Kate Baggott's Blog: Cornfields of the Sea - Posts Tagged "finnegan-and-grandfather-cheng"

In December 2012 I won the America's Next Author Competition with a story called Finnegan & Grandfather Cheng.

In 2009, another Finnegan story called Finnegan at the Pioneer Graveyard, won the Dylan Days Creative Writing Contest.

A smart writer might conclude from these events that readers like 17 year-old Finnegan and the other characters I've been writing this series of stories about. A smart writer might write more Finnegan stories, or at least edit the stories she has on file and give readers what they actually like.

I am obviously not a smart writer. I have a streak of contrariness that insists readers should just like whatever I feel like writing...even if I haven't made those characters especially likable.

Luckily, I am not just a writer. I'm a mother whose kids have not taken to reading like ducks take to water. I'm also a teacher/instructor/lecturer whose students have always faced different kinds of challenges than I have personally. Fortunately, my kids have forced me to read books like the Captain Underpants Series and to learn how to deal with reading resistance.

Fortunately, I've taught people who don't speak English and been forced to learn to simplify my overwrought vocabulary.

Fortunately, I'm always broke due to the time I've dedicated to parenting, teaching, being contrary and writing instead of just making money.

My life choices mean I have to seek out opportunities that combine my four life interests. One opportunity I found recently is the Story Share Contest, The contest was designed to create materials for beginning readers. By beginning readers, the contest sponsors mean teen and adult readers who are confronting literacy issues to become better readers. As a parent and as an educator, that is something I have to support.

It actually inspired me to adapt another Finnegan story for the occasion. If I've done it properly,Finnegan, His Old Man and Uncle Reeve should appeal to beginning readers and Finnegan's other fans alike.

And, if not, I'll just go back to being contrary.

Before I became obsessed with my local school board election, I outlined a plan for a global story-telling experiment. One of the things I did this weekend was get it moving!

Volunteers in 9 countries, 3 US states and three provinces agreed to let me leave postcards bearing their addresses lying around cafes, libraries and other public areas to see if complete strangers will mail them off. Cards will be left as far away from their destinations as possible. As volunteers receive their cards, they'll send me messages & give me the text on the back of the cards they've received. I'll then post the text of the story right here as it returns home! Let's see if all 30 cards are returned over the next few months. Right now, I've put the card number, its point of departure & its destination with a few story passages that didn't fit on post cards.

The Only Organic Yogurt Guru in the World

card #1Sent to: Sweden Headed toward: Ontario, Canada

card #2Sent to: Ontario, Canada Going toward:England, UK Status: ARRIVED

Obviously, if my issues are my parents' fault, the old men's issues were caused by my grandparents.

card #3Sent to:Sweden Going toward:Prince Edward Island, Canada STATUS: Arrived

Unfortunately, they’re dead and the issues between my father and his brother have not improved.

card #4Sent to:Abu Dhabi, UAE Going toward: Ontario, Canada STATUS: Arrived

My sisters have suggested that I might have something to do with problems between the old men.

They might have a point.

card #5Sent to: Hawaii, USA Going toward: Ontario, Canada STATUS:Arrived

Uncle Reeve wants me to come and work for him. It’s an on-going theme. He wants me to take over the trading firm.

card #6Sent to: England, UK Going toward:Ontario, Canada

card #7Sent to:Abu Dhabi, UAE Going toward:Ontario, Canada STATUS: Arrived

Uncle Reeve wants me to leave my father’s comfortable wealth, and even more comfortable couch, for stratospheric riches.
“Come on,” he says. “Come be one of the boys.”

card #8Sent to:Ontario, Canada Going toward: Germany STATUS: Arrived

It would be a more attractive offer if he didn't always sound like he was begging me to be his substitute son.

“Go make some friends your own age already, Uncle Reeve,” I tell him. I try to pretend I’m being sarcastic so I don’t hurt his feelings.

card #9Sent to:Scotland, UK Going toward:Ontario, Canada

card #10Sent to: Scotland, UK Going toward:Ontario, Canada

That tells you how the mind of a man who has dedicated his career to Organic Yogurt functions.

card #11Sent to: England, UK Going toward: Ontario, Canada

card #12Sent to: England, UK Going toward: Hawaii, USA

I am talking about the fear of not being rich enough.

card #13Sent to: Hawaii, USA Going toward: Ontario, Canada

card #14Sent to: Norway Going toward: Ontario, Canada

card #15Sent to: West Australia Going toward: Ontario, Canada

Uncle Reeve was once just like my father. He came of age and took a look at his bank balance too. The numbers he saw were the same ones my father saw, but Reeve believed he needed a little more.

Of course, his family would always have a big house furnished with comfy couches, with a bright kitchen and a dishwasher.

card #16Sent to: Germany Going toward: Hawaii, USA

card #17Sent to: West Australia Going toward: Alberta, Canada

card #18Sent to: Norway Going toward: Ontario, Canada Status: ARRIVED

What is wealth for if one cannot share a chlorinated lane with the grocery store butcher, a retired line man and a city councilor three mornings a week?

card #19Sent to: Ontario, Canada Going toward: Abu Dhabi, UAE Status: ARRIVED

Why put in a pool to call your own when you can be part of a community? My father swims with his friends. He swims with the world!

card #20Sent to: England, UK Going toward: Oregon, USA

card #21Sent to: Ontario, Canada Going toward: England, UK Status: ARRIVED Text:

He’s got one of those “personal indoor lap pools” with a motor that creates a current for him to swim against. It’s a treadmill for swimmers.

It’s a toy. It’s a toy other people might admire and that is how the mind of man who has dedicated his life to the stock market works.

card #22Sent to: Ontario, Canada Going toward: West Australia STATUS: Arrived

Uncle Reeve was once just like my father. He came of age and took a look at his bank balance too. The numbers he saw were the same ones my father saw, but Reeve believed he needed a little more.

card #23Sent to: Ontario, Canada Going toward:Sweden Status:ARRIVED

If my father was a man freed by family net worth, Uncle Reeve became a slave to the challenge of making more than his forefathers had created.

card #24Sent to: Germany Going toward: Virginia, USA

card #25Sent to: Abu Dhabi, UAE Going toward: Ontario, Canada Status: ARRIVED

Then, the stress from all the financial risks he was taking became so great that he needed custom-fitted black-out blinds on all of his windows so that he could fool his body into believing that the sun rose and set according to breaks in the trading day.

card #26Sent to: Germany Going toward: Ontario, Canada

card #27Sent to: Norway Going toward: Ontario, Canada

card #28Sent to: Ontario, Canada Going toward: Scotland, UK Status:ARRIVED

There was Big Sexy Strawberry with a kick. It is made with homemade jam, real Ontario ginseng and royal jelly. It was the first Canadian Organic Yogurt to break into the Asian market.

Later, there was Beat the Blues, blueberry and St. John’s wort Organic Yogurt. Sure, the anecdotal reports that eating Organic Yogurt could cure depression upset the medical establishment and generated media controversy. It also made a lot of unhappy people feel better.

Being a “financial genius” like my Uncle Reeve is a pretty big deal, but there is more than one in existence. Becoming the world’s only Organic Yogurt Guru, on the other hand, that’s really special.

card #29Sent to: Ontario, Canada Going toward: Norway STATUS: Arrived

Even if Uncle Reeve recovered from the whole "he's a father, but I am richer" thing, he never got over the "I'm one of 4 Canadian billionaires, but he's the only organic yogurt guru in the world" thing.

card #30Sent to: England, UK Going toward: Ohio, USA

The End