updates

well, it's been a while. i've been playing the avoidance game as usual, with a couple of (actually, three) assignments for uni being the things i'm hiding from at the moment. but, i have to get them done. here is a summary of some things that have happened since the last time i was here:

- this morning, a line of character desciption came to me in that half-alseep, half-awake moment before fully waking up. i kept thinking, 'i should write this down' but couldn't be bothered moving, so i imagined writing it down in several different ways, in several different colours, on several different writing pads. i still remember the words. that's a good sign.

- i met the sister of an actor who used to star in an australian soap. i never actually watched the soap myself, but was excited nonetheless, because his face was on a collectors card that i, um... collected, out of a box of fruit loops when i was growing up in fiji.

- i had to write a bio for the organisers of writing and book related stuff i will be doing on my upcoming fiji trip. the final line reads 'shalini has just completed a graduate diploma in professional writing'. this felt very good to write, though this is not technically true until i finish the three aforementioned assignments. wish me luck.

- i bumped into a writer i very much admire at my local cafe (oh, alright - it was helen garner) . i debated on whether or not to say hello to her, but decided not to as she was busy reading, and i was a little chicken. then as she was leaving the cafe, i waved and she said hello to me. we chatted, then said goodbye. i skipped home.

- the film option contracts for the bollywood beauty are done and dusted. they are sitting on my coffee table in triplicate (plus one, but i love the nonsensical sound of 'in triplicate'). i like them, and will send them off this week.

- i have been invited to write a column for glossy india, a free monthly magazine available from indian grocery stores everywhere (in melbourne at least). my first one was on the whole viswanathan plagiarism thing. i think the second one will be about being an indian working in an australian call centre.

- on the fiji trip, i will go to the world music festival in suva. i get to interview artists backstage and will be writing some articles. i hope to thank boney m in person for the song 'brown girl in the ring', which, when growing up in fiji, us brown girls all believed to be written for us.