No words needed…
Which makes a change for a writer!
That was my weekend.
How was yours?
Sometimes it pays to take time and to LOOK as one rushes through the garden at this time of year.
I found some beautiful white spring crocus which I had bought in March at Bream Creek Show and completely forgotten that I’d planted. Look at the amazing white vein down the full- length of the leaf. Stunning. Can see Jane Nicholas doing this in stumpwork.
I don’t often post on writing but I was playing with Pinterest this evening and came across this – a list from my favourite animation house, Pixar.
The storytelling ‘rules’ were originally released on Twitter by Emma Coats, Pixar’s Story Artist. And I wondered about the rules in respect of my own writing.
Yesterday, I wrote a post called Missionary Position, a post about a writer’s aims, which was introduced to the world of the writer by acclaimed commentator Joanna Penn. It occurred to me that the questions Joanna asked were perfect for the Big Red Chair which hasn’t appeared on the blog for quite some time …. being re-upholstered as it were.
Earlier this month, Joanna Penn wrote a blog post on the need for a writer to have a solid mission statement. I gave this some hard thought and have answered the questions she posed.
Question 1: What do you do?
After writing the post on the Templar Commanderie in France with its beautiful old stone and woodwork, I was in the mood for ruins of all kinds.
It seems we have some of our own.
We bought our sheep property about twelve years ago and one of the things that attracted us to the place, apart from it’s excellent farm soil, its wonderful hills and views, house, shearing shed and machinery shed, dams, proximity to the coast and the city etc etc etc – was the apparent history right before our very eyes.
I have a wonderful group of Facebook friends – interesting, interested, kind, generous, and always fun. But two most recently have stood out.
Brian and Yveline Cobb live in France.
We met on Facebook, as one does these days, and over time, he has seen me struggling with Occitán, French etc, and has always offered a little advice. During the writing of Gisborne: Book of Knights, I asked if anyone knew of a twelfth century Templar Commanderie in Aquitaine. No response online, so I went back to my research books and found mention of one in Toulon in Provence. I googled it and found that it is now a private residence and what’s more, that it is for sale. I then asked if anyone knew of it. Whilst Brian didn’t know of the Commanderie exactly, he responded that he knew the area and would be heading that way…
To all horses, happy birthday – August 1st being the birthday for all horses in Australia. (Officially for the Thoroughbred breed, but unofficially for all.)
Especially to my own through all my years of riding.
Driving to a beach down the road from House the other day, we met a mob of sheep being shifted to fresh pasture.
This grazing property is my all time favourite. If I won a lottery and the owners would sell, I would buy it yesterday (that’s not to say I don’t love our own farm with it’s wonderful old stone barn and ruins of stables, bakehouse, smithy’s and more).
I’ve been invited to be part of the Tasty Summer Blog Hop by historical romance writer Lucinda Brant. You may remember that Lucinda sat in my Big Red Chair some time ago.
Since then, her books have gone from strength to strength, culminating in her being nominated as a 2013 finalist for TWO books in the highly respected Readers’ Favorite Book Awards, with the results to be announced in September. You can read about her books, awards, reviews etc at http://lucindabrant.com and about her latest release Salt Redux