How cool does this book sound!?!

Yesterday, while pleading for more advice on my Mother's Group project, one of my followers Mary J suggested I do a one-chapter-per-family kind of thing, and told me about a book called The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman. So I looked it up for inspiration and it sounds AMAZING. It's set in a newspaper office and follows the stories of each staff member from the editor in chief down to the lowly copy editor and each person's story is told in one chapter, which all interweave with each other and come to an end with a "firecracker of discovery".
The review is in the New York Times... read it!

More on the Mother's Group

So for some reason Blogger won't let me comment on my own blog, so to add to yesterday's post, it's really the structure of the thing I'm struggling with.

I'm trying to decide whether to tell the story in order from start to finish in a novel-type format, but then there are so many different scattered memories over the 36 people in the group.

Or should I go family by family?

Or generation by generation (there's four different generations born within two years of each other)?

Or scatter the memories through a novel-type format?

Or do one page per person?

And then there's the "extras" (new spouses/step kids etc) who have unofficially joined the group over the years as a couple of marriages broke up and people remarried.

Maybe looking at some old photos might give me inspiration... hhmm

I suppose I just need to start asking everyone if they're in, which is a bit nerve-wracking because even though they're all like family, some of them may think it's a dumb idea... lol.

So thanks for your comments and keep them coming!

Sarah xo

New project idea: Advice needed!

Hello everyone, hope you all had a great weekend. I for one feel like I haven't sat down in days - kids are so exhausting!

So I need some advice. I have this idea that I don't know what to do with.

When I was a baby, my mum joined Plunket (for those non-New Zealanders, Plunket is a support service for mothers). One of the things Plunket did back then was get groups of mothers together who had babies born around the same time and they got together for coffee, playdates etc. Most mother's groups dissolve after a few years once life gets busy and more babies are born, but in my case, our mother's group continued. The oldest of the 23 kids are turning 23 years old this year and we're still going strong. Instead of coffee and playdates, however, the parents do all sorts of things together like go on crazy holidays and cycle around the country.

So I want to write a book about it. There's already been a book written about Plunket to celebrate 100 years, so I think my idea has a chance.

We all get together at least three times a year for significant birthdays like 21st's and 50th's, and I had the idea to write a book after going to one of the 21st's a couple of weeks ago - this one was my brother's best friend and I've always seen him as my second little brother.

The mother's in the group are mums to all of us. If one of us gets in trouble and our mother isn't there to help us, there will always be one of them there. For example, about a year ago, my partner and I went on an organised two-day cycling trip called Big Coast and a couple of the mothers group parents went as well (as their own group, not with us). On the first day before lunch, I went down a steep gravel road too fast and fell off my bike, and was rewarded with cuts and grazes on my knees, elbow and face. I got up and kept going, with an embarrassing plaster (band aid) on my chin and I arrived at the lunch spot a little worse for wear. The mother's group mums saw me getting patched up by the first aid guys and came over straight away to give me "mummy hugs" and make sure I was okay.

As for the friendships between the kids, we all have our best friends in the group and whenever we see each other at the many, many parties, there's hugs all round and instant, non-awkward conversation. They're all like ready-made friends who will never, ever not be friends.

Although some people have left over the years, the core of the group remains strong. I think the most special thing about us is that out of 23 kids, not one of us has got pregnant, died, been arrested or disowned their family. In a time when so many families are breaking up, or not even marrying in the first place, our story is a breath of fresh air - reminding people of the importance of family.

I think it's a story that needs to be told, but where to begin? Thoughts?