Night Travels © JLeahy
In the black of the night
Mind’s curtain drops
A screen unfolds
Scenes after scenes
Words travel in echoes
Enemies captured
Friends laugh
A child cries
Someone screams
Emotions grip you
You are afraid
Someone holds you
In places only dreamers go
Shapes blend into pictures
And fades into nothing
Spirit walks, runs and flies
In just one night, a lifetime,
can become one story
Until dawn brings the ending
One of my proudest moment as a gardener is when my Cattleya trianae tipo ‘Baronessa blooms. I have several on a poinciana tree and the grey-green mid truck bursts into speckles of translucent white, dabbed with bright pink and golden centres. The Cattleya orchids tell me Autumn is here.
The flowers remain for three and half to four weeks before they finally wilt. These pictures were taken by my niece Jaradeenah Danomira this morning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tlHY8NgmxY
Graffiti – is it art, writing, or both? A freedom of expression. I have posted this question on this blog before. Here a documentary explores the work of street painters and gives them an opportunity to speak about what motivates them to colour the streets.
BYRON BAY WRITERS FESTIVAL IS THRILLED TO ANNOUNCE THE FIRST ROUND OF WRITERS APPEARING AT THE 2015 FESTIVAL.
Five successful and talented Australian women have top-billing at the 2015 Byron Bay Writers Festival from August 7-9. In what is shaping up to be a Festival showcasing a line-up of strong, female Australian voices, the first five announced were former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Joan London, Helen Garner, Kate Grenville, and Jackie French. More writers will be announced soon.
EARLY BIRD TICKETS ON SALE FROM 17 APRIL!
Already the Festival is shaping up to deliver a diverse and eclectic program of stimulating and engaging conversations with some of Australia’s most celebrated writers and international guests in the Festival’s history.
Festival Director Edwina Johnson said she was delighted to be bringing the best writers and thinkers together to share stories, triumphs, challenges and ideas; to debate, laugh and cherish; to connect, nurture and celebrate literary talent and new friendships down by Byron Bay’s scenic ocean shore.
Monday Finish the Story with host Barbara W Beacham
Star-crossed Lovers © JLeahy
The neighbours were not happy about my choice of yard art. Beck shot me a look this morning before crossing to Mildred’s house.
I found the bison and hunter at a pawn shop. The owner wanted to get rid of them – cheap! He said it was an important reminder of our near-sighted ancestors killing all the bison.
“They’re special, you won’t find these anywhere”, the man assured. Sure, they looked ridiculous, but I wanted something like that for my stuffy neighbourhood. We moved here two months ago and I needed to get some laughs. My neighbours weren’t bad people, just very dull.
At 8pm, I heard Beck shouting over the TV.
“You have to get her to get rid of those stupid things. Mum keeps waking up at night to talk to the statue. She tells him how much she missed him while he was away hunting”.
“We are NOT going to remove the statues – make your mother take her medication!!”
(150 words)
I have been finding it difficult to complete some of my stories over the last two weeks. Not for the lack of wanting, but the restrictions I created for myself in damaging my muscles from “over-writing”. You may ask, “over-writing? What is that?” It is similar to tennis elbow.
After coming to a conclusion I could not write any more words because the pain was too much, I saw my physiotherapist today and she told me I left it too late and there was nothing to do except sleep and rest. She made me promise to stay away from the computer for two days. I had the same injury when I actually played tennis over 20 years ago, so I found it amusing. Well, I had to make a post so I’ll be quick and yes, I have taken some pain killers to help.
I found this article about my problem and thought, if other writers have the same symptoms, they may find it useful.
It was written by Colleen M
Over the last few weeks, I’ve felt a nagging and persistent pain in my elbow, right between those two little bones on the underside (if you hold your arm slightly bent). “Tennis elbow” was the first thing that came to mind, but I haven’t played in years.
I type, though. A lot. That got me wondering. Is tennis elbow—or “computer elbow”—another painful consequence of the writing life?
Turns out, it is. (groan) The good news is you can do things to prevent it, or in my case, speed up the healing process.
Other useful website for information on the subject.
Things you find in the Australian outback: man-eating crocodiles, snakes, lots of spiders, and a Delta 2 rocket casing.
A Delta 2 rocket launched way back in 1990 and came back down to earth a few months later. One of its casings, however, took a little longer to find its way home – 18 years to be precise.
The rocket was used to launch the Indian INSAT – 1D geosynchronous spacecraft from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The Delta rocket motor was part of the third stage rocket launch. It was discovered in 2008, on a three million acre cattle station. Station owner Arthur Taylor was out flying a Cessna aircraft to muster cattle when he spotted the odd sphere.
