Category Emma’s Corner

Emma’s Corner

January 25, 2013 Emma's Corner  No comments

Most of us newbies have a regular job and squeeze in writing when we can. The experts are always telling us that, to get into the habit of writing, we need to write every day. I can attest to the “becoming a habit” part of this – through a tale of the EEEP family Christmas gift tags.

In the early hours of a late-December evening, I was busily gift-wrapping some foolishly-purchased, headache-inducing, battery-chewing Christmas gifts for my kids. The children were all sound asleep. Mr EEEP was parked in front of the television “watching his eyelids”, and I was absorbed in the festive task of wrapping presents to place under the tree.

All was going well. These particular gifts were symmetrical, rectangular/square shapes; making it quite easy to achieve perfect, crisp edges I soRead More

Emma’s Corner

January 20, 2013 Emma's Corner  No comments

If you’ve completely forgotten who I am, I forgive you. After all, it has been a very long 231 days since I posted. As can happen to the best of us, work and life got in the way and I kept pushing this blog to the bottom of my to-do list (you’ve gotta give me some credit though, at least I kept it on there!).

Whilst I may not have been very active around Newbie Writers, I have been kept extremely busy! 2012 was EEEP’s best and busiest year to date, and I’d like to send out a big T H A N K Y O U to my loyal clients for keeping my inbox full of interesting and challenging projects. Thinking back to only a few years ago, my days were filled with exciting (ha ha!) balance sheets, profit and loss statements, and telephone stoushes with the Australian Taxation Office. I can’t believeRead More

Emma’s Corner

June 3, 2012 Emma's Corner  8 comments

Horrified.

Alarmed.

Shocked.

Appalled.

Disgusted.

Well, you get the idea. I’m almost too ashamed to admit my problem, but as the ‘ever-so-wise’ Dr Phil says, “You can’t change what you don’t acknowledge.”

I dream in text speak.

There, I said it. That’s right, a few nights ago I awoke from a dream to the awful realisation that I had been conversing throughout my dream in LOLs, LMAOs, BRBs and L8Rs. And not the actual words “laugh out loud”, “laugh my arse off”, etc., I dream-laughed by speaking the words “Loll” and “l’mouw” (or “l’mayo”) with a smile on my face.

I tried to convince myself that since my subconscious mind was the one guilty of this deplorable act, I shouldn’t be held accountable. Unfortunately, it didn’t end there…

Obsessing over myRead More

Emma’s Corner

May 4, 2012 Emma's Corner  5 comments

This week I’d love to give a shout out to my mum. For my birthday last week she made me this fabulous eeep cake, although she was a little upset that the glasses ended up looking a tad Dame Edna-ish.

My kids didn’t mind; they gobbled up most of the blue fondant icing and ignored the cake inside.

Thanks Mum! (Even if my kids did have blue pee for a few days.)

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Emma is a freelance editor and writer who got her start at Newbie Writers two years ago. In her previous career she was an accountant, but escaped the numbers game to envelop herself in the literary world.

Emma’s Exceptional Editing & Proofreading
info@exceptionalediting.com.au
www.exceptionalediting.com.au
Follow me on Twitter: @EEEandP

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Emma’s Corner

April 27, 2012 Emma's Corner  3 comments

Last night I witnessed one of the most amazing acts of brotherly love I have ever seen. I’ve been obsessing over it, trying to find just the right words to describe what I witnessed but they’re still not quite right.

Until I can arrange my written words to convey the tenderness I saw, I’m writing this blog post as a permanent reminder so I can keep revisiting the scene to one day do it justice.

Miss 2 and Master 4 share a bedroom but they have different bedtimes. I’m happy to say that my kids are generally quite good about going to bed when they’re told and thankfully we don’t have too many dramas in that regard. So last night, as we do every night, we took Violet to bed, read her a story and said goodnight. When she’s as tired as she was last night she is often asleepRead More

Emma’s Corner

April 7, 2012 Emma's Corner  4 comments

Happy Easter!

In a few short hours my kids will be waking up to all the goodies left by the Easter Bunny. They’ve been almost delirious in anticipation, however, I’m dreading the inevitable sugar high we’re in for tomorrow.

Since I’ll be running around trying to contain a couple of crazed children for the next few days (and since I’m a few weeks late with my posting) I figured I better get a couple of posts written in advance so Damien can stop cursing me. (Just kidding, Damo!)

I’ve been busy, busy, busy this past month or so; it feels like I haven’t had time to do anything! In the midst of my hectic schedule, somehow I succumbed to the phenomenon that is The Hunger Games.

The people who know me personally will confirm that I stubbornly refuse to buy into media hype when itRead More

Editing translated writing

March 15, 2012 Emma's Corner  6 comments

I’ve just been hired to help ‘fix’ a short story which was originally written and edited in Russian, and has since been translated into English.

After only a few paragraphs I’m reminded of those instruction manuals you get with electronic gadgets or DIY furniture. They’re often good for a giggle because it seems like the translator has simply converted the original text – word by word – with little or no regard for the intricacies of English grammar. The end product often ends up being a set of completely nonsensical instructions, which only add to the confusion instead of being any help at all. And, in my experience, the accompanying pictures are usually just as bad, forcing you to ‘give it a crack’ and hope you don’t end up with any leftover pieces.

In our house we call those extraRead More

What are they teaching kids these days?

March 12, 2012 Emma's Corner  2 comments

If you’re a regular visitor to Newbie Writers, you’d know that my son started Prep in January this year. (For the non-Queenslanders/Australians amongst you, this is the year before Grade 1 – I think New South Wales might call it Pre School??). Lockie is absolutely in awe of his teacher. He told me last week, “Miss Wilkins knows everything in the whole, wide world! Not like you, Mum.” It was a bittersweet moment because, until that day, I was the centre of his universe and he used to say that I knew everything in the whole wide world.

Anyway, the fabulous Miss Wilkins gets the children to spend about half an hour practising their writing before the bell rings in the morning. The kids actually line up at the door, impatiently waiting for their teacher to let them in the classroom.Read More

No, it wasn’t ME that whacked him with the kayak paddle!

February 19, 2012 Emma's Corner  4 comments

It’s been brought to my attention that something I discussed in my last post requires clarification.

 “Hubby went away for a weekend with the guys and lost hundreds of dollars’ worth of fishing gear (and copped a good whack with a kayak paddle).”

No, I did not whack him with the paddle… the hunter became the hunted and it was the fish that taught him a lesson he won’t forget in a hurry.

We’ve had a couple of boats over the course of our marriage, but there’s always something not-quite-perfect about each one so Daniel gets fed up after a while and tries something new. His latest water-related purchase was a kayak.

Now, you might be thinking that Daniel decided on kayaking because it can be a lovely family activity; gently paddling down a smooth river, admiring theRead More

What a day….

February 14, 2012 Emma's Corner  11 comments

Hello everyone. What a busy month it’s been. So much has happened since Christmas: my husband’s birthday, our anniversary, Lockie started school, and a new approach to discipline turned our little devil, Violet, into an only slightly unpleasant terrible-two-er.

But some crappy stuff happened too. Hubby went away for a weekend with the guys and lost hundreds of dollars’ worth of fishing gear (and copped a good whack with a kayak paddle). He’s also facing a dilemma regarding his work situation with a previous employer who is keen to entice him back to a bigger and better role.

This afternoon topped it all off. I had a call from Peyton’s day care centre saying that she has a bit of a fever and was basically sick and miserable. While I was talking to Miss Stacey, I grabbed my keys and myRead More