful sweetness in victory, in being the best, that isn't matched by the taste of being runner-up.

My short story Beyond Happily Ever After won second prize in the Mid North Coast Writers Association short story competition which was fantastic. And I still thought how nice would it have been to take out first prize.

Still, if it hadn't been for Carrolline's encouragement I would not even have played that game. I wouldn't even have entered the competition. I hadn't written a short story with any intent for nine years (not counting homework and exercises with the writers group) and was convinced that I couldn't even think of a story that could have a beginning, middle and end in less than 2000 words. Holding the 'I can't do this' thought firmly in my head led me to thinking about fairytales and their short, succinct nature and I started wondered about Cinderella and what happened after the happily ever after. Once I combined the fairy tale traditional nature of the story with the perils of being a modern princess dealing with the tabloids and the pressure to produce an heir, the story practically wrote itself. I've just sent the story off to an anthology...we'll see what happens.

There was a time when I hated losing because my livelihood was depending on it. It's never fun to find out that you came second out of 150 applicants for a job. Then it becomes a what's wrong with me? But there are times over my career where I have applied for jobs that have been totally out of my league, and been hired for a secondary position that wasn't even advertised. I suppose it shows, you've got to be in it to win it. Even if it's not clear what the actual prize is.

One of the ladies at my writers group mentioned last week that she's become a competition addict. She's had a few highly commended but hasn't actually won anything as yet. But I can tell that she's enjoying the journey and in that process, she has her own sweet taste of victory.

Because when we set ourselves a goal and achieve it, we are victors in our own life. Far ahead of the couch potatoes mindlessly flicking the channels. There may be no prizes attached, unless you've bribed yourself with a box of chocolates or a dinner out, but it is the self-fulfillment that is the prize, that gives the sweet taste of victory. Maislow had it right with his heirarchy of needs - self-actualisation is the best. And being victorious does not necessarily mean beating other people. There is enough sweetness of victory for all of us to share...if only we are willing.

This is the final blog-off post in this round of the blogoff. Funny we talk about victory in this post, because yes someone will win and take home the pot of money, perhaps! Or maybe as in the last blogoff, the winner will donate the winnings back to Courtney's fundraiser. The victor is in the list on my sidebar under Blogoff Participants. Who do you think this round's victor will be?

Oh, and my post a little early this week as I'm off to Byron Bay Writers Festival tomorrow morning. Whoopee!

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.

Blogoff Post - Breasts

When I was a teenager I really didn't have any.

Poached eggs maybe.

Bumps that completely disappeared when I lied down on my back.

Even the saying 'More than a mouthful is a waste' couldn't make up for the little I had.

But I ate as much as I wanted and couldn't put on weight. And without any extra body fat my tiny little breasts just weren't going to grow, no matter how many arm exercises I did, chanting 'I must, I must improve my bust.'

And when I got out of hospital four weeks after a car accident, having dropped another dress size, I thought there was no chance.


However, the next three months sitting around watching videos, unable to participate in my usual daily activities (e.g running up three flights of steps with two large pizzas and four bottles of coke) and my less frequent activities (sex!) saw my metabolism began to slow down.

The metabolic effect combined with the side effects of contraception and eating more because I was bored had a noticeable effect. I started to grow breasts, much to my delight. Suddenly there was something to push up with a push-up bra. I developed cleavage. I became voluptuous. Not quite Rubenesque but much more cuddly than skin and bones.

But my new voluptous curves were not just confined to my breasts. I had become curvier all over, curvier stomach, bigger thighs. I had meat on my bones. And I felt healthier. Much more healthier than when I was 48 kilos.

Of course the medical profession doesn't agree. I was mortified when I was told by a doctor doing a health check for my work place that I was obese. I don't feel obese. Sure, it might not always be fun shopping for clothes because designers still design for women with the shape of a fifteen year old boy, but I feel confident in my own skin.

But I get the lectures about the health factors, the need for exercise, the risk of diabetes, stroke, heart attack. And I wonder how unfair is the actual process of losing weight. Can someone explain why the first place that a woman tends to lose weight is her breasts? After all this work! And no matter what I do, I can't seem to shift that spare tyre!


Check out the 20 other bloggers competing in Courtney's blogoff in my sidebar. I'm sure they all have a thing or two to say about this week's topic, Breasts. If you'd like to make a donation to Courtney's three day walk for breast cancer, click on the link.



Other bloggers have talked in previous posts about serendipity. I received the word prompt on Tuesday. On Wednesday I got a call at work from a University. I was curious because I've had nothing to do with this university at all. Apparently they've been trying to locate me for a while for a breast cancer study because of the family history. Not quite serendipity, but certainly interesting timing!

Disappointed there's no photos? You want to see them. Tough titties!

Blogoff ver 2 - post 2 - HOPE

I've never really subscribed to the concept of HOPE. When I was young, perhaps! But I think it was something I grew out of reasonably quickly. Neither do I subscribe to the concept of hopelessness. In every situation, we have a choice of how we react. We are never hopeless.

I did some personal development courses in my early twenties. Somebody in one of those courses defined hope as a 'turd with a cherry on top.' That image, funny enough, has stuck in the back of my mind ever since.

Hope is just a vague fancy if there is no action behind it.

When I was in my twenties, I wanted to be a writer. Yet I only wrote occasionally. I did not write with any discipline and I did not write with any intent. I was busy living a life and dreaming of one day being a writer.

About ten years ago, I re-visited my dreams of being a writer with serious intent. I committed to my dream. And I took concrete action to achieve those dreams. I started to write. I took writing lessons and workshops. I joined a writers' group.

I no longer thing about being a writer or even hope to be writer. I AM A WRITER BECAUSE I WRITE.

I can chant my writer's mantra: 'I will be a published author...I will be a published author.' But I'm not just sitting back and hoping for it. I am writing. I am editing. I am doing the hard yards. And at the same time, I'm remembering that it's not just about the destination...it's all about the journey

One day I will hold my published book in my hand. But it's not something I'm hoping for. I've done the creative visualisation. I've done the actualisation by having a Lulu.com copy of one of my manuscripts printed for myself. No, it's not something I'm hoping for. It's something I'm striving for.

One last thing about HOPE - we can all hope that one day they will find a cure for breast cancer. But we can also do something about it.

I am.

I'm blogging in this blogoff along with 20 other great bloggers listed in my blogroll. We're blogging to help Courtney raise money and to raise awareness. If you would like to do something to help the cause, then follow the links. This is the second post in Blogoff version 2. To support Courtney in her fundraising for the Three Day Walk for Breast Cancer, visit her website at Five Second Dance Party or click on this link: