Archives for posts with tag: creative writing
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

What are you doing?

March 3, 2013 //
10

mouse aid

Mouse was back this morning, all by herself. I was very surprised as she is the one who loves company and organising meetings. She thrives on being busy and Sunday is usually the busiest day of the week for her. But this morning she was very subdued.

“So you are all back from your retreat then?” I asked.

“No, it is just me! I needed a break. This lot is so disorganised. Grrr. I can’t stand it. The discussions go round and round in little circles and we will never agree on a workable solution.” These frustrating words were so out of character. Mouse thoroughly believes there is always a win-win solution, you only have to find it.

“What are you actually trying to do? Don’t you think you should talk to me? Whether you like it or not, we are shackled together. I am still your artist…!”

“That is the problem. It is pretty much about you” she blurted out. “We are very concerned about you!’

“Concerned? About me?” I was surprised. “What have I done now?”

“We think you have too much on your plate and you take on more and more!” Then she reminded me what I have committed myself to over the next few months. Not only am I writing the new book about Lou, the love sick puppy, but I will have to prepare the exhibition and I am doing a stop motion film with some friends. All this is happening while we have some major building going on. “And I don’t even want to mention your work situation” she finished with a very worried look in her face.

“Ah yes, I just have lost one of my jobs, that is a fact of life. I will have to fill the void somehow, but let this be my problem not yours.”

“We have the feeling that because you spread yourself too thinly, the quality is suffering! One can tell your heart isn’t in it as it was in the beginning.”

“That is a bit unfair! I really look after you, don’t I?” Though I had to concede, it is a nuisance that my studio is packed up and I can’t make any new puppets for the time being.

“The zing is definitely gone!” Mouse stated matter-of-factly.

“Love changes over time. You can’t expect that we will be on our honeymoon forever.” I replied defiantly.

“We know that. But it is still sad and we want to help you find your old self. We want to make sure that you love us for a long time to come.”

It was so sweet of Mouse to say that and I had to give her a big hug.

Tags , , , , , , , , , , ,
Categories Art, Creative Writing, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships, Social Network

Another story

March 2, 2013 //
17

philosopher cleaning

This morning we received another story for the competition. This time from our longstanding friend Arindam in India. He had exams and only got round to writing the story yesterday. He tells us how the image came about on a lovely spring day.

Unfortunately the Dedes are still missing and I can’t share my excitement with them. But I hope you all have a look. Don’t forget you can still write something about the image. The deadline is tomorrow (the rules are here).

I received a concerned question from Leopoldine asking what the skull in yesterday’s post was. It is nothing malicious, just a cow’s head I found when I rambled through the woods. The cow certainly died of old age. We don’t have predators in New Zealand that could be dangerous for animals the size of a cow. We don’t have venomous snakes and only one rare type of venomous spider. So life is pretty safe here. (Though I should add there was a fatal shark attack on Auckland’s West Coast last week. The first one in 37 years.)

This morning I finally made my way to the bottom of the garden and found Philosopher doing chores on his boat.

“Where are all the others?” I asked.

“With the builders in the house it was too noisy. We were only fighting and everybody got more and more agitated. No way we could have made any decisions. So Harvey invited all of us to his new burrow on the mountain top!”

“And why are you here and not with the rest?”

“I can’t stand decisions by committee. When you try to please everybody you will always end up in the middle of the road!”

“Tell me, what are they trying to do anyway?”

“I can’t reveal that. I have no mandate for it. You will have to wait!”

“When are they coming back then?”

“Who knows… When they are ready!” Philosopher looked at me and added “Didn’t you say earlier in the week we will quickly find out who needs whom more?”

Tags , , , , , , , , , , ,
Categories Art, Competition, Creative Writing, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships, Social Network

Getting irate

March 1, 2013 //
8

irate

If the Dedes have an issue, they send Devil to have a serious talk with me. I expected him to come around last night but he didn’t show up. I still don’t know what happened in the meeting and being left out of the loop makes me increasingly concerned.

