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Last Wednesday morning I woke, probably like you, to the news of the huge earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand. I felt so very sad and wished there was something I could do to help. Something more personal than donating to the Red Cross, something more than emailing and tweeting friends to check they were ok and to let them know I was thinking of them.
I was soon in touch with Bronwyn, a resident in Christchurch and long time follower and supporter of Playing by the book. Fortunately she and her family are unhurt. Although their house is damaged they live in a district that has not been as badly affected as other parts of the city. I wanted to send her something as a small token of solidarity, care and hope, but as we tweeted a bigger idea emerged.
Many families in Christchurch have had their homes destroyed and badly damaged. They’ve lost everything, including books. I know I’m preaching to the converted when I talk about the comfort and solace books can provide, especially in times of stress and despair, but now I want to ask you if you would like to take part in something that will help provide exactly this: An opportunity for you to personally help families affected by the earthquake.
Bronwyn and I are gathering a list of families who are in need of books. Many of these families are homeschoolers, though certainly not all. What we are asking is for you to reach out to these families and send them a book or two. A new children’s book, a book you and your family love, a book that the family you’re paired with might enjoy, might make them laugh, might make them feel that people, you, are thinking of them and supporting them.
So, if you would like to reach out to a Christchurch family please get in touch and Bronwyn and I will team you up with a partner family. Send me an email (zoe dot toft at kuvik dot net) saying you’d like to help and we’ll take it from there.
Some practical nuts and bolts:
Normal postal services are not yet working in Christchurch, though some courier services are. Many families have now moved out of Christchurch and so the address you will be sent may not be a Christchurch address. Indeed, we do not wish to stretch further the services that are up and running. If you are teamed up with a family still living in Christchuch, please use a courier to send your book and let me know which courier service you use so I can inform the family you’ve been teamed up with (they may need to go to the courier depot at the airport to collect your parcel).
Please only send NEW children’s and YA books. We will let you know the ages of the children in the family you are paired up with in order to help you select books that they will enjoy.
Please do not expect the family you are paired up with to reply to you. They may well write back, but this is not to be expected. This scheme is not about setting up penpals, but rather helping families at a time of need.
***********************
I’m also helping Bronwyn gather books to distribute to welfare centres for displaced resident across Christchurch. We’re both thrilled that Julia Marshall, publisher at Gecko Press has very generously offered to send a parcel of books for Bronwyn to distribute. Gecko Press produces wonderful books and I know they will be hugely appreciated by their recipients.
Whilst investigating in w
By: Maryann Yin,
on 1/12/2011
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Actor Elijah Wood will return to Middle Earth in the two-part film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien‘s The Hobbit.
Deadline New York reported: “Wood is confirmed to star in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit to be shot in New Zealand. In addition, he has signed on to play ‘Ben Gunn’ in Stewart Harcourt’s adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island along side Eddie Izzard.”
Besides Wood (pictured, via), other castmates returning from Lord of the Rings include: Cate Blanchett as Galadriel, Sir Ian McKellen as Gandalf, and Andy Serkis as Gollum. At the moment, Orlando Bloom is rumored to be considering his return as Legolas.
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By: Maryann Yin,
on 10/25/2010
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New Zealand activists are fighting to keep filming for the upcoming The Hobbit adaptation in that country, the same place where Peter Jackson filmed the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy. According to these passionate protesters, “New Zealand is Middle Earth.”
The Guardian reports that Warner Bros. executives will decide this week if the shoot will be in New Zealand. Prime Minister John Keys will personally oversee the negotiations, hoping that producers will make a decision in his country’s favor.
The article adds: “A dispute over pay and conditions led producers to hint that they might move filming to another country. Carrying banners proclaiming ‘New Zealand is Middle Earth’ and ‘We Love Hobbits,’ a reported 2-3,000 people gathered in New Zealand’s capital, Wellington, and other cities such as Auckland and Christchurch in advance of a visit by executives from the studio Warner Bros.”
continued…
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
posted by Neil
I loved Moscow, except for the traffic. The people were wonderful, my publisher was bemused and delighted that hundreds of people showed up for every signing, talk and event. I want to come back.
I'm writing this in the Aeroflot First Class lounge. It has luxurious seats and fast wifi and absolutely bugger all else in the way of nice things for international passengers. This has cheered me up immensely: I'd asked to fly Aeroflot because I'd heard so many horror stories from people who had flown it, and always felt vaguely left out. And even though I am doing this leg on my publisher's dime and am thus doing international business class, which probably spoils the point of it, I thought I should definitely go Aeroflot.
and the lovely photograph I mention at the end is at
It's 10:06 am and the men next to me are doing vodka shots.
