PO Box 3413
Wellington 6015
New Zealand
14 May 2008
Dear Friends,
Every year I try to do some kind of fundraiser for the New Zealand Labour Party. Sometimes it is a talk or a writing workshop, but one year it was a contribution to an auction. I said I would put someone's name and a dedication in a book. The winning person would also get a copy of the manuscript and the first advance copy of the book. I wasn't at the auction but a Labour MP bid as a gift for a friend Liz Miller who is a very talented storyteller, living in Invercargill. So Elizabeth Miller, storyteller and entertainer of children, became Elizabeth Milller, Josh's mother in the book.
I was working on the book and nearing the chapter when Josh's baby sister arrives. I opened up the computer to start writing, and found in the emails, a letter and photo from a dear American friend Dr Maryann Manning. Her first grandchild, a little girl called Tori, had been born. What a lovely coincidence! So Josh's baby sister had a name. The book not only had my own feathered memories in it, but also some real people.
I mentioned in the last letter, that "Chicken Feathers" was set in the American mid-West because it has a fox in it. There are no foxes in New Zealand. For a similar reason, the book "Snake and Lizard" is set in the Arizona desert. In New Zealand we have a variety of beautiful birds but not many animals and no real desert landscape. Because I had spent a lot of time in Arizona and was familiar with the environment in the south of this state, it was easy to find a setting for a story about friendship.
Young people know the importance of friends, and they also know that friendships can require a bit of management. There are very good times, and some not so good, lots of laughter, occasional arguments and occasionally, heavy silences. Being a good friend to someone else takes a lot of practice. We have to learn to listen. We need to know when to see the other person's point of view. And we have to accept that while friends share a lot of things, they don't do everything together.
To all the young readers of this letter, I would invite you to write a story about yourself and your best friend. Perhaps your story could be about the time you had a disagreement, and then made up. How did you feel? How did your friend feel? How did you work out a solution between you?
Good luck with your writing. Now I have to go and write my own stories.
Love from your friend,
Joy Cowley
