Contributors

Sunday, February 13, 2011

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.

3 comments:

Sara said...

That's great news about cosmopolitan.
Any idea if/when you'll be doing an Avid launch of Paris dreaming? I saw the link to the thingy with Rebecca Sparrow. Sorry I wasn't more lively when I saw you at the writer's fest last year, I had the beginnings of a nasty headache. Its called study & it lasted about 3 months.

Thanks for the entertainment on twitter last night, did that child end up eating her vegetables or just throwing them at her parents?

Would comment there but I've protected my tweets so I don't think you'd see them unless you followed me...QuokkaT888 if you're interested.

Well done on the cosmo score, looking forward to seeing you & reading the new book. Loved MD, by the way. Its given me the travel bug.

Dr Anita Heiss said...

Hey Sara - thanks for dropping by. I'm having an Avid Reader launch on Friday April 29 so hope to see you there. Details will be posted here shortly: http://anitaheissupcomingappearances.blogspot.com/

No worries re BWF last year. I was all over the shop anyways, had a lot of panels - not complaining of course :)

That child at the Sofitel was simply awful. No discipline. Will go find you on Twitter now :)

The Cosmopolitan scoop is exciting. I believe it's for their on-line mag which is even better because it will reach an international audience that way. Was nice news for Valentine' Day!

Anyways love, best go do some work.

Hope you are happy, healthy and headache free!

Peace, Anita

Sara said...

Excellent, it's in my diary, looking forward to seeing you then.

All good here, on my final semester of study for the my B. Health Science, planning post grad studies & more exciting house renos, & I have 8 extra cats here in my cat max enclosure (flood evacuees from a vet nurse friend)...they're so CUTE!

It's official, I am now the Mad CatWoman of West End.

I'm so pleased for you about Cosmo.
xox