Sandy Fussell's Blog, page 11

Favourite Blog Posts: Zeroing in on Words

Zeroing in on Words is a blog post from The Editor’s Blog, 12 June 2014.

Every time I go to blog about this post I get distracted and that’s one of the reasons I like it so much. It’s inspiring. It sends me straight to my current WIP to sift and sieve through the words looking to see that I have exactly the right ones in the right places.

The post contains a simple, succinct example of how word choice and position can make significant subtle differences. I could hear the wind whipping through the trees. This one sentence is twisted and tweaked to show so many nuances. 

I admire blog content that is not only evergreen, as useful today as it was a year ago, but content that every time I read it, teaches me anew.

What app saves me the most time?

I have this huge fascination with productivity and anything digital.

Which is ironic of course, because the more time I spend looking at things like that, the less productive I am. But every now and then, I find something that works.

Symbaloo is a visual book mark interface. I leave it open in the first tab of my browser all the time.

Why would an author want to use it? Because it quicker and easier to find things – from research to social media platform building, from other freelance work to personal tasks. It’s hard to keep all that at your fingertips.

But with one Symbaloo click I can access all my social media, author websites and blogs, business places (the ATO  portal), research stored in Evernote, Calendar and To-do, bank accounts and more.

Each button is a hyperlink to a place on the web. Adding, editing and moving buttons is super easy. Default graphics are available for most urls or you can load your own.

If you want, you can have more than one Symbaloo mix.

My bookmark bar never had room for enough bookmarks and accessing a list from the browser was inefficient. Symbaloo saves time and that gets a big tick from me.

Internet Goodness – A Poe Tree

Source:Library as Incubator project

Look at this. A Poe Tree.

The Internet never ceases to surprise, amaze and inspire me.

This tree, in Lawrence Public Library in Kansas, USA, is inspired by Shel Silverstein’s beautiful poem, Poet’s Tree (read it here), and represents a growing appreciation of poetry.

The Poe Tree was created by Youth Services Librarian Assistant Rebecca Dunn. Rebecca runs Sunday afternoon story time for “children of all ages”, introducing children to the poetry of picture books.

Rebecca says: My goal is for kids to realize they already have a familiarity with poetry that they can build on and also to demonstrate how approachable poetry is.

After the story, children – and some adults too – make a poem leaf for the tree.

Yes, librarians are awesome.

Source article here .

 

The First Third – Will Kostakis

It’s after midnight and the house is quiet.

I’m reading. Everyone else is sleeping.

And then I laugh. Loud enough to wake up the son in the nearest bedroom.

“Easter is all about comebacks.”

The First Third – Will Kostakis.

Well played.

 

 

Aussie Author Challenge 2015 – Just a Queen

Just a Queen by Jane Caro is my  third  title counting towards the  2015 Aussie Author Challenge hosted by Jo at Booklover Book Reviews.

It ticks the boxes as a female author, fiction published 2014-2015 and an author I haven’t read before.

Just a Queen is the sequel to Just a Girl. It continues the story of Elizabeth, now Queen Elizabeth I.

First, a confession. I haven’t read Just a Girl. I was too engaged to turn back when I realised I was reading a sequel and I didn’t want to. For the record, reverse reading didn’t have any negative impact on my enjoyment and Just a Girl is now on my TBR list.

Just a Queen is wonderful authentic historical fiction. Elizabeth’s voice is perfectly wrought. The language and dialogue, while never archaic, is cleverly placed in time by the choice of words.

This is an introspective story and much of the action takes place inside Elizabeth’s castle although she is continually receiving messages of daring deeds and overseas news, and enjoys the occasional progression through the countryside to meet her people.

Despite her royal role, Elizabeth is in many ways, not very worldly. She has purposely excluded love and motherhood and has no living immediate family. She is surrounded by male advisors who even when she can trust them, make unnecessary allowance for her gender.

It’s no surprise Elizabeth is preoccupied with her cousin, Mary Queen of Scots. Mary was a young queen too, her peer, and Elizabeth has long daydreamed that they might become friends and confidantes.

Mary’s life is very different. Exiled from her throne, multiple marriages, a son and a reputation for scandal. But that’s not what places a wedge between a possible friendship. Mary is Elizabeth’s rival. The Catholic Church would rather see Mary rule England and Mary’s son is heir to childless Elizabeth’s throne.