When I have a problem with the Dedes I usually go and see Philosopher and pour my heart out. He is a very level-headed guy and even though he is only watching from the sidelines he always seems to know what’s going on. He is very good in figuring out the real issues. Even if you don’t like it, he can tell you the most awkward truth and you will still be okay with it. Sounds like the perfect puppet –  one you want to have around all the time. But no, he has one big  downside unfortunately. He isn’t funny at all. Gossip, irony, jokes… all the ingredients that help you cope with life are totally lost on him.

He lives at the end of my garden in a derelict boat and only comes up to the house occasionally to catch up with the rest of the Dedes. But I meet him once a week on Wednesday mornings for a walk. He sort of acts as my shrink. We have great  insightful conversations and then I am set for the week to come, until we meet again. Unfortunately he couldn’t make our morning walk this week for obvious reasons. He too was is this silly meeting. I really would have expected him to tell the other Dedes he can’t miss our weekly appointment. But no, the Dedes were obviously more important to him than I was. I was very disappointed as I had to go for my walk on my own.

Without Philosopher my thoughts were going round and round in little circles and rather than being relaxed, I came home in a bit of a state, thinking the entire Dede World is conspiring against me. At this stage the Dedes were still in their meeting and I went to work and then to sports.

When I came home on Wednesday night they had all left. I couldn’t find them anywhere. The next day Devil didn’t show up like he usually does when there is an issue and it got too late and too dark to make my way to the end of the garden…

What am I going to do? What if they never come back?

Tags , , , , , , , , ,
Categories Art, Creative Writing, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships, Social Network

Now we missed it

February 28, 2013 //
0

robe

Yesterday was the day. The first anniversary of my blog. Unfortunately the protagonists were missing. What a sad situation. I couldn’t really celebrate, could I? Not without my Dedes?

I have to admit, when they went into their strategy meeting I was shocked to hear I wasn’t invited. My initial thought was I must convince them they really need me. But being forced to step away from my Dedes and keeping myself busy with other stuff I had neglected for some time, I realised they need to explore their own ways. In the end they will figure out they need me more than I need them.

Do they really think they can do away with their artist? I am quietly confident I know the answer.

Let’s face it, it is a power game. One day they are scared of a looming end because I don’t look after them well enough. The next day they feel so confident and cocky about their own ability. Convincing themselves they could do a much better job than me and they should do  away with me altogether.

I wish I wouldn’t get involved in their little games, but I am not super-human. For some reason or another I always end up in the thick of it.

I am not sure what happened, but last night when I came home from sports the door to their meeting room was flung wide open, light still blazing, and no Dede to be seen. I looked in all their usual hang-outs, but the only thing I could find was a discarded robe. They must have left in a hurry.

I know by now they have a habit of leaving in a huff, but they always come back.

While I am waiting, I want to remind our readers that our story-telling competition is still on until 4th March. I called it a competition for lack of a better word and because you can win a Dede book or postcards. Alien still wants to have a new background story :)

Tags , , , , , , , , , , ,
Categories Art, Competition, Creative Writing, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships, Social Network

Strategy meeting

February 26, 2013 //
0

do not disturb

Sorry, I can’t tell you much about the Dedes today. They left a sign on the door and went into lock-down. Of course I didn’t think it was for me and walked straight into the room. Woohoo, you should have seen them!

“Can’t you read?” Devil shouted at me.

“But… I live here. I have to get my…”

“Look, we’re having a strategy meeting. It will take all day. We have to nut out what we are going to do over the next year!” Mouse explained.

“Without me?” I asked very surprised. They can’t really make decisions without me, I thought.

“You wouldn’t be of any help. You are the worst planner on the planet. It drives us up the wall that you always just go with the flow.”

Cash Cow came to the door where I was standing like a possum in the headlights. I even had my hand still on the handle.

“We will tell you later what we came up with” she said and quietly shut the door in my face.

I didn’t dare interrupt them again and opted to go to work without breakfast. I have to warn you I will be very, very grumpy today.

