June 2024 - Growing wings

23 June 202423 June 2024

A Book That Changed How I View the World

Some people can name the book that changed their way of thinking, the way they look at their world, without batting an eyelid. The answer springs quickly to mind and rolls off their tongue without hesitation. They sound erudite and sophisticated, having discovered some truth that resonates with them from between the pages of a well-thumbed edition. We’ve all had that experience, right? Haven’t we?

Cheated

I felt a little cheated when I couldn’t think of one. There must be one book that stood out from the rest? Sure, there have been plenty of books that I have fallen in love with and re-read many times, but I couldn’t honestly say that one had changed my outlook. Was there nothing that had given me a new perspective? Then it struck me, and I may well surprise you: the book I thought of was The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar – Special Edition 2019

A family favourite

Published in 1969, I encountered the book when I was teaching and fell in love with its simplicity, it’s deeper meaning (one can read into it an entire spiritual journey) and the beautiful images. I bought the book in every size it was printed in – small to large, and much later, as the 50 year special edition. I enjoyed sharing the story with my two girls as bed time reading. They too, fell in love with the story.

Fall from grace

Not all libraries or educational bodies have treated the little caterpillar favorably. Despite its claim to fame, in 2023 it was actually banned from a school district near Toronto, Canada, (along with any book published before 2008). Along with many other classics, it was removed because it was not “inclusive” and “equitable”. Jacobs quips: ‘apparently no one identifies as caterpillar.’

Love affair

It’s been a lifelong love affair with this little caterpillar, bringing joy to three generations of readers: those in my household and those in the homes of my two daughters. I passed my books on. For two grandsons, one now in his mid twenties and the other now 5 years old, it became their snugly bedtime companion.

My youngest grandson loves to predict the text and impatiently reads ahead of me. He brushes me aside in his eagerness to track the caterpillar’s journey through the holes in the pages.

I absolutely love reading him that story as all the magic comes flooding back. That little creature, (the caterpillar I mean), still brings a smile to my face and will always have a special place in my heart.

Children enjoying literature is important to me. They learn to appreciate the written word, to relate to images, and to make sense of the world.

Introducing books early. Another book my granddaughter enjoyed.

Teacher, Teacher what do you read?

Discovering the beauty of his style, I sought out other Eric Carle stories. In my days as a pre-primary school teacher, I wrote programs around the stories and enjoyed sharing books such as Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? This was actually a collaborative publication with Bill Martin Jnr, and was published in 1967, two years before The Very Hungry Caterpillar published in 1967. One other book, Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? was another favourite of mine. In truth, I considered many of his books were suited to reading and exploring in the classroom. This is confirmed in the awards he won for his service to literature. Read more about Eric Carle here.

Sewing “Caterpillow” Cousins

For a while I took to making Caterpillar pillows. Popular as they were, I chose to keep them to limit their production. The time taken to create the very hungry caterpillar’s cousins, was considerable.

Books that changed you

Quite simply, and in more ways than one, The Very Hungry Caterpillar has helped shaped the way I view some books. Simplicity, beautiful imagery and a happy ending are some of the keys. Most of all, I enjoy indulging in real life fairy tales and this one is a ‘happily ever after.’

Rediscovering “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” with my youngest grandson reminds me of the importance of reading to and with children. There is no substitute for the pleasure it brings in shared moments. I know that literature and overflowing bookcases are an irreplaceable part of my life. Do they play a part in yours?

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16 June 202416 June 2024

Songwoman

Songwoman by Ilka Tampke raises the question of connectedness to Mother Earth. In her extensive exploration of the meaning of an individual’s and a people’s ties to their land, I recall distinctive experiences of my own.

First, however, I would hasten to add, that a sense of ‘belonging to place’ is often and usually espoused in reference to indigenous peoples and less frequently in reference to non-indigenous communities or peoples. It is nevertheless, an experience I own.

Songwoman provoked recollection of three distinct occasions; each highlighted what I’ve always known within self. I believe this sense of knowing, of visceral connection and connectedness flows in and through all living things.

