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Some words from the President:

Our poetry competition has closed with a record 136 entries and our poor judges, Maria and Lois, are hard at work.  Our Super Short Story competition, including a memoir section this year, is now open for business and I’m on-the-scrounge for submissions to our ’09 anthology.  So, if you’re not busy writing - you should be!

Our mid-year luncheon at the Blue Gum Hotel in Waitara was a great success.  Those who came enjoyed a relaxed time to sit and chat outside the structure of a meeting.  If you missed out, there’s another one scheduled for November.

Here’s a writing tip from none other than Mark Twain:  “Substitute ‘damn’ every time you’re inclined to write ‘very’;  your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.”

Your President,  

Jan Foster  

 

 

        TANKA -  by Lois Holland
                   June 2009

 

          Whirlwind

          Kitchen carnage

          Locust through the fridge

          Bedlam bedroom

          Teenager

  

 

 

    Sequence and Proportion:   

 “ To  write well it is first necessary to plan:   Effective writing is systematic, arranged in logical sequence and in  due proportion.  Sequence requires that the subject matter be treated in a suitable order, such as that of size, time, place or results." 

Thus a paper on mining in Australia might be organised by the size of the mines discussed, the larger ones first, then the smaller;   or by the chrono-logical order of their discovery;   or by the States in which they are located;  or by the metals they yield;   or, as a final example, by the order of their profitability.  The most suitable order in which to treat a topic will be dictated by the subject matter itself, the purpose of the piece of writing and the intended audience.   
(continued next month…)       
(From:  “Style Manual for Authors, Editors & Printer”,  3^rd Edition    

                                             

 

It’s True:
 
“More than one million unsold copies of British singer-songwriter Robbie Williams’s latest CD will be used to resurface roads in China.”   


­  “Smokey Bear, the US mascot for bushfire prevention, got his own postcode in 1964 because he received so much fan mail.”

³  “The 1964 Peter Sellers’ hit ‘Dr Strangelove’ or  ‘How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love The Bomb’ is the longest title of any film nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award.”     Mx 2009

 

 

An article about Jan Thomas being awarded an OAM for Services to the Community in the Queen’s

Birthday Honours, was published in The Bush Telegraph on 18^th June 2009.  

I spoke to Jan about it and report the following:-

Jan is a long-standing member and past president of FAWNS and received the Award for a variety of community activities, which includes services to writing through both FAWNS and      Hawkesbury River Writers.  Thirty years ago, Jan founded what has since become the community-based Sydney Youth Musical Theatre (Hornsby) Inc.  Based on the premise that storytelling is inherent in the human condition, it was designed to give local children an opportunity to explore and develop their talent for telling stories through music and drama.  It has grown out of all proportion to the original concept.

Jan has been actively involved in St John Ambulance Australia for 28 years, most as leader of the Cadet Division in Hornsby, where she now enjoys semi-retirement in the ceremonial role of President.  Jan’s work with St John includes membership of the Community Care Branch supporting children in literacy, and the Ophthalmic Branch, supporting the St John Eye Hospital in Jerusalem, and Aboriginal Ophthalmic care in Dubbo and Moree.

But the main reason for Jan’s Award is the founding of the 2/3 AHS Centaur Association Inc. to honour those non-combatant medical and merchant marine personnel who lost their lives when the hospital ship was torpedoed off the Brisbane coast in 1943; to support the survivors, and further the healing process for the bereaved.  Currently the Federal and Queensland Governments are preparing for a search for the ship later this year.  Finding Centaur will enable the proper protection of the ship as a War Grave. 

“Anything I have done to bring Centaur families together and minister to them has been its own reward, but this Award is a huge step forward in my personal Centaur journey”, Jan said.              

                                              Jany Garland  (Ed.)