Marigold Productions
4641 Margaret Street V9Y6H1 Port Alberni, BC, Canada

Marigold Productions has a new book about a thirteen year old girl who is babysitting her little sister. I wrote this book many years ago for one of my grandchildren (the goal was to write a book for each of them but so far I haven't got there). The story was lost for five years and then found again on an old decrepit computer. The writing amazed me and I thought it should be published even though my granddaughter is now a grown woman. However, she still wants it and now ...it is at the printers. I went to listen to a publisher speak and he asked two questions I hadn't considered. Why are you writing this book? What is it's purpose? I hadn't a clue. Then, the book designer asked me to write a blurb for the back of the book. It was supposed to be written to catch the eye of a parent or a teacher who wanted to get an idea of what the book contained before getting it for their child. Once again I was faced with questions I needed to resolve but wasn't sure I could. This is what I wrote: "When finding the most precious rose in her mother's garden became a prerequisite for saving baby Polly from an awful fate her sister, Regan, needs to know what would make one precious? Is it colour, scent, size, rarity or none of these? Regan has no idea. When she finds one that is never touched by human hands but only by the hand of God, she thinks she has a winner. This book teaches the importance of RESPONSIBILITY, the magic of KNOWLEDGE, the WISDOM of thinking outside the box and the JOY of completing a task. It relies on the BELIEF of a child."

Do you want to write a funny novel? What you need to know is that you write the story in the same way as a straight piece except that it is blown out of proportion. There is one tale that was actually made into a movie and it is a laugh a minute. It starts out with a man being released from prison after an eight year stint. He has a long, fourteen year, rap sheet for robbing banks but now he is determined to live a normal life. They give him a new suit and a cheque for $1,...700 which equates to five cents an hour for work he's done at the prison. They tell him not to come back but they're joking, right? The first person he meets outside is the cop who put him away. He only came to meet him to tell him he will put him away for longer next time, which he expects will happen sooner than later The ex-con makes him a bet that it won't happen again and he hitches a ride to the bank with the cop and his partner in the police car. He starts to cash his cheque and the bank gets robbed by the most unlikely and inept robber you've ever seen (talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time). He is taken hostage by the robber, who accidentally shoots him in the leg. The police who have gone for a burger and a coke hear about the robbery on the car radio in an 'is-my-face-red' moment and are convinced that the ex-con is involved in the robbery with a partner and the chase is on. The bank robber takes the ex-con to a friend for help. This guy is a vet and is as crazy as a bedbug. He thinks the man is a dog but takes the bullet out anyway. Do you see what you can do with your imagination? If the ex-con had cashed his cheque and gone on with his life, there would be no story. If the doctor who took the bullet out had been a general practitioner in his right mind, there would be no room for laughs. Here's what you do. Write a story straight (although boring) of the life of your main character for one or two days. Then go back to it and change the perfectly normal people he runs into and make them incredibly weird and see what you get. If nothing else, this is good practice.

Writing a novel is like living a life. It has to have a beginning, a middle and an end. So, now I sound like the teacher you had in English 101. Some of you survived that course, some didn't but in any case, the teacher was correct in what she said. Where you start in the story is important. It should be at a point of decision or uproar or tension in which the main character is thrust into something and will come out with a new direction mapped out for his life. Without ...conflict, in a life or a story, nothing happens. Most writers start at the wrong place and go on for chapter after chapter trying to give you a back-story so you will understand this character and what motivates him. The writer wants you to kije this character. This is a mistake on the part of the writer and what it does is bore the reader into putting the book down. Right at the outset, the reader must be involved in the catalyst that changed the character's life. An example would be the quiet cowboy who's family is killed, his house is burned to the ground and everything he held dear is gone. His life and his story becomes a hunt for the killers. His aim, revenge. The fact that he was kind to animals or loved his mother can be interspersed in the text as you go along. As you, the reader get to know the man, his trials and the way he overcomes them endear him to you. You want him to catch the bad guys. You want him to be a winner. The story builds from this point forward in an ever spiralling conflict, each one greater than the last. You wonder how your guy can survive all this and you keep reading to find out. Somewhere in the middle, something horrific happens. Everything you have read to this point has come to a life or death point with the death of the main character looking to be as certain as tomorrow's sunrise. Just like the cavalry always arrives at the last possible moment or an eclipse happens and the bright day turns as dark as night, or a prairie fire turns the land into flame, something happens to save the day. This is usually something from what has occurred back in the story and filled with tremendous relief, you find yourself paging backwards for the clues you were given but missed taking in. The end of the story follows quickly after the crisis point and it is a time when all the loose ends are explained and tied up in a tidy package that leaves you with a good feeling and an approval rating for both the character and the book. The character might have found a new life, a new love, or he might just ride off into the sunset. Either way, the conflict and the story are finished.