Tags , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Categories Art, Creative Writing, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships, Social Network

First competition entry

February 25, 2013 //
2

mouse high five

Alien was indeed a bit too impatient. He had just left the room when the first story arrived. Written by his admirer Leopoldine from Austria, it’s a lovely long story in German recounting what happened when Alien was first beamed down to this place in the Dede World.

Mouse was truly delighted when the first story came in and she sends a big fat thank you to Leopoldine. Part of her delight was that she could stick it to Devil. Even though he is a very good mate of hers and she loves working with him, he can be a bit of a bully. Maybe it is a male thing – he truly believes he has the final say in everything and can get quite loud if he doesn’t get his way. He wasn’t a great fan of the story-telling competition. But Mouse stuck to her guns, trusting that Alien had come up with a good idea and believing she had good support from the rest of the Dedes, who – she sensed – were keen to try it.

Yesterday Mouse noticed that she might not have been totally clear with her rules. The story doesn’t need to be very long, it could also be a very short story, or even an extended caption. And everybody is invited to write, not just long-standing friends of Alien :). At the same time we don’t want to bully anybody into writing only because they are a long-standing friend. It is just an invitation to be creative. We are really curious what you make of us :)

You also can win the book ‘Hermit’s Web’ or 10 Dede puppet postcards. The rest of the rules you’ll find here.

Devil said to Mouse we shouldn’t exclude our Facebook fans either. Mouse doesn’t have much experience with Facebook and she  isn’t quite sure how it would work for them sharing their story with our blog friends. But of course if they want to do something they are very welcome as long as they let us know where to find their story.

Tags , , , , , , , , , , ,
Categories Art, Competition, Creative Writing, Digital art, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships, Social Network

First day of competition

February 24, 2013 //
4

mouse alien sush

“And, and, and…?” Alien asked excitedly when Mouse started up the computer this morning.

“What?”

“Do I have a new story?”

“Not yet!”

“What do you mean? Are you telling me nobody has written in?” Alien’s face dropped.

“I knew it will be a disaster” Devil interrupted. “We should have gone with my idea!”

“Give it time! It can take a little while to come up with a new story” Mouse replied calmly.

“Where I come from….” Alien started.

“Shssh.” Mouse put her hand over his mouth to quieten him. “you are not allowed to say anything until next week. You don’t want to influence anybody in their writing.”

“At least tell the readers they can find the rules for the competition in yesterday’s post!” Alien begged.

“C’mon, our readers are not thick!” Mouse replied and left it at this. “A bit of patience wouldn’t go amiss.”

Tags , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Categories Art, Competition, Creative Writing, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships, Social Network

Story-telling competition

February 23, 2013 //
6

alien competition

The anniversary is drawing closer and the Dedes are still trying to come up with a catchy idea to celebrate.  Mouse suggested writing  a summary of the highlights of last year. She loves writing and would be happy to do the extra work. But Devil couldn’t see how the readers could participate. This was the most important requirement – our readers should be able to take part. He suggested having a gallery of the best images on face book and asking the viewers to vote on which one was the best. This idea didn’t fly at all. Mouse pointed out that there are only 14 fans on face book, and anyway, the celebration was clearly about the Dede puppet blog being one year old.

Alien listened to their argument and said: “Why don’t we combine your two ideas? Look, we know that my photograph was the best one last year anyway.”

“Who says?” asked Devil. “I know a few images of me which are equally good!”

“Don’t start arguing again, Devil” Mouse begged. But Alien held his hand up and explained: “Leopoldine said so. She won the postcards in the Super Dede competition. One of the postcards had this photograph, and she told us that I am her absolute favourite.”

“So what do you want to do then? I can’t really see where you are going with this…”

“I didn’t like the story that went with the photograph” Alien continued. “Let our readers invent a new story for it.”

“Ha, that is so silly. You can’t just invent a new story. What has been, has been!” Devil laughed out loud.

“Can’t you? Where I come from we do it all the time. If you don’t like your history you just re-write it!

“That is rather an alien concept” Mouse said. “But why not give it a go?” All the Dedes present turned their heads towards me and waited for my approval. After all, it was my story in the first place. “Go for it” I said. “I think it is a brilliant idea. It’s definitely worth a try!”

