Norah Colvin

Live Love Laugh Learn … Create the possibilities

Category: Writing

  • Cake in the Pan #flashfiction

    Cake in the Pan #flashfiction

    This week at the Carrot Ranch, Charli Mills challenged writers to In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story about the cooking show. It can be any cooking show, real or imagined. Who is there? What happens? Make it fun or follow a disaster. Go where the prompt leads!

    This is my response. I hope you like it.

    Cake in the Pan

    Deidre laughed, sang and clapped on cue at her first-ever real live Christmas pantomime, until … the clowns prepared the cake. Deidre knew how to make cakes — she’d made them with her mum. The clowns obviously didn’t — tipping more flour over each other than into the pan, splashing the milk, and cracking in eggs, shells and all. The audience roared as the clowns placed a lid on the pan, shook it vigorously, then tipped out a magnificent cake. When offered a slice, Deidre folded her arms and clamped her lips. A cake made like that could never taste good.

    👩‍🍳

    This story is inspired by a true event. However, the only thing I remember is being horrified at the way the clowns put everything into the pan, including the egg shells, and turned out a cake. In writing, I tried to get back to what an expanded memory may have included. I hope it has worked.

    The thought of being horrified at everything going into the pan in which the cake is to be cooked is now quite funny, as I know there are quite a few recipes made that way; including one of my favourites to make with children. If I was to ever be in a cooking show, this is what I’d make. And there’s not even an egg in sight.

    Moon Cake

    Ingredients

    1 1/2 cups plain flour

    1/2 cup sugar

    1/2 cup brown sugar

    4 tablespoons cocoa powder

    5 tablespoons butter, melted

    1 teaspoon vanilla

    1 teaspoon bi-carbonate of soda (baking soda)

    1 tablespoon white vinegar

    1 cup milk

    2/3 cup miniature marshmallows

    Utensils

    A cake pan

    A cup measure

    A mixing spoon

    A tablespoon

    A teaspoon

    Method

    1.         Preheat the oven to 180° (350⁰F, Gas mark #4)

    2.         Put the flour, sugars, salt and cocoa in the cake pan. Mix them carefully. You will have the light brown moon sand.

    3.         Use the mixing spoon to make a big crater in the middle so the bottom of the pan shows through. Make another medium-sized crater and a little crater.

    4.         Put the baking soda in the medium-sized crater.

    5.         Pour the melted butter into the big crater.

    6.         Pour the vanilla into the little crater.

    7.         Pour the vinegar onto the bi-carb soda in the medium-sized crater. Watch it become a bubbling, foaming volcano.

    8.         When the volcano stops foaming, pour the milk over the moon sand and carefully mix it all together until it looks like smooth moon mud.

    9.         Scatter marshmallow rocks over the surface.

    10.       Bake it for around 35 minutes, or until a toothpick stuck in the centre comes out dry. Let the cake cool in the pan.

    This recipe is available in different formats on my website readilearn and there are also some suggestions for science discussions while making the cake.

    Enjoy a slice!

    Thank you blog post

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  • Dressed for the Prom #flashfiction

    Dressed for the Prom #flashfiction

    This week at the Carrot Ranch, Charli Mills challenged writers to In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story to the theme, “not everyone fits a prom dress.” You can take inspiration from Ellis Delaney’s song, the photo, or any spark of imagination. Who doesn’t fit and why? What is the tone? You can set the genre. Go where the prompt leads!

    While prom is not ‘a thing’ here in Australia, our graduating students have formals and semi-formals, we all know what it is from television shows and movies.

    Dressed for the Prom

    She surprised them when she emerged, resplendent in formal gown, announcing, “I’m going to the prom.” With a smile as wide as a rainbow after rain, she twirled for them to admire her from every angle. Gorgeous, they agreed, though it was a little wide in the shoulders and a little long in the hem. The neckline would be revealing without underclothes. Someone suggested the beads were overdone, that one or two strands would suffice, but the decision was made. As soon as Billy arrived in the limo for big sister Maud, she was ready. What was keeping him?

    Thank you blog post

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  • Flying Pigs #flash fiction

    Flying Pigs #flash fiction

    The phrase ‘when pigs fly’ means that something is impossible, it will never happen. The phrase is an adynaton — don’t you love that word? I just learned it — an exaggeration, hyperbole. I seem to think I heard the term many times growing up, though I can’t recall about what in particular. Maybe it was life in general.

    This week at the Carrot Ranch, Charli Mills challenged writers to In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story about a flight of pigs. It can be farm or fantasy-related. The idea can be a tale, poem or memory. You can use the phrase as an expression. Go where the prompt leads!

