1 February 2003

I have some very good news. Our favourite character Mrs Wishy -Washy is now out in her own 32 page picture book. I'm sure she's happy about that, As you know, she's not exactly a tiny woman, and I've often wondered how she feels about being in books of 8 or 16 pages. In a big picture book, the animals have a chance to run free - and that's exactly what they do. Why do they run? Ah! They have had too much tubbing and scrubbing. Where do they go? To the city! Can you imagine what happens to them?

Liz Fuller the illustrator and I had fun with three adventures for the cow, the pig and the duck, but I am sure you can think of more. Why don't you have a big think session about this? If you were a cow or a pig or a duck, what adventure and danger would you find in the city? Suppose you go into a department store - how would you feel on an escalator? In an elevator? What would you do in a restaurant? A movie theatre? A beauty shop? Who would rescue you?

In the new picture book, it is Mrs Wishy-Washy who comes to the rescue in her old rattly truck. If you want to read what happens, the story is called Mrs Wishy-Washy's Farm and it is published by Philomel Books, New York. Liz Fuller has done wonderful pictures. I laugh every time I look at them.

The question everyone asks authors is, "Where do you get your ideas from?"

I usually know the answer but with the first Mrs Wishy-Washy book, the ideas seem to come from nowhere. It was a cold day and I had filled the bathtub with hot water, scented bubbles and me! As I was lying there, swishing the water about, I thought to myself, Wishy-Washy, Wishy-Washy. At once, this scrubbing lady and some animals jumped into my head - and there was my complete story! I didn't even have to think! I was so excited, I jumped out of the bath, put on a robe and rushed out to the kitchen to write it down.

But I should know that stories do not come out of "nowhere." They always come out of experience, our own or something we have seen or heard. It was years before I connected Mrs Wishy-Washy with my own childhood.

When I was young, we lived for a while in a house that had no electric power. Every day, my two younger sisters and I had cold water washes. You can be sure they were quick! Once a week, our parents heated a big copper full of water in the yard and then carried the hot water in buckets, to a tin tub set in front of the kitchen stove. My sisters and I had to play outside while our parents had the first bath. When they were finished, we were called in - three little girls in a tin tub exactly like Mrs Wishy-Washy's tub.

We loved playing in the hot water, but the fun ended the moment our mother came in with a wash cloth in one hand and a bar of yellow soap in the other. How we hated that scrubbing. Ears! Necks! Knees! If we yelled, we could be sure that the soapy cloth found its way into our mouths.

That experience had been in my memory for so long, that it had been buried out of sight. It popped up suddenly in the form of a story, and I thought it had come from nowhere.

If you need to write a story and you can't think of anything to write about, do look in that wonderful library of ideas - your memory. You have so many stories there, and you can always change them as you wish. That's the great thing about being a writer. You can make sad endings happy. You can make dull experiences exciting. You can be as creative as you like with your memories. My mother was no more Mrs Wishy-Washy than I was a cow ( although cow is in my name ) but you can see how the story is connected with my childhood experience.

What can you do with your memories?

Happy writing, happy reading, and love from your friend,

Joy Cowley