"I do think decency and civilization would insist that the writer take sides with the powerless. Clearly, there's no moral obligation to write in any particular way. But there is a moral obligation, I think, not to ally oneself with power against the powerless. I think an artist, in my definition of that word, would not be someone who takes sides with the emperor against his powerless subjects.” ― Chinua Achebe

Those words spoke to ma and I realize I strive fro a similar ideal in my writing of the Australian history since European settlement, novel, Dreaming Billabong.

 Books » Fiction & Literature » General
Things Fall Apart Pocket Penguin Classics

By Chinua Achebe

I cannot fully agree with this as it was via the internet I discovered what I believe would be the perfect position for Reg and myself that would allow me to utilise all my creative and business skills. I would be working for a community rather than for myself and would need to cease promoting my own individual creative arts. I am ready for this move  and will love promoting a great community of artists.  That is all I can say about it as everything I say about the position, if I am granted it, will go though the art committee - I'll not be acting as an individual but for a group who's wishes I would respect.

I believe the value or not of the Internet is in how you use it. Used creatively and for education and stress release, networking and family communication, it is a valuable tool.
When it begins to interfere with your life, create time management problems or begins to become an addiction then it is good to set some strict rations on how you access the internet. Maybe disconnect from all the apps and games, un-friend people who are not enhancing your lifestyle, and set a time limit on how long you will spend reading and communicating on line. Then stick to that prior drawn up time management agreement with yourself.

Let the Internet enrich and not down grade the quality of your life.

Life is taking on some interesting and exciting changes as Reg and I have applied for work in the art industry within an Aboriginal community.

We do not know as yet if we will be successful in our application however all fingers and toes are crossed. It will be a values experience for us and a chance to share our skills in a useful and positive way.

This book was written by an author who spent ten years in an outback community. I am trying to read everything I can on the internet about the position I have applied for and will skip the fiction read about the place for now though it will be interesting to read after I have my own first hand experience and compare it to what I believe would be a positive view of country and the people.

Books » Fiction & Literature » Mystery & Detective » General
Gunshot Road By Adrian Hyland

Last seen in the award-winning Diamond Dove, Emily Tempest has a new job: an Aboriginal Community Police Officer. A cop. Not quite what she had in mind when she returned to Central Australia. If anything, her instincts and background would propel her in the opposite direction. But for an Aboriginal woman in a pissant mining and meatworks town, the career options are limited. And there's a car attached. Her new boss, the dour Superintendent Cockburn sees her role as making tea and rounding up the truants. But when one old friend is murdered out on the Gunshot Road and another one gets the blame, Emily leaps into the investigation feet first, mouth never far behind. Behind its veil of lyricism and quickfire wit, Gunshot Road transports the reader into a world few have ever seen up close: the Australian outback, where cultures collide, and where temperatures - and the odd bullet - go through the roof.

About the Author
After studying languages and literature at Melbourne University, Adrian Hyland moved to Central Australia where he lived for ten years working in community development in remote Aboriginal communities and living with the Warlpiri people in the Tanami Desert. This is the second Emily Tempest novel, after Diamond Dove. Click link below to read more or order.

Make up is optional. Don't let the adds fool you and don't allow some zealous person who fell for the multi billion dollar advertising campain to get women to wear makeup convince you that you lack a high self esteem and cannot possibly be happy if you can prepare yourself to face the world in the morning in less than five minutes. 

I am back from a lovely walk around the lake. Very happy - then I saw two TV advertisements and it triggered a very cross about sophisticated society’s expectations of women - waffle. - Yes I will be happier living in an Australian outback community than in a community where high heels and makeup are promoted as 'what makes a woman. Today I begin my outback community job application and I hope they will accept me, I can learn a lot from these people and I hope to be able to fully utilise all my own skills - without even needing to wear makeup or high heels to be happy, fulfilled nor to be the best person I can be in life.

The two adds that annoyed me.

They made me want to say - Beauty is not about makeup and high heels - that is dressing up -it is a part of current sophisticated trends. It is in some people's eyes (not everyone’s) beautiful, but it an ideal that is 'sold' to us by people who make money selling us tis ideal and we don't have to buy that ideal in order to be happy.

The first add showed Barbie and little girls plastered in makeup and high heels.

