About the Incorrigible Blog Tour: Each stop features an exclusive excerpt and guest post from Maryrose Wood, offering a special look at the wise words of her heroine’s mentor, Agatha Swanburne.
"Whatever will do in a pinch will do." - The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place,
Book 3: The Unseen Guest
More than a decade ago I was
invited to spend two weeks at a prestigious writers’ conference. My two kids
were very young then, and I was a newly single parent, so the logistics were
daunting. Still, I thought, it was summer, and the conference was walking
distance from a beach, so why not just bring the little moppets with me? I ran
the idea by the conference people, who were cautious at first, but in the end
they said yes.
I’d be working fulltime for the
duration, so I hired a babysitter to come with us. Her salary would be more
than double my honorarium for attending (oh, the glamour of the writer’s life!),
but the conference was kind enough to throw in housing and meals for her and my
kids as part of the package, so I counted myself lucky and got out the
suitcases.
Now, if you’ve ever dragged two
small children along for a two-week stay in a place not particularly oriented
towards kids, you know how easy it is to go overboard with the packing. What if
they want to play Uno? Uno deck packed, plus a few board games just in case.
What if they need goldfish crackers and there’s no place to buy them? Two
weeks’ supply of goldfish, packed. What if they get bored (will twenty picture
books and a case of art supplies be enough?) or homesick (should I bring their
pillows from home?) or outgrow their shoes halfway through, or it rains the
whole time…. what if what if what if?
What I really needed to pack was a
cure for my neurotic worrying, but I’d need a moving van to carry that much
baggage. So I stopped trying. It was summer, and there was a beach. Bathing
suits, a few changes of shorts and t-shirts would suffice. A couple of books, a
box of crayons and some paper for rainy days. We’d have to trust the sun and
the waves and the sand and the fun of being in new place to provide the bulk of
the entertainment. And I remember thinking, as I zipped up our one medium sized
suitcase, slung my laptop case over my shoulder, strapped the toddler in the
stroller and took my kindergartner by the hand: if the house disappears while we’re gone, we’ll be okay. I have my
kids, a change of clothes, and all my work on the computer. We could go
anywhere now and start over, and we’d be just fine.
I think about that moment from time
to time. For most of us, what we actually need to survive is only a tiny
fraction of the stuff we’ve accumulated in our lives. “Whatever will do in a
pinch, will do,” said Agatha Swanburne. In a pinch, we can make do with very
little. And that very little is a good reminder of how much we actually need.
What stuff do you think you really
need in a pinch? What could you do without?
Thanks so much to Maryrose Wood for being our guest blogger today!
Maryrose Wood is the author of The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place series for middle-grade readers. You can find her on-line at http://www.maryrosewood.com/ and on Twitter: @maryrose_wood
Don't forget to check out the next stop on the Incorrigible Blog Tour:
Hooked on Swanburnisms? On March
26th, visit www.bookyurt.com for more pithy wisdom.
About the book:
Of especially naughty children it is sometimes said, "They must have been raised by wolves."
The Incorrigible children actually were.
Since returning from London, the three Incorrigible children and their plucky governess, Miss Penelope Lumley, have been exceedingly busy. When Lord Fredrick's long-absent mother arrives with the noted explorer Admiral Faucet, gruesome secrets tumble out of the Ashton family tree. And when the admiral's prized racing ostrich gets loose in the forest, it will take all the Incorrigibles' skills to find her. But once back in the wild, will the children forget about books and poetry and go back to their howling, wolfish ways?
Learn more about the series at http://booksandgames.com/incorrigible
The Incorrigible children actually were.
Since returning from London, the three Incorrigible children and their plucky governess, Miss Penelope Lumley, have been exceedingly busy. When Lord Fredrick's long-absent mother arrives with the noted explorer Admiral Faucet, gruesome secrets tumble out of the Ashton family tree. And when the admiral's prized racing ostrich gets loose in the forest, it will take all the Incorrigibles' skills to find her. But once back in the wild, will the children forget about books and poetry and go back to their howling, wolfish ways?
Learn more about the series at http://booksandgames.com/incorrigible
