Onwards and upwards

Hi everyone - if I've seemed uncharacteristically quiet, it's because big things are afoot! Firstly, I won a national writing competition with a short story called 'Cold Water Shock'!

It can be found (with the judge's comments) just here. Now that I've got a big win under my belt, I've decided to get a bit more serious with the whole writing thing, so I have a new website - mochapman.com. 

My blog will be shifting there too - so this is goodbye to the old place. I'll leave all of the stories and everything else here, but please do turn the lights out again as you go.

See you there!

SCENE - DRIVING CELESTE BACK FROM BALLET

SCENE - DRIVING CELESTE BACK FROM BALLET

CELESTE: I love Mummy. She's my best friend.

ME: That's nice. What about Aurora?

CELESTE: She's my best friend too. I love her.

There is a LONG PAUSE.

ME: Is there anyone else you love?

There is another LONG PAUSE.

CELESTE: No. I don't love you because you make jokes all the time.

ME: Ah. Can I love you anyway?

CELESTE: Daddy, I've got thousands of friends. I don't need you.

I start eyeing up the LAYBY as a potential DUMPING GROUND.

They grow up so fast...

SCENE: Very AM, Kitchen, Breakfast

SCENE - Breakfast, very AM:

DADDY is cooking breakfast. AURORA is eating finger foods from her high chair's tray.

AURORA: Uh-oh!

60 Degrees North

There was a time, a decade ago, when I couldn't locate Shetland on a map. I knew it was to the north of East Anglia somewhere but, for me, that broad geographic category also encompassed Manchester, Edinburgh and Cardiff. After marrying a girl from the Islands and visiting many times, I can honestly say that it's one of my favourite places to holiday.

Not that I've quite forgotten the twelve hours of cars, buses and flights that got us here. I still have a burning feeling in my wallet from the £9 FlyBe charged us for a few tiny bottles of apple juice, but that's by the by. The important thing is that we're all togther and, for the first time in a good long while, we're on holiday!

So, we've played on the beach, seen some cows and done very little else. It's wonderful.

Birthday Stories

For my birthday, Lyn got Celeste to dictate a few stories for me because she'd been endlessly fascinated by all of my typing when I was writing "Aurora" - the collection of short stories I wrote when her little sister was born.

The White Crown and the Red Crown

Lessons for Celeste while Lyn is feeding Aurora:

Dead Kings in Ancient Egypt got buried under big stone pyramids.

Guest Contributor: Celeste Chapman (aged 3 years and 4 months)

Monstertron went 'bulululululul!' (please see picture)