Lari’s Writing blog

Silliest writer injury I’ve had yet… I was in Port Seton Library this morning talking to the P5/6s from Cockenzie Primary about First Aid for Fairies and Wolf Notes. I was telling them a Viking myth, and explaining why I mostly like telling this particular story on Thursday. Because it’s Thor’s Day! (I also tell it on Wednesdays and Tuesdays – does anyone know why?) And I decided to demonstrate Thor’s hammer creating thunder by thumping a desk with my fist. I do this a lot – pretty much every time I tell this story, and as it’s my favourite story, I probably thump desks at least three or four times a month. Usually I thump school desks, which aren’t very sturdy – they wobble and they rattle and they don’t hurt at all. But today, while momentarily pretending to be the Norse god of Thunder, I thumped a library desk. And it turns out that library desks (in East Lothian anyway) are a lot sturdier than school desks! My fist on the desk made an excellent thunder noise, and hurt a great deal. It was like punching a wall (or a superhero’s chin.) The edge of my hand is still (8 hours later) completely numb all the way from my wrist to my pinkie, and I am typing this very very slowly! So – a Viking hammer injury! (And proof that pretending to be a god is a dangerous hobby.) But I really enjoyed meeting the pupils from Cockenzie – they had great ideas for fabled beast adventures and they asked me lots of great questions. But if I visit them again, I’ll tell them a story with no hammers at all.