• About
  • Blog
  • POETRY
  • Contact me
  • Shop

Zoe Younger

~ Life Changing Journeys, Life changing Love

Zoe Younger

Category Archives: Uncategorized

Books which have stayed with me…

11 Monday Apr 2016

Posted by Zoetic Words in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments


This was in response to a Facebook post asking for my top ten books which have stayed with me. That’s not to say ten most favourite books. I thought it might be interesting to share here. I thought I’d make mention too of why I’ve put these books on my list. I’d love to see your list(s).

  1. The Ice King – Dinah Dean Dinah wrote a series of books set in Russia back in time. They were so sweet and moving I was sorry that was all she wrote.
  2. Venetia – Georgette Heyer Love Georgette’s sense of humour and light touch Especially love listening to Richard Armitage read three of them (Venetia, The Convenient Marriage and Sylvester)
  3. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen Give me anything Jane Austen esp. Persuasion
  4. The Tigers Woman – Celeste De Blasis The first of hers I read, historical set in the US. Couldn’t believe it surprised me in the end!
  5. Princess Smartypants – Babette Cole Also Prince Cinders… Yes, a children’s picture book but laugh out loud funny.
  6. The Smile Connection: How to Use Humor in Dealing With People – Esther Blumenfeld Very useful tips and tricks
  7. The Prince of Tides – Pat Conroy Very confronting movie and book but wonderfully lyrical prose and depth of feeling.
  8. Men Who Hate Women and the Women Who Love Them : When Loving Hurts and You Don’t Know Why – Dr Susan Forward This explained the situation for me when I couldn’t see how a particular woman could stay with a particular man. A lesson in choosing life partners. Look at some of her others too.
  9. Balance of Power – Richard North Patterson Great treatment of all the various sides of the gun control debate. Quite topical now.
  10. Tallies Knight – Anne Gracie I laughed all the way through this debut book of a great writer.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

Koala Fun

23 Tuesday Feb 2016

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

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Australian native wildlife, house-sitting, Koala, Redland Bay

Koala relaxing in a tree, Queensland, Australia

House-sitting for friends had a fun side for us this week. We had a couple of visits from local wildlife.

It’s mating season (or so I’m told). We were sitting here minding our own business and heard a koala in the nature reserve behind the house. My niece (here from New Zealand) ran out to try to catch a glimpse but she managed only to see his back as he climbed up one of the trees out in the reserve. So, for some nights she’s tried to see him again and she has, but not close enough to get a photo.

Our hosts say they’ve only once had a visit from one. He came and scratched on the security door but wasn’t interested in coming in. So my niece has managed to double their number of sightings!

Though they’re not entirely sweet smelling or sociable, this guy does look cute lolling up there in the tree doesn’t he? It’s quite a life for them. They sleep 20 hours a day and don’t they look cute while they do? Mama koalas carry their joeys-yes, they are called joeys as are little kangaroos-for around a year.

The house we are sitting is in the Redland Bay area, the south side of Moreton Bay. In 2008 there were reportedly 1500 koalas living in the area and it’s common to see yellow warning signs on the local roads to make drivers aware of their presence. Many people only ever see what looks like an old grey jumper up a tree, the back end of one of these cute furry creatures.

We are here for a few days yet so I’ll post an update if we manage to capture a photo of our little grey neighbour. Though, maybe I won’t need to post an update – you may hear the excitement without one!

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

Why “Torn”

11 Thursday Feb 2016

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

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

40 shades of green

Main Beach at sunrise (Main Beach, Queensland, Australia)

“New Horizons” and “Torn” were born of my wondering what would it be like to:

  • lose everyone and everything you loved and cared about
  • come close to losing your life due to starvation
  • leave your home, your homeland everything you’ve ever known
  • sail from the “Harbour of Tears” to colonial Australia
  • leave 40 shades of green for a harsh and unforgiving land
  • stay loyal to one you loved who is now more like a stranger
  • learn to love and care for two young boys not your own
  • find the courage to begin again, build a home and family

One would need to be a special kind of tough to face a land so unlike your home, to dig deep and find it in your heart to laugh and love and live again. Would I have the intestinal fortitude to not just survive but thrive again? Would you?

