Graham Thomas
Born at an early age into an ancient Welsh family (mother aged 92, father 87), Graham knew he was an unwanted child, because his parents moved house just a few days before he was born. When, at the age of three, he finally caught up with them, he became obsessed with singing sea shanties, many of which he learnt at his mother’s knee - they were tattooed on her thigh. This foray into musicality propelled him towards fame and stardom as a musician. Sadly, the musical progress of this incipient child prodigy was cruelly cut short, when, at the age of five, the string of his triangle broke.
Undaunted and undeterred he sought solace in another form of the arts as his life took a turn towards writing, and a brief fifty nine years later he put pen to paper. His first effort at creative writing drew wide acclaim when, on the back of a buff coloured envelope he wrote ‘Sorry about the bent triangle, Mum.’ We should emphasise that Graham wasn’t on the back of the envelope. The writing was. Once started, there was no stopping him. We all know you cannot put the genie back into the bottle. This prodigious talent was to know no bounds as evidenced by his second literary offering which he produced just a few short months later, namely ‘The string is in my pocket still.’ The indications were there for all to see. This talent had to go somewhere, and many people have suggested the very destination for it. He is in the throes of completing his first book, and when that’s done and dusted, he’ll start reading his second.
A quick turn towards the dramatic side of the arts led Graham to form a drama group, productions of which produced such critical acclaim as that prominently displayed in the renowned Scottish and Outer Hebrides Ironmongers Gazette, which credited the magical works with the immortal words forever etched in the artistes’ souls ‘.......worth travelling miles to avoid.’, ‘Try Arsenic and Old Lace before you try this.’ Oh, what it meant to be associated with such illustrious company. But Graham’s restless soul cajoled him into turning back to writing, or at least, turning his back on everything else.
So here we are dear reader. I still have the day job as an English language teacher. It’s just the students I feel sorry for. Poor devils. I hope you derive (or deride?) some measure of pleasure from these my paltry offerings. I wish I could do better. You deserve it.
Nene Davies
In 2002, Nene and her husband sold their family home in Wales, packed up their three children, said goodbye to family and friends and emigrated to Australia.
It was a daunting yet exciting time and at the age of forty-two, it seemed silly not to at least have a go at following a treasured dream. What if, thought Nene, we look back in ten years and say ‘if only we’d tried’?
Now, ten years down the track, the children have grown up, left home and are thriving, while Nene and her husband continue living their dream in beautiful Brisbane.
The icing on the cake for Nene, is the freedom these days to focus full-time on her lifelong love of writing.
She belongs to the Queensland Writers Centre and is a proud member of the Victoria Point Writing Group.
They say you should write about what you know, so Nene’s first novel ‘Distance’ is about a family of five who emigrate to Australia, while Ten Minute Tales emerged from a combination of writing workshops and e-mails between group members.
Nene feels blessed to be part of such a close-knit and supportive writing community. She’s moved house many times over the years, but whether in Brisbane, Newcastle, Melbourne or the UK on family visits, Nene feels close to her band of writing buddies. She believes it’s truly a privilege to be living this blessed life in the country of her dreams, with love and friendship spanning the globe – and with the gift of time to spend on her writing, things are better than she ever dared hope.
E-mail: [email protected]
Twitter: @Nene_Davies
Facebook: nenedavieswrites
Website: www.nenedavieswrites.weebly.com
These
Carole Worthy
Carole was inspired to take up writing after the death of her sister to cancer. In her early sixties at the time, Carole felt she could honour the struggle her sister faced coming to terms with the terminality of the disease, by writing a memoir based on their time together during the last six months of her sister’s life. This is still a work in progress.
In between working on the memoir, Carole has tried her hand at writing short stories. She has been very interested in researching family history over the past few years and has used some of this material as the basis for a few stories. She has submitted several entries to short story competitions, and currently awaits the results for two of them. The ten minute tales also seemed to be a fruitful way to exercise the imagination.
Hailing originally from Melbourne, Carole now lives in Brisbane with her husband and three adult children. She trained and worked as a primary school teacher in Victoria and then moved to Queensland and retrained as a social worker. Later in life she returned to teaching as a Learning Support Teacher. Her work as a teacher of children with learning difficulties has invigorated her love of language and now, creative writing.
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @CasWorthy
Laurie Gilbert
Laurie dreamed of life as a writer, fuelled by enthusiastic applause for her first drama at age seven. Fiction was the thing.
But life had other ideas.
Writing – yes – non-stop; but the mundane kind dominated, through many over-the-top family, study and work years.
It started with personal letters and cards from distant places, about moves and work and rites of passage.
Then continued as an academic slog, from assignments to post-graduate theses.
Became professional; from nursing notes, lesson plans, operational research documents from proposal to outcome evaluation reports.
All interspersed with clutches of bureaucratic writing, within national, state and local authorities in three countries: the gamut, from ministerial speech notes to writing large tracts of the National Women’s Health Policy (1989).
Now joy of joys: retirement and the freedom to meld fiction writing with a lifetime’s experience; no picky constraints from legal interpretation or graceless facts. Laurie’s husband reckoned she would never get past ‘bureaucratic think’, her son is mildly bemused. Readers must be the judge.
With a small collection of short stories and the draft of a family saga to edit, the writing future promises fun challenges. Next step publication?
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @el_author
Blog: sagalines.wordpress.com
CONCLUSION
We would like to thank the Redland City Council Libraries for initiating the Authors in Action Program through encouraging and supporting the formation of Writer’s Groups to meet monthly in local libraries. Other aspects of the program include regular talks by published authors who enjoy the opportunity to speak about and promote their most recent publications, and workshops about the art and craft of writing. This year sees the second Redlitzer short story competition to encourage emerging authors. It was our delight that for Marci’s wonderful short memoir, The heart of the matter, she was selected to participate in a weekend developmental workshop, and to have the story published in the 2011 Redlitzer Anthology.
Our Victoria Point Writer’s Group near Brisbane really clicked; but not until we’d navigated the classic development journey: started enthusiastically, hiccupped, had a few leavers and arrivers, almost folded, received a couple of new members from other groups in the area; then pulled together again with seven steady members, one participating faithfully after moving to Melbourne, and back again. Over time there was enough trust for our critiques to become more honest, more constructive. As our critiquing improved, so did the writing. Four of us have finished novels or memoir drafts at final editing stage.
We also wish to acknowledge the help given to us by photographe
r Penny Franke who gifted us our wonderful cover picture which we chose from several other local scenes she provided.
Victoria Point Writer’s Group
July 2012
Ten Minute Tales Page 5