Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah

I've just returned from camp in Michigan: "Jonathan Rand's Author Quest: the definitive writer's camp for serious young authors." There were ghost stories and campfires and basketball and silly songs, but mostly there was writing. I taught sessions on poetry and book-making. There were also sessions on character development, nonfiction, finding the right word, and being creative. When it came time for these young people to write on their own, it was impressive to look across the campgrounds and see fifty-seven 10 to 12-year-olds, sitting on picnic tables, stretched out beneath trees, perched on the rocks along the lake, all writing intently with only the sound of the wind in the pines and the call of a few passing birds. These were serious writers indeed, and good inspiration for me, when I feel stuck and unable to write.

As we say at Camp Ocqueoc, "Write On!"