Learning And Sharing

“Behaviour is often taken as evidence of identity or capability, and this is how confidence and competence are destroyed in the classroom. Getting a sum wrong does not mean you are stupid or that you are poor at maths. To think this is to confuse logic, it is equivalent to thinking a ‘No Smoking’ sign in the cinema applies to the characters in the film” Joseph O Connor & John Seymour: Introducing NLP (Element 2002).

Everyone needs a platform for their writing and finding the right fit for your time, genre, cashflow, audience and I.T capabilities can be difficult.

Three weeks into teaching at my local U3A and there is a group of very interesting and interested writers some using Instagram for the first time, some creating blogs on WordPress and one group have published on Amazon, yes in just three weeks!

Instagram was a keen favorite with some individuals because it is what it says, instant! It is also very simple to use, set up and a great way to share excerpts and blogs.

When the course started there were some conversations about not being computer savvy but that was simply confidence that needed building.

Teaching is a pleasure when the recipient is responsive and that is obviously a result of teaching what is relevant and creating confidence.

 

Peninsula Writing Retreat

Writers Retreat

Get away from the hustle and bustle of the city and immerse yourself into this secluded weekend retreat. If you would like to find your voice, write your book or create some content, then this is the perfect space to let your creative thoughts run wild and have the experience of a talented teacher guide you through the process.

This 2 night 3 day retreat has limited availability, so don’t miss out!

21st to 23rd September 2018

ONLY $799

Includes:

FRIDAY

What’s Your Story?

Dinner

SATURDAY

Breakfast

Planning & Purpose

Morning Tea

Secrets of the Writing World

Lunch

Threads & Theme’s

Afternoon Tea

Free-time

Dinner

SUNDAY

breakfast

Publishing & Distribution

Morning Tea

Your Story Presentation

Lunch

Farewell until we meet Again!

Package is based on two people sharing a twin room in a four bed apartment and includes pre and post retreat writing consultation.

Contact Lisa Taylor for more details

E: frankiebanks27@gmail.com

W: frankiebanks.com

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BEAUTIFUL TRAUMA -Waiting for the Curtain to Fall

What a bloody awesome title for a tour! Is trauma what inspires all creatives?

When my little girl chose PINK last term as her hero to write a school project about I was blown away with pride that she had chosen someone who follows her own rules, not societies and is such a strong, powerful woman. So even though pennies were tight as single mum, status was in full swing I swallowed the overdraft and bought tickets for her birthday.

We started to research PINK together, I had grown up with her songs and watched her be the antipiode of Britney Spears and Christine Aguellera.  This girl wasn’t prouncing around in school uniforms, it was clear her music was more important than her media. Also what became quite apparent was that it was the break up of her parents that inspired her to start writing, quite apt! Her words were what inspired me to stop and listen and (even though apparently I get most of them wrong, according to my beautiful little girl) it would seem that is what inspires her too.

We took the train into town and walked to Rod Laver Arena from Richmond, a nice stroll as dusk set in and we waited for the doors to open …. and then another hour for the inside doors to open, anticipation building!

I have always wanted seats near the stage at a concert and so when I saw they were available online I couldn’t believe it! I wanted so much for this to be the best experience for my daughter.  However, when we sat down the stage was completely obscured by a hanging curtain.  Immediately dread took over both of us, we wouldn’t be able to see anything. I tried to placate the situation by explaining PINK does alot of acrobatics and wouldn’t just be standing on the stage singing. However everyone in our seating section was having similar gloomy conversations. Then the supporting artist came on and our suspicions were confirmed we couldn’t see a thing! Even the tv screen was positioned directly above our heads and so didn’t help.

My heart sank as her smile turned to a frown after all the ups and downs of the last eighteen months I just wanted one perfect night with my little girl and I couldn’t even get that right!

Frustration turned to determination and I realised that we could see behind the curtain back stage and I told my baby I thought I could see Pink. Then we saw her with her little girl, huge ear defenders on, this lifted our spirits. We could see all the dancers stretching in their lycra and Pink giving her daughter the biggest hug.

Then the huge curtain dropped and we were ten feet away from this awesome woman belting her songs out, her heart out! My little girl beamed with joy and I simply wiped the tears away.

Sharks & Lovers -Download Book Two For Free 

Free Download of Sharks & Lovers

For One Week Only Download Sharks & Lovers Australia For Free Here

In a few weeks I will be heading to Brisbane to talk and promote my books at Sexpo 2017. I’m so excited!  In celebration of this I wanted to share Sharks & Lovers Australia on my site for free!

Set in the beautiful Bayside suburb of Melbourne and the remote Kakadu National Park  adventures of the heart for Tabatha and Stacey hit the red dust.

Feel free to download it in the above link and share it with your friends and lovers. Enjoy!

Flash Fiction

Fiction In 100 Words


There are many flash fiction websites, so I decided to try my hand. What a great way to make every word count. Writing thousands of words can be so much easier, you have room to breath. In 100 words, every sentence needs to count every word needs to be presice. This is my first attempt;

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Three Botanical Gardens and the Things I Didn’t Write

When I travelled around Australia in  2003 my friends bought me a diary to write. I had three very different experiences in three Botanical Gardens so I thought I would dig out my diary and reminisce.  Searching through my notes I realised I didn’t document them! The people, places and events that interested me then are definitely not what interests me now. I will have to write from memory.

