How remiss of me . . .

I added a couple of articles to my Vocal.Media page and didn’t spread the word. So . . . please check out what I’ve been up to of late. 🙂

There’s a book review of Bluebird by Malcolm Knox, a relaunch of The Prisoner of Carronne and a few other tid-bits.

Please enjoy!

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Their Own Words: The Life of Bryan

Just updated to my Their Own Words series: The Life of Bryan.

Please enjoy.

Photo by Christian Sterk on https://unsplash.com
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Their Own Words: A Better Man (Part Four)

Well I’ve just finished and posted the fourth and final installment of “A Better Man: The story of a boy named Craig” to my Vocal.Media page.

Writing this certainly brought back a lot of memories. Please enjoy.

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And so this is Christmas . . .

It seems that every year I begin December with full intentions of creating something new for you, my readers, and every year it seems I disappoint both you guys and myself! 😦

I did start something this year, but alas, real life has once again gotten in the way. It hasn’t helped that some people I have worked with have left, leaving those of us who remain to pick up the pieces, but that’s no excuse really. Maybe I’ll get time over the Christmas / New Year break to finish it off and give it a New Year theme rather than a Christmas theme … we’ll see! lol

So, apart from that I just wanted to wish all my readers and online friends a very Merry Christmas and a Safe and Happy New Year, with a wish that the curse of our times finally leaves us and allows the world to get back to something that resembles normality.

I would also like to personally thank those of you who have stuck with me, despite my lack of output. I am continuing to chip away at some of my existing projects plus some new ones, so rest assured when they are ready for release you will read about them here first!

In the mean time, I thought I would leave you with this beauty … just because I can!

Merry Christmas!

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Their Own Words

Just a quick message to say that the third installment of A Better Man: The story of a boy named Craig has been posted to my Vocal.Media page.

Please enjoy.

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Another month . . . another challenge story

The idea of writing for a challenge has been growing on me since I started getting more active with my Vocal.Media page. As I’ve said before I’m under no illusions about whether I would ever win one of these things (it might happen when hell freezes over) but I do think it is a useful writing exercise . . . and I could do with sinking my teeth into a few more of those I reckon.

The subject for the latest challenge was The Scarlet Macaw, and as it turned out something registered in the back of my mind when I read about this. Something my father once told me.

So, after going back through the memory banks it finally came to me, and now I’m offering it to you. Another story my father told.

Please enjoy.

The Colour of the Outback | Fiction (vocal.media)

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A Book Review: Craig Silvey’s HONEYBEE

After having read the blurb on the back cover of Craig Silvey’s HONEYBEE, I have to admit that after I had finished reading it this novel was definitely not what I had expected . . . but I mean that in a good way, of course!

“Honeybee is a heartbreaking, life-affirming novel that throws us headlong into a world of petty thefts, extortion plots, botched bank robberies, daring dog rescues and one spectacular drag show.”

Read more…

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Their Own Words . . . real life histories about growing up gay in Australia

As I mentioned a while back, one of the projects I have been working on for my new Vocal.Media page is a series of real life histories of LBGT people I have known, covering growing up gay in rural Australia, coming out, personal experiences and anything else they wanted to share.

These experiences were largely from guys who have responded to my stories online and I have subsequently corresponded with. All of these people had one thing in common – at various stages of their lives they have struggled with their sexuality and with coming to terms with what that meant.

My original idea was to compile these stories and publish them in book form, with the subjects permission of course, but I think these need to be shared and so I have begun the process of publishing them online instead.

I posted an introduction to this project on August 6th, followed a few weeks later by the first installment; A Better Man – Part One.

A Better Man – Part Two has now been posted today. Please now find below links to each of these posts.

Thank you.

Mark

Their Own Words – An Introduction | Pride (vocal.media) (posted 06/08/21)

Their Own Words – A Better Man | Pride (vocal.media) (posted 28/08/21)

Their Own Words – A Better Man (Part Two) | Pride (vocal.media) (posted 09/10/21)

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Up for a challenge…

One of the reasons I decided to give the Vocal.Media site a try was because it offered so many opportunities, including the chance to participate in challenges, at least in part aimed at helping to improve our writing.

I recently noticed a challenge called Coming of Age and figured I should give that a go, even if only to get something down in writing. I found it to be an extremely interesting exercise and one that I very much enjoyed tackling.

Hers is my effort: Fair Girls and Grey Horses – Life lessons my father left me with

Enjoy!

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Gold, Silver, Bronze and Rainbows

With the curtain now having drawn to a close on the celebration that has been the (somewhat delayed) 2020 Olympic Games, the feats of those athletes who identify as LGBTQ are being celebrated like never before in history. There have always been gay athletes who have excelled in their chosen sports, and won Olympic medals, but for the most part it wasn’t until they had finished their careers before they would show their true selves to the world. (Read more)

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