Lorraine Jones wins 2012 Stringybark Humorous Short Story Comp

Congratulations to a colleague from my 2012 writing group.

Lorraine Jones has received a Highly Commended placing in the 2012 Stringybark Humorous Short Story Competition for her tale Fifty Shades of Green. Lorraine has a smooth writing style that will capture your interest for a time and leave you chuckling all day as you relive her writings.

Fifty Shades of Green and other stories have been collated into a book titled: The Very End of the Affair... to be published in both e-book and hard cover. The e-book is available now and the hard cover will be available in May.

A special offer is being promoted to friends and family, you can purchase the e-book version for A$2.80 which represents a 25% discount. Just include the offer code RM79H when placing your order.

A book of laughs for $2.80 is a steal so this Easter treat yourself with a giggle to go with the chocolate and candy after all $2.80 to chuckle all day where can you get better value than that.

Well done Lorraine

Les Gillespies Gold 'the argument'

Today I finished a piece for the book where two people are arguing, and although I know I waffle-on in real life, I had a hard time knowing how long to keep this going for.
Are there any hard and fast rules in writing for arguments. I have about 900 words from beginning to end so in real life this would be about six minutes. Is it too long?

Les Gillespie's Gold -- Oops --

It's funny how careful planning can also bring you undone if you don't check your work. In responding to a comment on one of my posts I noticed that I had given one of my characters a different surname. She appears in KUNDELA and her character will have a bigger role in Les Gillespie's Gold. Bearing this in mind I had ploughed ahead creating mannerisms and features hair colour etc, Fiona was a complete and confident woman in the yummy mummy genre.

She appears in the story around chapter four and then her husband John shows up meeting her  in the same chapter. As I typed the story I knew his name was different. I could have maintained she kept her maiden name after marriage but she is not that big of character and if I refer to her parents at any time then they too have another surname. I would have to correct her profile sheet.

Therefore I had no option but to go back to the Kundela manuscript and complete a search. It took nearly half an hour but there he was.

Now that their family is over an identity crisis I can get on with the yarn that is Les Gillespie's Gold.

Check out Fiona O'Rourke's profile on my blog, if can you remember the wrong surname, I have three free copies of Kundela to give away to a random three people who get the answer right. Just leave the wrong name in the comments section.

Cheers,

Terry

Les Gillespie's Gold 'Cryptic Message'

In an attempt to put his mind to rest Joe Gillespie searches the property for clues and once more Les has left him a cryptic message carved into a slate stone.

 

This is my first draft of a poem that will help me to flesh out a couple of chapters in my new novel. I'm not intending to use it in the book for now but it will help me to create a scene with cause and effect action to introduce some new characters.

 

I hope you enjoy my draft.

 

 

 

The Chinaman’s Curse

This gift of gold I saved for you from deep within the ground

A pile or more lies hidden there in reef quartz like rivers sheen

From a winch you must descend to hear the water’s sound

And in its dampened darkness from your lamplight watch it gleam

 

My son now you have found my seam and behold its golden glow

Please remember me in loving terms and not when at my worse

It’s what gold fever’s done to me and a thing that you should know

The vapours they will linger long so beware the Chinese Curse

 

And beware the High Street Spruiker

And heed not the pull of greed when your pocket’s empty and bare

Stay clear of the sleazy spivs in spats who peddle mindless dope

And of the maid old and in rags a begging let not your eyes to stare

 

Beware of slick investors who want more than just your gold

This world has many treasure camped deep within its core

My secret is a keeper and through the years it’s only you I’ve told

For gold is not a treasure just currency it is really nothing more

Character Profiles: Les Gillespie's Gold

Over the past few days I have been working on character profiles for Les Gillespie's Gold. This is a departure from the way I wrote KUNDELA. There the people seemed to come from nowhere and their character was developed on the run. This caused me to double up on names and traits and descriptions.

With Toby Farrier I wrote a short story I called The Character Bus and used it as a plan to work out who the people were and how they interacted. It was a great tool but I still had to do charts for each one of the characters to create an easy reference to follow.

Les Gillespie's Gold follows on from Kundela, so some of the characters are known. Now others need introducing to keep the tension in the story and for over a week that is all I have done. Names may change to more suit the story later but by doing it this way a decision is made when the character is created. this has a two fold benefit to prevent duplication of Christian names and it also addresses the problem of ensuring the name is correct for their generation and position in time.

Thanks go to Merlene Fawdrey for providing the draft character charts through her Novel Writing Workshop sessions.

