Inhabited Times

There are times I cannot speak, my tongue tied and twisted, the words dry and emaciated in my mouth. Yet for all of this, when pen is placed to paper, they tumble and fall upon the page - a voice unladen.

Between 2001 and 2006 I embarked upon a journey, which, at the time, was experiential. Later, having traversed continents from the Americas to Europe, and returning to Australia, I realised that this journey was larger, and more fantastical, than anything I saw with my eyes.

So I wrote Inhabited Times. A collection of stories with interwoven themes and experiences, with prequels, fantasys, sequels and strange interludes. Hidden within each story are links to others, though the narrative is never sequential. With a keen eye, the real story may even emerge from the depths of each encapsulation.

This is not truth, and yet it is not fiction. The reality is that these whimsies and indulgences that we find ourselves pondering, that these dreams and nightmares that we experience, are more than the simple act of writing. There are truths here, hidden and wandered, and there is illusion - for nothing of our lives and loves and losses is ever really what it seems.

Of this I discovered, and realised, many years later, in that we truly are a product of these Inhabited Times.