Dim's Write Stuff

I have recently been invited to participate in and conduct a number of creative writing workshops at our local primary school as part of this year's Book Week . The aim being to promote and foster the fun and worthiness of literature within a child's world. Running from the 22nd to the 26th of August , it promises to be a packed, productive and I wonder, if not slightly punishing week. Of course I'm looking forward to engaging the creative minds and spirits of every child from Prep to Year 7 with a stomach turning mixture of sheer excitement and trepidation. After all how many similar workshops have I attended thus feeling well confident with my content and subject matter? After all how much passion do I possess about the subject matter? After all how difficult can it be to persuade kids to feel the passion too? After all they're kids...They're kids. And there in lies the rub. They're kids; possibly the world's most difficult group to publicly address. ...

Feathers are flying. Egg count diminishing. No wait, Zero Eggs last count. Our Cackleberries are officially Off The Lay . Apparently you can't make eggs and new feathers simultaneously. So as our beloved chookies lose feathers by the doona full, so we lose our supply of happy eggs. So what now? What do you do when your production drops off? How to you maintain your productivity? What keeps you driving forward with your writing or your life when all you feel like doing is hunkering down and waiting for the miracle of new feathers or inspiration to reappear? Well for chooks, it's all about the amount of daylight they get a day. The more they get the more they are inclined to lay eggs. So... 1 . Install an industrial strength fluorescent light (the kind film gaffers use) over your desk. Direct glare into your eyes and watch the colours of inspiration swirl before you.  Chooks love a warm high protein mash of grains, garlic and chillies. Gets them through the winter months an...

With little time to deliver a sensible, insightful, useful or otherwise entertaining post, these REALISATIONS grow ever more ostensible. 1. Glitter is harder to vacuum up than you'd think. My vacuum just tends to move it around the house. So if you don't mind your floors looking like a fairy has thrown up all over them, repeatedly, confine all glitter activity to the great outdoors. 2. School Holidays are not a good time to complete your next best seller. In fact abandon all hope of completing anything during this enforced hiatus. 3. I need a new vacuum. 4 . There is no finite number of times you can ask your significant other (aka common old husband) to do something. Better to stick a post it note bearing request to his forehead. He will act on it, eventually, when he feels like it or when somebody else politely points out he has a post it note stuck to his forehead. 5. Children under the age of four really do mean it when they say they love you. Anything beyond ...