Writing Mojo

The story of I'm with the Band is moving along nicely and as I suspected, I have been writing more now that I am back at work. Tea breaks and lunch breaks are really useful, although I may start going to sit in the park to write for lunch, as someone will invariably come and sit with me in the tea room and start chatting.

I went hunting for second hand bookcases today. We had many in the garage of the last house, but by the time we tried to move them the bookcases were falling apart so they were broken up instead. I have a full three meters of space in the wall behind me where we can put some low bookcases. I put silent bids on three today - I'll find out tonight if I get them. My books need a home, and I'm tired of my writing room looking like a bomb has hit it. Yet there is no motivation to sort until I have somewhere to put the books and magazines, and various paraphernalia.

I spent yesterday collating the collage diaries with the fellow members of my writers group. We had a big turn out with many hands making light work - however they are not quite finished - there will be still be more work during the week. Doesn't matter, the launch is still six weeks away.

The diary has week to a page openings, 12 full colour collage poems, flash fiction, haiku, poetry and ransom notes. These will retail for $20 Australian and have been printed as a limited edition - 150 copies only.

There is time to enter the Ransom Notes competition to win your own copy of the 2007 diary. For full details visit Chickollage. Entries close 31st October 2006.

Today I treated myself to two episodes of Love My Way. Haven't seen before as we don't subscribe to cable but I received the DVD's as part of my Quickflix subscription. I'm looking forward to more episodes.

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Things about DIANE SONGS I HAVE ON MY MP3 1…. Slow Train to Mexico Chris Wilson Let your friends know you want to go down in Mexico.' Woah, what a sexy song. I could keep hitting repeat on this one ALL NIGHT 2. Wings Moving Pictures 'I've heard that angels all had wings...you must have checked yours at the door. What time does heaven shut its gate? Do you have to be home by twelve?' Rock and forbidden love, great mixture - just what a teenager dreams about. 3. Sex Kick Transvision Vamp Wendy James performing this live on stage at the Hordern Pavillion - talk about pumped up. Unfortunately my CD of 12" mixes including this was stolen. 4. Like Wow Wipeout Hoodoo Gurus "I love the way you talk, you walk, your smile, your style..." This one reminds of blond spunk I had a brief fling with when I was a teenager. The song still makes me smile. 5. Damn I Wish I was your Lover Sophie B Hawkins. Another song, another crush. Although it's probably a good thing that I didn't send him a copy of the single because it wasn't reciprocated. 6. Stay on Track Deborah Conway One of the best female vocalists in Australia. Privileged to see her live at Byron Bay last year, sad to miss her gig in May in Adelaide. 7. Bow River Cold Chisel 'Listen now to the wind babe, listen now to the rain' With the beautiful vocals of Ian Moss. 8. Last Name the Bluehouse Beautiful vocals from a lovely duo. First saw these gals years ago on a New Year's Eve at the Cat and Fiddle Hotel in Balmain 9. The Angel and the Madman Moving Pictures 'Did you see the Angel and the Madman? Did you see them as they went by? ...I heard someone saying they were high...just a little bit...not so you'd notice...but enough....enough!' 10. Here we are Tania Bowra Beautiful love song 11. You Have Placed a Chill in My Heart Eurythmics 'Don't cut me down when I'm talking to you... Because I'm much too tall to feel that small...' So hard to pick a Eurythmics song because I love so many of them. 12. Dirty Names Rebecca's Empire 13. You Will Surely Love Again Chris Wilson And I round off the list with another Chris Wilson song, one of the first I heard him sing, and it gave me hope that I would surely love again.

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Why do I want to write when I have to do something else?

The bad news is: I go back to work tomorrow.
The good news is: I go back to work tomorrow.

So why is this a double-edged sword?

I'm always motivated to write when I have to do something else. When I've got nothing else to do, and I'm at home, I can find many many ways to not write, including working on my Chickollage products, hanging out at BlogExplosion, Blog Mad, Blog Advance, reading writers' forums etc. But at the point where I have to work on something else i.e. the day job, or working on my father's accounts - that's when my brain decides it would rather work on my novel.

Case in point today: I drove two hours to work on my father's accounts (glad this is a monthly, not a daily commute) and my brain acted like a food processor: chopping up all the possibilities, rearranging, imagining the missing scenes from the novel. And out of the mixture, there were some interesting results.

So tomorrow at work: I will spend morning tea and lunch writing. And then when I got home, I will have to type it into the computer and keep typing. Good things are about to happen.

Nanowrimo open for sign-ups

So Nanowrimo is now open for sign-ups. Every year I seem to have to reset my password - that's the trouble when you get the computer to remember a password for you, and then change computers!

And at the moment I'm still trying to finish last year's Nano novel, after an extended break. I spent too much time on the collage poetry instead of playing in my character's reality. But that's okay because last year I finished the first draft of Making the Cut a couple of days into November, and then ploughed straight into I'm with the Band for Nano.

I've been trying to put some order into this blog, so I can see where I am with each and every writing project but the zokutou word meter doesn't want to cooperate tonight - you will notice there is no meter to measure the progress of Kissing Toads. So I googled 'word meter' and found this very funny one (below) at Writertopia. It gives you the ability to change the mood, as well as the wordcount. Think I might use this one for Nano, although it will have to be in the main body of my blog, as it won't fit in my sidebar.

I've started a Blogroll for Nanowrimo participants. Drop me a comment with your blog if you will be Nano'ing and I'll add you to the honour roll.

I'm blushing for a good cause

It's Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and in honour of the month, this blog has turned pink, along with numerous other websites: see Pink for October.

It's a good excuse this month to eat strawberry filled tim-tams, pink and white M&M's, drink the Mount Franklin water with the pink caps and buy a pink ribbon because it all helps funding research for breast cancer.

I lost both my mum and my grandmother to breast cancer, and my aunt is a survivor. With our support for this cause, there will be many more survivors.