Elizabeth is a good ruler, despite the obstacles she faces – whether it’s parliament or being a single, childless woman. Ultimately however, she has no control over the decisions her situation dictates, just as she had no control over the unexpected events that brought her to the throne.

The hardest decision of all is what to do with Mary, now imprisoned in England.

Jane Caro portrays Elizabeth I not only as a significant historical figure, but a real, accessible person. Strong and vulnerable. One who rules an Empire but struggles to decide between heart and head, right and wrong, individual and state.

Some readers may prefer more action and drama but I enthusiastically recommend Just a Queen to readers of all ages who love historical fiction.

Is this the most wonderful colouring book ever?

Doesn’t it make your fingers itch to colour?

From The Secret Garden Copyright Johanna Basford

It’s the work of artist Johanna Basford interviewed here.

I immediately added it to the birthday books to buy list and two of my friends are getting this book with a pack of oil paint pencils for Christmas.

From The Secret Garden Copyright Johanna Basford

I’ve always loved colouring. Lately I’ve read where psychologists are recommending colouring as a relaxation and stress management technique because it takes focus away from worries. Psychologist Gloria Martínez Ayala says that when we colour, we activate different areas of our two cerebral hemispheres. “The action involves both logic, by which we color forms, and creativity, when mixing and matching colors.”

As if I needed an excuse to buy this book.

Check out my Joanna Basford inspired Pinterest Board

5 Ratty Things about Writing and Me

April 4th is World Rat Day. I did a little ratty thinking and came up with 5 reasons why I should celebrate.

1   I was born in the Chinese Year of the Rat. Rats are imaginative, curious, observant, honest, talkative and full of energy. That’s me -Tick. They are suited to a career as a writer. Hopefully that’s me – Tick. They are survivors. Surviving two life threatening illnesses in 4 years – that’s me – Big Tick.

2   In my Samurai Kids series, each of the characters has a Japanese animal as a totem, which reflects their personality and talents. Nezume is the Long-tailed Rat.

3   I can’t spell rat in Japanese. Quite by accident Nezume could be interpreted as a misspelling of Nezumi, the Japanese word for mouse. I didn’t know this as I made the word up but a young fan who speaks fluent Japanese emailed to politely correct my spelling. No more made up words for me!

4  Clare Strahan’s tumbler has really cool Literary Rats. I hang around there

 

 

 

 

 

 

5    One of my favourite quotes comes from The Tale of Desperaux by Kate DiCamillo. These are the words of Gregory the jailer, who is a rat. ‘Stories are light. Light is precious in a world so dark. Begin at the beginning. Tell Gregory a story. Make some light.’

Have you got a ratty reason for celebrating? I’d love to hear it.

An old suitcase full of poetry

I didn’t even know I still had it.

An old suitcase full of poetry, a growth chart of words measuring my life from teen to young adult.

I was editing #1 son’s Psychology essay and recalled I’d kept one of my own. I thought he might be interested to see Mum was once a young student too. I knew it was in an old suitcase full of papers but had forgotten what else was there.

A book containing all the poems I wrote from when I was 12 to 22. A news clipping from a poem published in the Canberra Times. The Greek Tragedies I wrote in Year 8 that the class had to perform. I suspect they preferred doing that to some of the other stuff we studied because no-one ever laughed or gave me a hard time.

Bits and pieces of stories. I had forgotten I ever wrote stories.

Was any of it any good? Bits and pieces of the bits and pieces were okay. It was eerily strange to look back with such raw depth. Every poem was annotated with why I wrote it and who or what it was about. Yes, I’m still a bit like that! There was a surprising amount of dark almost gothic stuff. Then again, I was a teenager. Some was not so dark and this one I’m willing to share. 16 year old me. A greenie even then.

The River’s Song
I saw the trees,
green and stretching
they were walking quickly
on their hands across the sky.
Frightened and fleeing,
they were reaching frantically
for the horizon.
Yes, I saw the trees,
before the land was hewn flat.

Awesome Book Stuff: “Literature Versus Traffic”

It was 2012. In Melbourne. It was awesome. And I’ve only just discovered it happened.

This is “Literature Versus Traffic“, an art installation by Luzinterruptus which was part of the Winter Light Festival.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am incredibly envious of anyone who was there.

The artist described it as “a river of books overflowing into the physical pedestrian spaces and installed itself in the space allocated to cars, stealing precious space to the dense traffic in the area, in a symbolic gesture in which literature took control of the streets and became the conquerer of the public space, offering the citizens, a space (not as big as we would have liked) in which the traffic withdrew yielding ground to the modest power of the written word.”

