Thank you Maureen Helen

 

Thank you Maureen Helen for the great discussion at the Book Length Project Group on Sunday. Your talk kicked 2013 off to a strong start. The discussion traversed the terrain of the way personal history informs process, the practicalities of finding time and space to write, and the nuts and bolts of the work finding a publisher. Maureen Helen brought in copies of her book, Other People's Country a publication for which she was long-listed for a Walkley Award, and short-listed for the WA Premier's Award (History). Great stuff!

One of the things that we have discussed is the possibility of featuring writers from the group on this blog, so that the wider writing community can become aware of a small sample of the thought-provoking, and  entertaining, writing that is emerging from this part of the world (Western Australia).

My feeling is that our time and place is worth writing about (and by 'our' I mean all of us, whether we are from Australia, India, the US, the Ukraine, or anywhere else in the wide world). Our 'take' on other times and places is equally worth while, whether those times and places are in the real world, or made real through the words we spin.

Take heart, any writers who stumble upon this site. The times are certainly a-changin' and isn't it great to embrace the diversity of viewpoints out there. Each of us has a right to join the discussion.The one thing that I personally feel is a good rule of thumb - write with love, even where the subject matter is grim. (I'm not sure, but I'm thinking that this can be a useful rule of thumb just at the moment. Please feel free to disagree!)

P.S. Apologies for the recycled pictures. I seem to have lost the ability to upload from my desktop. Hence the funny little guy in the top left-hand corner.

Iris ;-)