My poor neglected blog

My blog has taken a back seat to many other interests of late. One of the best things any writer can do is to live their life. Experiences add authenticity to prose and poetry. How can we write about a thing when we have nothing with which to compare it?
 I completed the art work for one writer and have begun some concept drawings for another. My new chair and desk have arrived and I am so very excited to have a brand new chair just for me. I took it for a spin around the kitchen and got in touch with my inner child. I had to adjust all the other furnishings to fit the art desk in perfectly and it all worked out well.
I have decided a move to the city may well be on the cards so in anticipation I hired a skip (large 3metre rubbish bin) and promptly filled it with old and broken bits and pieces from the yard, the shed and the house. I have been sorting out excess clothes and bits and bagging them up to give away to various places. Charity/church op shops are always good for clothes, small furnishings and bric-a-brac. Books will go to book sales for fundraising. I promised my sister she could have ALL of my decorations and any excess crockery( my old catering crockery is still in the shed) and I offered some people various bits and bobs that I will never use again so they might as well get some use out of them.  I like the feeling of cleaning out the things I no longer need and knowing they will find a new lease of life in someone else's care.  I suspect that when and if I do finally move again I may well need another skip but for now this one has done its job. Oh and I ousted dozens and dozens of spiders, mostly redbacks.

I don't like to disturb them but in the interest of clean up they had to move. Sorry girls.


week 30 of the 52 week challenge is themed Sydney. Not a city I am fond of, I found this a difficult challenge to come up with an image. I found Sydney a difficult place to navigate both physically and socially although I do have one or two fond memories that became short stories. Anyway here are my submissions on this theme.

 This piece is inspired by how I felt each time I visited Sydney, the going home part was the best part. No matter how I travelled, train, aeroplane or car each mile/kilometre closer to Melbourne increased my sense of homecoming. I enjoyed visiting the touristy things of Sydney. I went to Paddy's market and The Rocks, I went on the ferry to Manley and back and up the Centrepoint tower, I took the light rail around the city, went down to the Quay, across Hyde park and out to a concert, Bondi beach and over the Harbour Bridge, the old aquarium and shopping in Oxford street. I went to a nightclub and used a pick up line to gain a dance partner, I pretended the nightclub crowd were my guests and hugged them all. They thought I was pissed or stoned and I was neither but I made them smile and they hugged me back. I went to a wedding at King's Cross, the bride arrived in her leathers and stripped them off to reveal the crushed wedding dress she wore underneath. I won jewelery in a competition, wore sparkling bug eyes on springs on my headband, crystals on my face and hands, glitter in my clothes and danced until I dropped. Sydney was loud and brash and busy and exhausting. I wrote tales about my time there and made people smile. I won a heart and let him go. I lost my heart and smile at the memories. I was glad to go home.

This little piece is inspired by Pixar's animation "Finding Nemo". Every child who ever saw that movie memorised the address on the facemask right along with Dory. My favourite non existent Sydney address is P.Sherman 42 Wallaby Way Sydney, NSW.
I am still practicing with copic markers and was quite happy with my rendition of Dory, not so much with Marvin but I do only have two shades of orange.
I love playing with all the new materials this year although I am still timid about digital. I have a tablet to try some time soon, probably when I return the copics to their rightful owners.

Anything else exciting to share? Politics sucks! It is important to be well informed but lately Australian politics makes me squirm with shame and embarrassment. Statistically the current government should not be in power. Less than 32% of the voting public voted for them at the last election, meaning 68% voted against them. The opposition actually had a higher primary vote. People were voting strongly against both the leading parties in protest at what we all saw as incompetence. Unfortunately our voting system allowed for second and third choices on people's ballot sheets to sway the final result to the arrogant smug egomaniacal narrow visioned money hungry gutless fools who took the baton. I don't understand how they could possibly be in power with less than 32% of the primary vote? If it were not for vegemite and eucalyptus I would consider shifting somewhere my vote would be respected.

