Superscribe!
Are you keeping your staff and customers up to date with the daily news of your business?
It can be a daunting task! We’d love to help.
Charlotte Squire Coms have over 50 years experience between them as wordsmiths, photographers and designers.
They can take care of the stories and help you keep your website (aka your online front door) fresh and up to date with your latest news and images.
All enquires welcome.
Charlottesquirecoms@gmail.com
0275257455
My father once escaped, naked, from a prison camp with another guy. Actually, he was taken prisoner and escaped twice, with others. He was a soldier in the British army. And that’s all I know.
I don’t know where he escaped from or what year it was. I don’t know who he escaped from, or who he escaped with.
Why? Because every time I asked him to tell me more, he said, ‘you don’t want to know more about my life, my life’s boring. It’s just my life.’
Oh Dad. Your life was pretty damn interesting, to me and I think it would have been to my sons, and eventually, their children. But I don’t have your story.
I grew up to be a writer and fifteen years ago my big, tough on the outside, but soft on the inside Daddy suddenly died.
I carry snippets of his stories within me and will share them the best I can with my kids. I’ll talk about him for the rest of my life, because for me this keeps his memory alive.
So what about your story? Have you gotten it down on paper or recorded it somehow yet? Why not? Do you think it’s boring? Do you think those details don’t matter? I’ve got news for you – your story does matter. The details of your life, all of them, are important.
One day someone may want to know the date that your Aunt Molly died, or the gritty details of that car accident, or just why on earth you sold that house? They may want to know exactly how you met your beloved – what he or she looked like, what drew you to them. They may want to know what your mother was like, what you remember about her … her smell, her food, her funny sayings.
These small details are precious and make up our heritage. They matter because they were leading towards us – our very existence. And in some small way they have influenced who we are – our passions and dreams.
I write people’s life stories, and it is a heartwarming privilege to spend time alongside another humans, hearing about their life. Our stories connect us to each other – people are interested in other people’s stories because we all have them. I am no exception. I love knowing how people see the world, and why they see it that way. I love knowing their backstories, their successes and so-called mistakes. They all matter. And so I’m lucky enough to witness them and transform them into written stories for other people who care.
Where have you come from? Who were your parents, grandparents, great grandparents? Who did you want to become? What helped you or stopped you from becoming that person? What are the important things that happened to you through your life? What brought you the most happiness? What did you grieve? Who did you love?
These are the details that we must preserve, so that we can connect with you when you’re gone. These details help us reach back to the past, to more clearly understand our present.
Charlotte Squire writes people’s life stories, AKA memoirs. With 20 years experience as a writer, she runs a small communications agency in Golden Bay, New Zealand. charlottesquire.wordpress.com
charlottesquirecoms@gmail.com
Hi there,
I’m Charlotte Squire and that’s me after a good sweaty bike up the Rameka Road (mountain biking country)! I am incredibly lucky to live in Golden Bay, between two lush national parks. I live here with my family.
I write extraordinary stories about everyday people.
I’ve been a writer for twenty years and trust me I say: I have had a great time writing some amazing stories over the years. I’ve had thousands of articles published in various media, plus lots of other writing jobs (for various lovely people). I’ve published a short novel ‘The Springs,’ and am just about to publish a book of short stories that I’ve both co-edited and contributed to. I have a degree in social policy and politics.
I used to run a solutions focused, positive news website called Happyzine.co.nz. After years of sharing inspiring stories, I sold it.
These days I run a small communications agency from my home office (it has a view of a lemon tree, and those Rameka hills). Right now I’m working on memoirs, business articles, some PR for people. Here’s what I can help you with:
I love to help people share complex information in friendly, clear language – this can connect people, build healthy relationships and cultivate strong communities.
Get in touch if you love some support with a ‘wordy’ task, so that you can get on with the things you’re best at.
charlottesquirecoms@gmail.com
0275257455
I write people’s memoirs or biographies and lately I’ve come to realise our lives are so intertwined with others that it’s hard to follow one person’s story, without threading into the stories of those around us.
Isn’t that a beautiful thing? We’re inately social beings.
I’ve noticed that once the subject of the memoir has shared his or her story with me and I share the draft with family, more pieces of the story arise. One person’s memories can trigger another’s. One person’s perspective of an experience can differ from another’s.
That’s history for you – or her-story. Someone’s story. The beauty of a memoir is it can be a bunch of people’s stories, woven into one. I have my ways to contain each person’s story, within the larger story.
Get in touch if I can help you preserve your stories too.
Charlotte Squire, superscribe.
Charlotte has 20 years experience as a writer, author and journalist sharing extraordinary stories about everyday people. She lives in the Nelson Tasman area of the top of the South Island, New Zealand. Contact her at: charlottesquirecoms@gmail.com.
When people sit down to talk to me, knowing I’m there to record their life stories, deep feelings can rise up to have their say too.
Firstly, where on earth do they start and how can they encompass all those days of love, laughter, sweat, tears and everything in between in a few hours of interviews with me? I get that, and I have ways to filter all that information into exactly what I need.