I did more Vodka shots in the last three days than in the previous lifetime. Mostly because my Russian hosts were convinced that it was the cure for the flu-cold-thing I arrived with from Poland. I suspect that they would also have pitched Vodka as a cure for anything else I had arrived with, including broken limbs, heartbreak or psoriasis.
(Last night was Horseradish Vodka at a Russian Restaurant, which was guaranteed to clear my chest and sinuses. And it may well have done.)
For the record, the very best potato latkes I've ever had were in Poland.
I'm putting up the blog-translators photos here (one of me, one of me and them) to say thanks. This blog is intermittently translated into lots of different languages, always by volunteers, and I'm always grateful.
0 Comments on Another Post From The Eternal Transit Lounge of the Soul as of 1/1/1900
posted by Neil
Not a proper blog -- just a wave. The NZ arts festival was great, everyone was so nice (I saw Guillermo Del Toro and I was shown around the amazingness of WETA
and they gave me a Dalek! -- it's
this one -- and I spent time with Audrey Niffenegger and with
Margo Lanagan and Margo's partner Stephen and did a talk with Margo during a tornado and read a new poem at the Town Hall and signed and signed and signed and signed) and now I'm taking a day off now with Amanda:
Hera is looking after us. Tomorrow I head off to Manila for two days, while she plays gigs in Christchurch and Auckland and flies to Melbourne to do a TV thing. Then we meet on Friday at midnight in Poland, spend a couple of days together there while she plays a festival in Wroclaw and I sign in Warsaw, and then she flies to the US to begin Evelyn Evelyn rehearsals and I fly to Moscow. (Still waiting on the details of the Moscow signings or events. If you know them, send them in to the FAQ line.)
(Edit to add: Aha! Moscow information creeping out.
http://www.mdk-arbat.ru/anons/1209 says I'm doing an event at 5 pm on March 25th
in the House of Books on Novy Arbat. Translation here.)Right now getting together with Amanda feels less like spending time together and more like two planes matching speed for a little while. But today is a real day off. She's asleep and I'm meant to be typing introductions, and when she wakes up I'll make her some food and we'll walk on the beach.
(When she's finished with the European leg of the Evelyn Evelyn tour, in mid-May, she has about a week off. I'll be in the UK writing. If anyone has any suggestions for places we could go to take a week together, anywhere in Europe (or even North Africa I suppose) that would be quiet and warm, where she could do some yoga, I would love to hear them. Neither of us have ever really done holidays before, and we're very aware that we don't even know where to start looking.)
Right. Back to introductions.
Also, do not ever ask me to write introductions. This morning's email brought three You Said You Would Maybe Introduce This A Long Time Ago emails. The last four things I wrote were introductions. The next four things I will write will be introductions. Whatever happened to making things up?
We get an introduction to all things sheep at the Agrodrome, an agricultural demonstration show in Rotorua.
A mulleted host in a wifebeater comes out on stage, telling jokes as his comely assistant leads out nineteen different breeds of sheep, from Merinos to Lincolns to Romneys. I remember some of the names from my spinning and weaving days.
A sheep shearing demonstration follows. A wary ewe emerges from a doorway on stage right. After a few moments struggle, the host deftly flips her onto her back, where she sits, legs dangling foolishly in front of her. Perhaps closing her eyes and thinking of England, she allows the shearer to have his way with her. In less time than it takes me to get a haircut, the fleece is razored off and the sheep looks about half its original size.
When he asks for volunteers for milking, I impulsively raise my hand and join the other two victims on the stage. After all, I’m scheduled for a farmstay the next day, and I might need me some skills. Last time I volunteered and was called up on stage, it was for a wine-tasting. And that worked out all right.
Happily, we are milking a cow instead of a sheep. Somewhere, I’ve read tips for successful milking. Or maybe it was those lactation pamphlets I read after my sons were born.
This cow’s udder has been liberally greased up with some unknown farm substance. I don’t know if this is intended to make it harder or easier. Trying to remember the particulars, I grasp the udder firmly at the top and strip my hand downward, using my best empty toothpaste tube technique. Success! A thin stream of blueish milk splashes into the pail. The host looks mildly surprised and a little disappointed. I receive a certificate of “udderance.”
