To celebrate the 2012 National Year of Reading in Australia, Deby Adair took part in some never-to-be-forgotten events. She was invited to read for the National Simultaneous Storytime. This is a national event where at exactly the same time on the same day, (invited authors across the country) will read to children, most often in schoolrooms but sometimes in hospitals and other places where a group gathering of school-aged children and their teachers, or parents, participate.
Invitations also flowed in that year to present as an author to schools in Australia. Deby chose underfunded schools and offered to present as a gift to children. In one school that meant on one particular day the school hall held 750 children and the teachers! The end result was an astonishing and heartfelt gift for young people (who might never have had the opportunity to meet with an author.)
These are the things that really matter and make life a special and empowering event.
‘As a follower of mythical marvels, a dreamer who shapes words and a believer in making dreams come true, I have met unicorns. I met them long ago, when I was a girl. A girl that animals followed through the streets, and who talked to the ether, sending out her thoughts in happy, floating imaginings. Who deliberately touched trees as she passed them, and climbed rocky, red soiled, sun-struck hills, barefoot.
There was so much to learn about places unseen - hidden places - places where beauty unravelled as naturally as a mountain stream, and where cascading waterfalls would masquerade as galloping horses, vibrating with essences invisible to the mortal eye. Hanging fig trees with grand canopies hid the music-halls of fairies and, in the tumbling sun-slants of thick forest undergrowth, there walked elves and their consorts; stately beings with watchful eyes. I knew something then. I knew that if I closed my eyes and drifted with morning mists, or walked barefoot in streams or on dew; if I held a cricket in my hand and listened to it chirp - all the time with my eyes shut tight - then suddenly, when the moment chose, the world would entangle in a web of perfect silence, and in that moment it would happen. A brush upon my brow or on my bare-skinned arm and the sigh of a gentle breath… the softest, most fleeting gossamer touch would send tingles up my spine.
And I knew, I knew for certain, that I had felt the unicorn's kiss. ‘What is that?’ you ask, almost believing me. Well, I will tell you this: A unicorn's kiss is the brush of their forelock or mane upon those lucky humans still unsullied by the mortal world - a child of pure heart – and the feel of their breath lingers with the stroke of their silken touch. Yet, in the moment you open your eyes to catch a glimpse, there is only one thing which, captive in your mortal shell, you may or may not hear - the swish of a step as they leave.
It's rarer now. Even for the pure of heart, the earth is filled with noise and harsh battering. Fences patch the lands far and wide, and trees and forests dwindle with destruction and harsh hands. The gentle spirits that care for the wild things are fleeing, eradicated by terror from the human smell and touch.
But there is a unicorn forest. It is the place where immortality reigns and it can still be shown to us in our frail human lives. But I cannot tell you where it is... you must find it for yourself.’
Deby Adair.
From the prose, ‘Unicorn Kisses ' by Deby Adair - Copyrighted Material. All Rights Reserved.
Read Deby Adair's (very different style to her Unicorns of Wish), included in Twisted Tax Tales short story winners for their published book in aid of the endangered Tasmanian Devil: https://www.stptax.com/twisted-tax-tales/the-holiday/
Light Mind, Dark Mind - INK by Deby Adair. Kindle edition: Light Mind, Dark Mind - 'INK' Kindle Edition by Deby Adair
Visit the real Storybook Garden at Blue Bubble Lane. bluebubblelane.info
Unicorn Kisses is the brainchild of writer, Deby Adair.
The Unicorns of Wish original prose was created by her in 1976 and so were some of the artworks. So much has been built on since then and that's its own long story! Unicorn Kisses has been a Registered Trade Mark for over a decade and a half and is not affiliated in any way with copycat written works using the title of Unicorn Kisses, whether published or not, and those written works which have borrowed in any way, shape or form, the theme of Deby Adair's Unicorns of Wish books or any other of her works. Neither are we affiliated with any other products using our brand name, who are now scattered around the internet. We have updated our links to our Facebook pages and our new Twitter page with the creation of this, our new website. These are our only social media pages and we do not affiliate with anyone else claiming to be Unicorn Kisses.
Deby Adair loves all animals and believes we must take care of our natural world.
