Dear friends, clients, colleagues,
I’d like to take this opportunity to wish you a wonderful Christmas and New Year! It’s been another year of challenges so we all deserve a glass of champagne.
On a personal note, it’s been an exciting year of change. Andrew started a new job with Sun Cable, an innovative startup building the biggest solar farm in the world providing power to Darwin and, via an underwater cable, to Singapore. It couldn’t be more of a contrast after 25 years with a huge corporate in oil and gas. He’s working hard, but loving it.
As a result we rented an apartment in Sydney and moved in for all of three weeks before lockdowns and hard border closures between states sent us hightailing it back to Melbourne to be with the kids. Once things opened up, we went back to Sydney for another three weeks before coming home for Christmas. Assuming the borders stay open, we’ll be back to Sydney early January.
And now … looks like we might have to move to Brisbane! My head is spinning to say the least.
On the professional side, between Brightside Story Studio, New Authors Collective and The Winding Narrative, I’m as busy as I can handle. I often have to pinch myself when I think how lucky I am to have a job in which I get to read all day! Each of my clients has a unique story to tell, and it’s a privilege to be part of their writing journey. Getting to know them is my favourite part of the job.
I’ve had less time for my own writing, but I did reach the longlist in the Hawkeye Publishing Manuscript Development Prize for LOST IN LAGOS, was a daily winner in Writer’s Victoria’s Flash Fiction competition, twice made the shortlist in Australian Writers Centre’s furious fiction– Oct 2021 and Nov 2021 – had a short story published in in Fenechty Publishing’s Anthology of Short Stories: Autumn 2021 and squeezed in 16 interviews for my blog. I’ve spend most of the year reworking my novel set in the Middle East, so I have a complete first draft to start finessing.
As the year comes to a close, I’m trying to slow my whirling mind. I hope you, too, find a chance for some relaxation amidst the crazy season so we can approach 2022 with a clear head. Who knows what the year will bring? Doubtless more hurdles. I hope we find joy between the hard yards and make time to smile.
With much love,
Andrea
Next time: an interview with Bob Van Laerhoven on Alejandro’s Lie, his novel with a literary warning against autocracies.
Brightside Story Studio 
Oh wow, those look like some mighty achievements on the writing front, and it’s so inspiring to read that. Wishing you all the best with your continuous writing journey, Andrea, and thanks for lighting a spark in me!
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Thanks so much Stuart. It’s easy to sit back and feel that we haven’t achieved the goals we set, but sometimes, when you look back, there are enough little wins that they add up to something more. I wish you well for your writing too. May 2022 be a great year for you.
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