At the moment, my favourite book is … the thesaurus! My copy is The Macquarie concise thesaurus, first published in 1985 – I have the 1998 version. Maybe its time for an update! It has an orangey-yellow dust jacket with green edges and the iconic gum leaf symbol in an acrylic painted motif on the front. The keywords are printed in bold and there’s a letter to tell you whether the keyword is a noun, verb or adjective before the suggestions for alternative words.

I use this book all the time in my writing. It’s not a tool for first draft writing but for editing. Every word has to count, every word has to pull its weight, every word has to portray exactly what you want it to say. That’s a lot of pressure on each word! Here’s a few snippets from my middle-grade novel –

Before the thesaurus – The poor mouse is desperate, hitting its head against the front of the trap.

After the thesaurus – The poor mouse is desperate, butting its head against the front of the trap. (Butting sounds more desperate than hitting).

Before the thesaurus – Mum’s voice is a wave of anger coming down the phone.

After the thesaurus – Mum’s voice is a torrent of anger hurling down the phone. (Torrent is a stronger word than wave. Coming is a vague word – hurling has a lot more force).

I attended a writing masterclass with Kate Forsyth in Sydney earlier in the year. She taught us that each word has a connotation and a denotation. Denotation is the literal meaning of the word – sparkle means to shine brightly or to be vivacious or witty. The connotation is the implied meaning, it’s a little more subtle. Sparkle in this case means artistry, fire, happiness, light, to be happy, to bubble, to excel or to shine. The word sparkle can be a verb or a noun.

So sparkle could give readers an impression of creativity, illumination,  accomplishment, festivity, gladness, joy, exuberance, light-heartedness OR can imply to surpass, glow, gleam, shimmer, radiate, burn, flare, twinkle, depending on your purpose and your audience.

If your audience are eight-year-old kids and you’re talking about happiness, you might use the word joy or glad. If your audience is a group of business people and you’re trying to persuade them to improve their customer service, surpass might be the best word. If your audience is a group of women listening to a talk on spirituality, illumination or radiate might work best.

Even if your perfect word isn’t listed in the entry you’re reading, often those synonyms will trigger the right word for you.

I used my thesaurus to show a grade six class the difference in words and their implied meanings. We looked at the word walk, then used the thesaurus to find alternatives – amble, meander,  saunter, roam, stroll, march, parade, swagger, tramp, sashay, hobble, shuffle, totter, traipse … It’s so much fun to do this word with kids and ask them to act out the different ways to move from point A to point B!

I’ll be taking our puppy for a walk today which means that sometimes I’ll be swaggering along with pride as really, she’s just so cute and everyone wants to stop and admire her! But sometimes I’ll be pulled along by her energetic gambol and other times I’ll be ambling along as she’ll stop to sniff everything!

If you were going for a walk today, how would you do it? Would you sashay along city streets? Would you meander along a river? Or would you shuffle through a busy crowd?

As usual, I’ve been reading an eclectic mix of books. I like to mix up my reading material, moving from a middle-grade fantasy book to a contemporary adult novel to a non-fiction book.  Here’s what I’ve been reading over the last few weeks –

• The year of magical thinking by Joan Didion – I’ve been meaning to read this for a while and finally borrowed it from the library. It’s a non-fiction account of the year after the unexpected death of Didion’s husband. Didion describes herself as a ‘cool customer’ so this is no sentimental story but a clear-eyed perspective of how life moves on after death. I found myself holding back tears – it’s a beautiful lovesong to their marriage.

• Because of Winn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo – I reread this favourite middle-grade novel about Opal and her smiling dog because I just love DiCamillo’s writing. She blends humour and quirkiness with heartfelt observations and moments – something worth savouring again and again. Mr 9 is reading it with me now.

• Boy swallows universe by Trent Dalton – amazing debut novel. A friend lent this to me, and I’m so glad she did because it will definitely be in my top ten books for the year. It’s the story of Eli Bell and his older, mute brother August. After their junkie mother and heroin dealer stepfather are caught up in a drug scandal, the boys are sent to live with their father, whom they haven’t seen for years. Eli has a compelling voice, the novel has an original concept and the ending had me turning pages swiftly to find out what happened next.

• The tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris – a non-fiction story of a Jewish man imprisoned at Auschwitz who was responsible for inking the indelible numbers on all incoming prisoners. It’s a love story about the charming Lale who meets Gita in the camp, and a story of triumph and sadness and death and friendships. We read it for our bookclub this month.