But the other thing that can happen is people feel, well, emotional. Tears can well and spill. Old feelings can come to the surface. This can be because someone’s listening, really listening, to their seemingly boring (but never boring really) story. Someone is sitting nearby who cares what they have to say. This in itself can be a marvel for some. Especially for those who were never in the news, or big achievers, they just got on with life, and lived it the best they could – navigating the tough times and the easy, quietly. For those people, an attentive listening ear can answer an old need to be heard, or to share. It can heal.
And for those people I rejoice. Because it’s my deepest pleasure to hear their old, beautiful stories. Because they matter. People’s stories matter.
Charlotte Squire writes memoirs or life stories for everyday folk. Charlotte has 20 years experience as a writer. She lives in wild, rural Golden Bay, New Zealand with her family. Find our more about her memoir packages here.
Tyres. Usually this wouldn’t be a subject I passionately rave about, but it was during an interview with a successful tyre business owner last week that I was reminded to be sure of where I wanted to go.
So this guy I was interviewing. He was buzzing with passion. He was revolutionising the tyre industry. He was bringing in transparency, efficiency, and affordability.
When he said ‘You’ve got to look where you’re going,’ I suddenly piped up (usually reporters pipe down) and said ‘That is a GREAT mountain biking analogy. If you don’t look where you’re doing, you’ll stop or worse, fall over.
And this is SO TRUE. Keeping your eye a few metres ahead on the track gets you round those tight bends, and over those gnarly rocks.
“In fact,” I said, on a roll now, “this is a great analogy for life. If you look where you want to go, you’re far more likely to get there.”
To move forward on a project, to get through the highs and lows, to navigate the freak outs (ohhh, the freak outs!), the question ‘what’s next’ can act as a safety net. It’s a plan already in place that helps us keep peddling forward, if only to the next resting place (where we can binge watch Netflix).
So my brothers and sisters – what’s next for you?
Charlotte Squire is a communications expert based in Golden Bay, New Zealand. She has over 20 years experience in writing and journalism. She also runs Climate Love – sharing inspiring stories about low carbon stuff happening world-wide.
By Charlotte Squire
The newlyweds sit down outside the weather beaten shop. Their shoulders visibly drop as they gaze at a horizon of hills, feeling the sun on their faces. They make eye contact with a nearby elderly couple who are doing the same, and before long the four have become life long friends over tea and scones.
This is a common occurrence at the Langford Store says owner Sukhita Langford, and she wouldn’t have it any other way.
She and husband Will Hutchison left jobs in the Wellington film industry to take over shop in 2008, after Sukhita’s second cousin Lorna Langford asked her to.
Lorna had inherited the shop from her Grandfather in 1947. This year the Langford Store will have served the Bainham community as a post office and store for 90 years.
At this historic destination you will find an ever expanding vintage collection, an art gallery, a café, a post office complete with second hand books, a collection of home made Kiwiana bucket hats that Sukhita herself makes and much more.
Not too many things have changed since Lorna ran the shop, including its country pace. Sukhita and Will have lovingly preserved it, while adding the odd modern touch such as a coffee machine and art.
“People can have an experience here. You can hunt for treasure, the whole place is a treasure. You can buy a $300 piece of art or a $25 fine bone china trio,” said Sukhita.
Tea is served in vintage china tea sets, complete with Grandmother style tea-cosies.
“I sold some old champagne glasses the other day and I got to thinking about the china cups and how many discussions would have been had over them since they first came to New Zealand with the settlers, how many cups of tea, and who drank out of them. Everyone says ‘Oh that’s the best cup of tea!’ It tastes so much better in the china.”
“I love the old stuff because it was made with love and intention and not mass produced. I can drop one of these tea-cups and it won’t break.
“People want this. They want to feel connected. They do here. They don’t feel like they’re being pumped through a factory, which I love.”
The Langford Store is open from nine to five seven days a week through the summer. Check out their site for winter hours.
You know that idea that sparks in you sometimes? That alluring, sexy call to set up that eco-awesome project that sends shivers through you each time you think of it? That unexplainable pull to take eco-loving action, that doesn’t come from your mind but from your soul?
Pay it heed.
Because you are not alone.
Millions all over the earth are feeling their own unexplainable tidal pulls to use use what they have – their skills and experience, their natural gifts – to start projects that will collectively set up a new, low carbon way of existing.
Why? Because we are just as plugged into this eco-system as a tree, or a river or a spider. And like worker bees in a hive we are feeling our own primal pulls to put things back into balance. It’s an ancient call that has always spoken through our species and always will.
So what’s that spark calling you to do? How does it make you feel? Does it terrify you? Thrill you? Immobilize you? Does it appear to you in your dreams? Call to you as a truth seed from your heart?
I have a request for you. Let your idea out. Write it down, draw it, speak it out loud so that you can meet it face to face, this little seed … because this is the first step to allowing it to become real.