Here is one of my favourite characters who appeared in KUNDELA but takes a bigger role in Les Gillespie.

NAME:                    : Fiona O'Rourke

Position in story       Secondary -  Tilly’s Friend

Age:	37
Nationality:	Australian
Socioeconomic level as a child:	Good
Socioeconomic level as an adult:	Good
Hometown:	Sellicks Beach
Current residence:	Orroroo Police House
Occupation:	Home Duties
Income:	Family Benefits + husbands wage
Talents/skills:	Was a school teacher before marriage
Salary:	Gets some part time teaching work at Orroroo & Jamestown will go back to work
Relationships:
Birth order:	Second of two children
Siblings (describe relationship):	Stuart----43
Spouse/partner (describe relationship):	John  Police Constable in Orroroo for over 3 years)
Children (describe relationship):	Four: Ashleigh, Zac, Harry, Maxine, (Max)
Parents (describe relationship):	Sam and Joan Styles
Grandparents (describe relationship):	N/A
Grandchildren (describe relationship):	N/A
Significant others (describe relationship):	John (Husband)
Relationship skills:	Good
Physical Characteristics
Height:	160
Weight:	62 kg
Race:	Aussie
Eye Colour:	Green
Hair Colour:	Changes, most of the time she is blonde
Glasses or contact lenses?	Neither
Skin colour:	Fair
Shape of face:	Narrow
Distinguishing features:	Broad nose
How does he/she dress?	Simple smart
Mannerisms:	N/A
Habits: (smoking, drinking/drugs/addictions etc.)	Non smoker social drinker (has an image to protect)
Any physical illnesses?	None
Health:	Good
Hobbies:	Netball and gym
Favourite sayings:	I was like that once
Speech patterns:	N/A
Disabilities:	None
Style (Elegant, shabby etc.):	Yummy Mummy
Greatest flaw:	Says yes to everyone
Best quality:	congeniality
Personality Attributes and Attitudes
Educational Background:	Teachers College in Adelaide
Intelligence Level:	High
Any Mental Illnesses?	None
Learning Experiences:	Life in country towns has rounded her life skills
Character's short-term goals in life:	Get back to work to contribute to the family’s security
Character's long-term goals in life:	Be happy with lots of grandchildren
How does Character see himself/herself?	Confident strong supportive
How does Character believe he/she is perceived by others?	As above
How self-confident is the character?	She is happy with who she is
Does the character seem ruled by emotion or logic or some combination thereof?	Emotion features heavily in her judgement but measures it with logic
What would most embarrass this character	Family scandal
Spiritual Characteristics
Does the character believe in God?	Unsure
What are the character's spiritual beliefs?	She takes her children to Sunday School
Is religion or spirituality a part of this character's life?	Not really but she likes rules and the Christian religion provides that
If so, what role does it play?

As you can see Merlene's chart has helped reference this person's features characteristics and beliefs. giving me a ready reference to what I might need to know as the book develops.

Thanks Merlene.

More on publishing and distribution

I thought today that I would research the world of book distribution and came across a very topical article by Simon Haynes. Now an author with a lot of notable publishing credits he offers some advice to those who are taking the self publish route.

You can find his article by clicking on the link: http://www.spacejock.com.au/DistributeSelfPublishedBook.html

Cheers,

Terry

KUNDELA Replica

In my quest to find out as much as I can about the pointing bone in my story Kundela I decided to try and replicate something that may have been made. Research shows that after the bone has been charged with mystic power and the target pointed at, for the kundela to work it had to be destroyed. These weapons were the burnt in a ritual fire and that is possibly why few exist today.

To discover what kind of materials were used I spent days checking and reading everything I could about the different ways a kadaicha man may have made and used the bone. As most kundelas are made from emu or kangaroo bones I figured if I kept a lookout on an interstate trip I might find one or the other that had been killed in a road accident and I would have the main element of my replica.

Fortunately while resting the dog on the side of the Adelaide road, he started sniffing around under a wattle tree and found the skeleton of a dead kangaroo . Now all I needed were a few feathers, something to replicate human hair and spinifex gum. I couldn't find spinifex but a gum tree provided a rich red resin that could be heated and moulded to make a pad on the handle end of the bone. Some twine was found and plaited to make the strap.

Using a fine cutoff wheel in an angle grinder I began shaping the bones. I took two tibia bones from the skeleton, these showed greenstick fractures, the animal had been hit by a vehicle of some sort and crawled into the scrub to die. Using the cutoff disc I tapered both bones and cleaned them with a burnishing pad.

The photo below shows my finished replica.