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...

It's all happening. Just a bit slower than anticipated. Painting lounge/dining room ceiling. I'm sure it would have been easier to paint the Sydney Opera House. So painting, doing revised edition of A Hint of Darkness for the Qld Premiers Literary Awards. How to take out 37,000 words was the biggest problem. But its gone so fingers crossed. I'd love to be short listed at least. More painting, doing research on Ancient Greece for 'Virgin' novel. Painting, fulfilling my role as President of WITS (Writers in Townsville Society), & still more painting!!! But, the positive side of all this is: while I'm brushing, rolling & getting covered in paint, my brain is creating.

As our house moves slowly but surely towards completion it has occurred to me that there is a parallel between building a house and writing a book. Obviously the writing process doesn’t require quite the same tools, the only hammering has been on my keyboard & I’m not into biting my nails. However, a writer needs a toolbox from which they can produce the tools of their specific craft. A commercial builder would never go about building a house that he didn’t think would be attractive to the market, the same principle applies to writing a novel. Unless of course you are writing purely for yourself you have to focus on producing a book that people will read & enjoy & hopefully take something away from the experience. An architect or builder’s plan shows the design & the outline of the house. If you didn’t follow the necessary steps of progression then it would take an awfully long time to finalise. And there’s no guarantee that the finished product would look as you en...

No, I haven’t changed my artistic inclinations. However, even though I love seeing my dining/lounge room walls come alive with colour, it doesn’t take a great deal of concentration to wield a brush. So while operating on autopilot Isabella- the protagonist in the novel I’m working on is coming to life.

Since I am living in a house that is literaly still being built around me I ask myself that question frequently. Downstairs it's a dream. Two lovely rooms plus the foyer feature glossy tiles. The bedroom has silky blue curtains and a decorative and comfortable rug. I sleep in a king size bed and wake each morning to bird call. The family room is furnished with a maroon lounge and chairs, I watch movies, snuggled amongst plump cushions. The foyer, big enough to hold a decent sized party, houses my desk and bookcases. But just like on a movie set I only have to turn around to see behind the scenes. The walls around the spiral staircase, are un-sheeted so that the silver insulation shines through, the stairs themselves are ugly steel plate. Upstairs the interior walls are still bare, most of the ceiling is missing, revealing the heavy steel beams. Along one wall (complete with finished ceiling, up to a point) stands my perfect, shining kitchen. Every would-be chef's dream it calls...

Since my last post I've had to amend my list of things that make life uncomfortable for those of us who call the far north of Australia home. Toads have moved further down the list, to be replaced first & foremost by cyclones, and coming close second, enraged, homeless Green ants. Slight exageration there. Green ants are nasty,biting, aggressive pests that can be brushed off, albeit while doing a dance not unlike a demented orangutan, but this discomfort cannot in any sense be compared to the pounding rain and ceaselss winds of a cyclone lashing the trees and sending branches crashing on the roof. Cooking on a gas burner by gas light & listening to a battery powered radio while the giant storm wreaked havoc around us, safe inside our house built to withstand an earthquake, we created a sort of family picnic atmosphere. Our three Granddaughters delightfully unaware of the threatening catastrophe were amazed when we produced home-made chips for dinner. Who said children to...