PT and POV

Had a great time at Passionate Tongues. It was certainly a treat to have my own cheer squad, including my folks. Avoided doing one particular poem because Mum was there, but didn't avoid any of the other 'family' ones. Seems they even enjoyed their night of poetry. Who would have guessed. And I have scheduled in to go back on May 11 (I know it's ages away) to listen to Yvette Stubbs and Phil Norton.

Have been thinking about my writing process a lot lately, the gig and a conversation or two I've had with other writers helping. I've always known that my stories and poems come from different places within me, but these last weeks I've been noticing that I seem to use second person a lot in my poems. I'm not really sure why, except that I think the first time I did it a few years ago it was to give the piece a personal feel. (That might not sound like it makes sense, but it did work.) Other than that though, it often feels like a poem has a nicer rhythm when in second person. Or maybe I'm just making that up and second person is a phase I'm going through. I guess time will tell.

Poetry/spoken word gig

It's a bit late notice, but wanted to let you know I will be featuring at Passionate Tongues on Monday. It would be great to see you there if you get a chance to come along. Brunswick Hotel, 140 Sydney Road, Brunswick from 8.30pm. The co-feature is Alex Skovron.

In other news, I've had a huge (literary) day and am very very tired. Might share a bit about it later, although for now, maybe enough to say I am feeling inspired to get working on my novel, like I do any time I am involved in or attend a literary event. But first, I had better eat some of the sticky date pudding my husband made me for St V's day...after all, I wouldn't want to offend him by not having any ;-)

Hope you've had a great St V's day too.

Winner

It's been a quiet kind of week, so sorry I haven't been here for a few days. In some ways, I've been caught up a little in the devastation these fires have caused. While we have not been affected directly, we live in the hills, pretty much in exactly the spot that was most affected last time round, in the Ash Wednesday fires, so it takes a bit for it to all sink in. Not that we lived here all those years ago...gosh, I was just a kid then. Aaaah, the days...

Anyway, just wanted to say a quick thanks to Carol and Vicki for their comments and suggestions, and I will definitely keep in mind what you've said for this site. In fact, I might just make a list ;-)

Meanwhile, I've decided that Carol is the winner of a copy of Svetlana or otherwise. So, Carol, when you read this, please send me an email with your postal address and I will sign it and pop it in the mail as soon as I can. Easiest to email me by using a page seventeen address, which you can get here. On that, if you would like to contact me by email, feel free to do so this way too.

For anyone else who would like a copy of Svetlana or otherwise, if you order one this month, I will throw in a backissue of page seventeen. You can order via the site (scroll down), by Paypal, or the traditional Aust Post method.

Will be back soon with some more news. Hope you're staying safe.

Perspective

It seems like it could be a great little happy birthday for Svetlana with a renewed energy about the place. Angela Meyer reviewed Svetlana or otherwise and you can go here to check it out. While you're there I definitely recommend you check out more of Angela's blog, Literary Minded. She discusses all things literary, including reviews of books and events, as well as posting interviews and so much more. And you can always hear the excitement as you read, very inspiring.

In other news, met with my novel buddy to set new goals yesterday and we were both pretty pleased with our progress during the last month. We each set new goals, and have only a little over three weeks to get it all done this time.

Before I can do the next thing on my list, I have to decide whether to keep it all in the protagonist's point or view or to let some others tell bits of the story. Hadn't even thought of this until reading Angela's review, but I think I like the idea. The only hitch is that I was planning to write in first person, so not sure how well it will go if most of it is in first person with a few chapters of second person from other character's POV thrown in. But, with a science background, I'm prepared to experiment. How else will I ever use that degree anyway?

Give-away

It's hard to believe it is almost one year since my little baby 'Svetlana or otherwise' was freed into the world. To celebrate, I want to give a copy away.

All you have to do is leave a comment letting me know what kind of things you'd like me to talk about here in this blog. Do this by 9th February (Svetlana's birthday) and consider yourself in the running. If there are enough excellent comments I might even give a copy of the current issue of page seventeen away too. So, get cracking.