Rumination

04 Saturday Jul 2015

Tags

Australian bush, healing, imponderables, poetry, survival

Which deeds would I change if I lived my life over?
Yes, a few – not a lot, I say thinking it over
For mistakes that I’ve made have caused changes in me
Which have made me today who I happen to be
Some things on the farm should have never been true
And some dire results haunt me all my life through
Yet the peace of the bush where we lived way back then
Taught me love for the country like those men of the pen
The dust, rock and gum trees, the freedom I feel
With the wind in my face have a quiet appeal
Hearing only the calls of a bird on the wing
When I’m there on my own I can hear my heart sing
Yes things happened to us that cause strong men to kneel
Yet my love of the bush I’m sure helped me to heal
Not just when the pain was too much to go through
And an innocent child found ‘numb’ easy to do
My mem’ries are scanty of the bad things back then
But bush wonders discovered I can relive again
Any time my heart aches I can be in that place
Under blue sky and red gum, gentle breeze on my face.

Thank You Thursday

02 Thursday Jul 2015

Posted by Zoetic Words in Elsa Holland, Emmylou Harris, FRIENDSHIP, Jupiters Casino, LIFE, LOVE, music, musicians, Rodney Crowell, THE WRITERS' LIFE, work

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How was your day dear? Woke up tired, pushed yourself to work, a crazy busy day and you’re exhausted? Yes, so was mine but I have a lot to be thankful for today.

Why was I so tired? Because I have the most wonderful friends! My friend Cass was offered tickets to see Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell at Jupiters Casino on the Gold Coast. Though she tried very hard, she just couldn’t make it so she suggested that our mutual friend and I might like to go. She knows us so well! So well that she’ll always be my friend, she knows too much!

So reasons I’m thankful today? Do you want them in alphabetical order? No? Oh well, here are just a few reasons:

We were given the opportunity to see a great show which reminded me how much I love music. Especially music where I can hear art in action. I heard each fabulous instrument played by a professional, an artist. Where the singers/songwriters are so talented that their words (which I could hear!) evoked emotions reminding me why it’s good to be alive, I could sing along, mostly silently but I apologise to the people around me for when I couldn’t keep completely silent.

My wonderful friend Mary collected me from work and drove us down and brought me home even, a generous thing to do involving at least 229 kilometres, arriving at my place after one o’clock this morning. Thankfully she stayed at my place to sleep for a while before attempting the drive home.

After about four hours sleep, I pushed my eyes back into my head and set off to work where we are still finishing off last years’ accounts. We haven’t quite finished yet and the tidy up will take a while but I could never have got as far as I did without the generous and cheerful help of Amanda, Grace and our new colleague Paige.

My lovely friend and critique partner, Elsa Holland, has been helping me to establish my platform as a writer and in celebration of all my lovely friends, long term and short, both real and cyber, she shouted my favourite steak sandwich while we discussed our goals and plans for the next few months.

After a frantic afternoon back with the accounts, to top things off, Paige and I caught the train together; the wrong train as it turns out. But you know what, we only went one station in the wrong direction before we realised and when we got out of the train, away from our phones and looked up, there were the last vestiges of a gorgeous sunset. The train back and the right train came along within 5 minutes each so no harm done.

So, thank you everyone who made my day such a good one. Lastly but not least, I’m grateful for my lovely warm bed which is calling to me now. Sleep well. I know I will!

Modern Monday

29 Monday Jun 2015

Posted by Zoetic Words in LIFE, MY BOOKS, THE WRITERS' LIFE, TORN

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books, conference, electronics, gizmos, Melbourne, music, planes, travel

When I started writing a historical novel, it was hard not to notice how many things I take for granted. The list grows regularly. Like travel for example. I’m booking a trip to Melbourne for a writers conference. I’ve decided to just go down for the barest minimum – down Friday morning and back Sunday evening. Just a three day weekend action packed then back Sunday night for work on Monday.

It does my head in if I think how long that would have taken for my characters in 1850. There were no flying visits in those days! No flying at all although one of my characters might just have had a broomstick she could ride…

What would they think if they time-travelled to 2015? Electricity, gas, electronic gizmos, kitchen gizmos, cars, traffic, recorded music whenever you wish to plug in some headphones and I’m sure you can think of a million other things which would be objects of wonder for those from a simpler time.

On the other hand, what do we miss, with all our technology and convenience?

We live our lives at a much faster pace, there is information coming at us from every direction, fewer ‘home’ musicians who would play for a sing-a-long, family time without the idiot box in the corner, when people would play games, read books aloud to the whole family. Even books were a much more precious resource. How many of you can remember when every new book was something to treasure and marvel at? When libraries were the only source of reference books, unless a fast talking travelling salesman had convinced your parents to invest in the latest expensive set of encyclopaedias.

