Blog – Page 15 – Jenn J McLeod – small-town storyteller

Posted on 04/08/201603/08/2016 by Jenn J McLeod — 23 Comments

Author, Tess Woods, Writes To Her 18 y.o Self #giveaway

So Tess,

You’re eighteen – finally old enough to go out clubbing after five months of university purgatory where you were the youngest. Here’s some life pointers from your forty-three year old self:

That guy you’re in love with? Babe, he’s just not that into you, he never will be and he’s actually a bit of a tool. Let it go! Now that guy who is your great friend but you don’t want to risk the friendship by taking it to the next level? Yeah, him. I’m here to tell you the friendship dies anyway, so go for it – when he tries to kiss you in a few months at The Metro, let him!
Stop freaking out about your hair. They’re about to invent this thing called GHD – it’s a ceramic hair straightener. Sit tight, it’s coming and it will solve all your problems.
Ignore your dad when he tells you that no man will want you because you’re too opinionated and strong willed. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. The relationships you have will be with men who love you for your strength of character so don’t question that for a minute. Also God is sending you a daughter called Lara as karma for your strong willed nature, just you wait!
Some serious stuff is going to go down between your mum and dad. Hang in there, I promise it will all be okay in the end and the fears and worries you’ve been carrying around like a lead weight in your gut for your whole life about the situation at home will all be resolved in the next few years. It’s going to get really ugly first, but you’ll all come out the other side just fine.
Take your Ventolin inhaler everywhere, don’t be lazy with it.
Don’t waste any time worrying that you won’t get married and have children, I know this is the main thing you want in life, so let me tell you, it happens okay? Now go and live it up, you’re young, go have fun with your friends and forget about finding Mr Right! Btw, the first two guys you think are Mr Right are actually your practice runs. The third one is the keeper!
You’ll still be super close to your childhood bestie when you’re in your forties. I know you’re worried now because you’ve gone to different universities and she’s hanging out with actors while you hang out physios and doctors but through thick and thin, she’s going stick with you forever and she’ll be right beside you in your darkest moments.
Eat less crap. You’re forming bad habits and I’m paying the price here!
When you fail your first year of university and are completely devastated, don’t be, you’re about to have the most amazing year ever and you’ll be really glad you failed.
Guess what, you still love Sting and Pat Cash at forty-three! And they are both still HOT!
When your friend Jess tells you that she feels like her life is pointless and then goes to get in her car – DO NOT let her get in that car. Take her for a coffee or you’ll be heartbroken forever.
Brad Pitt doesn’t marry Gwyneth Paltrow, I think you should be prepared for this.
That passion you have for human rights will only get stronger with time. You do great stuff here, you should be proud! And they free Nelson Mandela, he becomes the leader of South Africa – no shit!
Stop aiming for perfect, it’s never going to happen. You will continue to make monumental stuff ups, lots of them. It’s always okay in the end.
Finally, don’t throw anything out. All your old crap will become retro this and retro that. Hang onto everything and wait for eBay to get invented.

Love from your much-older-ever-so-slightly-wiser-still-mostly-hasn’t-got-her-shit-together-yet-self!

Tess Woods- smaller photo Love at First Flight Print Cover About Tess Woods:

Tess Woods is a physiotherapist who lives in Perth, Australia with one husband, two children, one dog and one cat wo rules over all of them. Her debut novel, Love at First Flight, first released as an eBook in April 2015, received worldwide critical acclaim, hit the best-seller charts in Australia and was voted Book of the Year in the AusRom Today Reader’s Choice Awards 2015. Tess was also top ten nominated as Best New Author. Love at First Flight is the first HarperCollins Australia digital book acquisition to be given a print release in August 2016. Tess’s short story, Destiny in a Day was released in the anthology Hot Stuff: Surfing Love and she is currently putting the finishing touches her second full-length novel, Beautiful Messy Love. When she isn’t working or being a personal assistant to her kids, Tess enjoys reading and all kinds of grannyish pleasures like knitting, baking, drinking tea, watching Downton Abbey and tending to the veggie patch.

You can learn more about Tess on her website www.tesswoods.com.au or you can connect with her on Facebook or Twitter.

WIN! A signed copy is up for grabs.

