Merry Christmas all. Hope you had a great holiday season! As I do every year, once the hustle and bustle of Christmas is over and done with, my thoughts turn to New Year's Resolutions. Here's what I'm thinking about as options for 2017: 1, Alphabet Run/walk: Starting with A and progressing all the way through the alphabet, take some time to explore your city on foot by walking or running 5km in a suburb starting with this week's letter of the alphabet. You get two weeks for each letter. See, there's a reason we have a suburb called Zillmere, Yeronga, Gordon Park and Eagle Junction. I am however stuck on "Q" and "U". I don't think Quilpie or Urandangie (country towns) will cut the mustard. Trips planned in Sydney and Melbourne next year, so maybe that might help me out for the tricky ones. 2. Run Down Under A virtual run around Australia - all 14080km of it. This morning I logged 6km. If I keep up this pace every single day, I will complete my journey in 2346 days, or 6.4years. Alternatively, I could do 38.6km every day and finish in 2017. Actually, 14080 is more than my car does in a year. so I doubt my legs could make it (Maybe I need to rethink.) Details here, if anyone else is interested : www.rundownunder.com.au 3. 17 in 2017 17 what, I hear you ask? Well, this is the question. 17 books, 17 movies, 17 writing marathons, 17 actual marathons - the list is infinite and that's what's so good about this challenge. You can individualise it to what you like to do. 17 pieces of cheesecake? No worries - so long as its what you've put on your list at the start. Alternatively, put 17 fun things into a jar and pick one out, then do it, with the aim of emptying the jar by the end of the year. Those are my top 3 at the moment. What about you? What are you planning for your resolutions? One of the highlights of the year for me is receiving "the Christmas letter" from my distant friends and family, so I can keep up with what's happened in their lives. But, if you're like me with no kids or grandkids to share, the Christmas letter tends to be pretty much the same every year.
So in 2016, I decided to set myself a challenge - tell the story of my year in Haiku. For those that don't remember, Haiku is a form of Japanese poetry with 3 lines and a 5-7-5 syllable pattern. It generally involves nature, and a sharp contrast/unexpected statement in the last line. Here's some of the Haiku that made it into the letter, which was posted this week. Fingers crossed the family don't think I've lost my marbles. About the Christmas season in general: Hot sticky weather Westfield carparks overfilled Frustrations explode About my furkids: Naughty puppy digs Old dog relaxes in shade How soon is dinner? As I said in the letter: there is no plan for Hubby and I to give up our day jobs in 2017 to write poetry. It sounds so simple. yet it isn't. (Read: I'm not very good at it) Do you like haiku? Does anyone want to comment, using haiku? I'd love to see them. November - what's not to love - jacarandas in full bloom, warm spring weather and best of all - it's national novel writing month or NaNoWriMo.
This year I'm NaNoNOTWriMo-ing courtesy of a temporary contract extension in the day job and a tricky timeline rewrite in the centre of my manuscript. The suggestion from my crit group to improve a single chapter means rewrites both back and forward from that spot and sadly, the continuity of "who knows what and when" is doing my head in. Cue a collection of post-it notes spread across one side of my desk to set it in stone. Now I just have to ensure I've incorporated it all. Good luck to those wielding their pens towards the 50K goal - I wish you speedy words, plenty of writing time and no unforeseen disasters. I've had a bit of a digital detox these last few weeks, courtesy of Mr Greene. Turns out our new and improved phone/internet deal is great if you stay home on your wi-fi. If you go away and are not hooked into a network, your data disappears really quickly. Even more so when auto-updates are turned on and they all download the first day of your beach holiday using 98% of the month's limit. Turns out there are heaps of things to do when you're on a holiday and not permanently attached to your phone or your iPad, like reading, writing, walking, exploring, beaching, karting, napping. Even photography got a look in. Here's one of my favourite shots. We'd gone "up to the Point" to drool over a million dollar real estate listing and came back via the Osprey nest where we love to see the parents tending their young. Our dream would be to own one of the homes on the Esplanade and have this view forever.... I wish... Winter has been and gone - how did that happen?
