Daisy Chains - my collection of short stories...

Hello everyone

As some of you know I have published a small collection of short stories. The book is available in Canberra at Smiths Alternative Bookshop 76 Alinga St Canberra City (in the Melbourne Building).

Description:
Take a journey from New York to Sydney, Jenin, and Brisbane. Intriguing stories of shock revelations, betrayal, loss, grief, forgiveness, grace, and political and personal conflict as well as much more.

"You don't expect your life to change forever on a balmy, September evening walking to the ATM to get money for dinner. But mine did." One Beautiful Night.

Some comments received about the book:

A Gem of a Book 25 Jul 2007 (From Lulu.com)

by jadzia1994

Each one of these stories is a little gem. Intriguing, and too the point. The author doesn't waste her words as she describes the action and scene. Very well written.
Anne Rogers, Australia.

"The stories pulled me in straight away and I couldn't stop reading them until the end. Very compelling," Karen Eggleston, Australia.

"I've finished reading your book and I enjoyed the stories very much. They are well written and I lived with the characters. They were the right length and the endings were subtle enough to keep the reader interested." Michael Acton, UK.

"I especially liked the bit of a twist in the first story, Forward Thinking, I loved it. Maybe the idea of giving one's life to a greater cause spoke to me a bit, I'm not sure," Joseph Picard, Canada.

"I loved reading this book. It struck me as original and interesting. I especially liked the Forward Thinking story." Kris Wynn, Australia.

Third Year of the Novel

Well, another Year of the Novel day has happened and this particular session was really what I needed to kick me into gear. It is always very motivating to hear other people say they have been writing religiously every weekend etc and to realise that I have not been utilising my time the way I should be.

At the moment I have some time and I am really enjoying using it for writing.

YON Number Three was great. We had a little field trip outside where we were to stalk someone and write down characteristics of them and also, create what we wanted their inner world to be. This was fun and also very good to do as an excercise. I often find myself doing this naturally, if I'm sitting at a bus stop or at a coffee shop, I like to imagine what the people are talking about, where they are going, what they're thinking, are they happy? Many things. So this excercise was good and the girls I went with were fun.

A glass of wine (only one) and a walk, what more can get your creative juices flowing? I enjoyed having conversations with the people in the breaks, discussing their projects and their lives to some degree. The support one gains from this is enormous because we don't feel alone in pursuing writing.

What Veny taught was excellent as well. It is always very informative and strangely what I really need to learn at the time, so I am really happy about that.

For example; I had been thinking about how I needed to put more detail into my novel, more beautiful detail as in the sensual details, sight, smell, sound etc and that was what he was talking about. Making sure that we use detail and make the novel a sensual experience. Of course, I have read this before and learnt it through courses but it was just what I had been thinking was lacking in my novel in the past weeks.

Veny also talked about "Verbal Sensitivity" which is constructing beautiful phrasing and making the story "sing". This is also something I had been thinking about in my work. I always want to do this. This is what we want in art, to read, see, hear something beautiful something that takes us out of the everyday and maybe even (if we're lucky) we can taste the Divine...who knows?

I love imagery, and "cadence" which is what I have written above my desk. Cadence - I need to read through my stories and chapters and writing a lot more to "hear" how it flows or doesn't as the case may be. I have long known and wanted to improve this in my work. I know that sometimes I have achieved a good melody with my words, but I think the writer is always wanting more of that and to make it better. The endless quest.

Also, he talked about "originality and accuracy" being original and not copying other's styles. I believe that even if we do attempt to copy other people's styles if you are a true artist you will be totally original anyway. For example, when I researched and read Van Gogh's letters to Theo a few years ago, he was saying how he was copying all of the greats of Dutch painting. The paintings he said were imitations of these "masters" but they were nothing like the masters, because I got to see what he was imitating and his drawings but what you could see was his individual stamp on the work. Something only he could've achieved. This amazed me and made me less afraid of that learning period where we study others and try to imitate, but hopefully we are doing our own thing really. Bob Dylan did this with Woodie Guthrie, while Bob was discovering his own voice he was seen as almost a Woodie Guthrie impersonator, because he mimicked everything down to his clothes, the way he stood and sang. However this was only for a time and now who in all of pop music history is considered one of the most original artists that has ever been if it is not Bob Dylan.

My highest compliment was paid to me the other day. Someone who read my collection of short stories, said to me:

"I really liked your collection, I thought it was really original. Especially the middle eastern story."

