Off on a Tesla Coil

So this mornings "writing" has been hijacked a little by Nicola Tesla and Steampunk - I was supposed to be working on my Play - The Ecstacy - which I will do this evening - but I have been completely obsessed with a story I have been wanting to write for months now..it may be longer than a story actually - aargh too many Projects!!  Anyway the story/novel I want to write is called "Tilly Divine's Steampunk Emporium" and I started it a few weeks ago (furtively, like I was doing something VERY naughty- because I KNOW I am supposed to be working on the Play)

So this morning, over my fourth cup of very strong black coffee (Wheee!) I GOOGLED... and by 11 oclock I was knee deep in Tesla coils, conspiracy theories and GOGGLES - cos Steampunk is ALL about the Goggles.  Anyway - I will post again at 2pm and we'll just see what kind of progress has actually been made won't we!!!

Comet of Doooom!!!

Okay so Comet (or possibly dwarf star depending on the tin foil hat you are currently wearing) Elenin is approaching earth.  Apparently this means either nothing or everything turning into nothing - in a loud and messy fashion.  I prefer to save my panic and bulk food buying for Pandemic/Nuclear catastrophe/Zombie Apocalypse type events - so this weekend, instead of stocking up on beans and rice, I will be writing!! Yes writing - a whole weekend of it and in the spirit of this rather haphazard blog - I am going to try and Blog it - with both speed writing and marathon sessions. 

There will of course be SOME drinking involved I am sure, but hopefully not before 11....  because that would be bad.  So if you are wondering why i am not lurking on FB or Twitter - it's because I am WORKING people!!

Also if you do intend to plan for the impending apocalypse the you might like to do it in style!

Is it secret..is it safe?

Tentatively putting my foot back into the Blogosphere...Actually I was busy - not scared..but certain recent events that spilled over into my work made me fairly cross.  Enough said!

So...writing continues...KONKS - Kid on the Karaoke Stage continues to roll forward at an exciting pace - I have a photo call on Tuesday which is nice..haven't been very involved so far - apart from the launch which was fab!  Sorry for anyone who turned up at my invitation and couldn't even get to me through the MASSIVE crowd!  I guess with 28 writers all inviting their loved ones/VIPs etc it was bound to be a bit of a mad house.  Hope you all enjoyed it :)

I am working on The Ecstasy (The Play) a book of poetry - working title - The Peculiar Function of Sound Waves..- finishing The Anatomy of Mermaids and starting a new novel called The March Flies.

Busy Girl!

Car Wheels on a Gravel Road

I have to give Fremantle Arts Press an answer to this question:

What song would the narrator/protagonist of your story sing at a karaoke bar and why?
for their Web and Facebook page for the promotion of The Kid on the Karaoke Stage and other stories.

So I've chosen Car Wheels on a Gravel Road by Lucinda Williams

The vivid imagery of country driving and living in a remote area, the undercurrent of tension and subtle hint of potential violence and rural decay, this song encapsulates the story Gaye is narrating.  And all to a rocking good country tune!

Still sad about the death of Diana Wynne Jones so indulge me for a moment

I have decided to list 50 of my favourite YAbooks (and some adult books I read when I was probably still too young for them!)  from when I was growing up..most of which I still have and almost none of which I can get the kids to read!  Some are the wonderful books of Ms Wynne-Jones but lots aren't...Not in any particular order...

1.   The Power of Three  - DWJ
2.    My Side of the Mountain
3.   Kim
4.  Swallows & Amazons
5.  A Wizard of Earthsea
6.  The Winter Players
 7.  The Homeward Bounders
 8.  Fire & Hemlock
9.  The many Coloured Land
10.  The Nargun & The Stars
11.  All the Song of Wirrun Books
12.  A Waltz through the Hills
13.  The Sun on the Stubble
14.  A Girl of the Limberlost
15.  The Secret Garden
16.  Z for Zachariah
17.  Dragon Flight
18.  Charmed Life
19.  Alice In Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass
20.  A Wrinkle in Time
21.  The Forgotten Beasts of Eld
22.  Treasure Island & Kidnapped
23.  The 39 Steps
24.  The Hound of the Baskervilles
25.  These Old Shades
26.  The Caravan Passes
27.  Little House in the Big Woods
28.  Dogsbody
29.  Archers Goon
30.  The Harp in the South
31.  Wind in the Willows
32.  The Dark is Rising series
33.  All the Gerald Durrel Books - particularly My Family & Other Animals
34.  Bulldog Drummond & his four rounds with Karl Peterson
35.  Five go to Smugglers Top (my fave Famous 5 book)
36.  Brat Farrar
37.  White Fang
38.  Down the Long Hills
39.  All the William Books
40.  The Little World of Don Camillo
41.  The Hobbit & Lord of the Rings
42.  The Moon Spinners
43.  The Crystal Cave
44.  The Once & Futue King
45.  The Pheonix & the Carpet
46.  The Mango Tree
47.  Lantana Lane
48.  Drinking Cider with Rosie
49.  Charlottes Web
50.  A squillion other wonderful amazing imaginary adventures....  from a squillion wonderful amazing writers..  Thank you to each and every one!!

So I found this on top of the fridge...

.... and I simply HAD to open it!  Anything could be inside a container  with such a label!!!  I mean what is a non-fiction biscuit anyway?  Is it like a hyper biscuit - more real than real?  Some kind of Uber-cookie?  Although the term non-fiction does have a kind of gravitas that belies any super-hero, comic book larger than life shenanigans...  I am suspecting there won't be chocolate....  These will be serious as hell biscuits, biscuits that are deeply pondering the meaning of life and are probably finding a cure for cancer on the side.  HARD CORE ESSAY WRITING BISCUITS!!!  with full referencing and probably their own site on Google Scholar.


I just HAD to open it!  I felt like Pandora as I prised the stiff plastic lid away from the rim.......

Needless to say I was slightly disappointed.











But I was completely right about the lack of chocolate.

Some of Today's Writing....

John:                I drove to the City.  I climbed inside that great grey concrete beast and I drank.  I drank whiskey and never showered.  Stinking and wallowing in the foulness of myself. 

Isabella:           I went to the hills to write.  Leaving everything behind I went to the hills to write of the sea.  Does that seem a strange choice?  But how else to write of it?  I could never write when we were together. 

John:                Some mornings I woke up fully dressed and other times naked but always with the sour stench of vomit in my beard. 

Isabella:           I sat in my cottage in the foothills with the scent of eucalypts and far off bushfires and I wrote.   The air conditioning made me cold so I turned it off and let the sweat come, sat dripping at the wooden desk while ants bit in the dampness behind my knees.

John:                I don’t even remember the writing of it.  The days blurred and I drank and sometimes there was ink and paper and at the end it was done.  I was done.

Isabella:           Outside my cottage an enormous prickly pear bristled with strange red fruit.  They dropped and fermented on the gravel pathways.

John:                As Laocoon I was crushed.  Who knows what sin committed, what Gods I offended.  It was enough that I spoke the truth.

Isabella:           I drank vodka with blood orange and wrote of the ocean.

John:                Grief is a dangerous place from which to write.  Anger, love, fear, jealousy even, these all have form and shape, they are anchored and finite.  But grief, grief knows no restraint, it spills and pours without boundaries, consumes itself and grows larger.  Why grief, grief might say anything.