July is here, and with it, we tumble seemingly so suddenly into the second half of 2015. In my world July's arrival has brought to an end a week of history, mystery, and magic, and brought on a heatwave, a full moon, and a thunder and lightning storm just in time for my thirty-fifth birthday. I couldn't have asked for more to mark my seemingly sudden tumble into the second half of my thirties.
This month's newsletter is chocker-block full of stories from the week I spent in Oxford and the Cotswolds on my first writing retreat experience with Australian novelist and wonder woman, Kate Forsyth. It cemented my conviction of the power of daydreaming and self-will. Again I was reminded what a mutiny writing (creating) well can be. You'll also find tucked in here a couple of tiny tales, one set in an eastern European village, and the other on the eve of a wedding, in both of which things aren't what they seem. And, when summer finally yawned into bloom in England, I spent a glorious weekend rediscovering the joy of getting my hands dirty in the garden, remembering what meditative, simple gifts plants offer our imagination and creativity.
Wherever and however this finds you, I hope your imagination has fresh air to breathe every day, with seeds sprouting in corners you've forgotten to look. Also - thunderstorms, a clear window, and shelter from the storm.
Thanks, as ever, for joining me.
"This is the superlative blue, the end-all blue, the blue to which all other hues quietly aspire. The name means “beyond the sea”—a dreamy ode to its distant origins, as romantic as it is imprecise."
"We’re supposed to believe that relationships tie people down, that they are the death knell for creativity and ambition. Nonsense."
Ryan Holiday's piece on how the right partner can make us greater artists than we might otherwise not have ever known.
"Anxiety thrives when you’re paralysed by it. Small, practical steps towards an achievable goal will help change your mindset and keep you moving forward." Lauren Laverne's encouraging and poignant article on Imposter Syndrome and creativity.
5. The forgotten novels of Australia's radical women
"Not a month goes by in academia or in literary culture without a debate about Australia’s literary canon and calls for a more inclusive list. Undoubtedly our canon should include more voices from women, the LGBTI community and Indigenous Australians. But I’d like to throw forward another undervalued and underrepresented genre: women’s political agency and activism – and this year might be a good time to acknowledge it."
Danae Bosler's fabulous article in Overland blows dust off the spitfire Aussie radical women writers, and their work.
I've just finished reading Kate Morton's The Forgotten Garden, which I loved, and have reviewed on the blog, including a woodland playlist for added ear candy.
Over the course of one stormy week, I fell head first over heels in crazy, beautiful, utterly confused love with latest Netflix sensation, Sense8. It's boundary-shattering, wildly imaginative, and chocker-block with an enormous plot, but just go with it and feel your heart fill. Believe in the magic and truth behind the Wachowski siblings (The Matrix, Cloud Atlas) creative genius: we are all connected, and love is love. Or, as this great review says, "Look beyond the confusion, and enjoy this for what it is."
This month I put this newsletter together listening to Wolf Alice's My Love Is Cool. The four-piece band from North London blend folk pop with indie rock, and sing such a frenzy to my heart I feel it thundering furiously in my chest one minute, then pining and melting the next. Here's to you, me, and being brave enough to run with, rather than from, our wolf pack.
“Always keep in mind that your voice is extraordinary. It’s unique. It’s individual. It may be flawed. But it’s the flaws in the glass that let the light in. Be flawed. The urge should not be to smooth out your writing, to make it bland, to make it as much as possible to sound like another writer. Have the courage to write as yourself."
