Tweaking Christmas!

I always thought that Christmas was about family, about cheer and about spending quality time helping out others! What is it with the Christmas rush? Does everyone just go completely crazy? I was driving my very visible car to the shops and within the speed limit, and from absolutely nowhere a car comes speeding around a corner just missing my car and another car travelling in front! 

I don't know what to say about this time of the year except to say that clearly people just don't get it; they speed; they buy too much; they yell at strangers; they push you around; they swear at you in an animated fashion from behind their wind-shield and they risk their lives for no reason except to enter the shopping centre a second faster!  I think we should boycott shopping centres; telling the shop owners that we are sorry but Christmas isn't about dragging two or more trolleys full of decorations and excess food to the checkout! It is not about trying to navigate a car park full of rude imbeciles, honking because you are not moving at their pace. Nor is it about spending more than you make on new so called gadgets that will be obsolete in a couple of months!

My remedy: to not venture out over the Christmas period except if desperate! Food will have to wait! Those who wish to see me will have to wait!

I suggest that we all take a hard look in the mirror; isn't Christmas about spending time with those we love especially considering what has just happened in America! Those little children and their teachers won't be spending Christmas with their families and there are many families here in Australia who are grieving after a spate of fatal road accidents! There are families who won't be celebrating Christmas because they are too poor to do so! Maybe, just maybe we should take a few minutes to breathe before we mouth obscenities to a stranger; maybe just maybe we should drive a little slower instead at light speed and maybe just maybe we should show someone a little kindness instead of frustration! 

CHRISTMAS! THE TIME FOR GIVING! I say, giving what? Think about it!

I am back!

What can I say? I have been busy and I have also been slack but it is without a doubt that my intention was to write a new blog entry every day! You are probably thinking, this woman is completely ridiculous  however, I plead your forgiveness that I haven't been diligent enough to write something interesting or in this case anything at all!

So, let me update my situation. I have completed my Bachelor of Arts/Diploma of Professional Writing and Editing at the University of Ballarat and I am waiting on my results. Three and a half years and I will shortly have my degree.  I also run a book club and I write book reviews for The Courier newspaper here in Ballarat. My biggest achievement this year was to start my novel. I am about eight chapters into my first draft and I am very excited about the characters, the setting, the plot and of course the writing process.

Now that you are aware of my current situation, let's chat about what has prevented me from writing my blog. Well let's see! First I would like to say that no one is to blame except myself as I have been completely overwhelmed with health issues as well as trying to navigate my final year at Uni. One of the most horrible things to have happened to my family this year would have to be contracting Salmonella poisoning! Yes, the dreaded bug entered our intestines and for a whole 2 weeks decided it wanted to inflict the most excruciating pain I have ever experienced; not to mention the vomiting, fever and the fainting! First let me say that I have given birth twice in my short life and I would have to say the pain of birthing is mild compared to this. I was positive in my delirium that someone had broken into my house and hit me in the stomach with a piece of 4 by 2 wood and then proceeded to stab me continuously with a sharp knife in the back.

What was unlucky for us is that we all were going through this terrifying ordeal together; not one of us could help each other out and with that in mind I would like to tell you that whilst the toilet became our saviour, it also became dangerous. Upon my fourth visit to the loo for the night, I suddenly woke to find myself covered in blood and a pool of the red lava surrounding me. I was numb and blinded by the red glow yet as I placed my hand on my injury, I was somewhat surprised to find that I couldn't see properly and that I was even on the floor of  my bathroom. Delirious! Once I had gathered my thoughts, I screamed out for help and with that came my drawn and fellow pain sufferer, my dear husband from the second toilet in our house, to find his wife covered in blood. From the one eye I could see out of, was a facial expression like no other. he was distraught at seeing the amount of damage I had done. With that we set about cleaning up the bloody mess and we found that the cut was only about 3 centimetres long just above my eyebrow. Finally I was bandaged up and placed back into bed. Hubby decided it was best to come back to our bed instead of his absent son's (that's another story), just in case there was a repeat of the fainting spell. The next day I was sporting a very large black eye!

So the moral of this tale is that when suffering from a serious case of Salmonella, you should call an ambulance if for some reason you cannot think clearly, are suffering from a severe fever or you bash your head on a tile floor and wake up covered in blood!

You are probably wondering why I am joking about this now. Well, I must say if I don't joke about it I would absolutely cry. I am still recovering from the effects of the poisoning and with that I would like to warn everyone of the possible devastation of eating raw eggs! Now, let me say that we as a family don't just go out and eat raw eggs all the time, what we did was eat them in a wonderfully chocolate batch of dessert mousse. I must say that home-made mousse is always nice but this time round it could have been fatal.
So, I suggest that you do not make home-made mousse any time soon. If you do, you could be taking your life into your own hands because there is no way to detect that the eggs have been contaminated with Salmonella; they do not smell or even look different.

The first thing we thought when the health department rang us was that we had just survived a repeat of the Monty Python skit - The Salmon Mousse! It definitely felt like Death was close by!

My advice is to continue to enjoy the foods you love but be aware of the dangers of raw animal products!

Now that I am back, you will probably hear from me once a week or maybe even twice until I regain my energy!

So until the next time, happy eating, happy reading and happy writing!

'Rack and Ruin'

There was this saying my mum and my nan use to say to us kids; 'If you do not clean up your room everything will go to rack and ruin'. It is funny as you get older you realise that they were right. What does that mean in the scheme of my life, well it is now becoming the voice in my head as I try to go through all the rubbish I have accumulated in the last two and half years of study!

