David O'Sullivan's Blog, page 25
October 23, 2015
The Bomber giveaway
Between the 25th of October and the 5th of November, you will have a chance to win a copy of The Bomber.
Simply head to http://bit.ly/1Kt25rH to see more details during that time.
In amazing news on amazon right now you can buy a copy of The Bomber for about $3.50!
Get you copy today.
October 17, 2015
The rare girl of beauty
There was a girl I loved once
and she would send me night messages.
They would appear occasionally
on my phone
at midnight or two a.m.
sometimes as late as four.
They would say things like;
I don’t think Grover is on Sesame Street anymore
or I saw an owl in my yard
occasionally a question:
do you have a copy of Yeats or Thomas?
or whoever the hell she wanted to read.
It came to be that I looked forward to her messages.
I would wait in the dark, dozing not asleep
hoping
then the phone would ding
and the message would be there
like a lovers kiss and embrace.
When they stopped
the world stopped
the nights were longer and colder,
sadder.
They never came again
I wait for them still.
October 14, 2015
Taking Basho in search of wild flowers
Recently, motivated by tales of beautiful wild flowers growing on the eastern side of Mount Ruby, I went hiking. I took my camera and set out, packing water, sturdy boots, determination and a copy of Basho’s Haikus. The trek was going to be long so I started early in the morning. The gravel path I was to take wound through some thick forests and steep slopes but the rewards are incredible. The aim was to go to the slopes of Mount Ruby where there are masses of wild flowers and some rare beauties. I am currently reading Madame Bovary but I decided for today I would take my book of Haikus by Basho, this book having the better claim on a journey into nature.
I awoke early, I had packed my bag the night before and i headed out, seeing this great sunrise.
Fields, Moutains
of Hubaku, in
nine days – spring.
The air was soft and cool, the breeze was light and I made good time, walking briskly without much pain from the bag on my back. I made it along Sleightspraine Ridge and caught a view of the distant Mount Ruby where I was heading. I had been given a detailed but crudely drawn map that showed the location of the flowers and I stopped to examine it.
Spring- Through
morning mist,
what mountain’s there?
A large bug, (in the picture) sprang out of a bush before me and buzzed away angrily. The sun was ascending. I had a wet patch of sweat on my back and I needed to drink some of my water. Animals and insects sang in hidden spots around me and I took a quick break in the shade to read some Haikus.
An excited voice within me called me on and I began to walk again. In my head ran the small song:
Come, see real
flowers
of this painful world.
The path became very steep and a few times I slipped. I had to maneuver the soft soils and loose rocks, helped only by the nearby trees that I could reach out and grabbed, sometimes tearing a dry dead branch down and and hurting my hands. Still I pressed on, keen to see the field of flowers. i was close, the air became more fragrant and large orange and green birds laughed at me from the trees.
Such Fragrance-
from where,
which tree?
I cleared a forest and came into a strange open field. The sun was heavy and directly above me and the soft grasses bent gently in the wind. The green grass moved to reveal a yellow color that reminded me of a Van Gogh. I stepped carefully, trying not to damage any flowers, certain that they were nearby by and after crossing a rocky ridge I came across them. Some are poppies, some are bulbs.
Then I found the flowers I had been looking for, rare flowers that only bloom for three or four days in the year. Here they are below. It was an amazing hike. (and a long way home).
How I long to see
among dawn of flowers
the face of God.
Basho
October 12, 2015
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October 10, 2015
Random thoughts for a Sunday
I have a picture of Abraham Lincoln on my desk,
the universe is a lady of open space and mother to us all.
Break the heat with cold breeze, tumbles in on us like waves
who are us and when you go you make fun of this
the times you think you could do better but end up worse
Is happiness worth more than working your life away
wake up at sixty and cry one warm morning
October 9, 2015
On the night train by Henry Lawson
Have you seen the bush by moonlight, from the train, go running by?
Blackened log and stump and sapling, ghostly trees all dead and dry;
Here a patch of glassy water; there a glimpse of mystic sky?
Have you heard the still voice calling – yet so warm, and yet so cold:
“I’m the Mother-Bush that bore you! Come to me when you are old”?
Did you see the Bush below you sweeping darkly to the Range,
All unchanged and all unchanging, yet so very old and strange!
While you thought in softened anger of the things that did estrange?
(Did you hear the Bush a-calling, when your heart was young and bold:
“I’m the Mother-bush that nursed you; Come to me when you are old”?)
In the cutting or the tunnel, out of sight of stock or shed,
Did you hear the grey Bush calling from the pine-ridge overhead:
“You have seen the seas and cities – all is cold to you, or dead –
All seems done and all seems told, but the grey-light turns to gold!
I’m the Mother-Bush that loves you – come to me now you are old”?
October 7, 2015
Writing Wednesday! How to build a setting in your novel
This is the first of my writing Wednesday series, tips to help you create your work.
Today I will talk about creating settings for fiction before you start to write.
When writing a novel it is a good idea to brainstorm, to get ideas down about character, plot and setting.
