Wildlife Wednesday - Possums

We have resident possums here - a few. We also have an awning across from our house to the garage. The possums use it as a thoroughfare and some nights they belt across there and it sounds like the house will fall down. My hubby has a fit. He's convinced they're elephants and their weight will bring them through the tin. I used to raise possums in WIRES, so I know they weight next to nothing and are all fur and fluff, but he won't believe me. In 4 years, we haven't had a possum break through yet - but he's still waiting!

This possum brought her bub for a feed from the dog bowls. She was quite tame and would take a piece of apple from your hand (but maybe don't tell my hubby that!).

I'm not a morning person and one day at 7 am, I get a pounding on my front door. I mean, who visits the neighbours at 7 am!? I got dressed and went to the door expecting the police. It was this older man - like an old farmer, but we live on the coast. He started abusing me (politely, as old men do at 7 am!) because I'd stolen his possum and baby and he wanted them back, right now. If I wasn't half asleep I would have bopped him and shut the door, as it was my brain wasn't functioning fast enough to keep up with his words.

I'd mentioned to the man down the street that a very tame possum had been eating from the dog bowls. He had a much younger dog than I and I thought his dog might end up in a fight if the possum went down there. He said something to the man at the back of him (my 7 am visitor). The 7 am visitor had a possum he kept as a 'pet' which he locked in his garage. He then went on 6 weeks holidays and didn't leave anyone to feed his possum. It escaped (I missed that bit so I can't tell you how) but he thought I'd trapped it and was keeping it as a pet in my backyard.

I told him it was a wild animal and as such free to visit my yard or his garage as it saw fit. He left and I closed the door none too gently. If I was the possum, I'd be living in a tree, not locked in his garage for his entertainment. People!

Sunday Story

Oops... it was the long weekend and I went to Sydney and I forgot to do my Sunday column. Sorry!

I've been wading through a mammoth book, Freedom by Jonathan Franzen. I wish I could say I loved it but the characters were not my type of people. So why did I keep reading it? Good question. I almost stopped so many times. The things that kept me going were that it was full of universal themes, many I agreed with, and the writing was a pleasure to read.

I think the fact that Mr Franzen wrote a book that I didn't enjoy but also didn't stop reading (and it's a door stop, not something little) is a tribute to him. How did he make me keep going? How did he make me push through when I wanted to put the thing down and walk away?

I think it was the way he switched and changed the story and left you with hooks. The most memorable was when the son was in business trouble (business, financial, moral, ethical, the lot) and he rang his Dad (who he did not get along with) and said, "Dad, I'm in trouble. I need your help." How was this going to pan out? The Dad was a man who could have blown up at the kid or he could have helped out, you weren't sure which. But turn the page and we're on another plot thread following another person and we don't know what the father said. We don't even know how the kid is. You have to keep reading to know. Some of these hooks you had to wait until the end to find out what happened. And that's what kept me going. Damn it!

I hate hooks as a reader. I fall for them totally. I'm the girl who sits up until 5 am because I just have to find out what's happened, eyes barely open, brain pleading to go to sleep... but no, the hook is in and I need to find out what happened.

Do I write them? Not well. Usually I end teh chapter on a hook (I've learned that much!) but turn the page and I tell you what happens! LOL. Useless. I need my hooks to carry on for longer than that. I need whole story hooks.

And that's this week's lesson. Thank you, Mr Franzen.

Phallic Friday - Fellatio

This post is more about writing than anything else. Sorry if I’ve disappointed you!

A while back there was an idea to write to a theme of "Lick, Sip, Suck" and most people were doing alcohol inspired stories. Of course, I thought I'd do something different and base mine on giving head - or more precisely the inability to do so. The final scene could be the heroine finally giving a passable blow job.

I wrote the story, sent it to my wicked CPs, and at the same time found out the theme got canned. Which was just as well as my CPs weren't happy with the story line. And sadly, I had to agree once they pointed it out (they’re good).

So, new plan... Split the old story into two different stories. The one with the "suck" theme still having a ‘fellatio failure’ theme - maybe even having Fellatio Failure as the title, what do you think?.

Then a (male) writing friend suggested a series of 4 fellatio stories. My failure idea, one where the girl is porn-star good, and another 2 stories. But what other ideas can you spin off from blow jobs?

The rumour mill tells me that American girls are good at head and learn to give it at an early age. Is this true? How do they learn? My at-school fellatio education (admittedly in an all girl school) was severely lacking and consisted of bananas and laughter. So if I want to write a story where a girl learns to suck cock early on, what does she get taught? How is she taught? And is it a story with pursuing?

Do women want to read about blow jobs? Or am I feeding into a male fantasy here?

I'm interested in all opinions here - theoretical or more practical :)

Wildlife Wednesday - Crimson Rosella

The Crimson Rosellas have young ones at the moment and the noise is not as awful as the King Parrots, but still loud. I don't know if I was a parent if I'd reward a squawking child with food! The have to feed their young for 35 days and for me, that's 34.95 days too long!

The King Parrots will eat out of your hand but the Crimson Rosellas are timid. They scoot away almost as soon as you go outside. There is some improvement though. In the 4 years we've been here, we must have a few young re-appear because there are a few birds who will stay around until you're about 6 foot from them - they they take off.

The Crimson Rosella was one of the patrol group names when I was in Girl Guides. I belonged to the Kookaburras for a long time and when I was moved to the Rosellas I was quite sad. Although it was a promotion, I always thought of myself as a Kookaburra :) Funny what you think as a kid!