Dim's Write Stuff

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 ...

I'm fond of quotes which cast wide philosophical nets, evoke emotion and rearrange one's thinking. But sometimes you just can't beat the Oldies but Goodies like this of Dr Seuss (I Can Read with my Eyes Shut). "The more that you read, The more things you will know, The more that you learn,  The more places you'll go . " It simply recounts an epiphany I had in the girls' toilets of my new school in Adelaide as a wise old Grade One newbie (not sure why it occurred there, maybe because water inspires me); That books would always be my friends, that I could attain absolutely anything from within them and that their power was limitless. Wouldn't it be lovely to bestow this upon children so that their worlds are boundless too? 

It was still dark and bitterly cold at 6.00 am yesterday. Five year old declared it too cold for our early morning walk. At 3.5 degrees C I was inclined to agree. So we read on the couch instead. Snuggling together warmed a memory, which hatched an idea, that grew into an incredible urge to write a new picture book.   Now I'm bubbling away with images, characters and half structured sentences like a percolator about to explode. I don't quite have a full pot but there's definitely a brew in the making. The feeling is tantalizing. Stunt doubles no doubt are accustomed to the kick of adrenalin. They recognise its scent and relish its taste. They know how to harness its power. For we writers, that initial surge of motivation is no less subtle than a shot of adrenalin. I want to sprint down the beach, leap through the surf and slay slimy sea monsters: well I want to be in a comfy chair at least while I observe my characters as they do this. What spurs you into a fren...

Winter time on Mount Tamborine . A melodious mix of wood smoke, cerulean skies, honey coloured sunshine and hot chocolates (with marshmallows the size of small clouds). And what better way to savour these delights than with a good book, the laughter of children and the odd nursery rhyme. That's exactly how we spent this morning, basking in the winter sunshine of   The Kitchen Table  at the Launch of "On the Night That We First Met ",  Hootenanny Book's inaugural publication. Creative Director and Editor, Nadine Bates, decided to put her heart where her mouth is and has not only produced Hootenanny's first picture book but also wrote it. Exquisitely illustrated by Slovakian Zlatica Hlavacova, On the Night That We First Met is a tender emotional recollection of a mother's first encounter with her new child. It gently emphasises that although a child may enter a family in many different ways, the way a child is acquired can never dimini...

Revered author Markus Zusak once pondered on the question, "Would you still write your book even if you knew it had no chance of publication?" A similar query was raised at my Writers' Group today; "Are we still honestly hoping to be published authors one day or do we just write for the love of it?" My emphatic reply was akin to Markus', "Yes. Definitely. World wide domination for me, thank you very much." Markus emphasised that writing should be a fun experience, playing with words and enjoyable even if those words are full of darkness and horror. He stressed (that for him) being a writer had nothing to do with being published. Telling his story was far more essential and I suppose satisfying. For those who are still fairly 'green' but inching ever skyward ready to burst through that low lying cloud of rejections any day now, for those 'developing', for those 'established' but keen to survive the next season, the p...

Apart from the blindingly obvious but undeniably true: No amount of money can secure your happiness, love, well being or publishing contract.    1. Ovens don't clean themselves. Well apparently some do but I'm not blessed with that type. 2.The uttering of the phrase, "Mummy is just having a quick lie down. Please don't disturb me." is not officially recognised in any child's language unless you're having a lie down in a floatation tank. 3. To achieve symphony orchestra like status with your writing you really ought to practise your scales...er scribing every single day. No wonder no orchestra has ever accepted me as a flautist. 4. Your significant other (read common old husband) will never be the literary critic you want him to be. You might as well ask the dog for feedback on your manuscript. 5. Homemade pasta turns out different every time depending on the size of the eggs you use. If only my chooks could grasp this basic concept, I'd be able...