How's it all going, fellow Aussies? ANZAC day is here again - always a fairly sombre day. My grandfather was at Gallipoli. Served in WWI and WWII. He died before I was born. I knew Dr Mountjoy when I was young, who was one of the veterinarians with the Light Horse in the Middle East in WWI. His stories were amazing - he had to put many of the horses down. If you Google his name, along with some keywords, you'll find his photographs online "Stanley Mountjoy horse photographs WWI" should do it - you might find inspiration for a story in them. He was also a good friend of Banjo Patterson. I LOVED Banjo's poems as a kid in the 60s an 70s, so talking to an old man who had been his friend was pretty darned cool.
So much of history is closer than we think. My friend, Alana, talks of her grandmother and her grandmother's good friend - who was Ned Kelly's sister. Her grandfather told her of when Ned Kelly worked their horses at Glenrowan where they lived. Alana is 70 - one of those young 70 year old people though. I keep getting selfies from her on my phone with, "My balcony this morning" and it might be the pyramids behind her, or the Andes, or the Eiffel Tower.
Well, that's my five minute break from writing. Back to the new book - 27,000 words down since April 8, 70,000+ to go, and I'm dilly dallying, as usual. Keep on writing!
