Moniack Mhor

My bus ride up to Inverness in the Scottish Highlands was about 4 and a half hours total, and I got a chance to see some of the countryside. I met the Moniack Mohr writing group easily enough at the train station and headed off into our taxis to travel the 14 miles to our writing center. I happened to get to ride with Laura Marney, one of our Scottish authors and writing tutors for the week, it was very fun having an extended introductory during the ride. I had been reading one of her novels on the bus ride and just laughing my butt off at points, so to be able to meet her has been a treat. She read from one of her other novels tonight and we all had a good laugh.

The weather has been crystal clear since we arrived, and the panoramic views are absolutely stunning. I don't think I've spent so much time looking outside windows before--and the runs and walks on the hills and roads reveal more of this green and fresh landscape in ways that constantly pull at my eyes. The yellows and purples of the wildflowers are spectacular, and you can see some of these flowers on our dinner table in one of the pictures. I took warm-up run down one road this afternoon and then came back to avoid an incredibly steep hill, but the director of the center pointed me the other way to a woods trail, so I continued on and scooted down another steep hill (they are everywhere as we are surrounded by 3,000-4,000 ft mountains and hills) to find the path. My run/walk was just what I needed after all my traveling, writing, and reading, and I hope to keep it up in the next few days.

Usually, there are 16 writers, two tutors, and a guest author taking part in these week-long ARVON courses, but we lucked out this week and there are only 10 students! We get double the attention in our tutorials and the cottage (a converted barn in the 1980s) is very roomy, as are the bathrooms! We gather at 9:30 in the am and one of our tutors, Laura or Gregory Norminton, lead us all in reading and writing exercises until lunch and then we break to do what we want in the afternoon, which usually involves seeing one of them for a 20-minute writing conference. Then each night a group of 2-3 of us prepares dinner for the entire group, and tonight it was my turn. Cynthia stocks the kitchen we everything we could possibly want and leaves out the recipe and ingredients before she departs for the night. Lynn (from Scotland), Shereen (from London), and I made a delicious spread of salmon and tarragon pastry with feta, a veggie pastry, green salad, and a bountiful fruit salad for dessert. Check out my Julia Child pose in one of the pics. The scene in the spacious kitchen felt surreal tonight, as I brushed egg glaze over my folded over pastry and sprinkled sesame seeds on it. The meal was delicious and we are told that we have set the bar high for future chefs this week!

Although we spent last night getting to know one another by telling stories about our names and revealing what we hoped to come away with this week, tonight Gregory and Laura treated us to readings from one of their works. Gregory studied as an actor and he really knows how to bring characters to life with his varying dialects, and his short story about what it is like to be a body double for a hated dictator really drew us all in. Laura is hilarious, and she did not disappoint when she read us a comical chapter about one of her characters in a novel.

This morning we read beginnings of stories selected by Gregory and we discussed the different ways into a story via perspective, voice, dialogue, in media res, and all kinds of helpful methods. Later in the morning, he gave us the assignment to write four different beginnings to a well known fairytale or story, using different perspectives. As we shared one or two of our beginnings, I was very impressed with what we were able to produce in less than an hour. The entire exercise got me thinking about my own teaching of these aspects and I am learning some great ways to approach literature with my high school students.

Of course, I decided on using a fable that we have read to our son Kole for some time over the last few years (thanks to Papi): The Gingerbread Man. Although the third person dialogue approach was an ok idea, I really liked putting the story in the voice of the boy himself and then the wolf.

Boy:

"As Ma lovingly mixed the ingredients in her favorite bowl with her sturdy wooden spoon, she forgot to throw in one very important ingredient, which would ultimately prove to be my undoing. Ma was so focused on getting my spices just right--a little ginger here and nutmeg there--that she popped me into her oven to bake unaware that my fate was already out of her flour covered hands.

When the buzzer sounded, she eagerly opened the heavy iron door and pulled the baking sheet toward her newly baked boy. I patiently waited for the air to cool my body, but I found it difficult to stay put on the counter while she prepared to dress me properly. It helped that I couldn't see or speak quite yet, but soon her face appeared in front of me through a tiny peep whole in my hardened dough and then her plumpness came into full view. When my nose was frosted on, I got the first inkling of how delightfully delicious I was and as soon as the curve of my mouth appeared, I uttered my very first and last words to Ma, "Sorry, to disappoint you, Sweetheart, you really should mix up another batch and this time, don't forget the humility."


Wolf:

"There's a fool ready to be had in every batch, and I happened upon a very delicious one at his inception one evening. As I skulked outside the kitchen window of an old farmhouse, the gentle glimmering of the day's last rays was suddenly interrupted by the alarming aroma of ginger that went straight to my nose. I say alarming because my empty stomach began to growl and my tongue licked my fangs in preparation."


Well, there you have it. The group really shared a hearty chuckle at these spur of the moment creations of mine, which was encouraging. When I met with Gregory later in the afternoon to show him a small part of a story that I have just begun, he was extremely helpful to me regarding character development methods and how to flesh them out. I look forward to working on the story some more by incorporating some of his suggestions, and even if I can't get pages and pages written, I am learning valuable lessons about teaching creative writing.

A quick word about the other nine writers who are here with me. We all get along very well and there is a nice mix of Scottish, English, and two of us are Americans, but I am the only one who lives in the states currently. There are some older participants and then a number of students in who are 40 and below. Many of them have been married and remarried and . . . yes . . . remarried, which always makes for a laugh or two when talking about exes. We are always laughing and I feel that people have been great listeners, making it comfortable for sharing to happen and feedback to be given and received.

A final story. It involves fire. Often, when a reoccurring idea or theme encircles me, either in my mind or in real life events, I say, "The Universe is trying to tell me something." This may sound hokey, but it tends to be true for me. The night before I traveled up to Inverness, I couldn't get to sleep easily and my mind kept wondering about what I would do if there was a fire in the building. Since I was staying in a room on the top floor of a four or five story complex that was unknown to me, had me worried. I don't usually think out fire like this. Nothing came of it obviously. Fast forward to the next day. We gather in the comfy living area of the writing center and sit around to listen to Cynthia give us the low down on the place. While we wait for a missing student, Cynthia is standing in front of the wood stove telling is how it works and about the fire alarms and what to do if there happens to be an emergency. We are still waiting for the student, so she goes on filling time, and then she ends up coming back to the stove and how the building is not connected to the fire station so call 999 if we run into an issue. At this point, I think to myself, "What the heck? I swear someone is trying to tell me something here about fire." I almost make a joke about it, but I don't. Fast forward that evening. We are lounging around the living area sharing stories about our first names, the fire is going, and things are going smoothly . . . until . . . a sooty smell wafts around the room and some of us register it, but we don't think much of it. The tutors had their backs to the little black wood stove early on, but had since then moved. Eventually, Laura who is sitting next to it, says, "Does anyone smell something burning?" We look towards to the stove in agreement with her that something doesn't quite smell right, but we can't pin anything down and nothing looks to be problematic. BUT in that moment one of the students says, "Look the boxes of matches on sitting on the top of the stove." So she rushes over and grabs one, to find that it's hotter than Hades, burnt to a crisp on the bottom, and seriously smoking. These "safety" matches never combusted, but the smoke and the fear of what could happen got all of our attention and it certainly got mine. The Universe was definitely trying to talk to me!

We have a well known Scottish author and comedian, A.L. Kennedy coming to be our guest speaker tomorrow night, so I'll be back to regale you with more of my highland experience. Cheers.