This is my dog Oliver. People like him. Everywhere we go, he gets stopped and patted. And we go a lot of places. This dog has lived in Sydney and New York, traversed the east coast of Australia, and travelled through 22 States of the US of A.
So today I took my dog with me for a walk while I got my lunch and, on cue, an old man stopped us and started patting Oliver. "Floppy ears! Floppy ears!" he said to Oliver, and then to me, "Have you got time for a story?"
I didn't, but by then the story was already underway. The man told me he wrote Christian poems about Bible characters and some of them were quite long (oh goody). Then without warning, he proceeded to recite one of his poems.
I couldn't exactly pick the Bible character in it. It went along the lines of "I went to the beach with my girl Stella / But when I came back from the surf she was having sex in the shallows with some fella." I kid you not.
Stella, it transpired, was a dog with (and this part is very important) pointy ears. The poem continued for quite some time, while I shifted my feet and Oliver shifted his feet and the rain clouds gathered. I'll spare you the rest and simply cut to the stunning and compelling punchline, in which Stella gives birth to puppies with (wait for it) floppy ears.
"BAHAHAHA" the poet roared, holding his sides as he laughed and clearly very proud of his wit. It started to rain.
And in the pause that followed while I struggled to find something polite to say, Oliver said it all for me.
He walked directly up to the poet and vomited something white and yellow and foamy on the grass in front of the poor man's feet.
I simply have to share this extraordinary video. As writers, we can spend years working away on the one book. Sometimes loving it, sometimes just wishing it could be accidentally consumed in a house fire. And when we finally think we're done, the gruelling edit process begins and that, too, can last years. After that, we're into the marketing and promotion phase.
But all this is nothing compared with sculptor Scott Weaver's commitment and achievement. He has spent almost my entire lifetime building this incredibly detailed and complex sculpture of San Francisco, out of toothpicks! But what's most impressive is that the sculpture is kinetic, taking ping-pong balls on various tours through the city's districts. Take a look.
...
When I see something like this, after I overcome my amazement and incredulity at the sheer talent of what this artist has done, I start to reflect on my own work. And more to the point, I start to reflect on my own dedication to my craft.
I once read that Picasso was banned from some galleries because he used to try and improve his paintings where they hung. It's hard, sometimes, to stop, and certainly Scott Weaver is constantly adding to and improving his own work.
However for writers, once our books hit the stores and go into the hands of others, there's nothing much we can do, even if we see compelling room for improvement. So I take two lessons from Scott Weaver's work that I intend to apply today:
1. Give it your everything in the first place. Take as long as you need to take to make it the best it can be. And look for new places, characters, intricacies in your book that you can love, to keep up the motivation. Add little pieces of you to make it personal and special (like Scott added his own, his wife's and his mother's time of birth to the clock tower).
2. Keep going. I'm proud of my novella Airmail, don't get me wrong. I still love that book and I humbly think it's a fun read. But I couldn't improve it now, even if I wanted to. It no longer belongs to me because it's in your hands. So I will continue adding to my body of work with new stories and new novels. And if I apply myself, keep learning, keep reading, let's hope each new work will be better than the last.
It's ANZAC Day in Australia and New Zealand today. This is our day of remembrance for the 'diggers' of WWI, marking the fatal day they stormed the beaches of Gallipoli in Turkey. If you don't know their story, look up one of Mel Gibson's earliest movies (before he was crazy), recreating this battle, Gallipoli. The movie is oh so 80s, but the true story is extraordinary.
These days we've broadened ANZAC Day to commemorate everyone who has served in military operations for Australia. All over the nation, Aussies rise in the dark and cold, rug up, and make their pilgrimage to the local war memorial for the traditional Dawn Service. I didn't go this year but, as a child, we went every year and it is incredibly moving. And humbling. It was my little brother's job to be the solitary trumpeter playing The Last Post at each service.
Now on a lighter note but still in the Aussie spirit, I bring you Scott's and my country jaunt to the Rathdowney Heritage Festival yesterday. My glamorous life.
This is just a little reminder that if you are in a book club, and if you think it might be fun for me to come and chat about Airmail, I'm up for it.
I'll get baking, and bring you some of my mum's famous lemon slice, or chocolate mint slice, or possibly Aunty Bev's delicious chocolate-and-licorice-allsorts-brownies if she will give me the recipe. Or maybe I'll try something out of my Magnolia Bakery cookbook.
I just moved to the Gold Coast but I travel back to Sydney frequently, and visit my peeps in Melbourne, plus of course I'm close to Brisbane. So if you're near any of those places I'm sure we can work something out.
And if your book club is further afield, maybe we can all meet up on Skype. I may even send you a special recipe to bake something extra tasty.