Ilke Tampke reads a passage from Songwoman

It is first remembered

… as the all-consuming, intensely powerful sense of wholeness, of being at one with the earth, the sky, the crops, the trees, the dry stream bed, the expanses of granite rock – the whole of the natural world around me. Tangible energy, call it spirit or source (or whatever one wants) infused and melded all.

Grief gave voice to this experience. At the time of my father’s passing, I walked on the land he’d farmed, the land on which I’d spent most of my childhood. I didn’t ‘look for’ him or this experience. It presented itself to me as I crossed a dry creek bed and walked the dirt track between two halves of a paddock sown with wheat. The blue sky domed over the whole, and I was swallowed in it, like Ailia, I imagine, within her serpent.

My father’s earthly presence had gone, yet his spirit was there, infused in all. Not to diminish what I experienced, I wonder, as I write this, if the land had belonged to generations of the same family, would it, could it, have been any more powerful. Like the Albion tribes, like indigenous communities claim.

My second claim …

to knowing a connectedness with ‘place’ is that which I know wherever I have ‘put down roots’. As our mere acre in Perth’s foothills blooms, as my feet walk on native and cultivated grass, as I spend time with family on the land that my home stand on, I feel a sense of ‘place’. It is shallower than my connection with the land of my childhood, yet it is equally tangible.

And a thirdly, feeling connectedness …

… where I’ve lived in cities surrounded by stone pavements, cement walkways, brick-walled buildings, these do not give rise in me to a sense of place that is mine. It is there, on a different level, like Ailia, perhaps, in Rome. For me, a city is a place of disconnection – noise, lack of touching raw earth with my feet, my hands, my senses. There’s a different smell – like London on a sticky, humid day, fetid with human sweat and endeavour. Perhaps those who’ve grown within such communities know a different way of being connected to place. It eluded me, except for brief moments – touching earth in a potted plant, or finding blades of grass with bare feet walking through a park.

I’ve no doubt that the sense of connectedness to inner self that is trendily promoted in retreats into the bush, forest escapes, and so on, is all to do with this sense of being connected within self from one’s core to that which we are essentially part of. It is about belonging to the unseen world.

Dressing the part

I enjoyed an evening at the local writing space, Katherine Susannah Prichard Writers’ Centre, in Glen Forrest, Perth. It was a few years ago that we dressed the part, to gain a sense of the period in which the novel is set.

I enjoyed Ailia’s journey as she grew into Songwoman. I enjoyed learning more about early Britain, during the time of the Roman invasions. It is my heritage. I hear the story whisper. My Place. It is in my bones. It is my song, too.

Is that too bold a thing to state? I think not. Tampke has created a persona which, in the absence of oral tradition, gives history a voice, and so perpetuates connectedness, that sense of belonging, in written form. She gives a fresh voice to our song and reminds us of who we are.

Another book I have responded to can be read here.

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9 June 20249 June 2024

Have you ever ironed paper?

Once again, I’ve been busy sorting through ‘stuff’ in order to de-clutter or re-use items.

A few years ago, I assisted my mother de-clutter her home. Of course, being a hoarder, a collector, or any other synonym you wish to use, means you’d understand if I said it was a huge task. We had many laughs and a few tears in the process of ‘letting go’ of her precious collection of every other sort of re-usable –

paper
cardboard
old letters
envelopes
paper bags
plastic bags
packaging wrap

Being a ‘skinflint’

Perhaps my mother was an environmentalist in her own way, as she happily reused bags and wrappers, over and over. This led to an embarrassing situation for me.

In the 1970s, I remember being called a ‘skinflint’ when I washed, hung out and dried, plastic bags. This was in keeping with what I’d witnessed my mother doing as, like her, I saw no purpose in discarding a re-usable item.

I was shamed by my peer’s remark about my row of neatly pegged bags on my verandah line, ready to be reused for work lunches. I began to be less scrupulous and discarded the sandwich bags and other pieces of plastic until, after many years, I realised I had become what I considered, rather wasteful. A growing sense of guilt arose if I did not use that plastic bag or wrapper more than once. Even so, soiled items were discarded, not washed and reused.

It is quite different now with environmental concerns. I avoid plastic as much as possible.Images found on a google search are enough to encourage alternatives to using plastic.