Next time you meet someone, try not to make a snap judgement about them. All too often we make a 'gut decision' on a person that is based on nothing more than our own fears, emotions, mental state, likes and dislikes without knowing anything about the person in question beyond the unfortunate chance meeting with us on that particular day. Today I watched the movie 'Beauty and the Beast' and in the movie, Belle sings something that resonated with me. She had already formed... an instant dislike and a harsh decision on the beast from his looks, his manner, his anger, the rough image he presented and the dismissing way he reacted to her. As she got to know him though, she discovered he had hidden attributes; he was kind and gentle and was carrying baggage (as we all do) from childhood experiences. He had people around him that loved him and spoke up on his behalf. He had a huge library of books and, to her astonishment, was well read. In the end, he put her own interests before his own and Belle found her opinion of him had changed. "I saw something more," she sings. Next time you meet a stranger, remember Belle and her experience with the beast. How much better it would be to take a 'wait and see' attitude before you rush to judgement and decide the person's fate in your life on a moment's acquaintance. Perhaps, instead of a brush off or a dismissal, friendshp will be the outcome or even romance the way it did with Belle. You might see something more!

A promise is a serious thing. It is something that is given because it is heartfelt but it can be hard to deliver and sometimes it is impossible to achieve because the promise is beyond the person's current capability, however well meant it was. It is better to accept a person's best attempt than to force them into misery because they cannot deliver something that you want whether that be a payment on a debt, an action you need to happen or even a change in someone else's at...titude. Nobody is in a position to make themselves judge, jury and executioner over another's life. It is what it is and acceptance or rejection are the only two choices that we can make in regard to another bearing in mind that while we are busy judging them, there is no doubt that we are being judged also by someone else. A promise made and not kept can only worsen your situation. The only person you can safely make a promise to is yourself and do that in a quiet place in the corner of your mind but first promise that you will not beat yourself up about it, if you fail. Put yourself on notice that you are about to make an attempt. It is not a sure thing. It is not set in stone. It is something you want very much, something you will move toward achieving, something that is not going to happen overnight or even ever. Notice the words 'something you will move toward'. That is the most important statement when making a promise to yourself. You can't reach the end goal without doing a bit of running first. You can't cover the entire field in one attempt, you can only gain mere yards. Even if it is only an inch or two, you are moving forward which is an excellent thing. Begin with one small step; something easy, something you know you can accomplish, something that will give you a happy feeling when you get there. You will feel braver when you figure out the next step and your confidence will build with every other step you take and before you know it, you will stand tall at the goal line.

Dreams are wonderful things. They are expressions pf hidden desires, secret wishes, beautiful ideas picked up by our conscious minds. The thing about dreams though is they can create dissatisfaction with the real world. 'Living in your dreams' as they say, can let you lose sight of the great things you have going for you. My suggestion is to start a 'want' book. Write down in black and white what it is you want in your life. Draw illustrations, if you want to, or paste i...n pictures, just so your brain gets the right impression and doesn't manage to come up with a distorted view or some cockamaney thing for you that is almost there but skewed and undesirable. Hit all the bases while you are doing this. Even if it runs to twenty pages (or more) that's okay. You need to address every issue; family, home, holidays, belongings, finance, workplace, etc. Write everything down that pertains to your perfect life. Then put the book away and let your brain figure it out for a couple of weeks. Next, take the book out again and read what you've written and then write down three steps for each item on ideas how to reach that goal. You will be amazed to find that what you possess right now has brought you halfway to your dream life. Yes, the world you are in is a bit smaller, a tad less glamorous, a smidgen off the mark than what you have envisioned but it has a familiar look about it and just needs to be tweaked a bit to bring it up to par. You might have to take some classes, get a better job, work out a budget but you have moved from a 'never' situation to a 'someday soon' one. And, hey, this is your life we are talking about!