true romance?

Last weekend, at Cambridge, Peter Hunt gave us a talk on fantasy. As an exercise he asked us to close our eyes "and imagine [our] deepest fantasies. Then he said "I thought you'd enjoy that." Siempre lahat ng mga school teacher at librarian nagtilian. But for a moment, I was a bit disturbed because I couldn't think of a fantasy. I had my eyes closed and I didn't have a fantasy.

Here's a little one that's been flitting in and out of my mind. A few years back, I was applying for membership in KUTING and one of our meetings was held at this address in QC. When I got in, I was swept, very gently, away. And I left there thinking, this is what I want someday. It wasn't a magical cave, not one you'd recognise right away. It was someone's home. The couple had turned their living room into a children's library where people could bring their kids to pick out books to take for a week or weekend. When you walked a bit more, you could see the kitchen painted yellow (with accents of pink) and it had this gi-normous blue whale painted on the main wall. It was winking at me. There was a computer where the husband, a graphic artist, could work. It wasn't a big house, it wasn't going to be featured in Lifestyle Magazine (Alternative Lifestyle Magazine, maybe). But there was something there I wanted. It felt like a place where stories happen. And it felt like a place where people could go and be happy. I've always thought that if I could do anything, I'd set up a place that people visited to be safe and happy. Some place where people's stories and my own meet up for awhile and chill. That's part of my fantasy.

The other part of my fantasy is my soulmate. While reading about children's book authors, I've come across these great husband and wife teams like Janet and Allan Ahlberg who made the Jolly Postman books. Janet illustrated and Allan wrote them (but Janet died a few years ago). While I was looking for Kit Williams, I found this couple: Mary Jane and Herm Auch (http://www.mjauch.com/) who also make children's books together. Jose Aruego was married to Ariane Dewey-- he drew the pictures and she handled the colour. Helen Oxenbury and John Burningham are married (though I don't think they worked on anything together). Charles Keeping and Renate Mayer had their own printing press where they experimented with colour.
If I asked Benoit, I wonder if he'd agree to work on a project with me. I could write in English and he could do the French version. :P Heehee...