Chit-chat Wednesday and Misty Blackheath Streets

We are now home from the misty mountains where I travelled for research for 'Currawong House'. The trip was totally blissful. So difficult to return to gritty Sydney after the peace in Blackheath and very pretty Leura.
Bluebells and daffodils were everywhere and Blackheath kindly turned on a wonderful mist for us. Sadly, she kept the snow back until our return much to Daisy's disgust. We ate holiday type food, read holiday books, lazed and shopped in antique shops. I woke predawn everyday to write in my notebook, walk through dew-soaked grass and follow the Currawongs.

Since our return we have had drama emergency rushes to the hospital with Daisy. Our five-year-old daughter has the distinction of being one of the rare children with gallstones. Sunshine is soaking Sydney streets. I love this time of year when the terraces in the old streets seem bathed in light.

The book is forming itself. I feel the story beginning to rise like mist in Blackheath Streets.
Thank you for visiting me. xx

Magnificent, Marvellous, Mighty Monday and The Bromleys

Hello,

I'm on a research trip to the mountains. I don't have computer access or television there. So there's no distractions. It's bliss to write, dream and feel my characters begin to form. I can sense them gathering together for 'Currawong House'. The strike of matches, a prolonged and piercing scream. The smell of turps. But it's very early days and they're not revealing themselves fully yet. At times, they tease me with little hints that they are forming. I need to go to the mountains to wait - and listen.

On Saturday night I saw - compliments of Daily Imprint Blog - Songs for Sylvie at the Seymour Centre.
Torri Dixon-Whittle is one of those people who are so fab and so inspiring, you nearly have to lie down to absorb their fabness. She is the wife/muse of Australian artist David Bromley, whose paintings you can see above. I do love his nostalgic, slightly moody children.
Tori is also an artist - you can find out more about her from this interview at The Daily Imprint Blog, which if you're not following - then JUST DO IT! Nearly every day a lovely inspiring, fab arty person is interviewed by Natalie Walton. She has a varied bunch of totally cool and interesting people from Nikki Gemmell to India Hicks to Clare Press. And she has just started another Blog, Frontliners, which I love (as I'm a long-time Selby fan). Frontliners is a house Blog which features the houses of totally fab and cool-as-cats folk without their homes being too stylized for the shoot.

I can't leave you this week with more inspiration to savour than the Bromleys and Daily Imprint. Have a super fab week and I'll look forward to visiting you all when I return.
Thanks for popping in. xx
david bromley's art source
bromley family photo source
torri dixon-whittle image source

I am flying. Poets Cottage has sold.

I am flying. I am finding it difficult to take in at the moment, even though I've known for a couple of weeks. Today - Spring Equinox - I spent the morning at my agent's signing a two-book deal with Pan Macmillan.

I am swooping over the chimney tops and breaking apart clouds as I say those words again. I've been writing now for six years out of contract. Poets Cottage took me three years to write as I struggled with juggling motherhood and writing.
It has been three years since I stood outside the 'real Poets Cottage' in the Tasmanian evening light watching the full moon rise over her roof and the shadows move in the garden.

She gave her story to me then and I passed it on.

I am soaring with my dreams amongst the stars now. Swoosh! Swoosh! Watch me swoop!

The Spring Equinox is a time of balance, contemplation, celebration and giving thanks. I have a lot to celebrate tonight.

Other things in my life are not so good. The shadows are there with the ongoing health problems of a close family member.

But tonight I will wave to you from the sky wherever you are. If you look out of your window to the night. I am smiling back. xx

