Inspiration

Tattoos

josephinetalepeddler 2 Comments

Looking at this wonderful photo of Johnny Depp, which as usual I’ve swiped from the fab site Depp Impact, I’m very taken with not only his dapper vest (love a man in a vest) but his body art. I already have two tattoos – a Caduceus on my upper left back representing writing, printing, healing and on my left leg a daisy for when my flower was born. Since my father’s death, I’ve been toying with the idea of engraving a blue butterfly on my left writing arm as a symbol of transmutation, transformation, celebration, death and new life. Enjoy your weekend. I hope it is filled with blessings and beauty and thank you for visiting me. Here’s some lovely Handel, a piece my father always loved.

ALL GREAT SHIPS MUST COME TO PORT

josephinetalepeddler 34 Comments

My father died on the 4th of this November. By some strange coincidence a character in Poet’s Cottage dies at the same time. I’m not surprised because the creation of Poet’s Cottage and my father’s own journey with his cancer ran parallel lines at times. Even as I sat at his deathbed holding his hand, I was checking final proofs. My father, who supported my writing so much, would have approved.

My father was a huge inspiration on my writing and shared my love of words and nature. 

My most grateful thanks to all the Gibson Ward in South Hobart Nursing Staff, Dr Robert McIntosh and Millington Funeral Home for their loving care.

I know my father’s spirit survived his physical death. I will always look for signs from him and have had a couple already including the most remarkable dream of a blue butterfly the night following his passing.

On the 8th of November, four nights after my father’s death, I woke at 3.28 am and wrote the following lines in my journal.

Communion, time for communion, the moon is waxing. Full, round and glowing. Like bones or the eye of a benevolent god. All ships must come to port. I am not afraid. For you are here. The moon outside the window is whispering not the end of the tale but the beginning. Singing the ancient lullaby to ensure a smooth and sacred passage over uncharted waters to the land of the ancestors and the eye of the moon. I do not sleep. I think of all the great ships who must come to port, the first and last breath and the sweet moments in between. Between the bones, the rigging, lies sacred flesh, a will to live and a blackbird drinking in a birdbath. It is 3.28 am. My father at 4 am took his last breath and swallowed the luminous moon.

Thank you to all the kind people who sent me emails and love and my friends who realised where I had disappeared to. Thank you to Pan Macmillan for support and of course my wonderful agent, Selwa Anthony. It meant a lot to my family that my father was so happy with all the good news surrounding Poet’s Cottage and my other book being picked up before he died.

There are no goodbyes between my father and myself. At the same time, I feel shattered and grief-stricken and thankful that I am checking the proofs of Poet’s Cottage. Words, stories, books have always been my refuge. I will hide myself away in the writing shed and hope my heart will start to beat a little stronger as the days pass.

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with a passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, — I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! — and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Grief like Babushka Dolls

josephinetalepeddler 9 Comments

October is my favourite month. The dreaded humidity hasn’t kicked in yet in Sydney. Although, alarmingly there are early bushfires in the Blue Mountains. I love the pause before Christmas, and all the excitement of my daughter as she prepares for Halloween. As a child I had always wished we celebrated the American custom of Halloween and my daughter loves dressing up in spooky clothes and this year has begged me to adorn the front of the house with skeletons and spiders. My daughter is dressing as a pink vampire for Halloween night.

Inspiration Board for the Currawong book. My new mystery novel

 I’ve made an inspiration board for my Currawong book. This helps me to try to focus back into my novel after submerging myself into the world of Poet’s Cottage. I did also join Pinterest but haven’t yet found time to do any online inspiration boards although it looks wonderfully amazing and fun there. I only have such little time for online activities and what with Blogging, Facebook. Twitter and Good Reads, it does get quite overwhelming.

 At times I need to step back, meditate, read poetry, observe nature and try to find inspiration in the natural world around me. I’m seeking balance at the moment.

Inside each doll a tear, a fear, a stone a bone

 On Sunday I will fly solo to Tasmania to visit my father. Some of you may know my dad has been battling a very aggressive cancer for the last five years. When I finished the copy edit for Poet’s Cottage, the cancer finally attached its tentacles into his liver.

