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Jackie's October message continued . . .
Suddenly
the garden has turned into paradise. Each gust brings down another shower of apple
blossom, and the scent of early roses and late jonqils and a hundred other
flowers is almost thick enough to slice. Even the hills behind us are a blaze of indigophera, and
wonga vine and wild clematis are
dripping off the thorn bushes. It's
almost too much, as though humans were kicked out of paradise a long time ago
and so much beauty is almost- not quite - unbearable. A drought is predicted
this summer though; will have to save up the memory of all this to keep me
going then. Meanwhile
we are almost sick of asparagus; you get tired of it fast when you're picking a kilo or so a day. And the currawongs are pecking at the
highest avocadoes, which means that if you happen to be standing underneath
you're liable to get bonked on the head by 500gms of speeding fruit, while the
birds chortle up above you. (I don't THINK they're doing it on purpose. You can
never tell with currawongs) It
should be a good month, if the world doesn't dry up too fast..or blow up, but
there's a matter I won't touch on. I'm giving a couple of workshops of turning
history into stories, and stories
into history, at the National Museum this week (October 4), and we're filming
for a day next week, and then I'm off to
give a talk at Pepperina Bookshop in Newcastle, and a couple of talks at
Hunter Grammar Scool, and then a workshop on wasy to help kids with reading difficulties, and a plenary
session on 'dragons, droppings and decapitations (or how would you like to see
my totally awesome scar' at the Mantle conference in Port Stephens, but apart
from that I'll be home with the apple blossom. Oh,
I forgot, the Bolinda kids are coming to visit too. (Hi! If you're reading
this!) Bolinda PS is a great little country school in Victoria, with incredibly
dedicated teachers and fabulous kids, and they visit us every two years..and it
really says something about the school to say that Bryan and I have been
looking forward to an invasion of kids for months! Note: must get the clues
together for the treasure hunt.... New
Releases: Dark
Wind Blowing was released last month. It' s a gripping and at times terrifying
story of a kid who threatens to kill the school- the town- the world- by
releasing a biological weapon, but it also looks at deeper issues too..is there
any such thing as an 'innocent bystander?' What does drive kids- or anyone- to
try to kill.... On
a MUCH lighter note, Stories to eat with a Mandarin is out this month. It's one
long Phredde story, featuring Pru ( a normal- well mostly-kid) Bruce (he's a
handsome prince but he's happier as a frog) vampire mosquitoes, an invasion of flesh eating ghouls, a
big bad wolf (a bit covered in yuk) and Snow White and the seven quite short
computer softwear engineers....plus a visit to fairyland, sorry! Phaeryland!
that doesn't go quite the way Pru and Phredde expect! The
House That Jackie (and a good few others) Built is out now too, published by
Earth Garden books. It's about how to build your own stone walls, steps,
paving, house, or what the heck, why not build a castle....it's cheap, fun,
backbreaking, gives you memories you wouldn't miss for quids.. .and if I can do
it, anyone can! Other book news: Hitler's
Daughter is going to be translated into Japanese, to add to all the other
translations. I've also heard that it's going to be studied in Swedish schools,
but haven't had that confirmed yet. (Sweden has just taken Missing You Love
Sara too.) And
I have just finished the final story in Ride the wild Wind, a book of horse
stories stareting at 4,500 BC with the first horse to be ridden, and ending in
the 1950'sd with the retirement of a baker's horse. the book (it's a biggish
one0 looks at the history of the partnership between humans and horses...which
makes it sound incredibly boring, but it isn't. ps Please kids...do put your address on any letter you send! I've
had half a dozen this month with no address, so I can't reply! (and also my
hand has been sore this month too, from all the book week letters, so I've got
behind in my letter answering...but I will get to yours, I promise, even if it
takes a while!)
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