The writers on the Manuscript Mentoring week with Rosie Scott had a great week – productive, friendly, stimulating, full of laughs and stories – and Rosie enjoyed it every bit as much as they did.

Rosie Scott:
MAGIC! I loved it. Small but fabulous group very committed, worked hard but also lots of fun, the staff were as usual wonderful – great food and kindness to us.  They put on a memorable farewell night with kava, a lovo and singing and dancing by Keni’s children (Keni and Mereone sang with them) and a rendition of Gilbert and Sullivan by one student – the extraordinary Kevin who is a professional singer among many other things. And loved the outdoor shower I had this time, not to mention the snorkelling. The group all went away in high spirits, inspired to write.

As I said in my last article on Daku, it’s a great place for people  to get to a deeper  level with their manuscripts. It really is the best teaching experience for me too- to see the way people’s work improves over the week is a joy. I believe this is partly because they become so relaxed and open in this lovely place.
I hope this is will become an annual event.

(Yes, Rosie – it will. The 2012 manuscript mentoring week is up on the website – 22- 29 September.)

Helen Grenfell
Writers can be very defensive about their work, treasuring it as one does a newborn baby and very reluctant to expose it to the discerning eye of others. But Rosie’s generous nature and the relaxed and friendly group members put an end to such fears. She is friendly, perceptive, a skilful mentor and, importantly, for this course, she is a successful novelist and teacher of creative writing, with a string of academic qualifications that bring added authority to her task of mentoring.

She made the week good fun, yet it was also rigorous, and both the workshops and exercises revealed skills in my writing that I didn’t know I possessed. I came home realising I really could write, but also with a clear understanding of the areas of the craft I need to develop. Amidst the humdrum silliness of daily life, I am still writing everyday, a sure sign that Rosie and the group members had a positive, lasting effect on me.

Rosie had a sensible timetable of activities. We had all previously read by email the work of each of us in the group. The mornings were spent in writing exercises and a thorough workshopping of a group member’s piece; in the afternoon that person had a private mentoring session with Rosie. Nobody felt unduly stressed, and happy conversations bubbled along about books, films, and life experiences. A sense of humour, a good yarn, a well-told joke are essential pieces of equipment to bring to Rosie’s classes.

It is hard to explain just how suitable Daku Resort is for such activities as writing. It is small, very beautiful, and authentically Fijian. Colours are powerful – the red and orange of flowers, the deep shiny green of foliage, the stark white of a ship out on the blue bay waters. Laughter from children on the beach or guests in the pool drift up to our verandah where we always worked, but nothing distracts us; we are far from the rush and bother of our daily lives. A guest at Daku, in a conversation about travel, reminded me that ‘there are diamonds in one’s own backyard.’ ; it’s the moral of a story of African origin. That’s very true, but I would like to have Daku Resort as my own backyard, and Rosie Scott can have a cabin for free to advise me on my writing.

Cooling off after a hard day's writing...

AnneMarie Bennett
Rosie Scott is a terrific teacher – probably the best I’ve encountered.  And I’ve studied a lot.  In fact I never felt like I was being ‘taught’, but instead, her methods helped to peel back layers.  Rosie has a wonderful personality and a knack at understanding exactly what each person in the group needs to take their writing to the next level.

Kevin McGrath
The outstanding feature of the course was its flexibility. Rosie Scott concentrated
on the individual writer, drawing out his or her talent and helping the ideas to flow freely. Simultaneously there was plenty of time to get on with personal writing. Rosie is not only an accomplished author but a professional counsellor as well – a great help in getting an author
to sort out aims and ambitions.

You would go a long way to find more good humoured and friendly staff then those at Daku. You are always greeted with big Fijian smiles. The travel arrangements worked extremely well, especially as Fiji is so easy to reach. It was a great pleasure to take the domestic flight from Nadi to Savusavu, to experience the beautiful views of  mountain and sea from the aircraft window.

Stephen Price
No, I’m not a published author, merely someone who loves to dabble in both writing and traveling.  And when I discovered the writing course at the Daku Resort, I knew that I had to be a part of it!  Our writing instructor, published author Rosie Scott, was absolutely fantastic, helpful and very inspiring.  And the group of other budding authors that I met also led to a fantastic writing holiday. Rosie, thank you for everything!  I look forward to working with you once more!

Details of the 2012 course can be found at Paradise Courses – Manuscript Mentoring.

