This is a quick shout out to all who funded the Unwinding.
Because of you there is now a Chinese and German edition of the book and it can also be found dreaming on shelves in America.
The Chinese edition comes with two special edition postcards. And this is a wonderful co-incidence as we are now trying to raise the full funding for a set of 100 Unwinding cards, in a box.
They won't be available until next year, but I hope they will be cards that people will want to send, to special friends far away and nearby. Seven will have short stories or poems on. Or, as a friend said ' I want to wallpaper my house with them'.
I've taken to writing far more cards and sending, since The Wild Cards came out. I find it a better way of keeping in touch than the instant gratification ( or not) of sending emails. In August, whilst in a basement flat with a recovering daughter, I made regular trips to the red postbox in Brackenbury by The Grove, sending cards to many folk.
At the time of writing this the funding stands at 52%. I reckon I need about another 250 people to invest in this small box of dreams to make it work.
Meanwhile, coming very soon, a film, made for me by Marry Waterson with some music from Rachel Newton. It is wrapped around Feather, Leaf, Bark & Stone. I've seen a still or two and they look beautiful. Love Marry's films. Do seek her out on instagram. She works in the music world and has the voice of an angel. There are two 'sketches' for the films on her instagram and mine.
Oh, and, one more thing.... there's a small book of birds, published by Unbound, with paintings by Jim Moir. In size and shape it is a match with The Unwinding. I'm not sure whether the intention was this, but the design has left room for this to be a perfect place for writing about birds, like an iSPy book for grown ups. ( You can write or sketch in the blank space, as with Teh Silent Unwinding, and the images, painted by Jim are full of the life and soul and love for the shape of birds)
On the way to fetch my mum, to bring her to Pembrokeshire for a few weeks, so she can spend time in teh company of catsand friends and sitting in teh sunshine reading, I stopped at Penpont. I thought I would walk over the bridge, spend a few minutes watching the matens fly through the arches over the river. And there in the river, sitting on a stone, was the brightest little blue of the riverbank.
Brambles and kingfisher. Two of the Lost Words. Look on the rock, where the water is mirror-bright. They hung in the air like a hummingbird over the water too.... amazing.
So, into the book, I pinned the memory to the page, drawing the words into the space.
And yesterday, a memory of sparrows.
Mum's settled in well again. A long journey for an 88 year old to make, into the chaos of my home, and she's putting up well with me having a crisis of confidence with some work, and talking about dead poets and the many ways they are murdered by dictators and regimes as I try to work out how it is that the 'pen is mightier than the sword' when always the poets end up dead and broken.
The White Cat is helping look after her, when he is not walking up the hill with me.
The last few weeks have been very hard. Hannah ( daughter) had spinal surgery and required complete 'lookaftering'. She couldn't travel more than 30 mins from the hospital in London so we had to find a place for 6 weeks for her to stay before flying home to Dresden. I got to know a small piece of Hammersmith, and worked around looking after my Child. Now mum is here and so I am working around helping mum get dressed etc, and making sure there's time to go out. The smile she gave Anna at Solva Woollen Mill yesterday, and the joy in meeting up with friends she made last time she was here, is worth all the jiggling around work. But it does all make me think. A couple of months ago a very well known author was given the airtime to talk about his latest book. In describing his working day he talked of how he just concentrates on his writing, 'never even having to make a sandwich'. How this made me bristle, when I think of all the women ( and men) who thread their work around caring for the needs of others, until I realised how much richer my life is for the privilege of this time spent focussing on care. It is, as Margaret Atwood would say, 'all grist to the mill'.
Anyway, this was supposed to be a short posting to tell you about The Unwinding Cards. If you could help me to spread the word that would be wonderful. Hope your Unwinding still threads through your dreaming.