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?

It's All About The Journey - Isn't It?

Call me ambitious, but ever since I embarked on this writing lark I've aimed to earn a living from it. In my own mind I wouldn't have succeeded as a writer if I wasn't a) published, and b) making a career out of it.

Which was pretty stupid, really. I mean, hello. How many writers can say those two things? Even published authors (go you good things!) can't often say they're able to live on their earnings from writing.

So I guess it's just as well I get a kick out of writing, otherwise I'd be spending a fortune in counselling by now.

Anyway, a few of us writer-ly types got together for a chat and slating - I mean, critique - session, and we were discussing what it means to be "successful" as a writer. Or an artist. Or dancer or musician or otherwise creative being, because writers aren't the only ones who devote thousands of hours to something that may earn them next to nothing.

And the more we talked about it, the more we realised you could apply the argument to any human endeavour. Before we knew it our chat had become a philosophical discussion. ie - working towards a goal is actually what life is about. It's about trying, and trying some more, and failing and getting up and trying again. It's about our journey into ourselves.

The end goal is actually fairly incidental in the process.

Take the guy who enjoys a game of golf. He plays every weekend, and gradually brings his handicap down. But he doesn't turn into Tiger Woods. He doesn't even get down to single figures. Yet still he keeps chasing that silly little ball down the fairways. Why? All he'll get out of his golf is the satisfaction of having done his best (and maybe winning a couple of meat raffles back at the clubrooms).

It's all about the journey.

So next time I'm whinging about my lack of success as a writer - slap me. Remind me to enjoy the journey, because the destination may be a whole different place from what I expected.

What about you? Tell me, what's your journey? What made you choose that train? And are you remembering to enjoy it?

Digital or Paper: What's Your Preference?

There's a storm on the horizon of the publishing world - though some would say it's a lot closer than that. What's it about? The impact of digital publishing on the traditionally paper-dominated publishing industry.

Writers, agents and publishers are all angsting about it, tweeting about it and crystal ball gazing about it. As indeed they might, because it's their livelihoods at stake. Will e-publishing be the death knell for paper books? Or is it just a fad, a bit player in a mammoth market?

One thing's certain: nobody knows.

But everyone's got an opinion. And it seems to me (if I didn't already know it) I must be nuts to want a career in writing right now. Not only do I have to overcome my own inferiority complex, the futility of the slushpile, the multiple (read: hundreds of) rejections, the need to be a marketing expert - now I'm not even sure what 'publishing' means any more.

I always hoped I'd be published one day, that I'd hold my book, see my name on the spine. E-publishing didn't even cross my mind. It doesn't really count as 'published', right?

Wrong. E-published equals published. But - and here's the thing - e-publishing makes it easy for people to self-publish. Anyone can do it. I could upload my manuscript to Kindle and start selling it tomorrow if I wanted. Do I want to? Um... I'm not sure. There are lots of factors to consider - some I'm already aware of, but plenty of others I'm not, I bet. So, for now, I'm going to play a fence-sitting game.

Which probably means, as with most decisions I make, it's the wrong decision and I should've leapt onto the self-publishing train before it gathered speed and left me behind.

Seriously, folks, I was not meant to be rich. I'm not complaining - well, okay, maybe I'm whinging a little - it's just the way it is. Whatever I decide, you should do the opposite and, trust me, you'll be loaded in no time!

Anyway, enough about me and my bank overdraft. What I want to know is this: do you read books in digital format? Leave a comment and tell me yes or no, because I'm keen to see how many of you would currently choose to read e-pubbed books.

Want To Know Why I Haven't Posted Anything Recently?

You’d think God would be kinder to me. I mean, s/he’s thrown half a dozen significant earthquakes at me in the past nine months (hell, by comparison even pregnancy’s fun), and we’re being put through thousands of aftershocks, not to mention the loss of job security. Our city’s broken. Isn’t that enough?

I took on a part-time job. Just a little one. Hell, it barely even counts as a job! But it’s enough to let us have takeaways on a Friday night without a dose of the guilts – and that, folks, is a Big Deal for us just now.

A real job! Excellent idea, I thought. Beloved agreed. The cosmos, apparently, did not.