I have three days to write 44, 000 words. I was not able to sit and write for quite a bit of this month so I doubt I will make my camp nanowrimo goal unless I can write 15k a day. It is doable. hmmm maybe I should get a good night sleep.

I achieved my 12 x 12 picture book draft for the month and did my revision so I have my badges for both.

I completed all the anthology pieces I was committed to doing and sent them all away and just have some art work to complete for one and I am done with anthologies for good. I might just do the art work on my pretty new desk tomorrow. I bid you all a fond goodnight. Dream sweet and I shall send you a new missive in a week. HUGS

Oh my goodness it is May already

May today and what a day. Today I won a book and I was nominated for a blog award. Today I submitted a picture book manuscript to Rate Your Story.

Today I looked back over April adn realised I won a mug, a tee shirt, a key ring, a notepad(paper variety), two picuter books and a piece of art. I wrote around 30,000 words and submitted stories to anthologies. I blog hopped to over 260 blogs during teh A to Z challenge. I created over a dozen pieces of art. I revised. I entered competitions including one I submitted to the Georgia Romance Writers 'Maggie' awards for unpublished romance writer. I started a diet which i have stuck to for nine days now and that is a record for me. I studied poetry and rhyme in RhyPiBoMo and I wrote three picture book drafts for 12 x 12. I wrote flash fictions for midweekbluesbuster and 38 week challenge. I had my roughs(art) approved by the writer who commissioned them. I reviewed picture books and reviewed Australian women's writers and gained more followers who like what I have to say. I hosted a session in a book release online. I edited and critiqued for other writers and supported writers and artists. I also made it to the finish line for blog my book in 30 and my second campNaNoWriMo. I also completed the Video Idiot Book Camp though I have yet to complete my welcome video.Oh and I submitted art to Susanna hill's first ever illustrator competition.

What an incredible month April was.

May is shaping up to be just as busy. I signed up for a story a day on storyaday.org and I intend completing the novel I began in April and one I have almost completed from NaNoWriMo last November. I will complete the art for two writers and i will write at least one picture book draft for May 12 x 12. I bought Twitter for Dummies so I am going to expend some effort to master that social media.

On May 12th I will do a review of the A to Z challenge and tomorrow I suspect I will do my bit in the blog award by supporting other blogs with less than 300 followers.

So May, the last month of Autumn here in the antipodes and the last of Spring up north, a month full of birthdays and potential. Happy May everyone. HUGS

Zed vs Zee

"Zed!" I growled at my daughter "The letter is pronounced ZED we are not American, nor is this the 57th state of that particular country."  I was fuming. I had just read that yet another American based company had bought out yet another Australian company and was attempting to Americanize it, ZEDs and all so I was not in any mood to have my daughter and her friends singing with an American accent. The inevitability of blending everything in the world as we become a global nation rather than individual places has produced many a backlash against the bombardment of our own identity markers.

This is from Australain Geographic magazine's article on the top 100 Australian Icons. http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/history-culture/2010/11/australian-geographics-100-aussie-icons/

Australia is a nation with both a very old culture and a very young and very mixed population bringing with it all of their former homelands and so our cultural identity is something we are still discovering.   There was a lot of bad feeling between Australia and America during war times. At a ground level not in international political paperwork but in the face to face interactions between Australian and American military. Many a skirmish between them is recorded in various places due to inequity in wages, holidays and because the 'yanks' took all the local girls. Many a half yankee baby was born in the aftermath of the war. The local blokes resented that.  In a country such as Australia, post ww2, our identity had an abrupt shift. In the 60s we no longer wanted to identify as British and many people were ashamed and embarrassed by the way our leaders and predecessors from Europe had treated our indigenous people. Legislation began to change to recognise the legal standing of the Aboriginal people and the younger generations were beginning to say "I am Australian" and not 'run home to the mother country' as their parents and grandparents most likely did. Many young peoiple had never been anywhere near Europe and had no connection with it in their own minds and personal identity.
 The biggest problem for generations has been popular fiction. Most of our television content was and still is American. The children of the 70s and 80s grew up saying zee because they do on sesame street. The movies were predominantly American and the bombardment of advertising and merchandise was also American. The 90s saw a shift from this and we now have a higher Australian content of live children's shows but still the cartoons are all American.
It is only very recently that our Indigenous population and culture has begun to filter into the daily psyche of our people. The reality there is that every tiny thing we embrace halts the atrophy of this once great culture with its myriad of language groups and history. We have lost so much that can never be recalled but still it is an uphill battle against the might of the media that dictates our daily dose of pop culture.
Much of our Australian identity is myth rather than reality but it gives us a sentimental view of who we are and helps us to become what we really want to be which is not American. Just as I am sure my American friends would not want to be Australian, I do not want to be American. I would love to visit, I would love to see some of the things I learned about in movies and hear in song lyrics, I don't want to live there, I like it here.

