A few weeks ago, I was asleep, and I presume I was in a deep sleep at about 2am in the morning. Suddenly, I woke up, and I sat up. Charcoal tumbled off me. It had hit me, the plotline of a novel inside a world that I had been sitting on for over a decade.

It’s still very clear in my mind, the day I walked into the Pain Clinic at Flinders. I was in my early twenties, and I immediately felt unsettled. The walls were rotting and peeling, and I felt squished and oppressed from the low ceilings and tight spaces. It was as though everything about the corridors and waiting area was designed to be as uncomfortable as some post-modernist Foucauldian institution.

I still remember the day I saw the poster to become a Host Parent hanging on the oddly placed community notice board at Aberfoyle Hub. I say oddly placed because it was near the toilets, but I suppose, I always did stop to read it - so perhaps it was correctly placed...

Today is Wednesday. Which means it's Cleaning Day in the Writer's Cottage. It is also Christmas Eve. So, I am cleaning on Christmas Eve. Which is very - normal.

Kylie reflects on the loss of her long-time cafe sanctuary, and the struggle to find her creativity again in a new space.

Visiting Culloden Battlefield became a profound spiritual moment that changed how I see the world. A story of grief, ancestry, and God’s quiet presence.

I don't like ranting online. Let's get that cleared up. But lately, I’ve been seeing something that really bothers me, and as someone who’s been writing fanfiction since the days of dancing to dial-up internet tones, I’ve got a few thoughts.

I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia in 2009. I was 19. I had dreams, hopes - honestly, I still have them, much hasn't really changed in the past 16 years in regards to my dreams of having a family of my own, but, I have grown stronger, and come to accept and love myself and that journey I would not change. Chronic pain can be crippling....

Around this time, every year, I write an email to myself and schedule it to arrive sometime in April, usually after my birthday.