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In February 08 I attended a Society of Authors conference in Edinburgh and heard a presentation about how non-fiction writers could reach a much wider audience through the internet. Setting up a website based on our work was suggested…
I thought, What a good idea! Having listened to so many people on local and national telephone help-lines, and hearing so many common themes about communication within families; within professional teams; and most of all, between families and professionals and how very important building constructive conversations is to creating the most effective care possible, I’d written and co-written books already published by John Wiley and Sons, and Routledge…on just this subject. (For more details, see page on my non-fiction writing.)
I thought, We could invite Guest Writers….And the site could be interactive! That way family members as well as professionals could ask questions, read each others’ viewpoints, come to a much better understanding… much easier to ask questions when you’re not face-to-face…
And I came home with the thought of how to make the idea a reality. Talked to George Baird of Resourceful I.T. on whom I rely for all my computer and technology needs and problems. He did some more thinking around the idea, and some exploration on the internet. Yes, he said, it could work…Have you thought of a name?
Expenses for technology, fees for internet domain name etc, we thought, could be paid through asking for a small subscription fee.
So began work on www.workingtogethercare.com – a much bigger job than either of us imagined. George built the site, I did the writing and inviting Guest Writers. Then Penny Hemans came on board, with her passion for photography and contributed images.
A very very steep Learning Curve as George taught me how to add material to the site, add images, add Meta Data (I’d never heard of such a thing just a short while ago).
Now, in November 09, the site is built…thanks to George’s technical support all the way, I’ve added well over a hundred practical articles to the site, under such headings as Communication, Information, Resources, Carer Survival, along with Penny’s wonderful images.
And I’ve realised that the idea is much bigger than I am, bigger even than the resources of our small team.
Now we’re at a new stage, exploring possibilities such as linking up with a big organisation; or finding funding to cope with the admin which is needed to send out information to professionals and family carers working with people whose condition involves ‘challenging behaviour’. Discussions are ongoing with lots of interested friends and contacts.
Feels like a major crossroads! Do get in touch if you have any suggestions.
Only a few weeks now until the end of this year. Who knows what 2010 holds…
Directed by Roddy Begg, my play Chanceshot was performed at Aberdeen Lemon Tree, 2 evening performances and an afternoon matinee, on 20/21 January 2009, part of a series of new plays, November 09 – February 09 selected by Writers and Actors Collaboration (WAC), who usually meet on Wednesday evenings at HM Theatre, Aberdeen to discuss playwriting and read scripts. A very exciting initiative to be part of!
First written about 15 years ago for a competition organised by George Gunn, playwright and director, who was then Writer in Residence for Banff Buchan, Chanceshot won one of 4 prizes of rehearsed reading. The 4 winning plays were read by professional actors with George directing. (Many thanks George for your encouragement, without which I doubt if I’d have taken my playwriting seriously let alone written a full length play – and would never have started writing poetry.)
Chanceshot is about the changes in the fishing industry in the last part of the 20th century – social, environmental, politics – told through the story of one family.
Although originally written in Doric and set in North East Scotland, the same changes were happening all over UK… and the story could be set in any fishing community in the UK in the 20th century. A director in Grimsby has expressed interest in a future production of Chanceshot, which as now also available in plain English (easier to read than dialect!)
Chanceshot - When his father’s fishing boat is tied up because they have already met their quota limit, Danny, a young fisherman, against his father’s advice and his mother’s wishes, takes a short-term berth on another boat to make some extra money. The skipper, ignoring a very bad forecast, takes a terrible risk and sails out….
Workshops – for ages 8 to 80, designed for your group, planned as a series or may be a single workshop – include
Scenes and Settings – How to use all your powers of observation, including your senses, to maximise descriptions
Building a Character – Make a character live for your readers
Dialogue and Monologue – Use of dialogue and monologue in stories
Planning and Plotting
Drafting and Editing – Be your own ‘Critical Friend’
For instance, in January to March 08 I presented a series of 5 writing workshops for WhiteSpace Community Arts at the Gordon Highlanders Museum, Aberdeen, which culminated in publication of ‘Connections’ . Connections was written by people taking part in a joint Aberdeen – Regensburg project, with groups of people writing in Scotland and Germany on a book of personal accounts and stories about their experiences at the end of World War 2.