We had already booked to go to Tasmania for a family Christmas but I feel most strongly to travel down now.

If you have had to witness a loved one battle cancer or any progressive illness you will understand when I say how the sadness is like inverted Babushka dolls. Just when you think the grief, shock, anger, depression is abating, you open the doll and there’s another bigger layer to deal with.

Love to pink witches everywhere

 It’s been so hot in Sydney. I’m relieved for the day today which is grey, cool and drizzling. And October is also my birthday month. I’m so pleased to celebrate another year of life and to honour the ancestors as I do so. In the dawn park where I run I watched with awe as a Bottlebrush tree was transformed into a shimmering jewel as a dozen rainbow parrots enjoyed their nectar breakfast. With every birthday, it is the simple things I treasure the most. Birds, sky, trees and breath.

Anything can happen

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David walked out of the door today, on his way to Pan Macmillan, carrying my heart in a hessian bag. Where on earth did September go? To me, it was a blur of rising at 4 and 5am to try to get a few hours of my copy-edit in before Daisy woke.

Finally the copyedit is finished. Check out all those post-it notes!

I loved working on the book so intensely in the last month. Clara Finlay, the editor really pulled me upside down, inside out and shook that book as hard as she could shake – but she was wonderful. I may never meet Clara Finlay, but I feel as if I know her. I felt her over my shoulder the entire time as we went line-by-line, date by date, fact-by-fact, character tone by character tone. We pondered together house-ownership problems and why I’m so obsessed with dentists that I felt the need to include so many in Poet’s Cottage. David said I should have named the book Poet’s Teeth. I do seem to have rather a thing for them, it’s true. And another mystery to me is – why I felt the need for so many people with the surname of Brown in a 100, 0000 word manuscript.

But I’m convinced I am a better writer for this edit. I have vowed never again will I write without having a very detailed plan of my house in both time periods and also meticulous time charts for every character.

I have quite a few blog posts I want to share coming up, including my annual agent’s author event. But I’ve been up since past 1am doing last-minute checks to the manuscript so David could hand deliver it to Pan Macmillan in their city office.

David Levell and Josephine Pennicott take a holiday at The Captain's Cottage

And just as the copy-edit is over, the beautiful Captain’s Cottage in Stanley where my family and I stayed several times whilst I worked on Poet’s Cottage is up for sale. It was in the Australian paper on the weekend. Here are a couple of shots of us at the cottage, relaxing and happy. I wish I had the money to buy it. I have so many happy memories of that house and our trips to Stanley.

Daisy and Josephine Pennicott outside The Captain's Cottage Stanley

Here are also a couple of random shots of my garden which is starting to come alive. These were taken right outside my garden writing shed. My David Austins are taking off as well, so thrilled with my tiny garden.

I am enormously weary but filled with great joy and relief.

Daisy getting married in the Spring garden

And one of the most magic moments in September was seeing Mary Poppins swoop slowly towards me at the historical Capitol Theatre in Sydney. This is the most beautiful theatre to see any show in. Years ago, David and I saw Blondie play the Capitol. The image below is taken from their  website.

Around me were the cheers and screams of the excited crowd as she slowly glided through the air of the darkened auditorium. Mary Poppins and I looked at each other and she was as touched and as thrilled by the magic as we were. My daughter was screaming beside me, ‘That’s real magic!’

After Miss Marple, and Jane Eyre, Mary Poppins is one of my favourite characters in fiction.

Now I have to clean my very dusty, brick house and go back to the next book. 

Thanks for visiting me. xx  


Copyedit

josephinetalepeddler 11 Comments
Even a confirmed Winter lover as myself has to admit I’m enjoying the Spring weather and light in Sydney at the moment. Here is where I am every day in my writing shed.
 
Yes, we finally have the wall paper up and I love being in there amongst the birds and butterflies. It’s just lovely to work in the garden next to our big old tea-tree and palms and feel as though I’m amongst pink birds and butterflies. Birds and butterflies represent the soul to me and so it’s a great paper for a creative writing shed where we do our soul work. Just this morning, the most beautiful bird with a yellow breast came right to the window to peep at me. It’s magical in my shed! 
 
