Be Careful What You Wish For, Exactly…

This long weekend, I really wanted to go to Brisbane for Contact 2016. I know, first world problems, right? Contact 2016 was the 55th Australian National Speculative Fiction Convention and many many talented and lovely writers attended. As for me… finances! I’ve loved going to speculative fiction festivals ever since my dear friend and very clever editor Abigail Nathan of Bothersome Words introduced me to them back in 2011. To be surrounded by so many like-minded people – it feels like coming home. And when you move countries you really come to value that feeling, even more so when you work alone.

My children, on the other hand, really wanted me home this long weekend AND not working. I love it when they enforce no-working periods for me because it shows they care and they get creative with it too. One school holidays they stuck these post-it notes on my computer so I wouldn’t work after they went to sleep – if I did I’d get a ‘bad mark’ in the grid:

This long weekend, they then stuck this big guy in my seat and demanded he stay there until Tuesday.

Fair enough! Especially since I could always work from here (and in fact had to for a couple of hours on Saturday to finish a book layout for a client)!

Luckily the kids didn’t notice because they went to help Daddy with the weekly grocery shop. And apart from that, I have stayed off the computer and I’m so glad… When you work from home it becomes hard to ever switch off. You can always do that little bit extra to make things easier for yourself the next day / week (and in my case I always need it easier so I can get to writing my own stories!). Periods of enforced no-work, however, give me the opportunity to re-learn how to be in my home and relax. If I’d gone to Brisbane, I wouldn’t have re-learnt that. And I do keep forgetting, like a colour that has no name.

Did you know that ancient civilizations didn’t really notice the colour blue because they had no name for it? See here:

The first colours most civilizations identify are black and white, followed by red, then green and yellow. Blue is usually last, perhaps because it’s not an easy colour to render with paint or dye, and so many ancient cultures prized the colour blue – it was rare and so expensive, and came to be associated with royalty and divinity. It’s part of human nature to want what you can’t have!

Which is why when my 10-year-old asked all of us this weekend what super powers we’d have if we could have any, I assumed the question was the start of a game and naturally picked things I could never have:

• a healthy immortality
• the ability to control objects
• the ability to read minds

I thought these were the best powers as, combined, they’d make me more or less invincible.

Not so.

Combined, they make me a monster! What I didn’t know was that my son intended to use our answers to create ‘cards’ that might battle against each other, like Pokemon. And yes, I am more or less invincible, with ‘out of control’ powers. I have a ‘Pick, Throw, Boom!’ ability, and a control shield. I can explode people’s minds, control their minds, and stop my opponents in their tracks. I am also a ‘Mind Mummie’! That doesn’t sound so good! It doesn’t look good either:

‘Mind Mummie’

Before I knew this was what my son was doing, he asked if I’d use my powers for good or bad. Of course I said ‘good’. I only wanted to read minds as a self-defence mechanism. I only wanted to control objects so I could stop things harming my family. And I only wanted to live forever because I’m so grateful for my life and everything in it. I didn’t want to be an immortal emperor of evil!

She’s good at controlling!

Of course, if I think about it, someone with powers like these might start off being good, but the temptation to be lazy (I’ll just move that chocolate bunny from the kitchen into the lounge without having to lift a finger), mind-controlling (I know what you’re thinking so can now manipulate you into doing what I want), and bitter (everyone I love dies anyway so what’s left to love about life?) would undoubtedly become overwhelming. Even with the best intentions, I might not persevere!

‘Mind Mummie’ sounds a little too like an ancient evil for me, so I think I’ll rethink.

Maybe the best power of them all is to appreciate what you have?

Who needs the colour blue when you have delicious children who want to spend time with you? Who needs to live forever when now is enough? Who needs more time to write when every day you’re creating not just your own adventures but also two childhoods? (Um, well, actually…)

‘Mind Mummie’ may be powerful, if not invincible. But when I think about it I’d rather just be mummy.

PS. If you could have any super power, what would it be? Let me know in the comments below or on social media somewhere… 🙂