Stylish Blogger Award - what is style? Who has it? Do you?

Thanks to Writers Bloc NZ for the Stylish Blogger Award. This is the first time I've come across this award and think it's pretty cool! For this award you have to tell 7 things about yourself, so here goes...

No, no, no, I don't want to do the 7 things about me. I don't think I'm boring but boring people don't know they're boring do they, so just in case, I thought I'd look at the concept of style and what it means to me.


1. Some people are born with style.

The person who comes to mind to me is someone you don't know - my father. He always oozed style. I'm sure he was the original Horse Whisperer - he could work magic with horses. This was in spite of the fact that when he was 21 he was nearly killed by a bolting stallion, and next day his hair started to go grey overnight. True story. So for the rest of his life he had a shock of thick grey hair which set off the Akubra hat he always wore. In America he would have been called a cowboy, but in Oz men and women in Akubra hats, riding boots, R.M.Williams trousers, big horse buckles, spurs and western shirts are just called horsemen/stockmen/Rodeo men. L R Gilroy certainly had style. We buried his beloved Akubra with him.

2. Some people acquire style.

Think of a gauche teenager turned into one of the most stylish celebs in the world and you have Lady Di, Princess Di, Princess of Wales. 

Think of an ordinary, fresh-faced Aussie girl from Tassie, who, through (it is rumoured) yoghurt and yoga, turned herself into a pencil-slim Princess of Style. Hats off to Princess Mary of Denmark and congrats on the twins! 

3. Music is full of style/s.

Rock n Roll, Rhythm n Blues, Blues, Jazz, Country, C and W, Hip Hop, Rap, Grind, Pop, Motown, Anthem Rock, Industrial Rock, Classical, Big Band, World, Gospel, Soul...on and on, so many different styles. I'll bet you can think of a ton more. I don't love them all, but I'm rather wild over Anthem Rock, Bono style. Don't forget Alex J Cavanaugh's Music Countdown (Top 10 Songs of all time) blogfest on Jan 24.

4. Times of crises bring out peoples' style.

Aussies are stereotypically laid back, apathetic, friendly, good-time Charlies, mind-your-own-business sorts of people. Bring on a disaster, then Aussies en masse have style - they look at what needs doing, whether it's grabbing a drowning person, looking for survivors, or rebuilding. They don't whinge, they just roll up their sleeves, grab a bucket, a mop, a shovel, and apply elbow grease where it's needed. I'm proud to be a stylish Aussie. One story about the floods you won't hear as it's not well known - during the horrendous Toowoomba inland tsunami a lady in a small car was being swept away. A guy in a huge semi tugged on his steering wheel with all his might and drove into the flood in front of her. She stopped in the side of his truck, unhurt. That driver had heaps of style.


5.Writers have style (or they'd better!)

If you weren't born with your writer's style it can be acquired. Plenty of style tomes out there, grab a few and study them. You also need to study the style guidelines before you send your work off, as this varies from editor to editor. Writer's style can take years to acquire, but you won't be successful until you find your own style and let your unique voice come through. Some of us are still working on it.

6. Bloggers have style.


Don't we all love to discover a blogger who oozes style - someone who writes from their heart, spreads joy arounds the 'sphere, and even emails if you've been 'off the air' for awhile.It was a happy day for me when I discovered blogging. Now I think my life would be so much poorer without it. Sure, I'd have more time to clean house, shop, work on my WIP etc but what is more important? Let's all be sylish bloggers.

7. Whoever thought up the idea of the 100 Stories for Queensland has style in spades.

All donated stories which are accepted go into an anthology to raise funds for Queensland flood victims. Show your style by submitting a story (click on the Proud to be Aussie link in my sidebar, top right, for guidelines.) Thank you to those who are spreading the word.

So thank you Writers Block NZ for this award. Instead of passing it on to 10 Stylish bloggers, I'd like you to accept this award if you enter a story in the above anthology. That will fulfill the criteria for me.