The second showed a sad woman in a head scarf with no makeup and we were told she was a cancer patient.  Then we saw her plastered in makeup and wearing a long blond wig and now she was said to be happy. 

I ask WHY should someone who feels sick be shown in TV adds they are so much better as a person if they stick (my words here - stupid) makeup on?  They ARE BEAUTIFUL as they are now. What's wrong with a society that tells a woman child, a sick person a woman you’re not happy, not beautiful without (my words again - gunk - because these adds angered me) makeup on your face?

The presenter of the story wore 9 inch high spike heels.

Am I alone in questioning society saying a woman has to be glammed up in order to be happy and that message is thrown not only at healthy adults but at the sick and wost still sold to our children? 

Am I alone in thinking there is something wrong with a society that does not see makeup as an optional choice and all you need is a smile and tolerance of others to be beautiful.

I have nothing against anyone seeking to dress up in any way they wish, so it isn’t a criticism of other's dress choice. It is a criticism of advertisements that imply a little girl and a sick woman need to aspire to glamour or she somehow is she will remain sad. That latter message I thought stank.

In researching Australian slang from the past for a novel I discovered the name I called my lunch googie egg was in fact from my Scottish ancestry.

Googie or goog - a child’s word for an egg.

Australian children in the 195o's would eat a ‘googie’ or a ‘googie egg’.
Googie is not an Aboriginal word.
It probably has its roots in ‘goggie’ - a Scots child’s word for an egg.

A great Australian icon Banjo Patterson and the song Waltzing Matilda are well know by older generation Australians yet few of us know we are singing a Scottish tune when we sing about that jumbuck in the billabong.   My novel crosses Scottish and Australian culture and I discovered this while researching for my Dreaming Billabong novel.

In 1895 Christina Rutherford Macpherson played a tune to the Australian poet Banjo Paterson.

"...one day I played (from ear) a tune which I had heard played by band at the Races in Warrnambool, a Country town in the Western District of Victoria. Mr Paterson asked what it was - I could not tell him, & he then said he thought he could write some lines to it. He then & there wrote the first verse."

'Once a jolly swagman camped by a billabong

Under the shade of a coolibah tree,

And he sang as he watched and waited 'til his billy boiled

'You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me.' '

Banjo Paterson wrote the song ‘Waltzing Matilda’ to the tune of the traditional Scottish song ‘Thou Bonnie Wood Of Craigielea’. The famous bush ballad Waltzing Matilda has been called ‘Australia’s unofficial national anthem’.

There is a big learning curve going on here. I am new to an iPad.
I am selling my unused (because I don't like the keyboard Sony Vaio laptop computer and I have replaced it for my own mobile use with an iPad as i love my iMac so much but it's a little big to sit on my lap in the caravan or take down to the beach when Reg is fishing.
Tonight I set up two writing programs on the iMac and on the iPad and I am learning how to sinc the files.

So far I have managed the Storyist software and I'm just going to work with the iWriter files then off to bed.
The iWriter is available from the Apple App store.  I tried a few free programs, A Novel Idea was one of these however the advertisements annoyed me and I deleted it.
Love to know what big file writing software you use on iPad.

I downloaded the Storyist and dropbox software into my iMac computer from the website and I downloaded the Storyist app and the dropbox app frpm the Apple app store for the iPad.  They work easily together transferring files. Believe me I am no computer geek and i learned how to do this in one evening.

I am hoping I can use the same keyboard I use here with my iMac, for the iPad. . So far so good with some advice from my friends above.

Chuck Wendig is an author with an enormous knowledge about the mechanics of how to write and he shares much of his knowledge in his  Terrible Minds blog that I plan to read and study.

This post, on story structure, has so many ideas in it that you're gong to want to read it if you are a writer.
From the blog:-
The other day, I asked where lots of folks had problems with their stories. “Plot” and “structure” came up a lot (and I feel your pain). Hence, here we are with 25 things you might wanna know about narrative structure. 
25 Things You Should Know About Story Structure terribleminds.com

The Nobel Prize Winner and author of 'The Grapes of Wrath' wrote a beautiful letter to his son on the importance of waiting for love.

Check out the link below:-
_John Steinbeck on Falling in Love: A 1958 Letter
www.theatlantic.com