Blog Archive

Masked Ball novella . . .

Rebecca Bingham, Patricia Sweet and myself, Prue Batten, plan to self-publish the Masked Ball novella from the Masked Ball blog event of April-May 2010.

The Masked Ball novella is copyrighted © 2010.

‘Oh! Darkly, deeply, beautifully blue.

I haven’t done any revision for a week.  I am a disgrace to the brotherhood of writers.

The days it’s Antarctic blue, and clear as far as the galaxy’s end, why would one want to sit inside tapping away on a computer?  And I ask, does this mean I am not really as dedicated to my writing as I should be?

Read More

Pillow Book of Prudence . . . Part 5

Things that are distant though near:

Salamanca Market which is 6 kilometres away from our home.  Relationships.  The road that leads down a 300 metre 15 degree slope to the nearest shop.  The first day of daylight-saving.  The end of the current revision.  The first tulip flowering. Old age.  Next weekend is also distant though near.

Read More

Its a dog’s life . . .

Ah yes, but is it really?  Certainly for those loved and spoiled pets we have at home, it is.

But then there are the others.  I’ve just begun work as a volunteer dog-walker at our local dog shelter: http://dogshomesoftas.com.au.

 

Walkies!

 

Every Thursday I travel out into the Hobart hills where 80 dogs of  varying shapes and sizes are in residence.  My job as a walker is to get a lead and a nifty little label that says ‘I’m out walking’, get the chart and see who is yarded, who ‘holds’ (doesn’t dirty kennels and must be walked first before it busts), who is on short walks because of de-sexing.  Then I pick my dog and begin.  We do a 20 minute walk into the bush along tracks with wonderful smells and seats where we can sit and talk to the dogs and then we return them to their kennels and the whole thing begins again.

Their kennels have under-floor heating and they are concrete bunkers that have been covered in soil and have grass and succulents growing across the top for insulation and for bush-fire protection.  Some dogs are kenneled together in double kennels and that’s great because I get to walk with a friend and have a gossip, knowing the two dogs will get on.

My first time last week was filled with four enormous dogs and as I am only 5’3, they walked me rather than the other way round.  At the end of my shift, I was knackered and could barely speak.

 

My turn . . . please?

 

This week, I walked six dogs. But being sneaky I made sure that at least two were pups.  The other four were hound crosses and it seems a hound’s lot is to go far and fast and pee as much as possible.  The Home seemed full of hounds this week.  The week I trained it was filled with terrier crosses.  Sometimes it is filled with designer dogs and puppy-farm dogs.  One never knows.

But as I walked, I wondered what foul people could just dump their dogs, what other people are so irresponsible that they never de-sex their dogs and then we have a host of unwanted pups.  Why people buy dogs without a clue as to care and love and why many buy dogs that are just plain difficult in a given situation.  I’m a writer, so it was natural that my thoughts then drifted to the convolutions of human emotion and what prompts people to act in certain ways.  And just as my mind became enthralled in this philosophical discussion with itself, my dog would stop, pee or poo and then I’d have to get practical,  pick up the offending stuff in the bags provided and then drop it in the bin and the dog would say, ‘Well! Nice that you’re paying attention, can I have some more please?’

I love the work and love the dogs. I admire a Dog’s Home that has adopted out 11 dogs since Saturday and more than 400 since January. And I love Piper.  I walked her today . . . 6 months old, a Jack Russell X with a white head and a tan ring round one eye.  She’s quite small, a joy to walk and lies in my arms like a baby, blissed out and enjoying having her little pink tum-tum rubbed.  Once again, my husband had to search my pockets and the car when I came home . . . just to make sure I hadn’t adopted a third to add to our other two.

Richard Armitage . . .

I find it amazing that the Masked Ball fantasy flash-fiction, now over a month old, which used Richard Armitage’s Guy of Gisborne as the basis for the character of Niccolo de Fleury, is still getting views.  For those who want to read the whole story, click on the chapters below, read and dream on!

Read More

The Pillow Book of Prudence . . . part 4

Things that unsettle me:

The noise of ravens in the orchard, scavenging the last of the windfalls before the privations of winter.  Eight people and eight dogs walking on the beach when there should only be me and my dogs.  Thus school-holidays now unsettle me and I wish everyone would go back to the city The thought that I am a grumpy old woman to wish such things.  A month’s supply of leaves on the ground, which must be raked and disposed of.  Bare trees.  The wine bottle nearly empty.  The older dog patently uncomfortable.  The early dark of a winter’s night.  The thought that there may be no chocolate for this evening.

Read More

When is a writer not a writer . . .

Well, I suspect it might be this weekend, beginning with today.

I am at the shack (for those outside Tasmania [Australia] read cottage, beach house etc).  I have the laptop with me, I have my revision reports, research notes, dictionary and thesaurus.  I arrived at midday.  It’s been a mild day . . . unusually.  It should be freezing as it’s past June 1, but its forecast to be 17 (64?).  The sky is powder blue and there is no wind . . . none.  It’s heaven.

Read More

Word ownership . . .

One of the things I agonise most about as I revise, is how much attention to pay to the editorial reports that come through from my assessment agency.  I mean I obviously take them seriously because they cost me a considerable amount of money.  But the things that concern me are how much of my voice should I/could I retain?  How much of MY story should I/could I change?  I am a descriptive writer, have always been and it is one of the points I am pulled up on constantly.  How much of that style could I/should I alter?

Read More

Sex and Survivor . . .

Sometimes I wonder how far I would go in the effort to understand physical and mental emotion in a given circumstance for my writing.  I’ve snorkelled, body-surfed, kayaked and sailed in fairly unfriendly seas, ridden horses at pace through hill and dale, drunk too much, drunk not enough.  I’ve stood on the edge of enormous heights and felt threatened by vertigo, I’ve held my breath and dived as deep as I can to see what it feels like.  I’ve tasted food I hated and retched with it.  Gad, I’ve even used a drop toilet!  And everyone knows that living in Australia, one is always aware of the nasties: sharks, jellyfish, redback spiders, funnelweb spiders, jackjumper ants, snakes!  It’s a mean old world out there!

Read More