Run-In With The Australian Taxation Office

I had a run-in with the Australian Taxation Office last week.

I do all our farm accounts and GST, etc. I finally finished the last quarter's GST and posted it. The very next morning I discovered that I'd made a huge mistake and overpaid them to the tune of about $6000. Yikes! Some mistake.

I had to go to Albury (where our nearest Tax Office is) that day, so I took the cheque book with me in the hope that I could cancel the previous cheque and write a new one for the correct amount before they processed my GST.

Well... Silly me. That was too logical, wasn't it.

The people over the desk at Albury were less than helpful. They wouldn't even consider any alternate action. They wouldn't even look to see if the mail from Wangaratta had actually come in. All they did was put me on the telephone to Head Office - wherever that may be.

I explained - again - about my mistake and what I wanted to do to correct it. The person on the telephone informed me that if I did cancel the cheque I would be up for defrauding the taxation system. They said I had to wait 14 days after my GST was processed. Apply for a form to fill out to request a revue of my GST, and then, IF they deemed that I had made a mistake, I could get my money back in about 49 days.

As you can imagine, I was very upset and left.

The next morning I went straight to my accountant and told him what had happened. He said he couldn't understand why they wouldn't just accept the cheque over the counter and replace the cancelled cheque with it. He lodged my GST online, I paid immediately at the Post Office, cancelled the cheque with the wrong amount on it, and all was well. It cost me $17 to cancel the cheque. Although I object to such extortion by the bank, I consider this $17 to be money well spent.

What's wrong with our ATO that a person cannot even correct a mistake BEFORE their GST is processed? Why should they have been able to hold my $6000 and get interest off it for more than 49 days when it wasn't their money to begin with? And why should they accuse me of trying to defraud the tax system when all I was trying to do was to fix a mistake.

I'm certain that, had I underpaid them by $6000, they would have been on my doorstep that very day!

Cheers for now.

Brittany Kingston

New Blog on the Block

Hey, all you writers and readers!

There's a brand new blog on the block.

Surf on over to:

http://eternalpressauthors.blogspot.com

and catch up with all your favorite authors and editors
- including yours truly -
at Eternal Press.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL.

Dogs, Cats, Possums & Tigers

We had a bit of a drama here last night.

As nobody else was at home, I'd settled myself in front of the television to catch up on one of my favorite shows, "Bones". The two working dogs, Tiger and Nig, were tied up on the veranda, Mickey was inside with me, and the two cats, Dixi and Rambo, were curled up in their chosen spots. All was quiet and peaceful...

Until 11pm, that is.

Tiger started carrying on like a lunatic. He's been doing this at the same time almost every night for the past couple of months, and it was driving me crazy. Our resident brush tailed possum and her offspring would come across the veranda, down the rose bush beside the water tank and drink out of Tiger's water bowl while completely ignoring the manic dog that could easily have eaten them both. Tiger would bark, whine, jump, run to the length of his chain and quake with fear. One brave cattle dog!

Last night, enough was enough. I raced outside with a rolled up newspaper to make the dog behave. I could hear hissing and spitting going on. He'd bailed up, not the possum this time, but one of the neighbor's cats. I went back inside and grabbed a torch.

When I went back out, Tiger wouldn't let me get near the cat. I thought it must be a nasty feral cat he had backed up against the house.

At this stage I must say, our house is up on stilts because we live on the flood plain. We're at least 5 feet up. No problem for a cat or a possum.

But my torch light didn't find a cat or a possum. It was a tiger snake. No wonder the dog was going insane.

I couldn't believe it. A tiger snake!

I shifted the dog around to the other side of the veranda and tied him up where he'd be safe and I got a shovel. It was no use. I couldn't wield the shovel in one hand and the torch in the other. There was no way I could kill the snake. [Snakes are protected out here and I normally wouldn't go after one to kill it, but sorry, this one is too close for comfort. It has to go.]

The snake took one look at me and disappeared down a slit in the floor boards - and I do mean a "tiny slit". That was a bit scary. If it could get into a tiny space like that, it could get into the house.