Working out the setting fore your novel can be a fun activity.
When I am beginning a new work, I go for a walk. I don’t have to be anywhere fancy or exotic, I don’t have to be in the place where I will ultimately set the novel, all I’m looking for in the early stages are buildings, trees, streets anything that my characters might end up seeing, walking down or living in.
The best settings are the ones you know intimately. For example, if you are writing a story about a professor in a University in New York State but you’ve never been to the USA, take a walk at a nearby university or school and see how the buildings look, what does the library look like in the morning when the professor may arrive at work.
Seeing how the trees look along the main path when the sun shines through the leaves will help you novel immensely. The proffer walks this way to class every morning, so how does the sun look against the trees in the morning. When the wind blows do the leaves make a noise? Do students sit in the shade of these trees at lunch time. These facts, facts you can glean from a simple walk, will create a great sense of truth in your walk.
I was considering writing a novel set in the 1930s, I wanted an art deco look to the world I was creating so I went for a walk and took photos of all the art deco building I could:
I could easily set my novel in these buildings, I can tell you how water has stained the side walls, I can tell you where the mail boxes are, I can tell you how the sun glints off the side windows because I walked around these buildings, I went up the side and back lanes. Now when I come to write my book I can add these details.
The Bomber will be at the Frankfurt Book Fair.
Pick up a copy today!
October 6, 2015
My Book is Going to Frankfurt
The Bomber is heading to Germany! The Frankfurt Book Fair is welcoming my novel. The Fair runs from the 14th to the 18th of October and is the largest book trade show in the world.
PRIZE TIME!
If you are able to attend the fair, take a photo of my book on display and send it to me and I’ll put you in the running to win some cool prizes including a copy of The Bomber and my next novel Anvil Soul due out in 2016!
See The Bomber at Frankfurt Book Fair!
September 10, 2015
My dog got sad
This morning I woke up pretty early although the sun was all ready up and I looked across to my dog who has his own smaller bed and he looked back at me with that wonderful excitement dogs always have when they see you for the first time in the morning. Only today things were a little different because I could tell he was sad. What was it? I watched him for a while and I think I worked it out, I think he is missing his mother.
He was a stray I found on the street and it has been a long time since he saw his mother and so this is probably the cause of his sadness. He was Okay by about 2pm, he sort of got over it but now its about 7pm and he is really sleepy and looking a little sad again. I hope tomorrow he’ll be over it, he is pretty sensitive.
I have a new habit, when ever I go into a room I have to check the windows to make sure no insects or lizards are trapped there and trying to get out. Today two things happened that make me do this – wait three things. One: I imagine it would be terrible to die in a window, looking out into the garden beyond. The madness of scratching at the endless glass, the hot sun burning through and slowly dying a haunted death. Two. I was vacuuming today and a slater (a hard shelled bug) was caught in the suck and vacuumed. I turned it off as quickly as I could but he was a goner. It really made me sad. and thirdly (between the start of writing this and now I’ve forgotten the 3rd thing.)
Today I was walking by the road out front of my house and an echidna came out of the trees and started to cross the road. Of course I snapped into action and tried to save him but every time I tried to pick him up he sunk his claws into the ground and pointed his spikes at me. If you don’t know what an echidna is, look it up. They are beautiful creatures with wonderful personalities, they eat ants but are really determined to cross roads. They are like silly little sweethearts determined to cross busy roads. I saved him, but it took a lot of nudging him with my foot.
Finally I’ve been applying for a lot of dream jobs and sending out my resume etc but it turns out I’ve been sending them all in the wrong file format and just about all the people have emailed me back to say ‘we can’t open your files so don’t even bother waiting for us to contact you’ etc.
Pretty crap.
ps
I’ve been chosen to write a play for a local arts company with a whole bunch of other writers. Usually I hate working with writers but this is a pretty good opportunity, so I agreed. I had a dream last night that all the other writers joined up against me and to get back at them I wrote a really disgusting pornographic play and everyone hated me even more.
check it out below
http://easternriverinaarts.org.au/basin-writers-announced/
DONT FORGET MY BOOK THE BOMBER!!!
September 8, 2015
A poem – God Must Be The Stars
He comes down the sidewalk
his shoes clacking on the cement
wearing a purple shirt and high heeled cowboy boots
He turns to walk across the freshly laid turf on the bright green lawn
deliberately sinking his heels into the soft grass
making huge divots as he goes.
He hits his wife at home
sometimes in front of an open window when he is drunk
once his son came home from School
and beat his father
but the son went away again
and his mother stayed.
I looked out from my window at what I think are stars
but they are the lights on top of buildings
to stop air planes flying into them.
I close my book of astronomy
and regret telling people I could see the scorpion
when all I could see was the Metro Tower.
Fly across -look around
believe that God holds all things together
the fear of forgetting all that I love on Earth
makes me walk in the woods for hours
Clouds, daisies, your hand on mine
green grass under a blue and grey sky
