Yearly Archives: 2022

If an adult is reading any of the six stories to you as you snuggle down for the night, you will not feel in the least bit sleepy. Your mind will be transported to another place, perhaps to a village where a rather pompous man wants to win the strangest competition you’ve ever heard of, perhaps to a far-away island where you’ll meet someone who has the longest name in the whole world, or maybe you’ll find yourself in the snow-covered hills of wintry Wales, where the red dragon has lived for a very long time.

This is the book I’m talking about:

I can safely say that if someone is reading you these stories, they will find themselves totally engrossed, probably chortling from time to time, and, once they have tucked you up and kissed you goodnight, they’ll be sneaking downstairs with your book under their arm, because they totally want to read just another story or two…. or three for themselves.

Now let me introduce you to the author. She’s called Jenny Sanders, and here she is:

It’s not every day you have the opportunity to ask an author some questions, but I’ve been lucky enough to do that today. Here are my questions followed by Jenny’s answers.

1. What inspired you to write these stories?

‘These are the sort of stories which I think I enjoyed reading when I was a child. I actually wrote the first one for my eldest daughter, just as a bit of fun.  Bear in mind that my four children have all grown-and-flown!  I felt she needed a bit of light relief from a very demanding and emotionally draining job. She enjoyed it and then I felt that maternal obligation to be thoroughly fair and write one for the other two girls and my son.  They are as different as the stories.  Those who know them well may try to work out which story was written for which one of them; that would be quite interesting to see how accurate someone could be.  

So, it took a while because I was writing another non-fiction, adult book at the time in a totally different genre (Spiritual Feasting – Instant Apostle) which took a great deal of head-space and concentration.’

2. Have you always liked telling and writing stories?

I’ve been writing stories since I was a little girl. I just love the creative world where imagination can run riot and you can bend the rules of logic and reality. Words are so rich and wonderful. We have so many of them in the English language, when you write it’s like rolling in a pile of etymological leaves!

English was my favourite subject at school and, when I was taught, we were given space to write poems and stories on all sorts of topics. Unlike maths, where there was always only one right answer, English offered a whole spectrum of possibilities. Much more my cup of tea! As a competitive child, I always wanted to pick up as many ticks, or stars, or house points as possible and in this subject I could do that. Don’t ask too many questions about the maths…

3. Are you planning to do any school visits?

Yes, I am. I’m going to go back to a primary school in Wiltshire where I worked for a couple of years. I’m looking forward to seeing some of the staff who are still there and working with the children too.

I remember that having a visitor to school was always a treat. I’ll be reading one of the stories to a couple of year groups and then we’ll do some activities in smaller groups to stimulate using their imaginations. We may get to write some things down, but I want to focus on the elements that make a good story and encourage them to explore ways of prioritising those.

A big THANK YOU to Jenny for writing these stories for us,

With love from a fellow writer who loves great stories of any kind.

****

THINGS YOU MIGHT WANT TO KNOW

More info about The Magnificent Moustache and other stories

Published by: The Conrad Press

ISBN number: 9781914913853

Available as an e-book or as a paperback.

May be purchased on Amazon or order at all good bookshops.

Signed copies are available from Jenny Sanders directly for £9 +p&p

Contact details:

Facebook: Jenny Sanders – writer https://www.facebook.com/dancingthroughchaos/?ref=pages_you_manage

Instagram: @jennysanderswriter https://www.instagram.com/jennysanderswriter/

Blog: Dancing Through Chaos https://dancingthroughchaos.wordpress.com/about

Twitter: @jennyhsanders

There was a film showing before the Big Event. The only thing I remember vividly is that it was about a circus and a man doing stunt dives had to climb to the top platform and dive into a small pool. The end was tragic and traumatic because he died in his attempt. The lights came up and my mum found my brother and me sobbing piteously. It was no good Mum saying it was just a story, and don’t take on so.. To us it was all very real. I wonder if my brother remembers it as clearly as I do? Must ask him.

