Tag: tea

Books as Prescription Medicine

Post author By Josephine Moon
Post date February 13, 2013

This is precisely why I write books: to make people feel good.

I love this story. From May this year, ‘Books on Prescription’ will begin in the UK, with doctors able to ‘prescribe’ a book to assist a patient and improve their mood. The books include both non-fiction and fiction, as well as poetry. It’s also hoped the scheme could help the struggling libraries. Win-win. How wonderful!

In the first couple of months after my baby was born, life was pretty insane in our house. Something I missed the most was reading and it was only when I began to learn how to get the reading time back into my life that I started to feel normal again. I always read before going to sleep, something that’s a very powerful mood producing activity for me. I literally feel stressed if I don’t have a good book nearby to delve into.

But it has to be the right kind of book. For me, there’s no point in reading something angst-ridden, violent, negative, sarcastic or miserable in order to feel better. Uplifting, comforting, engaging and fun–that’s what I want to read and that’s what I want to write.

My contemporary fiction novel, The Tea Chest, about three Australian women thrust together in a bid to sell tea to the English, will be out in 2014. And if you’re looking for something to make you feel good (a book that reads like a chocolate brownie tastes) then it might just be the book for you.

Read a book to feel better. Hooray!

Tags australian, book, books, books on prescription, brownies, chocolate, contemporary, English, fiction, non-fiction, novel, poetry, prescribe, tea, the tea chest, UK, write, writing

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The Writer’s Retreat Wrap-Up

Post author By Josephine Moon
Post date February 4, 2013

She works hard for the money… so hard for the money…

So this is how my writing retreat went:

Drinking tea and have a long soak in a clawfoot bath, all in the name of research

Stayed in a gorgeous wee house, ‘Amelie’s Petite Maison’ at The Spotted Chook in Montville.

All alone for first time since my baby was born eight months ago… very weird but not totally unpleasant.

Had to extricate a huntsman spider out of my wee house ALL BY MYSELF!! For the record, I don’t DO spiders. My husband does the spiders and snakes; I do the rodents. Such is the perils of being all alone. Spider relocated outside in good health; I aged about ten years.

Engaged in many long soaks in the clawfoot bath.

Drank copious amounts of tea.

Ate ~~chocolate~~ healthy food.

Had a massage.

Suffered through the Worst High Tea in History (apologies to my sister for being subjected to that). On the upside, it actually inspired a change in the scene I was intending to write and I think it’s a better scene now, so all not lost.

Drank a cocktail with my sister after the Worst High Tea in History to make up for said suffering.

Oh yes, and worked long hours and finished my latest draft of The Tea Chest, ready to hand over to my publisher. Hooray!

And can I say what a brilliant job my husband did of looking after our bubbalicious, the furry children and the house all by himself for three days. What a superstar! Thank you xx

All in all, a pretty great birthday treat 🙂

Tags high tea, montville, publisher, retreat, spotted chook, tea, the tea chest, writing

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The Awesomeness of Tea and Books

Post author By Josephine Moon
Post date December 12, 2012

Trust me, you don’t ever want to be the person who serves me a ‘pot of tea’ in a cafe only to bring out a teabag swimming in a tank of water.

“You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me" (CS Lewis) — “You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me” (CS Lewis)

I love tea. I love it so much I wrote a whole book all about the business of tea and designing teas. Hopefully, you’ll get to read this book in its published version in 2013. I called the book, Take a Chance on Me, and (quite seriously) nearly called it Take a Chance on Tea.I’m passionate about not only tea but the beauty associated with it: the teapots, the teacups, the doilies, the butterfly cakes, the sugar cubes and tiny teaspoons. While writing the book, I began collecting teapots and cups before I eventually realised that I live with a soon-to-be-running-around-the-house baby, two large dogs and three wild cats and the chances of any of these china beauties lasting in our tiny house would be a minor miracle.

So while drinking my cup of chai this morning, I did enjoy this post from Book Riot on bookish teapots. I’ve pasted my favourite one from that post and look forward to part 2.

Enjoy!

Tags beauty, book riot, books, butterfly cakes, chai, designing, doilies, novel, saucers, take a chance on me, tea, teabag, teacups, teapot