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

Well, Hello there!

08 Monday Feb 2016

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

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

"For the Term of His Natural Life", "North and South", Blogging101, Colin Friels, Daniela Denby-Ashe, Dick Francis, Elizabeth Gaskill, Enid Blyton, Georgette Heyer, Jane Austen, John Grisham, Marcus Clarke, Michael Conley, Richard Armitage, Richard North Patterson, The Classic Drama DVD Collection

2013-06-15_655Yes, I know. I’ve been very quiet lately. I ran out of poetry suitable for posting, the 100 word stories have gone missing in action and I’ve had some changes happen in my life which have run away with my time. I’ve been struggling to blog and felt the need to learn more about what I can do. So, today I’ve started Blogging 101 with WordPress. Hopefully you will notice a change in the quality of posts. All feedback gratefully received.

Assignment 1 is to tell you a bit about me and why I want to blog. Some of you will know this already so please bear with me because here we go again. I hope it’s not too boring for you.

Ever since I was a very little girl, I have loved words. Big words, little words, poetry, prose, a bit of everything. In fact, one of my earliest memories is from when I was first going to school somewhere between Grades 1 and 3. We lived 9 miles outside of Proserpine in central Queensland, Australia. For one of the very few times we ever received pocket money I spent my entire shilling (yes, this was pre decimal currency – about 10 cents), a fortune to me as a young kid, on a “Little Golden Book”, called “Out of My Window”. I took it back to school and almost the first thing that happened was one of my schoolmates dropped there chocolate icecream/popsicle onto it. I was devastated.

There were years when poetry flooded out of me. Teen angst city! There were years when I wrote a poem every time I went to the wedding of a friend. It became quite a tradition. None of those are posted here because they were personal to those friends. If you disagree and would like to read some, let me know and I’ll see what I can do. Then the poetry dried up but never did my love of words, of reading and writing. Life got in the way as it does.

My jobs have continued adding to my vocabulary. I loved temping, that is, working for an agency, short term assignments as a legal secretary, clerk, taking dictation and later transcribing from analogue and now digital dictation and worked in some very interesting jobs. The photo above is one taken when I was working on my very first computer at work (as opposed to one at college).

One temp assignment led to 9 years working for a veterinary pathology laboratory and learned soooo much about the insides and outsides of all kinds of animals. I typed reports on butterfly pupae, beached whales and about everything in between. I loved it and looking back, I wish I had stayed there. But, life goes on. We live and learn.

As a matter of fact, while I work on getting some editing and copywriting jobs, I’m returning to temping after being made redundant in my last position. That is, I’ll be working for an agency on short term assignments. Over the years I’ve worked as a legal secretary, administration officer and clerk, taking dictation and later transcribing from analogue and now digital dictation files. I worked in some very interesting jobs. Years passed and I ended up deciding that if I was ever going to be a writer I had to just do it. So I started writing.

As a compulsive reader I loved reading authors like Dick Francis, Michael Conley, Richard North Patterson, John Grisham so started with a who-dunnit. Much as I loved reading them, I found out that I didn’t want to live in that world all the time it takes to write them. I tended toward depression at the time so I changed my direction.

My other favourite books were those of authors such as Jane Austen, Enid Blyton, Elizabeth Gaskill and Georgette Heyer so I started writing books with happy-ever-afters. When I entered my contemporary story in a competition, one of the judges commented that I had an “old-fashioned voice”. Lights went off. Duh. Of course. I loved historical stories.

Watching Colin Friels in “For the Term of His Natural Life” was not a hardship. I saw it just before I went on holiday to Tasmania to see the places mentioned by Marcus Clarke in his classic book of that name. However, I didn’t want to write convict stories. I hated Port Arthur and Macquarie Harbour. I hated what happened to the convicts, what people do to people.

My subscription to “The Classic Drama DVD Collection” of BBC period dramas was one of my all time best buys. I still watch them over and over any chance I get. After watching all the Jane Austen series’ I came across Richard Armitage and  Daniela Denby-Ashe in the adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskill’s “North and South”. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched it and happily bring it out for anyone who wants to watch it again or for the first time. The plight of the Irish wasn’t a highlight of the series but I was fascinated by what I saw and what I learned afterward. My research led me to write “Torn”.

