I wandered about the quiet echo-y space; the only other person in the room of Australian paintings at that time was an elderly man. We got to talking and he told me he’d visited the gallery, in particular the Australian paintings, every year since it had moved into the current building in 1982. Over the years he had come to feel like he was visiting old friends.

I was still thinking about the words that man had said to me when the painting, Aurora, by Burne-Jones caught my eye. Ah, I thought, here is an old friend, I should stop by and say hello. And I did. And while I was standing there I wondered if my niece (whose name is also Aurora) knew there was such a beautiful painting that shared her name? I went straight to the Gallery shop and bought a postcard of the painting to send to her.

On the train ride home, it was clear that the main character of this novel was going to be named Aurora and she had been named by her father (an artist) after this particular painting.

The first time I sat down to try my hand at this ‘writing a novel thing’ I started with a vague story idea and a promise to myself to see this thing through to the very end, even if it killed me.

In that first writing session I wrote some long winded descriptions about the residents of an aged care facility. How they smelled like boiled cabbage and even though it was the middle of summer, they all wore cardigans. It was at this point my brain went: ‘Oooh, isn’t there a Swedish band called The Cardigans?’

I then proceeded to spend the rest of my designated writing time watching video clips on YouTube. Of course, none of that writing made it to the final draft and somehow, in the years since that shaky start, I managed to stay off the internet long enough to keep that promise to myself and finish my novel.

So here’s to making commitments, to finding the courage to start and (thanks mainly to coffee and the kind words of mentors and friends) making it to a point where you can type those magical words: The End.

My sincere thanks to the very talented Jo Hunt for a truly awesome cover.

Becoming Aurora is the first novel to be published by new Australian author Elizabeth Kasmer.

What if I sucked? What if I was about to waste precious spare time on a pipe dream?

There were so many ‘what if’s’ I nearly didn’t write a single sentence.

So when I saw this quote in the paper I quickly cut it out, plastered it in strips of sticky tape to stop it from going yellow and stuck it next to my computer.
Over the months and years that followed this quote became my mantra:

“Improvements come with sweat and swearing, in tiny increments.
But over time, the change is staggering.”

In the four years since I stuck up that quote I have been hard at The Work of writing. But without the sweat and the swearing I would still be stuck wondering ‘what if?’

Rows of swimmers churned up and down the pool, their angled limbs shattering the water into a starburst of yellows and whites that hurt to look at. Past the swimmers, on the corner of the change room shed, a tiny black and white bird darted back and forth. She sat mesmerised, watching as the bird alighted on the roof before startling and taking off into the air again.

Eventually, the movements dwindled and stilled, as if the bird was waiting, watching for a cue from an invisible conductor. After final preparations, it adjusted its stance and sang in a lilting, high pitched voice. The song drifted on the breeze, brushing momentarily against her cheek before burrowing its way inside, somewhere deep and forgotten.

The woman shivered and searched the faces in the concrete stand for a fellow witness. But everywhere eyes were down, fingers tapping secret code, faces oblivious. She smiled and turned back to the song; to this magic fashioned to coax buds from the trees and to charm the breeze into warming its breath.