These blue days from the hills

I was looking at Urban Outfitters Summer catalogue this morning. While it’s drenched in spectacular snapshots of sunshine and positively zesty with the promise of good times and divine outfits, it didn’t sit well.

It’s cold in Sydney. I want to reveal in the gorgeous winter weather of the place I call home. So with my scarf wrapped around me and I turned on the wintery sounds of Mumford and Sons and sunk into a stupor of delight for all things blustery, folksy and blue.

[Letters from the hills]

Have a lovely day folks.

If you’re not enjoying the weather as much as I am, then you may enjoy this. I laughed so hard I may have a hernia.

Sleep and other past times

I’ve been celebrating Easter with the abandonment of the ‘heavyweights’ of Camp Hope. Chocolate Easter bunnies are trembling in my wake. Yum.

I’ve also been getting my teeth stuck into some writing. I was assigned an article on the benefits of chucking creative all-nighters. Truth be told I’m a wimp. I’m firmly in of the school of sleep. I’ve never deprived myself of sleep to study or indulge in wild throes of creativity. So it was a bit of a challenge to get excited about the article, but I’ve rounded the corner on it and have found a rather tasty angle. Which is handy as it’s due for editorial review on Thursday and I don’t want to lose a night’s sleep over it!

[Sleep]

I’ve also been anxiously waiting by the front door for the postie, as I’ve been emptying my purse with some gusto. I’ve bought my duffel for the trip and a trigger point kit. I think that I might be regretting my enthusiasm for the trigger point kit once I actually roll around with it – ouch, ouch, ouch! Though I can quite easily justify both purchases, my new nail polish on the other hand, is slightly harder to justify.

Mish has jumped on the petrochemical free bandwagon and has been spruinking the wonders of natural beauty (which I totally support). However there are limited products available in Australia, so mish bought a bunch of stuff from The Spirit Lounge and convinced me I should too (her sneaky way of getting me to chip in on shipping!) So I bought some Scotch nail polish.

Working in the health industry means that I can’t wear nail polish, as it’s potentially unhygienic. So slathering my nails in the heavenly Velvet Kilt will be a wonderful way of celebrating my year sans work. That's a suitable justification right?

[Khaki Kid]

[Mad, Mad Woman]

Concoctions

[via: From me to you]

This desk represents the chaos and clutter in my mind.

I'm slowly shifting through an insane 'to-do' list I've concocted. Yet every time I start to chip away at a project, a new thread of an idea emerges and to ensure it's not evanescent I chase it. And so my 'to-do' list grows.

It's a fun and exciting way to work...yet incredibly unproductive.

Modus Operandi

[worker bee]

I’m firing at all cylinders (not due to any Shane Warne style diet tips) with a number of creative assignments. My fingers are positively fluttering across the keyboard to ensure all the projects come to fruition before their various deadlines. But for all the eye straining effort, I'm positively buzzing with enthusiasm.

One particular project is due to pop up on this blog in the coming months, I’ve been mulling over the modus operandi. Though I’m keeping it all rather elusive, in case it flops like a pancake. Ahhh there’s confidence for you!

Decent shot

It's raining outside. Torrents of water lash against the windows and weigh the guttering down.

It's shaping up to be a day of reading, eating, writing and sleeping. But first, I'm going to just sit and listen to it fall. It's been a while since we've had a decent shot of rain in Sydney.

[via: the personality girls band]

The write stuff

[The write stuff]

I’ve been reading quite a few books of late, but my writing has fallen by the wayside.

I resolve to put pen to paper everyday this week.

Make a note of it

I write notes for myself on surgical gloves, forget, then dispose of them after I've finished with the patient.

I tried keeping notes on pieces of paper but I kept losing my clipboard, so I jotted down info on pieces of scrap paper and kept them in my pockets like a squirrel. The wads of paper would crease and crinkle as i walked around the ward. Awkward.

Now I mostly write on my skin - handwashing means that this too is fallible method. I could always take a leaf from Louie Mckirdy's book and write notes in more obscure places, like my thigh, but that could lead to bizarre bedside mannerisms.

Louie writes notes on his thigh so frequently that he got a tattoo of a notepad there. I thought this a mighty cute idea. So does this person it seems.

[courtesy of benependent]

Now I must remember to buy some wrapping paper...

Is a Bestseller the best?

What makes a book a bestseller?

Is there prescribed formula for each genre? A decomposing body by page 5 in a murder mystery thriller?The eventual realisation of unrequited love by page 200 in a romance novel?

Or perhaps it’s not the contents at all and it’s the cover itself that sells the book.

Nestled in the archives of the ABC website is a “Jennifer Byrne presents” discussion

with Lee Child, Di Morrissey, Bryce Courtenay and Matthew Reilly, about bestsellers. The program attempts to answer all these questions and dovetails into a random assortment of stories about the hidden world of writing. Including the "birth" of Lee Child's name.

To paraphrase Matthew Riley - the font in which a bestselling author's name is written in never changes, like any brand it requires continuity. Funnily enough our country's most renowned popular author Bryce Courtney, hates his gold embossed font and tries in vein to get it changed whenever he has a new book for publication - however his marketing team say it'll be a disaster if they attempt to change it.

Lee Child remarks that his bookcovers all go through vigorous test groups and marketing panels before a decision is ever made - which is surprising as they all appear so bland and slapdashed.

It's worth watching the program, even just to hear Bryce Courtney compare masturbating with literary hobnobs writing unreadable highbrow "art".

The group successfully cut down the notion of bestselling author "selling out" with a typically succinct phrasing- First it's written, then it's read and then it exists.

I must admit, as a book snob this resonated with me – I’ve been trying to more broad minded and stop belittling bestsellers. Sure I won’t pretend that I wasn’t an outspoken naysayer of the Stephanie Myers phenomenon, but I am getting better at knowing when to keep my opinions to myself and not encroach on what other people view as pleasurable reading. In fact I have only recently learnt to give up on books – in the past I’ve strained my eyes and sanity with reading laborious literary tomes, because it’s what “bookish” people do.

Plus I’ve also learnt [thanks to the program], that I shouldn’t be shy if I ever see Bryce Courtney in the cereal aisle of the supermarket. As apparently he mails a copy of one of his books to anyone that stops him for a chat mmmm that would be a handy way around my self imposed ban on buying books...gosh saving money is hassle!

The Bird's monkey wrench

This weekend i'm getting my geek on again. Perhaps i should just admit that i'm always a nerd?

I'm overloading my neuronal synapses by dissecting the Biomechanics of running.

Running

I'm sure a monkey wrench would come in handy for such a task, but I'll just have to make do by listening to the Foo Fighters.

Jacob A. Pfeiffer, Monkey Wrench, oil, 12 X 9 inches

I'm also planning to flesh out a portly, scotch soaked, penniless character with a sinister appetite for bird watching of the homosapien variety.

Jhenna Quinn Lewis, Bird, oil, 8 X 6 inches

If I don't get caught up in reading the Wicked triology [you could say it is wickedly addictive] I'll transcribe some of my creative writing journal

TR Colletta's, Writer's Block 11, oil on linen, 50" x 50"

and play tomfoolery with my new Camera.

To ensure that i don't get lost in a cassum of brainfarts, i'll stay steadfast with a soundtrack of

- Best Coast

- The Harry Heart Chrysalis

- Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

- Bluejuice