Inspiring women

Monday with Sexton – Witch of Words

josephinetalepeddler 0 Comments
The Truth the Dead Know
Gone, I say and walk from the church,
refusing the stiff procession to the grave,
letting the dead ride alone in the hearse.
It is June. I am tired of being brave.
We drive to the cape. I cultivate
myself where the sun gutters from the sky,
where the sea swings in like an iron gate
and we touch. In another country people die.
My darling, the wind falls in like stones
from the whitehearted water and we touch
we enter touch entirely. No one’s alone.
Men kill for this, or for as much.
And what of the dead? They lie without shoes
in their stone boats. They are more like stone
than the sea would be if it stopped.
They refuse
to be blessed, throat, eye and knucklebone.

LIFE’S SO LIGHT

josephinetalepeddler 10 Comments

It’s been a busy and exciting week for me with interviews for publicity for Poet’s Cottage and working on the FINAL stages of the first draft of Currawong Manor. Yes, it’s nearly there! The characters are doing their usual games with me at the moment but I think I’m following behind. Thankfully, this bunch is patient.

 

I’m so thrilled to post the first review of Poet’s Cottage HERE. It’s such a surreal feeling for me to see the book that has been part of my life since 2007 now out there in public. I know Booktopia have preorders available HERE and thank you to the lovely friends who have put in orders.

If you are interested in chasing down my original magical trilogy then Momentum have all three books (with brand new covers) as EBooks. YOu can find them HERE.

I am in my garden writing shed. It is pouring with rain and I’m so blissful I could melt. There’s no greater joy than writing in the garden in the pouring rain.

I have to also mention one of my favourite Blogs, The Local Rose, has just celebrated its first birthday. I don’t have a lot of time to visit Blogs but this is one I always love.

Shiva and her lovely daughter

My dream is to buy a writing retreat and head to the bush as often as possible to live a glam and bohemian a life as Shiva Rose. Her lovely, light-filled home was also featured on Apartment Therapy this week.

Shiva's home via Apartment Therapy

 

And in moments of great joy or sadness, I always turn to one of my favourite movies. The Unbearable Lightness of Being.

 

 

This move is so beautiful, so haunting, it hurts.

Life’s so Light.

Thank you for visiting me. I should also mention that Poet’ s Cottage will be featured in the March edition of Good Reading magazine. The article will tell the story of how a family holiday inspired my mystery novel. Have a beautiful weekend. I am hoping for a couple of dawn writing sessions to get the first draft out of me.

This morning my geranium at the front of the house which I sadly thought had died has a lovely red new flower for me to marvel over. xx

“She loved to walk down the street with a book under her arm. It had the same significance for her as an elegant cane for the dandy a century ago. It differentiated her from others.” ― Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being

 

 

MONA, QUOLLS, MEDIUMS AND A CANNY WITCH

josephinetalepeddler 12 Comments
I hope you had a lovely Christmas and New Year. We escaped to my favourite place on Earth – my home state of Tasmania – for a family Christmas.
I sighed over houses in Bellerive.
Ate fish and chips at Mure’s
and saw the incredible MONA gallery which has to be one of the most exciting venues for contemporary art in the world. A must-see if you’re heading to Tasmania and really worthy of a blog post of its own. Hats off to the flamboyant David Walsh, who chose to put the fortune he made from gambling into art.
Bless you, David Walsh, for creating such an exciting and rich exhibit for Hobart. Not all of the works were to my taste but that’s part of the fun. You select what you love and hate with the O machine that you carry around; you can also see how other visitors voted. I found the Poo Machine really silly (I couldn’t stay in the room with the stench) and the Vagina Wall wasn’t really my cup of tea, but it’s all interesting. It wasn’t as shocking as I imagined but then I did spend three years at the College of Fine Arts so it takes a lot to rock me. But MONA was way, way better than I had envisaged it would be.
We journeyed to Bruny Island for a few days where we fed wild quolls, watched hard-working fairy penguins and shearwaters return from a day at sea, and explored desolate beaches.
Daisy swapped television and city streets for nature, no shops, very late nights with our wildlife watching and the most pristine air and views imaginable. Not to mention the most luscious food on the planet. If you haven’t eaten fresh Tasmanian raspberries, just-picked peas in the pod and my total favourite of them all – pink-eye potatoes – then you must or bust. I’m always a glutton in Tasmania and the owner of the unit we stayed at on Bruny claimed the food is better because the climate encourages a slow growth which makes all the food tastier.