So I’ve decided “Torn” is to be the first of a series about people who came to Australia voluntarily. There will be some convicts but they won’t be about convicts and their hardships. Australia is such a multicultural melting pot. My own ancestors were English, Scots, Irish and Finnish. “New Horizons” will explore some of those and hopefully many others.

“Torn” follows Mary and Liam at the time of the Great Famine as they set sail from the “Harbour of Tears”, Cork in Ireland with her friend and his horses to Moreton Bay which is at the end of our street. Yes, I did a lot of research and it took me a long time but it’s currently with an editor awaiting a decision.

Entering writing competitions has led to two short stories being published in the RWA’s “Little Gems” anthology and I collected 63 poems from 28 members of the “North Pine Bush Poets” in an anthology as a fundraiser when the club hosted the Australian Bush Poetry Championships. They were popular and the fundraising continues despite the boxful I still have in my office. My own three contributions are here among the poetry on my blog.

Like so many other writers I’d love to live by my pen. Whether that means working as a temp again or editing and copywriting until I can live by my books, well c’est la vie.

I hope you’ll find something you like in my blogs and will be excited with me when I finally see my own book(s) in print.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

Word for the Year: Determined

10 Sunday Jan 2016

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

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

determination, redundant, success, unemployed

A team of people walking upward on connected gears with the words Attitude, Vision, Strategy, Focus and Success symbolizing the elements necessary to achieve a goal and be successful in business or life

Little did I know when I decided that my word of the year will be Determined, how soon my determination I would be tested. Just one week later, here I am made redundant… unemployed. Determined is exactly what I need to be. Determination backed by attitude, vision, strategy and focus.

I’m determined that very soon my editor page will be up and running and I’ll be on my way to being self-employed.

I’m determined that, one way or another, my book will be sold, available for you to read.

I’m determined to succeed.

That said, all encouragement will be gratefully accepted.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

Poppa and the Bull

24 Thursday Dec 2015

Posted by Zoetic Words in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Red bull sports mascot or character smashing out of background

Yes, Poppa and the Bull is one of my favourite short stories. It’s being judged as I write this in a competition. Again. Let’s hope someone else loves it as much as I do. This story is special to me for a number of reasons.

Some years ago my husband and I did a trip outback way out where there are more flies than ants at a picnic. I became, reluctantly, reacquainted with the “Great Australian Salute”. It wasn’t as amusing as it sounds – much to the delight of my sister-in-law. Note to self, explain the term in another post.

But I digress… While we were in Longreach, my dear husband’s darling uncle who shall remain nameless, told us the story of what became “the rodeo of the white flag” in what became “Poppa and the Bull”.

His touching story of a truly disastrous first-and-last date stayed with me, begging me to rewrite history with a much more satisfying ending as I’m very sure the hero wished.

As I wrote it, it morphed into a multilevel web of spider silk spanning the generations. Which made keeping the tenses straight a real challenge to say the least.

Here’s hoping I can give you the big reveal soon. Unlike the bull above I trust. I apologise for him. He looked ferocious but looking at him again has me thinking… he had a great orthodontist!

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

Plotting and Planning…

07 Wednesday Oct 2015

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

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

NaNoWriMo, plotting, Shattered, submittion

random pieces of jigsaw puzzleThis is what my brain feels like at the moment! Torn is submitted so rather than stop and worry what everyone thinks of it, it’s time to get back to Shattered. It will be good to be back to writing fresh words instead of rewriting and editing. I’ve got maybe a third of it written but have come to a full stop.

Soon it’s time for NaNoWriMo, the writers’ Olympics, where writers from all around the world try to write 50,000 words in the month of November. It is too soon for comfort at the moment. I am trying to sort out where some of these pieces go, get an idea of the bigger picture of the story. I see some of the picture pieces but others are still face down.

