Paint and sip can sod off, nurseries for baby corals, and ‘Day’s End’ by Garry Disher

Plus my wrap-up of the writing year that was

Those of you feeling a strange sense of déjà vu last week weren’t wrong. I accidentally republished the same playlist I’d already released two weeks before – ‘Floaty tunes I’d crack out for aerial hammock class’. Big oops. Apologies! It’s the surest sign yet that I really need a damn holiday.

So now if you click through to last week’s playlist, I’ve replaced the offending redux list with some festive frivolity – ‘Spiking the office Xmas party punchbowl’. Much better. And this week, your NYE listening is sorted ahead of time with ‘Confetti, cocktails, and counting down to crushing 2022 under your heel’. Ace.

In actual fresh content for this week, I’ve compiled a special ‘Year in Review’ section this week. I’m keen to hear about yours in the comments. Kicked writing goals? Nailed a new hobby? Made a new discovery you’re itching to share? Bought the dreamiest dress with pockets? These deserve to be celebrated.

In the meantime, farewell for now! Merry change-of-year! Happy season of pavlova-and-pudding! See you in 2023, all things going swimmingly.

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News

1.     The title had me picturing a special room painted pastel colours, with The Wiggles playing softly in the background, a crib, and maybe an owl mobile hanging from the ceiling. This is a different type of nursery altogether, though – scientists are starting to have success regrowing coral for the Great Barrier Reef in underwater nurseries. It’s nice to hear a tiny piece of good news in the fight against climate change.

2.     How fab is Annie Reynolds’s mission to close the gender gap of accomplished women listed on Wikipedia?! Very, very, very. You can read more about the ‘Women in Red’ initiative here.

Reviews

1.     This is a cute piece by Cherie Gilmour in the SMH: ‘Paint and sip? Why can’t team building be kept to office hours’. As much as I love the sound of boozy art nights with friends or my partner, my attitude towards socialising with colleagues out-of-hours has always been a firm nope. Over the years, I truly enjoyed the company of most of my workmates during office hours, but sorry peeps, if I’m spending time with you outside of the regular 9-5, I expected to be paid. A once-yearly Christmas party, where I strictly curb my uptake of the free drinks? Okay, but let’s not paint nudes with Denise from Accounts while on the sauce. That’s just asking for awkward.

2.     Read this one in the past week and it’s everything I hoped it would be and more: Day’s End by Garry Disher. I haven’t read all Disher’s books (although I really should catch up on them), but I am up to date on all the novels in his Hirsch series, of which Day’s End is the latest. The general gist is city cop Paul Hirschhausen is relegated to a tiny outback town by an internal affairs miscarriage of justice and gets to know the inhabitants and their mysteries. All the releases in the series are outstanding. This one is even better, deepening our knowledge of the community and incorporating the pandemic into the story in a really satisfying way. Read if you’ve read Jane Harper’s novels and you’re perspiring out of every pore with your need to get your mitts on her next book.

3.     A thoroughly enjoyable interview with writer and advocate Hannah Diviney on disability, sex, and Taylor Swift’s storytelling in The Saturday Paper. It bothers the hell out of me how many people dismiss Taylor Swift’s songwriting and talent. Don’t like her and her music? No probs. Don’t think she deserves credit for the success she’s had? Buzz off. It’s so nice to see her getting the kudos and admiration and analysis she’s due. And Hannah seems cool – I’m curious to see her in SBS’s Latecomers now.

The Year in Review

Various nonsenses I got up to in 2022

Every year, I buy Otto-brand notebook 3-packs from Officeworks and fill them with article ideas, lists of my submissions, and plans for world domination. This year, I decided to include monthly highlights, since my memory is notoriously unreliable, and I wanted to remember good things I achieved month-by-month. When everyone does those end-of-year round-ups in December about what they’re proud of, I usually can’t recall half the things I’ve done, or am unsure whether a particular achievement was in the current year or the one before.

Not anymore! A couple of months ended up being left blank, but here are some of my 2022 writing highlights:

• Published for the first time in: WellBeing WILD, Bon Appetit, The Oz, Nourish, Take 5, and Flash Fiction Magazine

• Flash 500 longlisted my story ‘You’ in their 2021 fourth quarter competition

• My flash non-fiction piece ‘The Flinch Factor’ was accepted by an anthology (publication forthcoming)

• The Reflex Fiction spring 2022 flash competition longlisted my flash fiction story ‘Petrichor’

• My story ‘The Gully’ was published in the Sydney Hammond short story anthology, Jump: The Time is Now

• The Berry Writers Festival flash fiction competition shortlisted my story ‘How It Tastes’

• Launched the Becks and the City newsletter/blog on Substack in September! *cheers, confetti*

• A bunch of my articles were published in places I write for regularly or have written for before such as MiNDFOOD magazine and House of Wellness

I’m so grateful to start-of-the-year me for deciding to record this stuff as the months flew by because all put together like this, it looks like quite a lot, at least to me. *pats self on back*

What are you most proud of doing this year (professionally or personally)? It’s actually super-nice to look back on these things, even if you have to give your year-long memory a jog along in written form.

Giveaway

The winner of Helen Hoang’s romance novel The Heart Principle is Laura Wolf. I’ve emailed you, Laura!

Giveaways will be back in 2023. Hooray!

Playlist of the Week

Apologies on the accidental re-do of an old playlist last week, folks. I’ve since updated the post to provide a cute Xmas-themed bundle of songs.

Now on to this week’s playlist to soundtrack your New Year’s Eve, whether you’re clubbing, it or couching it. : )

Confetti, cocktails, and counting down to crushing 2022 under your heel:

1.     I Believe in a Thing Called Love - The Darkness

2.     Next Year - Macklemore, Windser

3.     Crushed Velvet - Yves Tumor

4.     This Is It - Dannii Minogue

5.     Wild Ones - Flo Rida, Sia

6.     Party In the USA - Miley Cyrus

7.     Boom Clap - Charli XCX

8.     MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name) - Lil Nas X

9.     Go Bang - PNAU

10.  I’ll Be There - Jess Glynne

11.  Hannah (the sun) - Fred again…

12.  Take On Me - a-ha

13.  I Got the Juice - Janelle Monae, Pharrell Williams

14.  Bongo Cha Cha Cha - Goodboys

15.  Big City Life - Luude, Mattafix