Josephine Pennicott and Daisy on Bruny Island

 

When you have a parent die so near to Christmas, the day can never be as magical as it would have been. Despite the silence that fell upon us at times there were many treasured moments.
I love the fact my daughter is still so innocent and believes so strongly in the magic of Father Christmas. She did ask David why so many of her toys were made in China. As he paused to consider a reply, she said with a triumphant chorus, ‘I know! It’s because the elves were lazy and bought them from the shops!’
 
It’s always so difficult for me to return from the shimmering beauty of my home state. Returning to Sydney on New Years Eve, we were greeted by the rudest taxi driver you could imagine and the usual long queues at the airport and gritty industrial city streets. ‘Welcome back to Sydney’ I sighed to long-suffering David who knows he is now in for several months of me frantically trying to come up with every reason why we should all relocate to Tasmania. I can spend hours surfing Domain, dreaming as I cluck over the houses and prices. ‘If we sell up here, we could buy a house and a boat in Tasmania’ is my current, cunning lure to my Sydney-loving man.
My daughter is home on school holidays which always impacts on my word count. Just before Christmas, I had the agony of my new laptop falling from the bed, breaking the hardrive and I lost a week of unbacked work on my Currawong Book. Luckily, my characters are patient with me. This book is different in that a lot of it came to me already fully formed – unlike Poet’s Cottage which flowed as I wrote. I knew from the beginning with Currawong Manor, where it was heading and all the character’s secrets. Hopefully, it will work. The first draft is always a vexing time and often it feels as exciting as my Foxtel guide.

Josephine Pennicott and Allison Dubois

And I have launched into 2012 with a very spiritual week ahead. As you can see from the photograph which I posted on my Facebook, I once again was in a VIP audience with Allison Dubois of Medium fame. Alas, no connection was made for me but many interesting and poignant stories from the audience, including a suicide and a murder case which Allison channelled a lot of information through. It’s the second time I’ve been in the VIP audience and although disappointed not to be selected for a reading, it’s always emotional to witness the shock, elation and tearful joy of people who receive strong readings from Allison.
On Saturday I visit renowned witch and tarot reader, Ly de Angeles who has quite a reputation for giving you the hard truth. You can read more about her death prediction to one of her clients HERE. I’m looking forward to meeting with Ly as I’ve read quite a lot about her over the years. She sounds like an amazing character and I’ve wanted to have a reading with her for years. Fingers crossed for this session…
Wishing you a magical 2012. May this year be the one that you follow your Bliss, appreciate the present moment and live the amazing life you deserve. I’m very into Gratitude at the moment and have started a second blog to journal online a year of gratitude. I’m not expecting anyone to follow this one but I do feel it’s important for me to appreciate what is here right now as I tend to always be focusing on the absence. I’ll post a link when I get it up and running. 
Here’s to being present and appreciative in 2012.
Thank you for visiting me. xx

More Tease than Dita

josephinetalepeddler 3 Comments
If you’re on my Facebook, you’ll know I’ve been skiting a bit about going for early morning runs in our local park. I’m really not a running type of person. Yoga yes, but jogging is something I haven’t done since Farrah Fawcett and the Angels jiggled away in the original shows.

 But lately, there’s been a lot happening in my life and I find I don’t sleep well at night for the first time ever. So I hope running will help to soothe my jangled nerves and thoughts.

It’s heavenly in our local park. I thought I might be mugged or murdered before I set out, but it seriously looked as if half of Sydney had the same idea to get up before the dawn and run like a crazy thing. There were people running carrying tyres, people running carrying sticks, people running carrying mobiles. People boxing, doing Tai Chi, people walking dogs. People everywhere! And yet the park is so large that somehow we all seem to fit and it doesn’t feel intrusive.

Here’s a couple of shots of where I’ve been running. Can you imagine we have this much green beauty and marshlands on our doorstep? It goes for miles. I love seeing all the wildlife and birds very early in the morning. And it’s literally a five-minute walk from my front door.

I loved it so much on the first morning, that I had to run home and wake my husband up – yes, I’m that cruel – and insist he go running too. This created great excitement in our house with my daughter wanting to run as well instead of going to school. He came back glowing and more awake than I’ve seen him in months. We are now converts to dawn running.

