Every once in a while, The X authors need to blog about something other thn writing (perish the thought!). If we’re lucky, they decide to share with us their profound voyages of self-discovery and/or their whimsical musings. To give them a forum, a platform from which they can be heard and their readers can get to know what makes them tick just a touch more, we have instituted our new series, Sound-off Saturdays.
In this inaugural posting, Foretold author Joanne Kershaw shares her thoughts after the tragic events earlier this week. (She originally wrote this post on Wednesday).
Information Overload
There’s just so much destruction, devastation and madness in the world that it’s hard to ignore.
Still, I try. I don’t watch the news, don’t listen to it on the radio if I can avoid it, and I don’t pick up the paper. I don’t follow news feeds on Facebook or Twitter and I generally spend a lot of time looking at the world through sand-covered eyes.
Usually I like it here, with my head buried comfortably in the ground. This week has been different though, and I’ve had to pull myself up and take a good look around. Don’t get me wrong, I keep up to date. The latest changes in education over here on our little island keep me constantly on my toes. The man in charge of education policy, Michael Gove, was booed offstage at a head teachers’ conference just last week.
He was said to be surprised by the reaction—it appears I am not the only one with my head in the sand, Mr Gove! Perhaps if you looked up once in a while you would realise that your planned changes to education are directionless and putting our children in great danger.
Not only has this man managed to change the school assessment criteria for Ofsted (our school inspectorate in England and Wales) three times in one academic year—so we barely know whether we are coming or going—he is also completely changing the curriculum and wants to eradicate the method through which we track children’s progress.
So, next year I shall be mostly making it up as I go along and hoping for the best whilst using my crystal ball to predict the outcomes for the children in my care. Lovely.
However, that story was the least frightening of my discoveries out here in the big wide world. I couldn’t help but be moved by news reports of the devastating tornado that swept through Moore, Oklahoma, and the surrounding area.
I have watched television shows that track the people who chase these storms, I’ve seen their reactions to the destruction these unstoppable storms create. This was different though, somehow more real.
I sent prayers out for the people caught up in the chaos, for the people trying to clear it up, and for the families of all involved, to give them strength as they watch helplessly from the sidelines.
Finally tonight, as I settled down to relax with my own family for the first time this week, news started to filter through about the attack on a soldier in London, just a few hours away from my home. A man, a soldier sworn to protect our country, was hacked to death by mad men on his way back to barracks after a day out.
These mad men posed, demanding people take pictures, as the decapitated hero lay in a crumpled heap on the ground. A local head teacher locked the gates and doors to his school and waited with his terrified children as these men were gunned down. In broad daylight. In an enormous and densely populated city. I have no words.
How does this link to writing? Why post this on a publisher’s blog which people come to for writing advice, information, the inside scoop?
The fact of the matter is that it doesn’t link, not directly. These events made me want to draw my family close and hide away forever. They forced me to look at how I had spent my time this week and to realise that I had my priorities all wrong.
I am a wife, a mother, a friend, a daughter, a sister, a teacher, a tutor, and an author. How I organise all of the duties that these roles entail is a constant battle.
But I realised today that the most important thing I can do with my time is to try and make the world a better place, no matter how small my impact may be. So today, my writing was about how I could do that. Sure, I’ve looked at some school planning, I’ve tucked my children (and husband) into bed, and I’ve done a little sequel planning for Elora.
But most of all, I’ve written this:
- Love my husband and my children everyday.
My children are my future, our future, and how I teach them to react to, process, and deal with the awful things that take place daily on our planet is going to be one of the most important things I do.
- Be a consistent moral and spiritual guide for my pupils as well.
I want to shelter them, protect them from the truths of being a human in the twenty-first century, but I can’t. With the world as it is, with technology making more and more information accessible, I need instead to model how to react to what we see and read. I need to teach them to make better choices and to live those choices myself.
I must be a model of sincerity, must demonstrate that understanding and empathy are crucial life skills that will make civilisation better, no matter how small our contribution or how little the ripple effect of our efforts may be.
- Write for me.
Take the time to reflect on things, allow them to influence me but not control me. Above all, I need to realise that I cannot change huge world events. My impact is limited, but it should still be meaningful.
There are thousands of aspiring writers out there, some of you may even be reading this, and I want to congratulate you all for persevering and chasing your dreams.
Reaching the goal of being published will remain one of the best moments of my life. So few people get to reach out and grab their dream with both hands and yet we shouldn’t give up trying. It’s that hope that keeps us afloat, that gives us a reason to carry on.
So writers, editors, marketers, mums, dads, teachers, students—people—that’s what this post is all about. Hope lifts spirits. Hope motivates and inspires. More than all of those things, hope is a positive thing and in this world of negativity, hope is our strength.
Joanne Kershaw writes and teaches in West York, UK. She lives with her husband and four children, and an uppity cat named Dipstick. Her latest novel, Foretold, the first of the Vanguard Legacy series, was released in April, 2013.
Foretold is available in paperback and Kindle on Amazon in the US and UK. Amazon Denmark, France, Italy, and Spain sell Kindle versions. It is also available on Barnes and Nobel and Kobo.
