I must explore the phenomenon of Taylor Swift - it seems to have passed me by so far. A friend took her daughter to the Melbourne concert (flying from Brisbane where she lives) and then went to the Brisbane concert, too, yet I barely recognise any of her songs
My daughter filled our house and begged to go to the concert and I'm so glad. It's been really fun to listen to her music and see a little of the phenomenon!
I wish I could remember where I read this, but one of the best explanations of why Taylor Swift is truly adored by so many age groups was something to the effect of "she makes girls feel seen and women feel remembered." And I thought yes, there's something to that.
Alice, I love your comments about Taylor Swift - and omg - 3.5 hours of hard work, that because it is something she loves doing, isn't hard at all for her to do, or for her listeners to hear!
Not that listening to songs/music is ever difficult to me. I have been doing deep cleaning of my 5 yr old house (it's not new any longer!) over the last few weeks and listening to my party music while I worked.
And in the back of my mind, as I listened to fabulous 60s/70s/80s music (and some new discoveries through my daughter) I thought of the magic that these artists have left as their legacy to the world.
Then I wondered what I will have left when it is my turn to depart (at 73 I'm here for another couple of decades at least!) and I thought of my book, Dream Sisters, and I thought of my children/grandchildren, and then a friend said that my smile was my legacy to the world! Wasn't that lovely!
A comment on the book club - it takes time to get the book from the library if they have it, so maybe let us know what the next book will be and maybe the library will have it. Then it takes time to read it!
After finishing The Salt Path I got the next one, The Wild Path, and have just finished it. I made note of this paragraph in the last chapter.
"Don't 'be careful on the stairs', run up them, run as fast as you can, with no fear of clocks ticking or time passing. Nothing can be measured in time, only change, and change is always within our grasp, always simply a matter of choice."
(I am going to the library this morning to get her next book, The Landlines.)
And this coming year, there is going to be a change! I am going to conquer my fear of the unknown, and work out how to write my own Substack - and not just write comments on Alice's Substack!
(However, in November's Children's Book Insider, you, Alice, had an article on how to do it, so I will read that! And then do it!)
Have a wonderful restful holiday season wherever you are, Northern or Southern Hemisphere. It is developing into a warm summer here in New Zealand.
I love this quotation so much: "Don't 'be careful on the stairs', run up them, run as fast as you can, with no fear of clocks ticking or time passing. Nothing can be measured in time, only change, and change is always within our grasp, always simply a matter of choice." And I love that you're reading her other work. It's a very good idea that you have here for me to line up the next books so that you can get them ready. I'll think about how best to share that information.
Thank you, Justine, for sharing the quotation and your words. I'm so glad you'll be writing your own Substack. You write beautifully. All year, slowly, I've been reading The Swedish Art of Death Cleaning which is about a deep clean of the house for any age and stage, really letting go, and I love that you have party music on while you work on setting your home up for the next season. The writing, reading, change season?
I hope you like the article in CBI and it gives you useful tips. Do ask anything at any time and I'll be happy to try to help!
Oh so funny that you have been reading The Swedish Art of Death Cleaning. One of my spiritual group shared that this was her latest book which she was loving!
There is also a tv series based, I think, in Canada, of a team of Swedes going to families who need help doing this.
And that is what I have been doing for the past 3 weeks without specifically doing so - when I get on a roll I can be very ruthless! When my mum died, she left soooooo much stuff for us to sort, so I am making sure that the same thing won't happen to my kids. Little and often also works - we don't all have long periods of time when we can focus solely on cleaning, sorting, chucking!
I am sure there is also a quote somewhere about this, but I love the joke - How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!
And the next season - who knows? Might be a different style of writing, not so much fiction, but substack stuff :-)
Yann's parents have a huge amount of stuff to be sorted and it has made us think a bit about how to manage it all. E.B. White has a wonderful essay on how stuff clings which resonates, too, although I can't find the reference I want for you now! (In all the stuff!)
It IS so hard to make people feel. Us writers try to do it with our words. That’s a privilege. And work.
