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Turning Toward the “Wokeness” of Repentance
And thinking again with the heart – an Australian point of view Not a writing exercise this time; but a reflection on reclaiming moral imagination – something that is drawing my attention as I read Vigen Guroian’s “Tending the Heart of Virtue: How Classic Stories Awaken a Child’s Moral Imagination” (1998) In Australia, we say Continue reading
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“Show Train”
A Josip Novakovich exercise in scene development. Task: Describe a train ride… Objective: To show the experience of travel. Novakovich, Josip. Fiction Writer’s Workshop (p. 41). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. Once a year, for few days in August, they’d open the Exhibition Line, and you could take the train right into the Show. The Continue reading
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Workplaces #2: “Labourers for the Kill Floor”
Warning: explicit and graphic detail – meat processing. This is the second of two scene development exercises: The Task: Describe places where you have worked …Describe how the people handle their tools and machines. Objective: To concentrate on the details and energy of a workplace. Workplaces make perfect story setups because they make it easy for you Continue reading
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Workplaces #1: “Civil Dawn”
The Task: Describe places where you have worked …Describe how the people handle their tools and machines. Objective: To concentrate on the details and energy of a workplace. Workplaces make perfect story setups because they make it easy for you to integrate the place and the character. People shape the place, the places shape the Continue reading
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“Three Places: 1965”
The Task: “Describe three places you have been. Don’t worry about pretty words; mention the important and some unimportant details you remember.” Novakovich, Josip. Fiction Writer’s Workshop (p. 40). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. “Braeside” 1965 There were only two seasons in Far Western Queensland’s Channel Country when Christy and his father went on to Continue reading
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“Three Ordinary Objects…”
…with just a touch of the unusual. A Josip Novakovich exercise from “A Fiction Writer’s Workshop”. Espresso Saucer A scarlet espresso saucer sits, without its cup, on my writing table. It is of soft, thick china that shines, reflecting the late afternoon sun as a small bright light on its raised outer rim – a Continue reading
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“Little Jim and Old Harry”
A Josip Novakovich exercise in describing the setting for an event connected to an item in a home in which I grew up. The item I’ve selected is a Jarvis Walker ‘Little Jim’ fishing rod. For readers not familiar with fishing Queensland’s Gold Coast in the late 1950s, Jarvis Walker was an Australian fishing rod Continue reading
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“Beaton”
A writing exercise in giving one intense emotion I’ve experienced [anger] to a fictional character. I had to make sure the character is not me, but the emotion should be mine. The task required me to create a scene employing the fictional character and the emotion and to involve another person as an antagonist or Continue reading
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“Written in Captivity at Betaris”
An exercise in interpreting scriptures through filling in gaps in stories. I have taken, for my subject, Joseph Barsabas who is also called Justus – the one passed over in Acts 1:21-26. This is the testimony of Joseph son of Saba, written in captivity at Betaris in the reign of Emperor Galba, in hope of Continue reading
About Me
An Australian post-lawyer reclaiming creative space and delving into speculative fiction after too long an absence.
Sunburnt Speculations 