Another leap in the Right Direction

It's out! It's here! A dream has finally come true... My children's novel The Neighbor from M-Kids Pres has turned from a few short stories into a real life book... I am so grateful to David K Montoya and Stephanie J Bardy, the team at Dark Myth Publishing, for loving my writing and working so hard with me to help produce such a beautiful book. I am so grateful also to my family, to Heidi and the kids, as well as extended family, the love, support, and encouragement has helped me so much to push on, to overcome any doubts and hurdles, and to achieve what seemed impossible. For anyone interested here is the link to where you can purchase a copy... (https://www.mythmart.com/) And a hearty thank you must go out to the amazing Alan Johnson who has not only already bought a copy of my book, but also produced this wonderful video... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmIVDwQW3nA Hioefully this is just the beginning...

The Man! The Hair! The Boots! The Style! - Markus Hamence visits the Murray Bridge Library

It is always a thrill when we get a celebrity visit The Murray Bridge Library, and it is made especially fun when that celebrity so happens to be the wonderful Markus Hamence whom I am a HUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGEEEEE fan of. Markus is so passionate about indoor plants, oozes style, and is truly living his best life. We had this great man visit the Murray Bridge community as part of our April school holiday program. The kids who came along had so much fun designing mini tereriums. All the way through Markus was so encouraging and so supportive. We have a new generation of green thumbs, all inspired by Markus' passion for plants. I cannot wait to see what happens the next time that The Botanic Designer visits The Bridge.

More From the Mind of Tim - Family Day Out as Cold Weather Looms

Hi everyone, I am so sorry that it seems like I have left you. Things are really going well with my dream of becoming a fulltime writer, but my job as a Library Team Leader is far from over and is getting very busy as well. On the home front the kids are getting bigger and therefore busier too. My son is learning to drive and our eldest daughter is almost at the stage where she will be learning this skill too. My wife is working extra and there is rarely a moment when we are all free on the same day... Crazy times!! We are currently in the midst of the April school term break... Lots of families visiting the library where I work, lots of holiday activities that I am either running directly or somehow involved in. Staff restructures and new staff coming onboard makes for little opportunity for much else. I am so luck to have such an amazing team behind me. On the family front we found today (Sunday, April 23rd 2023) to be a gloriously sunny Sunday and a great day to go out as a family. We had never attempted fruit picking as a family (putting off a trip to the incredible Monarto Open Plains Zoo to try something completely new) so we all piled in the car and took off for Lenswood in the Hills area, searching for an apple orchard. Master 17 was at the wheel and did a wonderful job, more hours to add towards the seventy five that each Learner needs to clock up before they can aquire their P plates... The apple picking was great fun, and it was wonderful to see so many families out and about. We couldn't stop picking, Fuji, Granny Smith, and Golden Deliscious were all ripe, along with some Jonathan to add to our bags at the end. We discovered we had been a touch over enthusiastic when it came time to weigh and pay, but that is all part of the learning experience. I love our family adventures, and I cannot wait to discover where we adventure next!

Climbing Upon the Shoulders of Giants

When a door closes, does a window open? Not always so it seems, or at least not straight away. I am referring to my writing journey but I could be speaking about anything. In the case of my writing though I am discovering more and more opportunities to publish, thus far there is nothing yet associated with big named publishers... I am still chasing the pot of gold. For all of the windows that I am discovering, some open and some still as yet closed, I wonder if I will ever have time to knock on the big, golden door. I dream that life will be different, clearer perhaps. I know that my wife and my family are dreaming too, dreaming about a little cabin in the woods far away from everything. I like the idea of a quiet beach somewhere, perhaps one day we will have both. Until then though I must say a HUGE thank you to the existence of independent (Indy) publishers. Black Hare Press, Dark Myth Publishing, Black Ink Fiction, Pure Slush, Sweety Cat Press, Academy of the Heart and Mind, The House of Loki, to name but a handful of so many publishers, all of them successfully sharing the works of writers and artists such as myself, creators from all corners of this globe. Many of these Indy publishers are a one-person, two-person, or perhaps ten (if they're lucky) person team. It all equates to the same thing; more windows, more doors, and thus even more opportunities. Now all it seems we need is more time. One day someone will come up with a way to make that happen too. While we wait and hope for that we must make the most of the time we have got. If you are not sure, knock, and knock loudly. Doors and windows can only swing open when we seek them and ask.

