Storytime

My kitchen recently, has been a hive of activity. There has been baking upon baking upon baking. For various reasons. There was the 40th birthday celebrated by a writing friend. One sponge cake. Then we had the Bookworms Relay for Life Garden Party. Another fundraising event to raise money for the Cancer Council. This time I baked cupcakes, iced biscuits and sausage rolls. The next day was a farewell afternoon tea for a lovely woman at work. And I have just finished baking something for Taste of Harmony for work tomorrow. Lots of baking but each event was for a very different occasion and therefore had to have a different feel, food and even size of offering. Birthday meant a cake (or it could have been a variety of cupcakes, imagine a conga line of them...but I digress).  Large enough for 8 of us to have a slice. Birthday's also mean candles so they were a necessity. As was the singing of Happy Birthday. The Garden Party afternoon tea was to be a refined affair... ...

A friend, and fellow writer, recently was talking about one of the pieces she was working on. She talked about word count, getting back into it..then she said...'trouble is I'm finding it boring to write.' Alarm bells went off. I have the sneaky suspicion if you are finding it boring to write, anyone reading it will find it just as boring. I'm not saying everything you write has to be on-the-seat-of-your-pants action packed. There doesn't have to be adventure and suspense in every chapter (unless of course, you are writing a book packed with adventure and suspense)...but I do think you have to enjoy the writing part. It's like everyday can't be a holiday. (but wouldn't it be lovely if it was!) And of course there are boring bits to writing. I find the editing the most mind numbing sleep inducing horrid stuff...mind you writing the synopsis is my most hated...but that's not boring. That is just difficult. Editing, going back over and ove...

We all tell stories, some of us even make a living out of it. At the moment I've been doing a few extra Storytimes and we are now endeavouring to not only make them fun, interesting and educational (who knew 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, once I caught a fish alive was about counting?) but dynamic and interactive as well. This often means bringing in puppets, props or toys and using these to help tell a story. A few weeks ago I told the story of The Three Little Pigs. I used some puppets and a white board. For each pig we drew their house. First a straw house, then the log house, then the brick house. The children had to help the Big Bad Wolf huff and puff the houses down. The kids loved it. When it was time for the brick house there was so much huffing and puffing that I hate to think how much spittle I was covered in. Stories, of course, are everywhere and we hear them everyday. It doesn't take much to make them come more alive for children. Little Miss and I made a unicorn s...

Ah, if only we could bottle it. Determination that is. Some days it is so easy to find. You have a list of MUST DO's and each one is neatly ticked off, often before lunch time. You are so motivated and determined that before you know it, three chapters from an old work are edited and you are 3000 words into a new piece. Other days... It's almost impossible to get off social media and the thought of a blank page is enough to give you nightmares. Last weekend I did my second Casey Relay for Life.  Along with a great group of people, we were the Mobile Bookworms. The majority of us work (or have worked) at the library. Others are friends/ partners/ children of those that work there...hence the name. A fantastic group of people, eager to put their feet to the test. We had dedicated folks who slept in their cars...others managed naps in chairs or tent. Some of us went home for a few hours kip, then back for more laps. The cause is something so many of us feel very...