• The vein of gold by Julia Cameron – I’m still reading this one, a little bit every morning with my cup of tea before the kids wake up. Renowned creativity writer Julia Cameron has plenty of experience in guiding creatives in all sorts of fields. It’s lovely – and challenging at the same time.

• City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert – I almost ran to my local bookshop to buy this one within days of its publication date. Marie Foleo interviews Liz here. I’m only a little way in but I am fully immersed in her world of 1940s showgirls and theatre life.

Let me know what you’ve been reading in the comments. It’s the perfect season for going to bed early with a page-turning book or for sitting by the fire with a compelling book and a hot drink or glass of wine!

Once upon a time, there was a woman who didn’t quite live in a fairy-tale but thought that she almost did.

She was a little like Cinderella – she was going to a ball the very next night but while she had her dress and glass slippers all ready to go, she knew she needed to clean the bathrooms and tend to the children first.

She was a little like Beauty – living in a house full of books – but without the Beast, of course!

She was a little like the old woman who lived in a shoe – she was looking after this child who had missed a week and a half of school through illness, and she was looking after that child who was in the middle of exams and then there was this child who seemed to have sports training or a playdate or something going on.

She was a little like Sleeping Beauty – except without the sleep – it was just that she wanted to sleep.

She was a little like the miller’s daughter in Rumplestiltskin – she was spinning and spinning her straw, trying to turn her words into gold.

She was a little like Hansel and Gretel – always getting herself a little lost. (Thank goodness for google maps!)

She was a little like Goldilocks – trying different porridges, connecting with different publishers at a recent writing conference, trying to find one that was just right for her and her book.

As in all fairy tales there are trials and tribulations, and courage will be tested.

And as this is a modern woman in a modern fairy-tale (complete with her fairy-tale prince!), she knows the fairy tale continues after the happily-ever-after …

 

PS – Congratulations to Lee, who won a copy of Markus Zusak’s Bridge of Clay! I’ll be in touch, Lee, via email.

 

 

 

My lovely, lovely husband bought me a hardback copy of Markus Zusak’s latest novel, Bridge of Clay, for Christmas. And then he gave me a paperback copy – with a different cover – for Mother’s Day!

In his defence, I am difficult to buy books for, and as there is a constant rotation of books from the library and friends, it’s tricky to keep track of all the books coming in and out of our home.

And as he bought it in an interstate airport bookstore, there’s no going back to exchange it.

So I am offering a giveaway to one lucky reader. Please leave a comment by Thursday 30th May, 5pm, with a book recommendation for me and you’ll go into the draw to win the paperback copy of Bridge of Clay. The winner will be notified by email and I’ll post the book to you.

As for why I loved reading this fabulous book, the reasons are many.

• I loved the concept – five brothers, mostly teenagers, living alone. Living with only two sons, I can only imagine the noise, the arguing, the wrestling.
• The voice is strong and distinct from page one – In the beginning there was one murderer, one mule and one boy, but this isn’t the beginning, it’s before it, it’s me, and I’m Matthew, and here I am, in the kitchen, in the night – the old river mouth of light – and I’m punching and punching away. The house is quiet around me.
• There is so much heart in this book – beautiful small moments of tenderness that show the human condition – It’s a mystery, even to me sometimes, how boys and brothers love.
• Markus Zusak took thirteen years to write this book – this article is worth reading. After his success with The book thief, he struggled to find a narrator that was as unique as his narrator Death in his earlier book. I’m so glad he didn’t give up.
• The characters are real and messy and flawed and beautiful. We’re shown the best and worst of them.
• The narrative flips around in time, so that we have an understanding of how the characters grow into their later selves.
• The breadth of the novel is astonishing – we have Michaelangelo, horse-racing, a typewriter, a few animals, a piano, Greek mythologies, running, two marriages and a divorce, an artist and of course, a bridge.

This is one of my favourite reads for the year, and I can’t see it moving from my top ten adult novels.

Leave me a comment and suggest another fabulous book to win your copy of Bridge of Clay.

 

You know how you see those time-lapse video clips online, where a florist makes a gorgeous bouquet or a chef puts together a stunningly intricate dessert or a costume designer whips up a creation for a ballerina? Or where an interesting creative is filmed for a day to showcase their work?

