2 June: There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven

As the seasons roll around, there is an unsettling in me - it always happens at this time of the year. In Cape Town I am conscious of the mild shift between seasons in a way that never happened in Kwa Zulu Natal. There we lived one continuous humid, lush season with spells of more or less rain. Here, we experience the dry heat of summer, into light-diffused autumn, then contemplative introspectively soaked winter, and finally the magnificence of our crisp, clear, colourful spring.

So now it is sometime towards late autumn - or perhaps it's already early winter - and that all too familiar disquiet is upon me like a shroud. I've come to accept it almost as an old friend who comes to visit each year.

                    "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven" [Ecc 3:1]

Such a profound - and yet simple - philosophy.

Now through the looking glass we go...

The proof has been proofed and as of today "Edward Beaton and the Star in the Glass" by Caroline A.Raine is available in hard copy off amazon.com.

Looong sigh.... the journey is complete and the writing, submissions, printing and editing is over. It exists in the world and NOW stepping through the looking glass - from me looking in on a mysterious world of authoring - I walk in the beautiful garden of being an author in print. This is the beginning.

Join me in the garden...

3 May 2011: Don't you love it when the world around you narrates poetry?

Ezra Pound
Now as the winter rains begin in earnest in Cape Town, every morning on my drive to school I watch the wet trees and the last of the autumn leaves and I wish that there was a sister poem to Ezra Pounds "In a Station of the Metro" just for autumn.


In a Station of the Metro


The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
petals on a wet, black bough. 


Ezra Pound


The rich auburns of the maple and Plains Trees stand out against the black, wet bark of the trees.  Too beautiful. And then in 4 months I will be saluting the fine pink and lilac petals, poised so delicately against the wet bark. It is a beautiful, fragile world we live in, and we all need to be a little kinder to it, to each other, and to ourselves.


So be kind, to the world around you.
Be kind to others.
Be kind to yourself.

30 April: Roots the True Foundation

A lovely lady I knew a long time ago, gave me a copy of her lino-cut called "Roots the True Foundation". It was a pictorial depiction of where she was at, at the stage in her life. It is a collage of the things that were her defined Roots. These had nothing to do with childhood, birth rights, heritage or ancestry. They were the roots which she claimed for herself ... that which she felt had defined her and which illustrated the beginning of a new life in herself at about the age of 35. This fascinates me - the opportunities for re-birth and starting again. We can all do it, at any stage of our lives. There are fantastic possibilities that exist in being able to drop off the baggage and the pastness of Being.

So now - ABNA is over and "Edward Beaton" up on Amazon. It's a good quiet place to be.

I am thinking though of Roots again. There is a wonderfully powerful poem by Ted Hughes, which I discovered (strangely enough) at one of those milestones in my life when I was trying to define Self and my take on Roots and belonging. Ted Hughes is my favourite poet - such a dark and brooding and  indulgently brilliant poet. It is called "Wodwo", and it is about these figurative Roots. Beautiful writing. It became something of a prayer / chant for me:

Wodwo

What am I? Nosing here, turning leaves over
Following a faint stain on the air to the river's edge
I enter water. Who am I to split
The glassy grain of water looking upward I see the bed
Of the river above me upside down very clear
What am I doing here in mid-air? Why do I find
this frog so interesting as I inspect its most secret
interior and make it my own? Do these weeds
know me and name me to each other have they
seen me before, do I fit in their world? I seem
separate from the ground and not rooted but dropped
out of nothing casually I've no threads
fastening me to anything I can go anywhere
I seem to have been given the freedom
of this place what am I then? And picking
bits of bark off this rotten stump gives me
no pleasure and it's no use so why do I do it
me and doing that have coincided very queerly
But what shall I be called am I the first
have I an owner what shape am I what
shape am I am I huge if I go
to the end on this way past these trees and past these trees
till I get tired that's touching one wall of me
for the moment if I sit still how everything
stops to watch me I suppose I am the exact centre
but there's all this what is it roots
roots roots roots and here's the water
again very queer but I'll go on looking.