See, I hope you thought this was more interesting than a list of facts about moi. You still learnt some things about me and the people I admire.

BTW, if you haven't attended the inaugural Publication Party (post 2 below) hurry! Draw for the first week's prizes closes Monday 8pm NY time. Clarissa Draper is the guest of honour at the second session, Wednesday. Don't miss it!

Denise :)

Brisbane flooding and bits and pieces...PUBLICATION PARTY CONTINUES TO RAGE IN THE FOLLOWING POST! Don't miss author Christine Bell...

Here is an update on the Brisbane flood situation. My sympathies also go out to the poor people in Brazil who are facing a similar disaster but I fear will not have the resources to cope as well as we have. Kudos to our brave citizens who plucked people from floodwaters, volunteers who're helping everywhere, Brisbane City Council, State Government, police and Federal Government. Our world has run amok and we little humans are powerless against the mighty forces of nature.

The Gallery of Modern Art. Looks okay, but the ground floor is submerged as is the restaurant underneath. Taken from the Kurilpa Bridge which links my street across the Brisbane River to the Cultural Centre, South Bank.

The side of the GOMA, looking towards West End, one of the first suburbs to be inundated. A big mop up is currently underway there. West End is an iconic suburb, full of ethnic restaurants including my favourite, Punjabi Palace.

Looking across (I'm still on our bridge) towards our high-rise section of the CBD. My apartment is behind the tallest apartment building. The waters have receded a little from their peak when I took this shot, but as you can see these buildings were not in any danger. Usually you can see walkways/cycle paths beside the expressway along the river edge.

From my vantage point on the bridge, this is part of the Cultural Centre, South Bank. Here you see the State Library, the Museum, the Edge (a centre of innovation for people under 30), then the South Bank restaurant precinct. All have been inundated on the ground floor. Our walkways/cycle paths are submerged in the foreground. This was the view from my deck so I could keep an eye on it.

Looking towards the Victoria Bridge and the centre of the CBD as the River was rising. The Riverside Expressway on the left went under during the night.

Sandbags in Queen Street Mall the night before the peak was expected. It didn't get flooded...but Louis Vuitton was taking no chances.

Watching the river rise. That is one of our walkways/cycle paths beside the river. The waters went well over the top during the night. That is our newest toll bridge on the right. One of our favourite floating riverside restaurants upstream floated alright, right into this bridge - kapow! No more anniversaries and birthdays there!

 Looking back downriver to the city. Waters rising, pontoons etc floating downriver. Water, water everywhere and lots more to come. All of this went well under.

Enteprising backpacker traveller centre urging the tourists to head north.

Major South Bank pontoons going under. The river came right in over all of this parkland. We only just got back from our photo sortie in time!

Watching the waters rise was definitely a camera moment. Those are the edges of walkways you can see, looking across to the city from South Bank.

Just this morning I went hunting. Came home pretty empty handed. Good for the diet!

There's a few limes and avocadoes and some bruised mangoes left. That's about all in the fruit and vege dept. Eek, I'll have to resort to frozen with lots of guacamole!

Can't do without our coffee. Coffee vans along the street dispensing energy by the cupful. Our brave police hate being snapped. Sorry guys! Please don't arrest me!

Volunteers putting the sand on the South Bank beach to good use. Filling sandbags to save the shops.

The backpackers just keep arriving. Maybe they'll help wash the mud off the streets! At least the worst is over we hope.

So we're going to be busy cleaning up for weeks, months, across Queensland. We're all waiting anxiously for people to be found. We know there's lots of sad news to come.

I hope this photo essay was informative and reveals a little of what we're going through.

There is a book in the pipeline, 100 Stories For Queensland where writers are invited to submit flash fiction up to 1000 words as a way to raise money to help us rebuild. The subject matter is to be uplifting - no death, disaster, bleak storylines. Only one submission per person. I don't have the guidelines link as I'm on another computer, but it is all over facebook! I posted it yesterday. It'd be cool if you could donate a story. I'm working on my story now!

Denise :)