One Potato...Ten!

I Want My Hat Back

2012-01-30T11:05:00.000-08:00

I just bought the book, I Want My Hat Back, written and illustrated by Jon Klassen. Published in 2011, it won the Ted Geisel Award. It's such a simple book with a bear asking his animal friends, "Have you seen my hat?" A bunny, who is obviously wearing his hat, says "No. Why are you asking me. I haven't seen it. I haven't seen any hats anywhere. I would not steal a hat. Don't ask me any more questions." The bear moves on, until he realizes that the rabbit is indeed wearing his hat. The ending is priceless, and I laugh every time I read Bear's guilty answer to squirrel who is looking for a rabbit wearing a hat.

Pura Belpré Awards

2012-01-26T15:08:00.000-08:00

Pura Belpré was the first Latina librarian at the New York Public Library. When she became a librarian, she saw the need for books for Latinos. She began telling children the Puerto Rican stories she knew. Some of those got published.

The Story's Teller's Candle written by Lucía González and illustrated by Lulu Delacré is about her, and it won a Pura Belpré award.

The Pura Belpré Award, established in 1996, is presented annually to a Latino/Latina writer and illustrator whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children and youth. It is co-sponsored by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), and REFORMA, the National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish-Speaking, an ALA affiliate.

My congratulations to the Latinos who won this year Pura Belpré awards:

2012 Author Award Winner
Under the Mesquite, by Guadalupe Garcia McCall, published by Lee and Low Books Inc.
In “Under the Mesquite,” Garcia McCall, writing in emotionally riveting free verse, gracefully manages to convey the experience of growing up in a bicultural community in Texas with geographical accuracy and a radiating authentic voice for its main protagonist fourteen-year-old Lupita, the oldest of eight children who is dealing with her mother’s terminal illness.
“Garcia McCall deftly communicates not only the experience of a youth losing her mother to cancer but that of a child surrounded by siblings embracing and discarding their Mexican roots in various degrees,” said Naidoo.

2012 Illustrator Award Winner
Diego Rivera: His World and Ours, written and illustrated by Duncan Tonatiuh, published by Abrams Books for Young Readers, an imprint of ABRAMS
Diego Rivera: His World and Ours highlights the accomplishments of Mexican painter, activist, and muralist Diego Rivera. Tonatiuh’s stylized illustrations include elements of Mayan artwork and represent his interpretation of Diego’s original artwork, answering the question: what would Diego paint today? Through eye-catching digital collage, Tonatiuh juxtaposes contemporary Mexican life with the past.
“Tonatiuh’s visually appealing, layered artwork rendered in a mural style pays homage to Diego’s paintings while balancing traditional images with modern twists,” said Pura Belpré Award Committee Chair Jamie Campbell Naidoo.

2012 Author Honor Books
Hurricane Dancers: The First Caribbean Pirate Shipwreck by Margarita Engle, published by Henry Holt and Company, LLC.
Engle’s beautifully written poetic narrative cuts to the heart of an untold story in Latin American history and describes the enslavement of the native peoples of the Caribbean by the Spanish along with the mixing of Spanish and native blood that now forms the vast majority of Latin America. Told from several points of view, the story captures the rhythm and sounds from a time long ago and encourages readers to explore Latino culture on their own.

Maximilian and the Mystery of the Guardian Angel: A Bilingual Lucha Libre Thriller written by Xavier Garza, published by Cinco Puntos Press.
Xavier Garza successfully captures the excitement that Max, an eleven-year-old Mexican-American boy, displays when he discovers that his favorite Lucha Libre wrestler is coming to town and might have a strange connection with his own family! This action packed bilingual mystery novel uses playful language that reinforces elements of Mexican-American culture and overflows with almost unbridled excitement for Lucha wrestling.

2012 Illustrator Honor Books
The Cazuela that the Farm Maiden Stirred illustrated by Rafael López, written by Samantha R. Vamos, and published by Charlesbridge.
Nothing is better than a delicious bowl of arroz con leche unless, of course, a host of farm animals have a hand in the preparation! Lopez’s blazing illustrations for the rhythmic, rollicking cumulative tale, “The Cazuela that the Farm Maiden Stirred” radiate a cheerful exuberance and are peppered with Latino cultural details that extend Vamos’ perky narrative.

Marisol McDonald Doesn’t Match /Marisol McDonald no combina illustrated by Sara Palacios, written by Monica, and published by Children’s Book Press, an imprint of Lee and Low Books Inc.
Bright and vivacious Marisol, a young Peruvian-Scottish-American girl, loves peanut butter and jelly burritos and speaks both English and Spanish. Unfortunately, her teacher and classmates do not appreciate Marisol’s mashing of cultures. Using mixed media techniques, Palacios’ illustrations exude child appeal and biculturalism, allowing astute visual readers to identify the blending of cultures.

It's a New Book! (part two)

2012-01-25T19:59:00.000-08:00

I know that we are supposed to be blogging about book awards for this round, but I just received the final artwork for my new book, IT'S A TIGER! and wanted to share it. Jeremy Tankard's digital illustrations are so dynamic, colorful, and vibrant. I am very, very pleased! I originally sent an illustrated dummy of the book along with my manuscript when I sent it off to the editor, so I had a pretty strong idea in my head what I thought the images should look like. Now that I've seen Jeremy's terrific artwork, I can't picture it any other way.

The hard part will be waiting till this summer when the book is officially released.

If Meryl Streep Won a Newbery....

2012-01-24T08:15:00.000-08:00

What a flurry of activity in news reports the past few days! As a lover of both books and movies, having the ALA Youth Media Awards announced yesterday, and then the Academy Awards nominations today, well...it's been exciting.
The Newbery and Caldecott are often referred to as the Academy Award of children's literature. In some ways, that is quite appropriate. These awards are absolutely the most prestigious among children's literature, like the Oscar is in the movie world, and having one of those stickers on your book will make you an instant success, much like an Oscar will just about assure you a nice career in acting. But there are a few differences....
The Oscars are voted on by the entire Academy, which numbers somewhere around 6000. The Newbery and Caldecott have a slightly smaller votership: usually a committee around a dozen or so. Can you imagine if the Newbery and Caldecott were voted on by 6000 librarians? Hmmmm. Fun to think about, isn't it?
What if it were the opposite? What if the Academy Awards were chosen by a committee of about a dozen people? They would get to watch all the movies and narrow it down to a winner, with maybe one or two or three runners up, an arbitrary decision, depending on the year and the committee.
I suspect this would lead to a lot of hub-bub about who got left out or should have been nominated...Oh wait. That happens even WITH 6000 voters. I guess that's one more reason the Newbery and Caldecott are like the Academy Awards: you will never make everyone happy.
( As an aside, three movies adapted from books I loved are all up for Best Picture: Hugo, The Descendants, and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Maybe books are taking over the movies...)

Yet Another New Book

2012-01-21T12:15:00.000-08:00

My apologies. I was supposed to post while I was teaching at the MFA, but Captain Whidbey Inn had a weak Wi-Fi connection.

The idea for this book began with a comparison between Our Lady of Guadalupe and the Aztec goddess, Tonantzin. Yet, my editor preferred a retelling of the Virgin of Guadalupe's apparitions to Juan Diego. Still, you may read about the similarities between the virgin and the goddess in the author's note.

New Year- New Book

2012-01-18T07:35:00.000-08:00

It is a bit washed out, but here the first "viewing" of the cover for my new book coming out in September 2012. I painted the illustrations for this story all of 2011, creating the characters and scenarios, and now that it is done- or at least in production, I have fallen in love with it. This doesn't always happen this soon. Usually I am happy to have it out of my studio for awhile. But I miss this little boy and his night time friends. I love leafing through the small pdf dummy that the designer sent me. If my kids were not in college and high school, I would read this book to them at bedtime and I know it is a book they would ask for again and again. Here is what the front flap copy is probably going to say about the book:

Bedtime is here!
Time to curl up, snuggle in, and remember . . .
the who, the what, the why, and the way
four best friends
had a wonderful day.

