Story

A good book

That’s not a good book, that’s the best book. When you want to read slowly because you enjoy the book so much you don’t want to end, but you also want to read fast so you can find out what happens!

The best thing is that, with a book, you can keep your friends close. Re-reading your favourite books is like revisiting that lost friend. There’s nothing like reading a new book and discovering how good it is, but reading an old friend is almost as good. Especially when you have an aging memory. Then all your best friends are new again. Probably one of the few benefits of such a memory.

 

Words

Words like x-rays

How can you write ‘words like X-rays’? Readers like to live the emotion of the story. How do you show the emotion so the reader is pierced? Feel the emotion yourself and it will shine through in your writing.

Keep some kind of conflict in each scene, Put yourself in the part of the character, act out the part, sink deep into the role and draw that emotion onto the page and show, don’t tell. How you ask? It’s easy to tell. Just tell it like it is.

I was angry. Furious. How dare she call my beautiful little girl a fat pig? She’s a gorgeous six-year-old without body image problems. Did the woman, who does have an eating disorder herself, not care about the damage she might cause?

Yes, as a reader you may be enraged by the situation. However, did you feel the rage in your body? How might that feel? What do you think about something like this:

My hand fisted at my side, ready to punch the mouth that said such a cruel thing to my beautiful daughter. A red tide of rage rose across my chest, up my throat across my cheeks and wavered before my eyes. I ground my teeth in an effort to hold my tongue, to stop myself giving her a piece of my mind before I took time to think through my response.

‘May I please speak with you privately?’ The softest voice I could muster shook as I restrained myself from adding a curse word or five in front of the children.

 

 

Books

Furniture

Haven’t you always wanted a secret room behind a bookcase? Or am I weird? I don’t think so. Well, slightly so, maybe. Oh, all right, yes, I’m weird and you’re wonderful. We have a strange and unique relationship.

It’s not that I think the Nazi’s are coming and I’m Anne Frank, though that’s another story. It’s not because I’m antisocial, though I can be at times and would love somewhere to hide away and read in peace and quiet. It’s not just because I love the smell of books, old books, new books, red books, blue books even though I do. It could be just because, plainly, there are not enough walls in my house for the bookcases I need to house my library of books.

Words

Words in your soul

“You’ve got words in your soul”. A lovely way to describe the bibliophile.

One of my earliest memories is of getting some “pocket money”. We didn’t often get pocket money. Probably only three times in all my school years. I was one of seven with only one parent working. We lived 8 miles out of town on a farm. I was somewhere between five and eight years old because we left the farm at the end of grade three.

Anyway, this shilling (yes, it was the olden days before decimal currency) was a lot of money in those days, a veritable fortune! Well, I left the school grounds and went shopping. I spent all pocket money on, ta da, a Little Golden Book called “Out Of My Window”. It began with “Out of my window I can see, my Daddy coming home to me…”

Well, I went back to school and was showing my friends my brand new book, the first one I’d ever bought with ‘my own money’. So, what happened? Someone dropped their paddle pop (icecream) on my book and left a big juicy chocolate mark all over it. I was devastated, to say the least. I may even have shed a tear.

I remember my Mum from the time I could read, going crook on me for reading after lights out. I’d stand up beside the door and read using the light which came through the crack between the door and door jamb. If I’d had a torch it would have been under the blanket with me.

Reading was my escape, my solace, my friend, my way of living a million lives. Boarding school books, The Bobsey Twins, Enid Blyton – I read them all. Well, every book I could get my hands on. Every second day, if not every day, I went to the school library to change my books.

Things change, life goes on but books are a constant. These days I don’t get to read as often as I ‘d like to, but words and story are a big part of my life. Working as a writer and an editor is my dream job and I’d like to thank my clients for helping me make my dreams come true.