There follows sheepdog demonstrations in which one of the dogs herds several ducks back and forth across the stage and other dogs race across the backs of the mildly interested sheep in a technique called, understandably, backing. It’s kind of like a sheep mosh pit. It’s unclear whether this has any practical purpose but it makes for interesting and difficult to interpret photos.
I am convinced that nobody loves his work like a sheepdog. If they were any more alert and eager they would explode. They ought to show videos of sheepdogs at employee meetings instead of hiring motivational speakers.
The show closes with a mock fleece auction in which a reluctant Korean woman ends up owning an armload of unwashed wool redolent of lanolin. Then everyone repairs outside for a sheepdog demonstration with actual sheep.
All in all, I had a great time, but I think I have more of a future in wine-tasting.
Our first book from New Zealand, published originally by Gecko Press, has recently been honored with the New Zealand Post Best Children's Book of the Year award!
Congratulations to author Joy Cowley and illustrator Gavin Bishop for this great recognition. A collection of short stories about an unlikely pair, Snake and Lizard is a laugh-out-loud, sophisticated edition of tales (and tails) of friendship and life in the desert.
Snake and Lizard have much different tastes - especially when it comes to mealtime. In the story entitled, "Surprise," Lizard finds an egg "in the dust, smooth, white, and round as the moon," an egg which he feels is just perfect for Snake. He "carefully fitted his jaws around the egg and carried it back across the desert" to surprise his dear friend.
Hours later, when Snake finally arrives, Lizard is delighted to share his discovery with her and sends Snake down into the tunnel, where her surprise awaits.
Moments later, Snake shoots out of the hole, "hissing and shaking."
"The egg had hatched. No chicken had come out of it! There in Snake's bed, making a noise like a firecracker, was a very angry young rattlesnake."
After angry words between the two friends, Snake asks Lizard how he plans to get the rattlesnake out...it's nearly bedtime.
" 'Don't look at me in that tone of voice!' snaps Lizard. 'You know all about snakes. It's your cousin. Go and talk to it!' "
Humorous, delightful and simply charming, these two characters are highly developed, spectacularly entertaining and completely memorable.
My home in that disgusting state that happens every year at this time. It seems like there is only enough time to fly in the door, drop everything, scoop up the stuff you need for the next event/duty/crisis and fly back out the door.
Enough. Today I am rolling up the carpets, moving the furniture and I am locked in hand to hand combat with dust bunnies and other assorted scary household boogies. I am reminded of a comment Scott Westerfeld made about revising and rewriting. He said it is like cleaning out a closet. It gets worse before it gets better.
That is the place where I am now.
I look at the nice shiny floor but my heart sinks at the piles covering every surface. Stacks of books, stacks of newspapers, magazines, the paper flotsom and jetsom of school life, finals schedules, study materials, a recipe I printed out from the Food Network website. If I wanted to collapse into a chair to take a break, I couldn't. There is no place to sit.
GAhhhhhhhhh!
The one pleasant part of the day has been the movie I watched as I began the destruction...er...that is...cleaning and tidying. I have found watching a DVD while I am doing something I do not enjoy, helps me stick to it.
I recommend: Her Majesty, 2001, rated PG -- filmed entirely in New Zealand
Parts of the soundtrack sounded like Howard Shore's music, even though it was not. (Maybe the New Zealand landscape just inspires composers.)
Set in the 1950s, a young girl named Elizabeth is enthralled by the recent coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. She daydreams about meeting the Queen and begins a letter writing campaign to invite Elizabeth II to visit. The town is thrown into a frenzy when the news comes that the Queen has placed Middleton on her itinerary for the upcoming royal visit to New Zealand.
An old Maori tribeswoman soon becomes the target of many of the leading citizens' rage because they consider her ramshackle house, a blight on the parade route.
Elizabeth befriends the old woman and learns about the history and culture of the Maori people which puts her at odds with the rest of the town and even her own family.
A very sweet story with one of the most odious older brothers I've ever encountered in a story.
Here's my post something monday!
Just some designs I'm creating featuring New Zealand birds
Have a nice day
Onno Knuvers
www.onnoknuvers.com
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This is an absolutely wonderful idea. I’ll email and will also share this.
Thanks Ali, that would be great, especially if you have any links with authors and publishing houses! Bronwyn has a new post up today about the physical distribution of the books she’s already received: http://day1everypeninthehouseranoutofink.blogspot.com/2011/03/helping-kids-of-christchurch.html
Hi Zoe will I put this post up on my book reviews for mums blog? I iwll email you too I am v happy to help
That would be super Becky. Thanks.