From bestselling author Mem Fox and award winning illustrator Lauren Stringer, here is a celebration of imagination, play, friendship, and coziness certain to touch a chord with young children everywhere.

It truly is a cozy book... maybe that is why I keep paging through it while embarking on my next project! New adventures always need a little coziness at the end of the day.

Two Books for me

2012-01-16T18:00:00.000-08:00

Am expecting two books out - one this year and one next year. We are busily tweaking the one that comes out this year - new title - I Want to Help - and new cover page. I'm waiting to see more sketches for the one coming out next year - Two Hands to Love You. The illustrator on Two Hands is new to children's books and I think he has a lovely, unique style that really makes the story shine. And of course, I love Nancy Hayashi, who is illustrating I Want to Help.

It's a New Book!

2012-01-11T19:32:00.000-08:00

Like Christy and Stephanie, I am excited to have a new book coming out in 2012. It's a Tiger!, illustrated by Jeremy Tankard, will be published by Chronicle in the fall of this year. I'll be sure to post the cover design as soon as it's available.

In the meantime, I'll show the cover of a book I read today at the library which is one of the funniest picture books I've read in a long time. Stuck, by Oliver Jeffers, is about a boy whose kite gets stuck in a tree. In an attempt to get his kite down, he throws his favorite shoe at it. Now both the kite and shoe are stuck. It's not often that a book genuinely surprises me, but this clever book did...and it made me laugh. If you've ever been so mad you could throw your shoe, check this one out.

Publishing before the world ends

2012-01-10T08:07:00.000-08:00

Crazy, I know, but I did think about the Mayan calendar when publication dates were discussed. I’m counting on a 2013, but will sneak in three book publications before the end of 2012, just in case the Mayans were on to something.

First up in spring is the first book on the first list of Philip Lee's new venture, Readers to Eaters: Our School Garden! by Rick Swann with illustrations by me shows fun ways to integrate the school garden into the curriculum all year long.

Fall title with Fiewel & Friends: The Forgiveness Garden by Lauren Thompson with illustrations by me is about a conflict that begins between two villages when stones are thrown across a stream. I love the message of this book. There is an actual “Garden of Forgiveness” in Beirut—the vision of Alexandra Asseily, humanitarian, activist, and psychotherapist, who has declared that “every act of revenge is a time bomb thrown into the future.” The dedication page is pictured here.

I’m most excited about my third title, also a fall publication—this one with Lee & Low. Dreaming Up: A Celebration of Building is my second book as both author and illustrator. I have been dreaming this up for years. The book is a combo of concrete poetry, nonfiction, illustration, and photography, and is meant to inspire young builders with examples of modern international architecture. Stay tuned on this one. I’m starting the finished art now.

2012

2012-01-09T11:21:00.001-08:00

I didn't have a new book out in 2011, so I'm looking forward to August 2012, when this shiny new one hits the shelves:

This novel is about 15-year-old Robie. She gets on a small plane in Honolulu, headed for Midway Island, and then bad things happen. I'm not very nice to her. Not at all.

Which should make it a pretty good read...

Continuing

2012-01-05T12:54:00.001-08:00

My holidays this year we're colored by being the first ones in my life without my mother present. My entire family rose to the occasion and we had a beautiful Christmas Eve here with sixteen around the table ranging in age from seventy seven to four.

For Boxing Day, we had a a gathering of my mother's friends in her house and we celebrated my sister's tribute to my mother in the New York Times magazine. At both events we felt a strong sense of my mom, but after the festivities, more of the sadness of her loss crept in.

The holiday season continues for me as my brother and his family are still around and don't return to their home in East Timor until Saturday. Today I met them at IKEA, one of my favorite unusual lunch places, and that is my nephew Liam pictured among the balls.

My next book, TAKE YOUR BEST SHOT, is dedicated to him and he's pretty excited about that.

A Delicious Christmas Holiday!

2012-01-04T07:39:00.000-08:00

Last fall, just before leaving for her second year at Oberlin College, my daughter Ruby started her own food blog. She had recently become vegan and enjoyed discovering new recipes. When she was little she loved making "set-ups" of objects into fairy houses and furnished stages for her imagination to come to life. She still has a love of "set-ups"; this love combined with her photography makes for great blog photos! Her blog, "That's So Vegan" has taken off!? She gets on average over 1000 hits per day from all over the world. She has made vegan friends in California, London, Australia, and has been featured on other food blogs, as well as "Food Gawker". Usually she cooks and bakes in her small college kitchen, but coming home for the holidays meant daily baking, blogging, and eating!

Ruby photographing "process"

Yes, we all ate well this holiday. It has been wonderful having both of my kids home. My son Cooper, at 16, still lives at home, but with his daily schedule of school from 8 am to 3 pm, followed by circus classes from 4 pm to 9:15 pm, followed by homework until nearly midnight, we hardly spend enough time together.

Cooper cutting out Mr. Cookie Baker cookies

Mr. Cookie Baker cookies- veganized!

We baked and played board games, baked and watched Xmas movies (our favorites and annual must-watches are: "The Muppet Christmas Carol" and "Love Actually"), baked and opened presents, baked and shared long conversations, catching up on each other's lives. It was a lovely holiday!

If you want to know more about our holidays and get recipes, I recommend going to Ruby's blog-- her writing is delightful and the photographs are mouth-watering!

New House, Need a New Camera

2012-01-03T12:06:00.001-08:00

Our Christmas this year was marred by only one problem: our digital camera quit working. It wasn't the battery, which meant we had no clue how to "fix" it. Consequently we have no pictures from this year's decorating, nor from our present opening. We did decorate a tree, however, and we definitely opened presents. We also rung in the New Year in good health and good spirits, so other than a lack of photo-documentation, the first Holiday Season in our new house was a rousing success.

The picture above is from last year. Except for Ben having a few more teeth, the picture from this year would have looked pretty much the same save for a few new ornaments on the tree.

I hope everyone has a wonderfully successful 2012, whatever that may mean to each of you.

The Holidays in Pictures

2012-01-01T17:34:00.000-08:00

A challenging game of ping pong on Christmas day.

A completely unposed photo near the Christmas tree.

The "cousins" texting each other!

It was a fun day, especially with our son and his girlfriend in town. We also visited my side of the family a few days later and had a delicious meal at Marie Callendar's. She's a very good cook! :)

Happy New Year! I hope the coming year is filled with joy, good news about book projects, and many gatherings with friends and family.

A Christmas to Remember!

2011-12-30T13:59:00.000-08:00

We were lucky to have my 90-year-old father still able to celebrate Christmas in our home along with 18 members of our extended family. I did not take a photo of my son carrying my father into our house because the sight was just too heart wrenching, but you can see him here in a wheel chair in front of the fireplace in the midst of the gift opening.

Here are the two youngest of the clan--Piper, our son's 20-month-old daughter, and Gareth, our daughter's 2-year-old son, who are great playmates.

And I have to include a photo of my favorite gift--photographs taken on Vinalhaven Island off the coast of Maine. My husband had prints made on canvas, to hang in my writing cabin in order to keep the setting of my novel-in-progress clear in my mind.

A Post Without Words

2011-12-29T09:04:00.000-08:00

The Gift of Friends

2011-12-28T14:15:00.001-08:00

My favorite part of the December holidays is spending time with treasured friends.

This morning I got together with three amazing, creative, thoughtful librarian friends, Julie Reimer, Linda Middleton-Koller, and Kim Faurot. We snacked on Julie's delicious holiday cookies and discussed books and reading. They also indulged me by looking at the latest revisions of my current book project. My heart was light and happy when I left their good company.

On Christmas Eve morning, as is tradition, I met with the members of my old book club, friends I have known for over twenty years: Gary, Robert, Evan, and Timothy, friends who make me feel loved and appreciated.
Still to come, a Saturday morning walk with my college friend Ann, and a New Year's Eve gathering spent eating delicious food and playing board games with three other friends. I couldn't ask for better gifts than the people who make up my life.

