 Looking at life from different angles
April is rushing past so quickly it's nearly time to say hello for May, so
this is a double diary – very late or very early, depending which way you
look at it.
The reason for losing track of time is that I'm still deep in the first
draft of the new novel. The working title is Mosaics, although this will
have to be changed before it's published so that it's not filed in the art
and craft sections of libraries and bookstores!
Although I used our own little bit of bushland as a basis for the bush in
Spook's Shack, the fantasy of that book means that it's not set in a
specific place. Mosaics, however, is set very specifically in the Mornington
Peninsula – in Red Hill and the Sorrento ocean beach. I've never used a real
place, where I'm currently living, in this way before, so it's a new
challenge. One thing that I'm finding especially interesting is looking at
the area through the eyes of my characters, who are freshly arrived from
the city. I realise that their perceptions are very different from their
author's, who arrived here after 19 years of living on a farm.
I think that's what I love best about writing – it makes you look at things
that you see every day, or things you do every day, and turn them around to
see them from a totally different angle. With a bit of luck, if we look at
life from enough different angles, maybe we can begin to understand it. Just
maybe.
After a lovely visit to Kilbreda College in March, April has been a quiet
month for school visits. In May I'll visit Noble Park Secondary School and
also a Literary Festival for the Dandenong Library system on Sunday 25 May
at the Springvale Council Offices.
Maybe I'll see you there?
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happy reading
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 go back to Wendy's Diary index
Previous entries in Wendy's Diary:
2003 entries:
On name changes and beach walks (March 4, 2003)
Spook's Shack comes to life! (February 10, 2003)
A writer's Christmas (January 4, 2003)
2002 entries:
On Christmas in Australia, and new translations (December 1, 2002)
Seeing my story through another's eyes (November 1, 2002)
All this and writing too! (October 3, 2002)
An interesting month (September 9, 2002)
Back to normal life (August 5, 2002)
Following in Ruth's footsteps (July 1, 2002)
First day of winter (June 17, 2002)
Spook's Shack is off to the editor! (May 8, 2002)
Do ghosts like Country and Western music? (April 1, 2002)
Autumn in Australia (March 1, 2002)
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