My mummy plays Minecraft, she’s not very good,She wanders the forests all day,And when it gets dark and the creepers come out,She puts her computer away. I promised to teach her, to give her a bed,To help her survive through the night,But she ran out food and she fell in a caveAnd a skeleton gave her a fright. Now my mummy plays Tetris, she’s not very good,But she plays it whenever she’s free,She can’t beat my time, she should just leave the games,To the Minecrafting experts like me. (c) Copyright Pamela Ueckerman (Pamela Jones) 2023. All rights reserved.
Good morning, postie, have you got a package just for me?I sent a letter to my gran who lives across the sea.I’ve been waiting for her answer, but she hasn’t written yet,I wrote last week to ask her, please, to send a little pet. A kitten or a hamster, or perhaps a little mouse,Anything much larger wouldn’t fit inside our house.I hope it’s not a tiger, that would make a giant mess,I’d have to ask to keep it and my mum would NOT say yes! Tell me, postie, please, because I can’t wait here all day,I’ll need to buy some pet food and some toys so we can play,And if it is a tiger, kindly leave it on the mat,I’ll send it back to granny and request a little cat. (c) Copyright Pamela Ueckerman (Pamela Jones) 2023. All rights reserved.
Where do all the lost things go, like pens and pegs and socks?Remote controls and library books and keys for little locks?Where do all the hair pins go? What about the glasses?The paperclips? Elastic bands? The buttons and train passes?Could it be that all those things are swept far out to sea?And whale sharks trade them with their friends and charge a whopping fee?Or maybe there’s a palace built by ants deep underground,Each table, chair and throne is made from things the ants have found.Or maybe, just perhaps, there lives a bird who likes such things,And there you’ll find them tucked into a nest that’s fit for kings. https://youtu.be/KEfGKUo5-D0
I hope to remember to continue to bring occasional writing news to this page. Stay tuned! But for now, here are some certificates from a recent competition I entered. It's competitions like these that help aspiring and emerging authors hone their craft and get recognition for their work. Thanks so much to Jackie Hosking for this competition, I particularly love rhyming and this is a highlight of my year.
https://youtu.be/T0moxJTj25E
I am super excited about my debut picture book with the National Library of Australia Publishing, coming October 2023, just in time for Christmas. Watch this space for more details.
If you're a parent on social media you've probably seen those articles or blog posts that are meant to tug at your heart strings. The ones that say, "the dishes can wait, your children can't." They implore you to relish every moment of your precious children's life because they grow up so quickly. And it is precious. And they do. But... I'm here to say - close that article, get off social media and go do those darn dishes, they won't do themselves. The children are alright. They really are. See, when my boys were little, those posts DID tug at my already tender heart strings. But seriously, life must go on. I don't like eating off the floor. Or wearing the same clothes for a month. Or letting my garden to turn into a jungle. It's ok to take care of the things that need to be taken care…
Hey, look, another blog post (I know, it's been a while)! Life has been busy, busy, busy, but fun. I've been writing, rebuilding my web-design business and teaching dance. And learning, always learning. Mostly about writing. I feel like there are never enough hours in the day to learn ALL THE THINGS. And of course, I've been raising my two precious boys. I've made great progress in the last few months towards getting myself out there as a writer, and also earning some money. My mindset has changed from "I can't, I'm not good enough, I don't know what I'm doing" to "Of course I can, I've got this, if others can I can too..." Yes I'm juggling a LOT and I've probably said yes to a few too many things, but hey, that's what makes life fun. You've got to take advantage of opportunities that come your way. And…
After a lovely summer, I've thrown myself into working on a novel, a chapter book, some picture books and some poetry. I'll be attending a conference in May and have booked manuscript assessments with two publishers and had to submit these manuscripts last week. Plus I've entered a writing competition and submitted a poem for an anthology called Celebrations which will be published later this year. It's all been a lot of fun playing with words while the children are at school but I've also been playing with visual arts - drawing, painting and collage. These have been amazing for stimulating my creativity and almost a form of meditation, so calming. So much so that I started sneaking into my "office" on the weekend to do a quick sketch or watercolour painting and ended up with my boys following me out and joining me. And by "joining", I mean taking…
I was lamenting a few days ago with a friend about how Mr 7 seems to be going through some mini teenagehood - moodiness, talkback, defiance - all fairly unusual for my sweet, sensitive boy. Later on that day, I found an article specifically addressing this and calling it the Stroppy Sevens. "So there's a name for it!" I thought to myself. And strangely, I felt comforted. Because enough other people have gone through the same thing that someone, somewhere has given "it" a name. (Having been through the not-so-Terrible Twos, and the F....rightening Fours, you'd think I would have known about this. And now I'm dreading the Tortuous Twelves!) And then I realised how powerful it is to give something a name (as someone who never named her dolls or soft toys as a child). It gives it familiarity, acceptance or normality. Which is comforting, if you think…