Originality is the biggest compliment for an artist because they know that they are doing their own thing. Really my highest achievement would be to be considered completely different to anything that's going on. We can only dream. However, I lived on that compliment and it still makes me feel good now. (You've got to take what you can get...hey?)

Thirdly, he talked about intelligence and using our wit to make our stories interesting, amusing and to question the way things are. This is also something I love to do through my writing. I remember reading "The Lives of Girls and Women" in Year 9 at school, being taught by my lesbian English teacher and being amazed at how a novel could, through narrative, comment on the way things are and question whether they should be this way. I decided that I wanted to write books like this, that incorporated philosophy and told a story.

I have also, interestingly enough, started to think about the humour topic as well for my novel.
There is fortunately a lot of humour that I can draw into my new novel idea and before the session I was thinking about how I can incorporate this to make it more fresh and interesting to read. So this was another area, where I went "yes, I have been thinking about this...excellent."

Anyway, consequently I am very motivated in the last few days to keep moving forward with my novel.

However, there has been one snag due to the antagonist, whilst present in memories and phone calls, is not physically present throughout the whole novel. This is a large problem that I will have to address in some way...difficult, but I am ever so grateful that I am doing YON because at least I know where I am going wrong, otherwise I would be labouring in the dark. I am very glad I can see where the problem is and that I can change it before I go too far. I am very happy to be doing the YON and Veny has been extremely helpful with certain issues with my novel. Also, the people are wonderful to spend the day with, funny, attentive and interesting.

Setting goals for my writing!

Hello everyone

Anyone who has been reading my blog would know that I am trying to move forward in any way possible, to develop my work further and hopefully take advantage of opportunities that are available to writers.

So, this post is simply about making short term goals: I have written a few and I have posted them above my desk. I think it is useful for everybody in any of the artistic disciplines to set short term achievable goals, because otherwise you sit at home with no movement forward. Only getting bogged down in the fact that nothing is happening.

These are the assumptions I am working on. I find when I am doing something, even if it is approaching a publisher or someone else, and even if I get rejected - I still feel better because at least that day wasn't wasted. I tried and got rejected. It's better to do that than to waste your life, thinking you'll fail and never making any forward or pro active steps.

Every knock back means that you hopefully learn something, if only it is to persevere. This sounds like a pep talk, but it's sort of for myself.

Anyway, I hope everyone who is labouring to produce art will be encouraged to keep going, setting small goals and just continuing on. Thanks for reading.

Year of the Novel and Writers Groups

Hello everyone

Next week is our third Year of the Novel session, I am looking forward to it.

It is very useful as we learn so much about the creation of tension through conflict and how to structure this tension etc. I have been so spurred on by simply talking to other writers. I am looking forward to our third meeting, to seeing the same writers again and bonding over our efforts or non efforts since we last talked.

I am also wondering about a writers group. The hardest thing with writing is not having peers, people who can tell you where you are in the scale of things. All of the famous authors and indeed artists of many types had peers and famous ones at that, that were able to tell them where they were and how to improve themselves. So my question is, how do I get into that situation?

Hemmingway was friends with F Scott Fizgerald (I think), Mary Shelley was married to the poet Percy Shelley, Van Gogh hung out with (somewhat famous at the time) impressionist painters like Gaugain and Manet and others. Bob Dylan immersed himself in folk music and lived in Greenwich Village and met the right people. He met his idol, Woodie Guthrie, was given a guitar from Johnny Cash and knew various other people. I realise I am not as talented as these people, especially Hemmingway, I am not comparing myself to any of these artists. However, the concept is there that along with their talent they also were able to build on this and make it even better. But, even having another writer with similar desires would probably be beneficial to my work. Venero, in last time's session said he had a friend who had similar writing goals and they set each other tasks for one year. This kind of spurring on would be great.

I realise I am not in the league of the above artists, but I do want to try and develop as much as possible the skills I have. So anyway, I am seeking out a writers group hoping this can help.

In a way I have answered my own questions, I need to go to more events and eat, sleep and breathe writing. Does anyone else feel this way?

By the way, I saw this website recently that showed you if you have a life span of 80 years how many seconds you have left and the timer was ticking away furiously, counting it down. It disturbed me a little and I got off the website. However, since then I have had this feeling about death and about how we have little time really, to do things with our lives. Nobody really knows how much time we have. It makes me think many things, about my spiritual life and about my writing. So I am trying to move forward every day. To progress in many ways, and writing being one of them, every day.

Good luck with whatever you put your hand to and think a bit more deeply about life today...