Welcome to the page where my creativity saws!!!
On this page, I will link you to my fave authors from childhood, and the few I have at the moment, (which, of course, will constantly be updated when necessary.)
Then I will point you bookworms in the direction of online books (the best thing to happen to us blindies since Louie invented braille, someone invented computer speech synthesizers and ...!
And then, I am going to piece together some of my writings from over the years, (and again, this will be on the constant update as I locate certain items from storage. :)
So, have fun!

Fave authors:
Check out my absolute favourite children's author of all time. I admit, I still read her stuff.Enid blyton is The Best!

For some real humour and absolute ghast (is that a word? oh well, it is now. :) it means ... "terror", :) at times, I quite enjoyed reading collections of stories from Paul Jennings! My gosh his stuff amuzed me to the extreme! I honestly don't know how he comes up with the crazy ideas for his books. But, he is such a popular Australian children's author!

Check out another great book source, especially a classic favourite author of mine, Lucy Maud Montgomery Yes, I just *love love love the Anne Of Green Gables siries. I also loved the movies along side. They're awesome!

And when I was in my early teens, I really enjoyed reading "the Baby Sitters Club" series by Ann M Martin! and it use to anoy me greatly because I only ever found a few books from the series in braille. I remember this series was like "the! thing!" to read in late primary school
Having said that, I had never read any of her other books, but I know she wrote many for teens, so go check her out!

Check out Margaret Atwood!
Even though I do *love reading, I find it very hard to enjoy books for my age group. so am always real pleased to be introduced to books for readers my age that I can actually follow. Last year in English, we were required to read a text called "Cat's Eye," by the above author, and, I immediately fell in love with it, even though it's traumatic at times.
so, am extremely keen to try other books by this author.

Okay now, I just love Harry Potter! and, what kid wouldn't! (yes gang, I'm the "kid" at heart. :):)
anyway, go check out the above site for all sorts of entertainment relating to this great series by J K Rowling. The following site has some info on her, as well as some further Potter reading. Visit Harry's Scrap book!

Okay now to some online/electronic books
Check out the officialProjectGutenberg site. This site contains downloadable zipped up novels. It includes a search engine to make selections easier. Have fun.

Oh dear, I was sure I had others, but I can't track them down at this stage, but as soon as I remember some of the others I'm sure I knew, I'll put them here.
and if you guys know of one, I'd love to hear from you, so please send me a message and let me know of the url. (an email link can be found at the bottom of this page.)

This site may be useful for some of you sighted folk. It will enable you to type letters or anything in braille (with a three or four page limit I think), and it will be sent to the blind person, providing you give the address, etc. etc. Go to Hot Braille!

Now before I introduce you to some writing of mine, I would like to let you read a few jokes relating to the all important English language. :)
Okay, I got this joke from a friend on one of the many internet mailing lists I'm on, and thought it was kind of appropriate for this page. enjoy!
*How to speak English Properly*
1. Verbs HAS to agree with their subjects.
2. Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
3. And don't start a sentence with a conjunction.
4. It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.
5. Avoid cliches like the plague. (They're old hat)
6. Also, always avoid annoying alliteration>
7. Be more or less specific.
8. Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are (usually) unnecessary.
9. Also too, never, ever use repetitive redundancies.
10. No sentence fragments.
11. Contractions aren't necessary and shouldn't be used.
12. Foreign words and phrases are not apropos
13. Do not be redundant; do not use more words than necessary; it's highly superfluous.
14. One should NEVER generalize.
15. Comparisons are as bad as cliches.
16. Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.
17. One-word sentences? Eliminate.
18. Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.
19. The passive voice is to be ignored.
20. Eliminate commas, that are, not necessary. Parenthetical words however should be enclosed in commas.
21. Never use a big word when a diminutive one would suffice.
22. Use words correctly, irregardless of how others use them.
23. Understatement is always the absolute best way to put forth earth-shaking ideas.
24. Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "I hate quotations. Tell me what you know."
25. If you've heard it once, you've heard it a thousand times: Resist hyperbole; not one writer in a million can use it correctly.
26. Puns are for children, not groan readers.
27. Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.
28. Even IF a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed.
29. Who needs rhetorical questions?
30. Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.
And the last one...
31. Proofread carefully to see if you any words out..

