New Year’s Revolutions

**That is revolution, as in the wheel of an abandoned bike blowing around and around in the wind, not revolution, as in the Arab Spring or “You say you want a revolution/well you know/we all want to change the world”**

The sun rises on 2012

It is 6:54am on New Year’s Day, 2012.  I saw in the new year alone, I don’t drink, I even went to bed early, but alas, sleep once again evaded me.  I watched the sun rise over Willans Hill for the first time in this new year through my study window, interrupting the stream of ‘shredding’ videos I’d been entertaining myself with (the drunk Taylor Swift one was quite funny too).

2011 was a pretty monumental year for me in some respects, but all in all a pretty forgettable one.

I published my first book in January.  Receiving the letters of receipt from the State & National Libraries was pretty special, even more so was the very touching review that was given to the work by someone who I still haven’t met, but certainly owe a very large coffee to before I leave Wagga.

My intention was never to sell many copies of the book, & I can proudly say that in this I have succeeded indeed.

Work commenced on a second book shortly before the first one came out.  I can’t even remember which computer my half a page of over edited manuscript is saved on.  It is a similar story for my other project – recreating about 7000 pages of a 19th century poetry collection.

Speaking of work, as I mentioned in a previous post, I got a job – for three weeks.  I’d always entertained the thought of being a journalist, but maybe I’m just more Narrandera Argus than Eastern Riverina Chronicle.  Anyway, that didn’t work out either.

I think the nicest thing that was said about my writing by my editor during my time there was “It’s a bit boring”.  And my photos were unpublishable.  Well, the new girl has lasted il the end of the year – I will say nothing of her quality except that she must have very thick skin, or be very short of money.

And of photography?  Well, apart from being unpublishable, they’re rubbish.  I’m not grumpy because I didn’t win, but I got beaten for second by a photo of a black spider which was out of focus & white courtesy of the flash.  Seriously, my photos aren’t that bad!?  So I won’t be wasting my money or time to enter the Narrandera Show in the future – just to see my photos hung from string with bulldog clips.

No, not bitter at all.

I did, though, discover Tom Waits in 2011.  That was a good thing.