Well, if someone were to do something similar for me, there would not be anything interesting to watch! Could you imagine watching someone type for half the day? Grass growing and all that …

So instead of using a camera to show my day, I thought I’d show you in words.

This is what happened for me this Tuesday –

6.00am – 8.30am – I’m up at six, and usually start my day with a cup of black tea and a non-fiction book to read, something about writing or spirituality or psychology. If I’m lucky, I’m not interrupted!

The four other people in my family leave at various times, so there is a lot of tracking to the front door for a kiss. My kids are big enough to sort out their lunch and bag, so I’m more of a traffic controller rather than having to do everything.

Finally, by about 8.30 or 8.45, my house is quiet. The bliss!

9.00am – 11.00am – I work on a book for tween girls to be self-published later this year. The two authors gave me full permission to point out everything that could possibly be improved, so I took them at their word. The book is divided into sections which are told in different ways, through conversations, text messages and storytelling. I’m working on a structural edit, so I’m looking at the overall themes, whether each section is told in the best format and where each section should fit into the whole manuscript. I’m enjoying helping to shape this book into its best format – there’s so much wisdom in this book.

11.00am – 1.00pm – I present a writing workshop to grade six students. This is the third of four workshops. We’ve focused on brainstorming and planning, and this workshop was about writing, with editing to follow up for next week. This class is so engaged – they’re developing their ideas into stories, and using wonderful language to tell their hero’s journey.

1.00pm – 2.00pm – Home for lunch and emails. I listen to a podcast on writing while I eat lunch.

2.00pm – 2.30pm – I have a meeting about a memoirs book I’m editing. It is such an honour to edit this 89 year-old man’s book. I meet with his son to finalise a few details, and I’m ready to print out the full manuscript for the writer to check. His family will be so lucky to have his book.

2.30pm – 3.15pm – There’s only a small pocket of time before school pick-up for Mr 9, so I work on my own book in a cafe with a chai latte. I rewrite the beginning of my chapter because I had swapped information around and needed to introduce a new character here. I’ve honed the ability to work in half hour snatches – learnt from years of working at home while my babies slept.

3.15pm – 5.00pm – Mr 9 has an appointment after school so we’re on the road for a bit – time to discuss the latest in Lego Masters!

5.00pm – 5.30pm –  I take our puppy, Cleo, for a quick walk around the block to stretch my legs and clear my head.

5.30pm – 6.30pm – I do another hour of editing, while Mr 15 and Miss 12 do their homework.

6.30pm – 10pm – All the household chores – cook dinner, eat dinner, fold washing, life administration – oh, the basketball emails and the school excursion notices and the bring-a-plate requests! Finally, the younger kids are in bed, Mr 15 home from basketball training, my husband home from an interstate trip and finally, I’m in bed with a good book.

I imagine if my day was filmed, there might be a lot of action towards the end of the day, when I’m moving from kitchen to laundry to kids’ bedrooms. but other than that, it’s a quiet day at my laptop with a meeting or two thrown in occasionally and Cleo to keep me company. Maybe Cleo would be a better subject for a video – she certainly moves more quickly than I do!

 

In the lead-up to Mother’s Day this Sunday, I’ve noticed all the advertising and displays and books around mums.

Glossy catalogues tell me if I’m a foodie, I might want a particular kitchen gadget or if I’m a sporty mum, I would look great in this style of active wear. Most of the books and cards seem to have a touch of pink about them.

I’ve flicked through a few articles featuring models or social influencers or mothers who have achieved great business success wearing designer clothes while holding their babies or children. These women all adore being mothers. There’s a lot of love being shown. I’m just wondering why the media portrays motherhood as so glamorous when the reality often isn’t.

And I’m wondering where the stories are of mothers with children with a disability, who don’t sleep very much and worry constantly about their children’s futures? What about the stories of mothers who have sacrificed their career for a flexible job so they can be around for their families? What about the stories of mothers who are raising their children when they lost their own mother at a young age? What about the stories of women who don’t have biological children but have an important nurturing role to the children in their lives? What about the stories of mothers who have lost children?

As I’ve spoken with many mothers this week, they’re not talking about pink cards or new recipe books or a particular gadget.

One friend told me this was the first mother’s day her mother would experience without her husband, who died last year. Another friend told me she had too many of her kids’ sporting events to cover on Sunday so she’d be lucky to find five minutes to have a cup of tea. Another friend mentioned she was worried about her son, who was going through a particular stage.