Seriously awesome.

And on the last night people were allowed to take books home and books were handed out to passing cars!

Read an interview with Lazinterruptus here

Sometimes learning takes a different path

Over at ReadingUpsideDown, Susan Whelan has a post about University Regrets and Insecurities. It’s a heart-felt piece of writing by a wonderful, super-capable lady.

As I read, I recognised myself in so many of her paragraphs. It was cathartic for me to admit my greatest regret too, is not going to University and while I’ve spent a lot of my life telling people I’ll do it eventually, for most of that time I’ve  known it’s not going to happen.

When I finished high school I wanted to study Medicine and specialise in Neurosurgery. I wanted to do research.The Guidance Counsellor said: “You can do anything. Next student please.” I scored a place in Medicine at Sydney Uni and it was all good.  I was even prepared for the 5 hours travelling each day until I  could afford to move closer.

Then I learned a few hard facts of life. My mother announced that she wasn’t supporting any more study, not even until I found a part-time job to pay board, and that Year 11 and Year 12 were more than enough of her time and money wasted. She found me a full-time job at the local supermarket and told me I was ungrateful because I didn’t take it.

Education wasn’t valued in her house. I often laugh and tell the story of how I wasn’t allowed to do homework because my mother said homework was set by teachers who didn’t get their job done during the day. But I don’t feel like it’s funny. I’m just pretending.

I was a naive country kid who didn’t know how to make the dream happen. So I left and moved to Sydney with two suitcases – one full of clothes and the other full of books. I found a job and rented with friends. I made it to Sydney Uni. For one lunch hour and one night each week. Part-time offerings were extremely limited then, unlike today. I only did two subjects, psychology and economics, but it was a start. Until my mother was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. Family came first and I deferred.

I returned to Uni although it wasn’t safe travelling by night from where I then lived. When a girl was knifed in the lane-way after getting off my train (during Uni holidays), I quit. I tried correspondence. It was before the internet and the only distance courses were at Macquarie University and the University of New England. I couldn’t afford to travel and stay for the compulsory residential weeks so I chose Macquarie. The subject choices were even narrower than part time at Sydney. I did mathematics, statistics and electronics.  I struggled to get to the residentials. The travel was time-consuming and expensive for my limited means. Time off work was hard to obtain. I wasn’t enjoying the subjects and they weren’t going to help my career.

Eventually I decided if I was studying just for fun I should do something I was at least interested in. I had a better job by this time so I  enrolled in correspondence at UNE and did Ancient History. It was awful studying ancient history by mail with no access to the necessary resources. If I couldn’t do it well, I didn’t want to do it at all.

My new job was in IT. The internet hadn’t reached home use but Charles Sturt University introduced a wonderful comprehensive mail-based distance education program. So I enrolled in Industrial Mathematics and Computing and loved it. I got married. I had a baby. I almost made it to the end of the course. In my fourth part-time year my young child was continually ill with tonsillitis. I couldn’t leave him to go to the residentials. I was barely passing so I deferred.

Before I could go back, HECS was introduced. I had a career job now but it was a single income for a baby, a stay-at-home dad and a mortgage. I couldn’t afford to study. Again.

I still can’t and I have an unwell second child who currently attends school through distance education.

I wishfully watch what others achieve. I wonder if it would have been different if a guidance counsellor had taken the time to show me some options – like a cadetship or scholarship. I had no access to that information myself.

It’s not the letters after the name I want but like Susan, the opportunity to formally explore in more depth the new areas I’ve come to love. Literature. Language. Historical fiction.  Every time I fill in a form and it says “highest level of education completed”, I tick the high school box and feel wistful. 2/3 so long ago doesn’t count and I’m reminded anew that there is something in life I really wanted and just couldn’t make happen.

I tell myself its my own fault. I can’t blame circumstances. Others got past the obstacles. Some had harder obstacles than me. Maybe I just didn’t try hard enough or want hard enough until too late.

I’ve accepted sometimes learning takes a different path. I’ve done short courses. I’ve moved on to other things. My family. My friends. My writing. Finding places where I can do my little bit to help others. These things give me great joy.

I’m secretly thrilled to have one of my fiction books as a recommended text in a Uni course and that the software I wrote mails out exam results from a number of major universities. It’s almost close enough. But I would be untruthful if I didn’t admit I often still wish.