Perth Words… exploring possibilities.

I have been uncharacteristically quiet over the numerous postings on social media about  the leopard attack which has received such outpourings of emotion.

Now that things are a tad quieter, let’s examine this event in detail, and let you all in on a few home-truths…..

First and foremost must be mention of totally irresponsible reporting. Reporting  that feeds emotions rather than the facts. One newspaper even went so far as to refer to the animal as a tiger.

Of course, people lap all this up, sitting back in their comfortable homes, looking at expensive computer equipment and making some of the most inane comments I have ever seen.

Look into the human aspect first.

The leopard was at the edge of the bush, fairly close to the road. The only unusual aspect to this is that leopard are secretive, cautious and very shy. Perhaps the driver should have realised something…

“The Given Note” by Seamus Heaney (1939-2013) first appeared in the Nobel Prize-winning Irish poet’s second collection, Door into the Dark (1969).  It was the only one of his poems to be read at his funeral. “The Given Note” takes its inspiration from the legend of the fiddler who brought back the Port na bPúcaí (The Fairies’ Tune) from the westernmost of Ireland’s most westernmost islands, the windswept and forbidding Blaskets. This adaptation of the poem into comics was done at the suggestion of Dr. Marco Sonzogni of Victoria University, Wellington.

Interview by Nicole Melanson ~

Valerie Khoo is a multiple award-winning entrepreneur and mentor to businesses and start-ups. She is the founder and national director of the Australian Writers’ Centre, the country’s leading centre for writing courses. It has trained more than 23,000 students from all over the world.

Valerie is also the author of Power Stories: The 8 stories you MUST tell to build an epic business.

Twitter: @valeriekhoo

Valerie Khoo on LinkedIn

HOW DID YOU GET STARTED?

I had always loved writing at school but never thought of it as a “real” career for some reason. So I became an accountant, can you believe it? However, I always had a creative itch that I wanted to scratch, so I did some writing courses for fun, outside of work. Finally, after a few years in the corporate world, I woke up one day and realised that I had to…