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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…
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How She Fell
Hey everybody, Happy Monday! (It’s so easy to say when you’re not working) This is a list poem I wrote earlier this year using an anaphora. An anaphora refers to the repetition of a certain word or phrase at the beginning of successive lines of writing or speech; in this case, I’ve used a phrase (or variation on the phrase) throughout the poem at the start of each stanza. Hope you like this one – let me know! — A. xx How She Fell She fell in love with him by stages, The way that poetry is written and music played and the way the moon rises, At once…
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Battling with Writer’s Doubt
Happy Sunday everybody! Hope everyone has had a great weekend: ours involved a lot of travel and farewells with family and friends before we set sail (figuratively!) for Oklahoma. I’ve recently started following and reading the content on Positive Writer, which is a great source for anyone who wants to get information and encouragement on writing. They’re hosting (and I’m participating in) a writing contest called Writers Crushing Doubt, so I’m going to chat about some of my experiences with ‘Writer’s Doubt’. I firmly believe that any writer who tells you that they’ve never suffered from doubt – about their ideas, their writing style, their creative process, their schedule, their…
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Upcoming Australian Short Story Competition
Gooooooooood afternoon everyone and happy Friday! (if you’re in Australia. If you’re in America… I’m sorry.) I was just made aware yesterday of the existence of (yet another) short story competition. If you want to be a writer and you want to improve / want to start getting your name ‘oot and aboot’, then story/poetry/novel competitions are a good idea – even if it may be somewhat soul-destroying at times because it kind of feels like continuous negative reinforcement. For the moment my focus is absorbed by getting my butt into gear and sorting out my submission for ‘The Richell Prize for Emerging Writers 2016’ which is due on the 1st of…
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A Story!
To celebrate my last (working) day in the Army, here’s a short story I wrote late last year. Hurray! The Beginning “Ally? Are you ok?” It was the first time he’d spoken since they’d entered. “Art… We could always just leave.” Her whisper echoed. She winced as it returned to them, hushed and sinister, and looked around the gaping walls, the hungry bare floorboards. The huge sandstone clocktowers in the heart of the city began to toll midnight and both children started. Over two blocks of heavy old brick buildings separated them, yet the clanging fractured in the room as though they stood in the heart of the Victoria Tower…