Yours truly,
Naomi
Proof! The species are mingling, powerful new genetic mutants are emerging. Ladies and gentlemen I present: the amazing kangaroo-dog. Apparently, these are the blog posts that my brain believes are worthy at 3.30am. I suspect my 7.30am brain will apologise, so I am doing so now, in advance. Sorry! Still, I am enjoying the concept of the kangaroo-dog somewhat.
I am also rather on tenterhooks to bring you photographic evidence of another mutant species I encountered tonight: the Bikini Barbers. Yes, you read correctly. A barber shop where all the hairdressers wear bikinis. I assume they are women, although I'm hoping...
I passed this little gem of Queensland culture when it was closed, so had to content myself with reading a big sign displaying all the rules (such as "look but don't touch," and "no lewd comments"), but you can bet your booties I will be back in daylight!
Possibly I will need to hide behind a tree and take my photograph using a long-range lens (that I don't have), just as I imagine many a peeping tom has done before me. But this, my friends, is the strength of my commitment to excellence in journalism.
Stay tuned. In the meantime, I bid you
Adieu
Moving more than 1000 kilometres from home to the Back of Beyond (aka The Gold Coast) only to discover, on taking the dog for a walk, that you live 10 minutes from this: Antique bookstore nirvana. (Sorry the picture is blurry. I snuck in the doorway with my iPhone and hustled to avoid mis-identification as a possible shoplifter.)
And then there's this, also 10 minutes' walk away: Ahhhhh. Bliss.
 The Monarch of the Glen by Compton Mackenzie My rating: 4 of 5 stars It's been a very long time since I laughed out loud while reading a book, but I've been chuckling the whole way through The Monarch of the Glen. What's more, this book has turned me into one of those most annoying of spouses: Wives Who Read Aloud Bits Of The Book They're Reading To Their Husbands. I'd feel the need to set the whole scene for my husband, build it up, then I'd read out the most salient bits from these pages, prompting a plaintive "Please just let me read my own book" response. It took me a little while to get into Monarch, to warm up to the characters and find their sympathetic sides. A little of this was due to the language. Right away, I was transported to the books I read as a child - the language is SO 1920s/30s humour - and I haven't read anything like this for a long time. But the experience was kind of like going to a country where you once knew the language but haven't used it in years. Once there, it all came quickly back and this book became my nightly treat. I couldn't wait to pick it up and continue. (The best part was last week: moving house meant the 'fridge was gone three days before I was, making cafe breakfast and a good read a necessity. Bliss!) Put aside all your thoughts of the television series of the same name: aside from a rambunctious and slightly fuddled Monarch and the Scottish Highlands setting, there's very little to compare. But toss in a rich American in a lurid orange kilt, a blue-eyed Scottish Nationalist poet, chubby hikers in shorts who declare war on the laird, and Ben Nevis (the Monarch himself) threatening to throw all hikers into the loch, and you have a recipe for a topping read. (See what I did there, with the old-fashioned language?) I am going to buy a copy of this book for my mum. View all my reviews
I have Alchemy of Scrawl blogger Coral Russell to thank for alerting me to this clip of Joan Rivers, sorting through her life's work. I just enjoy the notion of creativity being catalogued. It's not a process that appeals to me, nor, I imagine, many creative writers. But if it was there... If I had a meticulously kept wall of drawers containing all my ideas, thoughts, unfinished work... WHAT a resource that would be. The lesson in this appears to be that I need a butler. Or housekeeper. Or valet. There could also be a lesson in keeping myself organised, but that would imply personal responsibility, something I am trying to avoid while sipping my first cup of tea of the morning.
Congratulations to Bob Gr Holton, who has won a signed, hardcover copy of Airmail. Bob entered this competition, using the link I placed on the Fellow Writers Facebook board. Thanks to everyone who entered either via this blog, Fellow Writers or the official Airmail Facebook page. For want of any better hat, I folded up all the entries and drew them out of my knitted winter bonnet. Bob's name came out first. If you missed, out don't despair. Another freebie copy of Airmail is on offer right now by the lovely Alex over at Electrifying Reviews. But the competition ends next week so get a wriggle on!
I'm a member of a forum on Facebook called Fellow Writers. If you're a fiction writer, I highly recommend it. Every day (and I mean EVERY day), I discover new voices in fiction that I admire, new ways to promote my own work, and fresh ideas.
What follows is a list of 63 members of this forum who gave out the links to their writers' blogs. Put on the kettle, sink back into the lounge with the laptop on your knees, and take a virtual stroll through this incredibly diverse and talented group of writers. ps. Can you help me get the word out about these fantastic writers? Retweet this blog post, or 'like' it on Facebook, or share it with your friends any way you can.
Thanks a million,
Naomi
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