Wishing you a happy festive season
The year is racing to an end. The consensus seems to be that it has been an annus horriblis! For those of us lucky enough to live in rural Western Australia, however, nothing has interrupted our normal, quiet, isolation. My sympathy goes to those cut off from family and love-ones, or those longing to travel, the past couple of years have been tough for them.
For me, it has been a time to be creative. Early in the year I attended a workshop at Esperance Community Arts, run by Jenny Davis on writing for radio, as part of the Esperance Writers’ Festival. “Duck to water” comes to mind. I found the process stimulating and achievable. It was an end-result for my writings. I used to turn them into stage presentations at the Bijou Theatre but age and the necessity to travel from the farm into town to rehearse, at night, through kangaroo habitat, was no longer desirable or safe.
103.9 Hope FM, our local community radio station has welcomed writers to use the recording studio and be part of the eclectic family who use the space. It has given me the opportunity to meet and become acquainted with a large section of the Esperance community I did not know existed. To my shame, they are not the privileged part of the community I usually mix with, and I find them interesting and generous with their help and friendship. Meredith Waters who runs the station, is a larger than life woman whom I have come to admire for her good nature, her vision, and her willingness to share her knowledge in a most encouraging manner.
Out of the Festival a group emerged. It is at present known as Esperance Writers but watch this space. That could change. Initially I was very hesitant to join this group as I feared that it would be full of enormous egos, all vying for position. Being a writer of theatre pieces, I had never considered myself to be a “real” writer. Just someone who tinkered around on the edges and the “real” writers were the ones who were writing books or journalism, which runs through my family. No one ever referred to me as a writer, even though I have written for many years, including a full length historical play about the history of Esperance which took me the best part of 2 years of research and writing to complete. I was wrong. It is made up of people who are striving to be better. They are full of the same insecurities I have. They have frustrations and they have successes. We have become a support base and we respect one another’s talents and efforts. Long may it live.
There has been a lot of luck in my year, and one example is meeting Kym (Bid) Bidstrup. Bid has many years’ experience working and writing for theatre and radio and is an absolute Wizz when it comes to recording and using the fabulous program Audacity which enables sound and music to be inserted into the recorded text. We have spent hours locked in a small, airless box being creative and have shared many laughs. Bid writes ethereal pieces of prose which are a challenge to read but when he speaks the words, a real magic happens. It is totally different to anything I have ever written or read before, so it is a challenge when he sends me something new to read but I have learned to be objective and try to give an honest opinion. We shamelessly admit we love working together and have formed our own “admiration Society”.
As 2022 approaches I look back and realise that I do not recognise the person who began 2021. All the people and experiences mentioned above have given me confidence and a direction I could never have imagined. I am grateful to all those whose paths I have crossed during this time. Especially those who have contacted me after listening to the works on my website. Thanks to all of you I can now say - “I AM A WRITER”.
Merry Christmas
Dale.