Eat, Drink, and Be Merry

2011-12-27T13:32:00.000-08:00

Tamales are the traditional Christmas food of Latin countries. They are very labor intensive to make, so usually are only made for special occasions. My daughter and I took a tamale-making class at the Santa Fe School of Cooking a couple of years ago. This was an all day project for us on Christmas Eve. I made a killer pico de gallo, too.

My daughter is pictured here in her "drinking glasses" a well engineered straw that travels quite a distance! Santa brought this for her stocking.

Dreaming of a White Christmas

2011-12-26T08:22:00.000-08:00

Here in the high desert, we've been treated to about 7 weeks of sunshine and no snow. It gets cooooold at night, down near zero most nights, but then it's back up to mid 40's during the day. All of this means the roads have been wonderfully clear as we had to drive 180 miles to Boise to pick up my college daughter at the airport, and 140 miles to Baker City and 140 miles to La Pine ( and 160 miles to Sisters tomorrow) to watch my other daughter play basketball. So no complaints there, but it makes for kind of a non-Christmassy view of my house:

And when all the packages were open and wrappings strewn about, this emerged as my favorite present:

My thoughtful husband took copies of The Compound and four of the foreign language versions and had them framed. Cool.

An Abundance of Ebenezer

2011-12-22T09:10:00.000-08:00

Early this month I had the pleasure of seeing the Guthrie Theater's excellent production of the Christmas Carol. My favorite line was when Scrooge claimed he wasn't "rich," but instead was a "job creator." I was pulled into the story even though I've seen it multiple times and was struck by Scrooge's first ghost visit, that of his former partner Jacob Marley. Marley's ghost, who's dragging around heavy, clanking chains warns him of the danger of being so focused on money and accumulation if he wants to avoid a miserable afterlife. It's Marley's ghost who sets the stage for Scrooge's transformation.

It's interesting that we now associate the word Scrooge with selfishness and stinginess. It's a measure of the extraordinary way Dickens had with names but also our focus on the unredeemed Ebenezer. For this post I am focusing on the generous, giving, and kind Scrooge at the close of the Christmas Carol. This is the spirit that infuses so much of my experience in the world of writing for children. From editors who have been generous with their time and comments to marketing and publicity people, librarians, teachers, my KTM critique group, my wonderful agent, Andrea Cascardi, parents, and readers of all ages, I feel fortunate for such kindness and support. One other group stands out as well--my fellow spud bloggers.

Best wishes for a wonderful holiday and please look for the New York Times on Sunday with the beautiful piece by my sister about my mother in the magazine. Watch for the watering can.

Scrooged and being Ebenezer

2011-12-21T08:47:00.000-08:00

Ever since I published my first children's picture book in 1996, I have found myself in the generous world of children's literature. My experience has been more like Scrooge's visit with the ghost of Christmas past as I visit my childhood memories frequently, in order to paint and write better stories. The ghost of Christmas present has been the creative spirit of my amazing editor, Allyn Johnston. I have been fortunate to have had such a collaboration -- almost a mentorship in the world of creating picture books for the past 17 years. And the ghost of Christmas future? As I grow older and maybe a little wiser, I have become painfully aware of how precious creative time in the studio is-- and the privilege of making picture books about subjects that excite me and help me grow in my awareness of this world is something I never take for granted, so I do what I can to share what I know of books and their makings with others, young and old.

As for being "Scrooged", I have led two lives as an artist and it was during the transition from one to the other where I was scrooged-- when I was the more vulnerable, of course. After college in California, I moved to NYC where I lived my twenties making art, hoping to get into a gallery, be discovered, perhaps even be invited into the Whitney Biennial?! I applied for grants, artist residencies, fellowships, and found some success and many rejections. Eight years later, I met my husband, moved to the midwest and continued to paint, sculpt, and show in local galleries and museums here in the Twin Cities. It was not a gallery dealer who scrooged me or a publisher, critic, or mentor, but a peer. With the tongue of a witch foretelling my future she snapped: "You will never be a serious artist because you got married and left NYC." That is all she uttered, but it hit me to my core. "Friends" in NY had told me the same thing, but I laughed it off, yet this time it stung. I was pregnant at the time with my first child, so there was no turning back and I was beginning to illustrate my first children's picture book, which at the time, did not feel like making "real" art. Tonight my first-born is coming home from college for the holidays. She is almost 20 years old. For the past twenty years, I have been "seriously" painting picture books and writing stories, sculpting and painting in-between deadlines. Perhaps in this person's eyes, I am still not a "serious" artist, as what I do now will never be in the Whitney Biennial. But who knows? Perhaps some visitor to the Whitney museum will will be walking through the galleries with their child in a stroller and that little girl or boy will tire of looking at the "new" art and instead read through one of my books pulled from the stash of books in the back of the stroller, as my children did on visits to art museums. And to this "peer" with her stinging tongue, I say: "Bah! Humbug!"

Does Bad Luck Count?

2011-12-20T20:57:00.000-08:00

I feel lucky not to have encountered any real Scrooges related to my writing. My friends still tell me to stick with it, and many, such as the other members of this blog, offer frequent encouragement. My few interactions with editors and agents (conferences, rejection letters, a handful of publications) have all been congenial; I emphasize few: to be honest, I don’t get out much. I attend a conference every year or two, meet monthly with a small critique group, and occasionally submit stories or poems to magazines, along with three novels over the last fifteen years. It’s a slow pace, and I’m sure that as I continue to work on my craft and finish more projects I will eventually cross paths with somebody in the publishing world who will treat me rudely. So far, I’ve rarely even met anyone having a bad day! I’m serious: I need to get out more.

So no Scrooges – unless you count bad luck. Like the time twenty years ago when I had a story accepted for publication in the Sunday arts supplement of the Oregonian. My only previous publication had been in my college’s literary magazine, so I was absolutely thrilled with the acceptance letter (which included a check for $200). But a month later the arts section was cut from the newspaper, the editor who loved my story was out of a job, and I was back to submitting the story elsewhere. I could keep the check, though.

I never did find a home for that story. I think I gave up after a couple of years and maybe twenty submissions. The check stub is in my envelope of acceptance letters – but I’d rather the story was published.

The Three Scrooges

2011-12-19T21:52:00.000-08:00

I have three short scrooge stories. The first scrooge experience happened when I told my mom that I was planning on writing children's books. She immediately answered, "You can't do that." It was such a surprising response from my usually supportive mom and it took a lot of courage for me to answer her, "You can't talk to me like that mom. I need your support." When she realized what she had said, she immediately apologized and has been positive ever since.

My second scrooge moment happened at the hands of my mentor, who is no longer alive. When she saw the artwork for Zoom! she said that she didn't like it and that the book seemed a little too simple to her. I was devastated and it took quite awhile to recover from those remarks. Truly, I wish she had lied to me. It was my first book and it would have meant the world to me if she had simply said congratulations.

My third scrooge event came in the form of a letter from a well-known editor. Before I was published I sent her a manuscript to look at and she replied in a very short note that her publishing house only published special books and that mine was not! Ouch!! It helped that she sent a fellow writer a similar letter, and it actually had the least sting as my friend and I laughed and laughed about that charming editor and her sharp quill.

So there you have it. Three scrooges - one reformed, one no longer alive, and one still writing those lovely rejection notes.

My Scrooge Experience

2011-12-16T09:09:00.000-08:00

Back in the 1980s, I wrote my first novel pounding away on a typewriter in the back room of the frozen yogurt shop I owned and operated. When the manuscript was finished, I answered an ad an agent had put in the newspaper. (In hindsight, the "ad" should have been my first clue this wouldn't work.) The agent's initial response to me was that I could have been more creative choosing my pen name. (This should have been my second clue.) I wrote back assuring her that Edith Hemingway was my real name and I intended to use it. I did send her my manuscript, and she did offer me a contract, which I very excitedly signed and then waited for feedback on my novel.

