Back to Blog

It's a bit like a whodunnit ...

I've been a bit 'under the weather' lately.My Mom used to say this when we were sick and my current under the weather episode would have fascinated her. Mom was intrigued by all things medical and would have made a great physician.  She'd look at me and say, 'Jane you have the most unusual ailments.'I looked up the 'under the weather' saying before writing this post today as I was curious about its origins. Apparently it's a nautical saying from the days of sailing ships. If a sailor w...

Uncertainty breeds anxiety ... and so it goes

It's insidious, creeps up on you, a bit like a cat in the grass, stalking, ready to pounce when you least expect it. It's this feeling of uncertainty, generated by our old unwelcome adversary COVID, not knowing what tomorrow may bring when this grumpy thing decides to kick up rough again and throw us all into a lockdown of anxiety and financial stress.You don't always realise how anxious you are until you see a news report that startles you like a deer in the forest, makes you uneasy like walkin...

The power of story

We are hard-wired to tell stories.... those long dark nights when we sat around the warmth and safety of a fire and shared stories about our day: what we did, what we hunted and gathered, what we saw - and of course all of those tales would've had a good dose of imagination thrown in. That animal we speared for dinner became far larger than it actually was, the trip to gather water from a nearby stream became fraught with tension because we lost our way and couldn't get back for ages (when actua...

Don't miss the boat ...

Don't let the boat sail without you! Join me for my Introduction to Memoir Workshop on Sunday 18 April. Find out more ...It's so easy to say, 'I won't think about that today - I'll think about that tomorrow'.  That's what Scarlett O'Hara said after shooting a Union soldier dead in the foyer of Tara. She decided to sort that one out later.We do that with our writing. We always think we have another day, another month in which to begin, or we'll plan to write our memoir next year because...

The unexpected ...

I have a covered porch on the side of my house where I stack firewood to dry over the summer, ready for burning during the cold winter days. At the moment, there's a pile of kanuka from a tree we removed a while back. It's the perfect spot for my colony of wee lizards who enjoy the heat and sunbathe atop the limbs.I was sitting out there the other day when I heard some commotion from within the woodpile. I thought, 'That's a mighty big lizard' and I prepared myself for something out of a horror ...

Adversity breeds opportunity

Well here we are again … Level Three in Auckland with road blocks at the Super City boundaries and people on edge in New Plymouth where potentially infectious people did some travelling and sightseeing. Long lines at the testing centres and a 3-4 hour wait to get through the boundary checkpoints.Our neighbourhood is quiet again this morning as people sleep in, stay home, no morning commute happening. And it's mighty good weather for staying home as it's rainy, muggy, cloudy with more rain...

Summertime ...

Yes it's summer - long, languid days at the beach and a Summer Writing Salon or two at The Writing Place. What could be better?I took this photo from behind my drum kit at our annual Jazz Concert in John's Garden. This is our third year and the jazz takes place on the Saturday of Anniversary Day weekend here in Auckland. We set up the band under the awning in my neighbour John's back yard, invite all the folks living up and down the street, and have an afternoon of good music and fun. They bring...

What will you write on the first blank page of your 365 page book?

It's coming up to a New Year and American country and western singer Brad Paisley said, "Tomorrow, is the first blank page of a 365 page book. Write a good one." I am hopeful that 2021 will bring more good pages than bad ones.​Will you join me at my Summer Writers' Salon on Sunday 17 January 2021 to write your first page? Let's begin our 365-page year book together with a day of writing at the Bay here in Whangaparaoa. Can we call 2020 'bad'? Or simply say, 'It is what it is - a...

'Tis the seaon to be jolly

But what if you've just been diagnosed with breast cancer? Everyone is decorating their homes, shopping for gifts, buying up large for Christmas dinners and celebrations, and going to end-of-year parties … there's an air of fun, frivolity, and summer plans.You have been given a diagnosis of breast cancer.The impact of a diagnosis changes our perspective during the festive season. Instead of wondering whether to serve roast potatoes, or potato salad with the ham, it’s “How can I celebr...

How to start writing your story

Let's say you want to write about your life.Maybe you've traveled to exotic places and had jungle encounters with wild animals ... perhaps you set yourself a personal challenge to swim across Cook's Strait, and on the day it was blowing a gale but you did it anyway, by golly.  Did you experience a time of grief and sadness, as a result of a loss, or endure a health crisis that necessitated stays in hospital, lengthy treatment, and a long recovery that changed every aspect of your life?...

What's a write-in?

I'm having a Spring write-in, two in fact, the first on Saturday 7 November and the second a week later on the 14th. Find out more!Sorry to say, it's not a love-in (popular back in the 60s with the hippies, an outdoor public gathering and demonstration of love, friendship and unity, often with psychedelic drugs) however it is a chance to get together with other writers, do some writing and share experiences of the writing life.The write-ins are held at my Writing Place h...

If each word cost a dollar ...

Let's say each word you write costs you a dollar. Your natural response would most likely be, 'I want to save money.' Inflation might bring this up to $5 in a few years' time. Then you'd be very economical.Now I know that when we're in the heat of creation on that first draft, we're encouraged to get it all out on the page - blah on without restrictions - so we're going to spend a lot of money on those words. And I think that's OK because, if I can get lyrical here, our creativity is r...

