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!

 

In light of the recent events in Christchurch, I offer a poem from a South African academic and a political speech from a US senator, both written and presented in Cape Town.

Where the rainbow ends

Where the rainbow ends
There’s going to be a place, brother,
Where the world can sing all sorts of songs,
And we’re going to sing together, brother,
You and I, though you’re white, and I’m not.
It’s going to be a sad song, brother,
Because we don’t know the tune,
And it’s a difficult tune to learn.
But we can learn, brother, you and I.
There’s no such tune as a black tune.
There’s no such tune as a white tune.
There’s only music, brother,
And it’s music we’re going to sing
Where the rainbow ends.

Richard Rive

Richard Rive was born in Cape Town, South Africa in 1931. Although it was written about apartheid, it seems just as applicable today.

A ripple of hope

It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped.

Each time a person stands up for an ideal or strikes out against injustice, he or she sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.

Robert Francis Kennedy

Senator Robert F. Kennedy was at the University of Cape Town on June 6th, 1966, in a controversial trip. His speech became known as ‘The ripple of hope’ speech, because it spoke to so many people.

Never underestimate the power of language to influence people and encourage change. Ripples and rainbows – they’re more than just an aesthetic.

 

What did you love to do when you were a kid? Sometimes we were most authentic when we played as kids and anything was possible.

I know a primary school teacher who, as a little girl, lined up her dolls to teach them. Sometimes it was the alphabet or a song, sometimes it was something she had learnt at school that day and sometimes she read them a story. Today, she is an excellent teacher.

I have been talking with a woman in her twenties who has recently left her hospitality job. She told me she doesn’t know what she wants to do – she needs some time to think.

‘What did you love to do when you were a kid?’ I asked her.

‘Oh, I want to study horticulture – I want to be outside,’ she answered. She knew.

I’ve been reading one of my old journals from when I was 11, as my protagonist is 12 and I’m thinking about what’s important to 11 and 12 year-old girls. I’m equally admiring/cringing at my eleven-year-old self – so perceptive for a kid yet so ignorant at the same time. And the writing style – well, let’s not go there!

Here are a few diary highlights –

• I handed in my project called My hobby – writing stories.  I used my silver and green ‘special’ texta for the bubble writing heading.
• There’s also a folded piece of paper in the back of the diary. One side is a page from one of Dad’s chemistry papers on a water treatment plant – the other has notes for a short story called, ‘You, me and the dead.’ I must have been going through a goth stage perhaps! The handwriting looks older – maybe I was 13 or 14?
• On the 10th November, 1984, my friend Jacinta and I made a chocolate cake in Mum’s butterfly cake tin. I have that tin now! And I still love baking and eating chocolate cake.
• A couple of days later, I reread Anne of Avonlea by L. M. Montgomery and wished I could be a famous author like her.
• I listed some of my favourite words, like ‘shimmering.’ In a recent writing course, Kate Forsyth reminded us that words with ‘m’ sound comforting and nourishing – home, mum, womb …
• I described my room like this – My windows are opened but my curtains are closed. When the wind blows they are pressing themselves against the windows like old women gasping with horror.

Three and a half decades later, I’m still writing. Are you still doing what you loved as a kid?

 

Creative collaboration is one of my favourite things to do, especially when one is collaborating with someone as talented as interior designer Caroline Touzeau.

Caroline, an interior designer with over twenty years experience, has recently launched her new website. She asked me to work with her to write the website and newsletter content.

This is the second project Caroline and I have worked on – Caroline was the interior designer for our home renovation a couple of years ago. So we have discussed not only words and posts and stories but curtains and paint chips and carpet!

You can see some photos of my home on Caroline’s website. It’s called – unsurprisingly! – the library house.

Caroline, her assistant Chrissie and I had a wonderful time deliberating over cabinetry, fabrics and tiles. They are also literary ladies who are part of a bookclub – thank goodness they appreciated my love of books!

I love Caroline’s sense of the possible, her discerning eye and her ability to envision both scale and detail. Our family of five love our home – it’s everything we wanted it to be and more – and expresses both our quirks and values.

Caroline has recently styled a home that’s featured in this month’s Australian House and Garden magazine, which is also a part of St Joseph’s Open Houses on March 24th.

Photos are by the talented Tim Shaw at Impress Photography.

I hope you enjoy looking through Caroline’s website and sign up for her newsletter at the bottom of her home page to keep up to date with her projects.

 

 

 

Lovely blog readers, my head and heart are full indeed. Both are full of shiny gems of knowledge, creative ideas and wonderful connections. I’ve spent four days in Sydney for the final part of Kate Forsyth’s Story Doctor course and the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) conference.

As with any industry, it’s fabulous to talk shop with like-minded people. The other participants in Kate’s course were wonderful and I met lots of creative people at SCBWI. We discussed matters from social media, picture book illustrations, honing pitches and much, much more.

Kate discussed dialogue in her course, and I attended a masterclass on dialogue at the SCBWI conference with Zoe Walton, a Penguin Random House editor. Kate uses a different-coloured highlighter for each character to highlight their speech. This makes it easier for her to identify any anomalies – a seventy-year-old character is unlikely to say, ‘Yeah, nah, all good,’ while this might be usual speech for a thirteen-year-old character.

Zoe suggested we think about the actions we use to describe our characters while they’re talking. Actions are important – you don’t want two talking heads without context! But it’s also essential to avoid characters who are continually nodding their heads, biting their nails or sighing!

And I met with a publisher who liked my work! She has asked to see my full manuscript when I’ve finished editing (taking in all of Kate’s sage advice) in a couple of months.

And now, it’s back to reality with a proofreading job coming in next week, a memoir for a client to edit and three children who like to eat something other than a ten-minute pasta or sushi.

Just like the proverbial iceberg, fiction manuscripts can sometimes show only the surface problems. And that’s why I went to Sydney last weekend for Kate Forsyth’s Story Doctor writing course.

Kate is the writer of over forty books for children and adults. My kids loved her Impossible Quest series and I love her historical novels, particularly The beast’s garden and Bitter greens.

I’ve been to two of Kate’s courses before, both in Sydney, so I knew that Kate would help me understand exactly what I need to do to look at my children’s novel with fresh eyes.

Kate taught us to look beneath the surface of our manuscript and check for common structural mistakes. We went through structure and chapter openings and closings, voice, point of view, narrative distance … yes, all in six hours!

I could take what Kate taught in six hours and spend six years applying it to my writing!

But instead, I’ve spent a few hours every day this week – after my paid editing work – taking Kate’s suggestions and working it into my manuscript. I’ve deleted one chapter entirely and dispersed another chapter throughout my book. I’ve given one chapter which had been bugging me for ages higher stakes. I’ve added a few lines here and there to help the reader connect more with my protagonist.

My structure is tight now – nothing is superfluous, everything is working hard to contribute to the narrative arc of the story. I’ve examined my iceberg from both above and below the surface.

I’m back in Sydney this weekend for the final part of the Story Doctor course – time to focus on polishing my language. I’m also going to the SCBWI conference – a chance to learn writing techniques in workshops and listen to publisher panels.

Family meals have been a bit skimpy this week – bolognaise from the freezer, baked potatoes etc. I suspect next week might be similar …