Writing in the midst of a thick fog
An Australian Daisy
A long, long time
It has been a very long time since I have written a post on this site. While there still is steady traffic to the many articles I have written over the years, I feel a little embarrassed about the lack of new content here.
A Deep Fog
I am currently coming out of a deep fog regarding my writing. This has lasted for well over 18 months. Initially, it was because much of my energy was taken up with fulltime caring for my wife. Next, it was dealing with her passing in January 2018, followed by all of the official matters dealing with wrapping up all of her affairs, followed closely by adapting to single life again after 47 years of marriage. At times it was difficult, at times it as depressing, and at all times it was challenging. And sometimes the grieving process, something that I necessarily had to experience, was debilitating. It left me little energy to devote to my writing.
Family visit
Just over a week ago, I left home in Murray Bridge, South Australia (near Adelaide) to drive to Sydney to visit my son and his family. I love seeing my two grandchildren growing up – it is happening too quickly at times – and also experiencing a part of their lives for a short time.
A different route
On the way, I took four days to get to Sydney instead of the normal two days. I took a different route for a change, travelling on some roads I hadn’t used for many years, as well as other roads which were completely new to me. Along the way, I enjoyed plenty of birding and photography, two of my many interests. I write about the birds I see and share photos of some of them on Trevor’s Birding.
Books and more books
As I stated at the beginning of this post, I have been living through a fog regarding my writing. I have still been writing regularly in my personal journal and a few other minor things, but the energy for serious writing to share with the world has been elusive. During this time of readjusting my life, I have been reading a great deal. I have read a steady stream of excellent novels, many articles and some books about writing as well as some inspirational books which have ministered deeply to my Christian spiritual needs. Many of these books I hope to review here on this site. Some I have already given short reviews on Goodreads.
Callistemon
A new enthusiasm
Having a short break away from home has given me a new perspective, and, I hope, a new enthusiasm to go on with my writing. I hope that this short holiday will be just the tonic I need to get on with new writing projects – I have a long list of potential stories and novels – as well as get many old projects launched out into the big wide world.
Good writing. Good reading.
Trevor
Vale, Corinne Hampel
Eastern Rosella in our garden
It has been far too long since my last entry here.
Sorry about that.
Sometimes life gets in the way. Writing articles here became a very low priority. I hope that you haven’t missed me too much.
Vale, Corinne
In the latter half of 2017, I became the full-time carer for my wife, Corinne. She had experienced many bouts of illness in her life from when we were first married – some 47 years ago. Her health deteriorated rapidly in the last few months of last year and we had many trips to the local medical centre as well as many drives to Adelaide for treatment – some 80 kilometres away (about 1 hour).
We were pleased to be able to celebrate Christmas as a family; our daughter who is currently teaching in Ethiopia flew home, and our son and family drove over from Sydney (about 15 hours’ drive). It was delightful to have the grandchildren here for this special occasion.
In the middle of January and after the second round of radiotherapy, my wife went downhill very rapidly. After a short stay in the local hospital, my wife passed peacefully and pain-free from this life on the 21st January 2018. She was surrounded by immediate family. Her funeral a week later was well attended by a wide range of people from many different aspects of Corinne’s life. It was a celebration of a life well lived with an impact on the lives of so many people.
I have written an obituary on her website, Mallee Native Plants Nursery here. She was a keen admirer and grower of Australian native plants. Her website contains a wealth of information on our plants and how to propagate them. I will maintain this site, for the time being, adding some new articles from time to time. Her nursery has now closed down and there are no plants for sale.
Her interest in our plants rubbed off on me and it complemented my interest in birds. Both of us loved sharing our flower photos and she grew to appreciate our beautiful bird life too. One of her favourite birds appears at the top of this post. She loved seeing all the birds in our garden, including the Eastern Rosella shown above whenever one of them came to our bird bath.
The photo below was taken at Christmas time in 2017. She was helping her two grandchildren to put the icing on the honey biscuits made especially for the occasion.
