Some words from the President:-

It’s that time of year again – too cold to be outside gardening, time to be inside, heater on and pen (or computer) at the ready, to be crafting those submissions to the 2009 Anthology.  This year we’ve decided to call it Northern Lights, in honour of all the luminous pieces of prose and poetry you’ll all be submitting.  Won’t you!  We had such a great anthology last year, let’s see if we can surpass ourselves in 2009.

Also make sure you’ve noted in your diary 12.30 on Wednesday 1^st of July at the Blue Gum Hotel on the Pacific Highway at Waitara, for the FAWNS mid-year luncheon.  There’s no need to book, just turn up, order and pay for your own lunch and drinks and settle in to enjoy good company – ours! 

Your president,    Jan Foster

 

    As long as I live

  I shall always be

  My Self – and no other,

               Just me.

From “Me” Walter de la Mare (1873-1956) (English poet)

 

 

 

 

 

    Cheeses
   (Writers’ Prompt in May)

 

Glass and steel display case,

In the IGA at Homebush,

Gleaming in the jolly light,

From the Deli’s ice-cold rack,

With its cargo of cheeses,

Jarlsberg, Gruyer, Blue Vein, Duddleswell, and Colby-Jack

 

 

        © Richard Brookton
        (with apologies to John Masefield)   

 

 

 

 

 “WRITING:  Every piece of writing has a purpose and an intended audience, and to construct it properly the writer should first ask himself these questions:

 

“Who will read what I’m writing?

What do I want to tell him/her?

What, if anything, am I asking him/her to
 do about it?

 

“The answers to these questions will largely determine what is written and how it is written.  Most official writing is a means of communication, not a means of self-expression.  Its essential purpose is not to display the writer’s knowledge or parade his emotions, but to inform the reader and sometimes to persuade him.  To achieve this purpose, it should be systematic, balanced and appropriate in its choice of words, selection of material and approach to the audience.”

 

(From: “Style Manual for Authors, Editors
                & Printers, 3^rd Edition)

 

“Here's to all you teachers out there!  We wonder why people have trouble learning the English language - even those of us who have it as our first language!!!  You think English is easy?  Read to the end . . a new twist:-

     1)       The bandage was wound around the wound.

     2)      The farm was used to produce produce .

     3)      The dump was so full that it had to 
         refuse more refuse.

     4)      We must polish the Polish furniture.

                   5)   He could lead if he would get the lead out.

            6)    The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.

            7)    Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.

8)      A bass was painted on the head of the
        bass drum.

9)      When shot at, the dove dove into the
        bushes. 

10)     I did not object to the object.

11)      The insurance was invalid for the
          invalid.

12)     There was a row among the oarsmen 
   about how to row.

13)   They were too close to the door to
              close it.

14)      The buck does funny things when the
         does are present.

15)      A seamstress and a sewer fell down
         into a sewer line.

16)      To help with planting, the farmer
        taught his sow to sow.

17)      The wind was too strong to wind the
        sail.

18)      Upon seeing the tear in the painting I
       shed a tear.

19)   I had to subject the subject to a series
             of tests.

20)      How can I intimate this to my most
        intimate friend?

(A contribution from Dick Servis, a pen/
email friend in Tampa, Florida.   Jany G.(Ed.)