If there was a prize for the worst blogger then I would surely be on the podium.
People automatically assume that if you’re a writer, that you love writing. Well, for me the writing is the hard part of being an author. I love the thinking part where ideas go off inside my head like fireworks but having to sit down and actually try to find and form words is the hard part.

But I’m excited to tell you about a new book of mine, gorgeously illustrated by Rebecca Bagley.

Willow Wildthing and the Swamp Monster

It’s the first book in a series of four books about a girl called Willow who is drawn into a scrubby patch of urban woodland when her dog is dognapped by strange creature-like children. It’s a story reminiscent of my childhood when I played with friends in a scrubby patch of woodland. The imaginary world blurred with the real world and we had many adventures befriending dragons and climbing trees and making dens.

Writing the story made me wonder about wild space and if children today have access to a place where they can play unsupervised and unstructured. For me, it was vital space to simply just be, and wonder at the world, to test physical boundaries, to make and break friends and make them again. Unstructured play does not test or compare, the rules are invented by children and constantly change. There are infinite scenarios, and multiple outcome of games can be explored. Children can just be children.

So I was also pondering this whilst reading about the likely school closures associated with coronavirus.

These are strange and anxious times for many.

Coronavirus is the biggest thing in the news. Rightly so, we need to be aware and concerned and follow the science. We need to slow and delay the spread of the virus by social distancing, avoiding non-essential travel, and by thorough handwashing. Hopefully, this way, the more vulnerable people to the disease will be protected.

Now, I’m not downplaying the concerns about this virus at all, but I’m trying to see silver linings in situations. Climate change is a much, much bigger threat to our society than coronavirus, but it sometimes seems too big to deal with. But if we can change our behaviours for a more imminent threat like a virus, then surely, we can change them for a better, cleaner future too.
Already we know that air pollution reduced dramatically in Wuhan during the enforced lockdown. We are now having to change our behaviour; reducing travel, staying closer to home.

So, maybe this is a time to re-evaluate our lifestyles to benefit our own lives and the environment.
Maybe this is the time to really look at the way we live and try to assess things that might give us anxiety in modern life and try to change the things we can.

Work-life: How many work meetings could be done via the internet instead of long-distance travel? Could local produce and indie shops thrive? Will it be easier to ‘switch-off’ from work and go out for a walk in the evening or meet up with friends? Will we value our time away from work more?

Home-life: Will staying closer to home help us to notice our own environment and the natural world and make us more engaged with protecting it? Will we become more community minded? Will we become less lonely?

Education: I think parents might worry about children missing out on schoolwork. I personally think the over-testing of children and expectations thrust upon them contribute greatly to increased anxiety and depression in young people.

I don’t think 4-8 weeks of missed schooling, especially for primary school age is neither here nor there in the grand scheme of things. (I realise the bigger problem is the knock-on effects of working parents having to stop or rearrange work.)
But maybe this is a chance to take the pressure off children for a while…to stop continual testing. Take the lid off the pressure cooker! To find other ways to fill curious minds.

Maybe this is the chance to re-connect with our children and also the natural world;
To read books together and go on amazing book adventures and not fret about forcing phonics. (A child that is read to regularly will develop a love of reading more than a child pushed to work out the phonics of words). Go and have mini wild adventures in your local park, or if you have chance go out to hills or woods or beaches near you. Be messy and creative with paints and mud and food!

Childhood goes by in the blink of an eye.

Be silly together. Be serious together. Be together.

And give them chance to go out and play, and explore the wild, like Willow and her friends.

I dedicated Willow Wildthing and the Swamp Monster to Vernon, an oak tree. Vernon is symbolic of the trees under threat in urban landscapes and the brave people who know that we must save these wild beings and put them above and beyond unjust and unethical laws that see to destroy our future heritage.

Be wild, be strong, protect our future.

Be like Vernon. 🙂