Finally back into the flow of writing! After a busy period of birthdays, the traditional Dutch Sinterklaasavond, decorating the Christmas tree and shopping for Christmas presents, I'm completely caught up in the story of my novel again. I am full of inspiration to develop certain characters and storylines. Still struggling with the dialogues of my young protagonist Elena though... It is easy to reflect her character by actually letting her do things, but to give a 7-year old an 'interesting' dialogue with one of her peers is much more challenging.
I am picking my brain to remember which novels I have read with children's dialogues. The first titles that come to mind are 'Of Love and Other Demons' by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 'The Kite Runner' by Khaleid Hosseini and 'I'll Steal You Away' by Niccolo Ammaniti. I definitely have to go through these books again to see how these writers have managed to give these young people dialogues that have really added something to the story. With a pile of snow outside, the candles lit and some nice bottles of wine in stock, that seems to be a good objective for one of these coming days! Love, M.
Showing posts with label children. Show all posts
Showing posts with label children. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Monday, September 13, 2010
Topolino
As usual, the trip from Naples airport to my final destination was more dangerous than my 2-hour flight… Twice a driver decided to take an exit anyway anyhow, passing from the outside lane right in front of my beautiful Cinquecento to get to the exit. Five minutes after that, I had to hit the breaks hard, as the woman in front of me simply stopped in the right lane to drive in reverse to the exit we had just passed. Never a dull moment on the Neapolitan autostrada!
Just had a lovely weekend with my friend, her boyfriend and two of her friends from Rome. It is good to be back here. After a nice walk in the forest, a ‘brindisi’ (a toast) on the terrace watching the sunset with Mount Vesuvio in the background we went to a nice fish restaurant in one of the harbors of Salerno. The setting was picturesque, the food delicious. However, there was a big party going on on the terrace below with a group of 20 children. The children were entertained by a few students. They did their job so well that the children were screaming and shouting of joy. We are talking 10 PM and 20 children in the age of 3 to 10 years old...
The big showstopper was supposed to be one of the students showing up dressed as Mickey Mouse (called Topolino in Italy). Not for this group of children… They started banging and hitting poor Topolino on the head. The student tried and tried to hang on to the big head of Topolino, but at one point he got totally fed up with this aggression. So he took off the big head and shouted: ‘Stop it, stop it!!!'. The youngest children started crying and ran to their moms, the oldest ones were flabbergasted and finally silent. End of party. Thank God.
Today I was at the Amalfi Coast, in Vietri sul Mare, known for its colorful ceramics. I was staring at the beautiful transparent sea, talking to my friend in the meantime and I saw a man catch a big octopus right in front of me… Life can be so simple. Love. M.
Just had a lovely weekend with my friend, her boyfriend and two of her friends from Rome. It is good to be back here. After a nice walk in the forest, a ‘brindisi’ (a toast) on the terrace watching the sunset with Mount Vesuvio in the background we went to a nice fish restaurant in one of the harbors of Salerno. The setting was picturesque, the food delicious. However, there was a big party going on on the terrace below with a group of 20 children. The children were entertained by a few students. They did their job so well that the children were screaming and shouting of joy. We are talking 10 PM and 20 children in the age of 3 to 10 years old...
The big showstopper was supposed to be one of the students showing up dressed as Mickey Mouse (called Topolino in Italy). Not for this group of children… They started banging and hitting poor Topolino on the head. The student tried and tried to hang on to the big head of Topolino, but at one point he got totally fed up with this aggression. So he took off the big head and shouted: ‘Stop it, stop it!!!'. The youngest children started crying and ran to their moms, the oldest ones were flabbergasted and finally silent. End of party. Thank God.
Today I was at the Amalfi Coast, in Vietri sul Mare, known for its colorful ceramics. I was staring at the beautiful transparent sea, talking to my friend in the meantime and I saw a man catch a big octopus right in front of me… Life can be so simple. Love. M.
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