The agent began sending me handouts about common mistakes new writers make (enough to fill a looseleaf notebook), and I kept waiting for specific feedback on which of those common mistakes applied to my work. Months later she asked me to make the 200 page manuscript longer, so I spent several months going through page by page and expanding the story by about 50 pages. I did not receive any feedback, except that it still wasn't long enough. Finally I said I wasn't going to do more revisions until she gave me specific suggestions on what needed to be done. After six months of hearing nothing, I received a registered letter stating that I had not followed any of her suggestions, I was unresponsive, and she was ending our business arrangement. I truly don't think she ever read any of my manuscript. Of course, I sat down and wrote a long letter back to her, stating that I was the one ending my business arrangement with her. It helped diffuse some of my anger, even though I never mailed it.

So what did I learn by this? First of all, not to jump at the first sign of interest, to do my homework before signing a contract with an agent, to find out what genres he/she represents, to find out if this person truly likes my work and if he/she has a personality that meshes with mine.

I did eventually give up on that manuscript, which is still sitting on the shelf, but I did lift an entire scene from that novel and inserted it (with changes, of course) in ROAD TO TATER HILL.

Turning Scrooges into Blessings

2011-12-15T14:30:00.000-08:00

As you know, my sister used to call me a liar because I was always making up stories. She also told me that staring at people wasn't polite. Maybe. But that's called point-of-view. I stare to pretend I am in people's heads and think what they think.

You also know that my classmates poked fun of me when I spoke in English. Hello? Are you there? They challenged me, and here I am writing, reading, and speaking in English.

But what you don't know is that I quit writing for a few years. By then I had two published books--and a new literary agent. I have no idea why she signed me up. She kept telling me that I wasn't ready to submit, that I wasn't there yet. I felt so small I quit writing.

A few years later, an editor asked me to write a biography. I didn't think I could write it. But it was time to prove that agent that she was wrong.

What a blessing those challenges have been!

My moment in the spotlight

2011-12-14T19:11:00.000-08:00

At one of the first local SCBWI conferences I attended, I submitted a manuscript to be reviewed by a New York Editor. I was so excited when my manuscript was one of ten selected to be reviewed and discussed in front of the entire audience.

Before the conference we received copies of the other manuscripts. I hate to admit it, but I was secretly glad when I saw that my story was better than the other nine submissions.

All the conference attendees crowded into the auditorium where the New York Editor would spend a full five minutes critiquing each story. She loved the first manuscript (which wasn't very good). The second manuscript (which was worse) she loved even more. She went on and on extolling its positive qualities and told the author to please send the entire story to her publishing company - she'd like to consider it for possible publication. It was hard to restrain my mounting excitement.

And then it was my turn. I picked up my pencil and got ready to take notes on all her compliments and any suggestions she might have.

The New York Editor made a sour face. "There really isn't anything I like about this one," she said. She shuffled my manuscript to the bottom of her pile and went on to the next story.

I felt as if I had been punched in the stomach. I remember trying to keep a smile plastered on my face, and walking through the rest of the conference on auto-pilot.

The positive outcome from this experience? I didn't give up. I went on to write several successful published books. The story that she hated (and which I still like) I use as a very successful story writing prompt with kids when I visit schools. And when I became the person giving critiques at SCBWI conferences, I remember the sinking feeling I experienced, I remember that opinions differ, and I always treat each author I review with gentleness and respect...and find at least one nice thing to say about their story.

I’ll show them and then they’ll be sorry!

2011-12-13T08:23:00.000-08:00

Did this ever run through your mind when you were misunderstood, under-appreciated, or limited in some way? My mother banked on my spunk. She used reverse psychology to teach me to ride my bike. She bet I couldn’t do it, and I determined to prove her wrong.

Steve Jobs said being fired from Apple was ultimately a good thing. In the midst of that humiliation he realized he still loved his work and wanted to continue anyway.

Earlier in my career I turned in art for a book and the contract was subsequently canceled. The news hit me like a punch in the stomach. I curled in pain. I was so ashamed. Surely everyone in the industry knew about my rejection, I thought. I imagined a scarlet letter across my chest.

There were scrooges involved. I believe this only could have progressed to this point from lack of communication. It has always been my practice to show sample art and work-in-progress. At no point did the art director or editor alert me that they were unhappy. I received comments like, “Add more yellow.”

I was filled with self-doubt after this experience. Who would hire me again? I desperately wanted to get back up on the horse. My next opportunity came like a gift from a fairy godmother. I approached the project in a completely different style and the book garnered three stars, an ALA notable award, and many other accolades. Sound familiar, Stephanie? Yep, the book that brought me back was Elizabeti’s Doll. I am forever grateful to our editor, Liz Szabla.

There is value in disappointment. It helps define weakness, focus attention, and clarify desire.

“One’s best success comes after their greatest disappointments.”—Henry Ward Beecher

Sleeping Out and the Gumby and Pokey Willies

2011-12-12T13:12:00.000-08:00

As I child I was bashful. I liked adventures as long as they were in my neighborhood, as long as when the day ended I would be home, snuggled in my own bed. Once when I was small, my father's best friend had a daughter just my age. She was kind. Her name was Claire. Her mother was a Cajun woman and as warm as she could be. My father trusted her father like a brother. Claire invited me to spend the night out at her house. Everyone encouraged me. I wanted to go and play with Claire and her family, so off I went.

The day was going wonderfully, but as night fell and I took my bath, fear tiptoed in. I wondered what might be in the closet at the top of the cabinet: A monster surely. I felt uncomfortable and homesick and began to cry.

Claire's mom tuned to my feelings. I told her I wanted to go home and she called my parents. My dad drove over and scooped me up. I also remember being a little afraid of Gumby and Pokey. I don't know why as I liked the television show and I had the little rubber Gumby and Pokey dolls. I had a nightmare once that they were chasing me and I snuggled into my parents bed for safety and comfort. After that dream, I'd make sure to put them inside a shoebox in my bedroom closet.

My own personal Scrooge

2011-12-12T07:27:00.000-08:00

As a writer, the biggest Scrooges in my life are not the people who don't like my books. I often don't like books that I read, which I feel is my right as a reader. We aren't all going to like every book that we read. So I get that not everyone is going to like my books. That is their right. No, the biggest Scrooges in my life? The people who don't like my books AND then feel that gives them the right to say things about my books AND me. When The Compound first came out in 2008, I was excited to see what readers had to say about it. It had gotten a starred review from Publisher's Weekly, which had also featured me in an article about debut authors. I signed up for Goodreads and reviews started to come in for The Compound. Here is one of the first:

"The premise is great: a Seattle tech buzillionaire builds a compound in anticipation of a terrorist attack, and then ushers his family into it one day ( one kids and a grandma are left behind) where they remain for years. Gradually, the kids become suspicious about what's really going on. The writing is just intolerable, though. My ARC says the author is a creative writing teacher, so I guess in this case it's true what they say about what "those who can't" do."

Wow. So it's not enough to bash my writing ( fine, everyone is entitled to their own opinion) but to throw around what is the meanest cliche about the teaching profession? Many of my friends and relatives are teachers, as am I, obviously, and I despise that people even have the nerve to utter such an awful, derisive thing. I won't lie, this one left me in tears and made me spend the whole day questioning whether I should even be a teacher OR a writer.

I then went on to get some more reviews: Kirkus, School Library Journal, etc., that didn't bash my book. So I learned not to go looking for reviews. The ones that matter the most will come to me from my editor.

And I think I've had the last laugh. The Compound has been on about 17 state reading lists, and I get emails and Facebook messages every day from readers telling me it's the best book they've ever read. ( Again, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but I tend to like those kind of opinions!) And I continue to get warm and wonderful feedback from my students at Gotham Writer's Workshop, who apparently seem to think I don't suck as a teacher. So, to my own personal Scrooge, I say ....

Merry Christmas!

