Essay by Luke Foster
“People on the outside think there’s something magical about writing, that you go up in the attic at midnight and cast the bones and come down in the morning with a story, but it isn’t like that. You sit behind the typewriter, and you work, and that’s all there is to it.” – Harlan Ellison
I am in the proof-reading stages of getting my first book published in London. It’s been interesting as only about half of the essays I have written in the past year and a half and a few from a brief patch in 2014 have made it into my book. Admittedly the best part of writing my book was the flow of consciousness writing style. The constant proof reading is a lot less interesting. Most of the essays I have written since submitting my manuscript have made it onto my website in the essays section.
People ask me when I tell them I am writing a book: is it fiction or non-fiction? My answer is that it is a book of essays about social issues such as looking at people who are trying to reduce global poverty and how we can save the environment. I don’t think I have the answers, but I think I research both men and women who do.
I named my book after my mother Maria Foster who died about a month and a half ago. I feel that mothers love is the best way to feel connected in the world and to how to nurture each other and nurture the planets habitats both on and off land.
I quite often google quotes to back up the arguments in my essays and the most frequently quoted person I use in my essays are those by the Dalai Lama.
“Calm mind brings inner strength and self-confidence, so that’s very important for good health.” Dalai Lama
I find that the Dalai Lama talks about many serious issues facing the world and how we as a human race can step up to the plate, so the world has a sustainable future. However, he is not political but rather more wise or perhaps spiritual.
I haven’t quoted the intellectual Edward de Bono much but the ideas I have encountered by googling his quotes are very interesting too. My friend bought me the Six Thinking Caps book by De Bono at Kinokunya bookstore in Sydney, but I was in a giving mood, and I think I gave it to the nurses at mums nursing home to thank them for looking after her. I wish I read it.
“Creativity involves provocation, exploration and risk taking. Creativity involves “thought experiments.” You cannot tell in advance how the experiment is going to turn out. But you want to be able to carry out the experiment.”
― Edward de Bono, Six Thinking Hats
I agree strongly with this quote by Edward de Bono. I think creativity involves risk taking and I don’t have my whole essays mapped out meticulously but rather start with a title that I usually come across while beach walking and then just let the rest flow out of me, so my conscious and unconscious mind are interwoven.
Since my mother has passed, I have been trying to become my own mother and nurture my own self and find my own Zen.
“I wanted to raise children infused with love, empathy, happiness, resilience, security, courage, compassion, and connection, with a radar for right and wrong and an innate sense of self (and I do) then I had to get with the program. ‘We”
― Jacinta Tynan, Mother Zen
I am coming from the son’s perspective looking up at my mother but this quote by Jacinta Tynan comes from the mother’s perspective looking down on their child.