This is one of my favourite winter photos - it was 4 degrees with an apparent temp of -1, and I was wearing Queensland winter running gear (shorts and a T-shirt) in South Australia where the wind blows straight off Antarctica (or so it seemed). Everyone was asking "Aren't you cold?" Yes, I was. It's amazing how fast you can run with the threat of hypothermia as your incentive. Sorry I haven't been around much these last few weeks. There's a long story as to why but you all know I love to write short, so here goes: 1. New day job 2. On top of existing day job 3. New computer (gulp) 4. Travel for new day job 5. New gym routine (Ok its not a NEW gym routine, its ROUTINE use of the gym) 6. RWA Conference - spectacular as always but squeezed in between all of the above - so not as much time at conference as previous years. Things are starting to settle down a bit now in this "new normal" and I'm getting better at prioritising my time (aka I'm getting up earlier). Should see me round here more often as a result. We've had some spectacular skies as winter takes us in its grip and gives us a reason to rug up. Not that its been that cold. We moved from our traditional Queenslander, designed to catch the breeze in summer to a lowest brick, and I'm pretty sure I'll never be bone-crunchingly cold again. This new house is just so warm.
Here's some gorgeous sunset clouds, with just a promise of a cold night, taken a few days ago. I'm deep in the editing forest. Or should I say one of my characters is lost, deep in the forest and I'm on the journey with her, feeling her fear as she stumbles around, lost in forest.
As alien landscapes go, this forest looked mighty alien to me. I hate that there is no grass under these trees, and that as far as the eye can see you are surrounded by these ghostly gums. Getting disoriented is only a matter of time... I'm a regular blood donor, and this week is National Blood Donor Week. Today was my 66th donation and so I'm almost to 2/3 of my goal of 100 donations in my life time. Where else do you get a medical check, the ability to lie down for an hour and read a book ( The Diabolical Miss Hyde by Viola Carr ), then be fed.
The blood service is also correct in that the Chocolate Chunk Cookie by the Byron Bay Cookie Company is the Best. Biscuit. Ever. And they are only available at the donor centres. Rather than sharing a photo of me in the chair, needles or any blood, I thought I'd share a photo from this morning. I walked across Southbank Parklands to the city and for a second, had the bougainvillaea covered arbour all to myself. It was magic. Hey everyone
I finally bit the bullet and started an Instagram page . Head on over and follow me if you want pictures of nature, black dogs and the occasional family member. Disappointment is the gap that occurs when reality doesn't meet your expectations. Recently we went to the mountains - we wanted cold weather, we wanted to sit around a roaring fire drinking hot chocolate. First up we did our prep work and we had our ducks (firewood) all in a row. The hot chocolate and marshmallows were on standby. Our manuscripts and red pens were ready to go. Everyone had a picture in their mind how it would be. (Here's mine above) Then... this happened. We went to load the timber into the fireplace, and look what we found.(Scroll back up and you will see the note in behind the glass.)
Nooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It reminded me of the submission process for manuscripts - and no-one explains this well to beginner writers. You can do the work, you can do your homework about what lines the publisher is interested in, you can write the best book you can write, and when you submit, it isn't what the publisher is looking for. Or what that person, at that publisher, on that day is looking for, to quote my favourite editor of all time. It doesn't make it a bad book. It just means it isn't the book for them. It's ok to be disappointed, so long as you get back up, review that manuscript and send it out to someone else. Of course, our disappointment over the fireplace was short lived. It wasn't that cold, I had a sensational hand-knit scarf keeping my neck warm and we still had hot chocolate. However we're hopeful the repairs will be done by the next time we visit. |
Fiona Greene AuthorWhen you set out on a journey and night falls, that's when you will discover the stars." Archives
November 2022
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