As part of my Footscray Community Arts Centre Residency I’m one of the many artists in the Go Show as part of the Melbourne International Festival. I will be workshopping my play for Melbournalia II with two actresses Ai Diem Le and Diana Nguyen in Maddern Square in Footscray. It’s on from October 22-25 2008. Check out FCAC or Melbourne International Festival site for details.

I have been writing productively at my weekly residency at Footscray Community Arts Centre.  Which may be why I haven’t been blogging at all! For my birthday I was given a book “Writing from the inside Out” which talks about writer’s block as something to work with rather than something to get over. I also read Jane Smiley’s 13 ways to read a novel which has sections on how to write a novel. What I took away from the craft section of the book was her guidance on editing, how often you have to smooth out the climax and restructure with an eye on pacing during the redrafting process. Which is what I’m doing now with my new novel “The Other Shore”. I also handed in my masters thesis which has really set me free. Being aware of a supervisor or a publisher reading my work makes me constipated creatively I think. I like writing because you do it in the privacy of your own mind. Having said that my next public outing is at the Melbourne International Arts Festival from Oct 22-25 as part of the Go Show in Footscray. I will be workshopping “I could be you” the commissioned play by White Whale Theatre with Diana Nguyen and Ai Diem Le as my actors as part of a series of community experiences in the west.

It’s been a while since I posted- so here is a brief run down of what I’ve been up to:

Silence was sold out 4 shows out of 5. Unfortunately it did not get regional arts victoria funding to tour. Currently I’m putting this show on hold- I have two other exciting projects I want to get my teeth into.

White Whale Theatre have commissioned me and 4 other writers to write a short play on a Melbourne suburb for their Melbournalia 2 season.

I’m currently writing a new novel! Tentatively titled “I could be you” it is a culmination of the past three years of ideas that have gestated and finally sprung into life. I am much indebted to the Footscray Community Arts Centre for giving me a desk and a space to write in, close to one of the best views of Melbourne from the Maribrynong River.

I have cut down my counselling days from 4 to 3 which has restored my sense of balance. And I am a fortnight off from handing in my masters work- which I am happy to leave behind me. I have learnt a lot from Kathleen Fallon and Jennifer Rutherford and I achieved two of my aims- to become better read and get kickstarted writing again- but the two and half year process felt rather constipated.

Last week saw Nam Le in conversation with Cate Kennedy. He gave a very intelligent answer to the oft asked question of ethnic writers- what does your cultural community think of your writing- and he said it ranged like any other part of the community. He also talked abouit the perils of being boxed in as an ethnic writer and how his collection of which only two draw on his Vietnamese background explodes expectations and the possibilities.

I see his success as a great gate opener for the rest of us- and shows Vietnamese writers can do anything!

Silence has been resurrected with a replacement actress but only for one week June 4-8. La Mama itself is in a precarious state and trying to raise $30,000 in three days to put down a deposit on the building they reside in. Please donate money if you can.

Am in Saigon airport, dwelling in the present moment and thinking about the retreat. I have learnt so much and been so inspired by Thay’s lectures. The last lecture was on no birth no death and the idea of continuation, self and no self. I have vowed to all five of the mindfulness training this time and my new dharma name is awakened embrace of the heart. I will reduce my consuption of red meat and alcohol and be more mindful and take mindful breaths at work. The last event of the retreat was a walking meditation around Hoan kiem Lake in the centre of Hanoi. Pictures will be posted later.

Silence has been cancelled- Ai Diem Le was seriously injured in a car crash and we can’t replace her in time.

On retreat with Thich Nhat Hanh for seven days and it is a wonderful experience breathing in and out with 400 people. There are dharma talks every day conducted by Thay himself. What I have taken from these talks have moved me so much. That my grandparents and parents are in every cell of my body and I can write to them (three of my grandparents are deceased). That craving is at the root of my desire to shop and drink and being mindful is one way of stopping these cravings. I finally understand manas the concept of ego roughly translated which stops us from reaching nirvana and the pure land the realm of no self. The four practices of diligence and the four noble truths I am absorbing into my psychology practice and I have vowed to try and be more mindful every day. Every breath is a miracle, life is a miracle and present moment is a wonderful moment. The pure land is right here right now.

I wrote the 80 word “intention to submit” statement for my masters in creative writing today- free at last- almost! I’ve found the journey really interesting, without Kathleen Fallon I would have quit all together. I have learnt that I can write academic discourse in english literature at postgraduate level and I’ve read a lot of interesting texts as well. The creative process for my novella has been a bit painful, the gestation period was long and it was an effort to write. But in the process I’ve learnt about layering my drafts and playing with voices in the text so it has been useful.

Silence was workshopped and redrafted over the weekend which was intense but also a great process lead by Melanie Beddie the dramaturg and Gorkem Acaroglu the director. With their input the play is now more stylised and less naturalistic which is fantastic! Bring on the hungry ghosts I say (with the aid of fog machine and projections).

So now I have some head space for the Footscray Arts residency and my next new work. I’m reading Women Native Other by Trinh Minh Ha which has a great prologue about story telling and ancestry that has resonance for my next theatrical work.

Peril’s inaugural Board meeting is happening in August- more excitement with three people flying in from interstate.  I’m thrilled that Peril is getting bigger- and maybe well get funding soon- applications TBA.

I have been trying to plan ahead with my creative endeavours and have discovered to my amazement that I’m booked up till mid next year. The residency takes up the remainder of 2008 and the “Return” project the first half of 2009 a project initiated by Caitlin Nunn for the Big West festival 2009 for her Phd. Myself and other Vietnamese-Australian artists will be devising artistic works responding to multi generational interviews about “Vietnamese-ness” and “Australian-ness”.

Finally the Melbourne City Sangha (for lack of a better name so far) has met and trying to establish a regular pattern of meeting on Sunday afternoons. We are Thich Nhat Hanh followers so to speak, and meditate with the Melbourne Zen group for an hour then meet separately to discuss the dharma through readings in the second hour. We met last Sunday and I was moved almost to tears during reciting the Five Mindfulness Trainings- I felt it had been so long since I had engaged in the practice truly (it’s been a year since I was in Vietnam). The most poignant thing I took away from the dharma discussion that afternoon was to smile at my negative habit energies. When I do this, it provides a shift in me and again almost makes me cry although whether with joy, relief or release of sorrow it’s hard to tell.

I’ve just got a residency at Footscray Community Arts Centre for the second half of this year. I’ll be residing there one day a week on Thursdays. Pleased that I can dedicate at least one day a week to artistic stuff for a change…I’m working on the 6th draft of Silence at the moment and it’s filling my mind. Being this stimulated and engaged with my work is what I like and theatre definitely has more interaction than novels. I’m thinking of just accepting that my preferred mode of writing is short fiction and plays, and adapting my finished work to that aim- themed short stories that turn into novel length works seem to work for me better than the slow painful evolution of my novel for my masters.