Zanni Louise has a gorgeous new picture book out called Mum for sale.  Errol the penguin is tired of his mother talking on her phone and wants some attention. It did make me wonder how my kids would advertise me. I’m sure it would be more – ‘she makes a delicious melting chocolate fondant cake’ and ‘she always know exactly the right words to say when I’m worried’ rather than – ‘she yells when we’re running late’ or ‘she just doesn’t understand!’

And it did make me wonder – imagine if the advertisements and media stories for Mother’s Day were as diverse and unglamorous and tough and loving and beautiful and sincere and authentic and daggy and gentle and tough and committed and vulnerable and wonderstruck as every single mother is. What a story and sale that would be …

One of my favourite Easter memories as a kid was Mum bringing out a slightly worn, pink-covered book about Easter. It was thick and it contained treasures. There were songs – to be played on the recorder, stories – both religious and secular, recipes and crafts.

I now have this book – Pancakes and painted eggs written by Jean Chapman and illustrated by Kilmeny Niland, published in 1981.

My kids have also worn out its pages but I don’t think they loved it as much as I did. To me, it just had possibilities! But my daughter wrote her six-year-old name underneath my Mum’s neat name on the title page, so maybe she was trying to claim it somehow.

We’re away this Easter as usual – we’ve been going away at this time with the same three families for nineteen years now! I love that my kids have Easter memories of growing up with their friends. As well as some of the cooking, I’m also responsible for bringing an art activity or two. I might just have to look again in Pancakes and painted eggs for inspiration!

Have a lovely Easter!

 

April has been a busy month so far – time to take stock and work out where everything is at. This is a list from Pip Lincolne’s blog, Meet me at Mike’s.

Making: dinner for a friend and her family tonight
Cooking: the above dinner – taco salad with shredded beef, tortilla chips and lots of salad with a delicious chilli-lime dressing
Drinking: black tea – Earl Grey and English Breakfast
Reading: a variety of books – adult fiction, children’s fiction, non-fiction
Wanting: some more sleep
Looking: at my messy desk – too many projects!
Playing: with our six-month-old puppy
Deciding: on tomorrow’s priorities
Wishing: for more writing time in the school holidays
Enjoying: sunny Autumn days
Waiting: for our mini-break away at Easter
Liking: Autumn leaves
Wondering: which book to read next
Loving: watching movies with the kids after dinner
Pondering: what will we cook for our Easter weekend away with friends?
Considering: the next chapter to edit
Buying: lots of food – these school holidays!
Watching: footy on the tv, footy in the backyard, footy at the park
Hoping: for another two wonderful writing classes next week with creative kids
Marvelling: how imaginative kids are
Cringing: every time Mr 9 does a specky on me!
Needing: a bit of quiet
Questioning: how to fit everything in
Smelling: the apple and cinnamon cupcakes Miss 12 baked
Wearing: an old favourite blue print dress and denim jacket with boots
Following: the media around Brene Brown’s new Netflix show
Noticing: my roses are still blooming
Knowing: it’s Easter next week!
Thinking: about polishing my chapter
Admiring: my friend, Leane – earlier this week, she helped launch Witchery’s white shirt campaign – yesterday, she was back in chemo
Sorting: washing
Getting: frustrated with all the noise from the various devices around in the holidays!
Bookmarking: online writing courses
Coveting: winter boots
Disliking: the way one of my indoor plants has decided to call it a day
Opening: lots and lots of children’s books to flick through examples for my workshops
Giggling: at our puppy’s hopeful expression every time we pass someone on a walk – belly rub, anyone?
Feeling: inspired by the kids who attended my writing workshops – so creative
Snacking: with chai lattes
Helping: Mr 15 by picking him up from late night shifts at his new job
Hearing: Mr 9 slam dunk the indoor basketball hoop over and over again

Maybe you’d like to copy and paste this list for yourself into a file, or write it in a journal or the back of an envelope. Or tell me one ‘ing’ in the comments!

 

Brene Brown wrote in her book, Daring Greatly, that ‘the most difficult and most rewarding challenge of my work is how to be both a mapmaker and a traveler.’

Isn’t it challenging for all of us to be both mapmakers and travellers – in new projects, new relationships, parenting? And wouldn’t it be lovely and certain to have a solid map – that someone else has put together – in our hands? A map is a definitive thing in a foreign country, it’s a boon on a drive to the other side of the city for a meeting and if only they sold a map for life, we’d be all set. But of course, as Brene says, we are both mapmakers and travellers.

