The Trip of a Lifetime

We have just returned from the trip of a lifetime in the USA. Our son, Paul  and daughter-in-law, Marian arranged everything. All we had to do was front up and enjoy the experiences laid out before us…Driving from Yellowstone National Park, via the Grand Tetons snow capped mountains to the elk antler arches in the town of Jackson, followed by Lake Tahoe and Yosemite all the way down to Santa Monica Pier.

   

 

 

 

 

 

We experienced the fun of a Los Angeles baseball game, whale watching, and kayaking.

   

Walked in Yellowstone National Park  and marveled at geysers, fumaroles, hot springs & mud pools.

    

Observed baby bears, bison, wolves, otters &  elk.

     

 

We lived life to the full with snatches of these experiences captured in photos or scrawled into an exercise book always in my back pack.

 

 

Sometimes we need to leave our computers, blogs and everyday routine behind and live in the moment. And that’s my excuse for being absent from my blog. However, with help from Paul and Marian, via my ipad and emails I was still able to remain connected to others. Now I’m home I’ve had time to think  about why it meant so much to me,

It helped me to remain connected to friends and to my writing community.

Every writer at some stage needs inspiration, enlightenment and to feel connected to others writers. Now I’m back home, when I feel down in the dumps about my writing, burnt out and depleted, or my manuscript has been rejected yet again I always turn to my wordpress writing family for inspiration. It never fails.

To read the blogs of others revealing how they have struggled makes me feel I am not alone. Their solutions to their writing problems give me a good shake and sits me back in front of the computer again. If they can do it, I can. They inspire me. By the time I leave the computer I’m back in the saddle again. There is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Reinvigorated, I tap away and before long have at least two pages. Crisis over.

Recently I had such a glitch and decided to make a list of some of the things I have enjoyed reading.

Up the Creek with a Pen by Mairi Neil

ANZlitlovers Litblog by Lisa Hill

Planning to the ‘Nth’ by Coral Waight

All posts at Charles French Words Reading and Writing by frenchc55

Also
Why read other authors?
You know your a writer when…
Finding time to write
Why we write
What an editor will do to your manuscript
What to consider before giving your manuscript to an editor

And so many quotes from people living now and long gone. Quotes that inspire, persuade, demand and state the obvious.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the wordpress community, especially the bloggers I like and follow. You all help maintain and sustain the urge to write. Your thoughts, dreams and struggles can often motivate me to even post a comment.

Quotes to live by

To be your own person takes courage and determination
To be who you want to be takes dreams
To live life to the fullest takes love.

I don’t know who said this, but I often refer to this quote when feeling down or when life has taken an unexpected turn. It has the power to lift my soul: to inspire me to keep going, to take one step at a time until the emergency has passed and life is calmer. It reminds me of all the good things to aim for and to live life with love.

It also reminds me how powerful and inspiring words can be.

     

Happy writing

Mairi Neil and Kingston Our City

It is Saturday afternoon in sunny Melbourne. The Allan McLean Hall is packed with people attending the launch of the ninth anthology by the Mordialloc Writers’ Group.  Kingston Our City is also the celebration of twenty years of fortnightly workshopping stories.

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The founder and organiser of the group is Mairi Neil and with the help of her two girls, Anne and Mary Jane (who designed the cover art) she has compiled, edited, formatted and published not only past anthologies but especially this latest one.  This year Mordialloc Writers also dives into the digital age. Mairi has produced an ebook of Kingston Our City.

Every writer knows how important it is to belong to a like minded community where they receive constructive comments about their work. Many become firm friends, not just writing colleagues. They laugh, swap pre-loved books, discuss the writing and publishing industry, politics, the human condition and are working on the meaning of life.

Our community writing group has been meeting at the Mordialloc Neighbourhood House for twenty years and for our anniversary anthology we reflect on our relationship with the City of Kingston.    We have reminisced about wartime precautions on Parkdale beach and the transformation of suburban streets by developers. We have reflected on the City of Kingston’s creation by negotiation and amalgamation, Patterson Lakes created by feats of engineering.    There are snapshots of dances at Moorabbin Town Hall, surf lifesaving carnivals, Edithvale billycart shenanigans and cycling to school, the demise of horses and the rise of hoons, joyous beach weddings and sad farewells. Stories woven around everyday life and observations to trigger your own memories.   Perhaps you’ll remember when the pace of life seemed slower and be grateful for improved services. As you enjoy this collection I’m sure you’ll come to the same conclusion as the writers – Kingston in Victoria Australia is indeed a great place to live.

In recognition of Mairi’s inspirational contribution two orchids in a pale green ceramic pot were presented by Lisa Hill, ANZ LitLovers and ‘Ambassador’ for Australian Literature.

 
       

We added two bunches of Singapore orchids to the two potted orchids, plus cellophane and purple ribbon. The result was a joy to behold.

Lisa Hill’s words below managed to convey what everyone in the hall wanted to say.

Lisa Hill: ANZlitlovers award winning blog

It’s lovely to be here today to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Mordialloc Writers’ Group and the publication of the 2015 Anthology. As a passionate advocate for Australian books and writing, I am always excited to be in the presence of authors and as I look about me I know that whether published or not, the writers here today are using their gifts to bring the Australian experience to life using the magic of words, and I salute them all.
But all of us here today know that the real magic behind the words on the page is a great lady, our mentor and friend, Mairi Neil. It was Mairi who started this group 20 years ago, and who has nourished it with her wisdom and skill for what is, for some of our younger writers, a lifetime. It is Mairi who does all the behind-the-scenes organising, from the complexity of applications for council funding, to bringing the tea and biscuits. It is Mairi who listens most acutely as we workshop our pieces of work, praising and encouraging, gently suggesting improvements, using her professional writing and editing skills to nurture each piece to fruition. It is Mairi who has supported some of us to professional publication and paid opportunities. It is her unfailing presence each week which is the stimulus for us to write more instead of giving up. It is Mairi who manages the anthologies from selection of the theme to the finished product, spending long hours editing our work so that it emerges triumphantly as a polished piece of writing for others to read and enjoy.
All those of us who know Mairi well know that these decades of voluntary work have all been accomplished at the expense of her own writing career and despite personal tragedy and confronting health problems that would have overwhelmed an ordinary person. Mairi’s courage and indefatigable spirit is an inspiration to all of us, and for once, I have to admit, that words fail me when I try to thank her for all that she means to us as individuals and to the community that she has enriched with all these years of patient, unsung and heroic work on our behalf.
Congratulations, Mairi, and thank you.

 

MORDIALLOC WRITERS’ GROUP

TUESDAY WORKSHOPS
8.00PM

 457 Main Mordialloc Victoria Aust

MEETING DATES FOR 2016

FEBRUARY 2nd  16th

MARCH 1st, 15th and 29th

APRIL 12th &  29th

MAY 10th & 24th

JUNE 14th & 28th

JULY 12th & 26th

AUGUST 9th & 23rd

SEPTEMBER 6th & 20th

OCTOBER 4th & 18th

NOVEMBER 1st & 15th

DECEMBER 13th 2016–Break for summer holidays