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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…
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Aussie Expat Update – An Unforeseen Injury, Stranger Things and Homemade Nachos
Hello again world! Welcome back to the thrilling weekly recount of what your favourite Aussie expats have been getting up to in the sweaty state of Oklahoma. I know this one is a bit late today: I got distracted by an online quiz for psychology and finally getting back into our home gym for a barbell rehab session. James suffered an unforeseen injury on Tuesday afternoon at the gym when he pulled a rib while training. It’s not serious, but relatively incapacitating, so we’ve had the past few days off. Unfortunately, taking a few days off tends to make my back hurt (weird, right?), so I got back in there today…
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NYC Midnight Flash Fiction Challenge #1 – Redemption
Redemption As a poor teenager on a scholarship to a private high school, Ethan fell in love with a rich, wayward and rebellious Imogen Howard, but knew he could never tell her how he felt. When she shows up unexpectedly as a patient in the rehabilitative nursing home where he works, everything he once felt for her comes rushing back… but will she ever let down her walls to let him in? * * * * * It started off as just another day. “New one in for you, Ethan,” Marie called out as I strode through the foyer. “I hear she’s fiery,” she added conspiratorially, stage whisper bouncing off…
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How I Tackled the NYC Midnight Flash Fiction Challenge
Happy Monday everyone! As I mentioned last week, I wanted to do a post on how I approached Challenge 1 of the NYC Midnight Flash Fiction Challenge. With only 48 hours to put together a 1000 word short story and three specific constraints (genre, location and object) on what I created, anyone who has done this challenge can assure you… it’s harder than it looks. For a start, 1000 words? Not a lot of words to work with. Creating relatable characters and having them undergo a story/journey in that number is very challenging. Sometimes it’s easier to hide away in the bulk of words we write, rather than pare them…
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Aussie Expats Update – Just Another Day in Our (American!) Life
Well everyone (American everyones), It’s Friday again, and despite some considerable challenges, here is my weekly update. The reason I’m late off the mark today? I have done a lot of writing recently. I spent the vast majority of last weekend writing (and rewriting and rewriting), my entry to the NYC Midnight Flash Fiction Challenge, Round 1. I was allocated to Group 45, and having been assigned Genre: Romance, Location: Nursing Home, Item: Locket as of 11:59, 22 July 2016, I set to work. I plan to do a post early next week detailing how I set about creating an entry for the challenge, but suffice to say, despite cracking out a…
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Flooded Anthology – Get Aboard!
Helllooo everybody and happy Monday! I feel like I can say that because I’ve just finished cleaning the house (yuck!) and I have this blog post ready to go on time. I’m excited about putting this post up, because I’m really excited about getting involved in the ‘Flooded’ project. ‘Flooded: A Creative Anthology of Brain Injuries’ is the pet project of Victoria Griffin, a writer and editor at Blue Pen Editing Services, who suffered a concussion while playing softball in early 2016. Now, I’m fairly sure most people have heard of concussion. You get them from hard hits to the head and in tv shows, they always shine a light…
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Aussie Expats Update – Curtains, Kohl’s and Burritos
Here we are again everyone! Happy Friday America (and welcome to the weekend Australia). I know that your anticipation over the results of our DIY attempts last weekend must have been simply destroying people throughout the week… But wait no longer! I’m happy to report that, for the most part, our efforts were not in vain. Having gone out for Kim’s birthday dinner on Friday night after a huge home gym training session in the heat, we were pretty wrecked. Despite sleeping in until 10am the next morning (I did some reading, James did the sleeping), we managed to bestir ourselves to get to Home Depot later on to purchase…
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A Post about Networking
Happy Wednesday everyone! There have been a few things going on in the past week or so that have really made me think about networking and building a blog readership, so that’s what I’m focused on today. To start with, I’ve recently started to get a bit more traffic on this blog, so a big HELLO! Hello to everyone who is reading this post or any other, and has made the time to leave a comment or like a post. If you’re a new blogger, you’ll understand just how empowering, encouraging and downright exciting this is; if you’re a more seasoned blogger, you may have forgotten, but let me remind…
