Tag Archives: positive stories

The Precious Plum ― an original fairytale by Jennifer Horn – #readilearn

10 Replies

Today it is my pleasure to introduce you to Jennifer Horn, author and illustrator of a delightfully nostalgic but contemporary fairytale The Precious Plum.

About Author-Illustrator Jennifer Horn

Jennifer Horn is a Brisbane-based freelance illustrator and budding children’s writer. Her debut picture book “The Precious Plum” was released in October 2021 amongst some very musical live book launches. She illustrated the cover of Anthology Angels’ children’s fundraising anthology, Once Upon a Whoops!: Fractured Fairytales and Ridiculous Rhymes (2021). Her short stories have appeared in each of Anthology Angels’ annual publications since 2018: It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas (2018), Spooktacular Stories (2019) and Tell ‘Em They’re Dreaming (2020). Her first Young Adult short story, Faulty Connection, was published in Rhiza Edge’s dystopian and sci-fi anthology, Crossed Spaces earlier this year. She was awarded a Highly Commended for her submission of middle grade illustrations at the 2020 CYA Conference.

With a background in Architecture, Jen draws on her love of stories and adventure to create whimsical illustrations in a Quentin-Blake-inspired squiggle style. She enjoys reading books over local community station Reading Radio, and playing keys, including the piano accordion.  She has also been part of Art Department teams on several Brisbane-based films, including Romance on the Menu on Netflix and The Umbrella on Amazon Prime.

About The Precious Plum

When a baker of magical goods for her village attempts to help her good friend the Gentleman, she finds an important ingredient goes missing in the process.

A tale for all who have unwittingly left a piece of themselves behind, The Precious Plum is a whimsical fairytale about finding that sometimes the things we are looking for are right where we left them.

What I like about The Precious Plum

The Precious Plum is a beautiful fable about love and kindness that will appeal to adults as well as to children, or to children as well as to adults.

I have read this book a number of times, and each time, I have been left with a sense of peace and contentment. It makes me want to pause and breathe in all of nature’s beauty, all the joys of the world. It is like a brief interlude stopping to smell the roses but through the words of a book.

Continue reading: The Precious Plum ― an original fairytale by Jennifer Horn – readilearn

an inspiring story of neighbours helping neighbours in the Townsville floods

#WATWB Helping neighbours in need

47 Replies

On the last Friday of each month, We Are the World Blogfest invites bloggers to join together in promoting positive news.

“There are many an oasis of love and light out there, stories that show compassion and the resilience of the human spirit. Sharing these stories increases our awareness of hope in our increasingly dark world.”

During the first weeks of this year, Australia has been hit by unprecedented and devastating weather events all over the country, including bushfires, droughts, drenching rain and floods. While these events cause heartbreak for many and will take countless years for full recovery, they also provide an opportunity for bringing out the best in people.

When the drought-stricken North Queensland city of Townsville was hit with a deluge, people quickly reached out to others in need, even as they waited for help themselves.

This month I am sharing an inspiring story of a Townsville family who opened their home to “more than 60 flood-stricken people and their pets … as they waited to be rescued from rising floodwaters”.

Click here to read the whole article.

If you would like to join in, please check out the rules and links below.

Guidelines

1. Keep your post to Below 500 words, as much as possible.

2. Link to a human news story on your blog, one that shows love, humanity, and brotherhood. Paste in an excerpt and tell us why it touched you. The Link is important, because it actually makes us look through news to find the positive ones to post.

3. No story is too big or small, as long as it Goes Beyond religion and politics, into the core of humanity.

4. Place the WE ARE THE WORLD badge or banner on your Post and your Sidebar. Some of you have already done so, this is just a gentle reminder for the others.

5. Help us spread the word on social media. Feel free to tweet, share using the #WATWB hashtag to help us trend!

Tweets, Facebook shares, Pins, Instagram, G+ shares using the #WATWB hashtag through the month most welcome. We’ll try and follow and share all those who post on the #WATWB hashtag, and we encourage you to do the same.

The co-hosts for this month are:

Sylvia McGrath
Peter Nena
Shilpa Garg
Inderpreet Uppal
and Belinda Witzenhausen.

Please pop over to their blogs to read their stories, comment and share.

Click here to join in and enter the link to your post. The bigger the #WATWB group each month, the greater the joy!

Thank you blog post

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

 

#WATWB Thank you SES Volunteers

29 Replies

Susan Scott and Debby Gies have alerted me to a new blog hop that aims to spread light, rather than negativity, across the world.

I thought this was a great opportunity to acknowledge the very generous work of the SES (State Emergency Service). These volunteers work tirelessly to give support to those who are affected by disasters such as cyclones, storms, floods, landslides, you name it.

This week has seen many in Queensland and New South Wales suffer from the disastrous effects of Cyclone Debbie which has wreaked havoc down much of the eastern coastline of Australia.

The SES volunteers have been there to assist people as the weather unleashed its fury, and in its aftermath.

While I am one of the fortunate ones who have not required their services personally, I greatly value the assistance they provide to our communities, and recognise the light that their generosity spreads in the world. Our communities would struggle to cope without their services. I find it hard to believe that the essential services these amazing people provide is done voluntarily.

Thank you, SES Volunteers, one and all, for your enormous generosity.

Susan Scott says:
Please join us if you would like to, and spread the word by adding your own personal story or some other enlightening event. Let’s set about diluting/dissolving the negativity around the world and bringing in the light. This is the link.