Bet you knew the outback was big, but never realised it was big enough to hide space junk in someone’s backyard for 18 years!
Another devastating natural disaster had hit a small Pacific Island nation. Five people died and thousands have lost everything in winds up to 250 kilometres per hour in Chuuk and Yap states in Micronesia about ten days ago. Photographer Brad Holland is hoping to raise awareness of the devastation caused by Super Typhoon Maysak with a series of images captured just days after it hit the islands of Yap, in the Federated States of Micronesia.
The typhoon tore through islands in Micronesia at the end of March, killing at least five people and leaving thousands displaced. Because of their location, it took a while before the news became known.
Dramatic photos taken from the International Space Station show super Typhoon Maysak as it moves towards the Philippines.
The states of Chuuk and Yap, which were the worst affected, declared states of emergency with some islands experiencing damage to 90 per cent of homes.
See more Brad Holland pictures on ABC here.
Through my son Nathan and his friend Hamish, I got hooked on this audible storytelling a few days ago. After my day job and house-work, I found myself listening until I fell asleep with the episodes still running. The falling asleep part was not because of boredom, but early hours of the next day, which my human body could not stay awake until. The story was captivating. The way journalist Sarah Koenig told the story took me through several emotional states – fear, anger, frustrations and sadness. These emotions also wore me out, but I wanted more.
The Alibi
It’s Baltimore, 1999. Hae Min Lee, a popular high-school senior, disappears after school one day. Six weeks later detectives arrest her classmate and ex-boyfriend, Adnan Syed, for her murder. He says he’s innocent – though he can’t exactly remember what he was doing on that January afternoon. But someone can. A classmate at Woodlawn High School says she knows where Adnan was. The trouble is, she’s nowhere to be found.
Brought to you by Serial, a podcast from the creators of This American Life, and is hosted by Koenig. Serial tells one story – a true story – over the course of an entire season. Each season, they follow a plot and characters wherever it takes them. And they don’t know what happens at the end until they get there, not long before you get there with Serial. Each week the plot brings you the next chapter in the story, so it’s important to listen to the episodes in order, starting with Episode 1. Lucky The Alibi started at the end of 2014 and was completed early this year so that’s what I did for the last two days, between my day job and house-hold chores – listening. I was completely absorbed in the 12 episodes up to yesterday afternoon. I cannot say what happens in episode 12, but do start from episode 1 to fully enjoy the effect of case-solving.
Episode 1
On January 13, 1999, a girl named Hae Min Lee, a senior at Woodlawn High School in Baltimore County, Maryland, disappeared. A month later, her body turned up in a city park. She’d been strangled. Her 17-year-old ex-boyfriend, Adnan Syed, was arrested for the crime, and within a year, he was convicted and sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison. The case against him was largely based on the story of one witness, Adnan’s friend Jay, who testified that he helped Adnan bury Hae’s body. But Adnan has always maintained he had nothing to do with Hae’s death. Some people believe he’s telling the truth. Many others don’t.
Koenig, who hosts Serial, first learned about this case more than a year ago. In the months since, she’s been sorting through box after box (after box) of legal documents and investigators’ notes, listening to trial testimony and police interrogations, and talking to everyone she can find who remembers what happened between Adnan Syed and Hae Min Lee fifteen years ago. What she realized is that the trial covered up a far more complicated story, which neither the jury nor the public got to hear. The high school scene, the shifting statements to police, the prejudices, the sketchy alibis, the scant forensic evidence – all of it leads back to the most basic questions: How can you know a person’s character? How can you tell what they’re capable of? In Season One of Serial, she looks for answers.
On October 3, 2014, a podcast unraveling the tale of the teenage girl’s murder in Baltimore aired. Barely a month into its release, the podcast broke download records and changed how audio journalism was perceived all over the world.
Podcasts are becoming the latest non-linear way of delivering the news, and some are applying the narrative format to explore—and expose—stories that have never been touched on before. The Alibi reached thousands over-night as Koenig took listeners through the scenes of what happened to Hae Min Lee and details of where her ex-boyfriend Adnan Syed was – on that fateful day.
I personally feel that this (podcast of a crime or any story) could be an interesting exercise for writers to learn how to describe scenes and structure different chapters in word imagery for their readers. It teaches you ways to keep your reader hooked in each chapter until the end. Where you pause to ask questions in your story as Koenig did in Serial, your readers will be asking these questions too as you take them with you through your plot.
I really enjoyed listening to The Alibi.
To listen to the story in all 12 episodes, click here.
Tribalmystic Stories 