Wishing everyone a spring of kindness!
A privilege and hope
Formidable joy and awe – this is what fills you when you read brilliant creative writing from a pupil you are blessed to be teaching.
I cannot begin to explain how fascinating it is to float through a teenager’s creative story, relishing the fact that you see them naturally use language they acquired through reading and listening, and yet stamped it with their personal touch and weaved it into their plots and twists.
You can just feel how much they delved into their writing. You can count your blessings to have that ability shared with you, as a teacher and reader.
All I can hope for is that this talent does not drown into lazy mediocracy of rushed popular expression with no personal uniqueness.
#teaching #reading #joy
It was real!
On Friday, 20th October 2023, I was fortunate enough to have had a wonderful book launch for Možda stvarno, my second book in Croatian (English version available here: https://tinyurl.com/3adh8c8x).
It was a touching event, with so many dear friends, educators, parents, students and creative people present, as well as some wonderful music from the woman’s choir Benette and a young guitarist Vito K. and vocalist Iva J.
The feeling was pure bliss, filled with kindness, music, stories, memories and quality communication.
#books #Croatia #booklaunch #maybe4real
Forests are eternal
Looking upon my own work with a critical eye. Always. Yet lovingly. I absolutely love The Forest of Trees; it kept me up, consumed me, those characters felt alive and painfully, desperately eager to have their story told. Would I improve some things? There ia always room for improvement. Would I take it back? No, they would never forgive me.
#amwriting #novel #creativeprocess
An older post for The Forest of Trees… Also did my best there…
Just a #family, trying to live through the #urbanlegends and skeletons in closets everyone knows about… #darkfairytale #newrelease @Luludotcom #ebook https://tinyurl.com/yauhscy5
#paperback https://tinyurl.com/ybk2mgjd
Maybe? For real!
Time to update my website and other pages, because… Ta-da… My first book which now exists in its published form in both Croatian and English!
#newbook #shortstories #family #education
Your call(ing)
This is one of my favourite videos on creativity, on being yourself, on sharing and communicating your gifts. What I appreciate especially about it is that it surprised me to hear it from this actor, whom I’d always thought of as someone who had stayed in the shadows for so long, too long, for some weird reason.
I will always lovingly remember the scene of the ‘sweaty-toothed madman’ from The Dead Poets’ Society, when his teacher, played by R. Williams, gets that particular poetic image (and a whirlwind of emotions) out of Ethan’s bottled-up character. It was such a liberating moment in the movie, but perhaps even more so for me. It confirmed to me how important it is to communicate our emotions and ideas in any means available to us. It can be painful, risky, misunderstood, not lucrative. However, it is the only honest, powerful, essential force that sustains us all, both as individuals and as a community. Being yourself, walking your path. Even if it is ‘only’ (?) poetry. Finding our own, personal venue of communicating our gifts with the world, without any hidden agenda, just because it comes as breathing, as sustenance to us – that is so important. We owe it to ourselves and each other.
When I recognise that special moment with some learners, be they children or adults, when I feel that shift in them, that realization in them that we all need to communicate ourselves with each other in order to grow and help others grow…When I see them discover their channels of expressiveness… When I am able to help someone awake that inner giant within themselves, that is when I feel complete, purposeful, called and integral in life. Art and creativity help do this, and my vocation has so much to do with the art of words, the art of communication.
#art #teaching #creativity #communication
Progress, no matter how slow
Testing my laminator so I made a poster of some illustrations from Spikes for Hank. Funny how my writing seems to be existing in a parallel universe of sorts. It is just as close as it is distant from my everyday timeline. A quiet, yet constant background. Looking back at it, there are so many things I would probably do better now, but then again, if I had not started publishing then, maybe I never would. Funny how things turn out, right? No regrets. Proud of my learning curve. I may have become a slow learner over time, but I still learn.
#learning #noregrets #childrensbooks #writing #teaching
Spikes for Hank https://www.lulu.com/shop/anita-kovacevic/spikes-for-hank/paperback/product-23488487.html?page=1&pageSize=4
Diorama Craze
Vacationing and creativity have always gone hand in hand for me. I have gotten into this slight craze of turning tiny old boxes, various thingamajigs, collage and glue into dioramas. It will pass but for now it makes me happy, gives me that buzz of turning nothing into something. Will it work for something more? I hope so. My children have always challenged my creativity. I love them for it.
#diorama #recycle #reuse #creativity #meditation
Enjoyable newsletter? Yes, it exists.
What a refreshing realisation! There is a newsletter I actually enjoy! Mental? No, not at all.
You know that annoying feeling when your inbox gets overflowing with newsletters? I don’t know about you but I have a feeling I must have unsubscribed about 50 times more than I have subscribed to some, but never mind that.
I have just come to realise that I thoroughly enjoy receiving a newsletter by Jean Gill, author , enjoy it more than enough to post about it.
The newsletter is unobtrusive, charming, regular, not too personal and yet never detached, detailed, rich in content, elegant and recognisable in written and visual style. Not only do I admire and enjoy her fictional writing, but her newsletter as well.
Two things always truly stand out in all her work – her respect for her audience and love for her work! Absolute joy. Thank you for your hard work, Ms Gill! It is much appreciated.
Anita's Haven 