What fabulous experiences awaited us at the new venue for the Hells Belles annual writer's retreat? Spectacular views - tick Country Air - tick Fabulous food - tick Writing workshops - tick Blocks of writing time - tick And most importantly, the Hells Belles (photo below), who inspired, motivated, brainstormed, workshopped, morning walked, sunrise watched and talked writing for three whole days. It was bliss. I can't wait to go again next year. PS - In case you're wondering, I'm Galaxy Belle
PPS - A big thank you to Danielle Birch for the mugs Imagine its five years into the future, and for whatever reason, you haven't seen the writers in your writing group for five whole years - no contact at all. Your reunion is on 13th May 2021. Tell them how your career/life is progressing.
The first time I did this, at my writing group's annual retreat, it was an incredibly powerful experience. I took all the manuscripts I'd done work on and a few ideas from my ideas file, decided who my publisher would be, made covers for those books, and arrived at the reunion with "copies" of my books and wearing a ring no-one had seen before - the reward for all my hard work. And, you know, that was the single most motivational experience of my writing career to date. For the first time, I could "see" my book. Others in the group had retired to write full time, or had dropped their hours to work on their writing. There were trips to Tuscany, life-changing adventures and a whole heap of other dreams and aspirations. You know what? Everyone in our group who visualised publication that night, has achieved it. What started as a bit of fun ended up being a very potent goal setting tool. The next visualised reunion is May 13th 2021. What will I have achieved by then? Did you know that every year:
2nd January is Science Fiction Day 3rd March is World Book Day 18th of April is Columnist's Day 1st September is Write a Letter Day 7th September is Buy a Book Day 15th November is I love to Write Day 21st December is Short Story Day I often wonder how it is that people know these things. Well, Days of the Year is the key. This website chronicles the weird and wacky celebrations of anything and everything. Like the fact that today is World Garlic Day. Procrastinators beware... I can't believe its April already. Easter has come and gone and I can honestly say this year I did not overdose on chocolate. Far from it. Instead I filled my weekend away at the farm with walking and fresh air. Oh, and editing. It was great.
We decided, with this monster storm looming, to come back to town early. avoiding the caravan/campertrailer exodus that always follows a big storm. Good decision, as it was a cracker of a storm. Hope you had a great Easter. Recently I watched a really interesting TED talk about Procrastination that talked about the results driven Captain (steering my ship) and his not very helpful (and unwanted) offsider, the fun monkey.
The talk gave me a couple of lightbulb moments: 1. This is me... Although on reflection my fun monkey is more of a 10% fun, 90% other things that need doing (like weeding gardens and dusting skirting boards), but despite the best efforts of the Captain, sometimes the fun monkey steers my ship. 2. The difference between procrastinators that do get stuff done and those that don't is a deadline. And again, this is me... In all parts of my life, not just writing. I need more deadlines/timelines. 3. Listening to a TED talk during what could have been writing time - who was in charge there? Probably the fun monkey. Anyway, if you're not supposed to be writing, or working or whatever, and you'd got a free 15 minutes, here's the link to the talk: Tim Urban: Inside the mind of a master procrastinator Enjoy! I'm sure you've heard me say it before - I'm a Taphophile - a lover of cemeteries. But the term sounds a little...disturbing, so I went hunting for something a bit less creepy. Here's some I came across:
Lots of people ask why???? I love the history, the tributes and the way nature, no matter how hard you try, always wins out. Like the stone above. In 1914, this monument was standing, but over 100 years (and three more burials) later it has fallen and is now being reclaimed. Here's a few more of my photos from my writing group's visit to Balmoral Cemetery. I have lived in Brisbane my entire life and have never seen a koala in the wild, until we went walking last Sunday.
We know we're slow, but we're only now (23 months in) exploring all the local parks and wildlife corridors around our new house. We blame our teenage dog - our downtime went into training and spending time with her. So last Sunday, we took the dogs to the park in the morning and snuck out in the afternoon to explore Vickerman's Track, in a wildlife corridor about 2km from our house.. Apologies for the quality of the image - we didn't want to get too close and the light was fading. Isn't it gorgeous? I'm thrilled to announce that Follow Your Dreams has been accepted into the Romance Writers of Australia Sunstone Anthology. I know I've said it before - I love writing short.
Congratulations to the place-getters and all the other Little Gems for 2016. A special shout out to Fiona Marsden who had two entries accepted. Officially, there are more Fionas than any other christian name this year, so you can't be unhappy about that. Sunstone anthology will be available in digital and POD from August 2016 from the RWA shop.. Or should I say rejoined the gym.
Writing is a hugely sedentary job, and combined with the movement restrictions from some recent surgery. my fitness wasn't where I wanted it to be. I let my existing membership lapse while I was recovering and while I felt a bit apprehensive about trying somewhere new, it was time. So, my choices -Major shopping centre gym with disco ball and DJ (4km away), non-airconditioned sport club gym with pool - my old gym (5km away), Chain gym with a reputation of being cool (4km away) and closer to home a 24 hour unmanned gym (2km) and 24hour access, family owned squash court/gym with swim school (2km). I chose the family owned gym. For me, it's about feeling comfortable in the space as much as it is the equipment and the classes. The clincher: a class called "Lights out, Groove on". I can't wait! I love to know what my characters listen to, to know a bit more about who they are and how they think. But that only works if I listen to different sorts of music as well. In Home for Christmas Layla was sad about the demise of the Rogue Traders and Tate was listening to Good Charlotte and while I edited I had those bands on repeat.
So to kickstart some creativity, here's the last albums I downloaded:
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Fiona Greene AuthorWhen you set out on a journey and night falls, that's when you will discover the stars." Archives
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