The Learning Curve

Wow, writing a book is a whole lot more complicated and involved than I ever thought it would be. And there are so many people involved in the process as well!
When I first set out to write my children's book. I thought right, I'll write it, get Matt to read it, someone else will edit it and then bam! It will be finished. (HA)
I have written it, then rewritten it, built on the characters, sent it out to people, got feedback, rewritten, more feedback, more rewriting, printed it out, scribbled all over the print out, reworked it, got more feedback, rewritten again. And I'm still working on it! (Phew!)
But you know what? I am learning so much. This isn't just about writing a book. It's about becoming involved in the whole book world. You can't just be an author on your own anymore. A writer needs a support network. People who are willing to read my work and give me advice. I need to build up a network of people who might want to read my finished work as well. Then there are writers groups and workshops, people who edit my work and proof it for me. It's like a whole community that I've become involved in.
I need to know the book trends. What are people reading right now? Who publishes what? Do I want to self-publish? And are people actually going to want to read what I am writing? Who knows?
But it's good and it's fun and it's exciting.
It's also been a huge learning curve, one that I'm not finished climbing but I'll get there. One day.

Soaking up the Beauty

We went to Cradle Mountain last week, we're in Tasmania at he moment, and it was so gorgeous.  I felt my thirst for beauty being quenched as I soaked up the amazing scenery. 
The drive there was incredible to. First we saw a triple rainbow, I didn't even know they existed.  But there it was, short and very wide. The colours became more intense before it faded away.
We drove through frosted forest sparkling in the sun. The day was picture perfect, sunny and blue skies. Seeing the reflection of Cradle Mountain in Dove lad was so clear and spectcular. The vegetation up there is so different from what I am used to seeing in Australia. 
We went wombat spotting in broad daylight and saw 14. A couple were so close we could have touched them. They were incredibly placid and din't care that we were so near to them. 
After the wombats we went to check out 'Waldheim', the very first guest house to be built in 1921 near Cradle Mountain by an Austrian man and his wife, Gustav and Kate Weindorfer. The couple helped to preserve Cradle Mountain National Park. 'Waldheim' meaning forest home was a lovely wood house that looked like it belonged in Austria. Moss covered trees and an old wooden bride and steps made the place look like it was out of a storybook. 
God must have taken a lot of pleasure in creating Cradle Mountain and it's surrounds. I'm sure He took great pleasure in us enjoying it today as well.

The Brave Thing

One of my favourite movies is 'You've Got Mail.' There is this scene in it that I love. Kathleen has just decided to close her shop and her good friend Birdie says, "Closing the shop is the brave thing to do."
I guess I take this as saying, "Stepping out of your comfort zone is the brave thing to do."
I have always wanted to write. Ever since I was little, telling made up stories to my parents. We'll I'm finally doing the brave thing. This is it.
I'm also realising that if one wants to write, one needs to blog. Social networking is apparently a very important part of being a writer.
And so it begins.
Epiphany: 'You've Got Mail' is a movie about books!