Okay, now it's time to laugh, :):) lol! well I thought it was great anyway, and I have another which I also really loved. It's stepping a bit more away from the writing side of things, but who gives a hoot! I just want to share it anyway.
I also got this joke from a friend, and this just goes to show how stuffed our language actually is, :):) and is it any wonder that our language is said to be one of the most hardest to learn?

QUESTIONS TO PONDER?

We'll begin with box, and the plural is boxes:
But the plural of ox should be oxen, not oxes.
Then one fowl is goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.

You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,
Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.
If the plural of man is always called men,
Why shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen?

The cow in the plural may be cows or kine,
But the plural of vow is vows, not vine.
I speak of my foot and show you my feet,
If I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth, and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn't the plural of booth be called beeth?

If the singular is this and the plural is these,
Why shouldn't the plural of kiss be named kese?
Then one may be that, and three may be those,
Yet the plural of hat would never be hose;

We speak of a brother, and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren.
The masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine she, shis, and shim!
So our English, I think, you all will agree,
Is the craziest language you ever did see.

I take it you already know,
Of tough and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble, but not you,
On hiccough, thorough, slough, and through.
Well done! And now you wish, perhaps
To learn of less familiar traps?

Beware of heard, a dreadful word,
That looks like beard and sounds like bird.
And dead; it's said like bed, not bead;
For goodness sake, don't call it deed!
Watch out for meat and great and threat;
They rhyme with suite and straight and debt.

A moth is not a moth in mother,
Nor both in bother, broth in brother.
And here is not a match for there,
Or dear and fear for bear and pear.

And then there's dose and rose and lose,
Just look them up, and goose and choose.
And cork and work and card and ward,
And font and front and word and sword.
And do and go, then thwart and cart.
Come, come, I've hardly made a start..
A dreadful language? Why, man alive,
I'd learned to talk it when I was five,
And yet to write it, the more I tried,
I hadn't learned it at fiftyfive!
(Author unknown)

so there's a couple of forwards I just could not pass up, but for more of my crazy humour, please visit my "jokes" page which will be created for you in the near future.
But for now, as promised, here are some of my poems and stories.
You will eventually be able to navigate better through the links I will one day provide for you, but for now, please co-operate and just find them yourself!! :):)
Okay, the following story I wrote when I was at RVIB at the Education Centre in Burwood. I was in Grade 2 - which would have made me about 7 or 8 years old.)
Like many of the short stories myself and my peers wrote, the teachers bound it in a little booklet, but I will translate it from braille to this page.

How To Fly
First you get 47 toy rockets
And tie them on a back of a chair.
Put some feathers on the chair and sit on it.
Now you have to learn how to fly it.
You put your hands on the bottom of the chair and push up.
Get someone to light the 47 toy rockets and push hard on the chair.
You will go up very high. ... ...
The chair went higher and higher.
I went over a mountain and up to the sky. I might end up at the milkyway.
It really does go to the Milkyway
And guess what I saw?
A little little Martian.
The martian said "hullo what are you doing up here?"
I said "I was trying to fly and this is where I ended up."
The martian said he would like to show me around the milkyway.
I wondered what I would see.
Just stars! I said.

I wrote many other stories around that time, but just wanted to give you a sample.
The next one is a small poem which I wrote when I'd intergrated out into the mainstream school. It was when I was in Grade 3, but I didn't write it for school. I wrote it for a children's radio program, so it could be read out on air, (which it was.)
I'm doing this from my head, so hope it's all correct.

Some flowers are yellow; some flowers are pink,
Some flowers smell nice; While other flowers stink.
You might find a clover; or you might find a dazy,
Or you might find some that like to grow crazy.
If you keep them in a vase that would usually do,
But you have to be careful, or they will die on you

Then I started my phaze of writing children's stories for enjoyment, and I would sit in the loungeroom of our old house many a weekend with my perkins brailler, clicking out pages of stories.
I can remember one time I asked Mum for an idea, and she told me to write about a girl who got lost at Moomba, (an anual festival which is hoasted here in Melbourne around March.) anyway, so I did write about that. And later on that year at school, (about grade 5), we had to make books as part of a library assignment.
I chose that story (which I can not locate at this stage, but when I find it, I'll type it up here.)
It was about this little girl called Sophy who got separated from her parents, and was getting up to all sorts of mischief on her own!