Pieces of paper and cardboard boxes

Over the years I’ve followed in my mother’s footsteps and collected scrap paper for all sorts of purposes:

Envelopes, backs of fliers, scraps of paper and thin card of any shape or size are all re-usable for a note, a shopping list, a household memo to self or someone else, or any such purpose.
Stamps are cut or torn from the corners of envelopes – preferably with the full postmark – and given to the CWA (Country Women’s Association) as a fundraiser.
Boxes of all shapes and sizes are kept. I honestly cannot believe the range and sizes stashed for ‘future use’. For sometime, with storage an issue, I seldom kept boxes, except for craft projects. ‘Getting crafty’ is one way to use up the stockpile. More recently boxes of all shapes and sizes have serve as storage for memorabilia.

stamp torn from envelope — Stamps in good condition are preferred, not with sticky tape added!

Have you ever ironed paper?

Oh please, we’d inwardly sigh nearly every Christmas and birthday as we obliged our mother by carefully lifting sticky tape and not tearing the paper so it was re-useable!

Perhaps you can imagine my mother’s horror when her grandchildren ripped open gifts, impatient for what was inside. Imagine her laughter too, when she noted joy in the eyes of the recipients of a gift they would have much fun with. The discarded paper was rifled through, cut into smaller pieces and used again. We’d use it to cover school books, or to make scrapbooks.

I remember learning how to iron paper, so the creases were less apparent! However, as the years marched on, tears in cheap wrapping paper gift paper made it challenging to remove tape without damaging it. So of course, we didn’t bother. (Now, tears appear as you bundle the gift into it!)

Quality paper is a delight to use, though, and I adore wrapping paper that is patterned on both sides. However, re-used gift wrap was our norm. Every crumple and crinkle added character to our gifts, especially the ones we couldn’t iron out!

Cards – birthday and Christmas

Cards were used and reused in several ways. After noting who a card was from, and with the Christmas List updated, the fun part of cutting swirly shapes began.

First, we cut around the printed message inside the card, (so long as the writer’s message left sufficient space), and carefully cut a shape around the image on the front of the card. We now had two gift tags from each card, ready for next year’s gifts. Today we have crafty scissors with creative cutting edges that give the tags extra character.

How did we use these?

Apart from covering boxes, we added them to the front of an exercise book which was covered in brown paper. Once covered, the cards added, the student’s name, subject and grade (school year) were written onto the front. We would then cover the whole book with plastic or contact. What a mini craft in itself, long gone now! Somewhere, I still have my very first dressmaking book covered in this fashion.

Recycled Xmas cards — Recycling Xmas cards

Is it de-cluttering or reusing, recycling, reducing?

In this day and age where the mantra re-use, recycle, reduce is almost falling on deaf ears, I guess I am proud of my mother’s spendthrift ways. She was both ahead of her time and a product of her time. Born in the 1930’s, she grew up through the depression years in Australia and knew what it meant to have to save every last piece of almost anything, to get by. In her time she was right on target.

A Blank Page?

As for paper re-use, today, I have a drawer full for grandchildren to draw on and to practice their cutting out skills, as well for writing our own lists and notes. In my mother’s footsteps I collate my collection from a lesser range than that listed above. However, there’s still the occasional item via snail mail; or packaging that is re-usable.

An empty box?

Gift wrapping paper and cards are perfect for covering cardboard boxes in bright decorative colours. I file my inherited stash of birthday and Christmas cards in shoe boxes covered with the fronts of old cards, giving each box my own unique touch.

Decluttering or recycling?

It is a bit of both. The process of de-cluttering requires using some of those stored bags and boxes. Labels are printed on card and paper. Actually re-using the items is a slower, less immediate way of de-cluttering, yet it is in-keeping with an ethic that has its place today.

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2 June 202421 June 2024

5 Tips from Stephen King’s ‘On Writing’

Why I checked out writing tips from a horror story writer

Writing tips spill from Stephen King’s memoir, On Writing! It is one of the best books I’ve ever read on how to go about creative writing. His raw honesty is compelling.

As an aside, years ago my daughter, aged 15 at the time, crawled into my bed between my husband and myself. It was uncomfortable and I got little sleep that night. In the morning her admission was having read a Stephen King novel that scared her!

I’ve not read a single novel of his as stories in that genre play on my mind. Much to my horror, my younger daughter grew up liking mean stories. In her father’s vein, she was quite at home with Dracula stories from mid primary. (By the way, I know that’s not one of King’s characters!) Even so, one of King’s stories proved too scary for her, so my genetic influence holds some sway! She is twenty plus years older now and reads all the horror stories and watches all the horror movies I can’t go near!

Writing tips apply to most genres

Back to King’s memoir. On Writing is nothing like his other books. And, of course, his advice is brilliant! Every review I come across on this book raves. Check out Goodreads.

If I quote all the bits that helped me I’d be over the top. I’ll choose a few standouts that hit the mark for me.

1. Use ‘said’

First of all, attribute dialogue by using ‘said’ rather than adverbs or adverbial phrases.Trust that you convey how the person says something without adding ‘ly’ words that modify verbs, adjectives and other adverbs. Try writing dialogue with an adverb then replace it with ‘said.’ Context will define how the person is speaking. I’ll not deign to give an example. If that’s what you need, please refer to his book!

2. Paragraphs are ‘maps of intent’

King’s extensive explanation of how a paragraph is created and its value in story writing is jam-packed with information. I’ve not come across a detailed analysis of how a paragraph works in creative writing before. With a background in formal writing I find the line,‘… you’ll find a paragraph forming on its own’ most helpful. I now allow creative flow to take over and disobey stringent expectations of topic sentences and supporting detail. It also depends on what I am writing, of course, as that only applies to fiction. As an aside, I’ve noted a huge shift in how copy is presented. Check out some upbeat blogs and note how font sizes vary and sentence structure and paragraphs are fashioned in ways I am only quasi-comfortable with. Added to this array of differences we are now competing with AI. Another rabbit hole I am exploring intermittently.

3. Avoid the passive voice

King claims the passive voice is for someone who is timid about their writing. I look for timidity and slash the words. Learn from good and bad writing out there and develop one’s own style, he says. As I learn the art of writing, I admit to imitating a style I’ve enjoyed to see if it might add to my own in some measure. One of my current works in progress seeks to emulate one of my newest author discoveries. She would be tickled that I’ve taken her style on board. Thing is, it’s not easy, it’s possibly not me, so I’m looking at a huge rewrite! That’s fine by me. Early days in a new manuscript mean lots of daring try-outs.

4. Read, read and read some more

Without reading one cannot learn. It is breath to the page as air is to lungs. Find any and every excuse to read: in bed, queues, travelling with audio books, waiting for kids, doctors’ surgeries – you name it – read! I’ve no issue with this tip, however, the one place I refuse to read is the loo! Comics and cartoon books in the paper rack in that tiny room belong to my partner for the time they were permitted in that space!

5. Forget plot!

What a challenging statement! King claims that stories make themselves in much the same way as our lives happen. While I find this helpful as it frees one to go down rabbit holes of creativity, I sense the need for structure in a created story. King doesn’t deny this, in fact states there’s a sequential narrative in story. In response to this gemstone of advice, it feels quite freeing. Structuring contemporary fiction can be tricky. Story arcs and structure trickle from the pages as characters move forward in their search for resolution to their quest. Although I know I will need to re-order and most likely re-write sections, the essential story moves itself forward. I can only hope it works for the reader.

King’s Toolbox

Of course, there are many more than five wonderful points in King’s The Toolbox and On Writing sections of his memoir. I’ll leave it to you to find out what he says about dialogue, description, theme, research, finding an agent, getting published – this list is not all-inclusive.

I’m about to re-read the ‘how to’ section which is wedged between his fascinating CV and shocking Postscript. It’s that good. Of course, I’ll not become a better writer by osmosis. I simply want his tips at my fingertips.

Finally, two quotes on writing tips to finish with:

‘…when the reader hears strong echoes of his or her own life and beliefs he or she is apt to become more invested in the story.’

and

‘…the job of fiction is to find the truth inside the story’s web of lies…’

(Acknowledgement: All quotes from Stephen King, On Writing, A Memoir of the Craft, Simon & Schuster, NY, 2000.)

For a few quotes that add to and support my own, check out Crafty House’s Review here.

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