Writing in the Tropics- Lori T. Hurst

Three exciting & motivating things have happened for me on the writing front during the past two weeks. Firstly, I was privileged to have one of my favourite short stories Miss Josephine of Cherry Tree Bay featured on Dr Hurley’s Snake Oil Cure an American Ezine of very high standard. Check out the site www.snakeoil.com to read Miss J & a host of other stories, poems etc. And to commemorate Queensland Writers Week, Townsville Writing & Publishing Centre invited Hettie Ashwin, Philip, Shaun Allen & myself to form a discussion group on ‘Beating Writer’s Block’. We presented a mixed bag of genres & age groups. It was a great session, lots of fun and a very responsive audience. I see this as good practice for future panel discussions at Writer’s Festivals. Third, but not least I have placed A Hint of Darkness in the very capable hands of Michael Fitzgerald-Clarke to do a final copy edit for me. Having my MS professionally edited is the final step in a long line of...

I have been very remiss in the writing department, but very active in the house building area. We have been building a long time yet still I underestimate the amount of time it takes to do things. A positive in the slow progression of building your own home is that what others take for granted is so utterly gratifying. You buy a house everything is finished & you just walk in. Hey that can be ho-hum. Now with us when something fantastic happens like finally getting water connected to the kitchen it’s an absolutely WOW moment. So now instead of washing up on the deck, I didn’t really mind that it has a spectacular view, I can simply turn my tap on and voila!!! And the view is still there. I really think there is a book in this. I can see it now- ‘The House that Peter Built.’ But while bedroom walls are being sheeted painted etc, I’ve been guilty of putting my writing on the back burner. Not totally of course. No writer ever does that. So I’m back to holding a brush in one hand a...