The following two poems were two that I wrote in grade six (thirteen years old.)
The entire class wrote their individual anthology, and we made a class booklet with about two poems from each of us. Here are mine

Maths
"Get your maths books out!" I heard her shout.
"Stop that noise,
Girls and boys.
Rachel; stop playing with that,
And take off that ridiculous hat."
I wondered what she was talking about,
I had to shout. ... ...

Imagine yourself
Imagine yourself; you're standing in a forest,
With beautiful trees around you.
You come to a stream,
You taste some water
The water tastes old,
Maybe that's because you're old.

This next story was written in year 7 (at Vermont Secondary College.) I'd entered a short story competition. We had a choice of four opening lines.
Twenty of the first, second, third and fourth place got into a book which, was brailled for me.
I got this crazy idea from wishing I could one day be locked up in my favourite shopping centre - ForestHill.

NIGHT OUT
It was Monday morning. I woke up all excited. Holidays at last, I thought to myself. I thought, today, if it was alright with Mum,I would go to ForestHill shopping centre and watch a movie, maybe buy myself lunch and tea there. Infact, I might even spend the whole day there.

I thought I better leave early, if I was to get there.So I went down to Mum who was already up. "mum," I called. "Can I catch a taxi to ForestHill today please?"
"okay," replied Mum. "As long as you follow my rules. I don't want anything to happen to you, so don't get into conversations with any strangers, alright?"
"Okay Mum. I'll just go and ring the taxi and I'll be off. Goodbye."

I spent a good long day at the shopping centre. After lunch I watched a movie and did a bit of clothes and lolly shopping. It was then time for me to have some tea. I ventured to the food court and bought a big bucket of fried rice. I found a table and happily sat down to eat it.

As I was eating my food, I started to notice that all the shops that were around me were starting to close for the night. I started to eat quicker. By the time I'd finished eating I noticed that there was no-body around. I quickly put my scraps in the bin and headed towards the nearest exit. It was locked.

I raced down to the other side of the shopping centre only to find that exit locked. So was every other exit. oh no, I was locked inside. I guess I would have to stay here all night, and no-one would be back til morning.

I then thought it wouldn't be such a bad thing because, after all, how many are lucky enough to spend a night at their favourite hang-out? Not many!

I went to the escalators and they had been left on. I decided to go to the second floor. Jazzies was the place I wanted to go back too. Now I could really help myself to more of my favourite lollies.

The door was closed, but with a little bit of force, it opened. I went straight in. I got heaps of lollies and they were all for free.

After I had fed my face with lollies,I headed off towards the pet shop. I climed over the fence they had there and got into the shop. As I walked through the shop I found a key. I'd guessed it probably opened one of the cages in the store. I hoped it would open the rabbit cage,so I went over and tried.

I was right! I gently took out a rabbit and had a hold of it. It was gorgeous. I used the key to open a few more cages and I held some other pets.

I decided to leave the pet shop. I wandered out once I had put every animal in its right cage. I headed towards a shop that sold beds. There were lots of very nice beds. I decided to rest for a while on this huge bed with a beautiful bed-head. I quickly fell asleep.

In the morning the shopping centre opened. I heard all the crowds coming in. I quickly got up and headed towards the nearest exit. I found a phone and rang a taxi.,/p>

The taxi arrived and took me home.Once and home, I ran upstairs and climbed into bed. No-one had noticed that I was gone all night.

hmmmm, I could say something -- a few things actually -- but I won't. :) I was only in year 7, and you know, one should never, ever, put themselves down - soooooo not a good move.
Okay, come back soon, as I will put the last of my stories up to date on here.
Thanks for visiting this page.
If you would like to send me a link (mentioned above) or, you have any comments about the rest of this page, click here and send me an email.
This page was created on September 17 2001
This page, and its contents, is completely and utterly coppyright 2001 by Rachel Dianne Keyte. All rights reserved, (or something to that affect. :)