chagall image source

Magnificent, Marvellous, Mighty Monday and Sharks, Yellow Roses and Sophie Dahl

Hello,
I spent the weekend working on a crime short story for the annual Sisters In Crime competition. The sunshine was as glorious and light-filled in Sydney as my story was dark.
Here are some lovely things inspiring me as I start my week.
Vintage-style yellow Rose Wallpaper. This lovely paper was recently in the latest Australian Notebook magazine. I do love yellow roses. I've sent for samples of this one (Eglantine) as I'm planning on papering our laundry area and our outside writing shed (Sparrow Chateau). Regular readers will know we've built an outdoor writing shed in our small terrace backyard. Because I've been working on Poets Cottage, I haven't had a lot of time to decorate it. However, we are going to take down our old Hills Hoist line in the next couple of weeks and install an old-fashioned Granny line to open up the space before Sparrow Chateau, so watch this space. I've also ordered the pink and red floral Eglantine for our bedroom. I do love vintage style floral wallpaper. And this one is so beautiful: olde-worlde but with a modern twist and snap.
The Scribe never fails to inspire me. He recently returned from diving with the Great Whites for a story for his magazine. Here is about to enter the shark cage. He went down with the sharks not once but five times and in very choppy conditions as well. He was safe from the sharks (some who he said were bigger than cars). However, a tuna did take a bite out of his finger.
If you care to see a short footage of one of the sharks, it's on his Blog here.
And I can't wait for Sophie Dahl's Cooking show which is coming to Foxtel on September 20th. I think she is the prettiest woman alive, she has the greatest cheekbones. The show sounds wonderful with its literary references and nostalgic blend. I loved her book, Playing With The Grown-Ups.
I hope your week is filled with old worlde glamour, creative and thrilling adventures.
Thank you for visiting me. xx

wallpaper eglantine image source:

sophie dahl image source

Chit-chat Wednesday and A Cup of Sunshine

The light was so beautiful in Sydney over the weekend. Cups of sunshine sprinkling the inner-city. We played family board games, op-shopped and fed wild pigeons. I watched the new Miss Marple and we fell asleep through Prime Suspect. I met my women's spiritual group. We baked chicken, apple crumble, went to swimming lessons and looked for pixies in parks. It was a weekend of little happenings but perfect. Midweek it is raining again which is my favourite weather. I am working on my crime short story which has to be my lightest one yet. The sunshine on the weekend must still be with me. All week I am humming a little tune and feeling happy inside. The Scribe is leaving next week on a work trip to look for sharks. I shall miss him. I plan to throw myself into my new book so I don't notice his absence. And I have been watching a lot of Charlie and Lola. xx

Chit-chat Wednesday and Spike

It's raining today and the world looks bleak from my window. We had a lovely weekend where not a lot happened but it was perfect in its simplicity. I went to the op-shop and found a Shirley Barber board game for five dollars which we played all weekend. I found some time to read magazines and the weekend papers in the garden. Spike, our cactus, who had grown to a precarious height (18 feet) and was swaying dangerously for months threatening low-flying planes, finally got a haircut.
Hard to believe that a few years ago, I carried Spike home along King Street, a tiny baby cactus in a pot as a gift for the Scribe.
When Daisy was born Spike celebrated the occasion by sprouting his first flower (he has only ever had two).
Today I am working on a crime short story, based on a real-life incident that happened to me. Outside I can see cars covered in rain, a grey sky. Cars are swishing past boxes on our verandah filled with spiky body parts

Chit-chat Wednesday - And the award goes to...

Thanks for popping in. We are frantically busy this week preparing to move to our summer location for six weeks whilst the remainder of our renovation work is done on our little cottage. I had to mention amongst all the packing, de-cluttering, and madness that Tale Peddler has won another award! Thank you very much to my lovely UK Blogging pal, The Curious Cat (who looks rather fetching in a shower hat) and who has presented me with the Honest Scrap award.
The award tradition is that I now list ten honest scrap things about myself and pass the award to ten other Bloggers I love. Big breath and here we go:
1/ All the characters in my fantasy trilogy had parts of myself, but the one I related to the most was the Winski who records the story of his tribe. My friends often think it was the soap-star wannabe actress (huh!) but it was the Winski who was my alter-ego.
2/ I am phone-phobic and hate talking on the phone.
3/ I attend Catholic Mass on a regular basis and I collect Mary statues. My witchy friends don't understand my interest with the church. But you can't please everybody.
4/ I hate making small talk and I'm hopeless in social situations (the Scribe totally disagrees here!).
5/ I live in the inner-city but at heart I'm a country girl and could happily live in the country if the Scribe could get work there.
6/ I am borderline Obsessive Compulsive Disorder by my own diagnosis in the way I like to clip newspaper items that interest me. The Scribe forced me to throw away a lot of my 'interest' when he put them all together and they took up a quarter of a room. I have a lot of interests. But I do get loads of story and book ideas from newspapers and magazines.
7/ I am a total homebody. I love being at home pottering around and have to be prised out.
8/ I believe in ghosts. I have seen a ghost which convinced me of other realities.
9/ I love writing crime and mystery but also fantasy and I'm often torn between the two. I have so many stories going in my head that it really is overwhelming at times.
10/ I started Tale Peddler to distract myself from a situation that is happening in my life. So far it hasn't worked but I've met a lot of fabbo people and made good blogging pals.

