Friday 19 May 2023

Scribblings

I used to know this girl who wrote a lot. So much scribbling. As a favour to her I thought I'd put up one or two things here. Be indulgent, it was a long time ago and she was young.


Staring Out a Quiet Schoolroom Window 17


In silence there is the beauty of reality.

Beneath a blanket of traffic-hum

Peace, monotonous and uncontrasted, goes unnoticed.

Nature within artificial angles

Has roots in the earth,

Green among brown.

The evergreen autumn tones of buildings

Contrasts with the twisted trees, spring green.

Like footbound girls they are formed to man's conception of beauty.


Monday 7 November 2022

Beauty

So I was out for a walk with my other half the other day, and a young woman leaned out from a passing car and yelled at us. It took me a few moments to parse what she'd said, but her words were 'You are so beautiful'.

Now, I can say with no false modesty, I'm not. Especially not from behind when tramping up a hill. But the way she called it out, I believe she meant it sincerely. After thinking about it for a few minutes, I came to the conclusion that this is what she meant – The universe is beautiful. You are part of the universe. So you are beautiful. 

And a total stranger's expression of love and wonder at the universe kept me buoyant for several days.

But it made me think back a few decades, walking with the same other half in the city one day and a guy leaned out of his car and yelled 'Your girlfriend's a dog.' And at the time I didn't think 'what he means is life sucks and I'm part of life therefore...' I wrote him off as a jerk and I didn't take it too much to heart (except I still remember it all these years later) although I definitely thought it was directly aimed at me.

Why is that? Why do we interpret the stinging words literally and the soothing ones generically?

Maybe I was, for a moment, beautiful. Maybe the afternoon sun lit us up and made haloes of our hair. I'll never know. 


Thursday 8 April 2021

Reading List!

This is something I never expected - I'm on an official school suggested texts list, under Extended Texts. And in nice company!

So, if there's any Year 11 South Australian English student who wants to hit me up with questions - I'm here.

https://www.sace.sa.edu.au/web/english/stage-1/support-materials/suggested-text-lists



Saturday 3 October 2020

STEAM Powered!



Excited to have (virtually) sat down with Michele from STEAM Powered for a great chat about the not so straight line from computing to novel writing with a side trip into the importance of robotics competitions and bookbinding - https://youtu.be/0Ue2wdrFq3E




Thursday 30 July 2020

Searching through a box for something else, look what I came across last night. Cheery background reading for Before This Is Over/An Ordinary Epidemic circa 2009. 

Wednesday 17 June 2020

My little book - about grappling with your fears, about holding your course in the face of voices telling you to chill, about sheltering in place in a pandemic - is out in paperback in the US today. 

Friday 5 June 2020

Takes a while to open a box of books when you have to stop between each stage to wash your hands for twenty seconds.

Worth it.