Champagne and The Woman King, plus stone-cold gold websites for writers, and pep-filled pop songs
Rainy, depressive, disappointing spring mood, begone!
Nothing like a health scare for jolting you into a new perspective. Last week, at a routine optometrist visit they found a tiny thin spot on my macular and a smudgy weirdness on my retina. Considering I sweat out optometrist visits the way most people fear the dentist, I was trying not to panic while 100% panicking. A few days later, the eye specialist gave me the all-clear, at least for now. Phew!
What this has re-emphasised for me, is living it up while you can. I won free tickets to a preview screening of The Woman King this week (review below!) and there was a table set up with complimentary popcorn, wine, and champagne. Without being a total pig about it, you better believe I raided that free stuff!
A friend from dance class wants us to don Halloween costumes this week to do a self-choreographed routine to naff scary music, probably ‘Monster Mash’ or Fifth Harmony’s ‘I’m in Love with a Monster’. I might’ve shied away from doing that previously, but now? I hotfooted it down to the local two-dollar shop and bought pitchforks and scythes and witches’ hats galore.
Let’s not only participate in stuff, let’s GO BIG in joyful, fearless freedom. That’s the vibe I’m chasing right now. Happy spooky cosplay season!
News
1. Gina Rinehart pulled her $15 million in sponsorship money out of Netball Australia and people are reeeaaaaaaalllll salty about it. Some say politics should be kept out of sport and the athletes were “virtue signalling” to speak out against the deal. Others say you should know when you’re funded by a poisonous pot of money and are right to take a stand, even if you lose precious dollars in the process. The hoo-ha seems to have stemmed from Noongar player Donnell Wallam objecting to racist comments Gina’s dad Lang Hancock made in 1984 about the “Aboriginal problem”. Ooft. What do I think? Yes, 1984 was a long time ago, and yes, Gina shouldn’t be judged based on the words and deeds of her father, and keeping politics out of sport is a lovely thought. BUT: politics is permeates every part of our lives, Gina’s motives of her own don’t seem to be squeaky-clean, and Donnell has a right to object to smiling and keeping her trap shut when she feels conflicted about sponsorship deals.
2. The biggest competition I’ve won to date was a trip to Japan and to the Studio Ghibli Museum in Mitaka. I won by writing a “25 words or less” response to a question about the Ghibli movie Spirited Away. It was only my second trip overseas and Japan remains one of my all-time most-loved travel destinations. Anyway, the animation studio obviously occupies a treasured corner of my heart and I’m adding this new little theme park to my bucket list, which opens 1 November. How spesh!
3. Bookmarking this for future funeral planning. Way to turn a sad event into everyone having a chuckle and remembering you fondly. Well played, Gracie’s gran.
Reviews
1. A tiny tub of Tatcha water cream landed in my most recent Mecca Beauty Loop box and I was quietly stoked. I’ve been itching to try it but had balked at the price point -- $104 for 50ml. I must admit it has a lot going for it, including being cruelty-free and a lightweight formulation that didn’t give me pimples the next morning. Its light fragrance is vaguely reminiscent of cult classic perfume 4711, of which – I’m aware this may sound very basic bitch of me to say – I’m a huge fan. The ingredients list sounds pretty spesh too. There are Japanese wild rose and leopard lily in the mix, plus (apparently) anti-ageing elements: green tea, rice, and algae. I woke up looking relatively wrinkle-free and fresh the next morning. Don’t know whether it wound back the clock for my face, but it certainly didn’t do it any harm, and my skin didn’t feel smothered, so I’m counting that as a win.
2. I’m prefacing my thoughts here by saying I won a double pass to see this movie (cheers, Junkee!) as a preview at Palace Nova and they were handing out free popcorn and champagne, so I had two glasses and this is what I call ‘reviewing under the influence’, haha. The Woman King comes out this Thursday and it’s not just the booze talking when I say: you need to go see these bad bitches on the big screen. Viola Davis (of How to Get Away with Murder fame, plus an endless parade of other quality roles) plays the leader of an all-female group of warriors protecting the African nation of Dahomey. The story is loosely based on real events and although I was not really feeling this film 10 minutes in, the characters then started warming up in earnest and I became thoroughly invested. The story sparked several bursts of waterworks by the end, of the heartwarming variety. Watch this movie to marvel in the strength and resilience of women, especially of the black and/or underestimated variety.
