Who’s Marsha?
Contact details
marsha_durham04@yahoo.com
Rss feed: Click top right-hand corner of the main page.
Twitter: http://twitter.com/MarshaDurham
My background I grew up in Dorothy territory, the wheat-belt Bible belt of Kansas, USA. I’ve spent most of my adult life in Australia but the Midwest still sneaks into some of my stories. Most of my career has involved jobs connected with writing, communication and cultural values. I have worked as an educator and trainer, researcher, mentor, editor and manager. My formal qualifications are in text linguistics, literature and communication.
Current activities After years of left-brain writing, i.e., academic and institutional publications, I love the right-brain buzz of writing short stories. I read whatever I can find about the craft of writing fiction.
Since moving to the Blue Mountains, I have been undertaking work projects for Varuna Writers’ House. Varuna is Australia’s only national writers’ centre. It offers residencies and professional development programs for writers.
Interests–what I do when I’m not writing Iyengar yoga. Su-dokus and cryptic crosswords. Reading. Camping. Travel. Gardening—although I suspect the Aboriginal name for my house translates into ‘the place where plants come to die’. Reconnecting with old friends and classmates via the magic of the Internet.
Favourites Foods: red wine, Mexican, chocolate cannoli, double-strength cappuccinos, popcorn, and Kansas ‘comfort food’. Music: country-western, bluegrass, ethnic, classical music, plus music played on the shakuhachi, banjo, gamelan, or cello. Novelists: Ian McEwan, Edith Wharton, Alex Miller, Stephen King, Kate Grenville, J. M. Coetzee and Jane Austen—but no, I’m not an Austen tragic. Short story writers: Alice Munro, Etgar Keret, Lorrie Moore, Flannery O’Connor, and Cate Kennedy.
Marsha,
I’d known you were in Australia for years but have never had a method to connect. You can’t take the Kansas out no matter how hard you try or how far you wander. I didn’t wander as far as you but Colorado has much better weather than Kansas. I’d love to catch up.
You’re so lucky you didn’t have to shed a childhood name!
Susie
Hi Susie, I heard via Carol that you had been discovered in Colorado. Will email you with more information.
What a roundabout way to stumble across your marvelous blog!! I’d been going through my old books and found my Danielle Steel collection.. A teenage love affair.. I decided to read ons of the ones I remembered being a favorite and found it so horribly boring and repetitive. Hugely disappointed. Researching her I came upon your blog. You have an avid follower now!
Thanks for the note. I enjoyed reading your thoughts about acting on your blog, especially about doing less. Writers come at this idea from a different angle because books rely on the reader’s ability to visualise. Writers have to establish for the readers a sense of character and place without overdoing it. In order words, the tension is in deciding how much to show readers and how much to leave to their imagination.
Quite a change from Kansas to Australia. Seems like there might be a story in there somewhere. Do you still retain a Midwest accent or has it become totally transformed into Australian?
Nice blog. I stumbled it!
Jerry Watson
The Antiquarian Chronicles
http://theantiquarianchronicles.blogspot.com
http://JerryLWatson.WordPress.com
It’s funny how we find others’ life stories fascinating but not our own. As for accent, when I’m in Kansas, people think I’m British. But the Aussies pick me immediately for a Yank as soon as I open my mouth. Maybe it’s the ‘y’all’ that gives me away. I use Australian terminology, with a Kansas accent. Does that mean I’m cross-cultural?!
Your novel sounds like a fascinating read–congratulations on getting it published. I also enjoyed your blog. It made me a bit homesick. If I could zap myself to another place instantly, I’d be at a spareribs joint in Hutchinson Ks. Marsha
I lived in Hutchinson and knew a Marsha. Wonder if the same one….
Yes, it’s me. I guess I never told you that I have a blog.
I went to college in Lawrence!
Fun!