Countdown Spectacular

I couldn't make it to the Countdown Spectacular. The trouble with living halfway between Sydney and Brisbane means that the cost of attending a concert in either city (or even Newcastle) is much more than just the ticket price. And much as I would've loved to have seen Alex Smith perform again, I knew he was only singing 'What about Me?' and I would've been yearning for 'The Angel and the Madman' or 'Wings.'

Yes, it would've been great to see all the other acts wheel themselves out from the vault and sing their hits, but I wasn't able to take time off work, let alone rustle up the money to go. But the good news is, a DVD of the concert will be released for Christmas. I know it's not the same as being there, but still I can put Alex on repeat, for a fraction of the price.

Anyway, Karina went to the Countdown concert in Perth and took these photos, and has kindly allowed me to post them on my blog. You can read her review of the concert on Karina's BajaClub. If you are a fan of Uncanny X-Men, you can also find a link to her fansite.

Now I should be writing my novel, not updating my blog. But I'm facing that triple-headed monster: procrastination, avoidance and fear.
So I'm off to slay the triple-headed monster.

Meantime, talk amongst yourselves. Did you go to the Countdown Spectacular? And what did you think?

Back with the band

I'm back with the band! Or should I say that Kat's back with the band and I'm going to finish telling her story. I've been spending some time on it the last few days, wrote 7 pages and then realised I couldn't continue without knowing the ending. And I think, after much contemplation, I've worked out what I need to do. I was concentrating too much on the point I've reached, the end of the tour, and Kat's life beyond that. Thinking there's another 20,000 words before we come to a satisfactory conclusion. This was clouding my mind, obscuring the gaps that were already waiting to be filled in the middle of the story.

It's the gap that needs to be filled because there are a still a few things on Kat's list that need to be done during this time, plus she needs to sort out her deadbeat husband, and then Kat's story can end approximately a week after the tour -- at the airport when she farewells her rock god.

So the music is back on, nice and loud to get me back in the mood. And now I declare my goal for the next two weeks: finish it!

I signed up to the pre-launch of exlinks. Hope my ex's aren't really on it! Don't want to be bumping into them online. Not sure what it's all about but it is affiliated with BlogMad. If you want to sign up, here's a link: http://www.exlinks.net/?invite=bbf94b34eb32268ada57a3be5062fe7d

Characters will die!

This t-shirt sums up how I've been feeling over the past couple of weeks. Be warned! Characters will die! But none of my favourites - sometimes I wish I could just go and hang out with them.

Like the t-shirt? There are more like it at Real Writer. Check it out!


So, a question for the writers who read the blog: Have you done it? Killed someone off in a novel as method of making yourself feel better in real life? Aah! Revenge - it's even sweeter when there's no chance of going to jail.

When I was 15, I wrote a play about a mad scientist. I didn't know how to end it, so I just killed everyone off, including the mad scientist. Several years later, I rewrote it as an adult play. The second time, I must've had more compassion, as the android and the documentary maker were both still alive at the end. (Well, as alive as an android can be.)

But I must be crazy. I signed up for a First Draft workshop and haven't written anything. (Real life took over). But I have another week to go of the workshop(and I'm on holidays) so the aim is to finish the first draft of 'I'm with the Band'. I plan to do Nanowrimo again, and have no idea what I will be writing about. Maybe I'll come up with something by November. Or maybe I won't - and I'll just wing it. I'm still editing Making the Cut. I will be sending the Collage Diary to the printer this week. And I've been uploading more and more designs to the Chickollage shop. Have I bitten off more than I can chew? Well you know what they say about busy people? And I know if I tried to stay home and be a full-time writer, nothing would get written. The only way to do it is to put the pressure on myself through external motivation, cheer squads, publicly announced goals. It's the only way for me to produce the goods.

The loss of the legends

We lost four Australian legends in the past 10 days or so:

• first, the political legend - Don Chipp, founder of the Democrat party, 'to keep the bastards honest'
• the literary legend, Colin Thiele, author of Storm Boy,
• most recently, the racing legend, Peter Brock,
• and most famously, the Crocodile Hunter legend, Steve Irwin.

It is Steve Irwin's death that has affected everybody, because he was so well-known to both kids and adults the world over.

I started thinking about why the death of a person who I had never met, had affected me and others so much:

1. It is a reminder of our own mortality. Eventually we will all shuffle off the mortal coil, but it was never expected that Steve would shuffle off so soon. Not that he was ever expected to shuffle - he escaped so many deadly situations, and he moved so fast on land, he seemed invincible. But back to our own mortality. Many of us don't grapple with the concept of our own mortality too often. I've thought about it many times - first when I woke in intensive care after a major car accident at the age of 20, and again, about 9 years ago, when my mother passed away. We're not invincible and we need to make the most of every day which includes being kind to the people we love.

2. The Children. Steve Irwin left behind young children and this breaks my heart. Bindi lived for her father and to have a man of his energy and enthusiasm so suddenly ripped from her life, will leave a gaping hole behind. And as she grows older she will blame him, she will blame herself until she finally comes to term with it. And little Bob - what will he remember of his father? There'll probably be no real memories for him as he is so young, just a kaliedoscope of pieces of memory mixed with video footage, photos and anecdotes from those old enough to remember Steve. And in the end he won't be able to distinguish his own memories of his father from the video tape or anecdotes.

3. It drags our own grieving back to the surface. In the end, we are not grieving for a famous person that we never knew -- we are grieving for our own losses. We are grieving for the father we never had, we are grieving for the partner we lost or the partner we will lose in years to come. Steve Irwin's death becomes personal because our sub-conscious makes it personal. After all, we are human and none of us are immune to grief.

So, they are my reasons as to why I was so affected this week by Steve Irwin's death. I'm sure that these reasons are shared by many.

But apparently not Germaine Greer. Like a vulture picking over a corpse, she chose this moment to attack Steve Irwin, trying to grab some headlines for herself, unable to face the fact that she is becoming increasingly irrelevant as time goes on. What a sad old cow. John Birmingham wrote an article for The Australian in response to her words. It's worth a read.

The other annoying thing is all the people on ebay trying to cash in on Steve Irwin's death. Flogging the Aussie papers which cost $1 or $2 for $50. Flogging their autographed photos, shirts, merchandise etc for a cheap buck. One of my prized possessions is an autographed copy of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I met Douglas Adams at a literary luncheon in Sydney when he was promoting Long Time No See - his book about endangered species. He was very funny in person, and I will treasure that book always. Occasionally, I've cleared out my book shelves and offloaded them on Ebay, but that book will never be sold. His death was a loss to the humourous sci-fi world, and to the universe.

September already?

I'm being hassled by Hasslebot. (thanks to WriteStuff for the link) They keep sending me emails reminding me to Get Back to Bilby Creek and edit my novel. At least the emails make more sense to me than most of the spam I receive. If you want to set up our own hassles, visit the website.

But I cannot reply to the emails with an excuse. And yes, I do have one - until this week. I've been working on a Collage Poetry Diary for 2007 on behalf of the Nambucca Valley Writers' Group. The diary is called Ransom Notes, and includes 12 collage poems in full colour, plus flash fiction, haiku, quotations and, as the title gives away, ransom notes. I've spent the last two weeks compiling the diary, putting together all those finicky little calendars, holiday dates (thank god for the internet) and it is now ready for a prototype print, before we enter the production phase.

I have announced a competition to write ransom notes and win a copy of the diary on my other blog. Visit Chickollage for details.



So now that most of my work for the diary is complete, I can return to Bilby Creek. I can't believe it is September already!!! Less than 2 months to Nanowrimo. Where is this year going? I need to get moving if I'm going to finish editing this one, query it, and start writing another one in November.

On Saturday I will be taking a 'Writing Funny' workshop with author Bruno Bouchet. I'm looking forward to it - I find that most workshops I attend are inspiring and get me into the writing mood.

One drawback I have found to immersing myself in editing: I am reading with a critical eye, and I'm finding it difficult to turn off the internal editor. Perhaps I'm doomed to read like that forever, but I will need to send the editor on a vacation when I start Nanowrimo again. I don't want to fuss about which word is the right word when I am trying to write 50,000 in 30 days!

I have added a subscription option to my blog on the left hand side. Scroll down and enter your email address if you wish to subscribe through Feedblitz.

Back to the editing cave

I'm moving to Bilby Creek. Not literally, because I haven't been able to find it on the map, anywhere in the world, let alone in Australia. But my mind, heart and soul need to migrate to the town, to inhabit the place, to breathe the same air and drink from the same glasses and prop up the same bar as the Bilby Creek folk.

Party time in the real world is over. I have my mojo back after the Festival and a writing consultation last Thursday. I met with the head of a writer centre to discuss my writing, and he was impressed with my synopsis and sample pages, told me to edit it and send it off. So with that encouragement, I have to pack my laptop and pen and paper, and mosey on down to Bilby Creek to spend some time with Chloe and Luke.

If you see me hanging out at My Space or on Blog Explosion, tell me to git back to Bilby Creek. Hopefully there'll be cold drink waiting for me at the bar.

Tomorrow, I have to go back to the real world. Back to work, holiday is over. But I still want my head to be in Bilby Creek so during my teabreaks, at lunch, and after dinner, I can jump back in, and keep the editing momentum going. And yes, I haven't had a Coke now for 2 weeks. Yee, hah!

Fun items for writers

I've been spending a lot of time on cafepress.com - browsing the marketplace, window shopping so to speak. I've found some fabulous original designs for writers, so I shall be highlighting a few of these on Write on Track.

Write Side Out has combined the horror of the rejection slip with a stylistic B-grade movie poster: after all, it is every writer's nightmare.

For more original writers for items, check out the links in my sidebar, titled 'T-shirts for writers'. Whether you're churning out a bestseller, letting procrastination get the better of you, or your muse is out to lunch, you can find the merchandise to express your current writer state. Have fun browsing!

Byron Bay Writers Festival

I'm back from Byron Bay Writers Festival with writing mojo, and hopefully, editing mojo, ready to go!

The buzz is always fantastic, the writers are inspiring, and just the fact that I'm spending four days straight with my writing buddies is so stimulating.

The only thing I didn't enjoy this year was the weather. Friday was glorious but Saturday and Sunday, the wind roared and the rain poured. My Chickollage t-shirts were hidden under layers of clothing, desperately trying to stay warm, and not on display as planned. Oh well, spring and summer are still to come and I have some great new t-shirts to wear.

Each year, we share a cabin at the Byron Bay resort. In previous years, we've had eight gals in a two storey cabin with only one bathroom between us. With 9 gals going to the festival this year, we decided to have two cabins, which would've been fine, except it was completely open plan. One big room with beds, bunks, lounge and kitchen all in together and then a separate bathroom/closet with the toilet and shower in a tiny little alcove. So it was a good thing that we all like each other. But a bit harsh on the larks who wanted to sleep from 9pm while the owls were partying. Next year, if we have two cabins, we will separate the larks from the owls - it's just those pesky people in between who can't make up their mind whether they are larks or owls, will be the problem.

On Sunday afternoon, I captured this photo. I don't think I have ever seen the moon near a rainbow before. How cool!

Sunday afternoon, I spent in the bar with Roby, testing out the Vodka and Lime, while we wondered if there would be a party or not that evening. We then went to the last session, 10 years of the Byron Bay Writers Festival, where they honoured Jill Eddington for the amazing work she has done running the Festival. Then we saw them in the distance. At first we thought they were school kids in wild and zany feathered costumes with drums, jumping up and down, trying to keep warm. But the drums started beating, and the wobble boards wobbled, spinning their strange vibrations into the air, and they marched towards us, we realised it was a bunch of hyperactive adults, having a ball. And then the party really started...