Corinne Hampel – my wife of 47 years
The future
I plan to get back into sharing my writing, book reviews and hints about the writer’s life here on this site over the coming weeks and months and – I hope – years. Last year I bought myself a new camera and this is proving to be more than I had hoped for – so expect many more photos to be shared as well. I am not yet ready to get back into travelling, but I definitely have plans to do so.
In the meantime – good reading and writing.
Trevor.
Congratulations and Happy Anniversary
This site, Trevor’s Writing, is celebrating its 11th Anniversary today.
It hardly seems like eleven years, but time flies when you are having fun. The start of this blog was soon after I retired from 35 years of teaching. (You can read more about me here and here)
Loyal readers – I salute you
Over the years I have been adding various articles here about writing, reading, publishing and many other things along the way. Sometimes I have posted regularly every few days; at other times I have gone weeks and sometimes months between posts. To anyone who has remained a regular reader – I salute you. Such patience and loyalty should be rewarded, but sadly, all I have to offer you are promises.
Works in progress
Over recent days and weeks, I have been working on a short novel for children. I hope to publish this soon, first as an eBook and then as a print book. Stay tuned. I have many more plans to self- publish many of my works of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. As a side project, I am also adding occasional entries to my memoirs. At this point, I am not sure if this will be a limited publication for family and friends only, or more widely available. We will see how it turns out.
Works still to come
I have plans for many more posts here on this site, as well as plenty of self-published eBooks and print on demand books. I can see an exciting future ahead, so stay with me. Over the last 25 years, I have written well over three million words, a good proportion of those words are on my blog sites. In addition to blogging, however, I have many unpublished works – novels, short stories, poems, articles and plays. Many of these I plan to polish, edit and publish, with a little rewriting as needed. I also have a half dozen picture book texts waiting to be sent off to traditional publishers.
Imagination
On top of all of the above writing, rewriting, editing, proofreading and so on, my fertile imagination won’t just stop. It keeps on coming up with great ideas to write about. Several ideas for novels have been bubbling away in my subconscious for months – some even years. Somehow, they must get written and out there for the world to enjoy.
Meanwhile…
I will keep the posts coming on a wide variety of topics, from publishing and writing hints, story ideas, writing prompts, poems, short fiction, book and film reviews and more.
Newsletter
Go to the sidebar or below the comments to sign up for my regular newsletter. It has been so regular, in fact, that issue #1 still hasn’t been written. (Sigh – that’s another thing I plan to write.)
Why not stop by and leave a comment or two?
Good reading, Good writing,
Trevor
Further reading:
- Archives – over a thousand articles on this site – and counting.
- Short story starters – these are always very popular with my readers; they are designed to start you off with your stories.
- Poetry – read samples of my poetry
- Short fiction – read some of my short fiction
- Trevor’s Birding – my blog about Australian birds
- Trevor’s Travels – my blog about our travels in Australia, Thailand, Nepal, Ethiopia, Morocco and Spain.
Guest posts on this site
Requests
From time to time I get requests from readers to write guest posts for this site (or my other sites Trevor’s Birding and Trevor’s Travels).
All my own writing
I guess I should be flattered that someone else would like to write articles here for me. It is somewhat encouraging that other writers value this site so much that they wish to write for me. The truth is – I write all of my own material. I have always written all of my own material on my various sites, except for our church site which is mostly my writing but occasionally the writing of others.
Over a thousand articles
This writing site has been in existence now for almost eleven years – I will celebrate its 11th birthday in early March. During that time I have written over a thousand articles. These have included examples of my poetry, some of my short stories, reviews of books I have read recently, and articles about the craft of writing. Included in the latter is a whole series on how I went about writing my novel and thesis paper for my Master of Arts Creative Writing degree a few year ago.
How to search my site
All of these articles, stories, reviews and poems can be accessed via the search facility at the top of each page, or via the archives, also near the top. Or you can use the cloud on the sidebar to look for specific topics.
