Latest Must-Read – The Trout Opera by Matthew Condon

 

trout_opera2The Trout Opera                              Longlisted for the Australia-Asia Literary Award

by Matthew Condon

 

A stunning new novel - over ten years in the writing - from Matthew Condon. This book takes his writing on to a new level - this could be the next Great Australian Novel.THE TROUT OPERA - more than ten years in the writing - is a stunning epic novel that encompasses twentieth-century Australia. Opening with a Christmas pageant on the banks of the Snowy River in 1906 and ending with the opening ceremony of the Sydney Olympics in 2000, it is the story of simple rabbiter and farmhand Wilfred Lampe who, at the end of his long life, is unwittingly swept up into an international spectacle. On the way he discovers a great-niece, the wild and troubled young Aurora, whom he never knew existed, and together they take an unlikely road trip that changes their lives. Wilfred, who has only ever left Dalgety once in almost a hundred years, comes face to face with contemporary Australia, and Aurora, enmeshed in the complex social problems of a modern nation, is taught how to repair her damaged life.

This dazzling story - marvellously broad in its telling and superbly crafted - is about the changing nature of the Australian character, finding the source of human decency in a mad world, history, war, romance, murder, bushfires, drugs, the fragile and resilient nature of the environment and the art of fly fishing. It's the story of a man who has experienced the tumultuous reverberations of Australian history while never moving from his birthplace on the Snowy, and it asks, what constitutes a meaningful life?

 

Buy the book from Amazon

 

,

faith

'Faith is not complacent; faith is action. You don’t have faith and wait. When you have faith, you move."

-- Betty Eadie

The Evolution of Katherine Lasky’s One Beetle Too Many

The Evolution of Katherine Lasky's One Beetle Too Many

The work on One Beetle Too Many (Candlewick, 2009) began more than 24 years ago, according to author Kathryn Lasky. "It's amazing that I haven't evolved into another creature," the author states, referring to the process of bringing her picture-book biography of Charles Darwin to fruition. In this title Lasky takes a complex theory—the theory of natural selection—and a complicated man, and makes both accessible to young readers. In many ways, the book's seeds were planted while she was working on her very first title, Traces of Life: The Origins of Humankind (Morrow, 1989), illustrated by Whitney Powell. But the release of Beetle in 2009 was perfectly timed, coinciding with the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin's On The Origin of Species. Here Lasky discusses her career-long fascination with the naturalist.

Can you talk a bit about how this project evolved, if you'll forgive a pun?

When my daughter was two years old, I thought, "I've got to get out of the house." I live in Cambridge, right near Harvard. I hired a babysitter, and started auditing Steven Jay Gould's course, "The History of the Earth," and David Pilbeam's class on human evolution. The first book I wrote was Traces of Life, about human evolution. In some ways it was easier than thinking about Charles Darwin and trying to squish his whole life into a book. more » » » 

The Top six ways to stay motivated

by Chris Widener

I receive many emails from people that basically ask the same question: How can I keep myself motivated long term? This seems to be quite a common dilemma for many people so I want to address it because it can be done! Here are my tips for staying motivated: Article continues

Quotation

Chinese proverb:

One who asks a question is a fool for five minutes; one who does not ask a question remains a fool forever.

Today’s Must-Read – The Secret Scripture

secret_scriptureShortlisted for the Man Booker Prize

 by Sebastian Barry

The acclaim that has greeted Sebastian Barry’s The Secret Scripture is varied and enthusiastic, and it's not hard to see why. When Frank McGuiness praised it for ‘raw, rough beauty’ and described Sebastian Barry's fiction as ‘unique’ and ‘magnificent’, this claim was no hostage to fortune; just a few sentences of the prose here will convince most readers of the justice of those words. As in the best-selling A Long Long Way, Barry is concerned with the imperatives of telling a story, but in a literary form that is rich with both psychological understanding and a skilful conjuring of time and place. Roseanne McNulty may (or may not) be on the point of nearing her 100th birthday -- but there is little certainty about this fact. In her twilight years, her destiny is uncertain, as the Roscommon Mental Hospital -- her home for so many years of her life -- is on the point of closing. As the fateful hour approaches, Roseanne spends her time of talking to her psychiatrist of many years, Dr Grene. The relationship between the two is strangely interdependent, and the doctor is also attempting to come to terms with the death of his wife. As we learn more about the two principal protagonists, we are presented with a rich and subtle picture of human relationships -- and the (often unintentional) damages that we all do to each other. The form of the book consists of the separate journals of Roseanne and Dr Grene, and we gradually learn about Roseanne’s family in Sligo in the 1930s. What emergence is a poignant personal history; it is also a subtly ambitious picture of nothing less than the Irish psyche at a particular point in its history. There are echoes here of another great Irish chronicler of the human condition, William Trevor, and The Secret Scripture is no worse for that.