Still coke free.

I am on Day 4 of being coke-free and surprisingly I haven't had a caffeine headache yet. Maybe it's because I'm not trying to do this while coping with customers, and team leaders and work. When I feel tired, I can just rest.

So I have tackled some of the 'to-do' list. The sample pages of my manuscript have been sent, I have printed off some gorgeous business cards, I have put together the main pages of the 2007 diary, and I have updated my blogs. I didn't win lotto - so, it looks like I will be back at work in two weeks time.

I have joined Quickflix. Living out in the country, I don't want to hire DVD's from the shops in town, and then have to drive for half an hour and back to return them if that's the sole reason I'm going to town for the day. So yesterday, I watched two episodes of Six Feet Under (season 4). Another one this morning, two more to go and I can post the discs back. I am amazed at the variety of DVD's Quickflix have - I have stuff in 'my queue' which I've been trying to get from local shops for years.

Only 2 days to Bryon Bay Writers Festival - how exciting! Looking forward to the great company, food and mental stimulation. How many new authors will I discover this year? Although my fundage is a bit tight this year, so much money has gone on medication - I could never have predicted this a year ago. Still, I keep telling my partner if he doesn't look after himself and eat properly while I'm away for four nights - I'll be shipping him home to his mum, and she can look after him.

Yesterday, I thought would be my first partner-free day of my holidays. Nope. Didn't happen. He didn't go to TAFE because he was feeling sick. I'm not sure he's ready for full-time study again at this point, although he doesn't want to admit it to himself. But he went today. It's so peaceful out here, lots of birds and the cat meowing, the occasional car. But that's it. Aah, feel the serenity!

On holidays

It feels so good to hang up the phone on Friday afternoon, walk out the door at work, and know you don't have to return for two whole weeks!

Yipee! And I've earned these two weeks.

But don't think I'm going to be sitting on my butt all day, stuffing my face and watching Ellen, Dr Phil and Oprah. I may spend some of it sitting on my butt, but I have much bigger goals to achieve.

• I have to polish 20 pages of my novel for an editorial consultation (that's due Monday but then the consultation is more than a week away, so I can spend some time on the rest of it).
• More collage poetry.
• Create some business cards for Chickollage and add some more designs (see above)
• Find some writing mojo at Byron Bay Writers' Festival - and eat, drink and have fun!
• Give up coke (the liquid, not the powder). This one was supposed to start today, but I weakened after several hours of shopping past the evil caffeine hour. But it's been 5 hours now. I wonder if there is a Coca-Cola Anonymous?
• write some more of Hold the Anchovies
• create a 2007 diary on Publisher
• take some scenic photos around the local area
• update all my blogs including the collage poetry blog, and Diary of a Mad Cat as Dorkus is feeling neglected
• learn the basics of Photoshop and Frontpage
• reconnect with some old friends and family

The other goal is to win lotto tonight, so I don't have to go back to work in two weeks, but I guess that one is completely out of my control!

Big creative weekend

Wow, what a huge weekend for thinking creatively.

On Friday night, eight of the NVWG members met to discuss and brainstorm our group novel. So far, nine chapters have been written over a period of two years. I have never worked in a collaboration on a novel before (although I have on performance pieces) so it is an interesting experience. And an interesting night - we ate and drank, and talked and laughed, and argued, and justified, and excused.

The problem at this point, is that the novel is too plot-driven without enough emphasis on character - each writer has added something dramatic to keep the drama going forward without enough attention to the present time of the novel, and its starting to resemble a soap opera. It will be interesting to see where it goes from here, and how long it takes to finish the story. I think we're signing up for the long haul.

Next morning, we held a workshop on how to conduct a workshop. I learned a lot of skills which I hope to put to good use some time.

And then we had the usual lunch at the pub, followed by the monthly meeting. We constructed some stories, with each word starting with a letter in alphabetical order. How hard is it when you get to XYZ? Maybe the trick is to start from the end of the alphabet, get those three tricky ones out of the way, and work your way back to it.

Here's my sad attempt:

After being crazy, David exhaled fast. God had invoked justice, Kingdom, loyalty. Madam, never overestimate piety! Quench real salty thirst. Ugly violent wicked xenophobes! Your zealot.

Doesn't make much sense but it was fun. So, what do you come up with?


This is one of my favourite collage poems so far - because we all know that there's no such thing, especially down at the local shop. This image is now available on T-shirts and stickers at my Chickollage store at cafepress. Can't wait to wear the T-shirt at the Byron Bay Writers Festival!!

No more free education

I went to a information session on a TAFE I.T. course with my partner the other day as he was enrolling. One of the teachers tried to persuade me to enrol as well - said they had husband and wife teams in the course before. I told him I had a full-time job so it wasn't appropriate but I had picked up a brochure about an Associate Degree in writing available externally through the Uni. The info session had made me think, and yearn to learn again. And for a couple of hours, I entertained the thought of enrolling in the degree. Until I checked it out on the uni website and saw the fees. It would cost just under $10,000 and that would take a long time to pay back.

There was a time once when Uni was free in Australia - there was no HECS, no HELP - whatever the heck they call it now - you only paid your compulsory student union fees. I marched in the demonstrations to keep university free but our voices were ignored. My final year of Uni cost me $2000 and was paid back years ago. Now an Arts degree is approx $4500 per year and the student union fees are voluntary?

So my idea of furthering my education won't involve any more university qualifications. I will stick to the day courses at the community college instead.

I was a bit peeved that I had to cough up the enrolment fee for TAFE for my partner, but when you compare it to the cost of the uni degree, it seems like a bargain. And then when I consider the fact that he will be at TAFE, while I have two weeks holiday in August, and will therefore have time to edit, compose collage poetry, and whatever, it is worth every cent!!

