I want to say a very heartfelt thank you for every contribution to the launch of my new novel, ‘Beyond Resolution’. From contributions of a magnitude beyond hope – like Koorong http://www.koorong.com.au/  who gave myself and the other authors an opportunity to showcase our work, and Daydream Island Resort and Spa http://www.daydreamisland.com/who’s generosity highlighted the event – to those who worked in Koorong Stores Australia wide putting up posters and talking to customers about our books. And especially to every person who got online and supported the event by purchasing books – Thank you.

I want to say a personal thanks to my stepdaughters, Sally and Jodie Dee, and my models who gave of their time and expertise to produce my book trailers.  And Cathryn Ruhle for her hard work and perseverance on my graphics and posters. 

And also a big thanks to Collins Booksellers in Mackay, who hosted my local launch.  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Collins-Booksellers-Mackay/112817365419479

I am truly blessed and grateful to you all. 

The work now continues. ‘A New Resolution’ is due to be released at the end of the year. For a sneak peek at the story, click on my ‘Resolution’ series book trailer link on the side of this page. 

I learnt a very important lesson this week – relationships are more important than work.

I know it is an admirable and necessary thing to work hard in life, but if you don’t put some time into fostering relationships you will be left with nothing but the work.  

How did I come to this conclusion?

In spite of a mile long list of ‘to dos’ my husband and I escaped this weekend to the tropical paradise of the Whitsundays to celebrate our 10^th wedding anniversary. We sat on a balcony overlooking the water, sipped champagne, and reminisced about our life together. It would have been very easy to cancel the trip, as the stresses of running our own business (not to mention my writing) forced us to think long and hard about the decision to take the weekend off. But now I am so relieved that we didn’t allow the stress of work to influence our decision.

It was a revitalising and refreshing time. And it drove home to me how important relationships are. There is certainly a time for work. But make sure you also take time out to connect with those you love.

For your chance to experience your own Whitsunday connection go to:http://www.koorong.com/estore/rosedee.html  

http://www.daydreamisland.com/

A prominent locally elected official recently chastised me for writing him letters outlining a serious community safety concern. Now – I am no habitual champion of right fighting. I generally go about my business in life content that the ‘powers that be’ are doing their jobs, so you can bet that this particular issue really upset me. But when I was told off for bringing the issue to the attention of the authorities I had to ask myself – is it old school to expect politicians to listen to us?

I recently saw a television ‘flash back’ outlining political campaign methods spanning the 60’s through to the 90’s. Back in the day, politicians stood on a street corner listening to the needs and wants of the public. They suffered intense questioning as well as heckling. They knew exactly what their constituents wanted because they were open to being told.

In a present day where policies are made and implemented, and Prime Ministers are assigned, all without consulting the people, I say – Bring Back the Soapbox. I would love to see our politicians on street corners where questions from the public are not organized prior to the event, and audiences are not canvassed for supporters. I want the ordinary people to feel as though they have been heard, not pandered to, ignored, or manipulated by media spin doctors.  

I thoroughly enjoyed Paula Vince’s novel ‘Best Forgotten’. The concept of waking up with no idea who you are; where you belong; or even an awareness of your own personality traits, is a captivating concept.  Paula combines a character suffering with amnesia with a multitude of twists and turns in storyline and theme. The story kept me reading and left me looking forward to her next book. 

 

1)      Amnesia fascinates me. What kind of research did you embark upon in order to bring the main character’s disorder to life?

I searched for amnesia on the internet. My hero’s amnesia is the most extensive type in which he has forgotten all he ever knew about himself, including his identity. It was interesting to learn that this is most often caused by severe emotional stress, in which a person’s mind temporarily shuts down memories rather than cope with the pain they involve. Sudden accidents are responsible to a lesser degree. As he suffered both a horrific ordeal (which the plot reveals later) and a head injury, it fitted in well with my story.

I also needed to do some police research. I phoned a friend in the force to ask him, “How would you go about finding the identity of a young amnesia patient who’d been taken to hospital with no form of ID?” Writing novels has broadened my education.

2)      “Best Forgotten” won the CALEB prize for literature last year. How has this (well deserved) acknowledgement impacted your writing life?

It was extremely timely. Earlier in the year, I’d contemplated giving up writing. Ten years on the job coupled with financial difficulties, as my husband was studying full-time, almost convinced me that it was a futile pursuit. During that stage, while I was having withdrawal symptoms from not writing and missing the work on my stories, I won an award for an earlier novel, Picking up the Pieces, which had first been published ten years ago. Later, as you said, I won the CALEB prize for Best Forgotten. Two awards in one year after never receiving any recognition for a decade of work has convinced me that it is ALWAYS too soon to pull the plug on what you love doing.

3)      I believe both readers and writers alike learn lessons from a story. What did you learn from writing “Best Forgotten”?

I’m sure I learned some lessons from being in my characters’ heads. When my hero regains his memory, the realization dawns on him that although amnesia was scary, he was happier in many important ways than the person he used to be before his accident. When he remembers the thoughts he used to think, he realizes they were doing him no good. He chooses to purposely discard some of the memories and thoughts that were making him bitter and obnoxious. It occurred to me that we don’t need a week with no memories to learn the same lesson.

4)      Can you share what you are working on at present?

It’s a contemporary novel tentatively called Along for the Ride. The hero is a young computer programmer who has been given a medical diagnosis that rocks his world. As his friends and family sink into grief and begin to regard him in past tense while he’s still with them, he uncovers some biblical principles of healing and divine health which he’s never considered before. Meanwhile, the female interest is a young woman who has traveled halfway round the world to correct a wrong she committed in her childhood. Neither of them realise that their paths will entwine and how awesome the road they’re embarking on will be. I feel as if I’m along for a ride myself.