Please support The Pivotal Network by either using this link to buy the book from Amazon, or join the Pivotal Gold Book club and get this book for free.

change

"You learn in life that the only person you can really correct and change is yourself."
-- Katharine Hepburn

, ,

DIY Stock Photography

Have you run into a situation where you need a photo for a slide and you either can’t find one that works and looks just right on services such as iStockPhoto or for a shot like this, you can’t justify paying for a photo of some Sharpies?  You can try the Creative Commons route at flickr, but even then it’s a crap-shoot whether you’ll find something worthy of being included among your slides.

Well, a lot of us presenting slide design bloggers have suggested using your own photos in place of stock photos when you can.  Not only can it be cheaper, but you’re guaranteed to be the first to use that particular photo.

Read more as Mike provides some useful tips on creating the photos

,

Be afraid

What I'm about to tell you will make you afraid.

Probably very afraid.

But more importantly it has the potential of making you a bucket load of money.

Listen carefully: A woman living in downtown Ontario, Canada came out of her house and saw 3 old men with long white beards sitting in her front yard.

She did not recognize them.

She said "I don't think I know you, but you must be hungry. Please come in and have something to eat."

"Is the man of the house home?" they asked.

"No", she replied. "He's out."

"Then we cannot come in", they replied.

In the evening when her husband came home, she told him what had happened.

"Go tell them I am home and invite them in!”

The woman went out and invited the men in.

"We do not go into a house together," they replied.

"Why is that?" she asked. One of the old men explained: "His name is Wealth," he said pointing to one of his friends, and said pointing to another one, "He is Success, and I am Love."

Then he added, "Now go in and discuss with your husband which one of us you want in your home."

The woman went in and told her husband what was said.

Her husband was overjoyed. "How nice!!” he said. "Since that's the case, let's invite Wealth. Let him come and fill our home with wealth!"

His wife disagreed.

"My dear, why don't we invite Success?"

Their daughter was listening from the other corner of the house. She jumped in with her own suggestion: "Would it not be better to invite Love? Our home will then be filled with love!"

"Let us heed our daughter's advice," said the husband to his wife.

"Go out and invite Love to be our guest."

The woman went out and asked the 3 old men, "Which one of you is Love? Please come in and be our guest."

Love got up and started walking toward the house. The other 2 also got up and followed him.

Surprised, the lady asked Wealth and Success: "I only invited Love, why are you coming in?"

The old men replied together: "If you had invited Wealth or Success, the other two of us would've stayed out, but since you invited Love, wherever he goes, we go with him. Wherever there is Love, there is also Wealth and Success!"

I heard that story from an amazing friend of mine, Bob Proctor.

He went on and told me this: "Most people don't have wealth or success in their lives and that's probably because they don't know how to love. Whether you want just wealth, success or love in your life... I can help you achieve it."

I believe in Bob Proctor 100%. He has helped me achieve great success in life, and he can help you too. But there's one condition...

You've got to give him 6 minutes of your life everyday till the day he helps you achieve your goals.

Is that a deal?

Okay, then as a first step, go to this website right now: http://www.pivotalpersonalbest.com/Asixminutes.htm

Make sure you read all the way through to the end. There is a HUGE secret hidden within the website.

Warmly,
Bronwyn

,

The great openings series: Use an activity that is pertinent

Using a pertinent activity as an opening gets the audience's attention because it makes them active. It gives them the opportunity to move physically which makes them more alert and comfortable. It lets them learn and participate with one another. Finally, it put you in charge. That's right, when you cede temporary authority to your audience you get larger in their minds.

Three keys to using a pertinent activity
The three keys to make this work are to organize the activity, set the limits, and debrief the activity strongly and smoothly. Let's walk through an opening activity you might try out.  ... more