Running on empty

I drive a 22 year old car. I bought it this year and it was a bargain, one lady owner who probably only drove it to the shops and back, judging by the mileage. I do at least 300 kilometres a week, and that's just to work and back, more if I go into town on the weekend, or go to writers' group meetings. My fuel guage doesn't work, which is not an issue because I always note when I put in petrol. So last week I put $20 in the car with the odometer reading ...007. An easy number to remember? So why on Tuesday morning, on the way to work, did I run out of petrol, only 125 kilometres later? It doesn't add up. Unless the petrol was siphoned out of my car.

It's not the only thing being stolen in the area. Whole bunches of bananas are disappearing off trees overnight. They are hot commodity after Cyclone Larry wiped out much of the Australian banana industry in March.

It was lucky that I ran out of petrol on the way to work, and not on the way home after doing overtime. The road can be almost deserted at night. I was about 2 kilometres out of my village, and about 4 kilometres from home, but with no mobile signal. I flagged down a driver heading back towards my house, and scored a lift. Dragged my partner out of bed, took a gerry can of petrol to the car, and then took it back to the general store to fill it up. I missed about an hour of work, and admitted when I arrived that my car problems were as a result of running out of petrol. But I won't be taking any more chances. I'll be putting more petrol in every second day to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Chick Manifesto

I have launched my Chickollage store at Cafepress with this Chick Manifesto & The Bitch Club.

Serendipity

I had 45 minutes to kill this morning before my doctor's appointment, so I decided to drop into a charity store and find some more magazines to mutilate and turn into collage poetry.

Not only did I find several magazines, I found Anybody Out There? by Marian Keyes, which I've been putting off buying, and a huge book on The Doors, which I'm sure will find a new and appreciative owner through ebay.

So, it was meant to be. Plus we scored a three piece cane lounge (frame only) for $25 from The Tender Center. We just need to get cushions for it and it's going to be fabulous for lazy days reading the paper on our back verandah. And the best news is, I didn't have to go to work. Love those rostered days off --it makes the 9 hour days worth it.

I really needed a laugh today. 9 hour day at work, and I think I did more talking than the customers, so at the end of it, I thought I'd lose my voice. And the 9 hours crawled...seemed more like 18 hours. So tonight, I decided to visit Miss Snark, and found her post on queries. Oh boy, I laughed! And for more amusement, I might pull out my manuscripts and read pages 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55 and 89. In that order. We had a collage poetry workshop on Saturday at my writers' group meeting. I didn't feel very inspired. I don't think I can do the group thing now when it comes to creating collage poems. I like to let the words and phrases sit together, and form interesting combinations - and for me, that has become a solitude activity, and one that my subconscious continues to work on while my thoughts are preoccupied with reality. Our homework for the meeting was to write a 50 word story. I wrote a story about reality TV on Sunday, and the first draft was 86 words. I had to cut more than a third of the story. ON Monday, I took it with me to work and slashed and rewrote, and slashed some more, until eventually I have a 50 word story. I may try some more between now and the next meeting - it is certainly good editing practice.

A hit - a palpable hit!

Sorry, bit of Shakespeare coming out. Must be the R&J post I just posted on Chickollage. Anyway, what did I hit? My manuscript. Today, during my lunch break, I plunged right in from the beginning and made a start on the edit, the revision, the rewrite, the second draft - whatever you want to call it. And I wrote more words. And crossed out many. And I got deeper into the scene, into the description, the setting, into Chloe's head. And I felt that I had accomplished something. I'm going to forget about the overall story edit at the moment, and just do some layering, scene by scene, chapter by chapter. The big structural stuff can come later when I have larger blocks of time to dedicate to it.

The Bitch Club

This image is now available as a T-shirt, mouse pad or tote bag at my new Chickollage store!

This is the collage poem I completed on the public holiday on Monday. I've known some 'crazy bitches in my time - this is dedicated to them. I quite like this one - black, dark and true. My partner finishes his TAFE course this week. Sigh of relief. He's not a writer and doesn't profess to be so each written assignment has been a source of renewed frustration. Much better at the practical stuff - the camera work, the filming. I'll be glad when it's over as well because my editing skills won't be called upon so much. I'm back at work again although a bit in limbo - may have to go back to the permanent position on Monday. Haven't been given the word as yet. Although my permanent team leader was preparing to put my stuff in storage today because he thought I'd be in the temp position a bit longer. I suppose I'll find out tomorrow. Don't particularly like limbo land.

Holiday is over

Well, I was right about the lack of holiday time to myself. I spent most of the week helping my partner with his DVD project on the Glenreagh Mountain Railway. Launch night was Saturday night, and just our luck, it poured all day Saturday. We haven't rain since we moved into this house. In fact, the situation had got so desperate, our rainwater tank ran out, and we had to fill it with town water. So we really, really wanted rain - just not on Saturday. But of course, it's a long weekend here -- and that usually guarantees rain. Part of the evening was to include a ride on the steam train, 'Steaming under the Stars', and that looked in jeopardy. Somehow the rain eased up, over a hundred people turned up to the launch, and enjoyed the film. The rain was light so Betty the steam train, was still able to do complete the planned outing. Sunday morning, we woke up to blue sky and it has been that way since. Murphy's Law! So now it's Monday of the long weekend, the last day of my 'holiday' - so I'm putting together some more collage poems, updating my blogs, and will tackle some of my editing. Then I'll have to work out an 'after work' structure to fulfill my writing goals and not spend all of my time on the net.

Holiday - NOT!