Anyway, I thought it was gone and tied Tiger back up where his bed was. He was still shaking and nervous, but I told him everything was okay and that the nasty snake had gone.

I went back to watching television, then not half an hour later, Tiger was carrying on again and looking up at the rose bush that's growing up the veranda post. It had to be the possum this time because tiger snakes don't climb trees. It definitely wouldn't climb a very prickly rose bush.

Out I go, once again, with the torch. And this is what I found...

Click on the photo for a close look.
It's sitting there, curled happily around the rose bush, coming down from the top right hand side of the photo, facing the camera. No doubt it was wondering what I was doing flashing bright lights in its face. I couldn't get a closer shot. It is a deadly snake after all. I've had one lunge a few feet at me, so they can jump forward fairly quickly when they're in a bad mood. Tiger snakes only have 2 moods - aggressive and insanely aggressive.

Now I feel really bad about yelling at the dog to shut up and not be such an idiot about a harmless possum having a drink.

This snake has been terrorizing the dog for weeks. Poor Tiger.

Now, when I see where the snake was sitting, I realize how close I must have been to it every night when I went out and rattled the rose bush to show the dog that there was nothing in it.

Lesson 1: Don't assume your dog is a fool.
Lesson 2: Tiger snakes really can climb trees.

We still haven't caught the snake. We'll have to find it. We can't risk having one of the dogs or cats, or one of us killed.

Tiger spent the night around the other side of the veranda with Nig. Out of harm's way.

So...

Round 1 goes to the snake.

But, this fight ain't over yet...

Stay tuned.

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays

Hi everyone!

It's evening here on Christmas Day and I've finally found a quiet moment before it all starts again for the evening meal.

I wish you all the happiest Christmas ever, the best festive season, celebration, holiday, or however you wish to celebrate this time of the year.

May you all find, love, peace, happiness, hope, and strength and inspiration to carry you forward into the coming new year.

Cheers

Brittany

Poetry Review

I'm really thrilled with this review from Coffee Time Romance.

This is a site I hadn't seen until Julie at Eternal Press emailed me and told me about the review. There's heaps of great stuff on this site - as well as reviews. Do yourself a favour - as Molly Meldrum would say - and surf on over there for a look around.

Oh yeah... don't forget to check out my review and the review of Sally Odgers' poetry too.

http://www.coffeetimeromance.com/BookReviews/Whisperingsofthesoul.html

WHISPERINGS OF THE SOUL
BRITTANY KINGSTON
ISBN# Unavailable
September 2007
Eternal Press
www.eternalpress.com.au
E-Book
$2.95
60 Pages
Poetry
Rating: 3 Cups

Poetry is the fruit of the tree of the poet’s life. The poet draws on experiences, and then shares his or her thoughts and feelings with the reader.

Good poetry should evoke some type of emotion from the reader. It can make one laugh, cry, or produce a simple smile.

Whisperings of the Soul does all of these things. It runs the gambit of emotions. There are a few comedic pieces, such as “Move On” and “Grow Old Gracefully”. “A Smile” and “Awakening” are both sweet and simple. Some of the poems are lengthier than others. “Inspiration” and “Shadow Dreams” are both small, yet powerful works. My personal favorites are “Sphinx” and “Darkeyes”, which are a bit haunting and thought provoking.

Brittany Kingston is a very talented poet. She is able to induce sensations throughout her pieces that are keenly felt by the reader. Although the book has a gypsy feeling, there are only a few that specifically relate to gypsies. Ms. Kingston obviously draws from the raw emotions that she has felt throughout her life, which have creatively inspired her. Whisperings of the Soul is a fun, yet moving poetic work.

Bonnie-Lass
Reviewer for Coffee Time Romance
Reviewer for Karen Find Out About New Books

That Nasty "P" Word Again

It's that nasty "P" word... yet again!

PROCRASTINATION.

I'm a master at it.

... and while I'm sitting here blogging on - I'm doing it again.

