  Author Biography· Bryce Courtenay, was born in South Africa. He is, an Australian, and has lived in Sydney, for the major part of his life. His hero’s portray both the vulnerability of youth or human weakness and as we read, we see them develop an incredible, testosterone booster larger than life inner strength. Visit him on the web at www.brycecourtenay.com. WIN :- The Power Of One: [Audiobook, Unabridged] [Double box Audio CD] Pre listened to, once by myself, Kathy shell, cover is scratched, New value of this 18 compact disk set is over $150. value with FREE postage within Australia. You are welcome to enter the competition if outside of Australia but shipping cost must be paid before item will be sent. Bryce Courtenay, Author, Humphrey Bower, Narator. This great prize, Plus free postage within Australia, is our FREE Giveaway, for July. To be in the draw with one entry, just:- 1/ Leave a comment on this post saying why you would like to win this audio book. · Note, this Giveaway will be being offered from all ten blogs written by Kathy Shell, during the month of July 2010. There is only one prize to be given away and free postage is only for Australian delivery. All entries from each blog post, for this competition, from each of the ten blogs, will go into the one draw, and the winner will be announced at the end of July or start of August 2010. “The Power of One has everything: suspense, the exotic, violence; mysticism, psychology and magic; schoolboy adventures, drama.” –The New York Times “Unabashedly uplifting . . . asserts forcefully what all of us would like to believe: that the individual, armed with the spirit of independence–‘the power of one’–can prevail.” –Cleveland Plain Dealer In 1939, as Hitler casts his enormous, cruel shadow across the world, the seeds of apartheid take root in South Africa. There, a boy called Peekay is born. His childhood is marked by humiliation and abandonment, yet he vows to survive and conceives heroic dreams–which are nothing compared to what life actually has in store for him. He embarks on an epic journey through a land of tribal superstition and modern prejudice where he will learn the power of words, the power to transform lives, and the power of one. “Totally engrossing . . . [presents] the metamorphosis of a most remarkable young man and the almost spiritual influence he has on others . . . Peekay has both humor and a refreshingly earthy touch, and his adventures, at times, are hair-raising in their suspense.” –Los Angeles Times Book Review “Marvelous . . . It is the people of the sun-baked plains of Africa who tug at the heartstrings in this book. . . . [Bryce] Courtenay draws them all with a fierce and violent love.” –The Washington Post Book World “Impressive.” –Newsday “A compelling tale.” –The Christian Science Monitor · Publishers Weekly · ``Episodic and bursting with incident, this sprawling memoir of an English boy's lonely childhood in South Africa during WW II pays moderate attention to questions of race but concerns itself primarily with epic melodrama,'' noted PW. (Apr.)  Malanda Dairy Centre, Wordless Wednesday. 07/07/2010
 "Love what you do and you'll never have to work a day in your life." I love that quote. That is a fantastic way to live your life. In many ways I do live my life that way. I am not conventional; I do not try to do what is, expected, of me. I am comfortable in a mess as long as I can find the things I need and things are clean and hygienic. After all nature has litter around the place and I love the landscape with its fallen leaves and fern fronds with insect chew marks, the landscape and my home does not need to be perfectly manicured for me to be happy. Too much tidyness would cut into my creative time, my 'work', that I love too much to call work. My idea of beautiful hands would be hands reaching out to aid someone or up to their wrists in wet clay or other creative medium. My vision of beauty is different to the conventional. I see beauty in eroded mountains and scars on trees and wonder that people view these things as flaws in people when they give such character. I am certain artists see life differently. You do not need to be a trained artist to feel this deep satisfaction from creativity, there are web programs like slideshow that can help you turn your regular photo collecting into art forms to share. The writer in me has overtaken the painter, and just like when I was a painter I am now turning away work I don’t have the time to do and choosing, only the best assignments or the best businesses to do work for and enjoying planning the novel I hope to write in November. Creative people, never retire, we just reinvent ourselves. Yes, I am a carer, but I retained my creativity, by adapting my talents to those compatible with my new lifestyle. Where I once was, the painter who wrote, I am now the writer who paints. By adapting to my changing needs, demands and environment, I have retained the love for my work. My work is my play, my passion. My sister was a writer, by profession, she also painted, (the reverse of my early career choice), so we mentored each other. She then adapted to becoming a painter, then as her life needs changed, she returned to our early life upbringing, that of working with fabrics. We were born into 'the rag trade', my mother being a fashion designer. My sister now makes beautiful art quilts for galleries in San Francisco, loves her work and is highly respected for it. My family, past and present, have all gravitated towards doing what they love and turning it into a profession. This is a great way to live if you can do it. "What do you love enough to make your life's work and then never work a day in your life?"   I tried a total routine change beginning 2 weeks ago, it has petered out, did not make the 21 days to form a new habit, is not working right for Reg or me. I've had a couple of frustrated that I'm not getting what I want to get done days, and I have two new ideas came to me tonight, one concerns finding time to paint on location and the other concerns the novel I plan to write. I begin a totally more radical routine change tomorrow morning at 6.30 am . No I am not getting up at that hour to exercise, I am going out to paint a sunrise. I have been going to Gym around 10.30 am each morning, I am doing Body Pump class three times a week, striving to build some healthy strong muscle, kick my metabolism up a bit, more effective that taking something like nuphedragen to get your own metabolism stimulated by having more muscle though it does require some effort. I am enjoying it. Having a bit more muscle, is going to help me too when I need to carry my French Easel any distance for an outdoor paint out. J  Another Glass Ceiling Fractured. 06/24/2010
