concentrating on just the words
I began a poem in my head last night and while their meaning would have kept me awake forever, concentrating on just the words helped me sleep. Eventually.It's a poem I won't look forward to writing, as it will be difficult, probably more so than anything I've ever written. But I also know that I will write the rest, although I won't be able to even try until after I visit my father in hospital tomorrow, one day before his sixty-fifth birthday. Anyway, here is the start of the poem:I imagine walking through the doorwaywill be like visitingmy stillborn nieceonly youare still aliveand lucidI'm sure you get the gist, so now is w

First draft, now what?
It's a little hard to think about 2010 already, but if I let myself for just a second, I know that January 12 is not far away. But before I soak back into November, I just want to let you know that I'm running a workshop on Tuesday January 12 at the Victorian Writers' Centre called 'First draft, now what?'It's a redrafting workshop for 'introductory and intermediate' writers, and if you're interested in knowing more, follow the link above.One lucky workshop participant will have the opportunity to be published in Issue 8 of page

audio poem for Cordite
A while ago I talked about recording poetry for the first time, and while I never returned to tell you I submitted some of these recordings to Cordite for their EPIC issue, I did.And this morning, in my inbox, I discovered one of those fabulous emails we all like to receive from editors. Yes, Cordite are publishing (that word doesn't seem quite right, somehow) a piece called 'Solitaire'. It's a piece I wrote after my grandmother passed away and is one of my favourite poems because I think I captured her well. It seems to have gone down well at gigs when I've perform it too, which also helps.Naturally, I've been doing a happy d

Launch & NaNoWriMo update: 20K words in
Since my last post, the other two kids were banished from society for a day (Friday) with a dreaded tummy bug that they then shared with their father, who was out of action for longer than the three of them combined. (Thanksfully he reyurned to 'normal' life todday.) So, other than look after them (why is it the baby chooses these days to start waking at 5.30am?), I haven't done much, except to knuckle down on my NaNoWriMo novel and post copies of page seventeen. Oh, and host a launch.The launch for page seventeen Issue 7 was last Saturday, and every

Being my character when I'm not: NaNoWriMo update
Halfway through day 5 and 10,755 words into the novel, I'm exhausted. And that's after a day off yesterday.Sure, there are a million things going on as well as writing a novel in one month (like launching a new issue of an annual journal and preparing for a poetry feature this Sunday, not to mention normal life). It would be easy to blame any one, or all, of those other things, but I'm sure it's not the other things (even if I still don't have the books from the printer). It's definitely NaNo. And I think I know why.Firstly, writing a n