The unbearable heat today rendered me almost completely incapable of doing anything productive. A bit of fact checking here, some reading there, accompanied by a delicious tray of bing cherries, one which burst while I bit into it and leaked all over my hand. It looked like I had cut myself, this rich, dark burgundy splattered over my fingers. After my hunger had worn off and night finally set it in, I felt like nothing could be asked of me - unless it involved lying still on the couch and watching a film. Tonight’s fine choice turned out to be “Miss Potter”.

Here is where I have a confession to make. My boyfriend sent this lovely film to me quite a while ago, one that I should have watched no more than a few weeks after getting the package. But life, as it so happens, always has other plans and so I sat down to watch this story of one of my favorite children’s authors late, late enough to feel guilty about, but I watched it, ok? And that’s really all that matters.

The movie itself was wonderful, pretty well acted and had the most beautiful scenery ( the English countryside feels like heaven on Earth to me), but what it really did was bring back a slew of  emotions and thoughts I had about children’s books, and “The Tale of Peter Rabbit” most particularly.

You see, in addition to all my passion for journalism, all my dedication to print and radio and news and reporter’s notebooks, there is a big part of me who would one day like to become an author. I’ve often been completely taken aback when I’ve read my favorite books, not only because of the story, but because I’ve wondered how in the world did this person manage to pull this out of their imagination and then coherently string those thoughts into beautiful words? It amazes me - the gift an author has to be able to write 200 pages about the same thing and have it come off so wonderfully.

My dream has always been to write one or perhaps a series of children’s books. In my scribbling habbits, these dreams have always manifested into illustrations and ideas locked away in some journal and for quite a while, I had locked them out of my thoughts, until I saw “Miss Potter.”

I truly admire Beatrix Potter. Although in the film, “The Tale of Peter Rabbit” is published by Frederick Warn & Co., it was Potter who self-published the book herself before attracting the publisher’s attention. I always feel like there’s a slight stigma attached to self-publishing (if someone else, i.e. a publishing house doesn’t approve, it’s probably just not good enough) but finding out that she did and became successful really just says that if you have a good idea, it will work no matter what.

All images are rights cleared and obtained from Project Gutenberg