Auntie Pat

ABOUT

Location

Bicester Oxfordshire England

Born	11.5.1935

Gender

Female

Member

Standard

Joined

November 2007

Interests

gardening, writing, drawing,painting,reading,crafts

Auntie Pat spent over 30 happy years as a library assistant in Co. Down. Northern Ireland. She took great pleasure in the work with children, reading to pre school children at the 'Story-Time' sessions, and with school classes and groups from children's organisations and school summer schems during holiday periods. She also enjoyed doing the children's displays in the library especially at Christmas, and the crft sessions organised occasionally for the younger children.
At her son's suggestion She began to write seriously as a distraction after she was widowed, mostly to express the sadness and grief. This was very theraputic and the range of subjects widened. She began making up stories as a child, but this had faded into the background. Over the past 20 years she has written many stories and poems, when her grandchildren were young she used to read them onto tapes and her son said they were a great way of keeping his son and daughter amused when they were on long car trips. Her nephews and nieces and friend's children have also liked the tales. Now she has a third grandchild and is retelling some of those stories and writing new ones.She spent a week at a summer school on a course 'Writing for Children.' It was enjoyable, but didn't really teach her anything she hadn't already learned from books. The students worked well together and enjoyed it. However the tutor's last words told them that they had all excelled, but to realise that there was more chance of winning the lottery than finding a publisher! So she no longer wastes money on return postage to editor's who apparently rarely read unsolicited manuscripts. Or paying fees to be told she was wasting her time. Her reward has been the pleasure of the children she has read her stories to.
She likes to draw and paint (not very well). Likes dogs, walks her son's two whenever he's away, and adopted her sister's cat three years ago when she went abroad to live. The cat is now 22!

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