The Good Mothers Club was inspired by the Amacus portmanteau horror films of the 1970s. My harried heroine, Alice Plummer, stumbles upon the Good Mothers Club in the Chapel Cafe and spends a mysterious evening with six other mothers and the ghostly nun Sister Eleanor, sharing tales of motherhood, madness and sacrifice. These are two posters advertising my story.
Saturday 16th April 2016 was quite a successful day for me and my craft stall. It was a great improvement on my November craft stall, firstly because I got the right day, the right place and the right time.
Throughout the morning I sold quite a lot of cards, including my first poppy brooch card. I now have about 52 basic greeting card designs and mum told people I have 'a card for every occasion', which is quite accurate, although maybe I could develop more specific 'Get well soon' and 'With sympathy' cards in the future.
I didn't sell any Star Heart Dolls but maybe I need to find a new venue if I am to find success in this area. I sold some lavender scenters and completely sold out of sleeping angels.
I sold a poetry book to a man who recommended another venue to me and also told me to 'keep up the good work', which was very encouraging. In the end I did well enough to give a generous donation to the cerebral palsy charity we were supporting, the CMSS Skills Development Centre in Northwood, who you can find here.
The successful day was completed by lunch with mum, piano teaching and tea with friends.
My 'At The Piano' playlist on 8tracks has been quite popular, but it is more difficult to listen to in the UK now, so I have added a new playlist on my YouTube channel also called 'At The Piano'. It features piano music I like listening to and playing. I think the pieces are not too difficult that you can't enjoy playing them, but difficult enough that they are both interesting and challenging. This is the complete list of the music I have chosen.
Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata
I Giorni by Einaudi
La Valse d'Amelie by Yann Tiersen
River flows through you by Yiruma
The heart asks pleasure first from The Piano
Comptine d'Un Autre Ete from Amelie
The girl with the flaxen hair by Debussy
Satie's Gnossiennes 1,2 & 3
Reverie by Debussy
One summer's day by Joe Hisaishi
Le Onde by Einaudi
Road to Chicago by Thomas Newman
Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini by Rachmaninov
Satie's Trois Gymnopodie
Queste Notte by Einaudi
Chopin's Prelude no. 4
Passagio by Einaudi
Cavatina by Stanley Myers
When running SubVerse Writers I came up with a lot of poems to do with the powerful influences that lie at the bottom of existence; poems like Omega, The Shadow People and Lurkers. With Omega I was thinking about the way the real powerhouse of fungi is the mycelium that creeps under the earth and we only know something's been going on when we see the fairy ring of mushrooms above the ground.
My interest in Christianity has inspired my work on virtues. These three virtuous Star Heart Dolls were created for a summer fair at St. Mary's Church, Northolt. Joy, Peace and Love are now three of the six star heart virtues, the others being Faith, Grace and Hope. Below are the three Joy, Peace and Love cards from my Sunday School matching game.
