IMPERMANENCE AND PLUM BLOSSOMS

Today I am aware of the impermanence of things. My lovely plum blossoms, which I had been enjoying immensely, are now battered from the pounding rain yesterday. The petals are a thick carpet on the paths and everything beneath the tree is coated in pink. Petals drift on the breeze like confetti, and the tree, although still a mass of pink, has lost its first magic.

 It made me think of the comparison between and young budgie, fluffy feathers, bright big eyes, and an old one, the eyes are small and while still a delight, looks slightly battered by life.

Too often we forget about the impermanence of people. We think our friends and family are indestructible. We imagine that they will always be there waiting for us to check in with them when we have nothing more important to do.

Kahlil Gibran wrote on friendship-…for what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill? Seek him with hours to live….

The impermanence  of life reminds us  to avoid  leaving things undone, words unsaid. 

I wonder if I would be so enraptured by the plum blossoms if they were always there.

FIRES--WHOSE FAULT?

More fires! Hundreds of homes lost. Pets and wildlife killed. Treasured memories lost. Firefighters risking their lives.  Whose fault?  Weather, freak accidents ?  It seems to me it is mainly the fault of people who don't care how their actions impact on others.
Some people are still tossing burning cigarette ends, mindless of where they land. Kids arrested this week for lighting fires.
 Smokers, take a look at your actions. Parents supervise your children. 
The next home to burn down might be yours. 
This  blog doesn't need a picture. I am sure we have all seen the damage. 
In the interest of a safe and caring society, please send this to all your friends.

ST ALBANS AND THE FORGOTTEN VALLEY

Settlers Arm Hotel St Albans

St Albans Book Feₐst,  It kicks off at 10am on October 5 with a full program of things bookish, historical, musical and culinary.  Children are catered for and you can meet favourite authors and bag one of their books in the lucky dip. Kate Grenville will be there as will Traci Harding, Jo Mitchell and Laurie Forth. Cocktails and Conversation follows at sundown and those still left with stamina after the fun filled day can repair to the Settlers Arms  for dinner, but book to ensure a place. .  Email kayeremington@gmail.com for information

St Albans is just seventy five minutes drive from Windsor NSW and a million miles from stress. You can sit in the garden of The Settlers Arms and eat real old-fashioned food, delicious.  Follow with home-made lamingtons and relaxation! The atmosphere of this historic pub was worth the time it took to get there, the country side is an artist/photographer’s paradise, wild in places but with pastoral vistas stretching out to mountains rising above.

ARSON IS NOT A RELIEF FOR BOREDOM

In the sky there was smoke, in the garden was hope 

This week I watched the black smoke billowing just a few streets from my house as bush fires, driven by a north westerly wind burned out properties and a nearby nature reserve and threatened to destroy many homes. For one man, thirty years of work was lost in an afternoon. Helicopter pilots and hundreds of fire fighters risked their lives to put out the blaze which they believe was lit by someone who thought arson was fun. Rather than show the arsonists the images of their mischief I send this bouquet of flowers to the firefighters, the pilots and the people who lost property or had their lives disrupted.   

In this country and in other places, fire caused by weather is an ever present danger in summer, but what this country doesn't want is lives lost and property consumed by fires lit by people hardwired to destruction. Let us not promote them by sharing pictures of their work.

Are Google Passwords Invented to Annoy Writers?

You may wonder why I don't blog very often or maybe you don't care, after all you have your own problems. Is is only me, or do you also find that whenever you try to sign in to your blog, Google refuses your password?
 I have changed my password so often I am running out of 'words'. The same happens on Facebook. The result is that I tend to ignore both, because jumping through Google's hoops takes up too much time- my writing time. Today, I spent about thirty minutes trying to convince tGoogle that this was my blog and we have yet another password. I have used the name of an 'ex'. Now, I can't forget that but maybe Google will.  I will let you know how long it takes for the locks to be changed yet again. Please Google, stop complicating what was a perfectly friendly site.

On a happier note, if you are looking for a good read , try Kate Atkinson's "Behind the Scenes at the Museum".

The Right to Bear Arms

Another school shooting, another senseless tragedy....to quote  Peter Seeger who asked in his  1950s song,  Where have all the Flowers Gone?– "When will they ever learn?"

The flowers that have now gone in this latest carnage are not soldiers lost in war. They are the flowers of childhood, children whose  lives have been wasted, given up to the God of the gun lovers. The mourners are not young women who have lost lovers. They are parents  who thought their children were safe in school, who should have been safe.

The  innocence of childhood has gone from the lives of the children who witnessed this outcome of everyone's right to bear arms. 

In eight days the people who defend their right to bear arms will attend their churches to celebrate Christ 's birth and pray for peace that will never come in a society with an enemy within. God's own country?   Perhaps  God has left the building.

Stephen King Said

I don’t want to plagiarise the master but the gist of what he said was – if he didn't know how the book he was writing would end then he was sure the reader wouldn't know either.

Thank you Mr King.  Having had your book “On Writing” on my book shelf since the time it was released here in Oz, it sure has taken me a long time to follow your advice.

I am usually a plotter and a planner. But having decided in October to write a book in a month in November, I made a change.  

With a ‘what if’ that gave me a problem and a cast of characters, I set out with only a mud map and no destination in sight. My task was to write a 60000 words in the month, 2000 words a day,  to make the writing as good as it could be given the deadline, to be aware of structure and to carry along all the threads of the story and not leave smoking guns lying about.

I made the 60000 word deadline but the destination is still not in sight. More writing has to be done.  Much editing and rewriting is required. Much research is needed. I guess I will kill a lot of ‘darlings’ before it is finished. 

But what an enriching experience to find that what began as a crime fiction story became a multi-layered novel about the dynamics of friendship along with the mystery, crime and romance-I hadn't anticipated the latter but it evolved.

It took a lot of self control to not look back, not to read past chapters. No time for that. Resisting  the urge to print the day’s work, to read and edit it, broke a lot of my entrenched writing habits.

Magic happened and I learned a lot about motivation, cause and effect and all the other aspects of writing we read about but maybe don’t give enough attention. It was a great experience and I recommend it to any one who wants to lift their writing to another level.