Yes! Exactly this 💕
I must explore the phenomenon of Taylor Swift - it seems to have passed me by so far. A friend took her daughter to the Melbourne concert (flying from Brisbane where she lives) and then went to the Brisbane concert, too, yet I barely recognise any of her songs
My daughter filled our house and begged to go to the concert and I'm so glad. It's been really fun to listen to her music and see a little of the phenomenon!
I wish I could remember where I read this, but one of the best explanations of why Taylor Swift is truly adored by so many age groups was something to the effect of "she makes girls feel seen and women feel remembered." And I thought yes, there's something to that.
Yes! I think that's very true. She's has a remarkable talent to share her own life and make women and girls feel like she's describing their lives.
Alice, I love your comments about Taylor Swift - and omg - 3.5 hours of hard work, that because it is something she loves doing, isn't hard at all for her to do, or for her listeners to hear!
Not that listening to songs/music is ever difficult to me. I have been doing deep cleaning of my 5 yr old house (it's not new any longer!) over the last few weeks and listening to my party music while I worked.
And in the back of my mind, as I listened to fabulous 60s/70s/80s music (and some new discoveries through my daughter) I thought of the magic that these artists have left as their legacy to the world.
Then I wondered what I will have left when it is my turn to depart (at 73 I'm here for another couple of decades at least!) and I thought of my book, Dream Sisters, and I thought of my children/grandchildren, and then a friend said that my smile was my legacy to the world! Wasn't that lovely!
A comment on the book club - it takes time to get the book from the library if they have it, so maybe let us know what the next book will be and maybe the library will have it. Then it takes time to read it!
After finishing The Salt Path I got the next one, The Wild Path, and have just finished it. I made note of this paragraph in the last chapter.
"Don't 'be careful on the stairs', run up them, run as fast as you can, with no fear of clocks ticking or time passing. Nothing can be measured in time, only change, and change is always within our grasp, always simply a matter of choice."
(I am going to the library this morning to get her next book, The Landlines.)
And this coming year, there is going to be a change! I am going to conquer my fear of the unknown, and work out how to write my own Substack - and not just write comments on Alice's Substack!
(However, in November's Children's Book Insider, you, Alice, had an article on how to do it, so I will read that! And then do it!)
Have a wonderful restful holiday season wherever you are, Northern or Southern Hemisphere. It is developing into a warm summer here in New Zealand.
XXX
I love this quotation so much: "Don't 'be careful on the stairs', run up them, run as fast as you can, with no fear of clocks ticking or time passing. Nothing can be measured in time, only change, and change is always within our grasp, always simply a matter of choice." And I love that you're reading her other work. It's a very good idea that you have here for me to line up the next books so that you can get them ready. I'll think about how best to share that information.
Thank you, Justine, for sharing the quotation and your words. I'm so glad you'll be writing your own Substack. You write beautifully. All year, slowly, I've been reading The Swedish Art of Death Cleaning which is about a deep clean of the house for any age and stage, really letting go, and I love that you have party music on while you work on setting your home up for the next season. The writing, reading, change season?
I hope you like the article in CBI and it gives you useful tips. Do ask anything at any time and I'll be happy to try to help!
Oh so funny that you have been reading The Swedish Art of Death Cleaning. One of my spiritual group shared that this was her latest book which she was loving!
There is also a tv series based, I think, in Canada, of a team of Swedes going to families who need help doing this.
And that is what I have been doing for the past 3 weeks without specifically doing so - when I get on a roll I can be very ruthless! When my mum died, she left soooooo much stuff for us to sort, so I am making sure that the same thing won't happen to my kids. Little and often also works - we don't all have long periods of time when we can focus solely on cleaning, sorting, chucking!
I am sure there is also a quote somewhere about this, but I love the joke - How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!
And the next season - who knows? Might be a different style of writing, not so much fiction, but substack stuff :-)
And thank you, I will reach out to you if I need.
Yann's parents have a huge amount of stuff to be sorted and it has made us think a bit about how to manage it all. E.B. White has a wonderful essay on how stuff clings which resonates, too, although I can't find the reference I want for you now! (In all the stuff!)