As 2021 draws to its close, it’s time to look back and take stock in a 2021 review. Because if you don’t, what will you learn, and how can you do better next year? 2021 Review To recap; my 2021 plan was to take it back to basics, mainly because I couldn’t see anything certain […]
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Still More Short Story Promotion
I’ve partnered with 8 other short story authors to bring you a selection of new short stories. This promotion runs until February 5 (timezones not withstanding). We’re half way through the promotion now, so there’s still two weeks to take a look, and try out a new author. You can get The Histories of Hayward […]
2021 Q4 Review
Q4 2021 for me was definitely a Big Fat Restart, coming as it did with the return of my inner dialogue. For clarity, Dean Wesley Smith calls Q4 the The Time of Restart as you finally get your shit together following The Time of Great Regret. Though I suppose for writers of the Southern Hemisphere, […]
December 2021 Progress Report
Ah, December 2021, when the year that was FINALLY ran out of steam and ground down to the end. I thought we’d never make it. I got all the important stuff done by about the 15th, so for a couple of glorious weeks I had NO deadlines!! Virtue Nov Dec Notes Beauty: bodyI enjoy exercising […]
Best Friends Forever
Friends come and go… Etta and Felicia. Once upon a time inseperable. Out of contact for fifty years. Coincidentally back in touch. One changed. The other not. Until the bitter end. “Best Friends Forever” by Alexandria Blaelock, was free on this website for a month. If you missed it, click here to see what’s up […]
New Life Emerging!
And here we are, emerging into 2022. And despite the ongoing Covid Cataclysm, I feel more positive about “things” than I have at any other time during the last two years. Finally. Perhaps I’m channeling the “Golden Years” of the 1920s; emerging from the fear and austerity of the First World War, into an era […]
Happy Holidays 2021!
I feel more positive about the 2021 Holidays than I did about the 2020 Holidays. Perhpas because last year was looking like more of the same, but this year, I feel like 2022 might actually be better than 2021. Even if the Covid affected supply chains can’t catch up. Like Canada dipping into its maple […]
Christmas Conflagration
If Christmas under the hot Australian sun isn’t twisted enough, this story will turn it up a notch or ten. Matilda May McDonald, so-called crazy-cat-lady. Owner of four dogs. Trapped by her past. Perhaps this Christmas offers more than salvation. “Christmas Conflagration” by Alexandria Blaelock, is free on this website for a month. If you […]
Ma’aming Me Elderly
Only weeks after my Woman of a Certain Age post, I’ve reached a new miletstone in the race towards elderly, and I thought I’d share it with you. When is Elderly In the meantime, I thought I’d look at the actual definition of elderly, just to see if I could find out around about when […]
November 2021 Progress Report
November 2021 was like when someone (e.g., your recorded meditation) tells you to set your mind free and let it go anywhere it wants to go, but you don’t know where that is. And the options are endless so you don’t do much. Though it all took place around the frameword of my end-of-year medical […]
Tidy Desk Tidy Mind
Does a tidy desk really equal a tidy mind? Or is it just that the open, expansive space feels more relaxing? Rife with possibilities. A few weeks ago I read Getting Things Done, by David Allen who thinks a tidy desk definitely correlates with a tidy mind. I’d heard about his system, often referred to […]
Small Business Saturday
I recently heard about Small Business Saturday. It’s an event in November taking place between the Black Friday and Cyber Monday Sales to encourage people to shop locally. This year (2021), it’s November 27, which is why I’m posting this early – so you can think about it for tomorrow. Your local shops have been […]
What are They Fighting For?
Here in Melbourne, recent protests have carried punching bag cariacatures, gallows and guillotines, suggesting the Victorian Premier should resign his position by reason of being dead. I don’t mind admitting that I find the threats of violence against politicians and their families worrying, despite having joked in the past about assassination being the only way […]
Where did all your friends go?
One of my friends asked me what happened to DB, Katy and Toseland. And as it turns out, it’s a good lead in to a post I’ve been trying to write for a while. Because the answer is a little more complex than it would otherwise seem. I live in Melbourne – once famous for […]
The Palace Hotel
Even the road to nowhere ends up somewhere. Diana sits in a roadhouse in the middle of nowhere. An oasis in the desert with great lattes. At a crossroad. With a decision to make. Will she take the road less travelled? “The Palace Hotel” by Alexandria Blaelock, is free on this website for a month. […]
October 2021 Progress Report
October 2021 marked the lifting of restrictions and the end of Covid lockdowns. We were watching the vaccination rate increase, and I felt like a kid again, counting down the last couple of weeks before school broke out for the holidays! So now, we can now travel as far from home as we want, and […]
The Smell of Fresh Laundry
I LOVE the smell of fresh laundry – hints of lavender, mown lawn, and a little little bit of sunshine. So with the odd warm day we’ve had lately, I’ve been catching up on the washing. And in between loads of clothes, I’ve been freshening up the blankets and quilts. Washing Pretty Girl’s dog hair […]
2021 Transplantiversary
My 2021 transplantiversary marks the TENTH year of my transplant! It feels like a real achievement, and I feel like I should get it a gift to commemorate the day we met. I was trying to work out what happened to last year’s celebration, but then I remembered I had a stroke last September and […]
A Woman of a Certain Age
Some where along the line, I became a “woman of a certain age.” That is, the age at which is becomes unnecessary, and possibly impolite to query further. It’s the age at which looking in the mirror always comes as a shock because the face I see there is NOT the one I see in […]
Time and Tide Wait for No One
Time and tide bring to mind the story of King Canute commanding the tide to be still. But tide is also an Old English word, meaning a period of time, such as Yuletide, (good) tidings and (woe) betide for example. By now you know that my definition of wealth includes time and health as well […]
2021 Q3 Review
The third quarter, as Dean Wesley Smith calls it, is the Time of Great Regret. And for me, Q3 2021 was definitely that. As he explains it, you get to the end of Q2 and start freaking out because you haven’t got anything done. But for me, it was the time I thought my writing […]
September 2021 Progress Report
September 2021 is best summed up by Dickens. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of […]
Waylon’s Way
Treachery at the Tailor’s Guild. Waylon was a changeling. Sold by the Church. Now a journeyman tailor. He journeys the world for three years and a day. Sleeping in ditches. Hedgrows are the best. But ditches can slay as well as shield. A twisted tale of trust and betrayal. “Waylon’s Way” by Alexandria Blaelock, is […]
I Got My Voice Back!
You may or may not know that when I had the stroke last year, my inner dialogue went missing. For a while I really missed it. But I got used to it. I consoled myself with the knowledge that people meditate for decades to achieve a quiet mind. And I got one overnight. And now, […]
2021 Summer Wardrobe Plan
It’s time to start looking at my 2021 Summer Wardrobe Plan. As I write, the sun is shining, and I’m putting on and taking off my fleece. The shops are frantically dispatching end of season catalogues, and soon they’ll be replacing them with new styles for warmer weather. 2020 Recap We’ll start with a recap […]