Sad news...a mother passes
I have just learned from my Swedish cousin that the mother cat, pictured on the cover of My Enemy's Child, has died of complications of giving birth yet again. The only surviving kitten is being nursed carefully by the children at the farm.
No one really knew the cat's age, but it was estimated at seventeen or eighteen years. She was well along when she lost her right eye, fending off an attacking Tom Cat which was trying to kill her latest litter. That was just days before I took the cover photo for the novel with "Cat" and Pauliina.
When I saw the mother cat last August (2010), she seemed quite strong and was expecting once again. She had earlier risen to the position of "Boss Cat" in the barn and defended her title vigorously, accepting no nonsense from the other cats.
See the photo of Paulina who was five years old on the book cover and "Cat", which I took in August:
http://www.smultron-pub.com/My_Enemy%27s_Child/Paulina_Page.html
No one really knew the cat's age, but it was estimated at seventeen or eighteen years. She was well along when she lost her right eye, fending off an attacking Tom Cat which was trying to kill her latest litter. That was just days before I took the cover photo for the novel with "Cat" and Pauliina.
When I saw the mother cat last August (2010), she seemed quite strong and was expecting once again. She had earlier risen to the position of "Boss Cat" in the barn and defended her title vigorously, accepting no nonsense from the other cats.
See the photo of Paulina who was five years old on the book cover and "Cat", which I took in August:
http://www.smultron-pub.com/My_Enemy%27s_Child/Paulina_Page.html
Why didn't the owner have the mother cat spayed many years before--was she feral and wouldn't let any person near her? She sure was a smart and sturdy gal living so long outside with babies coming once or twice a year. She would have been a great cat to know!
Once I met you at the Hostfest and bought every book you had then and THOROUGHLY appreciated each and everyone, devoured quickly during the winter months. You mentioned if I had ever thought of writing a book of my own about my Swedish family. I would like to now but do need guidance. Are there resources on history and culture available in English? I thought I would start with a fragment, a picture or story. Thanks for any advice you can share with me. Leslie Carlson
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Hello Leslie,
Thank you for taking the time to comment on our blog.
Regarding the female (Calico) cat pictured on the cover of "My Enemy's Child", she was the queen of the farmyard in central Sweden. Farmers, especially those who have several hundred animals, often do not treat them as you or I might our own household pet. The cat did not have a name, though she was well-regarded by and (later) feared by the other cats. Yet, she was so very friendly to humans.
Unfortunately I do not specifically remember meeting you from Höstfest, though I'll be happy to assists you a little here (hopefully). I'm sorry but I meet so many nice folks at the many book signings I am invited to attend and can not remember everyone. I'm certainly happy to hear you found our books entertaining.
I actually began writing short stories in high school, though I never attempted to publish them. Later in college, since I was an English major, I wrote (and read) a good deal more and gradually matured in both subject matter and skill, though I still did not attempt to publish.
It wasn't until my family had grown that I got anything in print and even then it was a result of my photography hobby. In my work I traveled around the world and of course took along a 35mm camera. I attempted to sell the resulting photos, without much success though, until an editor said: "Those are OK photos, but what are they about? Write the story about them and contact us again." Thus my first photo-journalism success. A few others followed and it wasn't until a Swedish genealogy friend, who was somewhat interested in my late g.g. grandmother, suggested I write her story, that I began to research the subject of Nordic Summer Farms which resulted in the four volume novel, "Vallkulla".
If you wish to write "your" story, you should perhaps decide what your boundaries are for the narrative. Will it be fiction, or do you have enough facts to make it a family history? If it will consist of several sections, you might treat it like several short stories chained together, which, when completed, will make up the whole narrative. For each chapter or story you need some sort of a theme to talk about or describe. Perhaps you are working on favorite family memories, or stories in your family history.
For instance, your great grandmother's wood cook-stove (range) and how she 'commanded' it, much the same as her husband might have the team of horses or a tractor. Like an ocean-going ship in the kitchen, the stove needed a knowledgeable captain and crew: she was the skipper, her husband, the mate and the children, the crew. Of course, since this isn't a movie, you have to add sound and visual effects from your mind's eye, giving the reader a feel for the scene. Everyone in her family had to do their part if they wanted three squares a day and the occasional dessert. The husband saw that the stove operated safely (cleaned the pipes and chimney), emptied the ashes and cut and split the wood to keep the pies coming. The children probably carried in the wood, especially when they were older, and probably argued over who's turn it was.
The beaten-up woodbox that held the firewood, the newspapers and kindling needed to start the fire each morning. How it did snap and pop at first and the smell of the iron lids being heated and remember rattle of the lids as she added more wood and the crack of the pipes as the hot smoke shot up into the chimney.
What about family bath time; heating water in the long, dented copper boiler that did double duty to heat water for clothes washing...the way the steam rose and the special dipper she used to take the scalding water from it with. Can you still hear the clunk and clank of the process and the sound the galvanized bathtub made when you first stepped into i?
As you can see (and hopefully hear), each incident can lead to another, to another...and you will never run out of things to write. This analogy will work for fiction, or a true-life description of a family ritual that centered around the cook-stove.
If you are researching your families' Nordic nationality, your sources will be dependent on your specific needs. If you want info on emigration, they contact the specific countries' emigration institutes. Much of the info is in English, unless it is the old church records. For those you will need a translator or, if you journey to, for instance, Sweden, you can sit right down beside an English speaking helper and work in your own space there.
If you don't have a lot of experience narrative you could work within a writers group in your area of the country. Beware, though; many of these groups are simply coffee clutches and really do not ever accomplish anything. However, it might be a good place to meet a serious writer or two, whom you can develop a mutual trust, with whom you can pair off and accomplish much, much more. If you are unaware of writers groups in your area you might search the internet. Here's is a web location someone recently brought to my attention: http://www.meetup.com/.
Perhaps you could be a bit more specific after reading through the above and I'll respond as best I can.
Jerry
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