I thought it would be a good idea to somehow clean up my tiny work space in order to prepare for the last year of my Bachelor Degree; well it has been harder than I thought because without even knowing it I have been placing papers I have lately received (since the 2011 academic year finished) on top of the already mess that is my desk.

So, what do I do now you say?

I think I will leave it all there and clean it up when I finally finish my course. I know! It is imperative I am organised but I just keep telling myself, 'I am on holidays!'

Happy reading and writing to you all . I hope that cleaning your space has been easier than mine!

'Tweaking and Printing'

Writing to me has always been fun and infectious. What I have found in trying to complete my assessments for Uni is that sometimes writing becomes a chore. I am not completely satisfied with how my writing is progressing and I think when I do write something worth my own praise, it needs tweaking so much that I become disheartened by the process.
Knowing the way in which I work at my best, printing is my only answer! I must print the piece of writing (Draft 1), go over it with a fine tooth comb; edit all the mistakes; rewrite it again (draft 2); go over it again and hopefully not find any corrections, but if I do I must go through the whole process again.

I know that all writers do this, but I really find it difficult to separate my Uni assessments with my own writing. My novel has been put on the 'to do pile' and I now am delving into the assessment pile of the work that needs to be finished within six weeks.

I have come to realise that to even come close to getting everything done, I will have to grow another pair of arms; never sleep; type at a hundred miles an hour; wear a grazing bag (like horses) and somehow have toilet breaks (don't want think about how or what to use).

What I do know is that I need to stop stressing and concentrate on one thing at a time and hope that when the semester is over I will have completed what is important; what needs to be done and maybe just maybe, I may have become this 'superwriter' (sounds like a superhero) that I have always wanted to be.

In the meantime I will keep chipping away at the overgrown list of assessments!

Happy writing!

'Reading! Reading! Reading!'

It has been a while since I wrote anything tangible for this blog! I am finding this year to be a bit overwhelming, but I think I am gaining momentum and can now move forward enough to finish what work I need to get done.

I've passed the 'feeling sorry for me' stage and now I have a second wind!
At this very moment I have been reading, reading and reading more! I have set myself a task to read as much as I can and hopefully gain as much knowledge about this writing caper as I can.

It helps to be a volunteer book reviewer who gets free books to read and write about.
I am excited to say that although it is an unpaid job, I am looking forward to having the chance to extend my writing abilities and to gain some valuable experience that can only benefit my writing career.
I found it to be a wonderful opportunity that I could not pass up and combined with my Uni workload and writing my novel, my life is now very busy (Not that it wasn't busy before!).

The Ballarat Writers Festival  (Saturday 3 September) was an inspiration for me to keep forging ahead and I look forward to the day when I may be lucky to be paid for what I love to do!

What is more important to me now is that I keep reading and keep writing and hopefully someone may see what I do and like it.
So back to reading! I must now read the final eight chapters of my first gig and then sit down and write two-hundred words! I do not always say that I am happy to sit at my computer; but 'Woo Hoo' I am!

Happy Reading!

'Purchasing Short Story Compilations'

I was dropping off some secondhand goods to a local charity shop when I came across a box full of short stories including some on CD. I picked it up, took a glance at the marketing lingo and scanned for the price. $4.99 what a bargain! Well it wasn't till I got in my car that I realised that they were short stories for truckers and travellers.

I ripped off the plastic cover and proceeded to place a CD in my in-car player. Interestingly enough they weren't too bad but my son was in the car and he commented that they were c---p! Well I didn't think they that boring but he certainly did. The silence in the car was deafening as we rolled along to the male voice reciting the adventures of a cockroach. It was almost unbearable to my son but I thought it was a great medium for short stories.

After I got home I thought I would have a look at the four anthologies inside the box and came across a wonderful story about a mother's frustration with her young son. A journey to her parents turned out to be an attempt to amuse her son whilst driving across town.

Doesn't sound so interesting but it was written from the mother's point of view as she answers her annoying son's continuous questions. She tries the game eye spy and she tries to tell him to sit down, stop moving about in the car; leave his sister alone and many more funny answers to a very energetic mind.
I laughed till I cried and I could completely relate to trips in the car with young children.

Finally I was able to get my son to laugh as I read it (through my tears) out loud to him.
The moral to this story: Somethings are not always what they seem! My $4.99 was worth it just for that short story alone.

So to give credit where credit is due, the author is Marica Salpietro: Are We There Yet? was printed in the collection called Slippery When Wet: published by Australian Roadside Services in 2002.

'Tweaking Those Words'

What I find interesting about being a writer is trying to find new words for those ones that creep into your writing. You know those ones that you always use and somehow think are okay. It is not until you get someone else to look at it for you (it has big red marks from the red pen corrections) that you realise you need to change them.

I have been trying to edit a story which includes a lot of repetitions. It has been workshopped and I looked at it and thought, 'why didn't I pick that up?' It obviously takes a new set of eyes to find those silly mistakes that annoy you. I am getting there now but I hope after changing a quarter of my text, that it still works. I want it to engage the reader and leave them with a thought or two.

Trusting in my ability as an editor  is another story. I find that I am a writer not so much an editor, but I feel that I miss many corrections because I get so involved in the story. I must remember to slow down and take the time to perfect my craft.

Tweaking those words that somehow appear in my writing is a job worth doing well, so I need to take the time to edit and re-edit my work.

I am sure I will still miss the obvious!