Rosie’s webpage can be found here.

Mark Tredinnick’s writing course – A Dream with a Pen in its Hand – produced reams of writing, including Mark’s own poem on Savusavu. It was a week in which each writer made substantial strides in their work, gaining confidence in their style, developing their voice and experimenting with form. Working up in the yoga platfom they had a tranquil area with a stunning view all to themselves, and the dreams flowed though their pens. On the final evening they read out a selection of their work. Here is part of Mark’s poem, and some of the pieces that they presented.

Mark Tredinnick
Daku Sestets

The sky here is a mile
……………………….. too big for the bay’s boots. Savusavu—
This flooded arena in which nothing much, on the surface of things, ever happens,
To the enormous delight of the cava-mellowed mob of semi-superannuated
Mountains in their green flak jackets
…………………………………………. and their greener fatigues—Savusavu
Is morality play in countless acts of cloud and itinerant weather.
It’s where the whole world’s water cycle dress rehearses.

KATE:
On Savusavu
In the early morning by the bay I hear a lone car pass. Something falls on the bure roof, something hard, a nut? I am alone in bed, far from home. There’s no company in my room except a humming fridge and the ceiling fan which turns above my head like a lazy chopper. I think of people I have known, men I have loved, friends in foreign cities. Back home the bins will be collected at this hour, and as the truck bangs and clatters outside my house I will commend myself for remembering the bins last night, or curse myself for forgetting. But here, by the bay, there’s nothing to remember or forget. My mind can rest at last in the arching palms above the bure.

JILL:
HELL’S GOING TO BE LIKE THIS, ONLY WORSE
I was dreading this meeting. The executive committee of the body corporate had elected me to the position of chair person; at the A.G.M. in September 2011. It wasn’t that I was the most suitable person; it was just that they did not want Mary.

I’d cleared the table of photographs and coloured cards, gluing- tape, scissors and pens left from making Christmas cards. I’d filled a jug with water placing it, with five glasses, on the colourful runner in the centre of my wooden table. Now to psych myself into a confident, informed, assertive, state of mind.

Confidence : I last felt full of it when I stood on a desk before a classroom full of school girls; as a newly elected house captain. That was so long ago it doesn’t count.
Informed : When I taught a well crafted Feldenkrais class; but then everyone was lying on the floor.
Assertive: Germaine Greer and The Dog Whisperer talk about being like that; it sounds easy but isn’t.

The door bell chimed. Hiding under the table pretending I wasn’t home wasn’t an option because my neighbours had a key.
I opened the door. No Mary, only the Treasurer and Robyn.

“Nice unit you have here” they commented.
As they were moving to the table the bell rang again, The Secretary and Mary.

Time to get on with it.
I opened the meeting with the usual formalities; I was as tight as a laced up corset.

On with the business: After the treasurer gave his report it was Mary’s turn to speak on her area of responsibility, Building – whatever that means; we already have a building, three in fact.
Mary went on about the need for an Engineer’s report on the water problems in the complex, which was useful. She then complained of ongoing problems in her unit . I reminded her that a special levy had been raised to help her. She denied it. I let that slide.

Mary changed direction,
“Robyn give your gardening report, she demanded.
“You might be surprised to know that you’re not running this meeting, Mary.”
Her face went white, her jaw tightened, she fell silent.

We worked on through the agenda.
Mary was not finished with me.

Three meetings later she was given the job of ringing a builder to ask him to start work on a water penetration problem in Robyn’s unit. It didn’t suit her to ring him for another six weeks. It was pouring with rain.

I sent her a questioning email; this set her off like a fire cracker. She emailed every person on the committee, abusing me for pounding the table and shouting at her during our first meeting. Adding, “I’ve put in your letter box suggested ways of conducting a meeting, especially a meeting of peers.

Jill turned into Enid (as my kids would say)
Thank you for your informative email, Mary. I have been elected as chair person so I will run the meetings as I see fit. When you or any other member of the committee holds this position you can run them as you choose. By the way, at last count on google there were eighty nine thousand different ways of running a meeting.
In the mean time I ask for your co-operation.

Hell’s going to be like this, only worse!

CD’s of Mark reading his poems can be found through riverroadpress.net
The River Road Poetry Series is an innovative venture into sound publishing. It creates an audio collection of Australian poets reading their own work. You can buy the CDs directly from this website or visit good bookshops that stock the series.