The Joys of Being a Writer

I have begun a new year, already with a poem and a short story scheduled for publication. This morning I recieved in my email digital copies of three anthologies from Black Ink Fiction, five of the stories being animal themed drabble (stories of exactly 100 words), and the other two being short stories of the erotic romance genre. My experience as a writer since the end of 2018 when I started taking this hobby seriously has been a true eye opener. I have made a multitude of supportive friends online, people who write and publish from all over the world, and I have discovered wonderful support from friends and family here at home. I still don't consider myself a professional writer, not yet, but this hobby has enabled me to feature in so many anthologies (both in digital format and in print) that it is getting more and more difficult for me to consider myself a librarian first and a storyteller and poet second. All things considered though, I will always make being a husband and a father my top priority. Hopefully, 2023 will continue to provide me with ample time to submit my stories, short and long, and to maybe one day pay my way through writing... There are many opportunities for the writer of today, one just needs to be clever and quick. A thick skin helps too, along with wonderful friends and family from all over the world willing to stand in your corner and cheer you on. Thank you all!

Family time thanks to Puss and Wednesday

Happy New Year and all the best for 2023 to you all. I am ashamed to admit that I have started a weekly podcast for an independent publisher and am recording podcast episodes much faster than I am posting here. Perhaps I should get into the habit of posting the same day that I record... I guess time will tell... Speaking of time, we have seen in a new year very differently this year... A quick family escape, a planned trip to the seaside that went from two days to one. The river that runs through our town of Murray Bridge as well as numerous other places located in New South Wales, Victoria, and our home state of South Australia is rising, and rising unusually high. One thing that is a result of all of this river water is that the oceam mouth (where the river flows into the sea) is now quite murky and yucky. A trip to the beach is no longer the same joy that it once was. New Years' Eve at Victor though impressed us with the family fireworks and fun things for families to do. Unfortunately the accomadation let us down somewhat and so we returned to a home that is relatively spider free. It was strange to have New Years just as a family, normally there is a party at our house and lots of hugs and kisses when the old year makes way for the new. I guess traditions change, and this tradition helps us focus on what is important, family. And on the topic of family we have had a wonderful family day out recently in which we managed to catch the latest flick from DreamWorks, Puss in Boots - The Last Wish. If each member of our family had a star to allocate then this film would get at the very least four and a half blazing, beautiful, dazzling stars. Probably five if we were all honest. Great characters, and engaging storyline, a good one for the whole family. Something that deserves ten stars at least is the reimagining of the Addams Family, the Netflix series Wednesday. Our eldest has watched it when it first came out and we held off because I heard it was dark and very violent. Then we heard my brother-in-law was watching it with his family and they have kids much younger than ours. So we bit the bullet and decided to give it a go and absolutely loved it. Even Mr. 16 decided to join us for a few of his fav episodes. All in all a great start for us for 2023. Hopefully, this trend will continue.

Another Crook and Law EPIC weekend

Oh wow... It has been another loooooooooooooooooooong delay between posts. Life has been busy trying to find the happy medium between work and life (and often feeling like THAT is impossible). So much to post about and yet I never seem to be able to make the time to stop to do so. This weekend is an acception though, I have found that moment to reflect, to sit and type, to capture the now. So here goes... Friday night we braved our local show, a wet and windy night with people everywhere. I worked up until 6pm at the local library so sadly missed out on the usual wandering around and checking out the local stalls, crafts, and displays. Our daughter entered some cakes and muffins, after having some success at last year's show. Sadly no luck this time with a million and one entries in her age group... We are super proud of her efforts though and we love the taste of everything she bakes. It was great fun spending some time with the Crook family... Even if for me if was just sharing hot chips for tea... Saturday saw us once again playing host to an epic Australian Football Grand Final party... Streamers, balloons, friends, drinks, and soooooooooo much food. Our team, the Geelong Cats, came to play, teaching the Sydney Swans a harsh lesson on how to play the game on the biggest stage of all. Geelong truly proved they are The Greatest Team of All (at least in 2022)... Again the Crook family were there with us, cheering at each goal. My brother-in-law Ben and I both married Gallasch sisters nineteen years ago and our friendship has grown stronger and stronger over the years. The girls sadly lost their mum (a HUGE Geelong Cats fan) mid last year and so watching the win was a very emotional one as the Cats did it for mum this year. We are sure that Barbara is up there looking down on us all, cheering as loudly as she can. We feel her presence always, but even more so yesterday during the game. Now on to today... Day three of our EPIC Crook and Law weekend... Today we are off to a FREE day at the Adelaide Zoo!! Thanks to the union that my wife and my daughter both belong to we have two free family passes to a day out at our local zoo... This is not the Monarto Open Range Zoological Park, more a traditional city zoo... We love seeing all of the animals, and the free sausage sizzle is an added bonus... Looking forward to the fun ahead as once again we have a solid catch up with the Crooks. Hoping you all are having a great time too... Hopefully soon I can jump back on and bring you up to speed on everything else that is happening in my world, the world of Tim the Wizard... :)