Wildlife Wednesday - Black Swan

Today's Wildlife Wednesday is the Black Swan, the bird emblem of Western Australia, which makes me think of Lily Malone :)

We had Black Swans here on our river when we first moved here 6 years ago. Then the river opened up into the ocean (14 months ago) and the swans vanished, or maybe it was before that happened, but it was around then.

But they're back. The river closed up and within a few weeks, the Black Swans were back. So I took some photos for Wildlife Wednesday.

The Australia Museum says that Black Swans pair for life, and that they're the only entirely black coloured swan in the world.

I always think their red beak with a white tip/stripe, always looks painted!

Here's some info from Pizzey (A Field Guide to the Birds of Australia by Graham Pizzey):

Right way up (left) and inverted while feeding (right)

Swans are the largest waterfowl

Their long necks allow them to reach underwater vegetation

Black swans are highly nomadic

They build a nest from a heap of reeds, grasses or weeds, that is 1m to 1.5 m in diameter! They lay 4-7 eggs that are greenish-white in colour.

After breeding, they moult, and become temporarily flightless.

A raft of Black Swans

Sunday Story - reading hampering writing

I've always been a prolific reader - of any book at all, I'm not fussy, I just want to read. Even when I started writing this was the case. Actually, right up until this last year or so, I don't think I changed much.

And now, something has changed but I'm not entirely sure what it is, or how to cope with it!

I can no longer read books that bore me, that I find lacking (in character, story or writing craft), or those that just don't interest me. I've become quite ruthless with my 'did not finish' and no longer feel guilt. Until some months ago, I could count the number of books I hadn't finished on one hand, now, well, it's not something to count.

And converse to this, when I read a fabulous book, one that captivates me, transports me to a new world, wraps the characters around me like old friends, and makes me breathless with their word choices and descriptions... then I'm frozen. I'm no longer seeking out those books because they freeze my writing. They make me question what I'm doing. They make me feel lacking and incompetent.

A friend of mine reads the middle-of-the-road books while she writes and sticks the fabulous ones in when she's between stories. I didn't understand this - and now I do.

Reading was always my escape from the world. Now it's a torment. I'm judgemental as well as paralysed by greatness. I read to learn craft. I read to compare mine to theirs. I read to master things I don't do well. And it's rare for a book to make me escape these thoughts. I'm going to have to be choosy about what I read, and when I read them.

I could never understand people who read less and wrote more... now of course, I not only understand that decision, but I'm going to have to join them. Life always gives me these lessons - the ones where I have to eat my words (or thoughts)!

Do you have problems with reading and writing?

Phallic Friday - swearing and erotica

So, I've been thinking about submitting an excerpt of my Deep Diving story to this blog but they don't accept profanity. I didn't think that was a problem because I don't have characters who swear a lot - sure they swear sometimes, but not heaps.

And then I started going through some excerpts. They want an erotic scene. Deep Diving has more than a few of those since it covers 11 days and they pretty much have sex every day. Sometimes Cooper says, "Fuck," during or after sex, so that ruled out two scenes. I narrowed it down to three scenes I was tossing up between.

And then I saw "cunt" and "cock". In erotic writing I wouldn't class them as profanity because I'm not using them as swearing but as a word to describe a body part. But, technically, it's profanity.

So I had to search again. And it wasn't good. Not a lot of swearing but a lot of those profane body parts.

And this is always the problem for me, I really don't like euphemistic words so that narrows down the word choices I have for sexual body parts. And saying "penis" and "vagina" are okay once in a while, but then I start to feel like I'm writing a medical text book, not a story.

So... Profanity or descriptive word? What's your take? And does it bother you when reading erotica and people swear? Do you have words you cringe upon reading/using?

My challenge over the next couple of weeks is going to be to write an erotic sex scene without profanity. And that will be a challenge!!

Wildlife Wednesday - centipedes and millipedes

I went on a bug finding trip around my Dad's house with my nephew who is 6. We didn't have a bug catcher but a camera, so it was a lot different to a bug trip of my youth!

Anyway, we found a lot, and it kept him entertained for an hour or so. His little sister came for a bit, but she lasted maybe 15 minutes, but that's kind of good for her!

Anyway, we found this millipede, who'd seen better days. But it was a fun bug to check out.

I wrote about centipede sex at the Naughty Ninjas, you can read it here. And I didn't share that information with my nephew :)

The difference between centipedes and millipedes is that centipedes have one pair of legs per body segment, and millipedes have two pairs of legs per body segment (milli for millions helps you remember that they have more legs - well, that's how I remember!).

If you want more info on these many legged critters, the Australian Museum has some great pages and photos. (I'm late posting this, was doing my very last HT newsletter).