The coronation film itself was in colour, quite unusual I think in those days. I’m sure it was stunningly beautiful and massively impressive, but some memories blur and fade with time.

I do remember the coronation propelling pencil each child received at primary school. It was red and had a shiny gold crown on top. I still have mine in my Box of Important Treasures.

In some small way we were and are all part of history, whatever our ages. And as writers we help to foster the imaginations of each new generation as they grow up. To me that’s quite a WOW! thought, too.

Keep writing, everyone!

The fun starts here…

The writer has to catch the attention of her readers with more than a simple description of the white flowers. She has to guide them along the ancient flagstone path, to draw their eyes to the smoothness and the ragged unevenness of the stones bordering that path. She has to choose her words carefully. Will she suggest the fresh green of the grass and the darker shade of the foliage? Will she point out the orange lichen on the old granite wall, the shadows on the house? Is this a place of mystery or one of courage and love?

Ideas may be easy or hard to come by, but they are just the start. It’s the clever use of words which bring them to life, involving hours of trial and error. But every word, every paragraph, every completed page, are stepping stones in our growth, both as writers and as people.

Writers usually have something to teach other writers who read their work.

From page one the writer grips the reader. There’s no let-up until the very end.

I looked the author up online, and found that JP is already a well-established author, who writes different kinds of books under different names.

Here’s something I read on PJ’s website that I want to keep reminding myself:

‘My relationship with the reader is always fundamentally the same. I never forget that I’m inviting them to come with me on a journey, and that as their host and guide it’s my duty to enthral them.’

Go to the ant, you sluggard…

In 2012 I took this photograph of a line of leafcutter ants in a Costa Rican jungle. I had no idea what exactly they were doing, why they were doing it, or where they were heading. There they were, purposefully carrying a weighty piece of leaf they had chomped off with their jaws. Did they carry these home like carpet samples, planning to make their colony cosy? Did they feast merrily on them, asking if anyone else had noticed the enormous two-legged strangers in the vicinity today? I don’t remember what our guide told us about these remarkable insects. What I do know is that I thought they were amazing.

Almost ten years later, in January 2022, I watched a TV programme called The Green Planet, where David Attenborough showed us a trail of ants, bringing leaf bits home for an enormous fungus which provides safety and nourishment for tiny baby ants. Without politicians and without the power of speech, the ants run a highly organised society where every individual has a place and a usefulness. Large fellows are defenders of the colony; smaller beings are caretakers of the young. Adventurous types are foragers and leafcutters. Even miniscule ants have a role. They ride on the backs of larger workers and defend them from carnivorous flies looking for a tasty meal. Everyone is valued. Figuratively speaking, no-one has to sit outside the Co-op and beg. No-one has to go without a meal because they’re too poor to eat.

Especially important is this. Ants don’t ask questions or seek answers.

Go to the ant you sluggard,
    consider its ways and be wise!

Proverbs 6

I ask myself, what is it God is saying to me personally here? Or to anyone working hard to do their best and to look after their family in a world plagued by turmoil, terrorism and hate?

Is your first instinct the same as mine, to feel a bit upset, to want to say, just a little resentfully, ‘Hey God, I’m not a sluggard,’ and sigh pitifully to make the point.

But then I think, OK, God knows I’m not lazy, and so what is He saying?

He’s telling me to wake up my brain, to rouse myself from complacency.

Go to the ant. Look at the ant. Observe the ant.

So let’s turn to the lowly and mighty leafcutter ants and ask ourselves what we can learn, because they actually do something we as people have only partially mastered. They look after their own, however large the colony grows. Everyone is fed. Everyone is contributing. Everyone has a value.

No-one is more important than anybody else. No-one is less than anybody else.

We humans must remain alert, and refuse to let our minds coast towards sluggardliness, towards accepting all things as they are, towards sinking into the belief that we can’t do anything about so many injustices in God’s beautiful world. As individuals we can do tiny things, and together we will make a difference in the world.