In Transit

Summer

Summer is here. The heat in Sydney on Sunday assured me of that. Luckily I have generous housemates: frozen yoghurt saved the day!

Summer, for me, means a summer reading list (or pile). I spend my holidays catching up on all the reading I wish I’d done during the year. Seriously, why I can’t keep up with my book-buying I do not know.

I’m going to New Zealand this Saturday, so I’m collecting a mental pile of books to take with me. I have about seven million books on my shelves that I’m yet to read, so I’m having a little trouble narrowing it down. Any suggestions?

The picture above is my magazine and journal reading pile. Magazines and (some) journals are a great light-weight alternative to books when you’re travelling. So I plan to take this much-culled pile with me.

Actually, I’m not sure I’m going to fit many clothes in.

IF Awards Wrap Up on Celluloid Tongue

My good friend Mr Celluloid Tongue has been kind enough to publish a short wrap up I wrote after attending the Inside Film Awards on Wednesday night. You can read it here.

In a Name

In some  reading completely unrelated to last month’s Monday Project theme, I came across this article on onomastics. It’s funny to think that the way in which we organise people names now is not how it’s always been, and it’s not even how it is in all the cultures that exist on this planet right now. Maiden names, at least in the way we think about them, are mostly a Western society concern.

I remember writing an essay for uni a few years ago (well, okay, probably five years ago) for a subject called something like ‘Mass Media in Asia’ and getting very confused about how to correctly site a Chinese academic. Which of the names on the page was his family name, and which was his given name? I know that in a lot of Asian countries the order in which those names appear is different, and I was concerned about committing some kind of citation faux pas, especially because my tutor was Chinese. I probably should have been more concerned about getting the essay written, really, but that’s another story.

I ended up emailing the tutor to ask. He was helpful and kind in his response — but he probably thought it was hilarious.

I’m not sure I have a point here, but I have a feeling that this theme will continue to run around in my head, and I might find myself reading more about anthroponomy than is probably healthy.

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I’m being a little lazy, so I’ve also posted this on themondayproject.com.

Friday 13

Ooo… It’s Friday the 13th! I find the idea of superstition intriguing, even if mine’s not genuine.

Be on the look-out for ghosts and ghouls!

PS. Here’s a photo I took yesterday from the safety of my umbrella. My socks were drenched! But rain fascinates me.

Finish.

On Tuesday I sent off the two short stories I’ve been working on this semester; a little electronic envelope out off into the ether to find my teacher. I’m really looking forward to her feedback.

I’m done at uni for the year, and at work we’re talking about Christmas leave and New Year plans. I can’t believe it’s nearly my birthday all over again, and then suddenly summer will be over and I’ll be loving the autumn leaves.

But I love this time of year. I always start making plans, and making mental lists. I make a list of all the things I’ve done this year, good and bad; and I make a list of things I would like to do in the next year.

For the first time last year I made a list of writing projects I would like to complete, or even just start, as well as the usual life stuff. I’ve started doing the same this year. I’m not sure what it is about the end and beginning of a year that motivates people to do this, but I guess it can’t be a bad thing.

So plans are being hatched. Watch this space.

Distraction or Inspiration?

I was supposed to be doing a whole lot of writing tonight. You know that impending deadline I wrote about it my last post?

But I’m not writing. I got a couple of emails from The Monday Project telling me that new people had uploaded their responses to last month’s theme and so I looked at that. Then I opened Google Reader and started looking at The Art of Jordan and followed a whole lot of her links around the place (and got excited that she’s part of Once Upon, along with Ben Zen). And then I remembered that I have a whole month’s worth of downloads to catch up on with emusic, and now I’ll probably look at some yoga vodcasts. Am I good at distracting myself or what?

The short answer is yes. But then (having just come up with some great excuse for my housemate to use when she doesn’t read the recipe until after she’s started cooking and discovers that she’s started in the wrong order — practise in crisis management) I thought back to something I read earlier today — an interview on Fly the Falcon with Jordan Clark of The Art of Jordan fame, in fact — about needing inspiration. I’ve decided, and this is quite likely merely me justifying my lack of work tonight, that I should occasionally allow myself these distractions because they are inspiring.

The most inspiring thing of the night was the lovely Kate’s new website — her jewellery is lovely, her practices as striving to be as sustainable as possible, and most of all she’s doing something that she loves. Have a look!

I practically bounced downstairs to make my dinner, I was so excited by creative possibility. Those of you who know me in person know I’m not an overly bouncy person, but I tell you, I was bouncing!

Inspiration is invaluable, I think. It can be overwhelming too, of course, and it’s hard to find the balance between seeking inspiration and distracting oneself. But surely one night is okay, right?

