Monthly Archives: June 2014

The Story Behind the Scenes

A lovely little write up about our group that meets once a fortnight. I agree with Maree: this is one successful little group!

A Writer's Mental Notes

Behind the stories there’s a group of enthusiastic writers working hard.  Once a fortnight in a house in Newcastle, seven writers gather to share their work, offer encouragement, critique and constructive criticism.

It’s a wonderful opportunity to be part of such an industrious group of people. We range in, age, experience, genre and even gender. But our common thread is our passion for writing.

I’ve found it so important to share ideas, knowledge, fears, hopes and dreams. The support of a writing group can be valuable for improving writing skills, boosting confidence, challenging thoughts and having fun.

Together we’ve achieved so much in a short time; we’ve won numerous competitions, prizes, awards, commendations, been published in newspapers, online, e-books, hard-cover books and attended public events, live reads and radio shows.

We are a force to be reckoned with!

I enjoy a balance of spending time writing alone, coupled with the…

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The old farmhouse (Friday Fictioneers)

image

Image by Mary Shipman

‘But the man said you shouldn’t go in the old farmhouse, Justin…’

‘Our one source of light and warmth is about burn out, we have no more firewood and it’s going to be a cold night. There’s bound to be some old planks in the farmhouse we can use.’

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What’s the one thing you’d do…

…if you knew you wouldn’t fail?

You may have been asked this before. It’s the type of thing that’s asked at the beginning of motivational business conferences as the ‘icebreaker’. Or it’s written in curly font with butterflies on a meme shared around Facebook getting one million likes and comments such as ‘so true’ and ‘luv this’.

But have you ever taken a moment to sit back and think… what’s the one thing you would do if knew you wouldn’t fail?

Do it now. Think of an answer!

Then I’ll let you read on.

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The black sheep of the family (Friday Fictioneers)

This week I’ve written a reply to Mr Binks’ story Docked Her which can be read here (Mr Binks did this with my story last week… and oh what fun it can be!)

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PHOTO PROMPT Copyright-Ted Strutz

Image by Ted Strutz at http://tedstrutz.com/

She wanted to tell her father. But there was never a good moment. If he wasn’t at the dental surgery he was away fishing on the high seas.

Dad was a dentist and a fisherman. Just like his father. And father’s father.

But she wanted something else. He just wouldn’t understand.

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Comfortable footwear (Friday Fictioneers)

On the weekend our writers group held a live reading event at a local coffee shop in NSW, Australia. I was lucky enough to be the MC, and before introducing each of the readers I shared one of my Friday Fictioneers pieces. They went down a treat (Rochelle, you would be very proud)! To read about the event, follow this link.

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PHOTO PROMPT Copyright - Douglas M. MacIlroy

Image by Douglas M. MacIlroy at http://ironwoodwind.wordpress.com/

‘It’s our 10 year anniversary for God’s sake!’

He hadn’t listened. He’d insisted on wearing his slippers to the club.

Frayed at the edges, dripped-tea stained across the toes, one sole almost completely worn through.

‘They’re just so comfortable,’ he’d said.

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A girl just like me (ABC Open 500 words)

This month’s ABC Open 500 words theme was ‘U-turn’. In this piece I talk about how my opinion of someone completely changed in just one night.

Here’s the link:

https://open.abc.net.au/contributions/a-girl-just-like-me-75tn9fh/in/people/93ng7qy

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Stories at The Mosh Pit a huge success!

At the quirkiest cafe in downtown Cardiff, a group of writers gathered to read their work…

On Saturday afternoon I was lucky enough to MC a brilliant writers event in Newcastle, NSW. The day was informal yet structured, serious yet fun. The Mosh Pit Record Shop and Coffee Bar was the venue and about 30 people squeezed into the bright and eclectic space.

Marg and wall of records

Margaret Jackson opens the event; records of all kind cover the walls

Most of the writers were from our writing group, and there were two guest writers and one young writer. Margaret Jackson, the founding member of our writing group, opened the event.

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