Ted Hughes

Thursday 28 April: Lindor chocolate heals many things

The power of chocolate is a wonderful thing! Have not been back to the ABNA site in 48 hours, and have decided that my review was quite good. Will tweek and perhaps approach an agent or two in the next few weeks, but in South Africa we have precious few who will take on Children's Fantasy - already found that out last year. As far as approaching overseas agents and publishers... hmmm not sure that they would welcome a foreign writer and all that the great divide represents for any kind of working relationship. My book is on amazon.com and once I've checked the Proof Review box it will also by up for sale in hard copy.

But have downed many jugs of tea today and had more than a sensible portion of Lindor Lindt chocolate to heal the disappointment of the ABNA cut.

After a day of moving furniture around the house (always one step ahead of the building contractors) and coping with the anxiety of Cupboard Cat who does not handle disruption even on the smallest scale, and a wonderful supper and a glass of good red wine with new friends I am able to start seeing things in perspective again:

In a few days I will have a new roof; the chocolate stash from Easter will be finished; I will be putting my writing skills to good and productive use by immersing myself in the Internal Evaluation Report I have to do for school which is now nearing deadline date AND working on a recipe book for a friend's Kitchen Tea (YAY I love projects).

Day Something... The night after semi-finalists announced

So with a great heavy feeling in my heart, I post up my Publishers Weekly Review - it is a good review and has some constructive points for me to address, but I am sad to not be going through to the semi finals. I am taking note of the fact that I have written for a younger audience than that which the contest asked for. Young Adult being serious Teens, and yes, I did originally write for the 10-14 market, so it shouldn't come as a surprise. My next task is to find how to  convincingly pitch to a publisher and make no pretence that this is a Young Adult novel.


                                                Publishers Weekly Review:


 "In this short and sweet novel, mainly set in a far-away Faery world, four siblings who are the children of the elements have been reunited after being separated years before. They have returned to the land of Encantadora from the Human world because Lithendor, the Dark One, has a plan to take over the Faery and Human worlds. He needs the four elementals -- Edward, son of Earth, Wynne, daughter of Water, Fiona, daughter of Fire, and Andrew, son of Air -- to relinquish their powers so that he may regain strength and travel between the two worlds. As they train together to harness their elemental powers, days pass until Fiona is captured by Lithendor. They must stand together, as four, to destroy Lithendor and rescue Fiona. Readers will enjoy this quick fantastical read; most of the story focuses on Edward and his journey to reunite himself with his siblings after he falls off a dragonfly en route to rescue Fiona. This story is quite succinct -- almost too much so. It would have been enjoyable to learn more about their lives before transport back to Encantadora and to read a more detailed explanation of the Faery land and what led to the decision to send the siblings into hiding in the Human world. All in all, this is a fun and enjoyable read, although it might be best suited to younger ages. Although the main characters, except for Fiona, are teenagers, the book seems to be skewed younger due to the shortness of the story and the absence of any violence or scary situations."

Day 33. The Week of the Royal Wedding Dawns

I don't know how far-reaching the Royal Wedding Fever is. We are SO excited about the wedding on Friday. I run a Literacy board at school. Last term I created a collage of Afro-American literature using magnificent illustrations from a Brer Rabbit book I have - so fascinating to trace the line from American traditional fable back along the slave route to Africa. The rabbit traditionally has his roots in African folklore as a mischief maker and is always cleverer and tricksier than both Man and beast. I just love puzzles like that - finding the origins of literary matters - such as Why is the Mad Hatter "mad"? and the origins of our language in words eg "window" and "daisy". But I digress...

To coincide with this month's Royal Wedding, I have created a British Classics collage interspersed with photos of the Diana/Charles wedding and the publicity shots of Kate and William. The more I was looking for examples of British young children's literature, the more I found I was going to have to leave off the board for sheer lack of space. These are some of the samples that made it onto the board alongside the Royals. Feel free to add your favourite favourite:

• Winnie the Pooh
• Enid Blyton (both examples of the series' and Noddy)
• The Wind in the Willows
• Harry Potter (of course)
• The Reluctant Dragon
• Paddington
• Milly Molly Mandy
• The Railway Children
• The Sword in the Stone (the quintessential children's Arthurian introduction)
• The Hobbit