Phallic Friday - Virginity

Oh, goodness, it's Friday night and I suddenly realised I hadn't had my phallic moment! I have the days all scrambled up again. What's happening to me!?

Virginity is the topic today because... well, I have this story called The Virginity Mission and it's been on my mind this week

It's a loss of virginity story - guess you worked that out! Is it unrealistic that in this day and age, a girl could still be a virgin at 21 and at the end of uni? I didn't think so... obviously, since I wrote that in my story... but what do you think?

I'm having a few cold feet (I know I'm not a centipede but I'm feeling like one!). I know there's that virginity ring thing in the US where girls take pride in remaining intact. There were girls I went to uni with who were virgins - but that was some years ago! When I think about the girls I know now who are that age, it's an unrealistic story line. Can I pull it off?

Oh, I hate being old, out of touch and a 'fraidy cat! Can you help my Phallic-Friday-Freakout?

Gotta Have It goes audio

My first short story was published in an anthology edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel, called Gotta Have It: 69 Stories of Sudden Sex.

Yesterday I had someone "like" my author page on FB. So I went to check out who it was and saw the cover of this anthology. Didn't really look at it, though, as I went trolling through the book to find what story she'd written. And I wondered why she'd suddenly friended me, so long after the event.

Today I looked at the page properly, because she wasn't an author. They made it into an Audio Book and she's the narrator!

These are 69 short stories, of less than 1200 words. And she narrates them all! Goodness me. There are all sorts of stories in there... how did she do that?

So I'm off to listen now.

www.audible.com   It's a part of Amazon.

I'll let you know how my story sounds (I sure wouldn't want to read it aloud!)

Wildlife Wednesday - Corellas

This is a pine tree right next to my house. For a few days a year, the corellas gorge on the seeds, picking them, eating them and then hurling the remains onto my garbage bins where it booms like a nuclear explosion (well, what I imagine one must sound like). So I move the bins and they hurl the remains further so they still hit the bin :)

I like corellas. We had them out west when I lived out there, so to me they're a bit of the bush on the coast. They are noisy but they also mind their own business - not like lorikeets which are noisy and in your face.

They have to drink on a daily basis and so I keep a couple of bird baths around so they can. There's a small concreted dip under our tap in the front lawn and it's the place the corellas favour for a drink. They come in a group of six or so and take turns having a drink and a wash. Someone squarks and the next one gets in. It's very funny to watch.

Sunday Story

This week I read JoJo Moyes' Sheltering Rain, her first book, published in 2002. Someone had recommended I read her books.

I read the book but I can't say I enjoyed it. It's a family story where the family is estranged and coming back together over the death of the father (3 generations). They were awful to each other, but not awful people. I wanted to smack them for their inability to see beyond themselves. But I cared enough to keep reading.

That's a fine line to walk for your first story, isn't it? People could hate your characters and stop reading all together.

And I'm not entirely sure how she kept me reading. The father didn't die until a long way in, so I guess that kept me waiting. The granddaughter didn't settle into the grandparents' house easily and I kept waiting for the fireworks, so that kept me going. We switched and changed between the present and the past, so that kept it interesting - and the past was incredibly interesting (in Hong Kong after WWII).

It's threads. She had threads through the story that didn't weave together until the end. That was what kept me reading.

Kind of like hooks, aren't they?

(This Sunday post is sort of like being in my own book club analysing what I read. Discussing it here helps me work out what's in my head - just in case you're wondering what I'm raving on about!)