June Perkins – June Paisa Perkins

Hills, Hoorays & Highlights

This year has been a time of hills, hoorays and highlights. The first hill was health challenges March to May, but later in the year, I was able to go to the gym for three months exercise physiology to strengthen my shoulders and knees.

My second hill was that I couldn’t sit my Lantite, Numeracy, until I could use my shoulder again. This then took a few more months then intended. Yet in the end it went from a hill to a hooray!
Hill to Hooray!

The third hill was juggling writing, Queensland Writers Centre Management committee tasks, and studying for my Lantite Numeracy, whilst often missing my writing buddies. There were three months where being at my desk was almost impossible. But the hooray was that at the end of the year I was able to see heaps of them at the SCWIBI Queensland end of year gathering, the Queensland Writers Centre Christmas party and Australian Fairy Tale Society Brisbane gathering.

I am very thankful for a few friends, that stayed in touch via phone, zoom and email, or came to visit when I wasn’t out much. You were a hooray to my life. Especially Ladan, Chikako, Renee, Helene and Anne.
Creative connections give such strength.

Looking back on the year – there were just too many things happening to write about them all. However, Genre Con at the start of the year was amazing. I look forward to attending it again in 2024.
Looking forward.

That is all for now! Wishing you a happy new year, and will be back with some more updates when I have time. I’ll be sure to let you know about some storytelling coming up in January! I am so excited to be sharing a story from my mum and grandmother.
See you next year – June

New Pathways Continuing

‘Nature never did betray the heart that loved her’ William Wordsworth

And so it begins again. The new pathway towards becoming more of an educator alongside writer. Another quarter of University and this time I am learning about the Humanities and English curriculum and curriculum in general. Curriculum, pedagogy, assessment! How do we modify them for diversity in classrooms?

But oh how I miss nature, when trapped indoors reading, typing and researching. Have I betrayed her precious trust, in being too much indoors? Does she know she is in my heart?

I could take my laptop and study outdoors I suppose, but she would distract me, and in the time before spring, the Brisbane winds are chilly, and the winds of COVID also blow state after state into lock down. Perhaps the wind is not safe here either.

This semester I am keen to achieve a greater balance, between university studies, my creative writing and other aspects of personal and community life. The break from studies, and two outings for a Picnic and frisbee with friends, and a discussion on Fairytales and folklore, telling and writing stories reminded me how much richness there is in connecting in real space with people!

Last quarter it was about remastering academic essays, report writing and narrated powerpoints. And remembering paragraphing and the elegance of concise and precise sentences! Blogs tend to split paragraphs much more than essays to make it easier to read on screens.

I was also progressing a project, where I am doing a guest editing spot, which is focused on diversity and am giving opportunities to others to be published! So thrilled about this, and more will be revealed!

I had an epiphany over the quarter break that I must escape my desk more for a cup of nature, in terms of a walk in a forest or by a stream and have a little more time with dear friends.

I am thinking of Romantic Poets, like Wordsworth, who would go for long walks, and in times where he was trapped in the urban areas, would think of nature. Nature is so rich nearby to us, both real and imagined. She has such bountiful, green, light, wrens, songs, and surrounded by bush the traffic camouflages itself as waterfalls.

A short drive and there are so many walks around places like Mt Cootha. So will be exploring the mazes of green there in between study breaks. Actually, it makes me study better to go on these explorations.

I find myself looking up into the branches, and spinning with the light. When stress about assessment rises, I am spinning beneath that light, and reminding myself, it is the insights and practice that will arise from education theories that counts.

My blog will be more silent for the next few weeks. Perhaps though photographs of nature escapes for strength may appear. Will they have words to go with them? Maybe only a handful.

Now off to read about Piaget, and Vygotzkgy! Who learnt more from each other than it might seem, on the role of the individual and community in the future of a child.

Reviews of South of the Sun

“South of the Sun is an enchanting illustrated book of fairy tales – but not the kind you read to children at bedtime.

They are strictly for grown-ups. Often dark, the stories visit places where things don’t end happily ever after, where a single decision can haunt you forever.

But there are also tales to make you laugh out loud, stories of sweet revenge and scenes of sheer delight in the work of magic and the fey.

Discover stories from emerging talent and leading award-winning Australian writers including Carmel Bird, Sophie Masson, Cate Kennedy and Eugen Bacon, along with artwork from foremost illustrators such as Lorena Carrington and Kathleen Jennings.”

From the Australian Fairytale Society Website

June: Reading from Into the Songwood

Reading South of the Sun feels like collecting shells or pebbles or feathers: the stories belong together but are strikingly individual. Here you will find the hilarious and the bittersweet, the poetic and the in-your-face brash, the historical, the contemporary and the futuristic. And each is brimful with magic.
This anthology is a delight from start to finish.
JULIET MARILLIER, AUTHOR OF AWARD-WINNING BLACKTHORN & GRIM SERIES

We are made by the stories we are told and by the stories we tell. Reading this collection reveals that we are bold, funny and inventive. We are nourished by history, and face the future with poetry in our hearts. This is a triumph of an anthology that truly captures the 21st Australian Fairy Tale.
KATE FORSYTH, AUTHOR OF BITTER GREENS AND ACCREDITED MASTER STORYTELLER

You can purchase the book from Amazon, or from Serenity Press.

From the Archives

The last month I’ve been working on creating folio samples for applications and checking my archives for works that have potential, but perhaps just need more editing or a process of reinvention.

The above picture is of a poem from a Writing Group Anthology from 10 years ago! Under One Sky with the Licuala Writers.

I enjoyed writing this poem, capturing childhood with my children and a memory of a trip to Kiribati. Maybe I will write more pieces like this! My children are all grown into adults, and one has left home, which makes poems like this especially poignant to read.

Last week was a super productive week, making entries to writing competitions, and anthologies, as well as preparing some new picture book submissions.

I was especially pleased with edits on the picture books. Leaving them for a while really helped, and resulted in a magic day when I looked at them and just knew what to do to polish them.

I’m on a break from working on my novel, and about to move into its third draft. I’ve such an optimistic feeling that the same magic will happen in the break from working on the novel.

May you enjoy the reconnection with your story archives!

Have you ever had a positive experience with revisiting an old story, picture book or poem and a magic day of editing it to shine?

Illuminations – on its way!

I have been a bit quiet of late, as a new book, Illuminations: 19 Poems and 1 Story, is about to be born.

At the end of this post is a preview of the back cover.

It has been a happy process – and has reunited me with designer Heidi Den Ronden and editor Matilda Elliot from Magic Fish Dreaming and led to working with new illustrators, Ruha and Minaira Fifita and some additional editing from Belinda Belton.

This book will be available in June 2020. I am using the Ingram Spark platform and developing more publishing and distribution skills this time around.

I’ve also retreated a bit to do some writing! Will keep you posted on the book, and I am keeping up my instagram posts.

I’ve been reflecting on how we treat the aged in our population after passing my fiftieth year. Some new poems being born through my poetry notebook. They are perculating, aging gracefully to find their meaning!

That’s all for now. Keep well, and think of happiness as a process not a destination.