PS. For the writers out there, The Reader has been another great source of inspiration for me lately — hopefully more on this later.

Monday Project: ‘Marrying left your maiden name disused’

“I would’ve had something more exciting for you if I’d known you’d be home,” she says. Click, click, as first one side of the plate’s rim hits the table and then the other, louder than she’d planned. He looks up at her. For the first time she sees their age difference in the small lines around his middle-aged eyes. He looks odd surrounded by his tiny children. He tries to catch her hand, but she moves to sit on the other side of the table.

Bella slides Sally’s peanut butter sandwich across the table on its plate. Their hands touch on the side of the plate and Anthony’s fingers find the crease at the centre of her palm. He frowns at her, a question, and she forces a smile in response.

“Is Charlotte still coming over Mummy?” Thomas says.

Her hands freeze, halfway to her mouth with her sandwich. “No darling.”

“But it’s Wednesday.”

Anthony looks up from feeding Sally. Bella puts her hand on Thomas’ head. Quick learner, already ready for school, his preschool teacher had said. “Yes, it is. But Charlotte can’t come today. She has to work.”

“Will you go to the library another day?” Bella’s eyes feel dry, she didn’t know how he knew — he must have overheard her and Charlotte. Thomas feels the extra weight in his mother’s hand and looks at his plate, sensing he has said the wrong thing. Bella feels sick for him, even as she wishes she could feed his words back into his mouth.

“The library?” Anthony says.

That enormous wooden table with the olive-green leather top, the librarian’s matching favourite cardigan; the spines of books paving a seemingly endless path for her walking fingertips.

He blinks at her slowly. She smiles.

“Must be nearly time for you to get back to work.” The scrape of her chair on the kitchen floor is loud. She lifts Sally from him lap. “Don’t go back hungry.” Anthony’s sandwich is still untouched.

They sit in silent, Thomas looking at his plate. Anthony watches Bella feed Sally the rest of her sandwich, his chewing slow, automatic.

–

Late again! Sigh. But this is my submission for this month’s Monday Project theme. This is obviously incomplete — it’s a very small part of a short story I’m working on at the moment. The story is far from finished (unfortunately, I have to hand it in for uni next Tuesday) so I’m only sharing a tiny piece. Any feedback would be more than welcome!

Radioactive Productivity and update

My To Do List for the week before last was far too long, let’s be honest. I made myself leave things off, but it was still too long. So I am feeling a little like I’ve done, well, nothing. But I suppose that’s good too. I don’t do nothing very often. I’m bad at resting.

Going radioactive was a bit of an anti-climax. I went into a medical clinic, talked to a doctor for a bit, he put some gloves on so he didn’t have to touch the radioactive vial, and he gave me the radioiodine pill and sent me on my merry way. Goodbye thyroid. Well, eventually.

It was so anti-climactic that I kept forgetting I had to stay away from people (and the dog!). But I think I managed to stay far enough away that I wouldn’t have affected anyone. Oh, and I didn’t get any superpowers — that I’ve been able to identify so far, anyway. Ripped off!

It did mean though, that I got quite a bit of time to myself. I did a lot of writing. Not all of it I’ll actually use, word for word, but it was all necessary. This last week I’ve written many more frustrating words, trying to find the story in the situation I was writing about. Tonight I think I finally found it

So now I’m typing it up and waiting (hoping) for some trick-or-treaters to knock on my front door.

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PS. This month’s theme for the Monday Project is due this coming Monday, 2 November.

Quiet Time

I have a week off this week. It will be a week of doing not much, of catching up on writing and reading. And probably doing my tax return, finally.

It will be a week of enforced isolation, mostly. I’m having a treatment for a thyroid disease that will make me, ummm, radioactive. Literally. Weird, huh?

It will mean I can’t be in close quarters with anyone for a few days. I’m at my parents’ house in Canberra, but I won’t be able to sit in the same room as them (or my brothers, or anyone) for any length of time. It’s all a little strange. But the end result, hopefully, will be a much more manageable condition.

The upshot of all this is that I’ve got some time on my hands. For what seems like the first time in forever, I’ve got a few days where I’m actually not able to leave the house, and where I will be well (just radioactive). I have a short list of things I’d like to get done. I’ve got two short stories on the go, that I want to finish; I’ve got a couple of books I’d like to read; and I’ve got that ol’ tax return.

Aside from a mild (but persistent, to be honest) fear of the seriousness of what I’m doing, I’ve been looking forward to having this time. More and more lately I seem to relish the time I get to spend by myself just pottering, thinking, or cooking. I like my alone time. It’s a nice way to be, I think.