People You Meet and Places You See

One of the advantages of living in Australia is the diversity of scenery. Living near the coast I spend a lot of time these days snapping shots of our beautiful beaches.

 

Since so many of those live in other countries I thought I’d treat you to a sample of the beauty and diversity of our land, so this will be more a pictorial blog than a word blog.

On a recent visit to Melbourne for a few days I snapped some of the interesting buildings and features of that city.

 

 

Over my time in ICFW I have met a number of writers from different countries. It has been interesting to see shots of those other countries or of places visited by the writers on this blog. It’s a way of broadening our experience and knowledge without having to leave the house. That is one of things I love about reading too, getting the chance to experience another country without having all the hassles of plane trips and long hours getting there.

A recent trip to Bowral while it was the Tulip festival time, here are some photos of the tulips.

 

Though members in this group live in different countries there are some things we have in common. That has been one of the joys since being here on International Christian Fiction Writers. We all have a faith in our Lord and conveying that hope to others. For many of us that has been through Christian fiction or at least fiction with a world view. For others it is through poetry or devotionals. One of the other joys of belonging to a group like this has been being able to support each other in prayer. It’s lovely when someone shares a prayer need and we are able to play about it with them and for them.

It’s interesting too to pick up on other people’s interests whether that is geo-caching, photography, history or whatever else it might be.  In this blog you’ve picked up a little in my very amateur photography. I hope you have enjoyed seeing a little more of Australia.

Over time, Dale has written fiction, poetry, children’s fiction, bible studies and Sunday school lessons. More information about Dale can be found at www.daleharcombe.com or on her Write and Read with Dale blog http://www.livejournal.com/users/orangedale/

 

 

 

To listen or not to listen?

Recently, during a promotional visit to a bookstore in Melbourne, I received a wonderful surprise. A lady

with whom I had connected only via email in the past made a special effort to drop by and meet me in person. This lady works for an organisation that helps those with visual impairment or ‘print disability'--her role includes acquiring books for possible recording for the audio lending library this organisation runs. A few years ago, an elderly friend badly wanted to read my first two novels but the print was too small for her. She told this organisation about my books and asked if they could record them. After some time, they contacted me and the upshot was that, over the next little while, my first three novels were produced as audio books. I was sent a copy of each in their special DAISY mp3 format—and I thought that was the end of it all.

However, when this lady met me recently, she told me they had now completed my fourth and fifth novels and were about to start on my memoir Soul Friend. As well, she also wanted to purchase my latest novel The Inheritance, with a view to recording it. A few days later, she emailed to say she was forwarding the recordings of my fourth and fifth novels so I would have all my books they had produced so far.

But here is my dilemma. While I love having these copies, I have not as yet been able to bring myself to listen to any of them! I know they are  professionally produced—the person who narrated them is a well known and very gifted actor from stage and screen here in Australia and has a beautiful speaking voice. But I am certain that, because these were my first novels, I would want to change so much of what I would hear, which would definitely dampen my enjoyment of the whole experience. I imagine it is a little like artists might feel when viewing their early efforts at painting. Surely their fingers must itch to alter or touch up this or that!

Perhaps the best way to approach it all is for me to listen to those recordings with an accepting heart and mind, acknowledge the stylistic changes I would now make, and simply be thankful for how far I have come since those earlier writing efforts. We all learn as we go and we all have to begin somewhere. And, stylistic issues aside, the stories they contain still touch readers, I have discovered, who are often not as critical as those of us who write! Then again ... is it better not to listen and instead to keep moving forward, writing the best I can at this point?

What would you decide in this instance? Would you listen or not?

All questions aside, I am honoured and grateful that those recordings have been made—especially my third novel Laura, which is the story of a girl who becomes blind as a child. I love the idea that those for whom most books are inaccessible can choose to hear my books, if they so desire. God has ways of blessing us far beyond what we could ever imagine, don’t you agree?

Jo-Anne Berthelsen lives in Sydney but grew up in Brisbane. She holds degrees in Arts and Theology and has worked as a high school teacher, editor and secretary, as well as in local church ministry. Jo-Anne is passionate about touching hearts and lives through both the written and spoken word. She is the author of six published novels and one non-fiction work, Soul Friend: the story of a shared spiritual journey. Jo-Anne is married to a retired minister and has three grown-up children and three grandchildren. For more information, please visit www.jo-anneberthelsen.com or www.soulfriend.com.au.

Lessons from our vast land

I have just checked out a map of the world and noted that many of us in this writers’ group come from very large countries, geographically speaking. Apparently, my own country of Australia is our planet's sixth largest, yet we have a population of only 22.68 million, most of that number living around the coastal rim. We Aussies live in a vast land—a fact that impacted me again recently when my husband and I undertook two interstate road trips.

Last month, we drove south from our home in Sydney to the edge of Melbourne, Victoria, for me to speak at a special women’s event—a journey of about nine hours. We then headed to Bendigo in central Victoria and home again via a more inland route through Wagga Wagga and Bathurst and back over the Blue Mountains. We enjoyed our trip very much—the countryside was green, the scenery beautiful and, to top it off, we found lots of interesting, old gold-mining towns to explore along the way.

Then this month, we undertook an even longer road trip north to Queensland—around eleven hours of driving. We headed up what is commonly called the coast road, a route we love. There is one spot that is my absolute favourite where, just after cresting a hill, we always gasp in amazement as we gaze at the beautiful hinterland of the Northern Rivers area, with its lush hills and valleys, stretching away to the blue Pacific Ocean in the distance.

We decided to come home via an inland route, through country towns such as Armidale and Tamworth. Again, I was blown away by the vastness of our land, as we drove through wonderful cattle and sheep grazing country, as well as farms where crops such as wheat and canola were being cultivated. We love this route too, away from the lushness that characterises a large proportion of the coast road, but equally breathtaking with its rocky mountain outcrops, typically Aussie bushland and wide, rolling plains.

As we undertook these long drives, I began to realise God was using them to change my heart attitude and widen my perspective on things. These past few months have been very busy for me, with lots of speaking engagements, the launch of my latest novel, The Inheritance, and extra grandchild-minding duties—not to mention my writing! In it all, I had become quite ‘me-focused’, trying to balance everything and being consumed by each little task. I believe God used the vastness of our land to show me how insignificant all my little worries and cares truly are when compared to the vastness and wonder of his creation. Surely God, the all-powerful Creator and Sustainer of our entire country, is well able to empower and sustain me in my little speaking and writing journey!

The psalmist says it all, don’t you think, in these first two verses of Psalm 121:

I lift up my eyes to the hills—where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.

With the Lord as our Helper, watching over us day and night and over all our coming and going, as this psalm goes on to say, what more do we need in our writing journeys?

Jo-Anne Berthelsen lives in Sydney but grew up in Brisbane. She holds degrees in Arts and Theology and has worked as a high school teacher, editor and secretary, as well as in local church ministry. Jo-Anne is passionate about touching hearts and lives through both the written and spoken word. She is the author of six published novels and one non-fiction work, Soul Friend: the story of a shared spiritual journey. Jo-Anne is married to a retired minister and has three grown-up children and three grandchildren. For more information, please visit www.jo-anneberthelsen.com or www.soulfriend.com.au.