I have this week off work. It's supposed to be a holiday. And I had planned to spend the week editing my novel. As they say, all good plans... Saturday we spent the day running around town, trying to get the final cut for the doco that my partner is releasing next Saturday. Sunday I managed a day of general relaxation and watched the first disc of the Twin Peaks DVD set. Just love Kyle MacLachlan. Yesterday, I drove two hours to do my dad's accounts, a frustrating half hour or so trying to get through to the tax office, and two hours drive back. By 11pm last night, I was stuffed, and not prepared to play games with NBN Television, who for some crazy reason have decided to move the screening of Six Feet Under from 10.30 at night to 12.30 in the morning. As if 10. 30 is such a ratings giant anyway! Guess I'll have to wait for the DVD's of that one. Today, we went to see a diabetes educator, followed by a dietitian - at least I know I'm on the right track food wise. Tomorrow, we drive another hour so that my partner can sit a TAFE exam. Not sure how I will amuse myself while he's doing the exam but I'm sure I'll find something. On Friday, we have yet another doctor's appointment, but at least it's an early one, so then we'll come back home and finish off the work for the DVD release on Saturday. Saturday is the big launch. And then hopefully, Sunday and Monday, we will have some time at home - enjoying our garden, and sunshine. We'll see! So that's my holiday -- as you can tell, I'm getting plenty of R&R before I go back to work on Tuesday. Here's the BEAUTIFUL trophy I won! I remember when Anne first showed us the trophy (the day I took this picture) and we were all coveting it. I never imagined that I would be the one taking it home! Cool! Although I must say, I'm glad we don't have to write with quills anymore. Even typewriters - what tedium to have to type the whole manuscript again when you edit! Speaking of editing, I have to admit that I've been a naughty girl. All I've done so far is coloured in my manuscript - orange or yellow for dialogue (depending on which highlighter was working at the time), green for description or action, and pink for interior monologue. It sure looks purty! But I can also see pages of almost one colour, which immediately indicates that it needs work. I want a good solid block of time to sit down and read the whole thing from start to finish and do a good structural edit before I get into the nitty gritty, but that time is eluding me, and the internet has sucked me once again - oh well, at least I now have cute avatars of my main characters - Chloe and Luke, and their respective cats, Miss Lizzy and Snowball.

What do you mean I won?

Yesterday

Her brain was dead

Toast

- nothing unusual.

Today, the boss is yelling,

on the nose

out of control

A real tyrant

She's

haunted by

over-the-top

rumours

drama

secrets

the power clique

Everyone has had a say.

BLAH BLAH BLAH

She's a mess

hiding behind the nightmare

One mistake could ruin your life

but

after

a month of psychotherapy

she's brainwashed.

Exciting news! The writer's group ran a poetry competition and the winners were announced on Saturday at our AGM. I'm stunned! I won first prize with the poem above - Yesterday. And I won 2nd prize with Sex and the Single Girl. (see below) So I know I'm write on track. I will bring you a photo of the trophy shortly - it's a beautiful silver quill atop a wooden stand, donated by our life member, Anne.

It was strange because I had the digital camera out, ready to take a picture of the winner, and then my name was announced. I think they wished they'd had a camera pointing at me, because the look of my face was 'priceless.'

It inspired me because on Sunday not only did I design the DVD cover for my partner's documentary project, but I assembled another collage poem. My aim is now to have 50 collage poems collated and printed beautifully, ready for the Byron Bay Writers' Festival, because you just never know who you are going to run into.

Sex and the Single Girl 365 days of Men Oh my Lord! Serious Fun Throw Caution to the Wind and Shop Yourself Stupid Sussing out the bad boys/ wise guys / smooth-talkers / heartbreakers Mr Muscle Mr Right Now Mr Totally Wrong Too much mindless sex? Too much is never enough Guys with fear of commitment, inner demons, anxiety, paranoia Why worry? Just blow them away Laugh it off! Move on.

Back from Adelaide

I'm back from Adelaide. Working in a temporary position. Getting my head around my partner having diabetes. Doing an editing workshop but not much writing.


During the 18 days I was in Adelaide, I only had two days when I wasn't working. Nice money, but not much time to be a tourist! So unfortunately, no Barossa Valley, no Glenelg, no Hahndorf, no Port Adelaide. Next time, perhaps.

But I did do a lot of walking around Adelaide, and visited the Casino twice. And haunted a lot of shops - if you're after music or DVD's, I can recommend The Muses in Rundle Mall, and for a quirky little second hand store, check out The Market Emporium??? in a tiny alley off Rundle St.

So my photos are from Rundle Mall: the famous landmark affectionately called the Mall's Balls, and the cute little pig statues.

There was no culture happening while I was in town: the arts industry was recovering from the Adelaide Festival and Fringe Festival in March. Maybe I can get to be in Adelaide for work when the Festival is on!

Somewhere over the rainbow....

Sunrise from our weekend away.

A view from the backyard-- We get quite a lot of rain where I live, but when it's accompanied by one of these - how can I do anything but smile? I beat the rain home from my writers' group meeting and managed to see the magical five minutes that this rainbow was visible before it started to pour.

Still haven't managed to spend a great deal of home, and now I'll be going to Adelaide for three weeks right after Easter. I'm travelling for work so I'm not sure how much time I will have to be a tourist, but I'm sure there's a wine glass in the Barossa Valley with my name on it. Of course, the Adelaide Festival and Fringe Festival have both just finished, so the month of April is a cultural void on the Adelaide calendar as the arts world recovers. I'm sure I'll find something - a student production, some music gigs. Something has to be happening down there.

Chris Wilson - are you reading? Come and do a gig in Adelaide at the end of April. You have no tour dates on your website for April so perhaps you are free!

But while I am in Adelaide, I plan to do some more collage poetry and some editing of the film festival manuscript. Plus some general writing about Adelaide for future reference. Never know when I might want to set a story there.

I leave you with another photo from the lighthouse.

