Here with a Loaf of Bread
beneath the Bough,
A Flask of Wine, a Book of Verse - and though
Beside me singing in the Wilderness -
And Wilderness is Paradise enow...

From the Rubayat of Omar Khayam.

One my favorites because I can always find a quote in it for covering all situations. Amazing. It was also my grandfather's favorite. Lovely man had the heart of a poet, except that he also loved those old WWI songs such as Ants in your Pants.

But why this quote? Yesterday I went on a winetasting tour of the Hunter Valley, which is in Australia. First time I've ever done it and it was wonderful. Small bus with tourists from Sweden, Canada, Sacramento, Okinawa US Army Base and about to move to Maryland, Chicago, Queensland and there was me... Sydney. Wonderful to see this place through foreign eyes. At a wild life park, up close and personal to wallabies (middle sized model of Kangaroo) and saw a marsupial mouse which lived in an Emu Egg... I see a children's story in that don't I -

and a Koala. Little permanent border because he cannot return to the wild.

And we also had a clever lecture on blends, grapes and varieties. A cheese tasting. A delicious visit to a chocolate factory. And lunch and wine tasting. I guess all up I drank the equivalent of two glasses wine over the day but it was such fun.

Happy New Year everyone.

We at RWU have a lovely, gorgeous Challengemeister, Zee -> look at the links - go visit her blog and you will see what fun she is. Challenges consist of a list of lines/photographs from which to choose and to write a piece using these choices using the word count the participant volunteers to set their challenge at. These challenges are so reinforcing for the writer's life. Like scales on a piano. Or an opera singer's do ray me. Mine is finished - I was enthusiastic to get back onto to doing one because it stimulates me.

I wonder how many challenges we made for ourselves for 2008. Challenges are important. It's chicken soup for the soul. If you don't challenge yourself in the things you want to achieve you stagnate like a wadi. Become brackish and sad. So get moving those of you who want to get published. Do what the membership of RWU are doing. Pushing yourself to the limits of your ability and even beyond.

Publishing is fifty percent of the pursuit, but you need 100% of the remaining fifty percent in hard hard hard work. Edit, re-edit, and re-edit again. Make sure the manuscript you are writing at this moment is the BEST you can. Never be lazy and make it something you regret later when you are better, more famous, more assured and skilled through sheer diligence and practice. Practice makes you better. The better you get the more you enjoy. The more you enjoy the more relaxed you are at writing. The more relaxed you are the better the tale. The better the tale gets, the more the public wants you to write more. The more you write for them, the more they love you. The more they love you they want to share your work with friends. But...

YOU GOTTA BE IN IT TO WIN IT. Never think, next year I'm going to write a...

That doesn't work. It's got to be now. If you are a true writer you write all your life. Your head doesn't have a starter button that says 'I will start in exactly one year and one day's time'. No no. It's been chomping at the bit like a racehorse to get out of the stalls and pip past the post for a long long time.

I look wise. I'm not. It's basic common sense.

Happy New Year all who visit this post.

ZP