3 days agoMember-onlyBeach Walker: Chapter 7Revelations — I didn’t know what to expect — but I didn’t expect this. I’d imagined my friend living in a small modern unit or an old fibro beach shack. I followed the phone’s instructions blindly as it led me out of town. Pulling into a gravel drive, I stopped. Surely the…Fiction Series6 min readFiction Series6 min read
4 days agoMember-onlyBeach Walker: Chapter 6An Odd Pair — After that, Leonard and I began to meet regularly. It was surely the oddest start to a friendship, and our friendship may have been one of the odder kind. He liked good coffee but couldn’t be persuaded to set foot in the beachfront café — or any noisy, busy building…Fiction Series4 min readFiction Series4 min read
5 days agoMember-onlyBeach Walker: Chapter 5Fragile — I felt compelled to find out what was going on, even though I really, really didn’t want to know. So I headed up the beach, closer to the commotion, as if I were just walking in that general direction anyway. They were all engrossed in their argument and paid me…Fiction Series4 min readFiction Series4 min read
Mar 14Member-onlyBeach Walker: Chapter 4Letting Off Steam — As the pain in my feet ebbed, I grew restless. Swatting away the March flies became a bother and the day was warming up as the cloud cover rolled away eastward. I’d brought neither hat nor sunblock: the plan was an early stroll before breakfast, not a morning on the…Fiction Series5 min readFiction Series5 min read
Mar 13Member-onlyBeach Walker: Chapter 3Them Ol’ Beachwalkin’ Blues — I stood on the crest of the dune. The sea before me was seal grey under an iron sky. White rows of surf rolled and crashed. The previous day, the onshore gale had been strong enough to keep me away from the Beach. Overnight, it had subsided to a blustery…Fiction Series5 min readFiction Series5 min read
Mar 12Member-onlyBeach Walker: Chapter 2Inertia Overcome — I met Geoff through work. Our workplace was a correctional centre in country New South Wales. It wasn’t an auspicious situation for romance. I was a nervous young community corrections officer doing her first stint in a male prison. I’d been warned about the us-versus-them culture among the prison staff. …Fiction Series3 min readFiction Series3 min read
Mar 10Member-onlyBeach Walker: Chapter 1Strange Peculiar — Between the Rip and the Barwon River curves a south-facing arc of fine sand, backed by scrubby dunes. It’s ten kilometres long. A distinct geographical feature, it should surely have a name. Yet I’ve consulted maps and questioned locals, and it doesn’t seem to. The westernmost section is Raff’s Beach…Fiction Series5 min readFiction Series5 min read
Mar 6Member-onlyWhy Not Wing It?Discoveries in Discovery Writing — When I began publishing stories here on Medium at the beginning of 2021, I didn’t really have a plan. I just started with a place and an ensemble of characters, and wrote episode by episode, as new developments popped into my head. Two years and a couple of hundred episodes…Fiction Writing3 min readFiction Writing3 min read
Jan 12Member-onlyFor Art’s SakeThoughts about illustrating my stories — One of the many things that Medium has gifted me as a writer is a delight in illustrating my stories. My main interest is adult fiction (interspersed with quasi-factual meanderings like this one). In this field, the word is deemed sufficient. Illustrated stories are for kids — or for magazines…Illustration5 min readIllustration5 min read
Dec 24, 2022Have a good one, Dee! Thanks for your friendship, writing and kind words in 2022. 🙏💛Have a good one, Dee! Thanks for your friendship, writing and kind words in 2022. 🙏💛1 min read1 min read