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Are Wednesdays for Writing?
Hey everyone! I know I promised that I would be publishing poetry on Wednesdays, but that idea has recently hit a small snag… Turns out that many magazines and competitions categorise posting your work on a blog as ‘being published’ and since a frequent condition of submission or competition entry is that previously published work isn’t allowed, I’m in a bit of a bind! I won’t be posting much poetry, or short stories up here for a while as a result, since I’m trying to get more involved in submitting my work to magazines and entering competitions. Instead, today I’d like to talk about making yourself write. Wednesdays are for writing. The alliteration is…
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The Price of Success
Happy Monday everyone! Mondays are going to be thought pieces/blogs or short stories from now on to kick the week off. As I’m sure you’ve already figured out, Wednesdays are poetry days and Fridays will see American Adventure updates. Today’s thought piece is about what it takes to succeed. I will bow my head in shame as I say it, but the other day I did a google search: ‘should I stop blogging?’ I imagine I’m not the only person who’s asked the all-knowing depths of the internet whether or not to surrender to the depressing realities of trying to build a sustainable, interesting and worthwhile blog that people want…
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Aussie Expats Update – Our Adventurous Life!
Helllooooooo everyone! Welcome back to our most recent edition of ‘I left my job and we moved to America and now we’re having adventures’! Not a very catchy title, but I’m sure I’ll eventually come up with something. Highlights of this week’s update include: wanting to buy a cat, making pavlova, a Friday night party, (almost) winning a new car and an expedition to Bed, Bath and Beyond. So last Friday night, our Aussie neighbours, Dave and Lee, held a party to celebrate our arrival. It jointly celebrated Australia Day too; since the weather over here is too terrible to have an Australia Day celebration in January, they moved it…
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A Poem for Modern ‘Beauty’
Hey everyone! A bit of a mix of blog post and poem today to talk about beauty and society (Wednesday is Poem Day!). I’m continuously fascinated by society’s expectations of what we – particularly women, but men as well – should look like. Well, fascinated and incredulous. Somewhere along the line we’ve reached the point where our appearance becomes more important than who we are on the inside. Does anyone else find that insane? How can my bust and hip measurements determine my worth if you don’t know anything about me? How can the shape of my nose mean more than my sense of humour or the length of my legs…
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Aussie Expats Update – The Harrowing Search for a Car in OK
Ladies and Gentlemen, Life is crazy. This mostly applies when you’re trying to buy a car in America, but I mean craaaaaaaaa-zy. We’ve got a hire car at the moment which has been tiding us over, but being posted here for two+ years means we need our own car. Especially since this hire car… it’s a joke. It was ‘cleaned’ with a dirty cloth before we collected it (so the dirt has just been smeared everywhere), the tyres squeal on the highway, the windscreen wipers smudge over the driver’s side when it’s raining and it veers to the right when you’re driving. All in all, I won’t be sorry to…
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Aussie Expats Update – Oklahoma Living
Howdy neighbourinos! Well, we’re just over one week into our American Adventure: how time flies! In some ways it feels like we’re still really new here and on the other hand, it seems as though we’ve been gone from Australia forever. One of the big bonuses of military experience is that you reach a point where change happens and you keep on rolling; it becomes normalised to an extent. Don’t get me wrong, this transition has certainly disrupted us – it would be a bit worrying if we moved halfway around the world and weren’t affected at all – but we’re settling in pretty well and gradually figuring out our…
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How We Keep on Truckin’
How We Keep On Truckin’ Happy American Wednesday from Oklahoma! We were ready to nap at 9 am today. It’s our second full day and the past two nights have seen some interesting variations in sleeping patterns, as well as bed accoutrements that have included no pillows and not-quite-right pillows and a too-soft mattress. Earlier today, I was consumed with self-introspection, weariness weighing on me like a stone. The effort required to move, to think, was like dragging myself through wet concrete. It seemed impossible to write and the temptation to lie around and do nothing was overwhelming me. In that instance, it’s hard to know what the cause is…
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Aussie Expats – Today’s the Day!
Oh wow. Today’s The Day people. Today is the day we jet off from Adelaide to Sydney, then Sydney to Dallas (second-longest flight in the world) and finally through to Oklahoma… Arriving on Monday 6th June, which is the same day we’ve left and thus becoming time travellers to the past, which goes some very small way to fulfilling my deep and abiding desire to be a companion on Dr Who. I’d like to say that it’s all sunk in now and it actually feels like we’re moving overseas for the next few years, but it still just seems like one of those concepts that’s kind of too hard to process.…
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A Sestina of Dreams for Friday
Hello everyone and happy Friday! A huge HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my eldest brother, who’s turning 27 today: you’re a bit weird, but that’s cool. Weird is in right now, and I like you. Otherwise, the rest of our house got packed up today and put into storage, so we are seriously on the way outta here soon – crazy stuff! Three more sleeps on Australian soil and we’re off to live in Oklahoma for the next few years. It’ll be nice to get settled in and quit living in a half-way kind of world. You’ll all be thrilled to know that I successfully completed my submission for the Richell Prize…
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The Storm
Happy Hump Day people! So much is going on for us right now – we got back from Queensland last night and are straight into the swing of things to get the move done. Today our stuff gets packed up to get shipped to America and tomorrow will see the rest of the house packed to go into storage until we come home again. Meanwhile, we both have ongoing uni assessments, I have uni this afternoon and I’m supposed to enter a competition by the end of today, which involves reworking my novel draft… I am nowhere near ready to submit! Still, exciting times on all fronts and we’re starting…
