Writing

I’m not going to tell you my goals.  Some Guru’s say that telling everyone commits you to sticking to them. On the other hand it could commit those you tell to keep nagging you about them. That’s something I don’t need. But that may work for you. We all respond differently. I have written my goals down.  I’ve kept the list short.  Experience has shown me that when I read them a month later if I have too many I’m daunted. It looks too hard and most of them drift away. I’m not writing down ‘lose at least 5 kilos…

A New Decade but not a good beginning. I have been holding off on writing anything about the start of this decade.  It is such a sad time in Australia for so many people that to say Happy New Year seems kind of cruel. As I watched the stunning and beautiful fireworks display over Melbourne city at midnight on New Year’s Day it was with mixed pleasure. Should we be celebrating with fireworks while beaches on the East Coast of Australia are crowded with thousands of people escaping the fires?  We wished each other happy New Year with hugs and…

The end of the year and it is time to review my year’s writing. This is a piece I wrote for my writing group.   Parade Day   I had an empty day at the end of the working week. Empty days are rare in my life especially since I began the on-line course, ‘Self publish your book with Joel Naoum’,  that has become very demanding. I don’t follow AFL so it took me a while to realise that it was the Grand Final Parade Day and therefore a public holiday. Not knowing this meant no social arrangements booked in.…

I have just read a piece by Australian author Ilka Tampke whose book, ‘Songwoman’ was voted the most ‘underrated book of the year’.  Her article in the Guardian starts by saying, ‘Writing is tough. My book went so unnoticed I won an award for it.’ Going unnoticed is the plight of so many of us writers. There could be an award for the most unnoticed book of the year. But I guess the underrated is better because not only was this book not noticed for some time, it was seen as a great book when it was noticed. Sadly, unnoticed…