Simone Clare Bailey's Page

I haven't been doing as much writing as I would like lately because I have to attain a qualification to enable me to continue working as a carer.  Yes, I am an author, but like most Australian authors can't make a full time living from it.  I work part time as a community carer, and my employer is training me in the appropriate qualification.  Don't know what you call it in the US, but in Oz it's a Certificate III in Aged & Communitiy Care.  Some of the old people whom I assist with…

It is my long held belief that the Eighties were the worst decade ever.  Really, puffball skirts (pfffft!), androgynes who sang crappy songs (yes, you, Boy George and Marilyn!), shoulder pads that made you resemble a grid iron player, ozone-depleting hair product, skinny leather ties (I remember my cousin received one as a favour from a girl he partnered in the local deb ball, and a jealous friend upon hearing of this just slavered, 'Yum!'), mullet hair (actually, I live in a town populated…

In Australia we haven't exercised the death penalty since 1967.  The Act itself was repealed, I think, in the early 1970s.  There are good reasons for not having the death penalty.  Of course, there is the heavy possibility that somebody INNOCENT may get executed.  There is the fact that it is not a deterrent, because most  murders are committed in the heat of the moment, ie, crimes of passion.  Well, I have found another one.  It just may inspire songs like 'Womens' Prison', performed by…

So many impediments to getting the writing done.  Writers moan about lack of time, lack of inspiration, distractions.  Here's another one to add to the list: kids spilling freaking yoghurt on the keyboard!  Had to clean the rotten thing, unless I wanted it to smell like Satan's effluvium and have a dozen repetitions every time I pressed the '8' key.  So I did what every good woman does.  Cleaned up after the kids.  I also cursed them, as I damped a cloth with white vinegar, wrapped it around…