Did you watch The Slap (if you’re in Australia) last week on the ABC? My book club didn’t love the book by Christos Tsiolkas. I was very disappointed in the novel as it had been so hyped and I couldn’t wait to read it – but I found the characters all so revolting and the sex scenes so unbelievable that I couldn’t enjoy it. It was a champion of an idea, however and I take my hat off to him for that.

For once, Ms Australian TV seems to have got it right. I loved the first episode, which didn’t have any quirky characters and in fact featured people that are just like some people I know. So fab to see Essie Davis (my favourite Australian actress) and yes, I know I’ve said it before – but she’s a Tasmanian girl – so there you are! Love Essie.

Lovely Essie Davis

But also Melissa George was really good playing Rosie. I do know a woman who is exactly like Rosie. I think all the elements of the book which I disliked are all diluted on TV and that makes the whole thing work better in my opinion. I also love the idea (as Essie Davis said in an interview) that each character really gets slapped when Hugo is ‘disciplined’ by a fellow barbecue guest who is not his parent. And so I have to admit, that Ms Australia TV has redeemed herself after her last pitiful offering of Underbelly Razor and I shall be watching again tonight. There is a rather good website set up for The Slap here if you want to read more and see some cast videos.

My roses provide me with so much pleasure

My book, Poet’s Cottage has sold to Bolinda audio publishing which is wonderful as my sister has been slowly going blind for many years now. She has retinitis pigmentosa. Last year she was given a guide dog – and so it means a lot to have this particular sale, as you can imagine.

And I know this is more tease than a Dita show but this is my cover of Poet’s Cottage. All I can tell you is that it’s beautiful. I’m in love with it and have spent many happy moments gloating over how wonderful and perfect it is. My agent also loves it. The design team at Pan Macmillan are very clever, wonderful and masterly and I am very thrilled. When I am finally given the go-ahead, I shall post the official picture (the front of this piece of paper) of my new baby here.

And finally, I love this this wonderful badge designed by the very clever Neil Gaiman. Long live libraries and librarians everywhere!

Enjoy your week. Stay creative, happy and thanks for visiting me. xx

image of Essie and The Slap via google image

 

Anything can happen

josephinetalepeddler 4 Comments

David walked out of the door today, on his way to Pan Macmillan, carrying my heart in a hessian bag. Where on earth did September go? To me, it was a blur of rising at 4 and 5am to try to get a few hours of my copy-edit in before Daisy woke.

Finally the copyedit is finished. Check out all those post-it notes!

I loved working on the book so intensely in the last month. Clara Finlay, the editor really pulled me upside down, inside out and shook that book as hard as she could shake – but she was wonderful. I may never meet Clara Finlay, but I feel as if I know her. I felt her over my shoulder the entire time as we went line-by-line, date by date, fact-by-fact, character tone by character tone. We pondered together house-ownership problems and why I’m so obsessed with dentists that I felt the need to include so many in Poet’s Cottage. David said I should have named the book Poet’s Teeth. I do seem to have rather a thing for them, it’s true. And another mystery to me is – why I felt the need for so many people with the surname of Brown in a 100, 0000 word manuscript.

But I’m convinced I am a better writer for this edit. I have vowed never again will I write without having a very detailed plan of my house in both time periods and also meticulous time charts for every character.

I have quite a few blog posts I want to share coming up, including my annual agent’s author event. But I’ve been up since past 1am doing last-minute checks to the manuscript so David could hand deliver it to Pan Macmillan in their city office.

David Levell and Josephine Pennicott take a holiday at The Captain's Cottage

And just as the copy-edit is over, the beautiful Captain’s Cottage in Stanley where my family and I stayed several times whilst I worked on Poet’s Cottage is up for sale. It was in the Australian paper on the weekend. Here are a couple of shots of us at the cottage, relaxing and happy. I wish I had the money to buy it. I have so many happy memories of that house and our trips to Stanley.

Daisy and Josephine Pennicott outside The Captain's Cottage Stanley

Here are also a couple of random shots of my garden which is starting to come alive. These were taken right outside my garden writing shed. My David Austins are taking off as well, so thrilled with my tiny garden.