    The first thing I thought about when reading Charli’s prompt is a hilariously delightful picture book by the fabulous author-illustrator Mo Willems: An Elephant and Piggie Book Today I Will Fly!

    If you don’t already know the story, I suggest you acquaint yourself with it with this video. It will only take a couple of minutes.

    I remember when I was first introduced to Mo Willem’s work. A colleague came rushing into my room one morning and pushed Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! at me, saying, “You’ve got to read this!’

    I would have to say, the book didn’t have instant cover appeal, but she left it with me, and I continued with my preparations for the day. Later, when I sat down to read, I knew this book was something special. I loved it and the children loved it. We read it and read and read it. It had us in stitches. Unsurprisingly, it was a Caldecott Honor book.

    After that, we read all the Mo Willems books we could get our hands on. The children brought in those they’d purchased or borrowed from the local library, and I couldn’t resist buying additional titles whenever I saw a new one in a book store I just happened to be passing.

    When I visited New York in 2016, I was delighted to find an exhibition of the Art and Whimsy of Mo Willems at a museum not far from my accommodation. I couldn’t go through the exhibition shop without purchasing a book or two or more and also came home with a pigeon and a duckie soft toy. I am, unreservedly, a Mo Willems fan and I have the enthusiasm of my colleague to thank for that. If you would like to find out more, please visit the Mo Willems website.

    And Mo is not just for little kids. He is for big kids (like us) and writers too. He has wonderful advice for teachers and writers alike when he discusses creativity, the need to play and the ever-present failure. If you haven’t yet had the pleasure of meeting Mo, please watch his video on The Joy of Creation. It will inspire you.

    In another video on his website, Mo explains how to draw a piggie from the Elephant and Piggie books. The inspiration for my flash came from this video. The flash is also a nod to my favourite ever principal Peter Kidston who not only valued my work as a teacher, he respected it enough to provide me the freedom to teach how I wanted, knowing that the children and their learning was at the centre of all I did. I wrote about Peter in this post.

    I hope you enjoy my story.

    Flying Pigs

    Children’s squeals drew the principal to the window. Ms Irena’s children were running about the yard tossing bits of paper in the air. What were they up to this time?

    “We read a book about a flying pig,” explained Ms Irena. “The children decided to make their own pigs and see if they could fly. Then they wanted to see whose would fly the farthest or highest. After, we’ll write stories about our pigs. So, it’s literacy, art, maths and science rolled into one — STEAM!”

    The principal smiled. “A flight of pigs. With Irena, even the impossible seems possible.”

    Thank you blog post

    Thank you for reading. I appreciate your feedback. Please share your thoughts.

  • Cacophony #flashfiction

    Cacophony #flashfiction

    This week at the Carrot Ranch, Charli Mills challenged writers to In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story, using cacophony. You can use the word or show discordant sound inaction. How can you create literary cacophony with your words? This one might be of interest to poets as a literary device. Go where the prompt leads!

    If you’ve ever heard a flock of noisy corellas fly over, you’ll know the true meaning of the word ‘cacophony’.

    If you haven’t, then here’s a taste.

    But I was thinking that what might be a cacophony to one, might be music to another, for example the sound of children’s play and laughter. And that’s where I’ve gone with my response. I hope you like it.

    Cacophony

    Children’s voices rose from the street with excitement, until laughter exploded like fireworks, startling a flock of corellas into screeching flight.

    Mrs Black in #4 slammed her door and windows tight, excluding the abhorrent noise daring to smother her favourite show.

    Mr Judd from #5, pruning his grevilleas, shook his fist and said, “Stone the crows! What’s with all that racket?”

    Mr Dredge in #7 dozed on, snoring in decibels way higher than those outside.

    But Mrs Twigg in #3 flung wide her window, inhaling the children’s merriment that inspired memories of her own childhood antics so long ago.

    Thank you blog post

    Thank you for reading. I appreciate your feedback. Please share your thoughts.

  • The Open Door #Flashfiction

    The Open Door #Flashfiction

    This week at the Carrot Ranch, Charli Mills invited writers to In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story about an open door. It can be literal or metaphorical. What is behind the door? Who is seeking and why? As the writer, how will you manage the discovery? Go where the prompt leads!

    This is my response. I hope you enjoy it.

    An Open Invitation

    Actions speak louder than words so, when the door opened, she assumed it was an invitation, even though she’d been told to stay inside. She didn’t need naptime. She was a big girl.