Writers use maps, too. I have a 20-page editorial map for my middle-grade novel, which includes a summary, character motivation, stakes and many, many notes for each chapter. Again, I am both a mapmaking and travelling writer.

As my novel is set in Abbotsford, Melbourne, I also have an actual map of the suburb, with the following places that are important to my character, Freya –

• her new apartment block
• her new school
• her Mum’s cafe
• the park where she plays basketball
• Victoria Gardens, the local shopping centre
• the Yarra River trail where she goes for a bike ride.

This setting of Abbotsford informs the plot and how Freya develops as a character.

I’m looking forward to doing some map-making with kids at my workshops over the Easter holidays! We won’t go into the same level of detail that I do for my book but I want to show them how building up the details of your story world – real or imaginary – is an important aspect of writing. We’ll start with some questions about characters to do a rough plan, then create a map of a real or imaginary world. I have a collection of maps, collage papers, pencils and glue for this project. Then the kids can begin writing their stories, using their maps to plot out the main settings and events.

I have a fabulous book to show the kids called The writer’s map, an atlas of imaginary lands, edited by Huw Lewis-Jones. There are wonderful old maps, the kind with tea-stained edges and creases, beautifully-drawn compass roses and flourishes around the title. There’s a map of Middle Earth, complete with pen and ink drawn mountains and the label, Here of old was Thror, King under the Mountain and an illustration of Smaug, the dragon. There’s a coloured version of Narnia, with battle scenes and a fierce-looking Aslan. And of course, there’s the famous Marauder’s Map from Harry Potter.

This is a great workshop for visual kids. And really, who doesn’t want to create a map of their own world? Wish it were that easy to create one for life!

You can email me at karen@karencomer.com to book your kids in for a workshop. All the details are here.

Jane Austen – bear with me, I’ll move on to the writing workshops for kids! – is a perfect example of a writer who entwined place and character together seamlessly. Her characters could only come out of places like Bath and Sussex, because their concerns were all about life in a small village where visitors like the agreeable Mr Bingley and the arrogant Mr Darcy meant the possibility of marriage for the young ladies of the village.

I went out for a drink with some literary folk a month or so ago. We talked about creating a sense of place in books, and someone asked me whether my characters sounded different because they were in Melbourne, rather than any other Australian city or coastal town. I’m not sure I know the answer! But I should definitely explore it. Jane Austen’s characters speak from their background – and so should mine.

Which brings me to the writing workshops in the Easter holidays – we’re going to explore story world building and developing characters in separate workshops. Regardless of which workshop kids choose to do, both themes will contribute to a greater understanding of how character and place work together.

It doesn’t matter whether kids prefer contemporary worlds set in real places or fantasy worlds, the workshop will help them to build their backgrounds complete with maps.

The second workshop focuses on developing characters – it’s only when we know our characters well that they come across authentically. We’ll dig deep and discover not only what our characters like to do in their spare time, what their favourite foods are and who they hang out with but what they secretly desire and what they most fear.

The workshops are for 8-12 year-old children. Children can choose to do both workshops.

The writing workshops cater for children who are passionate readers and writers, as well as children who need a little more encouragement.

Dates

• Tuesday 9th April – 10am-1pm – 8-12 year-old kids – mapping a story world
• Thursday 11th April – 10am-1pm – 8-12 year-old kids – creating characters
• Tuesday 16th April – 10am-1pm – 8-12 year-old kids – mapping a story world
• Thursday 18th April – 10am-1pm – 8-12 year-old kids – creating characters

Venue
All workshops will be held at Side Door – 72 Willsmere Rd, Kew. It’s a fabulous space, with an indoor section for writing and an outdoor section for breaks and games, and is next door to Flatiron, fashion and homewares store. All participants will receive a Flatiron voucher for 10% off purchases on the day of the workshop – something for the parents! For more information about Side Door, please see www.flatironmelbourne.com.au/side-door/ or email Emma Bangay at emma@flatironmelbourne.com.au  

Logistics

BYO – drink bottle and snack.

All writing materials will be supplied.

Cost for each workshop is $50. Payment must be made by Friday 5th April.

Karen Comer
Acc. no: 1119 3537
BSB: 063-791

Please email me at karen@karencomer.com.au to register your child and bring the signed form  – link here – to the workshop.

Please forward this post on to your friends and family. I’m really looking forward to working with your children to create some amazing stories!