Oh and when I pack for my conference in August I’ll be grateful that my 23 kilos of baggage allowance isn’t consumed by all those layers of clothing and corsets, neck to knee and smothered in petticoats to within an inch of your life! Yes there are pros and cons which are fun to think of and important for a writer to know so that your experience reading is as authentic as I can make it without any of us having to live that life. Pity really though I’m sure, if we could travel back to that time, after a while we would miss at least some of our modern conveniences.

What would you miss most? What do you miss most, even from your own lifetime? I’d love to hear from you.

New Year’s Resolution

28 Sunday Jun 2015

Posted by Zoetic Words in LIFE, MY BOOKS, THE WRITERS' LIFE, TORN, Uncategorized

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going on alone, hope, looking to the future, planning a new life, strength to go on

New Year? In June? Yes, well, I’m being forced to think about where I am, where I’ll end up if I keep on my current direction, and whether that’s what I want. I fear change will come whether I’m ready for it or not so it seems prudent to make some New Financial Year Resolutions, to set the direction for the year ahead.

Change is one thing we can count on and yet we almost all of us resist change sometime or other. The more drastic the change the harder it is to force oneself to make it, usually.

Mary Ellen, in Torn, is forced to make a life changing journey. How will she cope with having to move away from everyone and everything she has always known and loved to a country and a life on the other side of the world with people she barely knows? Leaving behind what you know and love can be like tearing out your heart. Having to do all of that when your body is in a weakened state by starvation would only make it harder. When you have lost your family and friends in death by the same starvation would test the mettle of anyone.

Would going on be easy? Of course not. What would she be thinking, whether she wanted to or not? Would she sometimes feel guilty that she survived when her loved ones did not? Would she sometimes wish she had not lived to watch them die? Of course. She would sometimes wish she didn’t have to go on without them.

What could give her the strength to go on? How could she drag herself back from the edge of the abyss of self pity and depression? What would give her comfort in the harsh world she finds herself in? Would she willingly put herself in the position where she could lose everyone she has come to love all over again? How can she motivate herself to begin all over again?

Questions I’ve had to answer for Mary in my book and some of the questions we might sometimes have to ask ourselves in real life.

Why do I write?

26 Friday Jun 2015

Posted by Zoetic Words in LIFE, MY BOOKS, POETRY, THE WRITERS' LIFE

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from the heart, Thanks, words

Why do I write?

For the love of great words
And of using them right
For the comfort they bring
In the darkness of night

In my own humble way
Trying to comfort and cheer
But it doesn’t require
High cost, calories or beer.

Because when it comes right
I feel such satisfaction
It’s a beautiful thing
Getting positive reaction

So here’s a ditty for you
Coming straight from my heart
From soul deep inside
Thanks for liking my art.

Word of the Week: Focus

25 Thursday Jun 2015

Posted by Zoetic Words in LIFE, THE WRITERS' LIFE

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focus, goals, Michael Hyatt, SMARTER goals

Yes, I know it’s not Wednesday but I’ve got a new word of the week. Maybe the month or the year! It won’t be a surprise I’m sure when I say it’s focus. I have been asked to find a word which will keep me ‘on target’ and what better word is there than FOCUS. What a good word to keep me on track, what is my central point, where to keep my attention or activity. Where is my centre, my heart, my core, what’s at my nucleus?

Firstly, what is worthy of my focus? What will get me where I want to go? What can I do which will get me there in the best, fastest, most efficient manner? What is your goal? For today, for this week, this month, this quarter, this year? No, it’s not new year and that ship has sailed so my new focus is on this financial year 2015/2016. This time my goals are not going to be nebulous, unformed things but clear, concise, SMART or should I say SMARTER. Thanks to Michael Hyatt at http://michaelhyatt.com.

Specific; Measureable; Actionable; Realistic; Time bound; Exciting; Relevant.

This isn’t something I’ve just read about today but something that has been bubbling along for some time. As the saying goes, “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.” Not before time and, of course, not for the first time, my goals are smarter, clearer, specific.

There are so many distractions out there that you don’t have to look for them. There is so much information available in the age of the internet that I can easily lose sight of my big dream. So, when I don’t know what to do next, what’s my priority? Focus.

Do you remember what your biggest dream is? How often do you think about where you are going and how you will go about achieve getting there? So, what are you focussed on? Where are you going? That’s a rhetorical question that only you need to know the answer to. The next question is, have you found the road there? Is it a road less travelled? A path forged by one of your mentors? Or, are you intending to create your own path?

