Golden Hours at KSP Writers’ Centre

Sunday Blog 136 – 18th May 2024

I’ve got one more glorious week ahead of me at KSP Writers’ Centre, after an entire week immersed in this beautiful place. For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, Katharine Susannah Prichard (KSP) was an Australian writer and co-founder of the Australian Communist Party. Born in 1883, she mainly lived in this house in Greenmount in the Perth hills from the 1920s until her death in 1969.

The KSP Writers’ Centre was established in 1985 and dedicated volunteers have lovingly restored, maintained and improved it. Three writers’ cabins were constructed which mimic the one she had built in 1930. Trying to write in her house with a busy family and activism schedule was impossible, so she had a cabin built just for her. Our cabins are very like hers but bigger to include our own bathroom and toilet. Two other writers and I are staying here for a fortnight on a Fellowship. We look out over the twinkling lights of the Perth skyline from our writing desk, bump into each other in the kitchen, share progress and talk book structure. Right down to every cell, I feel my luck.

Being a KSP Fellow means I can go into the actual house, so I do. I open it up every day. Let the breezes through, sit in the spaces she sat, write in the places she wrote. I’ve even done yoga in the library.

In my ideal world, I would have cleared my calendar in time for this fellowship. In the real world, however, the day job demands continue. But in the blessed synchronicity that life can sometimes offer, my two writing companions also have life demands that can’t be completely turned off for two weeks. It’s helped me come to peace about my reality, something I’m not good at. So I’ve followed James Clear’s advice to set small, achievable goals. I write for one hour each day, then I can do whatever else I want/need to do. No beating myself up for having to put the pen down and join an online meeting or even leave this haven to do things that must be done. I’ve just written for an hour every day, and it’s been magic.