Celebrating Charlotte Haptie by Sandra Horn
Granny Grabbers by Charlotte Haptie There are many reasons for writing, but perhaps the most important (and only legitimate?) one is joy. The joy of creating the story, the poem, the essay from your own store of words. The joy of knowing that the work is as you want it to be, the pattern of the words has fallen right, the arc of the narrative is pleasingly as you planned. There’s nothing else like that feeling. From time to time, someone unearths a notebook or diary from a forgotten cupboard or box in the attic, and discovers a treasure, the writings of someone, perhaps long gone, never meant for publication – created for the joy of creating. For most of us, however, the next step in the creating is to share it, and to that end, we enter the devious and dangerous world of publishing, without even a ‘Beware of Crocodiles’ sign to guide us. From time to time, someone I do not know, or know slightly, or is the friend of a friend, says the dreaded words, ‘I’ve written/my mother-in-law...