My muse

 "A muse is anything that has influence on another, giving focus and inspiration for that person's creative work."

My muse is Magicka

It has been four years today since I lost my 'muse' - my beautiful boy, Magicka, who never leaves my side even in spirit. 

I love and miss you, dear magick man. ♥

Click here for slideshow

Midnight rambler giving thanks to a special soul ♥

finding strength and being connected...

"Never Fade Away’ speaks about finding strength from our families, the importance of family and also the importance of seeing all human beings as being connected and part of a global community. Never Fade Away, the music video, was all shot in our hometown of Melbourne, Australia. It features some of our regions finest multicultural artists, dancers and musicians, it’s recognition and a celebration of the strong multicultural foundation that is modern Australia." 

The above is taken from Blue King Brown's website which sums up this band beautifully.  I have seen them perform at one of The Cat Empire gigs.  They are amazing. 

Lately, I have been thinking about so many things.  Have just started a new job that has many challenges and the one thing I keep coming back to, besides writing, is travelling and what I love most about travelling.  It's the culture and the celebration of culture and the global connectedness.  I think this song is fitting and a reminder of how important it is to stay connected to the world and not just our personal patch.  Enjoy :)

Midnight rambler attempting to stop the itch in her feet...

Worlds + conventions + writers + bar + alcohol = good times and dancing magickal faeries armed with pixie dust…

Having just got back from AussieCon 4 (the 68th World Science Fiction Convention) held at the MCEC in Melbourne, I think it is fair to say I had a blast along with my fellow comrades from Writers on the Edge, Ladies Wot Write, and the graduates of Clarion South pre and post 2007. For the most part, most of them were present (even one from as far as the US) but perhaps not all at the one time.





My writing buddies from LWW - Moi with Jane Domagala, Rebecca Livesey and Sharon Phillips
~Photo by: Jane Domagala



 












Sean Williams, mentor, buddy and just the best guy ever and (oh, a brilliant writer) was unable to make it due to being seriously ill. He was missed big time by soooo' many people! And I know how disappointed he was to have missed it.

Fellow Edgers: Nea Beauville, Deb Kelly and Chris McMahon
~ Photo by: Jason Nahrung

Fellow Clarionite, Ben Francisco and Moi
~ Photo by: Jane Domagala

  
















I attended both the Ditmars and the Hugos and was honoured to be amongst so many talented writers. Many of the nominated were my writing buddies, mentors and peers and quite a few of them brought home awards. YAY!

The Ditmar winners can be found here
The Hugo Winners can be found here

Moi with the lovely, Jane Domagala
~ Photo by: Jane Domagala

I made a promise to myself to travel light and buy no books! Is that a dumb idea or what? Of course I had to buy books…but space was limited so I only managed five which considering my severe lack of space in my bag, that was a pretty good effort. I have had to order the rest I wanted online.

The thing with World Con (which was brilliant by the way) is that it was so spread out. There were so many people (new friends and old) that I was hankering to hang out with, but it just wasn’t always possible. Most times it was snatches of hugs, conversation and waving from the distance - still brilliant either way.



Rob Shearman reading his delightful story
'One Last Love Song'
~ Photo by: Jason Nahrung

For as many panels, book signings, book launches and readings that I attended there was equally, if not more, I missed. If I could have split myself into several pieces, I would have seen and done a lot more. But alas, there is only one of me.

It was quite fun getting kicked out of the bar at 2am on more than one occasion or not depending on how you look at it. But those of us who were kicked out (you know who you are) would all agree that it was fun :)

Oh, and I lied – there were no dancing magickal faeries except for the really drunk one dancing on the bar (ahem, you know who you are) ;)

The five days rolled around all too quickly - then depart Melbourne for BrisVegas:

• Home for one day – quick changeover of clothes and off again…
• Join me next post for Writers on the Edge annual retreat…

Midnight rambler off ‘into the wild’

Short and Sweet...

Bit behind in my blogs and feel the urge to do an update even if late but I will keep them short and sweet. NO - perhaps not sweet :)

I recently completed a weekend workshop with the Short + Sweet Theatre company in Brisbane with tutor and world renowned playwright Alex Broun.

The course rocked. I have always been interested in theatre and cinema as a visual means to tell a story and I thoroughly enjoyed this experience. The constructs of the course were as follows:

Friday Night: 

• Craft of writing for theatre


• Elements required for a good ten minute play


• What makes a play different from film or television

 Saturday:

• Pitch ideas


• Story structure


• How to dramatise your story


• Good beginning, middle and end


• Styles and genres of theatre


• Rehearsing and participating by performing a short moved reading


• Development of ‘page to stage’


• Explore rhythm, dialogue and use of language in theatre


• Staying one step ahead of the audience.

So my idea was hatched after taking all of the above into account. That night I put pen to paper (almost pulled an all-nighter to get it finished) but managed 3 hours sleep before it all began again the next day.

Sunday:

• Workshop scripts


• Work with actors and explore how text works on stage

Morning was spent casting and directing said play and then handing it over to the actors and letting go! (Huge learning curve for me, since I’m a control freak) It was good for me - well at least I tell myself this :)

To see your (or in this case) my play brought to life by the wonderful actors who volunteered their entire Sunday was fun, exuberant, and exciting. More importantly it was a collaboration between actor and writer as we nutted out the inconsistencies, modified the script for visual effect, and just plain had a good time in the process. I was very proud of my actors: Sharna Barker and Nathan Wright and actor/writer Belinda Small.

And after all that, I found the courage to enter my ten minute play into the Short + Sweet festival and will be keeping my fingers crossed to see if it makes the short list.

I met some wonderful writers, actors, and dramatists over this exhilarating and inspiring weekend. Learned so much from Alex, who is a mine of wonderful information and an expert in too many things to explain in this post, so do check him out here.

Short stories, short plays and short films rock! Yes, I like things short but almost never sweet….

Midnight rambler dabbling with words…