Writing Retreat

The excavation has been a success, so I can bring you some pictures from the Writing Retreat:

Excavating

Back from a fabulous weekend with my writing buddies with my head spinning full of ideas. Chickollage will be much more than first envisioned.

And we have settled into the new house - well almost! There are still quite a few boxes to be unpacked, my scanner to be excavated, my USB cable for the digital camera to be discovered. I guess it is like being on an archaeological dig, sifting through centuries of time for hidden treasure.

We picked the right day to move. It has rained almost constantly since...hence the boxes that remain untouched in the shed. And I’m working more hours in response to the cyclone that ravaged the north end of our country. Home is not quite home yet. To date it is still just a place to eat and sleep. Oh but what sleep! It is of different quality to the suburban slumber interrupted by the sounds of trucks and cars at all hours. Here we converse with the crickets and the birds greet us with squawks and laughs but the deep long hours of the night are peaceful and dark.

The time it takes me to travel to or from work now is full of wonder. This morning, the hills were smothered in fog, tonight I watched a glorious sunset and lamented that I did not have my camera with me. The countryside is so beautiful, I’d rather travel the curving backroad than the exhaust choked highway any day.

A weekend of writing and moving

Big weekend coming up. I'm going on a writing retreat with my writing group buddies, staying at a lighthouse - meanwhile the significant other will be moving our stuff from noisy suburbia to Paradise. And I mean Paradise! I saw the house last weekend and I will have my own writing room - a sunroom - and I can already picture how it will look. The room gets the morning sun which I think will be really nice for a leisurely Saturday or Sunday morning writing, while the s.o. snores away.

The backyard has a lemon tree, an orange tree, a mandarin tree and a quince tree. We have big wide verandahs and it looks so inviting, especially after a hard week's work. Once we are settled in, I can't imagine I will be coming into town much on the weekend.

So how did I manage to get out of the physical labour of moving for the second time in a year? All in the timing. I need to book my time off around 6 weeks in advance, so I had booked a day off last week. Closer to the time when I realised we hadn’t found anywhere to live, I changed it to next Monday. But my s.o. doesn’t want to do the moving on Monday, he’s decided to do it on Sunday while I am at the retreat. What can I say? I’m not complaining!

But on Monday I will be cleaning the vacated house, so I guess it all evens out in the end.

The Chick Collage Poetry is coming along well, and I’ve got a lovely cover – just need to collate some more poems to fill it. There's always Friday night at the retreat. Here’s a preview of the cover.

And I've printed out the first draft of the film festival novel, ready to edit in my brand new writing room. Me? Excited? Never.

Competition for Blog Explosion Members:
In a general spellcheck/grammar edit of my manuscript, I found the following error:

Travis is still in the lounge room. He probably doesn't want to come into the bedroom to cop another dose of my fury. I'm not going to have a whowhere. I don't want to spend another moment here longer than I have to.


20 blog explosion credits to the first person who can tell me what the hell I meant by 'whowhere'!!

Sex and the Single Girl: a collage poem

Sex and the Single Girl

365 days of men
Oh my Lord!
Serious Fun
Throw caution to the wind and Shop Yourself Stupid
Sussing out the Bad Boys Wise Guys Smooth Talkers Heartbreakers
Mr Muscle Mr Right Now Mr Totally Wrong
Too much mindless sex?
Too much is never enough
Guys with fear of commitment, inner demons, anxiety, Paranoia
Why Worry?
Just Blow them away...
Laugh it off
Move On

Blogger is a poetry snob

Here is a collage poem: LOVE RAT

Actually - no collage poem as Blogger won't cooperate. Let's try another picture: - I think something will happen this time because the lines around the triangle are flashing.

So Blogger obviously likes Moving Pics but not my collage poetry!

This picture came from an Oz rock magazine which I purchased on ebay.

It begs the question: is this the best photo taken by the photographer? Did he only take one? Alex has his eyes closed in the shot - not the best look. I've taken better pictures of the band, and I'm sure I wasn't using the same equipment that the photographer would have had.

Okay, so now I'm convinced that Blogger doesn't like my collage poetry although I've only tried to upload the one called LOVE RAT!

I'll try another: The FAME GAME

Still doesn't want to work!

I guess the files are too big, and blogger doesn't like that. Or blogger is a poetry snob and thinks it should be written only in text form and not include scanned fonts from magazines. I'll work out the technical issues. But I don't see the problem: the Moving Pics photo I just uploaded was scanned from an A4 size of paper, the collage poems are collated on A4 paper. There should be no difference. So my conclusion still rests with Blogger being a poetry snob!

Moving Pics Pic

I found my flash drive - it had fallen behind a cupboard, doing its best to hide from me. So I'm happy again - and hopefully now able to bring you some pictures.

I've been buying more Moving Pictures items from ebay - here's a fabulous pic of Alex from a Japanese mag.

I have tried to upload a collage poem, but it didn't work - I'll try again tomorrow!

Try not to panic

Aagh, I can't find my flash drive. I'm sure I had it on Monday night when I loaded my complete collated first draft of the film festival story on to it, and some collage poetry (yes I was going to load a preview of the poetry on my blog) and now I can't find it.

Because we've started the packing process (or the man of the house has!), it could be anywhere - in any number of boxes.

I will not panic - I will use other backup methods in the meantime until I find the elusive little beast.

Not much writing going on at the moment, although I have started the process of spell checking/grammar checking the film festival story. I'm probably going to have to make two versions - the US one with double quotation marks (!!!) and lots of 'z's' (Today's episode of Sesame Street was brought to you by the letter Z' and the Aussie/English version with the single quotation marks and spelling with the letter 's'.

So much packing to do. So much work to do at the day job (although it's rapidly turning into day/night job as I spend more time there then at home). I think perhaps my brain might explode. But maybe not. If it does, I'll write a story about it.

March is the month to....

So much to do, so little time.