Future policy changes
Things may change here on this and on my other sites. I may get to the point where I am so busy working on new projects – such as writing, publishing and promoting my novels – that I won’t have much time to write articles here. If this happens, I will announce this change of policy here, as well as in my regular newsletter.
Get my newsletter
You can easily subscribe to my regular newsletter by clicking on the title of any post, then going to the bottom of the page to sign up. I plan to publish these newsletters once a month this year. They will have information not included on this site, as well as details of upcoming publications. I would be delighted if you joined my growing number of regular readers.
Trevor
PS The photo below has nothing to do with writing. I took it on a recent holiday and think that it is a lovely photo of a beautiful Australian native plant.
Photo: Trevor Hampel
Book review
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.
I must say from the beginning that this is more of a personal response than an actual review. I have done many book reviews on this site over the years, and I plan to continue writing reviews from time to time. So much has already been said about this novel that what I could possibly add would be lost in a very crowded space.
Why did I read this book now?
I had always intended reading this classic. I just never got to read it. Throughout my other life as a primary classroom teacher here in South Australia for 35 years, I mostly read children’s books. After one disastrous event, I always made it a personal policy to read a book myself before reading it to my class. It had to be suitable and appropriate for those in my class. Now in retirement, I am enjoying being able to read anything that interests me. Because of all the hype about Harper Lee’s recently released second novel, Go Set a Watchman, and her more recent demise, I thought that it was about time I focussed my attention on her classic.
I am pleased that I did.
Classic status
I am not a good judge of what constitutes a classic piece of literature. I will leave that to the experts in the field. As with art, I am more of the “like it” brigade; I know what I like, and if I don’t like it but others do, then that merely shows a difference of taste and opinion. Let’s not get too upset with one another.
By any of the standards that I judge a book by, this has to be a classic work. It certainly has stood the test of time and is possibly more popular and more widely read than ever before. It is certainly well written and engages the reader like any great book should. It has memorable characters that stay with you forever – or certainly for a long time after reading. It has a simple premise and an intriguing plot. The story line carries the reader on, always turning the pages to see what happens next. I could go on, but I promised a personal response.
My response to this book:
In the previous paragraph, I indicated some of the elements that make this book a memorable classic work of literature. While I certainly concur with all of these statements, for me this book was far more than that. It has left a lasting impression. It is a glimpse into the times and culture of a small American town in the 1930s. It has made me realise the importance of the little events of life which have such an impact on ordinary people. I couldn’t help thinking of my own period of growing up in a small Australian farming community in the 1950s, and comparing the two.
Racial tensions
The most outstanding theme of this book – and arguably what makes it so outstanding – it the author’s portrayal of the racial tensions of the times in which it is set. The contrasts are stark. The legacy seems to be ongoing. (That’s if I read the current American culture correctly.) The inequalities and differences between all levels of society are certainly drawn starkly, and the reader is left in no doubt about those divisions.
Australian literature
Australia has been largely free of racial tensions until the last few decades. And so far, we do not have an outstanding classic work of literature which has addressed the obvious tensions in our society. Layered upon that is the multicultural aspect of modern Australia and we have a simmering melting pot. Our country is ready for such a work as this. Or am I being too critical of Australian literature? The only works which seem to come close to Mockingbird would be Kate Grenville’s The Secret River and David Malouf’s Remembering Babylon. Remember, though, I have not yet read widely in classic Australian literature, so listing only two titles seems rather inadequate.
Conclusion
In summary, I can now understand why To Kill a Mockingbird has received so many accolades. I can appreciate its place in the annals of American literature; indeed, it stands tall in the literature of the world. It is one of those books which should appear on every “Top 100 Books You Must Read” list.
One question remains: Did I enjoy the book?
To that I give an unqualified “YES”.
Readers
Questions for my readers:
- What are your responses to this book?
- What about the book did you enjoy – or hate?
- Leave a few comments, please.
Good reading – and good writing.
Trevor