"I Am Australian" is a popular Australian song that I love to sing. It was written in 1987 by Bruce Woodley of The Seekers(almost iconic folk band)  and Dobe Newton of The Bushwackers. Its lyrics are filled with many historic and cultural references, such as to the 'digger'(WWI soldiers), Albert Namatjira(indigenous artist) and Ned Kelly(bushranger/cult hero), among others. It is a terrific song for encompassing what we are trying to see as being Australian.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jD3SkTyXzcE&feature=kp

My Island Home" is popularly believed to be a song about Australia. However, it was written by Neil Murray and originally performed by his Warumpi Band in reference to their lead singer's (George Burarrwanga) home up at Elcho Island off the coast of Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory as said by Neil Murray's Site

My children's book for the day is about that song. My Island Home by Neil Murray is illustrated by children from Papunya and Galiwinku, and with paintings by Peter Hudson. It contains the lyrics to the song, ‘My Island Home’, written by Neil Murray for his friend and fellow musician, George Burarrawanga when they were both members of the Warumpi Band.

I love the foreword in this so much I am  going to reproduce part of it here.

listen to the Christina Anu version here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2Lx_y-FyT0&feature=kp

 Identity is something many nations are fighting to maintain. Not just in Australia.

Foods identified with a particular place such as  Gorgonzola, Parmigiano-Reggiano, Melton Mowbray pork pies, Piave cheese, Asiago cheese, Camembert, Somerset Cider Brandy and Champagne can only be labelled with those names if they come from the designated region. To qualify as Roquefort, for example, cheese must be made from milk of a certain breed of sheep, and matured in the natural caves near the town of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon in the Aveyron region of France, where it is colonised by the fungus Penicillium roqueforti that grows in these caves. 
Three European Union schemes of geographical indications and traditional specialities, known as protected designation of origin (PDO), protected geographical indication (PGI), and traditional specialities guaranteed (TSG), promote and protect names of some agricultural products and foodstuffs. This was a vital move for people who were frightened of losing their identity to a larger global beige where all the local colour and flavour would blend into a dull nothingness.

How we identify ourselves is important to our sense of self and the way we deal with the world at large. I hope one day in my lifetime everyone will identify themselves first as human and secondly by their place of origin or chosen home. That might just turn us into rainbow people rather than beige. 

 Last day of blogging my book and camp nanowrimo. My tally sits at 27ooo + I have around 2400 words to go to hit the finish line for the month. I will have to write at least another 30,000 to finish this novel but it is off to a very good start. CampNaNoWriMo is a good practice run for the November challenge. Last year in April I wrote 57,000 words but I was not doing any other challenges and I was staying with a friend with NO Domestic duties. A real holiday that was. In November last year I wrote 104,000 words which became two novels. One complete and sent out into the world and one yet to finish but I plan on doing that next month.

It is also almost the end of RhyPiBoMo and I am happy to say I completed two picture book drafts in rhyme which are now with my critique groups. I also entered a writing competition and an illustration competition and submitted six stories to anthologies and six pieces of flash fiction to various places online. I kept up with the 52 week illustration challenge and we are now into week 18 which is themed Celestial Body. That should be fun to draw.

