Another Year Bites The Dust

Down here in Christchurch, New Zealand (aka QuakeZone), 2011 has been unforgettable - and not in a good way.

Admittedly, that first big quake - the one that set off all the others - was in 2010. But this year we've had literally thousands of aftershocks (some, incredibly, more violent than the original earthquake). We've shovelled silt and patched up our homes and grieved for lives lost and kept going because, really, what else could we do?

Businesses closed, job lossed started, money got tight. We all learned what it means when your house is 'red-stickered' and your land won't be saved. We all thought long and hard about how much we wanted to live in Christchurch. Some of us upped and left. Some of us chose to stay. Some of us had no choice.

2011 also saw Mother Nature throw us the worst winter in years. Very pretty and all that, but this year? When half our city had lost their heating? Really?

And it wasn't just l'il ole New Zealand that suffered at the hands of Nature. This year, disaster has struck time and again all over the world. Have I just been more aware of it this year, or have we really suffered more than the usual dose of destruction and devastation?

There have been some high-notes as well this year (thinks... thinks some more... ) but, whatever they were, they've been pretty much drowned out by the lows.

I can't wait for 2011 to be over and another year started, a fresh start made.

As for New Year's resolutions (shudders), I don't usually make them but this year I've surprised myself by dreaming up a couple of possibilities. Of course, turning them into resolutions will jinx them, for sure!

What's your resolution for 2012? Do you have one? Quick! Tell me what it is. Maybe it's something I haven't thought of, something essential to a rich and enjoyable life, and I could sure do with that next year.

We Remember

It seems incredible to me that ten years has already passed since 9-11 stopped being my friend's birthday and became instead a symbol of terrorism.

Ten years since I woke to images so horrifying, so emotionally overwhelming that I struggled to comprehend them.

Ten years since I waited by the phone for news of our cousins, who were in transit to the States (from New Zealand). Ten years since I went into work, wondering how I could possibly answer the questions I knew my students would have. Ten years since I, thousands of miles away, felt rage and grief and fear and helplessness and could only imagine what those directly affected were going through.

The fallout from the Christchurch earthquakes (and ongoing aftershocks) over the past year has been enormous, and my life and attitudes to all sorts of things have changed as a result. But it's far easier for me to "normalise" or accept the havoc wreaked by Mother Nature than the deliberate destruction wreaked by people on other people.

So - yes. I remember. And I grieve for what we all lost on 9-11-01.

When you hear 9-11, what does it bring to mind for you?

Conviction And Courage: Essential Writer-ly Traits

It's not easy being a writer on the road to publication. First, you have to work out how to craft a novel. Then you have to do it, and well enough that a publishing house will take it on alongside their established authors. You'll probably also have to find an agent who loves your work enough to represent you. Which means you have to do some serious research into agents and editors and the querying/submitting processes. And you have to do all this in your own time.
The quandary: writing a debut novel takes hundreds - no, thousands - of hours. You really need to give up your day job to focus on it. But you can't afford to give up your day job because until you're published you don't get paid. Sadly, even writers need to eat.

Worse, as you journey this rocky road to publication you constantly encounter failure and more rejections. I explore this further in  "Conviction and Courage - Essential Writer-ly Traits", over on my For Writers page.