The crossroads

Whenever I visit Central Otago, I always make time to go to the Boundary Road crossroads.Made famous in the painting by Grahame Sydney, 'Boundary Road', this to me is one of the most stunningly beautiful places in Central. True, there are no lakes or rivers around that you can see, and the mountains and hills are distant, but this place intrigues and humbles me.Usually when we go there, the road is quiet. The occasional car goes by, but mostly it is silent, just the crackling of the grasses and ...

The twilight zone of level 2.5

My last post was written when we were facing another major lock down here in Auckland. We had a community outbreak so it was pronto-quick into Level Three while the rest of New Zealand stayed at Level Two.  Level Three contained us within the city limits unless there was a rock-solid reason to be let out. Indeed the queues of cars at roadblocks attested to the hundreds of folks trying to leave with special exemptions in hand. Many were turned back. The  feeling that we we could not lea...

Tough times ahead

We are faced once again with the dogged determination of this COVID virus to insinuate itself into the fabric of our lives with the stealth of a stalking tiger. You cannot see it, or hear it, and yet here it is again to wreak it's havoc.I'm all in a dither. There is comfort in knowing I'm not the only one. However, as a friend of mine in Atlanta used to say, 'Chin up brave soldier'.​We can do this.Yesterday was the first full day of Level Three restrictions in Auckland.​Roadblocks, no leavin...

The need for quiet contemplation

As writers we need quiet, contemplative time.When I was being mentored by writer Mrs M. at a very young age, she thought 'thinking time' was an indulgence, a luxury that could be ill afforded because it was all about producing, the writing, the quantity, the content.I cannot be too hard on Mrs M because she taught me some valuable lessons about writing process, self discipline, marketing, publishing, the tools of the writer's trade, and I remind myself that Mrs M. came from a journalistic b...

Good books by the fire

This wild winter weather has me inside more these days, catching up on my reading.Prior to the COVID-19 restrictions that locked us out of the libraries, I had ordered in several books that would have arrived in a well-spaced way, enabling me to read them in a leisurely fashion.But they all arrived at once and it was  joyous seeing a pile of fabulous books stacked up on the table again, ready to be opened and enjoyed.It meant that I had to get reading quick-smart so on these cold mid-winter...

Try something new with your writing

Just down the road from our beach there's a storm water pond that attracts a lot of bird life: ducks and pukekos, and a pair of swans who have produced several generations of babies, happily raising them in the relative safety of the pond.Every now and then Mom and Dad take the kids for a ramble. When the offspring are old enough and big enough to go the distance, they parade in an ordered row down to the beach for a swim in the salty sea.  They were at the beach one afternoon last wee...

Getting back into gear

Well done all of us. We deserve a good cheer!We have made it to Level 1 with 0 new cases of COVID-19 in New Zealand (as of yesterday anyway - and hopefully today, tomorrow, and on and on ...).What an achievement, and with such good news comes some optimism, although we do have a ways to go to get the country back on its feet.Most everyone I speak to says they had some pretty grey days during the lock-down period, especially early on when we were restricted to home, going to the grocery store was...

Replacing the computer

Pretty early on I started training myself to do my writing on the computer.My first computer  was a Compaq which I just didn't know how to use at all. I'd never been taught during my schooldays and the whole thing was a complete mystery that ended fortuitously when I moved house and the person carrying the computer managed to drop a bunch of dirt into it. I wasn't upset because all I ever did was look at it, sitting there with its massive boxy monitor, displaying itself with confidence...

If you haven't been able to write, you're not alone

Many of us thought we'd get so much done during the COVID-19 lockdown.We'd take care of those niggling projects around the place that we'd put off for years, finally landscape the garden, have a big clean out, catch up on those books we've wanted to read, clean the house from top to bottom ... write the books we've been thinking about forever ..Well, we can't water-blast any more in Auckland because of the water restrictions; the libraries are mostly still closed (although some are opening now);...

Write about your COVID 19 experience - the time is now

I cannot say enough about personal writing at this time, sitting down and recording your experiences of the effect COVID-19 has had on your life.Think back to when you first heard about this virus, how the reality began to dawn on the world that this thing was going to spread all over the show, and then came the day we knew would inevitably arrive.The disease had arrived here.Remember the panic buying at supermarkets, everybody all over the place, no flour and no toilet paper, the pleas from gov...

Let's talk about hope

I was writing in my journal yesterday afternoon and when I read back over what I'd written, the two words 'I hope ...' kept coming up.There was, 'I hope we all get through this' and there was 'I hope my neighbours over the road will be OK' and then there was, 'I hope this ends soon.'Plenty of hoping going on - and that's about all we can do during such times of uncertainty.We do know plenty for sure: that New Zealand will progress to Level Four as we move to control the spread of the Covid-19 Co...

Journaling can reduce anxiety

I don't know about you but all of the coronavirus news has made me more than a little anxious.Makes me want to hide under a box.It's something I've never had to deal with in my lifetime and despite all of the information flooding our way, we all have to make our own decisions and figure out how we'll navigate through the coming months.As for Betsy-cat, she's worried about her supply of Fancy Feast cat food. Will the shops run out?For us, it's all about toilet paper and bread. The early bird stil...

Your memoir and the 'big picture'

Some of the most powerful memoirs are those written within the context of the 'big picture.'By that I mean, a writer tells the story of a life lived within the context of history.Many people have written memoirs about the world wars and their experiences fighting in these global conflicts, or as civilians trying to survive.Others wrote about living through the Great Depression, the great stock market crash, or what it was like to exist within the walls of Auschwitz.Such memoirs are often about l...