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Page Three…the error

I have sent my manuscript to various publishers and then today as I went through it for the umpteenth time I saw it. That bloody error on the third page! This means that all five publishers will have seen it.  Some publishers want 100 pages, some the first chapter, all want a synopsis. One wanted a three line synopsis! To which my explicit words were rampant for a good half hour whilst composing.

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Frankie’s Fiction

It was busy on the train into Flinders Street but Sarah managed to get a seat.  The man opposite catching glances in her direction was about her fathers age and ruggedly handsome.  Sarah’s phone beeped and she looked down.

Running five minutes late, meet you inside the NGV

She looked out of the window noticing some of the tin roofs passing by. It had been a long time since she had stayed with her Gran in Warburton. She loved thinking back to the nights she had spent laying in her bed listening to the rain hammering on the roof. The sound would send her off to sleep and at other times would wake her up with huge crashing thunder and lightning. Luckily their house never got hit, she knew a few in Warby that had.

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Kakadu (Gagudju) National Park

My characters in book two are in the amazing Kakadu National Park at the moment. So as I sit in the café in Melbourne, the rain thundering on the tin roof.  I can’t help feeling the weather getting warmer and more humid with every word I type.  The buzz of people around me fuelling my fingertips.


What a wonderful place Kakadu is, whilst I was working there I was lucky enough to share accommodation with three Aboriginal Australian girls. They were amazing spirits, such energy, always smiling, laughing and joking, always so much to say and always so dramatic.

There were many Australians from far and wide and immediately I recognised their accents as very different from each other.  There were a few Kiwi’s and some European’s, Indonesians, Malaysians. What a wonderful soup of souls we were.

As with a lot of lifes rich experiences I took it for granted at the time. When going back to the diary I kept, I was much more interested in recording the wildlife and surroundings than the late night deep conversations of these wonderful people. Oh how we change! If I could travel back in time I would record all of our chats, the facial expressions, the little nuances of these colourful individuals.


I have so many questions to ask of these people that have now probably little or no memory of me. I will have to rely on my recollection and add a bit of artistic license to a few stories. That is the beauty of writing, the thin line between fact and fiction is really only there for the writer to know and reader to guess at.

So as I wonder around the streets and cafe’s of Melbourne, excuse me if I bump into you, I’m not reading my iPhone or trying to get your attention. My mind is simply in Kakadu (Gagudju) National Park. The heat is burning my shoulders, as I scan the red dust for snakes. Watching the heat haze on the horizon which makes the gum trees look like a mirage. The escarpment seems to reach so far, I can see the curvature of the earth. I climb to the top of Gunlom Falls my back wet with sweat and dip my toe into the cooling water, wondering if Crocs can climb. Then I immerse my body in the refreshing serenity of the pool. The huge boulders acting like armchairs to sit upon. If I am about to be eaten by a Croc what a wonderful place for it to happen!

Melbourne is a distant memory, just the place my physical form inhabits as I type away at my laptop. I may be present in Melbourne but my presence is undeniably in Kakadu.

My book Sharks & Lovers is available to download here:

Amazon       Kobo       iTunes

Resistance is Futile

“What is good? – All that heightens the feeling of power, the will to power, power itself in man.  What is bad? – All that proceeds from weakness. What is happiness? – The feeling that power increases – that a resistance is overcome…”  Nietzsche

I have overcome a resistance, a resistance to being me.  I feel empowered by this and just being me is making me extremely happy.  When I stumbled across this quote by Nietzsche this morning, I thought Yes! Yes! Yes!  This is how I feel.  I have a mental power that I have never felt before. Power to me use to mean men in suits, the educated, political power, super powers.  I certainly never thought I would associate this kind of power to me but I have grown enormously since starting to write.

Whilst I was writing my first book I attended a self-defence course.  The two guys running it were menacing to look at, however by the end of the day they had shown a softer caring side.  We spent the day learning how to get out of various grips and holds. When a muscle-bound 6 ft 10 inch guy tries to drag you away and you can easily escape his clutches, the power shifts in your favour.  It was exhilarating.  The main lesson I came away with I wrote in my notebook as soon as I got into the car, ‘Don’t resist’ to be able to break away from something that holds you, you first have to go with it.  I knew this was true in many areas of my life.

I had been carrying a huge resistance to being me, this fight had to stop.  However to be able to let go of the past I knew I had to revisit it.  Two steps forward and one step back.  I was still moving forward just very slowly.  At times whilst writing I was so submerged in the characters I would go to the shops as them, Harry often strutted around the ‘burbs’ of Melbourne checking out the totty.  At other times Milla would drag her feet along the pavement to the local supermarket and buy a huge bag of sugary sweets. Some days writing would feel as though I was sinking very slowly to the bottom of the ocean.  My hands and arms spread wide in surrender to my thoughts, no emotion just pure surrender.  It was a calm feeling not thrashing around drowning, just a surrender to my sub-conscious. As my feet touched the sandy mud at the bottom I would rise quickly, vertically to the surface, the bubbles of my exhaled breath tickling my body.  When my head broke the surface of the water, the blue of the sky was endless. I could feel every tiny sun beam penetrating the pores of my face and the water around me was warm.  It was a hug from the universe, it was progression.

My book Sharks & Lovers is available to download here:

Amazon       Kobo       iTunes