nquestionably delighted

Each month a magazine arrives from the local bookseller spruiking their wares for the coming month. Its arrival is most welcome and I spend more time than I should reading about the different books on offer and bemoaning the fact that I can’t afford to buy all those tempting hardbacks and paperbacks.

Imagine my delight when I come across a book that looks as though it has my name all over it. Its title is the Little Red Writing Book and following hot on the heels of the writing workshop I attended last month I tell myself that I should investigate the possibilities between its covers without further ado. I find it is an Australian book written by an Australian writer; I have a quick peek at it in the bookshop and decide that I will borrow it from the library. If I feel I can’t live without it the next step will be to search around under the sofa cushions and through every jacket pocket to see if I can come up with the wherewithal to buy it.

I borrow it from the library and before I reach the end of the first chapter I am committed to purchase. Any book, especially one on writing, starting out as a walk along the track to Fergy’s paddock for inspiration, is going to be the book for me. Of course I am biased, as Fergy’s paddock is to be found on the shores of a lake in the most beautiful national park in the whole wide world. I did say I am biased.

I read on. The printed words speak to me in a language I can understand and there is any number of ideas to play around with and exercises to try out. It is both challenging and encouraging and I can hardly wait to try out the first simple writing task. There are chapters on craft and style and structure all of which are gaping holes in my writing knowledge.

A whole new writing world is waiting between the covers and I am off to the book shop as soon as I have stuffed the cushions back on the sofa and pushed the jackets, all with their pockets turned completely inside out, back inside the wardrobe.