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Showing posts from July, 2016

CAN YOU KEEP A SECRET?

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Can you keep a secret I don't suppose you can You mustn't laugh You mustn't cry But do the best you can.... We all have secrets. It's only natural. Some secrets are little and quite innocent (like hiding chocolate in the veggie drawer in the fridge), or planning a semi-surprise birthday party...some secrets are huge. The little ones don't attract much attention. You may get a 'why didn't you tell me?'..or 'I knew that already'. The big secrets are usually much more powerful. These secrets could be anything from affairs and leading secret lives, to abortions and having children no one knows about, being married before (or even still married), to stealing and theft, being addicted to a substance or pursuit... or even murder. It's human nature to have secrets. There is always something we keep to ourselves. Whether we are ashamed or embarrassed, or know it could hurt someone else, or even ourselves. The important t

I WANT TO WRITE A BOOK....

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"Everyone has a book in them, but in most cases that's where they should stay." Christopher Hitchens. We all know the above quote or one very similar and it appears that writing a book is on the bucket list of most people. And it is so easy. After all we know that politicians and TV presenters have written books, athletes and footballers, singers and actors, criminals and celebrities, royalty and ratbags. They have written poetry and memoir, nonfiction and fiction...and even picture books. And had these items published. I surmise (or call it an educated guess) that a lot of these people have had 'help' of some description. Ghost writers, editors that push, goad and mould them in the right direction. They have not had to send a piece out into the ether and let it sit in the slush pile, waiting for that reader to pick it up and say 'WE SO NEED TO PUBLISH THIS'. Most (once again an educated guess) have been commissioned to write such and such, o

NO TWO ARE ALIKE....

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The past few weeks have been the school holidays in Victoria and thankfully....big deep breath...they are over and the library is back to the normality of busy. Compared to being MEGA busy during the holidays. One of the children's programs I did for these holidays was Snowflake Sensation. We read wintry stories, sang wintry songs (did the winter Hokey Pokey where we put our mittens in, we put our mittens out...) and basically had fun. We created a wonderful snowman artwork to take home.... and we made snowflakes. The joy of making snowflakes is the fact that each one is different. There is no right or wrong way to make them. You simply fold and cut, whatever way you want. Often when we do an activity the children have to make theirs EXACTLY how I have made mine. Including the same colours, the same placement of stick or piece of paper. If I have a tree in the far left corner, they MUST have a tree in the far left corner. Creating snowflakes was very liberating.

TIME TO KNUCKLE DOWN...

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As last week's blog terrified informed us that the year is half over, a few of my writing colleagues have gone into a mild panic ... state of setting goals and deadlines. I do know that seeing the year whizz by so fast has a sobering impact. It makes you realise what you have done..all good if in fact you HAVE done something. As we all know, I have done very little. So I've settled in front of the computer...and Yep..I've checked Facebook...gave a thumbs up and even a smiley face or two. I've checked my emails (shoe shop having a great sale!). It's not like I have NOTHING to write. I have unfinished pieces all over the place. Let's pretend that all of the above is 'unfinished works in progress' and not merely 'stuff'. I do have first drafts, unfinished drafts, sentences that I thought were pretty good and would lead onto something...well something do-able. But where to begin? Hmmm.... looking out the window isn't help