Mouse made a few notes on her pad. She is not the most creative one, but she is really good in picking up ideas and seeing them through. “Okay” she said after a while and ripped out the page from her note pad to pin up on the wall. It outlined the rules for the competition. Mouse’s scrawly handwriting is difficult to decipher, so I’ll type out what she had written here:

We would like to invite all our friends to celebrate one year of Dede puppet blogging by having a story-telling competition.

Rules for the story-telling competition

Everybody who wants to take part should copy the image above onto their blog and invent a new story to go with it.

Please send us a link to your blog, so that the Dedes and all our fans can read your story.

First prize: an autographed copy of ‘Hermit’s Web’ the original Dede puppet book.

Second and third prize: One set of 10 Dede puppet postcards each.

The stories can be written in English or German. Should a German story win, we will translate and post it on this blog here for all our fans to read. If an English story wins, we will re-blog and translate it on our German blog.

Competition ends 4th of March 2013 (midnight NZ).

We are looking forward to your stories!

—

“Oh I am so excited, I am so excited” Alien danced around the table “I will get a new story!”.

“What happens if nobody takes part?” asked Devil

“We have at least tried!” Mouse replied.

Tags , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Categories Art, Books, Creative Writing, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships, Social Network

Tears of a clown

February 22, 2013 //
5

snippedy complaining

Snippedy, the clown, also had a suggestion for the anniversary. He wanted all the Dede puppets to have their own dedicated post. A post in which they are described in more detail. More than the two sentences on the “Characters” page, which he describes as a joke.

“This is too impractical” Detail said. “There are 46 Dedes. This would take more than a month.”

“It is easy for you,” Snippedy retorted. “You feature strongly in the story, but for me… I have been around since September and I have only been mentioned once or twice”.

“Hang on,” Devil pointed out. “You were one of the contenders for the ‘Super Dede competition’ before Christmas!”

“Yes” Snippedy admitted very subdued. “But I didn’t make into the finals. Absolutely nobody voted for me.”

“You should have been more active then” Harvey said. “You should have rustled up all your friends, like I did!”

Snippedy’s eyes got all watery when Harvey said this. We suspect it is a bit of a problem for him. He seems to be convinced he has no friends. True, the Dedes avoid him a little as he always tells the same stories, just like a broken record. When he first appeared they all laughed at his jokes. But once they had heard them for the third and fourth time, they weren’t quite as funny and their response was more a cringe than a laugh.

“What’s the use of being a Dede when you don’t get mentioned…” he said desolately. “I’ll tell you what, if there is an opening somewhere else, I will be the first one to hold my hand up to leave! Nobody will miss me anyway.”

“Cheer up!” Devil recommended, “Who wants to have a sour face around!”

Tags , , , , , , , , ,
Categories Art, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships, Social Network

One suggestion

February 21, 2013 //
4

deutsch Frauleins Art

I knew it, I knew it! The Dedes can’t make up their minds about what they should do for their anniversary. Even worse, they are quarreling over whose idea is best. They are not used to brainstorming I guess. They are poo-poohing each other’s ideas and at any one time, one or the other puppet is sulking because they think their opinions don’t get the respect they deserve.

Sure enough, last night Deutsch Fraulein visited me in a huff. Her idea was shot down in flames. Of course, she is convinced her idea is the most wonderful one and she tried to lobby me to take up her case. Deutsch Fraulein would really like to have a photo competition called “My Dede World”. All the Dedes would be eligible to take part and enter one photograph, an interpretation of what’s important to them as a Dede. The viewers could judge which photograph is the best. Needless to say, Deutsch Fraulein has recently taken up photography and is out and about with her camera all day long. It’s a typical trait of the newly converted: She is overdoing it a bit and is getting on everyone’s nerves.

She showed me one of her latest photographs. “So what do you want to say with this?” I asked

“I don’t know, it’s just pretty, isn’t it?”

“There’s more to photography than just snapping something that looks pretty!”

Tags , , , , , , , , , , ,
Categories Art, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Photography, Relationships, Social Network
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »