Writers up north

The QWC communications and publicity officer Lisette Ogg recently wrote a post about literature in north Queensland and how climate and country can affect the way a person writes. Very relevant to those of us scribbling away with pen and paper or typing madly at our keyboards while the mosquitoes buzz past and the rain pelts down on the roof! This is a really interesting post and for those of you who don't already read the Queensland Writers Centre blog The Empty Page, I recommend you take a look. It's a great way to keep up to date with what's going on in the QLD writers community while also giving you the opportunity to participate in discussions about a variety of issues.

North Queensland has a rich, diverse history full of stories of hardship and triumph, beauty and tragedy. Imagine if you will, an English gentleman and his family packing their bags and taking the long journey to Australia in the mid 1800's. They settle in north Queensland and spend their lives trying to wrest a living from a harsh land. In a memoir written many years later that same gentleman writes a dedication:

To the women who forsook the pleasures of city life to follow their husbands out to a life of ineffable loneliness in the bush...to the women to whom a debt is owed that could never be assessed or compared with the trials that attended the efforts of their husbands to win a living from the soil, I dedicate this book.

Why not take the time to research your favourite historical figure or event and be inspired to write something wonderful.