    Outside the day sparkled with springtime. Birds chatted as they flitted from tree to tree, inviting her to follow. A lizard peeked from a log, then rustled away in winter’s leaves. She followed, crawling under bushes, into an open space where rocks warmed in the sun. Gum nuts and seed pods, twigs and leaves enthralled until, lulled by the warmth and the dappling light, she napped.

    Thank you blog post

    Thank you for reading. I appreciate your comments. Please share your thoughts.

  • Home is Where the Heart Is

    Home is Where the Heart Is

    The most recent writing prompt set by Charli Mills at the Carrot Ranch challenged writers to In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story about a hometown. It can be your hometown or a fictional one. Who is there? When is it set? What is happening? Go where the prompt leads!

    Since then, a song has been playing in my head on a relentless loop. It wasn’t the song chosen by Charli. She chose Bruce Springsteen. The one that played for me is from my younger years and I’m going to share it with you now in the hope that I can shake it free.

    You’d think with two weeks to respond to the prompt, I’d have come up with something worthwhile. Instead, I struggled. Maybe that’s because I don’t have a strong sense of ‘hometown’.

    Unrelated to Springsteen’s My Hometown or Tom Jones’s Green Green Grass of Home, this is my response. I hope it tells something in some small hometown way.

    Home is Where the Heart Is

    The playlist his children organised looped a soundtrack to his questions — retirement and grandchildren afforded time and reason — to resolve. Why did they flee? Why darkness? Telling nobody? Taking nothing? Disallowed of memories to share? He’d never felt he was completely whole. This hometown jaunt should patch the space within. But nothing matched the picture painted in his mind; no road sign, store name, building or a tree. Concrete covered sandy roads where once they played. Then a breeze swirled round a feeling of forgiveness and of freedom and he turned his mind and car to heart and home.

    Thank you blog post

    Thank you for reading. I appreciate your comments. Please share your thoughts.

  • Ice Cream Meltdown

    Ice Cream Meltdown

    This week at the Carrot Ranch, Charli Mills challenged writers to In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story using the word meltdown. You can use it to describe an event or emotional reaction. You can create a new meaning or explore the word origin. You can Go where the prompt leads!

    When I thought of children in relation to Charli’s meltdown prompt, my first thought was of ice cream melting. Why not go literal? Children can find joy in an ice cream, especially on a hot day. They can also have a meltdown if it misbehaves and melts too soon or falls from the cone to the ground, irretrievable.

    This past eighteen months of social restrictions and lockdowns have provided many opportunities to develop patience and resilience. At the same time, they have caused a multitude of frustrations and meltdowns, especially if toilet roll supplies edged dangerously low. However, it is surprising how the majority pull through the inconveniences and, perhaps less surprising, how quickly a few have gone into meltdown.

    Ice Cream Meltdown

    “Stop blubbering while I answer this. Hello.”

    “Good morning. Sounds like someone’s not happy.”

    “The ice cream’s melted.”

    “An ice cream meltdown. Kids will be kids.”

    “Yeah. Our fifth lockdown this year. We’re homeschooling. Again. My FIFO hub’s trapped in woop-woop. I can’t visit mum in hospital cause she’s interstate even if hub did get home. And no power now for three days. Our freezer food’s spoiled, and he’s whinging about ice cream. When will the lines be fixed?”

    “Sorry. You’ve got the wrong number.” I hung up. The boss can fire me. No way she’d buy raffle tickets.

    Thank you blog post

    Thank you for reading. I appreciate your feedback. Please share your thoughts.

  • The Feather #flashfiction

    The Feather #flashfiction

    This week at the Carrot Ranch, Charli Mills challenged writers to In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story that features feathers. It can be a single feather or more. Where did the feather come from? Does it hold meaning to the character or story? Go where the prompt leads!

    I don’t know if you ever did this when you were young, but I and my siblings and/or friends used to. We would attach meaning or significance to otherwise insignificant events or occurrences, such as seeing images in the clouds or finding a coin or ‘special’ shell or rock in the sand or on the path. Anything could intrigue and we would create stories to explain why we were the chosen ones for the particular find or revelation. I guess it was a way of giving rein to our imaginations and, perhaps, an attempt to make our ordinary lives seem extraordinary. I guess most children do this in the land of dress-ups and make-believe.

    This is where Charli’s prompt took me this time. I hope you enjoy it.

    The Feather

    ‘It’s not just a feather. It’s the feather.’

    ‘Which feather?’

    ‘The one from the beach that day.’

    ‘Which day?’

    ‘Remember when we went to the beach and there was a flock of birds that looked like they were having a conference but when they saw us they flew away and one dropped a feather that landed on top of our castle. We knew it was a sign, they were telling us something.’