What I really should be doing is editing The Shadow Runners. It's sooooo close to being finished that I can practically see the book on the book shop shelf... and yet... here I sit doing everything but the editing.

I've even done all the office filing. Now that's something I always leave until it resembles the leaning tower of Pisa and becomes near life-threatening to walk past.

I've also drawn pictures of my characters, done some photo retouching for my cousin... all things that could be done after the edits.

These edits are important. This is where I pick up on all the little mistakes - like the "Ienpw" issue I mentioned last time, spelling, grammar, point of view problems - the list goes on. These edits could make or break the book. They could make a reader never want the story to end, or make a reader never want to finish it.

Super-important.

So why am I not doing it.... hmmmmm?

I've fallen into the trap we writers set for ourselves sometimes. The old "when I'm in the mood for it" trap.

Make no mistake, that's a real demon, and it creeps up on us and worms its way into our psyche. How many times have you heard a writer say: I'll finish that story when I'm in "the writing mood". Piffle!

This is where that other nasty little word WORK comes in.

The fun of getting the story down on paper - or computer screen - is over. Now the real work begins. The rewrites, the re-rewrites, the re-re-rewrites, the copy edits, the manuscript edits, the edit edits, the re-edits... It all has to happen, or the novel never gets to publishing standard.

So... here I sit blogging.

OK. Fine. I'll go do the edits. It isn't as if I don't know how. I do know how. I've even made a start. I've edited chapter one.

I even looked at chapter two. Page one of chapter two has a mistake of the "Anubis" kind on it so I ran screaming.

Yeah. I did it again. Ranger is, after all, a "ranger". He can communicate with all animals [a trait that becomes extremely important a couple of chapters later] ...and there, right on the first page of chapter two, I have Jaxxlar telling him [telling him, mind you] what a camorii is and telling him she can communicate. Oh God! Where was my mind when I wrote that paragraph?

OK. Don't panic. I can fix this. A couple of paragraphs is all it will take. Nothing too strenuous.

So.... GET ON WITH IT...

Right. No problem. I'm getting.

I'll just have my shower first, read my email, do the dishes, make a cup of coffee, make a few phone calls.... then... I promise....

Hi everyone.

I've been fooling around and trying to draw my impression of what a herrragh would look like. So here he is... ta-daaaaah.

Well, I'm not all that good at drawing humanoid bodies, but the animal parts look ok. Anyway, it will give you all an idea of what a herrragh is supposed to resemble.



Now, under the heading of "Research and Think BEFORE You Write"...

I also discovered, to my absolute horror, that I've been calling the deity of the herrragh, "Anubis", when the word "Anubis" is only the Greek version of his name. He would have been known as his original Egyptian name of "Ienpw" - pronounced (Yinepu).

Talk about a major blunder. I never gave it a thought. But when analyzing the situation, I realized that, even though I could leave it as "Anubis", the original space-faring people known as the herrragh who visited earth a few millenia ago would not have referred to their own God by a human Greek name.

Major bummer!

Thank "the Gods" for the search and replace feature on word processors! I guess I'll be using mine a lot over the next few days.



Cheers

Brittany Kingston

Congratulations

Louise Lucchetti

You have won a copy of:

"Whisperings of the Soul"

The correct translation of the Romani words in

"The Gypsy Storyteller" was:

DEBLA = SUN

DOOD = MOON

Thank you to all those who took the time to enter this competition.

Don't forget to keep an eye on this space as I'll be running more competitions on a regular basis.

Yours in love and light

Brittany Kingston

Competition

To celebrate the release of my Gypsy Poetry Anthology, "Whisperings of the Soul" with Eternal Press, I'm offering one complimentary PDF copy to the first person who can translate the following two Romani words from "The Gypsy Storyteller" into English:

DEBLA

DOOD

Hint: The poem "The Gypsy Storyteller" appears on my web site in my POETRY section.

If you think you have the translations, send me an email from the site with your answers in the body of the email and the words "Poetry Competition" in the subject line.

Click this image to surf on over to

Brittany Kingston's official Web Site.

Good Luck!

Brittany Kingston