Thank you to everyone who came to visit my blog during the A to Z challenge. I certainly enjoyed visiting other people's blogs and finding out so many new and wonderful things.

So as Z is the end of the alphabet, the 30th is the end of April and  all things come to an end at some time,  I would like to remind myself that ends are usually beginnings on the other side of the door. 


Sending love to all my fellow humans out there.

Ubiquitous Underwear

ubiquitous

adjective

adjective: ubiquitous

1.

present, appearing, or found everywhere.

"his ubiquitous influence was felt by all the family"

 synonyms:Omnipresent, ever-present, present everywhere, everywhere, all over, all over the place, pervasive, all-pervasive, universal, worldwide, global. 

A good set of undies should never leave the wearer feeling their ubiquitous nature. Good underwear should been so comfortable it makes no impact on the wearers attention. 

That was my deep and meaningful community message for the day. 

More Art. 52 week challenge. Horse of course

The only horse words I could find beginning with U are Unshod No shoes or barefoot Unsound A horse with significant lameness or other health problem and I have not used one bit of umber in my art. a rocking horse. We have a rocking horse that has been part of our family landscape for decades. I went to have it refurbished but the person who does such mending wanted to charge me more to refurbish than to purchase a new one.   The year of the horse in Chinese zodiac is often symbolized by horse ornaments like this one. this is a horses eye. I am not sure I managed the reflection across the pupil as well as I would like but it is not bad for a first try. RhyPiBoMo. the lesson for today is not yet up so nothing here apart from my usual reading and playing with poetry. I may come back and add it in later this evening. Blogging my book has to wait a few hours too so I will be back.

R is for Responsibility, Rejection, Rapacious and Rewrites

Right back when I was a little tacker I disliked the three R's.
Reading was okay but Writing and Arithmetic, which was always known as Mathematics, did not start with R. I did not understand how anyone who was supposed to teach me expected me to respect their ability to do so if they could not spell.
I did not know about assonance and consonance back then and I still do not think it is sensible or intelligent to abbreviate and misspell for children. We get plenty of that forced down our throat every day in advertising.
We have a responsibility to teach our children the correct way in the early learning stages but they too are bombarded with confusing messages.

I really should not watch the news.

   Guess what. I have added several scenes and introduced a second potential love interest. My MC is learning what it is to live in a non tech world. No electricity, no phones, no computer and a cow to milk. Poor girl was mortified at the size of the cow "They don't look that big on a computer screen" She had to learn to make a fire with a flint and steel and has discovered the toilet is a midden pile - very medieval.  Certainly a shock to her modern girl system.
 OOH Here is my participation prize for doing my Blog every day(almost) and going to the other blog and reading and commenting.

Winner!

It's time to announce the winner of the "Superhero Writer" t-shirt. The winner has been drawn by a random number generator selecting from active participants. (The shirt is white. I'm not sure why Blogger has decided to turn all the whites in my pictures grey, but lately, it has been an issue.) 

And the winner is:

Cecilia Clark!

Congratulations (again), Cecilia!

RhyPiBoMo. Today the lesson was on NOT writing Rhyme  unless it is something we are really really sure of and absolutely cannot possibly stay away from it. I think the warnings did not scare me off.
 It was also about how to write lots of odd little poems.
I am working on 

The Acronet – by Patricia A Farnswort-Simpson 2008

This poem is a combination of an Acrostic (an acrostic, the first letter of each line when read vertically spells out a phrase) and a Nonet. (A nonet has nine lines. The first line has nine syllables, the second line eight syllables, the third line seven syllables, etc… until line nine finishes with one syllable. It can be on any subject and rhyming is optional.)


It is not coming on too well but I should have it done by tomorrow.



I had a story rejected last year for being too short. The editors loved it but felt the short story length did not do it justice and they suggested I take it away and make it longer so in May I am going to do just that and turn my post apocalyptic western steam punk into a whole novel.  I think it will be fun. It currently sits at 4709 words and needs to be ten times as long or more but it is a good kernal of a story.