Within days (it felt like hours), our home turned into a House Of Ill. Drop the ‘Repute’ bit at the end – we’ve been so ill we haven’t had the energy for anything that exciting!

Little Miss Two – croup. Deduct one week.

Little Miss Two – gastro virus. Deduct two days.

Little Miss Two – croup (again). Deduct one week.

Master Seven – croup. Deduct four days.

Me – gastro virus. Deduct two days.

Little Miss Two – bronchio-freakin’-litis, for crying out loud! Deduct one looooong week.

Beloved – sprained ankle. Deduct zero days. No time for sympathy pampering, because…

Master Seven – serious infection. Hospitalisation. Deduct one night’s sleep.

Master Seven – severe nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea brought on by vicious, kill-the-bug-and-you-with-it antibiotics. Deduct five days.

And somewhere in the middle of all that I have to meet a major deadline in my new job and find time to write.

Guess what fell off the list? (Sigh.)

Post-script. Oh. My. God. Little Miss Two has come down with another cold. If it turns into croup, so help me, I’ll turn to drugs. For me, not her.

Am I the only one this kind of stuff happens to? Please, if life does this to you too - share it with me! Let me know I'm not the only one the cosmos is punishing. Give me permission to overdose on chocolate - or suggest an even better way of drowning my sorrows. :)

Tea Lovers Be Warned!

I felt so loved – better, understood – when Beloved gave me the ultimate tea-lover’s gift: a fancy glass teapot (you know, with the thingy in the middle for the tea leaves so you’ll never have to catch them between your teeth again) and a selection of very cool, very expensive teas to sample. Perfect! Now I could upgrade to gourmet tea guzzler while I slaved over my hot keyboard.

I quickly learned my caffeine lesson when I tried Vanilla Black Tea. I whipped up a pot, slurped down a first cup, loved it, and went back for seconds. Then thirds. (Well, it was delicious.) Imagine my consternation when, come midnight, I was more awake than I’d felt in weeks. 1 am and I was rearing to do an all-nighter. That’s when I knew Vanilla Black was not a good option after dark. Not unless I wanted to be very energetic – and before you start sniggering, folks, let me tell you those days are few and far between now there’s Master Seven and The Destroyer to contend with.

Romantic Rose Tea was delicious - though I did begin to worry about my sanity when I caught myself eating it straight from the packet.

But the tea that most upset my equilibrium was Coffee-Flavoured Tea. I love tea and I love coffee, so coffee-flavoured tea sounded like the best of both worlds. I brewed it with love, hovered over the teapot to savour the aroma, and poured my first cup with anticipation. It all went downhill from there. Until that moment I hadn’t realised that part of the coffee experience is texture. Coffee – even black coffee – has a more oily consistency than tea. As in, coffee’s not quite as - well, watery.

I know, I know, sounds nuts, right? But I was drinking something that tasted, to all intents and purposes, just like coffee – but in my mouth it felt all wrong.

Needless to say, the Coffee-Flavoured Tea isn’t in very high demand at our place. Any takers? Ooh! Let’s do a poll! E-mail me (visit my website) and I’ll post out samples.

How about you? Have you ever tried a specialty tea that left you begging for more – or wishing you’d brewed your old socks instead?

Who said Blogger was easy?

I'm fighting with Blogger - and losing. Definitely losing.

I've built my own website, for crying out loud! You'd think I'd be able to figure out a way to make my Blogger page look consistent with my website. But no. It's beyond me. How to get my banner across the full width of the page? Or, if I can't do that, how to shift my "About Me" box up, so that hideous blob of white space is made use of? And why won't my "GirlTalk" title change to the font and font size I've requested?

What I need is a computer genie to whoosh out of a bottle and fix it for me, but the only bottles close to hand are of the milk and tomato sauce variety.

The good news is I'm here, and planning to post my blogs on Blogger from now on. I hope you'll be able to live with the inconsistent look of my Blogger page (I'm not sure I will). And if you have any suggestions for helping me tame my Blogger monster, I'm all ears!

(Postscript: Ooh! Excitement! I've managed to tame the "GirlTalk" title! Oh ye-ah, oh ye-ah...)