December & Epilogue
I have four pieces of writing left to finish – revise, polish – and then this collection is done. I have been pruning, weeding, getting rid of things that don’t… Continue Reading
Browsing Category: Essays
Workshopping (and November)
Late last year, I got an email from the writer and professor who had guided me through my MA. She was running a workshop out of Australia, but it was… Continue Reading
October
Almost there! I will keep posting an excerpt until I reach December, the final month of 2021, the year this project covers. I’ve been playing around with structure, how to… Continue Reading
September
September brought with it the election and brought me, nearly eighteen months after Australia closed its borders to its citizens living overseas, face to face with the idea of cititzenship… Continue Reading
August
Well, seeing as November has just dawned, I suppose it is time to post August’s snippet! This project is currently a huge document of ‘offcuts’ and thematic bullet points under… Continue Reading
July
To read a little bit more about the bigger project the following is an excerpt from, click on over to January. * One afternoon, I’m decluttering the kids’ rooms picking out… Continue Reading
June
To read a little bit more about the bigger project the following is an excerpt from, click on over to January. * Otis is our first family pet. Growing up, we… Continue Reading
May
Oh gosh, it was hard being disciplined this month. I didn’t write nearly as regularly as I have been writing – puppy, kids, work, life – and I am determined… Continue Reading
April
To read a little bit more about the bigger project the following is an excerpt from, click on over to January. * April will always be autumn. Seasons are in me… Continue Reading
March
I found writing this month difficult somedays, not for lack of things to write about but because … I suppose because it felt heavy with Weltschmerz. The excerpt below feels… Continue Reading
February
To read a little bit more about the bigger project the following is an excerpt from, click on over to January. *** A month ago, we put a deposit on… Continue Reading
Wildflowers and a Wig
One of the most enduring mysteries of my childhood – and there were many – was Dolly Parton’s wig. My mother mentioned it once in passing, in the car I… Continue Reading
A New Writing Project // January
I started writing by months last year, as we entered a lockdown that still persists, albeit in a different shape to how it began. I suppose it was partially therapeutic,… Continue Reading
December
It’s Heiligabend, the most important of the three days of Christmas in Germany. I think 900 people died yesterday and the day before and the day before that. The numbers… Continue Reading
November
November. The first frost on the last leaves, the shelves full of bulbous root vegetables you can only sprinkle liberally with salt and roast, the beginning of a long time… Continue Reading
Shelter
In late summer, the hydrangeas fade, bleached by the sun. Instead of those impossible 1950s blues and purples that always remind me of my grandmothers, they look like they have… Continue Reading
Fires & Floods
When we booked our tickets for this trip, the fires had just started. As September rolled into October, family marked themselves safe on Facebook, and the Australian media began rolling… Continue Reading
Now I Climb Rocks
‘I found something rather unexpected as I peeled back the layers and peered at what pulsed beneath. I thought my foreignness was the ink in the water, but that wasn’t… Continue Reading
The Bones
I wrote this before the fires began, before the wolf came, as promised, to our door. * We will give our children the bones The bad bones, hollow, poorly formed…. Continue Reading
Strawberry Plants
Strawberry plants throw out arms, long skinny things that carry a brave little cluster of leaves, sent out to try somewhere new, to another, nearby location, where it can then… Continue Reading