5)      Who stocks “Best Forgotten”

As well as Christian bookstores across Australia, Amazon, Barnes and Noble and the Book Depository stock both paperbacks and kindle versions.

Thank you, Paula. We would love for you to leave a comment. 

Lately I’ve been wondering about natural instincts and predispositions. I am not very technically minded. My instinct is to be passionate. At school I was either the one sitting at the back of the class ‘off with the fairies’, or talking too much to the person beside me. This natural predisposition to withdraw into my imagination, or be overly communicative, meant I was very good at creative pursuits, like Drama and English, but bad at formal ones like Math and Science.

I used to think that writing was just the ability to tell a good story. There is no doubt that the Lord gave me more than my fair share of imagination. Story telling is as natural to me as breathing. However, the ‘technicalities’ of writing, (grammar, spelling, sentence construction); are all aspects I need to learn more about and improve upon.

Certainly, you can have the most well written book in the world, but if it lacks imagination it’s going to lack appeal. But then you can also have the most captivating story in the world and if it is poorly edited, it will be disregarded.

 I admit that I will most likely never have an aptitude for technical aspects. But we all have challenges to our natural instincts. Learning curves are important because without them there is no growth. I think understanding your natural instincts and working with them, is half the battle. A good dose of discipline and a prayer for help to overcome what is lacking is also vital.

What are your natural instincts? Knowing them is a great step towards understanding who you are, and what motivates you.

 

I’ve just come back from a few days on Daydream Island Resort and Spa (see link on side of page). The weather was sensational, the spa was intensely relaxing, the food was delicious, and the mock tails were fruitiful. (I highly recommend the experience). Sitting by the ocean as the waves lapped the shore, I wondered how life could get much better than this? Here in this tropical paradise I didn’t have to clean, cook, keep my child entertained, stress about business, or have a care in the world. It was with some heavy sighing that I made my way back to ‘reality’. Due to the fact that we run our own business, my husband was unable to join me on this three day get away. In any case, it was a girls’ retreat. I didn’t anticipate the humbling I received when I stepped foot in my door. My husband had tidied the house, done the washing and there was a delicious stew on the stove. It made me realize that as much as it was a pleasure to get away from ‘it all’ – it was a heart moment to get back to ‘it all’. How blessed I am that at times, life is truly a ‘daydream’.

It occurred to me that for an author with a fictional island called Resolution, perhaps I needed to devise some for 2012.

But then I decided to approach the New Year period the same way I approached this Christmas. When asked (many times) what our plans were, my answer was simply – ‘The plan is to have no plans.’ I have to say; it worked superbly. I didn’t cook, clean, entertain, or over eat. It was peace – pure peace, and quality time with those I loved.

So, riding high on this triumphant experience, my New Year’s Resolution is to make no resolutions. I will simply let my yes be yes, and my no be no. In fact, I consider that this is the very best way to be.

 

Yesterday, I was reading the well known Bible story of the paralytic man healed by Jesus. I’ve known it well since childhood, but this time I saw something completely different in the story. In the past I always thought of it in terms of a supernatural healing, this time I pondered the miracle that the man was even there in the first place.

He had to have some awesome friends because he couldn’t walk. The crowd around Jesus was so tight that there was no way a paralytic was getting through. So the people with him hauled him up to the rooftop – which would have been no small feat with a dead weight. Then they made a hole in the roof large enough for him to fit through. At no time does this story outline the dangers in doing so as it constitutes malicious intent to destroy property, trespass, not to mention being a little on the crazy side. Then they lowered him down to Jesus on a mat. How easy it could have been for that to go wrong! The place was packed. They did all this on a chance that he would be healed – which he was.

When you think about the part the nameless friends played you realize just how far these people stuck their necks out for this guy. They didn’t give up. They saw a chance for him and went for it, without thought or care for their own wellbeing, without any reference to consequence.

These people loved their friend. They were willing to sacrifice and take a chance for him.

Sometimes I feel as though the world is a place that promotes each to their own, every man for himself, get what you can. Even in places that have been traditionally a balance of profession and service like the political and medical spheres,  there are times when I cannot fathom the blatant take what you can attitude.

It all makes me appreciate my friends that much more. They are the ones that will stick their necks out for you, support you, and give away from themselves without contemplation of what’s in it for them. They lift you up when you’re feeling down. They take your grief and heartache upon their hearts. They give you a kick up the bottom when you need it, and they tell you what you don’t always want to hear – all because they love you.

There are definitely trying times in life. Moments of rejection or feelings of being undervalued. I have always tried to be the sort of person who gives without expecting in return. Not to say that I consider myself very ‘good’ – I don’t know that true ‘goodness’ can be achieved in human form.

The thing is: every embattled moment in my life fades in comparison to the outpouring of love and support that has been shown to me over the last few weeks. With the launch of my first novel ‘Back to Resolution’ I have been inundated with friends and family giving generously in so many ways it would be impossible to list. Not to mention the birthday greetings, the constant stream of well wishers, and those offering generous encouragement for my work.

When relating my gratitude to a friend she observed that if I had ever done a good deed for someone, it was just coming back. There’s no doubt that the truth exists within the statement: ‘Give and it shall be given unto you’. What an incredible feeling it is to see the proof of this in my life.

So, THANK YOU, to all of you who made the last few weeks so memorable for me. I highly value gratitude, and I want you to know that I am truly grateful to you all. Throughout my life I will look back on this time and smile away. xoxo