The good news is you are being called to use what you have inside to make an astoundingly significant difference for our world and for our children. In nature for every problem, or imbalance, there is a solution and you are a crucial part of this eco-system. Will you answer your call?
Here are three things you can do with your delicious low carbon idea today
Charlotte x
Charlotte Squire is a writer, singer, and eco-preneur who lives in Golden Bay, New Zealand with her family, near the some of the purest natural springs on planet earth – Te Waikoropupu Springs. She recently published her first fictional novel ‘The Springs’ about five highly intuitive people who saved the springs from ruin. She is starting up Climate Love – which is both a free low carbon newspaper, and inspirational support service for people creating low carbon projects.
Find her at charlottesquire.wordpress.com
By Climate Love founder Charlotte Squire
You’re on the brink of launching your amazing, low carbon project and you’re ready for some media lovin’. You’ve got your branding all sorted, your website up and running, and you think you’re offering pretty something awesome to the world.
There’s only one problem: so far the media attention has been lukewarm. Actually that’s overstating it. Think: tumbleweeds on barren, dusty streets.
So how can you win the attention of your local paper, or that magazine you’ve dreaming of appearing in?
Ok, here’s some stuff you need to know.
Editors – the people who oversee newspapers and magazines – are always on the look out for new stories. So this is a good start for you. They want: new, different, and novel. They want a new spin on an old story. They want a unique personality that they haven’t heard of before. Your new business or project could be just what they’re looking for.
The same can apply to magazines – if you’re covering a subject they are obviously passionate about and they like to write about – there’s hope my friend. It can help to check out their ‘writer’s guidelines’ online and know their style in general, to get a feel for the type of articles they’re publishing. Find magazines with green stories that you love. Low carbon is becoming sexier with every month that passes, so there will be opportunities out there, I just know it!
If you’re going for the attention of your local media (and this could include TV and radio) chances are higher that you’ll get covered simply because you’re part of their community and you’re doing something new.
Just to let you know – there are many different types of articles. There are news pieces, profiles, opinion columns, features and many more. Don’t ask for a feature article. A feature is a long, detailed article. The launch of your project is probably going to be more along the lines of a news article, or a business story.
So, you can either email the editors a press release, or a less formal short pitch, or both.
A press release is a formal story about your new project. And the ‘less formal pitch’ is literally a friendly, specific, concise paragraph about your mission.
Here’s a short run down on how to write a press release:
Option number two – you write a short email pitch that could read something like this:
‘Hi, my name’s Abbie Smith and I’m starting up a new carbon-neutral, organic veggie box scheme with my friend Polly King, here in Whitfield. We’ll be sourcing all produce from within a 20 km radius of our house. Our project will help keep the St George forest intact. We’re launching December 1st. Would you be willing to write a story about us? With thanks for your time, Abbie.’
Can you follow up with a phone call? YES! Chase them up and at the very worst they’ll say ‘no’. But hopefully, fingers crossed, you’ll get yourself some nice media coverage.
You can send editors both the press release and the short pitch (at the top), or just the short pitch. Just make sure you cover the ‘who, what, when, how, why, who’ stuff.
Best of luck with the launch of your most awesome climate loving project and thanks for making the world an even more amazing place with your passion. Keep trusting that inner spark of yours!
Charlotte x
Charlotte Squire believes everyone has something to offer a low carbon world. She encourages people to dream big and believe in their eco-friendly dreams via Climate Love – which is both a new low carbon newspaper based in Nelson Tasman, New Zealand, AND a communication support service for people who are taking the low carbon leap. She has been a reporter for fifteen years for multiple newspapers and magazines. She also established and sold Happyzine – a Kiwi good news website.She recently wrote her first short novel – The Springs – about five highly intuitive people who saved Te Waikoropupu Springs.
Find her at: charlottesquire.wordpress.com
Climate Love is a start-up newspaper, founded by Golden Bay based journalist Charlotte Squire. Why? Because she firmly believes anything is possible for the climate! Listen to the Radio New Zealand interview about Climate Love here. The first edition was kicked off in November for Nelson and Tasman, as a free monthly newspaper featuring inspiring short stories about locals working on low carbon projects.
5000 copies of Climate Love can be found in nearly 40 awesome cafes, organic shops, veggie stalls, libraries and supermarkets across Nelson Tasman.
Covering everything from the arts, to food, to business, and other juicy subjects, Climate Love features news of everyday people who share one common thread – commitment to a low carbon footprint.
Climate Love offers a platform for climate conscious businesses to promote their commitment to carbon reduction, to readers who care. It also supports the emergence of a climate economy, starting in Nelson Tasman. Check out our surprisingly affordable Climate Love advertising rates. They start at $50 and go no higher than $850 for a full page advert.
For more information, to share a story idea or to give away copies of Climate Love email: climatelovenz@gmail.com
Or call founder Charlotte Squire: 027 525 7455 for a yarn.
Climate Love – supporting our shift into a low carbon world.