Raves and Faves
Stone-cold gold websites for writers
I came across this one recently and wish I’d known about it earlier. Submitting short stories and essays to literary journals involves oodles of rejection. It’s so hard to know whether your piece was an easy ‘no’ because it was, frankly, crap. There can be so many other reasons why the journal didn’t want to publish it – the style of the piece wasn’t an ideal fit for the publication, they’d recently published something similar, they didn’t fancy the subject matter, or even you came mighty close only to be pipped by an even better piece. Rejectionwiki.com takes some of the angst-riddled guesswork out of receiving a ‘no’ by indicating where journals have slightly different rejection emails based on whether you got to a higher tier of ‘no’ as your piece got a ‘yes’ from an initial reader and was passed onto a more senior editor who rejected it. So helpful!
I use Wordcount.com to count words, just as the name suggests – usually copying and pasting in word from a news site or other online publication. I can check the usual word count of their articles and tailor my submission or pitch accordingly.
I have a love-hate relationship with this site. It’s great to see a list of most of your submissions to journals and writing awards all in the same place. You can sort by title, date, etc. It’s mighty handy, but also the main delivery system of bad news when my piece didn’t get across the line. If you’re a writer of short stories or essays, though, you’ll need to join this site and form a tenuous friendship with it.
4. Twitter
Look, this one’s probably a tad trite and obvious. I enjoy Instagram as well, but Twitter’s still my number one pick for chatting online with other writers, editors, and generally nice folk. Sure, there are trolls and the occasional unfriendly weirdo around, but you work out how to neatly sidestep them. (Friendly weirdos, on the other hand, are my tribe and most welcome to come say hello!) Once upon a time, I had an author page on Facebook, but it’s long since been abandoned after they kept changing the feed algorithm to make little pages less and less visible. Not cool. Twitter is still okay… for now.
This one’s for when I’m wearing my freelance-features-writer-for-magazines hat. As a writer, you can post a call-out seeking a case study or (less often) expert and receive a bunch of emails from potential candidates and their PR representatives. You do have to sift through to be careful you pick someone reputable, but it’s a wonderful service and I’ve used it to save my bacon so many times.
Rachel’s list is a fab, Aussie-based jobs board for roles like “copywriter for webinar scripts” and “marketing and communications specialist” and “social media coordinator” and “tech/business journalist”. Basically, if you’re a writer and want a job that pays actual, real money, this is where you should register.
Giveaway
The winner of Richard Osman’s novel The Bullet That Missed is Melanie Whittle. Tinsel! Confetti! I’ll be emailing you shortly, Melanie.
There’s no giveaway this week to give me time to catch up on things. In the meantime, I’d love to hear in the comments any upcoming books that would make fab prizes.
Playlist of the Week
Unashamedly joyful for more pep than a Pepsi:
1. Shower - Becky G
2. Melody - Lost Frequencies, James Blunt
3. Bang Bang - Jessie J, Ariana Grande, Nicki Minaj
4. Thelma + Louise - Bastille
5. The Only Way Is Up - Yazz
6. No One Compares To You - Jack & Jack
7. Funk - Meghan Trainor
8. Boys - Lizzo
9. The Drum - Alan Walker
10. Permission To Dance - BTS
11. Someone You Loved – Future Humans Remix - Lewis Capaldi, Future Humans
12. Pocketful of Sunshine - Emily
13. Higher Love - Kygo, Whitney Houston
14. Music For a Sushi Restaurant - Harry Styles
15. Here You Come Again - Dolly Parton
This was an awesome idea—saving to re-read (and discover some music!)
*Plus, Grandma's Ouiji board invites 🔥👍