Storytelling Starters ~ A Range of Emotions
Pleasing (for me!)
1. I’ve just heard I’m being nominated for an Astrid Lindgren award. Astrid Lindgren was the wonderful Swedish children’s writer who created Pippi Longstocking. I’m to be nominated in the Storyteller category.
2. On Monday I had a phone call with the editorial consultant whom I’d asked for a professional opinion on A Long Run In Short Shorts, my collection of short personal stories. She said she loves them. She’s urging me to try and find a publisher for them. She says they deserve an audience.
3. On Thursday I learned that a book on storytelling and sustainability to which I’ve contributed a chapter has found a publisher and is to be published next March.
4. I’ve managed to do a whole lot of writing during this week while I’ve been home in Wales.
All very pleasing. Of course, I’m sure there’s no chance at all of me winning the Astrid Lindgren Award. Finding a publisher for my stories is going to be very hard. The only payment for the sustainability book will be one free copy and the writing I’m currently doing is sure to take a whole lot longer before it’s complete.
Never mind. It’s the doing that counts.
And I’m keeping my fingers crossed for the cuckoos. On Thursday , another BTO (British Trust for Ornithology) blog gave news that Chris, the tagged cuckoo about whom I wrote last week, has made it over the Mediterranean.
He’ll probably be back in England any day now – a sign of real Spring.
Amusing
A week ago, on the train down to Wales, we’d got into Wales and were between Newport and Cardiff when the nice young boy in the seat next to me turned to look out of the window. After a moment he said to his friends who were sitting nearby:
Too much grass!
Too much country!
I hope he and his family enjoyed Cardiff, which is where they got out.
Not Pleasing At All!
The boy on the train reminded me of a conversation which has stayed a lot in my mind. In London recently I met someone from Brighton. During the chat we had together and after I’d told him I’m Welsh – I know I don’t sound very Welsh when I’m in England – he said pointedly, ‘Welsh is pointless. It’s silly to teach children Welsh, ridiculous to require that applicants for some jobs in Wales be able to speak the Welsh language, what’s needed now is for people to look outwards and participate in the wider world.’
I wish I’d said to him, ‘I think Brighton is pointless. It isn’t needed. People who live there should move somewhere more useful like London or New York or Beijing.’
I wonder what he’d have said. He obviously had no idea or knowledge about anything Welsh – the music (William Mathias or Carl Jenkins); the novels (Tê Yn Y Grug or Y Storïwr); the Eisteddfodau (Cenedlaethol or Urdd); the pop scene (Meic Stevens or Cerys Matthews); the poets (Dafydd ap Gwilym or Menna Elfyn) …I could go on.
But in a way the conversation was good. It really stirred me up.
Da Bôch! Go well!
Tags: A Long Run In Short Shorts, Astrid Lindgren Award, cuckoo, Wales
June 11th, 2013 at 3:37 am
Hi Mary,
It was great to meet you in London recently and to hear of your nomination for the Astrid Lindgren Award. Thanks to your informative blog, I know you are currently on a short blogging break … but when you are back on board I’d love to interview you for A Bigger Brighter World, my blog about writers, reading and books.
Marjorie
June 21st, 2013 at 7:06 pm
Hi Marjorie. It was great to meet you too – and lovely to get your message. I think we have a lot in common and I’d love to be interviewed for your blog. I’m just back from Italy and getting orientated to being back home. Let’s be in touch again in the next few days.