First day

Baby girl goes to school

Doing a bit to help out

With so much devastation around the country, it's great to see so many people putting their hands up to help those affected.

There are a few projects in particular that have impressed me and although you've probably heard of them already, I'm going to point them out anyway.

One of the great things about 100 stories for Queensland is that even if you can't spare a few dollars, you can still help. They're accepting submissions of (uplifting) short stories (500-1000 words) until Friday 28th January. 100% of the sales profit will be donated to the Queensland Premier's Flood Relief appeal.

If you can spare a few dollars, the Authors for Queensland Auction might be for you. Decide how much you can spare, choose one or more books/services and put in corresponding bids. Bids are acceptable until Monday 24th January. You might even grab a bargain. For instance, my poetry book, 'First taste' currently has no bids. This is also the case for the current issue of page seventeen. I also donated a manuscript assessment/critique of up to 3 short stories, but whatever you're interested in, there's sure to be something there for you, so go on over and check it out.

If you're a writer with a book or service to donate, The Queensland Writers' Centre's Writers on Rafts initiative is still accepting donations (I think: contact them to be sure).

If you just want to buy something, then Page Seventeen are donating sales to Queensland Flood Relief for orders received by the end of Australia Day, 26th January. This was inspired by Graham Nunn, who is not only donating sales of his poetry book, 'Ocean Hearted' to Flood relief, but is adding an additional $5 from his own pocket for each copy sold. And he sure is getting an amazing response.

Of course, you can just make a direct donation too. And if you're interested in helping out victims of the Victorian floods, you can make a donation here.

On a personal note, our new home in the south of Brisbane is quite a way away from affected areas, so we were fortunate enough to remain high and dry through even the worst periods.

not a resolution

I wouldn't call it a new year's resolution but in 2011 I plan to engage in some serious slowing down. I'm not sure at the moment what that entails exactly, except that it definitely means less time online.

This will be easier than if I'd said it at any other time, as despite our new home being in the metropolitan area of Brisbane, as far as Telstra and its fabulous services go, we may as well be creating a new town in the middle of the desert. Without ADSL, it shouldn't be too tough to stay off the interwebs.

So, at some stage in the near, or not so near, future, I may update you on my 2010 reading (I stuck with reading novels by only Australian women) and a few other bits and pieces. Or I may not. One thing I'll tell you now though, is that in 2011 I plan to read novels that are debuts by Australian writers. I'm starting with Forster's 'The book of Emmett'. I'm also reading Gretchen Shirm's short story collection, 'Having Cried Wolf,' which I was fortunate enough to 'win' recently on twitter when Affirm Press had a little competition. Not that a short story collection would have to be a debut collection for me to read it this year. Just novels.