My own contribution to Connections (available from the Gordon Highlanders Museum) was written about a book of stories and poems my mother carried with her throughout the war, which a friend had given her. After she died I found the book in a box. Inside the book, a photograph of my parents – which had also been carried with her.
Book Gráinne Smith
The cover is smooth, the binding worn
by years of kitbags and haversacks.
I stroke the title, faded letters rubbed nondescript,
find corners folded, favourite pages hidden in the mix.
This volume of hope you carried
all through the tears of war.
Pencil marks single lines, passages on time’s swift way.
Long months of fear, then short leave when you danced,
and how you danced, to Pennsylvania’s refrain,
quickstepping through happy days before you sang
goodbye. Did you die a little each time?
Was the nightingale singing in that square I never knew?
Tucked between Dover Beach and William Blake,
a photograph. Two lovers smiling, faded grey;
your arm holds my father’s waist. Beyond the parting,
such dreams were yours. There would be warmth
to heat bones chilled by duty, time to plan for waking
to quiet morning air and cradles filled.
‘Moving On in 20th Century Scotland – The Moose and Ither Tales’, published 2004, Smaa Biggin Press
A series of stories and poems which illustrate how major changes in heating, lighting, plumbing, transport, communication, shopping, cooking, housing, education, entertainment – you name it! – have affected the lives of people over the last 100 years. Although set in Scotland, the stories could have taken place almost anywhere in Scotland and beyond.
The collection includes the prize-winning poem Limmer, written in Doric which is the local dialect of North East Scotland. (Read Limmer on webpage Writing – poetry)
6 basic rights outlined in the Charter…
…to communication/partnership with health professionals
…to comprehensive assessment and treatment planning
…to accessible, high quality, fully funded, specialised care
…to respectful, fully-informed, age-appropriate, safe levels of care
…to carers to be informed, valued and respected as a treatment resource
…of carers to accessible, appropriate support and education resources
Without good communication and coordination of support, care will most likely be more fragmented and less effective.
More details from www.aedweb.org
‘Pathways’, published 2005 by Koo Poetry Press, Aberdeen-based publishers specialising in poetry – a small collection of poems on the theme of love and life, laughter and loss.
Written in and around the north-east of Scotland, the land, sea and shore as well as the people feature strongly.
A small flavour from ‘Pathways’ –
Winter Sunset at the Tore of Troup
Earth held its breath,
Watching the black filigree fingers reach to touch
The red, orange, yellow silk spread, lifting to catch
Pale blue ribbons drifting in the still clear air.
Silent, the hills lay back against the glowing cushions,
Breathing in respite from winter death,
Stretched in dark protection round a silvered pool
Frozen in orange reflection.
A blackened shell of shelter,
The old croft absorbed the brilliant blessing of light,
Awaiting the beasts, whose warmth would bring back life,
Awaiting birth, awaiting rebirth.
Grainne Smith
Limmer
The horizon wis lined wi black crayon,
The grey clouds lowerin and grim,
I waaked by this restless limmer
An I thocht o him.
I thocht on the smell o his jersey,
An the shirt I still sleep in at nicht,
I wait for the voice in the glimmer,
Hame-comin in mornin’s caul licht.
Nae body aside me,
Nae warmth ava,
Nae hand at ma breist,
Jist memories tae ca.
I mind on the smile as he ca’d me his quine,
His touch as his eyes said the rest,
Noo sine that bitch his claimed him
It’s a caul empty warld tae be faced.
Bit rinnin aside me a wee lauchin loon
Maks ma hairt loup wi pride an wi pain,
His voice an his smile fair mak me stoon –
He’s his faither a ower again.
(Written for a fisherman’s wife – married at nineteen, a mother at twenty, widowed at twenty-one when her husband was drowned at sea.)
Gráinne Smith
‘Fyvie Castle – its Life and Legends’ is an educational pack, published 1997 by National Trust for Scotland and Aberdeenshire Council – a fascinating project which I was asked to coordinate and co-wrote…and which particularly triggered my interest in the dramatic changes over the 20th century.
Heating, lighting, plumbing, travel and transport, food, cooking, shopping, communications, medicine and health – every single aspect of life has changed at a much faster rate than in any previous century!
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