Hello my lovely blog friends
How are you all? I’m mad busy (as per!) but not just with the usual writing deadlines, more to do with the fact that for one week only I have become a Mother of 5! My best friend got married on Saturday and fecked off (quite rightly) on a cruise with her new hubby, so Mr H and I are babysitting their children. So right now I have a 13, 7, 5, 3 and soon to be 2 year old in my care. A breeze I tell you. I’m not in the slightest bit tired, nor is Mr H! Actually, all jesting aside, it’s all going swimmingly well.
I’m not getting a huge amount of writing done, but right now I’m in the middle of some revisions on Sleep of Dreams, making sure its just right before the December publication. Beyond Grace’s Rainbow is doing really well and still receiving great reviews from both reviewers and readers alike. Thank you all who have taken the time to write a review on Amazon. I really appreciate every one, they are so important to us authors.
On Saturday night Mr H and I are going to the Irish Blog Awards in the Osprey Hotel. My blog has reached the final in the Lifestyle Category. So fingers and toes crossed that the next post I make has some good news to share!
In the meantime, I want to share an article I wrote earlier this year for Contemporary Living Magazine, that you might find amusing. For those of you with small children, just for the craic, ask them what do they think you do to earn a crust and let me know what they say! Amelia, my 3 1/2 year old had quite the answer for me!
Have you ever wondered how your children see you? I got a wonderful insight into my three-year-old daughter’s mind recently. She told me only the other day that I was very special. I was so special in fact that Santa had brought me to her for Christmas because she was such a good girl. As I furiously swallowed the big lump that was in my throat, I pulled her in close for a huge snuggle and knew that no matter what, I’d never forget that moment.
And then yesterday in one of our lovely chats, I asked her what does Mummy work at? She scrunched her little button nose up and put her head to one side as she pondered the question.
“You make playgrounds Mummy and you tell stories and you work on your iPad.”
Hmm…. Not quite the answer I was expecting. I was very pleased she thought I worked at telling stories. That’s got absolutely nada to do with the fact that I’m actually an author, because Amelia has no idea at all about that. But everything to do with the fact that every night when I put her to bed, we snuggle down together and I make up a story for her. It always starts with ‘Once upon a time’ and always ends with ‘They Lived Happily Ever After’.
Amelia is one of my fiercest critics and if I don’t include at least one scary monster and change the story every night, she’ll quite rightly tell me to get my act together. And now, she has started telling stories of her own. There are a lot of witches turning princesses into frogs in Amelia’s stories and they always have this line in them, ‘luckily, Dora rescued them all and they all lived Happily Ever After!’ Sometimes it’s Mickey Mouse or Fireman Sam who does the rescuing with the very odd appearance of Daddy or me saving the day, but every story is told with such passion and intensity it’s very hard not to either burst with pride or laughter as I listen to her recount them.
As for the working on my iPad, well in my defence, I do work on the iPad. I blog from there and everyone knows how important social media is. It’s all about networking for us humble writers. I will not tolerate for a second the suggestion that any enjoyment is had by me as I chat with my friends on Facebook and Twitter on occasion during the day or of an evening.
Every second on that iPad is work. And if I’m watching RTE player or Netflix on it in the kitchen as I cook, well that’s all done for research purposes you understand.
She’s very clever my three-year-old. The iPad IS such hard work.
But here’s what had me stumped. The notion that I make playgrounds for a living! Because despite my many talents, an engineer is not among them! Then I twigged what was going on. A few months ago when the New Line Theatre decided to stage my play, A Dunganstown Romance, I might have been slightly excited by it all and much whooping and hollering was done. And when Amelia wanted to know what all the madness was about I told her I’d written a play.
She of course heard the word play, immediately associated that with playgrounds and two plus two equals 100 for a three-year-old.
So according to my three-year-old, I’m a storytelling, iPad using, inventor of all things wondrous in playgrounds.
I’m seriously thinking about changing my job title on LinkedIn to that. It does flow off the tongue don’t you think?
Chat soon everyone,
Carmel x
