Perth Words… exploring possibilities.

We’re starting out the new year with a Go-Fund-Me campaign to protect our rhinos and the courageous rangers who stand between them and the poachers.

photo: unknown

We received a plea from a ranger belonging to a smaller anti-poaching unit in southern Kruger National Park. The loss of rhino in their area has left them feeling frustrated and helpless.  Aside from their basic training, they are in urgent need of a tracking course to enable them to better track poachers when they are in the area.

In this ranger’s words “It is important to go to such training as in most training centers or colleges they do teach us tracking but in a short period, and in those weeks there’s lot of things we’ve been taught (i.e animal identification, tree species, grass,soil erosion, patrol techniques, etc) so doing this specified human tracking will enable us to see clearly where and how the poachers came and to…

Bare feet on cold grass
Sun’s breath whispers on rooftops
Morning on my skin

Breeze finds leaves to kiss
Tiptoes through autumn colours
Barely makes a sound

Lively forest stream
All water leads to the sea
Skipping like a child

Sparrows in hedge chatter
Step too close and off they fly
Tiny thudding wings

Warmth of evening light
On my back and in my eyes
Hold me ’til the dawn

At the beginning of a new year, writers have often been working hard on a manuscript and are trying to summon up the courage it takes to submit it to an agent or publisher. Here are 10 tips for those who are new to this stage of the journey to publication.

1.Don’t send your manuscript to a publisher who doesn’t publish in your genre. It sounds obvious, but publishers report that it happens all the time. Do your homework first. Take note of who publishes the books in your genre that you read, and research those publishers. Look for information in the newsletter or on the website of your state writers centre or other writers centres you belong to. Read the websites of publishers; if you’re still not sure, email a polite enquiry. Commercial marketplace guides, online or print, are also available (e.g. Australian Writers Marketplace).

2.

What a year 2015 was for Australian cinema. Box office records were smashed thanks to Mad Max: Fury Road, George Miller’s contemporary interpretation of his 1979 classic, and Jocelyn Moorhouse’s The Dressmaker. Each film was headlined by international heavyweights including Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron and Kate Winslet respectively.

It was a massive year for indi-filmaking in Australia too and that’s what the Cinema Australia team is most proud of. We watched from the front row as director Nicole Ma and her collaborators collected the $100,000 CinéfestOz Film Prize – one of Australian cinema’s most prestigious awards – for their passionately raw documentary Putuparri and the Rainmakers. What a true feat for our industry. They were up against worthy contenders including Simon Stone’s The Daughter and Paul Ireland’s incredible Pawno.

But that was last year, and from the look of things this year is going to be even better. It took us a…

2015 was the year I submitted my PhD and the year I intended to read ‘differently.’ I wanted to step out of my comfort zone by reading writers I had never read, or had not read for a long time. For several years now, my focus, while reading fiction and memoir, has been to read Australian women, followed closely by Indian and Iranian women. I thought I should make an extra effort to read more books by men, especially men of colour. I decided to make 2015 the year of reading more of the world, particularly because I knew I would be attending the Edinburgh Writers Festival in August.

I started the year by reading four American and one Canadian writer. Teju Cole’s Open Cityis about a Nigerian doctor who walks the streets of Manhattan, seemingly aimlessly, and encounters his past and present lives. A meditation on identity, race…

Wishing Stones

New Year’s Eve is one of the most significant days of the year and I can remember practically of them from when I was very young. That New Year’s Eve party that we had when I was twelve ~ I’ll never know if the midnight kiss was a ‘real’ kiss ~ I’m sure it was. It has to have been. Neil Diamond was big that year but it was posters of  Jimi Hendrix that adorned the walls and looked great through the dim light of the bulbs my brother painted dark red.

Starting work as a Pantry Girl in a Dublin Hospital on a freeeeezing cold New Year’s Eve in 1979 and being ticked off severely for parking my bike in the Reception area ~ what else was I to do with it??

The New Year’s Eve in 1980 which marked the last day that my beloved boyfriend…

I don’t really do New Year Resolutions but one etched its way into my consciousness the other day. I was out at the beach with hard rain belting off my cheeks in the mad wind. I had my head down battling along and when I looked up I saw a parting in the clouds and all of a sudden the whole place lit up for a few moments to reveal a blue sea, golden sand, green fields, coppery cliffs …..

Nature was smiling warmly; that’s the only way I can describe it and it made me feel so good to be there to witness it.

Nature smiles warmly lots of the time. I know I don’t smile half enough BUT I’m determined to try and change that from here on in.

A Warm Smile from Co. Waterford.

I’ve been thinking about all this for a few days now and these…