The best laid plans of chickens usually end up scrambled

Best laid plans....mine were to be organised and regular and on time and professional and instead I had toddler troubles and tummy bugs. Coughs, sniffles, temperatures and plumbing problems have a tendency to derail even the most meticulous plans.

The highlights of the holidays...

 The toddler recovered and lovingly shared his illness with the rest of the household. This knocked out almost two weeks of the holidays. So much for getting lots of assignments finished.

 The fast food franchise next door, renovated, and added a powerful flood light that turns our bedrooms, and front and back yards into permanently glowing spaces. The upside of this is I never have to switch on a light when walking through the house after midnight.

 Toddler delighted in the choc fest side of the Easter weekend.

I created lots of art for the Ballan Solstice festival to be held in June. It should all glow in the dark but so far it doesn't. I discovered I needed to look for UV active paints. Glow in the dark and phosphorescent are leftovers of the disco era and were scary in content,  apparently, according to the helpful paint guy I found in a distant hardware story. I have ordered some invisible security paint that glows under UV to highlight the art.

I am back to classes and falling a bit behind in reading and missing deadlines. I need to reoganise myself and catch up. Cheer me on crew. <3

The last week of term

I have two weeks of solid hard work to do over the mid semester break, especially if I am going to come close to mastering the meta language of our language. Thank fully Mike is making it start to make sense. I hope he never reads my blog because the dangling and misplaced things he would find here are sure to give him nightmares. They will disappear as the year progresses I am sure.

It has been a sleep deprived week with a sick toddler and so much to do however I am managing and my brain is loving me.

I have to play around with the photo manipulation program on my computer and design a logo. I have an idea in mind and as soon as I work out how to do it, you will see it here on my blog.

So a short, short blog this week.

Have a wonderful week all.

The Blog Decision

 There was not much of a decision to make about choosing a theme/genre for my blog. I already consider this a lifelong learning blog. I do love to learn.

So week four or is it five, flew past. I am so glad I scheduled my calendar to remind me to blog.

I gave a short talk on Creative Non Fiction, had my research proposal approved, signed up for the state library and Trove, and checked the online resources at both and at several local libraries with which I hold a card. I checked a final edit on the anthology I have three stories in and created the cover art for.
Okay stop checking, it is week four...I spent today in court and I am three weeks into four of an OWL.

which, as the logo clearly states, is an online writing lab. Short short courses that will fit into any budding writers lifestyle.

I don't write romance with a lower case or capital R, I write relationships into my works but the relationship is not the focus of the story. The Romance Writers of Australia organisation is a marvelous one to belong to no matter what you write. Take a look at some of their short short courses and squeeze a little writing polish into your busy life.

I finished A Sparkling Guide to Gripping Goal, Motivation & Conflict with CT Green, last month and this month I am taking Bring your story into focus: why ‘show don’t tell’ is a layer cake  with Sandy Vaile.

I know what you are thinking "This woman is insane, a diploma and short courses, insane!" and you might very well be correct but I am fairly likeable crazy apparently. 

Another task this week in Writing for the New Media was to look at other blogs and see what I liked about them, plus write up a report on them, and then implement some of the things I like into this blog. Apparently I need the little linking icons for my other social media so I will put them in soon. I suspect my blog will change a bit over the next few weeks as I experiment.

Please let me know what you think of the changes and feel free to suggest things that would make landing on my blog easier for you.

Have a great week <3

                                                                              Dance!

Returning to Study

Last week I enrolled in the Diploma of Professional Writing and Editing at VU.  Those of you who have been following my writing journey, since THAT health issue gave me the opportunity to quit the day job and launch myself into the life of a full time writer, will know I have been writing and engaging in all sorts of writing challenges, attending conferences and sending little bits and pieces out to ezines, anthologies and competitions. I started the PWE a long time ago but life tends to get experiential in my neck of the woods and my studies have oft been put to one side for other commitments. My writing has frequently been interrupted with such earth shattering needs as 'What's for dinner?' or 'Where are my glasses?' and frequently 'Can you drive me to...'

"No more!" I cried and ran to VU, keen to enroll.

"I am going to write full time if it means you all starve to death in my stead" I yelled at the Offspring (mine not the band).

"What have I done?" I gulped repeatedly as the mountain of course material grew and grew.

"At least I will get fit even if it kills me." I gasped and didn't actually speak as I pulled myself up the third level of stairs to the classroom, sucked in some Ventolin(TM) and stubbornly refused to use the lift.

My calendar has everything loaded and I have read some of the required reading.  I discovered I already have most of the  required texts after I rearranged my bedroom shelves so I am off the starter blocks and ready to go.


So what else have I been doing apart from attending classes and sorting my folder? 

It is day 11 of Christie Wilde's #14daysoflitlove  and I am going strong with the fun word prompts.

It was week four of the OWL I enrolled in and I met the deadlines of that too.

I have my questions ready for my ESL discussion group tomorrow night at 11pm.

I am creating art for the cover of The Moorabool Writers Craft anthology.  (We meet on the first Sunday not the third - the banner will change)

I completed some art for advertising the Moorabool Shire Literary festival coming up in May. I am also on the committee and attended a meeting and read a metaphorical, as opposed to metric, tonne of emails about it. The inaugural Peter Carey short story award will be happening there so check it out.

 Have I mentioned I also have a 2 and half year old and three adults living with me? I managed to pull the shower to pieces today and replace all the rubber grommets, did two loads of washing, chatted with visitors, made phone calls, tracked down an elusive text, washed dishes and bathed the littlest. I have watched a movie, listened to some music and read a few books so it appears I have been relaxing at some point until I tell you it was Emma the girl with the yellow bow, Emma and her cohorts doing that wiggling thing, The Wonky Donky and at least one Mem Fox


I announced that I was diminishing my procrastination on social media. The irony being that I am studying a subject which directly relates to writing for social and other contemporary media.

I am very excited though and expect to have several of my novels to second draft during this course.

It is now 2am and I suspect I should get a little sleep before tiny person wakes up and demands some vegemite toast.

Cheer me on everyone.