Ashes

Happy New Year 2020

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Abundance

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  Eight currawongs sitting in a tree.  2am 8 June 2026 Monday,  Canberra  On my return from Sorry Business, the autumn leaves are down to the stragglers. ... There is no English equivalent to Sorry Business. Once the leap was made – the written word caught up to the much older oral accounts – some words in common emerged. How’s your Quantum Physics? Start there gentle reader, discover quantum mechanics, be enthralled by Theory. The trigger for a period of retreat and self care – Sorry Business - is death. In perpetuity, melancholy. In the evertime, abundance. ... I used a quarter tank of premium unleaded to reduce my footprint in preparation for emergence of a new world order. Unlike the Covid-frenzy 2019, this time around I collapsed what I want and what I need into the same list. During Sorry Business, the necessary work continues.  I serviced my car so I’m able to go home, ten hours away, in an instant. I fixed my car stereo so I enjoy being in my car. I boug...
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#TweetYarn

I use my blog to announce what’s next; pitch ideas & invite collaborations. Disclaimer: I am not associated with any group or organisation unless specified. UPDATE 23 October 2014: the links to these tweetyarns have been removed, pending publication of my blog to book, On Dusk which will be available for purchase from Amazon December 2014. In the meantime - please feel free to download a FREE anthology of Indigenous Australian writing, which includes one of my tweetyarns 'Maisie May' (mentioned below) and a short story that does not appear anywhere else...'Epilogue to Maisie May' here UPDATE 25 July: Six new tweetyarns - links [are no longer] here I’m an emerging writer/screenwriter. I use social media to promote my writing & my ideas. I wanted to see what was possible using new technologies so I created '  #tweetyarns '. I am Aboriginal. ‘Yarn’ has special significance to Indigenous Australians. I started telling...
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Marvelous & mysterious

Now follows a quick blog on yesterday’s awesomeness that was Day Two of the Emerging Writers Festival in Melbourne. Digital Writers’ Masterclass took up most of my day – and I heard about a heap of stuff I had never …well, to be honest, I’d never been interested in what to me were the bits of tinsel hanging off the sides of my social media juggernaut – ie Twitter and blogging. By tinsel, I mean auto bots and other ‘stuff’. Because I generate my own content – slave over it, obsess over the layout, cringe and moan over the typos, when I find them a day later….all that, that takes up more than enough of my time. But I am glad that others are interested in the infrastructure. For example, I look forward to the day someone comes up with a better way of collating tweets and linking multiple platforms that don’t force me to pledge life long allegiance to someone who is building their own social media empire. Grateful for Nathan Farrugia’s tips on how to make my blog l...
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Reflections #ewf14

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A recap of a week in blogging, inspired by the Emerging Writers' Festival , Melbourne, Australia. A lady of letters in residence of late in the hills of the Northern Rivers - the lush upper reaches of New South Wales - takes flight for a week of literary festival, trams and temperate weather on Kulin country, otherwise known as Melbourne. ‘More than an opening night to a writers' festival - it was an awakening….’ Blog link :  Arrival #ewf14 This was one of those break open, take a good look at yourself and re assemble with optimism literary festival days. Get all the information you think you need – and write. Do your research and decide what is best for you – to publish. Yes, you will bullied, distracted, teased, humiliated and hectored by those who don’t understand a writer’s life – and so, writing is the only freedom you will ever know. If you want a friend – create them. If you think you have e...
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#bbwf2014 Scrapbook

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How lucky we were - a spontaneous decision to go to this year's Byron Bay Writers' Festival for a Saturday treat, happened just in time. Shortly after purchasing our tickets, the #bbwf2014 sold out! B-Y-R-O-N   B-A-Y W-R-I-T-E-R-S  F-E-S-T-I-V-A-L It was a hard choice.  After carefully poring over the program we decided on which panels to attend: Indigenous literacy; crime fiction; writing true crime; Indigenous leadership; ex-Prime Minister, Malcolm Fraser in conversation with Kerry O'Brien; a report card from five writer's and their roadtrip; and to finish the day we worked out how to arrive early to secure a good seat for what we knew would be a packed out session with a lively ensemble of media heavy weights. Coming down the ridge with my sis @kirstiecongress for @bbwritersfest 11c :D pic.twitter.com/JkWvQstABm — Siv Parker (@SivParker) August 1, 2014 Destination Literacy panel: 'Community kids are entitled to the pursuit of excellence...
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Arrival #ewf14

