With Or Without Aussie Flavour?

It is already February 2016. How did that happen?

This is the first opportunity I’ve had to share my recent article in The Foothills, which might be of interest to aspiring and emerging writers, although in “Write With or Without Aussie Flavour?” I don’t claim to have the magic answer to that very dilemma.

(Page 1)

As many of you know, my Rural Crime Files series is unapologetically Australian and for me, there was never a question of globalising my setting and characters (making them generic in order to potentially appeal to a broader readership). Although my stories and characters are all fictional, I wanted to paint them authentically, without making my writing clichéd or cringeworthy.

(Page 2) You can read this, and all the other articles and poems in Edition 25, online at www.thefoothills.org.au. (Click the cover image with the two dancers.) Locals can pick up their copies at various outlets.

I’ve given a few examples and some hard facts in this article, but hope the soul-searching I’ve outlined will make your own conclusion easier to reach than expected.

To get back to why it has taken me so long to share this with you…

After Christmas, my writing was going beautifully. This flowed into January, which looked to be a busy month, with plans for my current book-in-progress, a non-fiction submission for an anthology to pen, along with a fresh article for The Foothills. Big changes in my “day job” that involved heavy training and lots of preparation behind the scenes would also keep me on my toes.

Then the rest of January and all my best intentions disappeared into a Black Hole, when we took a short research trip in Daylesford and my husband fell down a flight of stairs at our bed and breakfast accommodation. He was knocked unconscious and I’ll admit all that followed was the most terrifying experience of my life.

“Hubby takes helping with book research to unwanted extremes.”

Anyway, roll forward three weeks, and after several scary setbacks, my lovely hubby seems to be coming out the other side of post-concussion syndrome, and has just begun easing back into work and life. We hope it will be small steps in the forward direction only from here.

Through all of this, work had to go on, the basic stuff of life did too, but all my spare time was devoted to my hubby. Now that he is steadily improving, with a happy heart, I can get back to writing again!

My non-fiction submission has gone and I’m now interestedly/anxiously awaiting a response. I’ve researched and written my new story for The Foothills, which just between us, centres on backyard beekeeping, which I found fascinating and hope readers do too. And this afternoon, I will do some work on my current novel. It may only be thirty minutes or an hour. But it will be just perfect, nonetheless.

By the way, I’d love to hear what you think about writing with or without Aussie flavour. Whatever you add might just help another writer facing this quandary, so please feel welcome to leave your constructive comments on my Facebook page.

Happy weekend, everyone.

Cheers,
Sandi