I've finished marking all the submissions to the children's writing competition. The courier has collected the very large box, reinforced with kilometres of tape because I re-used the box they sent me. Now I await the short listed entries, so I can go through the process again, but on a smaller scale. (Oh frabjous joy, calloo callay!)

I have learned a lot about story writing. Here are the main points:-

1. Your story should always have a beginning, a middle and an end.
2. Don't kill off the person telling the story.
3. Never, ever, finish your story with "...and then I woke up and it was all a bad dream". Never!
4. Write appropriately for your market. The contestants were writing for children aged 6 - 9 (a first reader). Unfortunately, stories about 18 year olds, blasting their way through enemies, friends and zombies, aren't really suitable.
5. If you're writing about fairy princesses, make them do something interesting. Give at least one of them a bad attitude. Fairies that don't do anything other than twinkle and float around gardens with unicorns, is not a story.
6. Make sure the ending fits the rest of the story, and is a proper conclusion. Don't write about kids who are homeless and on the run from the police, (an interesting story and I'm with you so far) and then you realise you've nearly used up your word limit so an alien suddenly wipes them all out.
7. Don't strew huge, obscure words throughout the story. It's obvious you can use a Thesaurus but hardly anyone, other than adults with an obsession for crosswords or scrabble, will know what you're talking about.

So, how have you all been? I'd like to report that things are a bit cooler here in the Great South Land but, quite frankly, we're all singed beyond repair. If we were steaks, we'd be well done; so well done, you'd throw us out and eat the chicken instead. (And this from a person who likes their steak well done!)

I gather my friends in the Northern Hemisphere are still digging their way out of massive snow drifts. I'd sympathise but, quite frankly, from where I'm sitting (under the overhead fan), that sounds delightful.

Our Prime Minister thinks we should turn from renewable energies and use "clean" coal. I assume that's coal that's been washed before use. There are many things I could say about that but I've decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. It's been sizzling hot in Canberra, so I could assume his brain has been fried. Then again, he's been in a right bad mood ever since Mr Trump hung up on him - he even yelled at sweet Mr Billy Shorten in parliament - so, I blame Trump!