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Who says novel writing is easy? It has taken me years to even get to first draft stage. But, at least I'm getting there. all the treads of Hens Lay, People Lie are slowly coming together. So for the moment I'll keep tapping away. Can't wait to do a print out.   

I feel quilty. I haven't written anything here for months. In the beginning this was going to be my record of my writing journey, but somehow I became sidetracked. That other road I'm hurtling down at the moment is my 3 year creative writing course at Swinburne University. For the past months I've been flip flopping between the novel I'm currently writing and the academic research and write up. A requirement of this course is to keep a reflective journal in which I jot down plot lines, analyse my research and record my emotional roller coaster ride through supreme optimism and down right fear of failure.  At the moment I am somewhere in the middle. Could it be possible that I'm actually balanced?

'The Story of the Story: Ethics, Therapy, and Life Writing'  Conference, 28th September 2009 at Flinders University, Adelaide. Three intense days of intimate, revealing presentations. However, to their credit,  the organisers allowed plenty of time, not only for questions, but for the delegates to chat over coffee and cake. This conference was so different to the large scale and constant rush of Illinois. I'm also pleased to say that this time we had access to computers and could augment our talks with PowerPoint presentations. I'm sure my five 'picture' slides, were enough. I didn't want people to suffer from PowerPoint overload. The masterclass on ethics with Margaretta Jolley was thought provoking even though many of us will contine to grapple with thorny ethical issues

Sunday was a warm sunny day and Endendale Community Farm at Eltham an excellent venue for this festival run by the Eltham Bookshop. What a title, World Matters: End of Certainty: Celebration of new questions, of fresh alternatives: history, politics, philosophy, international relations, gender, social/cultural studies. So many interesting debates and the opportunity to showcase the work of many authors.