When I was a Boy

2011-12-08T09:20:00.000-08:00

When I was thirteen months old, my mother gave birth to a little girl. My new sister was named Mary Elizabeth, but everybody called her Molly. She was born early and had problems with her lungs so she had to stay in the hospital for a few weeks. But she got better and came home.

One evening I could hear her from her crib, and I told my mother, "Baby's crying." Molly was having problems breathing and my mother called my father who came home and rushed her to the doctor. Molly died that evening.

My parents decided that I was too young to go to the wake or the funeral and nobody knew what to say to me about what had happened so nobody said anything about it.

It wasn't until I was much older that I heard about my sister Molly. Her death has had a big impact and I continue to miss her.

My Turn to Share

2011-12-06T18:08:00.000-08:00

What’s some stuff not everyone knows about me? Let’s see. For some reason, people usually express surprise when I tell them I was born in Vancouver, Canada. (That’s me in the picture with two of my “buddies” from the old days.) My family lived in White Rock, a quiet seaside community just north of the American border, until my father was transferred to Seattle when I was eight years old.

That’s not much of a revelation, though. So what else can I share? Well, I used to play saxophone in elementary and junior high. I was first chair in the stage band. I say this not to brag but to point out the reason why: practice. I had weekly private lessons and something my teacher once said has always stuck with me: “If I skip practice for a day, I can notice it. If I skip for two days, my audience can notice.” I followed this mantra to become a better saxophone player, and in the many years since then I have used it as a concise reminder of the value of diligence.

On a more embarrassing note, I’ll share a cautionary tale from my freshman year of high school. On the first day of school my English teacher told us to write a short paragraph about our favorite movie, television show, or book. Rather than applying myself or giving any effort at all, I goofed around gabbing with a buddy until five minutes before the end of class, at which point I dashed off a few sentences about the latest movie I’d seen. The next day, the teacher read off a list of names including my own. The chosen ones were escorted down the hall to a class for remedial writing instruction. As soon as I sat down and my new teacher asked us to read a sentence and figure out what was wrong with the first letter in the first word (it wasn’t capitalized), I knew I had screwed up royally this time. I immediately apologized and asked to return to my original class, but I hadn’t figured on how many times my new teacher had heard the line, “I don’t belong in this class.” So it took a week of pleading – “I’m sorry! I’m a goofball! I didn’t take the assignment seriously! Let me write another essay and prove it to you – pleeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaase!” – before the teacher finally relented and allowed me to remedy my mistake.

Thank goodness my parents never found out. Not to mention my saxophone teacher!

Timid Girl 2

2011-12-05T11:12:00.000-08:00

As the youngest of three, I was definitely babied. I was pretty fearless at home, but once I left the safety of my family, I was a very timid child. I remember that a high school teacher commented that she had never heard my voice - which made me even more embarrassed and shy. It didn't help that I was taller than most everyone, especially the boys. I have no idea exactly when that shyness ended (I know that it still exists deep inside), but when it finally came time to make my own way in the world, I had to speak up for myself. My first time speaking in front of an audience when I was in my 30's was a huge flop, but surprisingly the world didn't end. When I subbed, I was constantly "on stage" and I came to enjoy the give and take with the students. Now I can speak to auditoriums of students with very little fear. I guess it proves that you can change your life, or maybe it shows that once you are able or allowed to exert some control in your own life, you can feel less fearful.

Monkeys and turtles and bees, oh my!

2011-12-03T09:02:00.000-08:00

When I was a kid, I was afraid of everything.

I was afraid of bees (they can sense fear) and dragonflies (if they land on your face they can sew your lips shut).

I was afraid of water. My fear intensified after I almost drowned, accidentally jumping into the deep end of the Holiday Inn swimming pool when I was trying to splash my older sister.

I was afraid of donkeys. When we visited Reptile Gardens in South Dakota, my parents wanted a picture of me standing next to the donkey at the petting zoo. "He's going to bite me!" I said. "He won't bite you," my parents assured. They took the picture and the donkey bit me.

I was afraid of turtles. My fear didn't stop me from entering the turtle races during the Park and Rec summer program at the local playground, because I didn't have to actually touch the turtle, all I had to do was bring a dollar from home and a turtle would be raced in my name. Then one year my turtle won, which meant I had to carry the turtle home so it could race at the next level of competition. Gingerly I held the turtle by its shell and ran until it began waving its claws, then I'd drop it on the ground. That's how I made it home, about five feet at a time.

But my biggest fear was a statue that my mother had in the living room. It showed a monkey sitting on a pile of books written by Darwin, examining a skull. I'm not sure which scared me more, the monkey, or the skull. In order to make sure that this evil monkey didn't do anything bad to me, every night when I went to bed I had to honor that statue by going to sleep facing it. I went to bed facing the same direction for years.

Thank goodness those fearful days of childhood are over!

My Biggest Childhood Fear...

2011-12-02T15:15:00.000-08:00

I grew up in south Florida, and I often hopped on my bike and rode three miles to the beach. So you'd think my biggest fear might be the occasional alligator that I encountered stretched across the bicycle path OR the nearly 9-foot lemon shark that swam within a few feet of me when my father and I were standing along the seawall. Yes, these were a little "off putting" to say the least, but the creatures that gave me nightmares were the giant blue land crabs!

Whenever we had a heavy rain, the land crabs were flooded from their shallow holes, and they came out snapping. I hated going out my front door on a rainy morning because the crabs often took refuge on our front porch--not just one, but sometimes four or five. They were blue and white and pink and sometimes spanned more than a foot with their claws outspread. I could hear the clicking of their feet on the terrazzo floor of the porch, and their claws looked strong enough to snap off a toe or a finger. There was a nearby park where my family often went for picnics, but I always avoided the sandy/muddy area sloping down to the pond. It was pockmarked with holes, often with large eyes peering out at me and with a claw ready to attack. No, I was never actually grabbed by one of those claws--except in dreams.

Would one of these scare you?

So Many Secrets

2011-12-01T09:49:00.000-08:00

I was born so blond you couldn't see my eyebrows or eyelashes. Soon my hair grew brown but for a highlight in front of my head that stayed blond. I didn't like it because people asked me why did my mother dye my hair. Worse yet, on the first Friday of the month the nuns, who were my teachers at Academia Santa Maria, made those students whose uniforms didn't fit the code stand in front of the whole school. It didn't fail. No matter how much my mother said that my highlight was natural, the nuns insisted that it wasn't. Now imagine that for a girl who was timid.

People think I am bubbly and energetic. Little do they know that those same teachers wrote home saying that I was too timid. Timid, believe it or not, I was. On top of that, my classmates had been speaking English since kindergarten. I was just learning. And did they laugh! There are certain words I still cannot say, like sheep. It comes out as "ship." Now take that last word and end it with a "t". I always say linen, never "sheet."

Speaking of cows. . .

2011-11-29T08:45:00.000-08:00

When I was eleven I was a cow. Actually this is only half-true because I was only half a cow. My best friend, Leslie and I created a joint Halloween costume. We used a grocery bag for the head, added on ears and even curly paper eyelashes. We painted big brown spots on a sheet, braided yarn for a tail, and wore a cowbell. The best part was that we practiced walking in step, sitting and crossing our legs simultaneously. Leslie was the tallest girl in our class, so guess which half she got to be? And that meant all the kids at school felt entitled to slap me on the behind. It was worth it though. Sharing made for the best Halloween ever. My daughter was inspired to have this experience too. Here she is in '05 as Dolly Llama in a costume I created for her and her friend. She's lucky; she's the tall one.

More stuff you never knew about me:

I used to wake up in the dark and change into my school clothes then get back under the covers until it was light. I wanted to be ready. My father caught me at it one time and told me it was only 1:00AM. I'm the most eager person you're likely to meet.

