It’s 6.30pm and I am sitting at my overcrowded desk, a blank blog screen in front of me and an overwhelming sense of panic. I have 30 minutes to create, from thin air and churning stomach, a blog post that may actually be read by others.

After toying with the idea of further studies, I impulsively enrolled in JSchools diploma of journalism, albeit a couple of weeks behind everyone else and now am speeding through content and study material to catch up, and keep up.

I am a 40 something mother of four mainly grown children, alongside four step kids, two granddaughters and a pack of three shar pei fur babies. I live in a small rural town in NSW and I work in several different but, for the most part, interesting and mentally stimulating jobs.

One role is with my towns only newspaper, published weekly, through the hard efforts of a skeleton staff of part-time employees slash volunteers. I work each Monday, on production day, following up advertising material, creating said ads as well as conning clients to book further ads. I also do the odd jobs; fill in the weather and ‘what’s on’ information, CMYK and adjust photographs to suit our grey pages and edit and place sports articles.

Sometimes, while wearing a different hat from my involvement in local sport, business, events or organisations, I write the stories that end up in our paper.
Writing has always been something that has interested me. I love to read, and have devoured books since childhood – there is always a book on the go. Not always highbrow, I admit, but there is always something being read.

Authors, such as my all-time favourite Stephen King, have inspired me, but I am yet to write the Great Australian Novel. I have been fortunate enough to write a biography of a beautiful man, an Aboriginal Elder from the Cumeragunja Mission, as well as a few projects texts, but I am keen to learn more, and write more.

(For anyone interested, more information about the biography is here http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/28897556?selectedversion=NBD44670910)

So I suppose I have answered by own question. That’s why I am here; to learn, grow, write and be read.