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Of Human Bondage
Welcome to the middle of the week! First off, my apologies to anyone who read the title of this post and got excited about the topic: in all likelihood, you’re probably about to be subsequently disappointed. I really racked my brains over what to write for today’s post. For a while there, I strongly considered just letting it go and not doing a post: tempting. Verrrrry tempting. But then I thought about having recently (finally) finished Somerset Maugham’s ‘Of Human Bondage’, and wanted to report back on the experience. Mainly because, despite the fact that it was pretty long and sometimes a bit slow, there were a lot of…
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Writing and Learning
Sometimes, Mondays just seem to come around so quickly. Weekends tend to be consumed by chores and studying, and you manage home-made pizza and a movie on Sunday night, then it’s Monday again. What the hell, world. Anyway, on to the post! Today is all about learning. I have a confession to make: I’m a bit of a nerd [Dislciamer: obviously depending on how you define nerd]. I love to read, I love to learn new things, I love studying (some days), and I find that it constantly boggles my mind how much there is out there to learn about, and how much we can utilise the things we learn…
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Aussie Expats Update – America, 3 Months In
Welcome back to the end of the week everyone! Fridays are always a happy light at the end of the tunnel (how this can be the case when I don’t have a job, don’t ask!) and despite James’ avowal of a busy weekend of study, I’m looking forward to at least one sleep in and maybe a Saturday night movie. I know, I know: we make coke-snorting, LSD-taking ravers look tame. It’s just who we are. When I counted the weeks on the calendar earlier today, it hit me that we’re coming to the end of our third month of Aussie expat life. How crazy that seems! Life, of course,…
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Finding Your Artistic Arrogance
Hey peeps, welcome to the middle of the week! I mentioned on Monday I was going to post about this, so get excited. I’ve been thinking about artistic arrogance quite a bit recently (a recurring theme inside the restlessly churning cogs of my brain) and wanted to share it with you all. Where to start…? What do I even mean by that idea, artistic arrogance? For me, it’s about keeping your doubts hidden, even when you’re agonisingly unsure. Nothing is more painful or off-putting to other people than the classic awkward introduction of: “well, it’s not very good, but” or “everyone else’s is better than mine,” or “I’m not very…
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The Pressure Cooker of Advice Lists
Happy Monday world! Does anyone else ever feel pressured as a writer? You know what I mean: you have to do x, y and z to develop your voice. You have to use this story structure. You need a theme. You need a strong female character, but don’t push a feminist ideal; more speech tags but you should only ever use ‘said’; more diversity, more action, more intrigue, more adverbs, less adverbs… It can’t be just me. Everywhere we turn, someone is telling us how to write. Some might argue that’s just an extrapolation of all the other things that the world and its nosy people feel free to tell…
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Aussie Expats Update – Driving Reprimands, Manuscript Typing and Travel Planning
It’s Friday yet again (thank goodness!), and I’m worried that no tale will ever again live up to that of the free-spirited armadillo I introduced you all to last week. [We need to name it, I think, then freely and ignorantly apply this name to every and all armadillos seen in the future, dead (‘sleeping’) or alive.] However, I did get pulled over by an on-base cop yesterday! There you go, more drama and intrigue in the life of the Aussie expats. Having picked James up to take him to a promotion ceremony that was happening elsewhere on base (and on a tight schedule, I’d like to add), I turned…
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The Truth About Rehab
I wrote this late last week after a frustrating series of training days. I try to use this blog predominantly to talk about writing, with a side splash of updates about living as an Aussie expat in America. But today I’m going to break the mould a little. If you’ve read any of my work before, you’ve probably heard me offhandedly mention rehab. The story itself is a lengthy one, but hopefully I won’t get too lost in the retelling. In early 2012, I injured my lower back. Due to a number of factors associated with work, I rehabilitated myself for the remainder of that year and into 2013 through…
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Aussie Expats Update – Hiking, Swimming, The Perseid Meteor Show and THE ARMADILLO
Another update and a big Happy Friday everyone! Well, this week has been another rollercoaster ride of adventures, weird animals, ice cream, burritos and training. We went for a hike up Elk Mountain last Saturday with Kim and Frankie and, as you can see from the view below, it was worth it.Though reaching the summit was an effort, and we were soaked by the time we got there, the view was incredible. Frankie had the best approach: with the sun was out in force and the climb feeling like hard work, she sussed out any possible shade and had a lie down whenever she could. We went and had delicious…
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A Present Obsession
Guys, guys, guys.* Can someone please explain to me what is going on with what seems to be modern writing’s obsession with present tense? I don’t think I’m over exaggerating when I say that everyone is doing it (or at least almost everyone). To provide some context, most of you know that I recently entered the NYC Midnight Flash Fiction Challenge. One of the cool things that has been set up within the framework of the challenge is that once you’ve completed your story and have received confirmation of your submission, there’s an online forum where you can post your story and receive feedback. It’s completely private, so if you don’t want…
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Burning Out
I’m feeling burnt out. It’s Sunday night and we had a big day today. Though it fortuitously included waffles for breakfast and froyo for a pseudo-lunch, it also included a hike through the Wichita Wildlife Reserve with Kim and her pup Frankie that left me pretty wrecked. Writing Monday’s blog post on a Sunday evening, I feel exhausted. And typically, that leads me to feeling some mild form of creative despair. I’m sure you’ve been there. Raise your hands if you know what I’m talking about (don’t worry, no one can see you guys). Yeah, that’s what I thought: almost everyone in any kind of creative endeavour has. [Disclaimer: I…