Moving House: Yesterday morning we got the okay for a new rental property. We're going back to Paradise. Back to the sticks, far enough from town to feel like sanctuary but close enough to travel to work, supermarkets and all the regional centre necessities. Not sure if we'll be quite back to kangaroos in the backyard as we were with the last property, but it sure beats having beer bottles lunged over the fence at your car, sharing driveways, and constant traffic noise all night.

We'd stopped packing. We'd been looking at houses and not finding anything that even approximated value for money, and this one came to us as a gift, a sequence of events that shows that this house was meant to be.

Writing Contest: I received my results from the Chick Lit Stiletto contest for my film festival manuscript (first 3 chapters and synopsis), and I am very encouraged by the comments from the judges. I now know that I'm definitely Write on Track. So March is the month to edit and rewrite this manuscript, working title: Making the Cut, as well as declutter, pack and move. Might have to rethink that - April may be the month to edit. March - I will write what I can.

New Car: And I've got wheels again. After months of being chauffeured, I have my own car. The little old lady one owner cliche, it's a beauty and a bargain and it's great to be driving again, especially down the highway. I didn't realise how much I'd missed driving.

Writers' Retreat: I'm also going on a retreat with my Writers' Group. We'll be staying in the lightkeepers cottages so I''m sure we will have a lot of fun, laughter and creativity over that weekend.

So March if full on: Please excuse me if I don't blog too often. I'll miss it but there is so much to do!

Collage Poetry

67,800 / 85,000 (79.8%)

Okay, progress on the novel seems to be crawling at the moment. I think it's at the stage where I don't want to let go and I don't have to if I don't keep going with the story. It's time to get a kick start and I've found in my previous manuscript - tackling a scene from another character's point of view opened up a whole new sub-plot and revealed why she acted so strange. From my main character Chloe's POV, she could only observe and see what Genevieve chose to reveal, but once I got into Genevieve's head, it all made send. Talk about skeletons in the closet! And it wasn't just the skeleton hiding in there!

Although there hasn't been much progress on the novel, my creativity has still been getting a workout...

Jennifer from my writer's group, introduced us to Collage Poetry. You cut words and phrases from magazines and then assemble the words to make a poem. We undertake this as an inebriated activity during our annual pilgrimage to the Byron Bay Writers' Festival.

Recently I've been cutting up a lot of Cosmopolitans and Cleo magazines from the nineties. And the articles never seem to change: How to dump a guy, how to tell if he's the one, how to tell if he's cheating, how to get over a broken heart, and the mandatory sex and the single girl articles. Loads of chick lit type scenarios and phrases.

I cut out the phrase '365 days of men' and was immediately inspired to create a book of chick lit collage poetry. I have excavated the collage poetry I've assembled over the last few years - although I can't find the LOVE-RAT poem - the poem composed during a session with an ad hoc writing group at work. The Love Rat has gone missing - as they often do!

I had fun sorting my pronouns, articles and conjunctions from the rest of the words at work. My podmate asked me if I was composing ransom notes or blackmail letters. NO! Collage poetry is more interesting and involves more lateral thinking than your average ransom note. The words are already there, waiting to be discovered, waiting for new associations and assemblages.

I rarely write conventional poetry. I had a moment a couple of years ago when a poem composed itself within 15 minutes from one image - 'hangnail moon'. I was still half asleep when I wrote it and I truly believe that the poem was channelled and I was merely the scribe. It hasn't happened since. Even when I did a poetry workshop, I had to force the images.

I sent that poem, called Prayer, to poetry.com. Ever since then, according to my inbox, I am a lauded international poet, invited to attend their poetry convetions (at a price), submit to upcoming publications (at a price) and collect awards which will only cost X number of dollars.

Next time they send me an email, perhaps I should tell them I have never written a poem since. But I can't be bothered. Instead I'm going to keep assembling the collage poetry and self-publish. It will cheaper than buying one of their volumes, and it will be all mine!

Blogging on a meal break (no food being consumed)

Still no internet access at home and probably won't get it back until I move in approx 6 weeks time. Still got to find a new place, and hopefully cheaper so that I can stop donating the majority of my funds to paying off someone else's mortgage and save for my own.

Blogging on a meal break before I pop back upstairs for overtime. Thinking of the money. My throat doesn't want to cooperate. Too many phone calls where I had to do too much talking today so tomorrow for Australia Day, I think I will take a vow of silence. Hard though with my partner, he doesn't stop talking and expects me to answer.

Still stagnating a bit with the writing - probably has gone up by about a thousand words but I need to get my act together. Just reread Stephen King's On writing which is inspirational.

signing off before I get kicked off the library computer by the next booking.

Musical memories

66,041 / 75,000 (88.1%)

That word count is starting to look very nice. Amazing what I can do with no internet, no television.

Still been watching movies. A DVD player and a data projector, and we have a home cinema and the cat is freaking out at the helicopters flying into the lounge room. Actually, I think he's quite amused by it, but he does leave the room or sulk under the table if it gets too noisy.

With the current musical obsession, I asked my partner the other day who he had seen in concert. So while I have seen Eurythmics four times, Transvision Vamp, Sandii & the Sunsetz, Hoodoo Gurus, Divinyls, Bachelor Girl, Leonardo's Bride, Chris Wilson x numerous incarnations, Moving Pics (as we know from my blog), Prince, Uncanny X Men, QED (Jenny Morris), k d lang, Jane Siberry, the Cranberries, Dynamic Hepnotics, Jon English, Tiddas,Deborah Conway, The Badloves, The Angels, Bjorn Again, jimmy Barnes, Ian Moss (but NOT Cold Chisel), Wendy Matthews and that's just what I can dredge up from my memory, he has never paid to see a live act because they're too expensive. Actually, I don't think he even listens to music for pleasure (just for work because he's a DJ). Well he's going to have to listen to some music now because he's in for a retrospective from my CD's.

So who have you seen live?