I’m grateful for unexpected inspiration:

1. VIRTUAL SISTERS: On Friday night I had dinner in the Spanish Quarter of Sydney with two amazing women; Ashlee Donohue and Susie Carlton, co-founder of Virtual Sisters of Mudgin-Gal. I can’t believe I hadn’t heard of this fabulous grass-roots initiative before now. Virtual Sisters is an on-line community of women who support the work of Mudgin-Gal Aboriginal Corporation, the Aboriginal women's resource centre located in Redfern, Sydney. Virtual Sisters provide Advocacy & Lobbying, fundraising, Mentoring & Training Partnerships, critical support for women and much, much more. You too can become a Virtual Sister by visiting their Join Up page. I went out on Friday night hoping for some tapas and some salsa dancing and was unexpectedly inspired!

2. SILENT SISTERS: I’m grateful for ‘silent sisters’. These are equivalent to ‘silent partners’ in business but in my private life. These women maintain support, interest, engagement in our relationship, but don’t require any public accolades or thanks. I am incredibly lucky and humbled to have a lot of ‘silent sisters’ who are part of my life journey and I thank them for always being there, even when I am absent for long periods of time.

3. JONT: I’m going to be honest and say that until recently I’d never heard of the deadly muso Jont, nor his creation of what is known internationally as UNLIT – a combination of house party and gig. But last night, in the home of my writerly friend Kathryn Heyman I popped my Unlit cherry with Jont and Edwina Blush. What an amazing experience to have an up close and personal musical encounter – an Unlit - with the man whose work has appeared on one of my favourite shows, Grey’s Anatomy. To top it all off, I also got a signed copy of the CD Supernatural and have listened to it all afternoon. If you want to give your Valentine something other than the clichéd red roses tomorrow, then head to Jont’s website and do something extras special for your loved one, or even better, do something special for yourself!
Pic above of Jont and I... love the jacket!

4. EDWINA BLUSH: She’s sassy, she’s sexy, she’s smart, she sings and she lives in Sydney. I am grateful today for experiencing the divine Edwina Blush as part of the Unlit I went to in Brooklyn (NSW) last night. As a writer, the hardest thing sitting in the audience listening to a spoken word performer is hearing something I’d wished I’d written myself. Last night was one of those moments. I was so impressed, so blown away, so moved to think, write, be creative that I couldn’t find the right adjective to describe Edwina’s work and impact it had on me. She writes /performs about the environment and relationships with humour and pizzazz. You can check her out on-line here, but do yourself a favour and get to a live gig. The funny thing is I really went along last night because it had been too many months since I’d seen Kathryn, and I left, pleasantly and unexpectedly inspired, and for that I am grateful.

5. TIME OUT: I never get writers’ block, I don’t even believe in it. If I get stuck on a line, a scene, some dialogue I leave it and move to another part of the story, another chapter, scene. What I do experience though is mental exhaustion and eye-strain from sitting at my desk and the computer for too many hours on end. So, while I may have the ideas flowing, I just don’t have the physical or mental ability to sit and keep writing. And hits are when I am grateful for time out. A little trip to the town of Brooklyn on the Hawkesbury River was just what I needed, and my body and brain are both grateful.