Anzac day and Easter

What a tumultuous season-  I love Easter and the Religious significance also- as well as my annual pilgrim to the YMCA second hand book fair!

What did I buy?  Books for my grandchildren and amazing books for me- well children's books- I'm yet to have enough time to venture into the paperback novels.  But I promise, all year I've been carrying books to the second hand book bin to make room for my own new treasures.

So many books!  A real treasure trove and many to share and foster the love of reading.

The Televised dawn service from Anzac cove is always moving- my grandfather was an Anzac- one day I'd love to write about this era.

Cat's book launch

A book launch is always a great gathering and Catriona Hoy's launch of George and Ghost at Malvern library- (what a great venue) attracted a huge crowd.

Thanks Cat for allowing me to launch your book and also to read George to a group of eager listeners.

And always great to catch up with my writing friends- sorry Cat that there's not more photos of you!  After all it was your book!

A new Term 'pantser'

Not sure the term 'pantser' quite describes the debate between those authors who write with out a detailed plan and those who write by the seat of their pants.  But a blog entry over here
at Teaching Authors site released me from apologies that I don't plan/plot/follow rules. 

Yes I've tried. I say to myself this time( when I start a new project) I'm going to work out scenes/ conflict/ a character chart etc, etc.  But I seem unable to toe the line, the project loses enthusiasm, I falter, flick to another writing project.

It was so liberating to read this post and validate the way I write- although when in a workshop, a teacher says 'and tell the class how you plan, draft etc etc'- ah have they discovered other ways of learning /writing?   I answer by saying do you really want to know the answer to that question- now I can explore a fuller more detailed explanation of how I write and know that many, many other authors have a 'pantser' approach also.

My friend Claire has a spider web on her blog entry today- here is a photo I took a few days ago- these orb weaver spiders have been absent from my big garden over the drought years now they have come back to trawl the airways.

 

side tracked

It's April and all over the www there are poetry posts.  Yah, although lately I've tried to move away from poetry to try prose more and to that end I have a novel reworked for the third time into a setting and character base that I enjoy. 

But I'd ordered a second hand book of poetry from the UK- it arrived this week and what have I been doing?  Writing poetry, immersing myself in another verse novel.

I'm excited, frantic to write- can I deny my poetic streak??

Here's a little taste in honour of poetry month:

Lemon
on skin
shins, legs
rubs to
bronze tan.
Cas
does lemon
squeeze legs
tangerine
smooth.
Eyes flick
heads follow
Cas 
on her 
citrus mornings.