I write books for children, short stories and memoirs for adults. I coach memoir-writers. I love family, friends and home - and 'home' includes our precious planet, Earth. p.s. I'm an avid gardener.
I’m in the middle of one of the tasks I find stressful : Wrapping gifts! I keep telling myself: That’s what tissue paper and gift bags are for – but here I am, wrapping gifts. So I decided to stop and post a cheerful greeting.
Photo: H Grange
The white amaryllis above is a first for me. I always grow red amaryllis for Christmas. It won’t replace my reds, but I quite like the peaceful feeling of this one.
So there you have it: the Christmas tree for joy and the white amaryllis for peace.
After publishing nothing new for a few years, my co-author Lauren and I have just released two things that we hope will delight anyone who loves the colour purple, or notebooks.
Or, (for the young ones in their lives), the Myrtle the Purple Turtle book series because you’ll see a purple turtle on the cover below! Perfect Christmas present –wink, wink, nudge, nudge!
Second, I returned to teaching writing this fall after 4 years away. It was only 1 course of 8 weeks, once a week, focusing on Memoir Writing. And what a joy my group was! 8 persons over 50, none of them with writing experience, but hungry to learn. Members of previous groups have won writing competitions and published books and stories after the course, so I know that writing can be learned. The group both amazed and uplifted me.
As you and anyone who follows this blog knows, it’s been a tough couple years and I’ve blogged very little while trying to support my family and improve my own health. I have more appointments than I can count!
But life does go on, and as, always, I give thanks for the key blessings of love from family and friends. That, by the way, includes the friends I’ve made here through my blog, who have checked in on me and my family or replied to my quite rare blog posts. Blessings come in many different forms, and I thank you for yours.
I’m determined to post again soon so will send my Christmas greetings then. But for now, I wish everyone who celebrates Hanukkah, Advent, Winter Solstice (or other sacred days) the best of the season. And if that doesn’t apply to you, I hope you will find something to celebrate.
Blessings come in many forms. Some are tiny – like the amaryllis bud above that we accidentally severed from the plant, but which grew and grew in water and is blooming like crazy on a day when it’s cold and grey outdoors.
Life can be weird, can’t it? Who would have guessed that within months of each other, two such big and seemingly unconnected things will take place in artist Graham Metson’s life? That his richly-illustrated book “Blitz Kid” – about a child experiencing war-time London with its bombs and fires – will launch decades after he started it, but his cherished home and studio in Prince Edward County, Ontario will burn to the ground?
Luckily for Graham and his wife Cheryl, they were away from home at the time. Their two cats escaped, and some of his paintings were saved. But a lifetime of valuable possessions was gone.
Graham Metson is one of Canada’s celebrated artists. He’s revered for paintings that make you think. Beautiful, yes. But to onlookers, some of his works seem to express a haunted, even violent beauty. What appears to be a picture of a vase of flowers may turn out to be what a bomb looked like as it exploded.
His is not the kind of work you forget a minute later. Some of his works hang in Canada’s national gallery.
Graham is less well-known as a writer. Yet, as you read his words, you can’t help but be struck at his skill for capturing detail. The tiniest incident comes to life as he recalls his childhood memories of living in London, England, during the second world war. Interactions with his mom or Nana. Scenes from the schoolyard. Seeing the fragments and ruins of bombed buildings. Missing his dad, who has gone to war. There are also childhood friends; his stamp collection; words the local minister says to him after he’s failed a school exam.
The book was a long time in the making. Graham started writing his memories of that time in the 1980’s, before he even considered creating pictures to help tell the story.
“I felt the need to create a series of photomontage / mixed media images in which I could delve more deeply than words into my memories,” he says. “Perhaps revealing something about the nature of memory.”
I loaned my copy of Blitz Kid to an artist friend who was also a child in London during that war. She was absorbed by both pictures and words. She told me: “It’s authentic. He captured life during that time very well – and especially from a child’s perspective.”
Months later, as wars rage on in several countries – and children and parents are slaughtered – I decided to reread Blitz Kid. Through the words and pictures, the book reminded me of the daily, sometimes minute, ways in which children go about their lives during wartime. And the fears and horrors of war that are a constant backdrop to those daily lives.
It also reinforced for me the power of memory – what we can recall, decades later. And finally, what a precious gift it is to be able to think like a child. This book is written so simply, yet so powerfully, the reader at times forgets she’s reading a book. It feels as if you’re listening to the child himself.
In happy news for Graham and Cheryl, they were able to rebuild their house on the spot where the former one stood. And Graham, now 88 years old, continues to paint.
The book may be ordered by contacting: grahammetson@yahoo.com
Jeanne Balsam, a well-known member of the blogging community, has published a charming children’s book about butterflies.
Jeanne has wanted to write and publish her own children’s book for 13 years, and “Where Do Butterflies Go at Night?” is the result of her persistence and passion. It’s beautifully written in rhyming verse and the illustrations are gorgeous. I’ve read it to my resident expert – my 3 year old granddaughter – at bedtime, and she loves the book.
Why butterflies? I asked Jeanne.
“The idea came from what I actually saw outside my own office window – so many cabbage white butterflies on the privet hedge just on the other side of my driveway. As the day went on, they disappeared, yet reappeared in a flourish each morning. I wondered where they went, and then started imagining it through a child’s eyes, and voila!”
Jeanne has operated her own graphic design business for years, providing illustrations for her clients. She also has a line of greeting cards, journals and other products featuring Frenchies (French bulldogs).
Being an illustrator helped her to write the book, as she imagined the pictures as she wrote. But on this project, Jeanne focused on the writing. She worked with Stella Mongodi, another illustrator.
“I actually requested that particular illustrator because I knew she could bring the magic to my words better than my own style of drawing could. I’m very lucky that Stella did the art – she’s excellent.”
The book has been described as “magical” and “dreamy”. Perfect for a bedtime read!
