02 February 2012

Bzzzzzttttttt!

That is the sound of this week flying by like the speed of light.  I have been extremely remiss in blogging.  I am not even going to start making any kind of lame excuse.  Instead, I will add some photos that I've been collecting on my desktop to add to my blog all week.
You know how, with the start of the school year, you see these tiny kids heading off to primary school with HUGE backpacks on their backs?  What is IN those things?  What damage are they doing to those developing vertebrae?  Well, it seems that The Giant Bag doesn't get out of the system with age - as witnessed above.  These two huge sacks are the "briefcases" of a two-metre tall orthopaedic surgeon and of an anaesthetist (hers is on wheels).  How they find anything in there, let alone not suffer shoulder dislocations, is beyond me.  
My three year-old goddaughter Scarlett with her collection of birthday animals given to her thus far.  I will stop at seven.  I will!
The highlight of my week was receiving TWO handwritten letters - in one day!  One was a letter from my second cousin in Colorado and the other included an article entitled, "So You Want To Be A Writer?" sent by one of my oldest, dearest friends in Sydney.  I am so lucky!  Really, as pointed out in "You've Got Mail" (a blog post I read earlier this week), I too still love getting mail. Who doesn't, really? Even better, I love to send mail.  I can sit down and write six letters in one go.  Even more when watching Truly Trashy Telly.  It's one of my finest assets!
On the writing front, I have taken a hammering this week.  Hmmm.... A lovely, lovely friend gave me some Very Good constructive criticism this week which I have absorbed and which, upon reflection, I am glad she gave and which I believe was honest and deserved.  In a lapse of confidence, I hid behind quotes in an article - and it showed.  I have to remember to write from my heart. I think I am trying too hard and then thinking too hard about it and it all becomes ..... wrong.  I have to relax and remember that people want to hear ME when they read my stuff, not some "expert" on sports injuries.  I am so glad she loves me enough that she could be honest with me.  It was one of the best lessons I think I will ever learn about writing.  That said, while belting out my next column, I thought about it a lot and tried hard to keep it "real".  Oh groannn. I can't believe I just wrote that, but I think it's what I mean.  

Now, look carefully at the woman in the photo above. She is Mildred Heath.  She worked on newspapers as a journalist in Nebraska for 85 years!  She is my inspiration.  I believe she may now be deceased as last I heard, in 2008 she was already 100.  So, if she can be working as a journalist at that age, there is hope for me getting a cadetship at 50.  Yep, I will be graduating with my Masters of Journalism just after I hit the big Five-Oh.  I am not going to run the New York Marathon to celebrate that milestone. I am going to graduate instead.  However, I have a way to go so maybe I should just be taking one step at a time.  Anyway, today I started a new folder in my Gmail letterbox. I named it "Rejections" and I filed it under "Journalism" and then I added my latest rejection email.  Ho hum.  Boo hoo.  @#$%^&*  Admittedly, the editor (of the "This Life" column of The Australian) was very gentle and kind in her letter to me - but I am gutted nevertheless.  That is twice that particular story has been tossed back at me, despite a re-write in between. I have pitched it to "The Road Ahead" next & if that fails, it goes in the shredder, dammit!  I am not losing heart.  Yes, perhaps it has been a fluke to date but my little inner voice tells me otherwise.  I could always become a spy!  I am reading "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" after seeing the movie last week with My Husband.  We loved the movie (though I did need a few questions answered) and now I am finding I am enjoying the book almost more than the movie.  The movie DID have the dreamy Colin Firth to its advantage....  However, I do not believe I have the Intestinal Fortitude to be a very successful spy I'm afraid.  I will stick to reading about them - or maybe one day writing about them?

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