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For the love of books

My Mom loved books and we had plenty at home, all of the time.Those we owned snuggled up in their bookshelves and guests from the library perched here and there during their visit, on table tops, chair arms, kitchen counters, and other places where they were safe from water, dirt, the fireplace, and the cat who liked to sit on them.Mom taught us not to read with sticky fingers, nor were we to 'break the spine' by folding back the covers and under no circumstances was it acceptable to fold down p...

Grief can be like the snap of a wet tea towel or a slow burn

You know how you can whip a tea towel at someone, especially if it's wet from drying the dishes, a quick flick of the wrist and that towel snaps against a vulnerable part of the body - usually exposed skin is best for maximum effect but that snap of pain can be felt even under clothing.When we were growing up, my sister and I used to do the dishes every night after dinner. I always dried and so I perfected the art of the tea towel snap. Of course the tables often turned and I was on the receivin...

Write what you know .. and then some

You've heard that old adage, 'write what you know', and there are differing opinions on whether that is good advice or not.Some writers say 'yes indeed!' and others toss it right out the window, saying it restricts you as a writer and you'll never venture past it into the unknown, because writing is a voyage into those unfamiliar waters. They say, 'take the leap!'My sister and I grew up in Seattle, Washington, until I was 7 and she was 10, then we moved to New Zealand. We were often thrown ...

Be curious and pay attention

We have to cultivate the habits of curiosity and paying attention, which are essential to living rich lives and writing.'So says Anne Lamott in her book Almost Everything: Notes on hope.And how right she is. How can you write if you're not curious about something?  And how you can write if you don't pay attention to what's going on around you? Curiosity leads as to introspection. What makes us tick? Why do we do the things we do and think that way? Why did one of your friends...

When the going gets tough ... pick up the water blaster

I love using my water blaster. This is the time of year when I get it out of the shed and tackle all of the concrete stairs leading up to my house. The high and hot suns of summer have been replaced by the low, mellow winter light without warmth that barely makes it over the tops of the trees. Slimy stuff darkens the outdoor stairs, slippery stuff, a recipe for disaster. Even the cat slips. I have a special outfit I wear: an old blue raincoat, a pair of my Dad's old sou'wester foul wea...

Writing about secrets? It could be a best seller

In her book Inheritance , Dani Shapiro writes about the time in her life when she innocently submitted her DNA to a genealogy website and found out that her deceased father was not her biological father. The book is about secrets - those kept within families, secrets too shameful to reveal, or kept hidden out of love to protect others. Dani writes, '... secrets, particularly the most deeply held ones, have  a way of leaching into everything surrounding them.'We all ...

If you want to be a writer ... you have to write

The Greek philosopher Epictetus said,'If you wish to be a writer, write.'  Simple as that! I'll add to this by saying, 'If you have a story to tell about your life and times, then I'll bet people will want to read it.' Tell it well and compellingly, and you may just have a book that will not only sell but will touch the hearts and minds of the people who read it.You may ask: 'How does she know this?'Because we all have a built-in curiosity about others, a hard-wiring that goe...

Objects can tell a story

A colleague attended a breast cancer support meeting recently. She said they had been asked to bring along an object that they treasured, something that had a story attached, an item of personal significance. They would then tell the group the story behind that special object.I'm sure those stories would have run the gamut of emotion from hilarious to tearful, poignant to pleasing, and frightening to calming.As I sat here at my desk, I can see plenty of things roundabout. I confess I am a bit of...

My summer day

Wow, it's hot.Dry too. We haven't had a good rain in ages here. I don't have to do much weeding because the intense heat is shriveling them up and it's too hot anyway to do more than pull up a few pieces of ginger and sweep the steps.So my day is pretty much like this right now.I work in the morning. I've been getting up earlier and earlier to enjoy the cool and to prevent the computer from blowing up. Its little fan or whatever is in there to keep it from overheating is working like a son of a ...

Write about your car

When you're thinking about your life, think about your car.We often take our cars for granted. They get us from A to B, sure enough, and we spend inestimable hours in them over a lifetime: strapped into car seats as youngsters, learning to drive in our teens with a white-knuckled parent or pale-faced driving instructor beside us, and then when we're old, the moment we're told 'you can't drive any more' - how does that loss of independence feel?Our cars, trucks, motorbikes, bicycles - any form of...

Writing a ripper first line - is it easy to do?

'Once upon a time ...'Stories read to us in childhood often began this way and when I heard those words, I was filled with a delightful anticipation of what was to come, snuggling down even closer to Mom as she read from the picture book before my bedtime. Even now, I find myself going, 'Yes? OK? What is going to happen?'Beginnings are everything in our stories. They hook the reader in, entice us to read on, we want to find out what happens. Even that classic clanger, 'It was a dark and sto...

Stretch your writing legs in 2019

My cat Betsy has water bowls positioned all around the house so she doesn't have to go far, or exert herself too much, to get a drink on these hot summer days. ​She's going on 19 now so I try to make things easy for her.In spite of the convenience, Betsy likes drinking from the bird bath on the front lawn.It's a real stretch for her. She has to stand on her tip-toes, battling her arthritis, to get a drink. Writing is a bit like that.It's easy to go round and take from the usual sourc...

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth ...

