Fairy Small Letters

These darn wobbly teeth have been wobbling for months now and still no definitive movement! Pinkster is getting so frustrated, waiting for another coin and more importantly, a letter from the tooth fairy. 

During the first spate of lost teeth - sometimes two in a week, there was a lot of correspondence, drawings and pressed flowers exchanging hands.  So missing all that tooth fairy social interaction Pinkster has taken to leaving notes in the garden addressed the tooth fairy.  And to the tooth fairy's friends for that matter.

It often takes a while to get a response, since the fairies have to be flying over our place and notice the notes, in the dark, while avoiding the cats and the possums.

But still they manage these clever little things, and this tooth fairy although she's only a friend of 'our' tooth fairy (Alice) she replied...

Hello Lucie!        

 I’m sorry it has taken me so long to write back to you, I’ve been having a holiday and visiting my family in the Magical North.

Alice is indeed my very good friend, she’s very sweet, and it was Alice who has been saving your letter for me since she found it in your garden. She was flying past on the way to collect another little child’s tooth in the same area.

I love, love LOVE the pretty sun flower you drew for me and I think I might hang it up on my wall!  Alice loves it too.

I would love to be good friends with you too.             

Maybe if I’m not busy next time you lose a tooth, I can come with Alice to collect it. She did say that you seemed to have some more loose ones so that might not be long away.

By the way, do you like my typing? YES! I’m typing not writing! !

I have only learned how a short while ago. we have typing machines in the Fairy Library and I’ve been teaching myself in my spare time.  You write a bit on the  screen first and then the machine actually imitates your own handwriting while you type – its’ so cool.  (and so much n eater!)

Alice is good at typing but she likes to write everything by hand with that magic pen of hers  - when she has time that is..  I don’t like the pens because they’re still quite big for our hands and I have so much to say I get achy hands by the time I’ve finished!    Can you type?  I think it’s kind of hard when you first start trying.

Anyway I’d better go for now.

Take care,

Love Annabel xx

PS I found a big yellow letter for Alice, it just said Dear Tooth Fairy, but since she’s assigned to you (and your teeth- Ha Ha ) I guess it’s for her.

I hope you don’t mind that I took it to give to her. She will really be thrilled and your picture is super gorgeous. xx

This was that yellow letter..

 And fairy Alice, reliable as always replied too on that same almost transparently fine stationary they use...

Dearest Lucie,

Thank you for your lovely letter, Annabel found and brought to me. Such a pretty picture of you! Thank you so much!!!

I laughed at your idea about magic runners, that would be a great idea for those times we get caught in the rain and our wings get wet. You have no idea how that messes up the tooth collection schedule! 

So Anabel insisted this time, I go to the library and use the typing machines because she says my written notes are all wonky. I didn’t think they were so bad, maybe my lines aren’t very straight, but she’s right- the magic pens are hard to use if you really want neat writing.

And anyway it’s been a busy week for us, on account of it being so windy these past weeks!  Simply awful tyring to fly in the wind, but especially carrying coins, not to mention paper and magic pens!  I lost half my paper to a gust of wind just last week!

 One night I was so late and it was so windy, I had to hitch a ride on an owl.  Owls are really quite sweet and helpful when you ask nicely. And they are very strong flyers.

So how long do we fairies live? We don’t measure our years the way you do, but I suppose in human years, it would be maybe 300 or so?

So I have to wonder… are those wobbly teeth of yours every coming out?!?!
I’ve been waiting ages! I’m so glad you wrote to me anyway if I had to wait for a tooth much longer I would have to fly past and wobble them myself just to hurry things along so I could have a note from you. 

We’re actually not supposed to wobble children’s teeth- it’s breaking the rules. The boss says: “they have to come out when they’re good and ready!’

Also I must say, your cat is a bit scary!  I stay well away from your mum’s room when I come. Your dog I have met and he wagged his tail so much, it was like a fan and I got blown backwards. I had to flap my wings quite hard to get close enough to him to pat his nose! He’s a lovely boy and I don’t think he’d let the cat near me, but still…

Well as I said it’s a busy time because of all this crazy weather so I’d better get going.

Take care Lucie, and I look forward to your next tooth.

Lots of love

Alice  xxx

These letters are so tiny I have to wear seriously strong glasses. When Alice writes by hand I have to wear those glasses and hold a magnifying glass over the tiny page to read it at all!

I thought it was interesting the mention of The Magical North, which is a place mentioned in Jaclyn Moriarty's Colours Of  Madeline Trilogy books.  Maybe Jaclyn pulled the name from a childhood memory of her Tooth Fairy?  Perhaps that's where fairies come from - through cracks between our world and the Kingdom of Cello... 