Over the next month or so we shall be doing more work on the shed to try to create a lovely as space as possible for both our books. My husband is also a writer and so we have to share which we’re good at. Luckily, he is used to my girliness and has long given up fighting I think he was just relieved the paper is duck-egg blue and not pink!  I’m looking forward to installing the fairy lights, adding some pretties and growing some roses out the front but first of all I have to cull all the paperwork we’ve collected over the years between us! And at the moment, I’m head down on my copyedit for Pan Macmillan and so things may be quiet on the blog for a couple of week to ensure I reach my deadline in time. All my editors from Pan Macmillan have been so brilliant and it’s a joy to work with them. Because I was nearly 60 000 words into my Currawong book it was a wrench to return to Poet’s Cottage again but I’m loving revisiting the characters and hopefully adding a bit more to the MS as this is one of the last chances I get before publication.
 
And I’ve been so busy lately doing loads of arty things. We saw the Pre-Raphaelite exhibition on drawing at the AGNSW which I loved. Both David and myself have a big soft for the PRB and it was a treat to see a few of Elizabeth Siddal’s works in this show.
 
I saw Jane Eyre at the cinema with my friend Artschool Annie. How brilliant was Mia Wasikowska as Jane? Divine casting and I loved this movie version so much I’m going to try to see it twice.
 
The Tasmanian-looking landscape really made me long for my home state, Thornfield, is my idea of the perfect house and unlike my pervious post on Underbelly Razor, this is a house that actually looks lived in and of the time.
 
 I also really enjoyed.Michael Fassbender as Rochester. A really sublime movie.  I think Jane Eyre is such an inspiration for her nobleness, stoic determination and strength. 
I hope my daughter loves this book as much as her parents as I think Jane’s a great role-model for young women in today’s climate with the sexualisation of females. Jane doesn’t use her looks to get ahead in life. And Rochester still prefers her to the prettier Blanche Ingram. It’s a tale of hope and as Spring is a season of hope it’s a perfect time to catch this movie.
 
I also saw Lakme at the Sydney Opera house with the amazing Emma Mathews. This opera was a treat with the divine Emma singing the Duet of the Flowers.
 
And David and I saw The Mousetrap at this incredible theatre, The Genesian in the heart of Sydney. We originally saw The Mousetrap in the West End in London which was a dream come true for me. But even though this was an amateur production, it was really enjoyable and well done.
 
This weekend, I have my agent, Selwa Anthony’s annual bash which is always a very grand and inspiring affair. During the day there are author and publishing  talks and at night a formal dinner and award ceremony.  We are looking forward to attending the Sassies and hopefully, I’ll have time to pop back and do a post about it when I reach my deadline.
 
Enjoy September and I hope that butterflies and pink birds are fluttering in your soul. Keep Inspired and Keep creative.
And because it’s Spring. Here’s a couple of images from the latest issue of Country Style.
 
 
 I always love their Spring Issues.  
    

Good News Monday

josephinetalepeddler 3 Comments

Good news for the start of the week. 

First, and most important, it was wonderful to read in the weekend papers that the killer of Sunshine Coast schoolboy Daniel Morcombe was finally apprehended. Although this is not a happy ending obviously for his grieving family and friends, at least they have the consolation that justice will now be served. I followed this case along with many around Australia with interest and feel great pride in both the investigating officers, the public who supported the search and most of all – the amazing family who kept the search for Daniel going. A darling, beautiful boy – rest in peace, Daniel.

I’ve finally reached the 50,000 word mark on my Currawong book and so I can treat myself again. Hurray! Yes, it’s a really rough first draft but it’s there for me to work with. I also have a spot of good news from my agent which I shall post here as soon as I get the go-ahead.

For those who were curious about what I treated myself with last time I reached the 25000 word mark, this is it – a lovely book by Fleur Wood which combines cooking with some vintage-inspired images of super-cool people enjoying their food in style. It’s a lovely book to dip into and enjoy the images. This 50 000 mark, I shall have to treat myself with shoes.

 Keep Inspired and Creative. Thank you for visiting me. xx