neXtDRAFT no. 22 Don't Pray For an Easy Life

Published: Tue, 05/01/18

Hello and welcome to neXtDRAFT 22. It's great to be back blogging and writing again and I've almost cleared my backlog of writing projects since moving to Iloilo City at the end of March.

This week (as every week does) has brought a new set of challenges but somehow I've still found time to write.

Every week that I navigate WIFI outages, problems with the email management system, and demanding children who don't want you to spend a single moment without them, just makes me more determined to keep writing.

I guess that's when you really find the truth in what you are doing.

We've all had enough meme's, emoji's and TED Talks thrust upon us to know that we can be anything we want to be; but we definitely can't be everything. Writing is the one thing that (no matter how hard it's become) I've persevered. And there is a truth in that.

There are just as many reasons not to write as they are not to play guitar, not to finish your uni degree, and not use that calligraphy set you bought years ago. But the truth will always find you in your worst days as well as your best. What's yours?

This old print filled with dust, scratches and wisdom was hanging on one of the walls in house when we moved in at the end of March.

Since moving to the city and ruffling through the books, I've set about writing book reviews for the excellent children's books I've been collecting for Jerry. Read the first review below. Jerry has a new tutor who has years of experience dealing with kids with delayed development, and he trots off to see her three afternoons per week.

For the 1.5 hour session I usually sit on the bench outside the room (locked doors, no parents) tapping away at the laptop on client work. And one day I even walked into town and got an $8 massage. Oh it was wonderful.

Jerry makes some new friends

Just down the road from tutor's office is the La Paz Plaza, a public park with grassed sports fields, tennis courts, lagoon, trees, basketball courts and a few playground toys. Yes, kids to play with and Jerry just loves it.

Yesterday after the tutoring session Jerry insisted we sit down under an old fig tree and throw tree bark and sticks into the pond and look at the tadpoles.

"I love this place Tita Mel," he shrieked in delight. Then sat for a good 5 minutes just looking into the water. It's the first time (without TV intervention) he's ever showed an interest in not running at 100 mile an hour.

There was just nothing like this in Estancia so it's wonderful to finally have an escape point. And trees to sit under.

So a new city, a new look newsletter and a new approach to life. It's so much easier to be happy when you have access to better food, more consistent WIFI, and coffee. No you could not buy real coffee within a 2 hour radius of Estancia.

Now I've go this email thing sorted out (another 3 hours gone last night and on the weekend whining to customer service) I'm marching confidently into May. There's so much to write about: local elections (meaning alcohol and cock fighting bans); my volunteer work at a high school eco-camp later this week, Jerry's upcoming ballet performance at Robinson's City, 3 visitors from Australia later this month, writing tips to share, and of course new poems to be found in the falling garden leaves.

Till next week.

Mel xx

Sincerely,

Melinda J. Irvine

[email protected]

IN THE CITY WE CAN BUY GREEN SALAD, BROCCOLI AND COFFEE ANY DAY.

Compared to Estancia La Paz Plaza is like the Royal Botanical Gardens.

Book Review: Me, the Tree

For the past 3 years I’ve been hunting for quality children’s books for Jerry. Living here in the Philippines I often stumble across wonderful books in second-hand bookstores in cities. It’s only recently I realised that (because we’ve been reading them together) it would be a nice way to give back to the authors and write a nice (and honest) review for each of them.

So I’m starting with Me, the Tree which I found in a little book store in an old shopping mall in Iloilo City a few days ago. This lovely book is a combination of original photographs, computer generated art, and poetry all created by author Ann Louise Ramsey.

Jerry's Mango Drink

Since moving to Iloilo City, every day Jerry likes to buy a little mango drink for about 25c.

He trots down the road with his wallet and 10 pesos and returns with a disposable plastic cup filled with condensed milk, ice and mango powder. He loves it.

But for the last few days I’ve been trying to convince him to take his own cup. Every time I ask him though he looks at me in alarm and tells me very earnestly ‘But Tita Mel, we don’t do that here‘.

Like most kids (and adults too) we don’t like standing out or doing anything that might cause people to ask questions about us. But I was delighted today when he set off to buy his drink carrying a green plastic tumbler from our kitchen cabinet.

And what caused this change of heart?

Simply calling him into my office before he set out and googling ‘plastic pollution‘.

I didn’t have to say anything or explain stuff. He took one look at that poor whale (top right) and went to the cabinet and grabbed a green cup.

If Jerry can take his own cup to buy his favourite mango smoothie, maybe we all can.

I’m a professional writer making my way in the world of business. The WritingBiz section is for anyone wanting to make writing a career (or at the very least make some money writing). Each week I share a few ideas on how to find writing jobs, self-publish your own eBooks, as well as how to setup your writing business and run it profitably.

Jobsites are generally used to supplement your income or as a way of starting a writing side-hustle while you’ve still got your day job. But they’re a great way to cut your teeth working with clients. As much as we love writing, a big part of our freelance writing business is working with clients; they’re the ones who pay us after all.

And working on a lot of different writing projects you’ll quickly learn how to read a project brief, create good work methods, and screen customers who are overly finicky or don’t know what they want.

It’s wonderful to be finally living my art life. The one I’ve read about, planned, danced around, grasped, rejected, lost, realised.

It isn’t a medium like … I’m a writer, I’m a poet, I’m a painter, I’m a dancer. It's something else ...

From the Vault: December 2015

still life coloured green

i find green everywhere

now guitar life sits still