I've been reading this first book, A Corner of White, to Pinkster and coming to the end, she was getting quite stressed to be leaving these wonderful characters and magical beings like the Butterfly Child.  But I've assured her I have the second book and now she's  a bit more relaxed about it.  But I must say sometimes we're reading well past bed time because the story is getting a bit too exciting - Pinkster's own gasps of revelation are often keeping her awake!  

Better still, a little bird told me that the third and final book will be out early next year. Yay!

I'm sure that the next question Pinkster asks the Tooth Fairy will be; 'Do you know any Butterfly Children?'

Born Supremacy

Three Sisters: 21 books; six international best-sellers; two Number-1-New York Times bestsellers and a multitude of literary awards..surely these authors were just born supremely talented.


This week’s author event at the Warringah Library was the second in my life.

The last author event I attended was  in 2009. That was Emma Tom talking about her then latest book Attack Of The Fifty Foot Hormones. I had a sickly toddler in tow, who succeeded in making it 'her'show, rather than the author's.

But this one I wasn’t going to miss: it was after-all the Moriarty Sisters!  <fanfare playing>

I adore them, not just as fabulously talented authors but also terribly nice women.  Especially Jaclyn Moriarty who is 50 shades of awesome and just so happens, used to be just my lovely next door neighbour .

I was told by the real estate agent who sold us the house;  “I think the woman next door  writes children’s books or something”. 

As I became friendly with my new neighbour, I thought I’d better take an interest and read at least one of her books; so during a week in Bali I got lost in Dreaming of Amelia.  
It was the most beautiful, intriguing and original story I’d read and I posted as much on Face Book. Immediately my Facebook page was bombarded with fan-spam, gratuitous use of exclamation marks and comments like ‘OMFG! Do you know Jaclyn Moriarty?!?!?’ JM? She’s amazing!’ ‘Oh , I LOVE her books!’.

There were more LIKE clicks than when I post pictures of the dog wearing wigs, and those are mighty popular (especially when he was Katy Perry).

Oh, I thought; seems  my friend Jaci-Next-Door is kinda famous, why am I always so slow on the uptake?  Well since then I’ve continued reading and relishing her books. And re-reading and re-relishing them. (I’m on my third run of A Corner of White)

Eventually I became curious about Liane’s books and Jaci recommended What Alice Forgot & The Hypnotists Love Story, both of which I read, feet up on the dashboard, totally shirking my duty to take some turns at driving the long way to and back from Melbourne.  

Back in Sydney I immediately downloaded The Husband’s Secret onto my E-Reader and did nothing else with my life or family until I’d devoured that one too.

So an author event with all three was not to be missed.

I text Jaci-Next-Door: I’m super super super excited: eeeeee

And Jaci being Jaci, never mind prepping before heading up to the podium: texts right back. ‘Nervous!’

It’s a fascinating and rare opportunity to hear three successful authors from the one family talk about their individual experience of the writing process.

Liane Moriarty apparently is a rough outliner. She’ll come up with a plot premise, adding bits and pieces of inspiration that  day to day life throws in her path, but still lets the story take its course. Jaclyn related a wonderful quip about describing to Liane her amazement at a twist in her book,: 'I couldn't believe when this happened',  and Liane responded; 'I know! Me neither!’

Jaclyn Moriarty is a planner: she plans her plot, her characters.  But responding to a question on this she told the audience for the most part her characters do as they’re told, but sometimes she might have to wrestle them back on track or occasionally let them wander off on their own.

Nervous she may have been but Jaclyn Moriarty is as charming and engaging speaking  as are her words on the page.

Mae West once said, “ Keep a diary, and someday it'll keep you”, and Nicola Moriarty’s latest book Paper Chains apparently grew from her own diarised (and blogged) struggle with post-natal depression.  

She explained how interesting and a little therapeutic it can be to take your own life dramas, your choices and turn them around on themselves in a big ‘what if’, to create a work of fiction that explores what might have happened.  Sort of like a Sliding Doors treatment I guess.  Like Nicola, I’m a diary keeper when times get tough, so Paper Chains is definitely next on my list. 

The next time these three appear on stage together, I’ll be there again.  Listening to the three of them relate stories of their family life growing up together is a treat in itself.  But the stories of their struggles to get published before success and the reality of writing fiction  for a living, is an eye opener for their fans and an inspiration for any aspiring writer.

I’m so very lucky to have that inspiration on tap walking back home from the school run and over the occasional cuppa. 
Jaclyn Moriarty, my very clever gifted friend, who’s taken more literary prizes than Venezuela has Miss World titles, will ever be in my mobile contacts as Jaci Next Door. 

It makes me smile to remember how much I liked her, long before I knew her last name.


If you 'd like to read more about these awesome authors:

Jaclyn Moriarty

Liane Moriarty

Nicola Moriarty