Having a 'Hoot'

Yesterday I thoroughly enjoyed a wonderful day out with my kids at the local Owl Sanctuary. It is a fantastic place that not only displays these incredible birds, but also rears owl chicks and rehabilitates rescued birds, including those hit by cars etc. They also do a flying display with a couple of the owls and my son and I were particularly thrilled to watch the falconer fly a barn owl. Barn owls are my absolute favourite; they have a hypnotic and inspiring serenity and beauty about them. My son shares my love of them and he had the particular thrill of being able to put on the falconer's glove and have the barn owl land on it. He is a sponge for natural history and fact finding at the moment, so it was a fantastic day for him.
It got me thinking about barn owls for my 'tween' novel. It has introduced another potential thread for my novel, which is great, but also has me worried that my story may have more threads than the Bayeux Tapestry and may therefore be too complicated to complete without ending up in knots!!
Really enjoying the summer holidays, although resigning myself to having very little time and energy for writing and therefore resolving to put all that energy into my two little people until September 2nd, when my youngest goes full time at school and I have a larger window of opportunity to finish my novel. In the meantime I will content myself with writing ideas I have on index cards and filing them under ' to be written'!!

Inspiration, Emotion and Editing

It was my mum's birthday this week and every time there is a birthday in the family I am tempted to go back through old photos. Memories are so powerful and pictures, like smells and sounds, evoke very emotional responses in me. Every time I see the photo above of my son aged 24 hours old, I remember the joy of his arrival and the pain of knowing he faced surgery just 10 days later for his cleft repair. Now aged seven, every time I look at this photo and then look at him now, I have a catalogue of emotional responses ranging from pain, fear and worry to pride, joy and hope. I have tried to harness them in my writing as I believe every experience we have has purpose and can be used positively in a number of ways.

I went back over my chapters on Wednesday and I have to own up to editing them all slightly, though I was not too ruthless. I just felt I could not go on writing the story till I had modified the dialogue in chapter two, it was like a barrier I had hit and had to hurdle before I could go on. I have made a solemn promise to myself now that I will not edit anything else in this book until I have finished it. This will keep me motivated and stop me languishing in chapter three!!!

Speaking of photos, I was trawling through my Cornwall shots and came across this clearing, taken at Lanhydrock (NT place near Bodmin). It has provided me with a very visual setting for next chapter of my book and so I am planning to get going with this over the weekend. I do not want to stall again but I have a busy November ahead so the words are discipline and organisation (Boy, am I in trouble).

Cornish Autumnal Inspiration

I really love autumn. It is without doubt my favourite time of the year. I love the colours, the weather, the smells and sounds. It is often sunny with a crispness to the air and every time I go out my door I enjoy the smell of woodsmoke as people begin to light their woodburners for the colder days and nights. I was married and had both my children in the autumn and it is always one of my most inspirational times. Yesterday I had the opportunity to go out with my, 'almost four year old,' daughter, Hollie, for a walk at Respryn, on the edge of the Lanhydrock Estate. (Featured on Antiques Roadshow last night I noticed). Daddy and big brother had gone to watch the banger car racing at St Eval, so we decided to go out exploring and taking photos.

Respryn is a beautiful place to enjoy a walk. There are lots of woodland areas with pathways running through the woods and alongside the River Fowey. There are hundreds of different trees and wild plants as well as lots of old logs, housing various bugs and fungi. There are little copses with fallen logs and a number of wooden bridges to cross little streams that feed into the river. Hollie decided she wanted to make an 'autumn collection,' which involved filling a plastic basket with autumnal artefacts including various shapes and colours of leaves, acorns, wild flowers, tree moss and even the odd small blackberry. We also agreed that Hollie could take pictures with my digital camera of our walk to show the boys later. I demonstrated how to use it and all the pictures that are on display in this post are taken by her, with little or no help from me. I have to say I was impressed!

We had a lovely walk, making up stories about the old gnarly oak tree we found; discussing the animals that might live in the woods and stopping occasionally to describe the different sounds the river made. It seems I am so busy nowadays that time like this is far too rare, so to take a couple of hours to slow down and enjoy this time was not only enjoyable but absolutely necessary for me. The sun was shining, it was not cold, it was a truly idyllic autumnal Sunday afternoon. The treasures of nature and joy of spending time with a bright and enthusiastic little lady have inspired me and encouraged me, and so I have included some of Hollie's pictures in this post so that they may inspire you too.

Its MeMe from Kat

Kat at Wrightstory has tagged any readers to do her MeMe so I thought I might have a go. It has been a cleaning day today, clearing the debris from the weekend. Yesterday the chickens had a spring clean and sweep out, today it was the turn of the playroom/junk room/Room 101!!

Here it goes with the MeMe:

What is by your bedside?

A table lamp I got as a wedding present, Outcast by Michelle Paver, 3 notebooks and 3 pens (nothing left to chance for those 3 am moments!, Kylie Minogue's pefume 'Darling' , Children's Writers and Illustrators Handbook 2008, handmade bookmark and absolutely no space whatsoever!

Name ten things in your fridge.

Large tub of grated cheese, homemade quiche (have an abundance of eggs, thanks to our chickens), homemade salsa, cherry tomatoes, multiple cartons of fruit juice, leeks (must use these), raspberry jam, strawberries, lemon and lime marmalade (mmmmmm) and milk (for the gallons of tea my hubby drinks).

Name five things in my handbag

Mobile phone, 4 pens (I kid you not), notebook, small travel perfume 'Urban Flowers', work ID

Name three web addresses that come up with the first letter

Amazon, Ebay, The Book People

What is in the unassigned junk drawer where all the clutter is put?

Plug covers, sewing kit, mini screwdriver set, pens, mobile phone charger, pencil sharpener, Indian takeaway menu, mini torch, tubigrip and a fish shaped scoobie. An eclectic mix!

Describe five picture that are on the walls of your house:

A gorgeous photo of Connor aged 2, the photo above of my kids at Minions on Bodmin Moor, a crosstitch of a dragon wrapped around a medieval castle I did when I was at Uni, oil painting of a stile by the ocean (done by a Cornish artist), three picture frames that have pressed autumn maple leaves in it (did it myself when I was pregnant with Connor)

Enjoyed that! Anyone reading this who wants to have a go, it would be great to do this with a character in your book!

A Camel and a Cave

Today has been frantic but has ended well. Hollie is still harbouring a nasty sickness bug, so has been asleep most of the day. Connor and Andy went for a boys bike ride on the Camel Trail and Andy was good enough to take a lovely picture of the River Camel for my blog! I have been feeling guilty all day as Hollie has been periodically weeping telling me how hungry she is and I have been trying to explain that food is making her sick, so she really can only drink. Explaining the benefits of fasting to overcome sickness to a three year old is a non-starter really.

I have managed to start my writing challenge today based on the picture from yesterday's post. The picture is of a sea cave on Perranporth beach that I took last summer when we were returning from our camping trip near St. Ives. I was amazed at the images and the story that it evoked for me. My 30 minutes became 45 so I could put an end to the piece I was writing. The thing that surprised me most was the empathy and almost physical pain I shared with my character as she grieved for a lost brother. Maybe because it was written 'under pressure' but I really felt able to communicate her pain by actually feeling it myself to a point. Hope this happens often as it is going to help me with my character for my book, who is a young carer.

So despite a stressful and sickness filled day, the end of the day has brought a really positive time of writing which can only be useful longer term. Off to continue with Soul Eater now.