Whatever it is, go for it. Make your dream come true.

Mellow Monday

22 Monday Jun 2015

Posted by Zoetic Words in LIFE, MY BOOKS, TORN

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famine, fireplace, Skibereen, Starvation, warm clothes, warmth, Winter

After a busy day at work and a lunch break where I didn’t get time to do what I had planned, it’s nice to have a quiet night to catch my breath. I love that image and would also love a nice fire to sit and watch the flames. They are hypnotic aren’t they. We were all chilly at work today. Don’t know what was up but the office was frigid.

Our winters are pretty mild here. It’s rare to get down into the low single digits but after the warmth of our summers, it feels pretty chilly to us. I learned so much in my research for Torn. The Great Famine was not the first famine. There had been a number of them, one after the other.

It was strange really, when I was trying to find a place where my Leading Lady (I intensely dislike the tag Heroine) would have grown up with her family, I went around and around and couldn’t decide where to set them down. In the end I took the map, closed my eyes, drew a couple of air circles and my finger landed in Skibereen. There couldn’t have been many places more likely. Reading about the history of Skibereen broke my heart.

Clothing in those days was not as easily come by and though the rich may have had more than enough, not everyone had what was necessary to keep them warm. In the warmer months many had sold their warmer clothing to buy food and when the winters came in hard their already weakened bodies suffered, many fatal consequences.

We all know that there are people even today who suffer from starvation and privation. It makes me grateful for what I have, realise how fortunate I am. I love stories which make me think, to learn about other people, other places, other cultures and lands. I hope my readers will learn something from my book too. Talking of Torn, the edits are upon me again. Hopefully, this will be the last round and I can release my baby into the world sooner rather than later.

Weekend wonder

21 Sunday Jun 2015

Posted by Zoetic Words in LIFE, MY BOOKS, THE WRITERS' LIFE, TORN

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achievement, Brisbane, Convict settlement, employees, Hero, horses, Moreton Bay, To Do List

This weekend I did something I can’t remember having done for a very long time. On the train home Friday evening I wrote my To Do List for the weekend. This evening I am about to cross the last item off the list! I’ve even done a couple of things that didn’t make it onto that list.

As is so often the case, I don’t have a whole lot to show for it but I know what I did and that feeling is pretty darn good. So often in this world we work hard and have little or nothing to show for it. It’s not always like that and for my characters in my book it certainly wasn’t the case.

Moving to Moreton Bay in what was New South Wales, Australia in the 1850s was a courageous thing to do. There were few of the facilities and conveniences they had in Ireland in that time and next to none of those we take for granted today.

Brisbane in the Moreton Bay area had been a convict settlement holding some of the worst, hardened criminals. The convict settlement was closed in 1835.

My hero brought with him a number of his horses though not all of them. He had to begin by building houses, stables, outbuildings, yards and everything else he and his employees and horses needed. That kind of hard physical work can be very satisfying. You can look around and see the work of your hands.

You don’t get that same sense of achievement in an office. But that To Do List with those items crossed off looks pretty wonderful to me.

One of my favourite poems

18 Thursday Jun 2015

Posted by Zoetic Words in LIFE, LOVE, POETRY

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A White Rose

THE red rose whispers of passion,
And the white rose breathes of love;
O, the red rose is a falcon,
And the white rose is a dove.

But I send you a cream-white rosebud
With a flush on its petal tips;
For the love that is purest and sweetest
Has a kiss of desire on the lips.

John Boyle O’Reilly (1844–1890)

Wednesday with Wheels

17 Wednesday Jun 2015

Posted by Zoetic Words in LIFE, THE WRITERS' LIFE, TORN

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bikes, cars, paddle wheelers, wheels

Highpoint of the week – I got my car back from the panel-beaters! It’s been away for several weeks so I’ve missed it very much. I have to say I did take for granted having comfortable fast-enough-for-me wheels at my disposal anytime I need them.

It wasn’t always so. Can you imagine living in a world where you either rode a horse, a carriage or Shanks’ Pony. Of course roads were very different too, those which could legitimately actually be called a road. Life was a lot slower by necessity. A trip to town to do get supplies might have taken all day, give or take a shop or two. Those scenes were fun to write, after some solid research, of course.

There are so many uses for the wheel in transport. For those who can’t afford a car there are bicycles of all kinds, custom built jobs, mountain bikes, kids bikes with training wheels right back to the old penny farthing. Wheels have gotten bigger – and smaller. From skateboards up to personal mobility scooters, from paddle wheelers to the landing gear on aeroplanes, then the tiny wheels which take the heavy lifting out of suitcases!

So, where are you wheels? Where-ever you are and whatever you do today, may it be wheely fun!