... and a Tonka car carrier truck.Let's face it. Christmas is for kids and wow, if you were anything like me, as a youngster you'd be beside yourself right about now with The Big Day less than a week away.  The tree is up, some of the presents are already under it and you can tell there are more to come because the extra special ones you had on your list (that you delivered to your parents ages ago and have badgered them over ever since) aren't there yet, and you know that because the ...

Nostalgia, loss and separation: be a collector of experiences

Isabel Allende is one of my favourite writers. In November she was given yet another award, honoured by America's National Book Foundation for her distinguished contribution to American letters, the first such award given to a Spanish-language writer. Allende gave an acceptance speech for her award and mentioned how being 'chronically uprooted' has inspired her creativity. Themes of 'nostalgia, loss and separation' can be found in all of her books and also define her writing ...

Let's talk about triggers

And I don't mean gun triggers.I mean those everyday things that can trigger a memory, a sensation, an emotion. These triggers can be the true stuff of life writing.Take this morning. I brew up the coffee and put some bread in the toaster. The toast pops out and as I am buttering it, I remember my secondary school English teacher.I didn't like English when I was at school. Even though this teacher was one of the best I've ever had the good fortune to know, I didn't really like going to her classr...

When the going gets tough, the tough sack out

Writing can be joyous, momentous, creatively satisfying when it's going well ... but when it isn't, finding words can be impossible and the blank computer screen can be a vision from hell and the stuff of nightmares.There is of course the old 'writer's block' where you just can't get to first base with anything; it's like a creative constipation. Nothing is moving and you need some kind of 'laxative for creative people' - hey, there's an idea! I can see that on the retail shelves already. &...

Writing is like learning to ride a bike: you never forget how

Do you remember the first time you rode a bike?I was about ten. Mom had a bike that she'd brought over from the USA when we immigrated to New Zealand. It was black with two large wire baskets hooked onto the back of the frame, deep enough for all your shopping. Dad was building a sailboat in the garage at the time. He'd done that before in the garage of our house in Seattle. That sailboat was about 23 feet long and it was called Nameless. Unfortunately the New Zealand version was never comp...

Coming up with ideas for horror

I've written before about how much I enjoy horror movies - I was raised on them. My sister and I were loaded into the back of the car in our pyjamas and driven by our parents to the drive in movies where, more often than not, there was a double-horror-something.And, as you can see in the ad opposite, my parents were probably attracted by the $1/carload 'family night'. Nothing better for us kids than a night on 'Hell's Island' and getting to know the 'Creature with the Atom Brain.'If you're wanti...

What is it about horror?

What is it about horror? We kinda know that monsters aren't real (although walking up the stairs to my house late at night, through the bush, I am absolutely 100% certain there is 'something' lurking just beyond the weak illumination my flashlight provides and I think that by walking with purpose, head down, straight ahead, I will deter it from attacking me) and yet after reading a cracking good horror or ghost story, or watching something spooky on TV, we find ourselves ...

Let's talk about laundry

A friend of mine had a stressful job for years and said she could only relax by setting up a lounge chair in her back yard on a sunny day and watching the laundry flapping and waving on the line.I asked her if she had a gin and tonic alongside and she said no, she didn't, it was something about the movement of the clothes drying on the line, the sunshine on her face, and being on a  patch of green (a small patch as she lived in the city) that did the trick for her.My friend added that watch...

What I learned from a little black ninja cat

Writing can be opportunistic.If we're short of time, we grab an opportunity to write when we can - on the bus to work, at the kitchen table after the kids have been dropped at school.Sometimes we submit a piece of writing to a magazine editor and they say, 'Great, I'll take it!'We've made our approach at the right time, taking advantage of a window of opportunity before it closes.    And if you're a self employed writer, you're always looking for opportunities to get your writing ...

Taming the Dragon

It seems there is software for just about anything these days to help you write, punctuate, spell ... it can almost compose a book for you.Where's the fun in that? Actually, it's very fun. Yesterday I installed a voice recognition programme called Dragon. Ah, you've heard of it ? I also got a good headset with a very astute microphone that can pick up all the subtle nuances of my extraordinary speech and fabulous words.Actually my speech and words pale in comparison to the Dragon....

Who would sign up for the writing life?

You have to find something that you love enough to be able to take risks, jump over the hurdles and break through the brick walls that are always going to be placed in front of you. If you don’t have that kind of feeling for what it is you’re doing, you’ll stop at the first giant hurdle.  George LucasI ask you -  who would sign up for the writing life?Most days it feels nuts and I often think I'm the only person in the world doing it. And there are hurdles, many many of them, and...

Give yourself permission to write the worst stuff in the world

Allowing yourself time and permission to write, and acknowledging that it takes courage to do so, is something we'll talk about in my 'Feel the fear' Workshop on 4 August. In her fabulous book 'Writing Down the Bones' Natalie Goldberg says,Sit down with the least expectation of yourself; say, "I am free to write the worst junk in the world." ... If every time you sat down, you expected something great, writing would always be a great disappointment. Plus that expectation would also kee...

Feel unsupported in your writing? Try this!

Warm up your creativity, come along to my 'Feel the fear and write it in anyway workshop' Saturday 4 August, Whangaparaoa Library, Auckland and you can bring your own dragon if you like. The Library doesn't mind.  Protect your writing time like a Hungarian Horntail protects its egg. Breathe fire, flap your wings, and bellow loudly.​You know how it is. When you sit down to write, people interrupt you. All you want is to take hold of that precious writing time, the hour that you h...