A-weema-weh, a-weema-weh

Yes, the lion was sleeping. Wish I had been. Instead we were up at 5.30am and dressing in so many layers I looked like the Michelin Man.

“It’s fun”, they said.

“A not-to-be-missed experience,” the brochure claimed.

Not only was it only 3 degrees, it was a foggy day in Dubbo today. We thought the fog might have ruined the up close encounters. Instead it added a serenity until about 10am when it finally lifted.

We walked about 10 km and we’re totally exhausted, but what an experience. Not hard to tell my favourites. We are going back for more tomorrow.

I so wanted to do this with a heat lamp!

Posted on 10/07/201619/07/2016 by Jenn J McLeod — 3 Comments

Author, Maggie Christensen writes a letter to her 25 y.o self

Dear Maggie,

It’s 1970, you are twenty-five and about to set off on the adventure of a lifetime. You’ve been teaching primary school for three years, your friends are all married – you’ve already been a bridesmaid three times – and you’ve grown up on stories of the mad Australian side of the family visiting during the war. You have family in Melbourne, but being independent, you’ve decided to go to Sydney where you know no one.

You’re not sure what you’ll find there, but have read lots of Lucy Walker books and it’s only for two years, so it can’t be too bad. You’ve seen the ad with a half-naked man in gown and mortarboard inviting you to ‘Come and Teach in the Sun’. Right now, you may not be living the beach lifestyle you imagined when you stepped on the plane, but it’s waiting for you. You just need to be patient.

What you don’t know is that, initially you’ll feel you’re on permanent holiday, the sky will look like a picture postcard and you won’t be at all homesick. Don’t be too disappointed when you hate teaching in state schools, which you’ve discovered are very different from those in Scotland. Things will improve and at the end of two years, you won’t be ready to go home.

In a few years the government will declare university study free and with the encouragement of the headmistress in the private school you now teach in, you’ll complete the degree you dropped out of in Scotland. You’ll enjoy study so much you’ll continue to further study and eventually gain a PH D. but that comes later.

Your study will lead you to the achievement of your long-held goal to improve teacher education and this will take you to country New South Wales, first to Goulburn, then to Wagga Wagga. It’s there that, at the ripe old age of 37 when, after several disastrous relationships and having almost given up hope of finding your soulmate, you’ll meet the gentle giant of a man who will become your husband and you’ll become stepmother to three teenagers.

Remember to never give up on your dreams, and it’s never too late to try something new. The positive attitude you inherited from your mother will always stand you in good stead, and when you’re facing redundancy in your sixties, you’ll decide to fulfil your childhood dream of writing fiction.

Signed,

Your seventy-one year-old self.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Maggie lives on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast with her husband of over 30 years and, when not writing or reading, loves to walk along the beach in the early morning and have coffee by the Noosa River. She writes contemporary women’s fiction celebrating mature women and the heroes worthy of them. You can find out more about Maggie at:

http://maggiechristensenauthor.com/

Connect with Maggie of Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/maggiechristensenauthor/

Madeline House is Maggie’s fifth book and the third in her Oregon Coast Series:
Buy link: myBook.to/MadelineHouse

If you’ve read this far … lucky you! Maggie is giving a copy of Madeline House away, so before you go, leave a comment. NOW CLOSED

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Wanting to honour the lost art of letter writing through this blog series, I also opened my fourth novel with a character writing a letter. And not just any letter. It’s a story — perhaps the most important he’ll ever tell.

The Other Side of the Season

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Jenn J McLeod - small-town storyteller

Author, Tess Woods, Writes To Her 18 y.o Self #giveaway

WIN! A signed copy is up for grabs.

Leave a comment or share online to go into the draw.

Wanting to honour the lost art of letter writing through this blog series, I also opened my fourth novel with a character writing a letter. And not just any letter. It’s a story — perhaps the most important he’ll ever tell.

The Other Side of the Season

A-weema-weh, a-weema-weh

Author, Maggie Christensen writes a letter to her 25 y.o self

Wanting to honour the lost art of letter writing through this blog series, I also opened my fourth novel with a character writing a letter. And not just any letter. It’s a story — perhaps the most important he’ll ever tell.

The Other Side of the Season