Last night capped off an amazing year in my writing life.

The data electrical company I contract out to for writing submissions for awards won another BICSI National Excellence award last night in Melbourne. What a thrilling result after all the hard work and pulling on all my writing knowledge to get this across the line. I think the most important thing I taught people from this is, What’s your POD, your point of difference? What makes you different from all the others entering this award? What will blow the mind of the judges? What will make them say to themselves, ‘Wow, I would love to implement that in my own business?’ This, I believe is what has given my submissions the edge.

This also gives us back to back National BICSI Excellence awards and those who know me on facey will know about the unheard of triple win in the NECA Queensland Excellence awards earlier this year. What a rush that was. We were written up in the industry magazine and in our own national company magazine for this amazing effort. So what was it for you might ask? Here’s a quick snippet.

NECA stands for the National Electrical Contractors Association and our categories were Workplace Health & Safety for a Company, Workplace Health & Safety for the WSP job we submitted and the 3rd category was the Data & Communications installation for the WSP project. (WSP is the company). Last week we won two of the three National Excellence awards for these same categories. Supa dupa stoked.

There’s lots of criteria and a very in-depth entry but I’ve been doing the entries for a while now and I believe my knowledge of working in the industry as a Project Manager in the Maintenance area, a WPHS Officer, WorkCover Rehabilitation Officer, Office Administrator, payroll officer, Manual coordinator and apprentice coordinator all at different times and now also as a writer has helped me understand how to ask the right questions of the staff that actually worked and completed the project and put out an excellent product. Don’t get me wrong, it’s been a tough ride to the finish line.

Thankfully I am retired now, but I still contract out to the business when they need me for these awards. Crikey, I even help out other states now and guide them to on how to put out a product the judges are going to talk about.

Oz Tales – Short Stories of Murder & Mystery. My short story titled ‘Smithy’ is about two detectives who have a seriously unusual murder to solve. Set on a small secluded beach between Cairns & Port Douglas, Nth Queensland. Smithy, the unsuspecting bus driver who finally becomes a hero. There’s Crocodiles, Bikies, mystery, death, betrayal, heroism & something that’s not quite right.

Oz Tales – Short Stories of Forest & Fantasy. My short story is titled ‘ Tinsel Fructify‘ is about a teenage girl who discovers the family secret and her deadly blood link to Lycanthrope.

From the Edge. My short story is titled ‘Feathered Hooves’, a story about an unknowing young minder who discovers her prize winning dressage horse is part of the Pegasi Knight legacy.

Oz Tales – Short Stories of Ghosts & Graves. My short story is titled ‘Ghost Writer’, about a young girl thrown into a profession of death.

So it’s been busy in my world. Being a stay at home NanMa on a Monday & Tuesday’s can be so rewarding & tiring at the same time. I’m no spring chicken anymore ya know. But laugh, there’s plenty of that, bucket loads in fact. Just recently my 3yo grandson was riding his little plastic motor bike, you know, the yellow & red ones. Riding past me he crashed it over on purpose. I asked him if he was ok as I knew he was only acting & he said, ‘I died’. OMGosh, I chuckled to myself & said, ‘No ya didn’t’ & he just laid there contemplating my reply. Finally I said, ‘Should I call an ambulance?’ & he nodded. sitting on my porch with walkers going by I made the obligatory, nee naw nee naw sound, but he still wasn’t fixed, so I said, ‘do you need a needle’, he nodded. Injecting him with my finger & invisible serum seemed to do the trick & he could miraculously stand up. But the bike was a goner according to him. We had to do a quick oil and lube change & he was off again causing havoc to the other grandies who followed after him like he was a cartoon hero. Have a great week everyone, I know I will.

I’m very excited to announce a new anthology by OZ Tales, ‘Short Stories of Mystery and Murder’ and my story, ‘Smithy’, is be featured in it!

I’ll post more information about how to purchase the book soon, but for now, have a gander at this gorgeous hardcover book:

If you are a creative and you would like your works to be accessible by the big unknown world, then you need to connect where everyone meets. Online.

I wanted to connect with writers, readers and interesting characters online. I did try to set up a website ten years ago, but it was back in the day of code and quite frankly I’d find Japanese easier for me to learn! (Not saying I wouldn’t want to learn Japanese, I find it really beautiful, I’m just acknowledging its complexity. I can even speak a little, but I do not, and probably will not, speak code).

So, I got myself off to my local writer’s group for children’s writers (Write Links) and sat through a tutorial on setting up an author’s website, hosted by The Selfpublishing Lab‘s Anthony Puttee. It was great, and so easy (okay, Anthony used my page as an example and did most of that work, but now I’m stearing this boat).

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