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I flew into turbulence but when the pilot crackled 'bumpy', he actually meant ‘the air will shake the plane violently up, down, and side to side and those with a window seat may care to watch the wings bounce’ but even then the message would have been lost on the man with ear plugs, who still attempted to stagger and flail his way to the bathroom. The air hostess was trying to indicate, as she clung to the back of a chair with one arm and hooked a knee around an arm rest that it was unsafe for him to roam.   He bobbed his head at her - lord only knows what he thought she was mouthing at him. She did the only thing she could and yanked on the cord and his brown eyes appeared from above his glasses as he registered the musical intermission. 'Sit down will you!'   He saw she meant business and turned as if to make his way, an elbow in the head for every person he passed, back to his seat halfway back up the plane. 'Noooo, sit there' she said...
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#mwf14 Blog-to-book Update 1.

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After blogging on every thing that caught my fancy over the past two years - from arts and culture, to social media, politics, and back in time to a shared history and the stories that keep my family alive - a secret wish has come true. Looking back now at my occasional brain snaps that were never posted, I know now how the final three Survivors feel when they walk down memory lane to read the spikes named for fallen cast members. I'm glad they never made it. (And if you are not a fan of the best mind game show on tv, please note, the players face elimination, not extermination.) . #MWF14 Blurb blog-to-book challenge Day 1 – Receive the news. Ask Garry to repeat it, just in case I had misheard that I am a Joint Winner of the  Melbourne Writers Festival ~ Blurb Blog-to-book challenge . Day 2 – Tell everyone and bask in their congratulations as we all get our head around what it actually means. Make up a list of people I can count on for honest feedba...
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Modern Living V

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  V.  Media Sunday night, Canberra, Australia In a clear sky, Betelgeuse arcs on my right, Jupiter is retrograde and Sirius and Procyon are bright tonight. If you were on Twitter a decade ago, you could feel when it began to decay. But there was a time before, when it hit the sweet spot. Of them all, the only digital platform I was interested in spending time on was Twitter. I spent about a year watching it. I decided what was important: Ethics & etiquette. Punctuation. I’m a writer, not a journalist. Tweetyarns would be live, and a maximum of 7 minutes between posts to optimize placement in the feed. Have a schedule, the discipline is good for me. Use my full name. … I thought about: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly 2007 (French: Le Scaphandre et le Papillon) Hunger 2008 Son of Saul 2015 (Hungarian: Saul fia) What to say when it is difficult? How to get close enough? How to write the human condition? Who am I to tell the stories? ...
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Life goes on

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Two things I learnt in the first 30 seconds – there was going to be a delay in my flu shot, and the nurse had run out of lolly pops. I was disappointed in the lolly pop situation.   But I had scored a great parking spot so I decided to wait for the shot. There were five of us banked up in the nurses' treatment room. We quickly became acquainted with each other because the nurse broadcast our affairs as she strode around all over the place. A mother with her teenage daughter, waiting for a weekly weigh in because she wasn’t eating enough. Another mother of what we could only guess was a much older child. She was folding and smoothing a wide shouldered grimy work shirt across a knee and had a reaction each time her child let out a groan or a whimper.   He was the reason for the delay, having been rushed in with some injury that needed suturing. We couldn’t see him behind the curtain but his mother’s face told a story. Looked to me like she had gotten some worrying n...
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Hold the front page!

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I interrupt this blog-trip back in time, spanning two years since I began my foray into social media,  to announce some exciting news.... ... my blog is being published! Do you dream of taking your blog beyond the cloud and committing it to paper? Melbourne Writers Festival in partnership with Blurb is pleased to announce the Blurb Blog-to-Book Challenge , and invites bloggers from all over Australia to submit.   Three lucky bloggers will have the opportunity to create and publish a book based on their own blog ... during the eleven days of the Festival from 21 to 31 August. Successful authors will attend the Meet the Blurb Blog-to-Book Authors event.   LINKS Blurb blog to book challenge   here Melbourne Writers Festival 21-31 August 2014 here I am so pleased to announce I'm one of the three lucky winners!  Now I’m busily deciding what’s in and what’s best left out of my first volume of an OnDusk blog-to-book. As...
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