Books – relief, amazement and excitement
It’s that time again! The joy of being at the end of over twelve months of hard work. As many now realise, my life at present is all about putting the final pieces together for the release of “Danika and Yatimah in a Race for Rain” book two in my As the Crow Flies series.
Second piece of the cover puzzle …
I could likened the feeling to when my mares have foaled and the emotions I experienced. Relief, the foal has arrived and the mare is fine, amazement at the miracle of life, something that continues to amaze me even after forty years and excitement before you lift the foals tail and check whether it’s a colt or a filly.
It’s exactly the same with my books, relief, amazement and excitement … Even more so when the book is for children.
Writing books for children has always been an absorbing exercise for me. I start the story and often become side-tracked thinking about my own childhood and how my mother and I often searched second hand bookstores for my favourite pony books. In a way Danika and Yatimah are my own Australian version of these books.
“No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world.”
~Robin Williams
I think back to my childhood and realise I was a fortunate child. In those days reading and writing was not only about losing yourself in story-land but it was a way to find out about things. It was a much freer time and when I wasn’t outside playing with friends I was inside reading. I can’t remember the first book I read but reading seemed to come to me as naturally as loving horses. Maybe reading is in our DNA just as loving horses appears to be. While I did aspire to have horses one day, I didn’t especially aspire to write books. I was happy to simply read them!
“The love of books is a love which requires neither justification, apology, nor defense.” – J.A. Langford
I tended to read any book that was lying around and that included my grandmothers books on spiritualism. I’m not sure if I understood what it was all about but I read it from cover to cover anyway. Books gave me something to think about and they taught me to think clearly and sort through ideas and retain the information I read about.
“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” ? Dr. Seuss, I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!
I learnt so much from books which in turn made me realise the truth in the words – you never stop learning – no matter where the information comes from as James Bryce said, the worth of a book is to be measured by what you can carry away from it.
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