Friday, May 31, 2019

Fearless Friday - workshops

I've taught a few writing workshops, which I really enjoy, and tomorrow I'm off to do another one, this time with Kim Petersen.

I've only dabbled a little in Self-Publishing, but Kim's had a bit more experience in that, so we've teamed up to run a workshop together.

I don't know how we'll go because this is the first time we've taught together, but we've done author talks together and they've worked out easily enough. So I'm hoping for the same in a workshop.

Kim and I have been working a bit together, and it's nice not doing everything on your own. But when I'm Catherine, we become Cath and Kim, and if you're aware of that TV show, we're not credible! LOL! So we're going to try to be Kim and Cate ... and if we're lucky people won't laugh as soon as we introduce ourselves!

So that's my fearlessness this week - tandem teaching!

How's your fearlessness faring?

Wednesday, May 29, 2019

Wildlife Wednesday - snorkelling and underwater critters

Selfie :)
After my waves day, I decided to go down to the rockpool and see how the snorkelling was. I was going to go out into the ocean but I was on my own and no one about, so much safer in the rockpool (It's not Fearless Friday so I can totally admit that here!)

I had a few issues:
  • IT WAS FREEZING!!! Much colder than the ocean had been.
  • They'd cleaned it since I was last there and so much of the growth, the larger fish, and the rock on the floor were gone.
  • Did I mention how cold it was?

But I went for a swim anyway, and I was pretty happy with some of the shots. I even dug out Dakin's Australian Seashores to work some of these out!

Side on view - limpet (front), chiton (middle), periwinkles (back)

Top view

Reflection - and there's fish in the middle!


A close up of the fish
Reflections again

Another reflection
Top hat and nudibranch

Nudibranch (sea slug)

I love these things!

Limpet - side on

periwinkles


Monday, May 27, 2019

Update on waves

Saturday was magical. Warm, still, calm seas with lovely rolling waves. I went for a swim...with my camera...

Gorgeous day for a swim

Water like crystal
Waves coming in nicely, no undertow, so I could go out deeper
I was trying to catch the wave as it rolled over - a bit early here
And try to catch the wave as it rolled over...or a bit late!

And this time I nailed it - finally!

I was on top of the world - or on top of the wave anyway!




Friday, May 24, 2019

Fearless Friday - waves

I follow lots of photographers on Instagram because they're awesome and photography is something I love. Most of the ones I follow dive or snorkel or spend time in/near water. Some of them take these incredible wave photos...and I've been trying to capture this sort of a shot - and failing!

My camera isn't flash. It's just a point and click but it goes underwater; an Olympus TG-5. I love it, but I'm probably pushing it to its limits with what I'm trying to do (wave photos and night astrophotography seem to have limits!), but I'm not giving up yet.

This wee we've had lovely warm water, warmish air, flat seas with those waves that just pop up and curl over. It seemed to me to be the perfect conditions for me to get braver and try to get under a wave and grab this shot in my mind.

Let's see how I went:

Not so good in so many many shots! Sometimes the surf smacked me hard, other times it just tumbled me around, and sometimes it let me dive through unscathed (thank heavens for mostly that!)

But sometimes there was hope - a wall of water where I just wasn't quite in the right spot.

I'm learning more about my camera, and I'm totally having a ball in the surf. So I'm going to keep trying and one day, I might nail something cool!

Do you have these types of crazy goals too?






Friday, May 17, 2019

Fearless Friday

Where has the last month gone? I have no clue at all. The days just fly by.

I have a few things for this post...no wonder, if it's been a month!

NEW BOOK
I have A Real Online Fantasy Parts 1 & 2 online now! Yipee! For a short time, it's even free. So if you'd like to download it, please do.

You can grab it from your favourite store by clicking here:



BLOG POST 
My other self wrote a story for an anthology with Kim Petersen and Beth Prentice. Kim has a blog where she's honest about herself and her life. She asked me to write a post for her site and so, I went with honesty. It's easier to be honest as Cate. So I'm a bit scared about this one, but anyway :) I'm owning it!



INTERESTING ARTICLE
Teenagers and sex.

This article is saying something I've read before - that teenagers are highly influenced by porn. And not just highly influenced about sex... but confused about consent. 

Porn, a scripted film, does not show discussion, consent, or even 'realistic sex' but do kids know that? It appears that they don't. 

For so long, sex has been such a taboo topic, that people don't discuss it at all. This leads to people finding out about sex my whatever means they can. How did you discover sex? For me, it was via animals and nature. There was a conversation about sex after a sex ed video shown at school, but my questions were a little too confronting and I was sent to my room without answers. And really, asking if a man's penis is different to a dog's is not such a shock, is it?

So, if kids these days are getting information about sex from the internet - which is a pretty handy tool for information gathering - and no one is speaking about sex, then how do they know if what they find is 'real' or 'misinformation'? 

I'm so glad there are people going to schools to discuss sex honestly with kids. I wonder if they'd take an erotic author on the school chat tour? That's something I'd love to do.


Thanks for reading today. I'll try to get back to more regular blogging!