    ‘That’s just silly childish stuff.’

    ‘It was a sign. The birds need our help. The bulldozers have arrived. They will destroy the habitat. We must stop them!’

    Thank you blog post

    Thank you for reading. I appreciate your feedback. Please share your thoughts.

  • Rainbow Cat’s Outdoor Adventure

    Rainbow Cat’s Outdoor Adventure

    This week at the Carrot Ranch, Charli Mills challenged writers to In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story about a cat named Rainbow on an outdoor adventure. Rainbow is any cat of any identification. What would draw a cat outside? Go where the prompt leads!

    Interestingly, this isn’t the first time Charli has challenged us to write about a cat named Rainbow.

    In February 2020, she challenged us to write a story about a library cat named Rainbow who escapes. That prompt was followed up with another the next week to write a story that includes the open road.

    I quite liked the idea of a library cat named Rainbow. I believe in the importance of access to libraries for everyone — be it a school, local or national library. A rainbow library cat gives the feeling of a place that is warm, welcoming, comfortable and magical.

    I support the organisation Students Need School Libraries and am perplexed and dismayed by the current trend to close school libraries. I don’t understand how we can develop lifelong learners if they don’t have access to the tools to help them research what they want to know as well as books to read for enjoyment. Research tools include books as well as digital resources.

    I also support the wonderful organisation Library For All, an Australian not for profit organisation with a mission to “make knowledge accessible to all, equally” through a digital library of books that is available free to anyone anywhere in the world. The focus is on providing high quality, engaging, age appropriate and culturally relevant books to children in developing countries and remote areas. I am delighted to have donated more than ten books to the collection, two of which are already published. While the digital books are available free, print copies can be purchased from Amazon.

    I thought that, if you haven’t already or may have forgotten, you may like to read my original two stories in response to Charli’s previous prompts. To save you going back to read them, which you are welcome to do of course, I include them here for your convenience. Click on the title to read the post.

    This is my response to the first prompt:

    The Library Cat

    The library cat is fatter than fat.

    She sits by the door on the welcome mat.

    She greets the readers as they come in —

    Nods her head with a welcome grin.

    Sometimes she’s in. Sometimes she’s out.

    She’s especially quiet when a reader’s about.

    She sits so still you can see her purr

    When the reader strokes her rainbow fur.

    She’s heard every story there is to be told.

    Even the classics never grow old.

    But read her stories of adventures rare

    She twitches her whiskers, “I’ve been there.

    No need of a cape. Reading books is my escape.”

    …

    This is my response to the second prompt:

    Looking for Love

    Rainbow Cat clawed through the rubble. One by one she pulled out the survivors — Little Red Riding Hood, Little Miss Muffet, The Gingerbread Man; even Wolf who promised to behave.

    “Where are we going?” squealed the Three Little Pigs as they piled onto the bus.

    “Where children will love us, like before.”

    For many, this was their first time beyond the covers of a book. As the bus roared down the open road, they peered through the windscreen and out the windows, dreaming up new adventures yet untold.

    Spontaneously, they burst into a chorus of On the Road Again.

    …

    After writing the first Rainbow Cat episode, I developed it into a picture book manuscript. It has undergone a few revisions and suffered a few assessments, but so far no luck with publication. It needs more work still. One day …

    This time, I thought I’d go in a slightly different direction with a new cat named Rainbow and an outdoor adventure unrelated to the others. I hope you like it.

    Rainbow Cat’s Outdoor Adventure

    Right on cue, the tabby sprang into the yard as the children tumbled out, scattering to various activities. Some stopped for cuddles before choosing. One picked it up, determined it would be his for the day. Preferring to be master of its own decisions, with a wriggle and a scratch, the cat leapt from arms into pots of liquid colour. The fingerpainters squealed as they became the canvas for the unintentional artist. Rainbow hands grabbed the cat scratch-scrambling on masterpieces spread to dry. The cat hissed and bounced away to safety as the children chanted, “Rainbow cat! Rainbow cat!”.

    Thank you blog post

    Thank you for reading. I appreciate your feedback. Please share your thoughts.

  • Saddle Up Saloon; Chattin’ With Norah Colvin

    Saddle Up Saloon; Chattin’ With Norah Colvin

    I had a great chat with my fellow Ranch-hand, writer and educator, D. Avery over at the Saddle Up Saloon at the Carrot Ranch. We discussed my favourite topics – children, education and writing. Not your usual saloon fare, eh? A bit dry for Kid and Pal too.