And my ten Blogs to pass the Honest Scrap Award to are:

1/ Owl In The Dark - Totally magical, transformative and beautiful. You have to experience it rather than have it explained! The little owl who keeps it sees ghosts and talks to furniture. Visiting her is rather like entering a beautiful, strange fairytale. She also has an extraordinary knitting blog.
2/Bookish Blonde- I always get a laugh from Sharon with her musings on men, life and writing.
3 What Kate Did Next- Terrific Blog which combines art, writing and motherhood with beautifully written posts.
4 Chez Pinry Another mother (of twins no less, and a four-year-old). Has lovely crafty posts and pics. Well deserving of any award and medal in my book.
5 The Machinist's Wife- Helen blogs about her family, interests and setting up a pie shop in a small Australian town. Being a pie lover, I love Helen.
6 Beach Vintage- Simone is a bit of a legend with all her Bloggy awards but she deserves every one of them. If you like vintage, beachy posts then Simon's Blog is sure to delight. Best of all: she includes tips on how to achieve her brilliant ideas.
7 The Lark - The lovely Allison, a very clever and crafty lady, blogs about her vintage-inspired business and her family from her pretty country town of Daylesford. Allison's collection of vintage Ladybird books is enough to make me fall in love alone.
8 La Belette Rouge - Thoughtful, intelligent, stylish and literary Blog with a variety of topics about life in LA. Definitely worth a visit. Another one to experience rather than explain. I recently contributed as a guest blogger to her Home section, writing about our Little Brick Cottage.
9 The Daily Connoisseur- Lovely Jennifer has a very stylish Blog with an arty twist. Another mystery book lover with beautiful manners and style. Jennifer's blog is about living your highest life possible.
10 Suzy's Vintage Attic- A new Blog to me which has totally captivated me with its charming and nostalgic feel. I think Isabelle and I have a lot in common with our love of vintage and Miss Marple. I adore Isabelle's posts which contain mouthwatering photos of England, her lovely home and charming daughter.

And there you have it! Quite an eclectic mix. Hopefully you will find some new friends and inspiration amongst these fabbo and lovely people. Do pay them a visit and let them know the Tale Peddler sent you! xx
image source:

Magnificent, Marvellous, Mighty Monday and AGATHA CHRISTIE

I can still remember the first Agatha Christie book I ever borrowed from the library, a graphic paperback with a woman's head bashed in with lurid, vivid detail. Here began an intense love affair with the Queen of Crime and her creations. Her covers may have softened over the years, reflecting a more retro, softer image, but to me that early cover reflects the true darkness in the series of webs that Agatha, the deadly and clever black spider, spun so well for us.

People are not often what they seem; she's reported to have said and in her books the world of gentle English chocolate-box prettiness is definitely not what it seems. Many of her diabolical plot ideas kept me awake at nights: And Then There Were None, Murder On The Orient Express, Murder Is Easy, Endless Night and so on. Many times the killer was often the last person you truly did expect. Agatha didn't balk at using child killers or old lady killers and she revolutionized the Golden Age of Detective Fiction when she boldly used the narrator as killer.

Agatha has been often derided by literary minds, but I'm now in good company in my Agatha worship as writers such as Kate Mosse and Val McDermid are vocal in their praises of her.

The night in London where the Scribe and I enjoyed The Mousetrap (Agatha's play and the longest running play in theatrical history) remains a highlight of my life. I hope to take Daisy there to see it as well!

And so for Magnificent, Marvellous, Mighty Monday let us honour the spirit of the Queen of Crime, who showed us the darkness of the human spirit beneath its very respectable face and the evil lurking beneath the coziest of facades. May Agatha's cool, innovative, detached genius inspire us all in our creative efforts this week!

“The best time to plan a book is while you're doing the dishes.”Agatha Christie

“I specialize in murders of quiet, domestic interest.”Agatha Christie