I’ll be looking under every rock and stone, searching for that piece which will draw it all together for you, dear reader. But for now, I’m hoping my dream tonight will guide me. Good night to you, sleep tight.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

Struggling and a big thank you

02 Wednesday Sep 2015

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

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

cover love, Hang Le, thank you

Time Clock
I hope you will forgive me. I’m struggling to keep up with everything, working at my day job and giving value for my wages, getting my submissions in, blogging plus being a wife and sister and friend and dealing all those things we all have to deal with every day. So is the life of a writer.

At the same time I’m loving revisiting Liam and Mary in Torn. I so love this story and I hope everyone else loves it too. Submission time is coming up fast so it’s polish, polish, polish time.

You may have noticed that my beautiful friends Elsa and Letitia have very generously gifted me with some beautiful covers for Torn and Shattered. I think they are just beautiful and I want to say a big thank you to the girls. Hang Le is a great cover artist and I’m in love with my covers. I’d also love to hear what you think.

And last, but not by any means least, shouting out to Sylvia who is finally out of Intensive Care but still in pain after major surgery. Love you my gorgeous friend and wishing I could take some of that for you. Can’t wait for you to bounce back and get on top of that pain.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

Last day in Townsville

16 Sunday Aug 2015

Posted by Zoetic Words in Uncategorized

≈ 3 Comments

Arrire pays de CairnsComing out of my editing cave to say Hi. Today is our last in Townsville. Tomorrow we travel back to the Atherton Tablelands. The next day will be taken up by the Memorial service and I fly home on Wednesday.

It’s strange coming from deep in the editing cave in 1850 back to reality. I appreciate more what they had to do in the days when there were no cars and planes, where a trip to town was an all day event. A journey like the one we will take tomorrow of approximately 330 kilometres over a few hours, in those days would have taken months. Even worse, the flight from Cairns to Brisbane which now takes just over two hours would have been an epic journey of 1680 kilometres or over 1,000 miles – I can’t even think how long that would have taken; it’s still from 22 hours upward to drive on the roads we have now.

I remember the days when any of the roads up from the coastal plains to the Atherton Tablelands (approximately 732 metres or 2,402 feet above sea level) was an adventure. On the Kuranda or Gillies ranges there were so many hairpin bends you would more likely than not to get carsick and the Rex was a gravel road. The others are not too much changed we came down the Palmerston on Wednesday and appreciated it was completely changed.

In the days when I was a child we were grateful for the trees either side of the road because that road was narrow because it was mostly on a ridge with a sheer drop on either side. To add to the danger, a lot of the milk from the tableland dairy country was transported by road to places as far as Townsville where it was processed and bottled. Meeting a milk tanker unexpectedly on a one lane road was more than a little scary, especially when I was the driver with precious passengers aboard. These days you wouldn’t know it was the same road and about the only clue as to the height is at Crawfords lookout.

The Atherton Tableland is a beautiful part of the world with its rainforest, crater lakes and waterfalls. And it was my Mum’s home both as a girl and up to the day she died. One of these days I’ll set one of my “New Horizons” books up there. There were plenty, including Mum’s Finnish and English parents who settled in the area when it was dense rainforest. But that’s a story for another time.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

New Year’s Resolution

28 Sunday Jun 2015

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

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

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

Bambina mentre guarda lontanoNew 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.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...
← Older posts
rwa-member-white-ld-l
Follow Zoe Younger on WordPress.com

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 1,653 other subscribers

Book 1 New Horizons Series

Torn-3D-book

Facebook

Facebook

Categories

  • 100 Word Story (5)
  • Elsa Holland (2)
  • Emmylou Harris (1)
  • FRIENDSHIP (9)
  • Jupiters Casino (1)
  • LIFE (84)
  • LOVE (41)
  • music (2)
  • musicians (1)
  • MY BOOKS (43)
    • SHATTERED (7)
    • TORN (37)
  • POETRY (22)
  • Rodney Crowell (1)
  • Saying (1)
  • THE WRITERS' LIFE (47)
  • Uncategorized (15)
  • Word of the Week (2)
  • work (3)

Top Posts & Pages

  • Four Little Tigers
  • Mary's short story: Whale Watching…
  • Weird Word of the Week: drupe

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • Zoe Younger
    • Join 57 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Zoe Younger
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: