Category Archives: Blog

Joining the Chorus with Michelle Dennis Evans ~ Author

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This week I was delighted to guest blog for best selling author, Michelle Dennis Evans, making a ‘choral installment’ in her series on friendship. Come and Join the Chorus!

Make sure you drop by her site to find out more about Michelle and her writing. You’ll be pleased you did!

MichelleDEvans
Michelle Dennis Evans

Michelle writes picture books, chapter books, young adult contemporary novels and also enjoys dabbling in free verse poetry. Her debut novel, Spiralling Out of Control, and her poetry collection, Life Inspired, both reached #1 in sub-categories on Amazon in their first week of release. She lives in the Gold Coast hinterland of Australia with her husband and four super active, super fun and super time consuming children.

Tagged

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TaggedBelonging to a group can be a positive, even powerful experience. It can enable us to feel understood, while inferring a set of defined expectations to other “non–belongers”. But it can also bring some unexpected labels, even exclusions.

Anyone who’s been labelled knows how much this sticks. A label, just like a group, can be a positive thing. We can be called a great thinker, become known as skilled and reliable; creative and exciting. But there are some labels that are pretty hard to live down.

The reality is we all have an inherent desire to belong.

If we can’t find acceptance and identity with one group, we’ll seek it out with another. Groups in this context can be a place to call home—or a soul destroying exclusion zone, creating a devastating reality for people who struggle to fit. I think we’d be surprised how many of us experience exclusion at one time or another. School yards can be a minefield for such skirmishes.

To fit, people sometimes feel obliged to do or embrace just about anything to be loved; accepted. The wounds and rejection suffered along this potholed road of torture only further impel choices to put as much of a barrier between attackers, while forging identify with the new tribe.

It’s tragic when these wounds are suffered in what should be a safe environment. Yet, we humans tend to be inherently piranha–like in our treatment of outsiders—those who don’t fit with us; our worldview.

I’d never really understood the power of a label as much as when I left my chosen field last year. I had no guarantee I’d be stepping back into that profession so soon—or at all. I grappled with self-value as my confidence diminished, and felt as if my identity was being stripped away.

Sometimes we lose a tag by choice—we mightn’t like where we are and realise we need to break ties, or we might want to move into a new stage of life. Other times life dictates changes that force us to move beyond our circle of comfort. This can be a huge loss. We need to recognise that it takes great courage for people who have found belonging in a given group to relinquish those tags. For even groups that aren’t so affirming can still offer identity and a sense of belonging. Conversely, we need to be able to see people’s value for who they are, not the labels they wear. This can be difficult when there are strong societal stigmas that resist label removal.

When barriers exist because of labelling, it can create a divide that seems difficult to bridge. Perhaps a key to building connections is remembering that each of us have value that cannot be defined or lessened by the circles we move in. Creating a culture of inclusion can enable us to embrace others without expecting them to pass preset criteria for acceptance. What a gift if we can forge this quality towards those around us.

Writing Process Blog Tour

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I’ve been invited to the join the Writing Process Blog Tour by the delightful Anusha Atukorala. Anusha is the author of non-fiction title Enjoying the Journey, and she is an incredibly inspirational lady with a positive outlook on life. She sees life as a journey and, even in the face of rain clouds and storms, chooses to dance – even in the slushy mud puddles! Anusha has also written two sequels to her non-fiction title, children’s fiction, and is in the process of writing a novel for adults. Read more about Anusha and her work at http://anusha-atukorala.webnode.com/blog/I know you’ll be inspired.

For those new to the Writing Process Blog Tour concept, essentially it’s an opportunity for authors to showcase their current work-in-progress by responding to four pre-set questions (below), and then introduce another author who blogs the following week on their own work. Now, let’s get to those questions!

 

CoverIntegrateWhat am I working On?

Last week I completed a round of revisions on my YA novel Integrate, which is scheduled for release in September this year (through Rhiza Press). Over the course of the month I’ve also been writing the sequel to this novel. As motivation, I’ve set myself a writing target for March to complete the sequel’s first draft, along with a small poetry goal. You can follow the final week of #marchmakemakeithappen via Twitter or my Facebook author page. (Just don’t look too closely at last week’s efforts! Bit of a bomb out with my attention diverted to other tasks! Fortunately I did extra the week before to make up for it. LOL!)

 

 How does my work differ from others of its genre?

My current YA projects tell the story of Blaine Colton (Integrate), a young man whose life has been saved by revolutionary gene therapy for a genetic condition. With a professional background in science, I have aimed to make it as conceivably valid as possible, given it’s an extension of reality, and really play on the “what ifs” of scientific advances in relation to treating heritable disease. This establishes a platform for exploring a number of life–value themes against a dramatic, fast-paced plot.

Why do I write what I do?

I believe that every author brings their own unique voice to their writing. I also feel that my writing stems from a sense of having a story to tell, and strongly believe that the right words in season don’t just plop out onto a page (or screen) by coincidence. When I write I aim to not just entertain, but also journey with the reader in a search for greater meaning of themes explored through a given work. By exploring matters of life — love, family, faith and more — I endeavour to examine a variety of elements in a way that offers positive connection and hopefulness to a reader.

How does my writing process work?

I am not really a pantser (one who writes by the seat of their pants), but I am also not a writer who must have every detail nailed down before they can begin writing. Probably the key steps in my writing process begin with having a sound understanding of the key plot, story arc and main characters; and undertaking sufficient research in advance of writing to enable clear guidelines for story development and a mental map of the boundaries in which the plot must develop. In conjunction with these fundamental elements, I’m becoming a fan of the fast first draft concept. But when it seems the creative juice bar has closed down and the story–arc has drooped in the middle, I find the “Help God, I’ve got nothing” prayer one of the best ways forward!

Next week’s Writing Process Blog Tour will feature an exciting and remarkably motivated author, Elizabeth “Buffy” Greentree. Buffy is a writer, educator and entrepreneur, who has spent time amongst the ranks of academia and tutoring creative writing at a tertiary level, penning fiction, and delivering motivational online forums on fitness and writing (amongst other things). The title of her latest release, The Nice Guy’s Guide to Online Dating Profiles, with the tagline “The perfect if not subtle gift” suggests a uniquely humorous perspective on online dating and her online presence is vastly represented by no less than five domains offering an array of blogs and purpose specific websites encompassing her broad interests with a refreshingly humorous perspective. Buffy has also published The Five Day Writer’s Retreat and John Verry. Look her up on social media at https://www.facebook.com/BuffyGreentree

 For more information, Buffy’s online headquarters are at http://www.thebuffygroup.com/ with links to her sites. Direct links can also be found below. Make sure you check out her Writer’s Progress Blog Tour on the 31st March at http://www.100firstdrafts.com/. It’ll be worth the wait!

http://www.buffyandgod.com/

http://personalfitnessbasecamp.com/?doing_wp_cron=1395352334.0828840732574462890625

http://aroundofwordsin80days.wordpress.com/sponsors-2/elizabeth-buffy-greentree/

 

Puzzling

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PuzzlingPicThe puzzle has been on our table for nearly a week now. Each time I walk past, I see small indicators of progress: a section has been filled out more; various details are becoming clearer. Eventually it will look like the picture on the front of the box, but not yet. More work is needed.

The time required to complete this puzzle is much longer than the previous one we did. Our daughter picked them both, but the first was a small 100 piece puzzle with a bouncy puppy on the front. The boundaries were quite clear, the colours distinctive and the pieces large. Quite different to the muted hues bounding the bottom quarter of our current project, rising into a vivid African landscape.

This work-in-progress also has many more pieces of much smaller size. It is further complicated by being a 3D image, meaning you don’t always see clearly what is printed on the piece until you examine it from a few angles. Even then, it often requires a broader perspective, a step back to examine the bigger picture, before its position is apparent. Once a tentative try is met with a fit, the image suddenly becomes clearer.

Circumstances, even our lives, can feel a bit like a puzzle. It might even seem like things have fragmented and we’re left wondering how the pieces will ever fit back together. Often we want things to work out like that small puzzle: quickly resolved by large, well defined pieces with clear positions. But it’s usually more like a big 3D puzzle.

Sometimes the pieces of life don’t seem to fit or we can start to feel they’re incomplete. Other times it’s like most of our time is spent pressing together weird, muddy–coloured parts that risk eye strain to try and make sense of. It can seem like we’re stuck, making no progress at all. Headache inducing frustration can set in.

But just like that big puzzle, we’re learning. We’re glimpsing fragments of a bigger picture.

Our lives are a work-in-progress and from this we can take heart. Even when the puzzle is at its most confusing, rudimentary state—newly upended from the box (do you know that feeling?!) we can start sifting and grouping, piecing and finding edges to make sense of it.

Just as our 3D puzzle is slowly starting to resemble what it was intended to be, so can we have confidence that if we just keep working, piece-by-piece, the intricate plan for which we were purposed will gradually become clearer.

Wherever you are at in life, don’t give up on those pieces. We each have our own set. Eventually they will resemble the picture from which they were forged—a destiny we can only imagine.

Just Be

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The empty mugs caught my eye as I flicked off the kitchen light. Hollow ceramic twins with matching tea bags hanging from the rims by an unnaturally white thread. The water in the kettle, once popping with heat, was lukewarm – evidence of multiple interruptions to my usual routine.

Those evening cups of tea represent downtime. A chance to sit with my husband, sip and just “be”. We can talk uninterrupted, catch up on our day or week, flag pending dates to note in our schedules. A day simply doesn’t feel complete without that cup-of-tea long pause.

Those abandoned mugs were a timely reminder that things don’t always turn out as we expect.

As I reader and writer, I know how conditioned we can become to expecting certain things from a story. I recently read a short inspirational work and, with some arrogance, presumed the conclusion from the first sentence. But when the focus shifted to an unexpected end point, I was actually taken aback. How did the author miss the obvious point? Instead, they’d expounded an insightful angle that I’d completely overlooked.

With such expectations engrained, like me and that cup of tea, we can become blinkered to a world of opportunities waiting for us to explore. On this occasion a child needed a bit more mummy–time than usual. Like, an hour more… But an opportunity to meet a need none-the-less.

Most of us are comfortable with routine and having things our way. But sometimes to gain fresh insight we need to be willing to look beyond our expectations and inch away from the familiar. Call it a leap of faith, if you will.

That pretty well sums up 2013. Had someone told me in January where I’d be and what I’d be doing by December, I’d have probably raised an eyebrow and offered a polite smile. Just like reading that story. You can’t be serious? I know how this will go!

Now here I am on the other side. I’ve been unsettled, challenged, and have had to let go of some things I valued highly in my world. A most unexpected insight was how much this experience rattled my identity – who I thought I was and why. What were the true pearls of value in my world; in me? Yet I’ve seen amazing provision along the journey. For each tentative, at times trembling step of faith, I’ve found a path open up before me, even when it seemed I was walking over a cliff edge.

I think the beauty of those less travelled roads is the opportunity that can be found by the wayside. Time to take on a fresh view of things – and self. The potential laced around a new direction. Even when it’s a track we’d rather flash past at highway speeds, I believe that finding ourselves meandering through grassed–over paths forces us to ease off the accelerator and let the cup of reflection rest a little longer in our hands.

Often the path seems to choose us. We may feel led, we may be dragged, but one thing I’ve learned is that there’s always purpose in the journey. Hold the cup. Draw from its warmth.

Inhale the steam of shifting expectations and just “be” for a while.

You’ll be amazed what you can see.