 Julia Gillard wins leadership challenge and will become Australia's first female Prime Minister. Today Australia gained its first woman Prime Minister in Ms Julia Gillard and I had fun enjoying one of the passions that 50 years ago, I was denied the opportunity to study, because I was a female but have since overcome the male profession stereotype and mastered. I am referring to my love of another art form, that of landscape gardening. After the announcement of Ms Gillards appointment, I went to review the Flying Fish Point Beachfront B & B and being a nature lover, I was most impressed with the beautiful landscaping of the garden and the clever use of space. I saw some great ideas that would be easy to duplicate using above ground pools. Amazing how lovely this small pool looks with a deck around it set amongst palm trees in front of a view.   There was a long narrow pond in the garden and stepping stones down the centre of it, a lovely outdoor pavilion. I will always adore beautiful garden design. I felt good today that it makes no difference what sex you are, in regards to being our Prime Minister, or who landscapes a garden.     Establishing A New Routine. A Balanced Life. 06/22/2010
 Fitting exercise into a busy creative life. o find time for illness" Quote by Earl of Derby. I felt this quote suited my ‘A Creative Life’, blog as I know how hard it can be when we are creative people, striving to make time for our own physical needs. For a long time I treated my body as if it was just a vehicle to get me from here to there, and as long as I was fit enough to hang a painting and load a pottery kiln, I gave it little thought. More recently, I have realized how important staying in shape is, if I wish to continue my creative life, for a lot longer and as a result, I began writing my healthy lifestyle, fitness and natural slimming blog, artslim a little over a year ago. Last weekend I won a ‘best body transformation blog’, first prize award I am working my way through all the emails , there have been so many congratulation emails coming in, plus general advice questions, from people, one asking me about apidexin. Thank you for the congratulations :-) With accolades’ for my writing and I believe a prize or prize money, it is making it even easier saying good-bye, emotionally, to my grand scale artworks and my art gallery days. It becomes more natural for me daily, to state that ‘I am now a retired painter, turned writer.’ I now paint small-scale art works. This is my latest one of the Johnson River from the Esplanade at Innisfail. POA, original 5” x 10” acrylic painting on stretched canvas. My writing has become the primary focus of my creative work. Staying fit and happy has become a primary focus of my life.  Bush Campfires, I Love them. 06/18/2010
 Oil Painting of a camp fire beside the Robe River, WA. One of the things I love about bush camping is the outdoor fireplaces we sit around and often cook our dinner on. After dinner we enjoy the atmosphere, surrounding the fire, to talk and sit gazing at the stars, especially enjoying the first hour or so of darkness when the flying objects , in the sky, the satellites and if we are lucky the shooting stars, are most visible. A fire, in a painting of dusk, adds a special effect and many times I have worked for an hour every evening for up to a couple of weeks, capturing the special effect of fire in an art work. Often I have sat gazing into the fire, trying to capture, the image of those dancing flames, the light and the colour, in my brain, trying to work out how to paint, a near impossible, to paint moving subject. There is something quite amazing, beautiful and almost magical about a controlled, useful social fire. J.  Dinner in front of the camp fire that is burning in an old washing machine, inner tub.       Two days in a row, I have taken Reg and Indigo down to the Johnson Riverside at Innisfail in North Queensland and set up under a shade cover to paint the view, with acrylics on to stretched canvas. I brought a comfy chair for Reg and packed our lunch. I hope to paint out most afternoons in this climate and be back to Flying Fish point in time for Reg to go fishing before dinner. I prefer to paint on location in oils; I am making a concession to a fast drying medium due to being a carer. It is very hard, working with, paint that stays wet, and focus on, carer duties, as well. I am learning how to adapt. I would love to be able to stay up all night in the quiet after my man is asleep and paint, but I know it would take more than just eye creams that work, to mask the effects of the lack of sleep the next day. So for now the paints do not come out as often as I would like but I will not let go of my dream to find more time to paint. I would not consider this is great painting, but it was very satisfying for me to be striving to, establish painting, back into our routine, for a couple of hours each day.     I am sending out invitations, to book to see my nephew Jason Varga, as the star performer in. :- Thank God You’re Hypnotized Type: Music, Arts Performance.Start Time: Friday, July 2, 2010 at 9:00pm End Time:Saturday, July 3, 2010 at 9:00pm Location: Northcote Town Hall, 189 High street, Northcote. A Hypnosis show without Hypnotism. What is this you say? Studies have shown that a percentage of people on stage in Hypnosis shows are not actually hypnotised. That they are just ‘going along’ with it to have fun and be part of the group. The group mind theory is at play here. Ahh! but there is a catch, these subjects have to use their imaginations to follow the hypnotist’s suggestions. So as they are ‘acting’ like an hypnotised person would act, at some point their conscious mind lets go, and their sub-conscious takes over, so that they actually do end up having an hypnotic experience. What does this mean? We can do away with long winded inductions, and get straight to the fun. And yes, like a TV show of a similar name, the subjects will play the part of the celebrities, who have to ad-lib in strange and funny situations. Head online to book your tickets, and check out the other amazing shows at this years Melbourne magic fest. Ticket request. A Landscape Crying Out to be Painted. 06/08/2010
 I went into the mountains to the west of Port Douglas on Sunday, it is an artist’s paradise of mountain backdrops, tropical foliage eucalyptus trees and interesting cottages, I loved it there and could visualise living there, self-sustained, happily spending my days painting, planting and harvesting, tending free-range chooks like my friend Gem, does. J. A lifestyle I love. Hard work, do not kid yourself, you would not need the best diet pills to stay slim, lol J, I could imagine how hard the work would be. My realist husband has always seen the work before the romance of it and realistically talked me out of a life as a small farm owner operator. lol, he is so right, I would be so busy tending the plants and the chooks I would not get the paintings done. Well I can dream and admire the lifestyle so close to nature, can't I? lol J.    | Kathy Shell on Facebook What is RSS
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