I am enormously weary but filled with great joy and relief.

Daisy getting married in the Spring garden

And one of the most magic moments in September was seeing Mary Poppins swoop slowly towards me at the historical Capitol Theatre in Sydney. This is the most beautiful theatre to see any show in. Years ago, David and I saw Blondie play the Capitol. The image below is taken from their  website.

Around me were the cheers and screams of the excited crowd as she slowly glided through the air of the darkened auditorium. Mary Poppins and I looked at each other and she was as touched and as thrilled by the magic as we were. My daughter was screaming beside me, ‘That’s real magic!’

After Miss Marple, and Jane Eyre, Mary Poppins is one of my favourite characters in fiction.

Now I have to clean my very dusty, brick house and go back to the next book. 

Thanks for visiting me. xx  


Copyedit

josephinetalepeddler 11 Comments
Even a confirmed Winter lover as myself has to admit I’m enjoying the Spring weather and light in Sydney at the moment. Here is where I am every day in my writing shed.
 
Yes, we finally have the wall paper up and I love being in there amongst the birds and butterflies. It’s just lovely to work in the garden next to our big old tea-tree and palms and feel as though I’m amongst pink birds and butterflies. Birds and butterflies represent the soul to me and so it’s a great paper for a creative writing shed where we do our soul work. Just this morning, the most beautiful bird with a yellow breast came right to the window to peep at me. It’s magical in my shed! 
 
Over the next month or so we shall be doing more work on the shed to try to create a lovely as space as possible for both our books. My husband is also a writer and so we have to share which we’re good at. Luckily, he is used to my girliness and has long given up fighting I think he was just relieved the paper is duck-egg blue and not pink!  I’m looking forward to installing the fairy lights, adding some pretties and growing some roses out the front but first of all I have to cull all the paperwork we’ve collected over the years between us! And at the moment, I’m head down on my copyedit for Pan Macmillan and so things may be quiet on the blog for a couple of week to ensure I reach my deadline in time. All my editors from Pan Macmillan have been so brilliant and it’s a joy to work with them. Because I was nearly 60 000 words into my Currawong book it was a wrench to return to Poet’s Cottage again but I’m loving revisiting the characters and hopefully adding a bit more to the MS as this is one of the last chances I get before publication.
 
And I’ve been so busy lately doing loads of arty things. We saw the Pre-Raphaelite exhibition on drawing at the AGNSW which I loved. Both David and myself have a big soft for the PRB and it was a treat to see a few of Elizabeth Siddal’s works in this show.
 
I saw Jane Eyre at the cinema with my friend Artschool Annie. How brilliant was Mia Wasikowska as Jane? Divine casting and I loved this movie version so much I’m going to try to see it twice.
 
The Tasmanian-looking landscape really made me long for my home state, Thornfield, is my idea of the perfect house and unlike my pervious post on Underbelly Razor, this is a house that actually looks lived in and of the time.
 
 I also really enjoyed.Michael Fassbender as Rochester. A really sublime movie.  I think Jane Eyre is such an inspiration for her nobleness, stoic determination and strength. 
I hope my daughter loves this book as much as her parents as I think Jane’s a great role-model for young women in today’s climate with the sexualisation of females. Jane doesn’t use her looks to get ahead in life. And Rochester still prefers her to the prettier Blanche Ingram. It’s a tale of hope and as Spring is a season of hope it’s a perfect time to catch this movie.
 
I also saw Lakme at the Sydney Opera house with the amazing Emma Mathews. This opera was a treat with the divine Emma singing the Duet of the Flowers.
 
And David and I saw The Mousetrap at this incredible theatre, The Genesian in the heart of Sydney. We originally saw The Mousetrap in the West End in London which was a dream come true for me. But even though this was an amateur production, it was really enjoyable and well done.
 
This weekend, I have my agent, Selwa Anthony’s annual bash which is always a very grand and inspiring affair. During the day there are author and publishing  talks and at night a formal dinner and award ceremony.  We are looking forward to attending the Sassies and hopefully, I’ll have time to pop back and do a post about it when I reach my deadline.
 
Enjoy September and I hope that butterflies and pink birds are fluttering in your soul. Keep Inspired and Keep creative.
And because it’s Spring. Here’s a couple of images from the latest issue of Country Style.
 
 
 I always love their Spring Issues.