Blog Pieces

I felt I had to post this picture of the pigeon.  He looks so fed up with the world.  I’m glad he decided to sit outside my inner-city bathroom window to display his feelings. He is so cute and I couldn’t help but laugh at him. Melbourne is being washed by continuous and heavy rain – much needed rain.  The place needed to be washed.  We have been coping with a horrible brown sludge that settled over everything after the last, much lighter, rain fall about a week ago.  The sludge hasn’t all gone yet because I can see rivulets…

As a newish arrival in Australian I think Australia Day is a good day for me to launch my book from my Website… Australia has been good to me and I like to celebrate that on Australia Day. Whatever day the powers-that-be-choose will be fine with me.  I am one of the many new residents here who want to thank the country for welcoming us. Mayhem in Melbourne -Behind the scenes at Caruthers Real Estate. My book is beside me on my desk and every time I look at it I want to shout ‘whoopee’ and ‘wow’ and thrust it…

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…

Self-publishing?  Why do it? There are many answers to that question and one was delivered to me on plate, as it were, by a guy I had lunch with.  He’s a writer who has self-published one book and is working on his second. ‘It’s the arrogance of the publishing world, that gets me,’ he began.  ‘They treat us writers as if we’re nothing, not even human beings unless we look like a money.   If the publisher can’t hear the ‘Cha Ching, Cha Ching, Cha Ching’  of money falling into their laps you’re of no use to them. “Why be polite…

I love writing about life in my neighbourhood. Writing it makes it real and I feel more part of it.  My fingers whizzing over on the keys and recording the life anchors me to it. Here’s a mid-winter serving… As I leave home to head for the station and then to lunch, the wind whips around my street and bits of paper and empty chip bags whirl by. It was rubbish collection this morning and the bin men have been careless. The old Greek man who regularly sits on his porch smoking calls out. “Windy!” I think this is what…

We have a relatively new addition to our extended family. No, not a dog. So many people describe a pet as a ‘new addition to the family’ and so it is when you think how your grocery bill increases after it arrives. A dog or a cat would be fun but I am talking about a delightful, energetic and lovely, little boy who has just turned two. Being a writer I couldn’t resist the chance to write his ‘Life’. It is in the form of a diary. When I come home from spending time with him I write the experience…

I have spent the last few days deciding on a cover for my novel, Mayhem in Melbourne. I had two very different concepts to choose from. So hard to choose! They are both great. But I’ve bitten the bullet and made a choice. Strangely all the men I asked chose one and the women the other one. There was no variation; men one way, women the other. I’m not sure what that says. I’m in this envious position of choosing a cover because I’m enrolled in a wonderful course with the Writing New South Wales (Writing NSW ) and called…