I was hit by a flying saucer while walking my pet skunk. Wait—do you already know this story? Stephanie does because it shows we were meant to collaborate on Elizabeti's Doll. In Massachusetts, my father built stonewalls surrounding our land and flanking the steps that zigzagged up our back hill. I claimed a striped stone for my own, wrapped some rope around it and dragged it behind me—Pepé Le Pew. It was a windy day in early spring. Our aluminum snow saucers still leaned against the cellar door. One caught the current, flew across the yard, and hit me under the nose. You can still see the scar from the stitches. In high school I found an advertisement in a magazine from some children's book institute. I sent in a variation on this story and received a letter back assuring me I could have a career in children's books. Guess you could say I was marked for this.

A little sumpin' about me...

2011-11-28T15:29:00.000-08:00

Our theme this round is to tell something about ourselves people may not know. And I suggested we reach back to our childhoods to do that. Here's me and my older brother:

I grew up on a dairy farm in Wisconsin. If you don't know anything about dairy farming, here are the basics:

1. There are cows.

2. Those cows need to be milked twice a day. Always. 365 days a year. No days off.

3. Those cows also need to be fed and watered and cleaned up after, because what goes into a cow always comes out, in a much bigger and smellier quantity than it went in. And, trust me, they don't clean up after themselves.

4. Did I mention the cows?

When I was in third grade, my job was to feed the calves. Sounds simple, yes? Hold on. We kept our calves in hutches, small wooden calf-size sheds, up on a hill. I had to carry grain and water up that hill, two buckets at a time. Ever thought about how much a calf can drink? Trust me, on a hot day in summer, a lot. I have no idea how many hundreds of trips I made up that hill and back down by the time I turned ten.

Speaking of age ten, here's me at the Jackson County Fair with my calf Popcorn:

(No, I didn't win a blue ribbon. Or even a red. I got a white ribbon, one of those "Thanks for coming, I'm sure you'll find something else you're good at...")

As I got older, I did more chores. I fed the cows, which meant I progressed from buckets full of grain to wheelbarrows full of silage. ( chopped-up hay from the silo) Those puppies are heavy, trust me. And one filled while you pushed with the other one, so if you dawdled at all, it would overflow and then you'd have to shovel. Which I did a lot. Not just silage. I remember coming home for Thanksgiving my sophomore year of college. The barn cleaner, the thing that cleans all the gutters out, had broken. And I stood there for hours, knee deep in cow manure, shoveling.

Milking cows was another chore I did for years. But I digress. This is not all about the work. I meant for this to be about the cows, and that, even though they were tons of work, I loved them. And I named them. Most were named for characters out of books I had read. And I was constantly out in the barn playing with them, so by the time they had grown up to be milking cows in the barn, they were so friendly and gentle.

My parents no longer have cows. Now, if I want to pet a cow, I have to call upon rancher friends out here where we live. And in the spring when the fields are full of calves, I stop by the road and get out and walk over to the fence, hoping one will stray my way so I can pet them....

The Persistance of a Writer

2011-11-26T11:08:00.000-08:00

The will of the way of writing is sitting down, being, writing against the hard waves,--learning, becoming better, teaching what you learn, learning better, writing story, being blessed, teaching what you learn, learning better . . .

The goal is the walk. I offer myself this lesson, well, again and again. Still the word and the story show up. I'm juggling life and the cost of houses and college educations. This puts a pressure that is not conducive to creativity. Instead, it says go, work, give--somewhere in that space I still write. I see the moon and I walk the lake with my dog and watch it turn silver, watch pelicans dip their beaks into that silver lake, sipping a silvery fish. It slows me down, my dog swims, I sit on the levee and feel grateful. It returns me to myself and I shed my skin.

Giving thanks

2011-11-23T20:18:00.000-08:00

One of my goals the past years has been to give thanks for the many opportunities that come my way. On a school visit to Gilman, Wisconsin in 1997, I was presented a beautiful Gratitude Journal by Heather Palmer, the art teacher. Heather told me that the journal was one in which I should write down things I was grateful for. I started doing this and came to value the practice. It's helped me cope with the ups and downs of publishing and reminds me how fortunate I am to get to do what I love when so many people struggle with so little. On this Thanksgiving, I give thanks for all of you and send all best wishes for a wonderful holiday.

Flexible Goals!

2011-11-23T06:46:00.001-08:00

Mock-cover for *new* book

The image above is a "pretend" cover I made a few years ago when working on a story I had actually begun in 2003 after going to the symphony to hear Bruckner, my composer husband's favorite composer. On the program for the evening was Stravinsky's "Petrushka" and in the program was a gorgeous photo of Stravinsky and the dancer, Nijinsky. Something struck me from that image and I was compelled to begin a story about what happened when Stravinsky met Nijinsky. I am telling you this story because after 8 years of working off and on the story, it has just been offered a contract with Harcourt Books- part of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt! With this wonderful news comes a complete re-ordering of goals- and thus the title of my post: Flexible Goals!

Igor Stravinsky and Vaslov Nijinsky in 1911

Because this picture-book-to-be culminates in the premier of the Rite of Spring in Paris on May 29th, 1913, we have imposed a very quick deadline for publication- wanting it to come out on time for the 100th anniversary- spring 2013! I had just begun the illustrations for another book, but with my editor's blessings, I have pushed that deadline off and now have a goal of finishing the sketches for WHEN STRAVINSKY MET NIJINSKY by January and the final art by April of 2012. I have found that when my goals touch upon my heart's desires, I can meet them. This story and its characters lives deep inside my heart and imagination. I know I can meet these goals!

I have another goal that seemed to come out of thin air, but it is also seated deep in my heart's desires- While lying on the couch with the flu at the beginning of November, I acted on an impulse to register with NaNoWriMo and begin writing a middle grade novel that had been bumping around in my head for over a year. Spurred on by NaNo's pep talks and support from writer friends, I have embarked on a journey of writing that I do not want to let go of. I love my characters, my setting, and the plot begins to simmer, though not thickening yet. November is nearly over, but I am setting what I hope is a workable goal of writing two pages a day, even through the above deadline!

Goals are often attached to commitments. Over the past five years I have committed myself to being the script writer for Circus Juventas and I have committed myself to visiting schools and libraries as an illustrator/author. The Wild West is the theme for this summer's Circus Show and the script is nearly done. Usually I would linger over the winter holidays, finalizing the script for the unveiling in the new year, but I have already spoken with the Artistic Director and set myself the goal of finishing by December 12th before the circus school's winter break. And almost with some kind of sixth sense, I have not scheduled myself with too many school visits this winter leaving open time for illustrating WSMN~ what a gift for the new year!

One Life, One Goal

2011-11-22T15:46:00.000-08:00

Today is my 48th birthday, and so thinking about goals seems appropriate.

Ever since I was in grade school my primary dream/goal has been to be an author. Over the intervening years I have kept the faith and continued the quest -- through the rise (and eventual decline) of Minimalism, the supposed Death of the Novel, the resurgence of Children’s Literature (thanks, Harry Potter!), the dawn of the Information Age, and on into a new Millennium. Along the way -- while juggling jobs, relationships, and my own family -- I have managed to publish two stories, a haiku, a humorous essay, and, this past summer, a poem. So I guess I’m an author, of sorts, but I have yet to achieve my main goal: to write (and publish) a novel.

I have written upwards of 10 different novels in the course of the last 20 years, all of which reached various levels of “completeness” but none of which, so far, has developed into a finished manuscript. Currently I have drafts of two different novels I am working on, either of which might be “the one” that allows me to finally realize my dream. To be honest, some days I fear I will lose the will to keep plugging away, but then I come up with a new character or a scene, and I plunge back in again. I believe I will continue doing so until either I succeed or mortality catches up to me. Until then, I’ll stay hard at work. Wish me luck. It can only be a matter of time, right?

Besides, if I didn’t keep trying to write, what else would I do?

Make Big Plans

2011-11-19T19:07:00.000-08:00

On my computer I have three different signs, and I'm adding a fourth this weekend. To my left, I have the sentence, "I have 12 stories published by age 56." Since I'm 51 I'm a little worried about this, but still, it's a good goal to shoot for. In the middle of my computer frame I have a note from my aunt that says, "Follow that light." We had a discussion last time we were together about finding what brings us true joy, and even if the light is faint, to be true to it above all else. On the right side of my computer I have the words, "I have a Caldecott." I know that you're not supposed to say that wish out loud, but it is a wish and I need to remember it and write for it in the hopes that one of my illustrators hits a home run. I don't want to bury that dream under superstition. My fourth sign, that I will put on my computer once I finish this blog, is "Make big plans." The words popped into my head last week and they haven't left (everything else seems to have!). I don't know what this means, but it sounds very hopeful.

My daily goals are a little less pie in the sky. I need to work on the syllabus for my children's lit. class. I need to review illustrations for one of my books and turn in my comments by Monday. I need to respond to the students in my Humanities class, and I need to turn in papers to be copied for my class. All are doable. Some are more overwhelming than others. Most will be done in the next week.

My goals for the next few weeks are to come up with some new story ideas, or revise some old ones. I guess that's not too bad for someone who is not the biggest fan of planning.

Goals, Vague and Specific

2011-11-19T07:30:00.000-08:00

When I was in college, it seemed I had forever ahead of me, and my goal to become a published author was just "sometime in the future." But the older I got, the faster time flew. I began setting goals by decades--still vague enough that I had an entire ten years to accomplish them. At 40, I decided to be published sometime in my 40s, and I achieved that goal. Then I set the goal for my first "solo" book to be in my 50s--I achieved that goal. I also found that I was not satisfied by simply achieving those vague goals. I needed to keep writing, but those "sometime in the next decade" goals were not specific enough.

These days as I am facing the reality of mortality during my father's fast decline, I am back to baby steps--specific goals set for a few days at a time, squeezing writing in as I can, but with the primary focus on making the most of the time left with my father. I am also bolstered by John's words about being brave and not simply being satisfied with what I've done in the past. Now I must push myself to take chances and try something new and different.

On Your Mark; Get Set; Go! (Semicolons, commas or periods?

2011-11-17T14:18:00.000-08:00

What you see here is an illustration by Salvador Dalí of Don Quixote de La Mancha translated by Peter Motteux. Poet David R. Wagoner gave me the book when he learned that I was writing about Dalí.What an honor!

That precious gift is forcing me to finish the Dalí biography by next spring. I also want to revise Late She Came to Know, the novel I had talked about here.

While working on both, I will study how to use the mechanics of writing--punctuation, capitals, italics, sentence structure, paragraph length, white spaces--to show the mood of a scene. All this time I have been concentrating on word choices. I won't stop. But it's time to pay attention to those commas.

2011-11-16T19:48:00.000-08:00

Taped to the inside of my dresser is a handwritten note dated November 13, 1993. It reads: I will produce a quality children's book. Over twelve years later, after the publication of The Best Pet of All, I made the addition: I did produce a quality children's book! I've kept that note inside my dresser to remind myself that it's good to have goals and that dreams do come true, even if the road to their realization is long.
Like Christy, most of my goals are the short range ones. Currently my goal each day is to finish the sketch for another two-page spread for my current picture book project, with the goal of having a revised dummy to send to my editor by the end of the month. When I think of all the work I need to do in order to complete the final artwork by spring, I panic. But can I finish one sketch today? Yes, that's doable. And when even that seems insurmountable, I turn to smaller goals: I will finish the sketch of this one character before lunch. Small step by small step I'm inching toward my goal: the completion of the first book where I am both author and illustrator.

Goals: the long and short view

2011-11-15T12:09:00.000-08:00

Many years ago at a family party a friend of my mother's asked me my “five-year-plan.” I bristled. Was this a party or an interview? I assumed the phrase originated in a self-help book, but a little Google-action showed me it dates back to the Soviet Union and China in the mid-to-late 1920s. While web surfing I found sites offering templates for creating personal five-year-plans, and many more sites with strategies for setting and working toward goals in all areas of life.

I did realize my childhood dream of becoming a children's book author-illustrator, yet most days I am not aware of my distant goals. I'm only aware of the flashlight beam illuminating the near spot on the path so I can put one foot in front of the other. Do I know where my path is leading? Not really. I hope when this project concludes there will be another one ahead. My graphic design teacher scolded me for just accepting jobs that fell in my lap. He said I should steer my career.

I'm great at meeting imposed deadlines. That is one reason I take writing classes or join writers groups. It's important to switch from this mode of pleasing others to looking at what I want and then break that down into tasks I do for myself. I can look to one example where I did this with happy results. My second author/illustrator project, Dreaming Up: A Celebration of Building will publish with Lee & Low in fall 2012. I set the goal of submitting this project for consideration on the pub date of my first author/illustrator book. I chose to put aside other ideas in development and focus solely on this. Those other half-baked projects still call to me now—a MG novel, a biography, concept picture books, poetry, and more. The ideas bump into each other and compete. I need to stand back and get a distant view. Where do I want to go? Uh-oh, I might just have to develop a five-year-plan! Which project should be the next to develop? For those of you who entertain multiple ideas at one time, how do you decide?

Here's a couple interesting bits I found in my web explorations:

A creativity coach's web site (http://seedfiddle.com/) introduced the concept of Kaizen (Kai=change; Zen=good). “Kaizen, also known as 'continuous improvement,' is a long-term approach to success that systematically seeks to achieve small, incremental changes in processes in order to improve quality and achieve significant goals. Said simply, it is all about the power of small steps.”

Another site offered a helpful mnemonic, SMART goals:

S - Specific
M - Measurable
A - Attainable
R - Relevant
T - Time-bound

Writing to Win

2011-11-13T19:29:00.001-08:00

This is my youngest daughter and I this past
Saturday night, moments after she and her teammates won the Oregon 3A State Volleyball
tournament. From the moment the season started, even before the first day of
practice, she told me she wanted to win state. That goal was one shared by her
teammates, only three of which had even been on varsity the previous year. And
things looked good for the first 6 weeks of the season. But then our middle
hitter blew out her knee, sidelining her for the rest of the season. The team
didn’t have a replacement for her, our school is small, so they just
reconfigured the line-up. They missed their middle hitter, but they made do,
and they still thought they could win state. They were undefeated in league
play, and had a 28-2 record going into the quarterfinal, which they took easily
in three games.
But our semi-final game on Friday night, our girls
played the worst game of their season. They couldn’t serve, couldn’t hit,
couldn’t pass. It’s easy to win when everything is working, but when it isn’t,
well…then you need to dig deeper. And they did. I don’t know how, but they managed
to eke out a win. I think I was prouder of them for that win than any other
game this season. And when they stepped on the court for the championship game
on Saturday night, I could feel it. They knew they could do it, and they played
like it. Minutes after this photo was
taken, my kid got a gold medal around her neck.
How could a team just have a goal of winning state
like that? Because that’s the best you can do, and they wanted to be the best.
What if their goal had been to have a better than .500 season? Or to finish top
3 in their league? Decent goals, but really, what would be the point? Don’t you
have to dream as big as possible? Why NOT have a goal of that gold medal draped
around your neck?
My husband pointed out that during the semi-final
game, a game we needed to win in order to make the finals, our girls were
playing “to not lose”, instead of playing “to win.” And I realized writing is
the same. I start each book with a goal. But is my goal big enough? Am I simply
writing to “not lose” instead of writing “to win”? Each time I start a book,
shouldn’t I have the loftiest goal in mind? I mean, if my goal for my book is
simply to have my friends like it, or to make the shelf of my local bookstore, or
to get a dozen fan letters, what’s the point? Like my daughter, why aim for
anything else BUT the state title? For me, why not admit yeah, I’d love a best-seller or a Printz or a Newbery? If I don’t have that level of goal in mind
when I write, what’s the point?
There are seven volleyball teams that drove home
from Eugene today without the state title. They’ll all try again next year, and
someone else will win. Just like each year, there are hundreds of authors who
don’t get the big awards, myself included. But each new book I write, I’m back
in the running. I’m writing to win. And, like a state volleyball tournament, it’s
exciting, because you never know when you might just meet your goal. My
daughter, and her dreams, taught me that.

Be Brave

2011-11-10T07:10:00.000-08:00

In order to do good work, I need to remind myself to be brave. Bravery doesn't mean not feeling fear but going forward in the face of it. To do my best work, I need to enter places that are uncomfortable and painful. Like many people I prefer not to, but for a story to jump and have resonance I need to be more honest with myself and go places that are difficult. With the recent death of my mother, I've been thinking about all kinds of things, and one of them is a tendency in myself to hold back. I am aware of places this shows up in my life and in my writing and feel the need to explore this. I also want to write some pieces that are different from anything that I've done. I will continue to repeat these two words: be brave.

Ideal Conditions for My Best Work?

2011-11-09T07:38:00.000-08:00

For the past two weeks I have been down with the flu. I would not normally recommend the flu as conducive to ideal conditions for one's best work, but the mandatory stillness of sickness forced me to take time and reflect on the past 6 to 8 months of my creative life. Though creative with plenty of out-put, I would not label the past 6-8 months "ideal conditions." I was too often racing from one deadline to the next, saying "yes" to too many things, and working 10 to 12 hour days. Now that I am returning to health, I am purposefully nurturing the ideal conditions for my best work:

Pause ~ Find moments throughout the day to pause and appreciate what I am writing, drawing or painting.
Let Go ~ Begin the day with yoga and a brief meditation to let go of all the to-do lists that begin making themselves as soon as I wake. They will return. they always do.
Morning is my best time for work~ Clear mornings for writing, sketching, painting.
Write and draw/paint on ideas that do not have a deadline~ I am a very fortunate illustrator with manuscripts to illustrate on contract for the next several years. I love having a deadline to work with, like all of my fellow potatoes, the deadline spurs me on. But giving time to stories and pictures without deadlines adds excitement and adventure to my studio life!
Connect with those who believe in me~ I am very fortunate to be working with an editor who believes in me. I am still not clear how it all happened. When I sent her a dark, scary first interpretation of the story SCARECROW years ago, she didn't throw out the contract, though I think everyone at Harcourt was urging her to. Instead, she gave me more time. Her patience and belief in me gave me courage. I also have an artist/composer/writer husband who is intimate with my creative process from the ecstatic successes to the weepy failures, and still he believes in me. And friends. I have cultivated many artist/author friends to share work and life with, all of whom are essential for my best work.
Read ~ Make time for reading. Picture Books, Chapter Books, Adult fiction and Non. Make a pile of my favorite reads nearby so I can refer to them when inspiration is needed.
Walks ~ A daily walk loosens my cluttered mind and if I open my eyes, something is bound to inspire me.
Take Time Off ~ I have a too-strong work ethic. If I am not busy on some task, I feel worthless. Having sat around the house for the past two weeks, reading, watching movies, looking through poetry and art books, and sleeping, I am convinced that time off from everything is essential to doing my best work.

I just have a few errands to run...

2011-11-07T09:09:00.000-08:00

In reading the previous posts, I see a lot of talk about distractions. I remember the author and illustrator of the Titch and Daisy books talking about mopping her floors instead of working on her books. She said that her son knew when a deadline was looming, because that's when she did housework.

I, too, am subject to distractions. My husband even accused me of creating errands that I had to run instead of working on my projects. The nerve! (Of course he was right!)

The right conditions usually present themselves after a few days of psyching up to work on a story. My brain finally kicks in and for a few blessed weeks, I'm focused on either creating a new story or editing and revising the ones I'm working on. My best revision ideas come when I'm waking up in the morning, trying to go to sleep at night, or trying to take a nap. It does make sense that when I finally remove the distractions my brain is allowed to be creative. Of course, it means that sleep does not come as easily even though it looks like I'm getting a full 8 hours, plus a nap every day. Usually the distractions creep back in and I have to regain my focus - sometimes later rather than sooner.

Creativity is an unusual friend that needs unusual nurturing I guess. I am grateful when it visits me!

Short, Focused, Bursts of Time

2011-11-06T07:41:00.000-08:00

Some people would think long, unstructured periods of time would promote the best opportunity for creativity. But I have found I am most productive and creative in small, focused, bursts of time, especially when I have a deadline I'm trying to meet--and I don't mean a self-imposed deadline. Large periods of time overwhelm me by pulling me in too many directions with too many options. I could do this... Or maybe I could work on that... And then I'm distracted by the deer outside my window, or I need to throw a load of laundry in the washer, or maybe I'll take a walk first, and so on...

I completed my MFA in Writing while working full-time as Coordinator of Admissions in a busy Maryland community college and while having my daughter and young grandchild sharing our home. Believe me, there were many distractions, but the deadline of having to produce a packet of creative and critical work every three weeks was my taskmaster. I devoted my one-hour lunch break each work day to writing in a study carrel tucked away in the basement of the community college library. I knew I had a limited time to accomplish a lot of work, and I was able to dive into it quickly. The hard part was to stop and re-enter my regular work world at the end of that hour. Of course, I had to fit in other early morning and late night hours at home, too, but those short bursts of time kept me going!

Now that I have more freedom, I have to designate hours here and there (with a specific beginning and ending time) to get myself on track. And nothing helps more than having a deadline from an editor!

More Time, Please

2011-11-03T18:07:00.000-07:00

I love my writing life. Let me count the ways.

1. Research

2. Revision after the first draft is down

3. Reading

4. Exaggerating

5. Eavesdropping

6. Creating characters and worlds

7. Visiting schools

8. Speaking at conferences

9. Book signings--mine and that of other authors

10. Meeting famous authors

11. Blogging with my papitas calientes

12. Participating in writing list-serves

13. Talking to my readers in Facebook

14. Participating in my writing group meetings

15. Teaching writing at the Whidbey Island MFA program

16. Teaching writing to high school students

17. Teaching writing to elementary school students

18. Answering e-mails

And then there are the precious moments with my grandsons, family, and friends--including my Maltese dog, Lily.

If I could only have more time to write all the stories I have in my head, my life would be perfect.

Slow and steady

2011-11-02T19:07:00.000-07:00

I agree with Stephanie and Christy about all the distractions that keep me from creating books. Why am I so easily led astray from what I want to do most in the world? This past month in particular, I have come to view the Internet as the Enemy, at least with regards to me being productive with my current book project. I tell myself that I need a break and I'm only going to check my email and WHAM - two hours have gone by. Even more than that, being on the computer affects my thinking in a negative way that I can't explain; it leaves my brain mushy and less creative. As I face up to this new book's deadline I am doing my best to follow this rule: absolutely NO checking my email until I am done with my creative work for the day.

As far as other conditions that help me with my work, having enough time to think, experiment, and play is helpful. I am a slow, methodical worker, and I'm learning to embrace that and not feel like a slacker just because others are twice as productive. But I also need deadlines, otherwise I will drag out my work for years (and years). And for a slow thinker, I sometimes come up with my best ideas under harsh deadlines (like this past Halloween when I had only a few hours left to carve pumpkins and I came up with some of my best ideas). So that's a balance I seek: time to work slowly, yet a deadline that holds me accountable.

Other than that, give me a can of Pepsi, a couple of homemade chocolate chip cookies, and the privacy of my apartment's little studio and I'm ready to work...as long as I stay away from the computer.

Foraging vs reaping

2011-11-01T09:55:00.001-07:00

This round we're posting about the conditions that contribute to our best work. Like Stephanie, who wrote about distractions and procrastination, I first want to focus on what prevents me from working at my highest level.

As a self-employed creator, I need to hunt and gather for my livelihood. When I was offered my first book to illustrate, back in the early 90s, I worked as an art director for Four Winds Press. It was a part time position. I worked three days in-house, leaving me the other four days to create. This was an ideal situation for me. When Simon & Schuster bought out Macmillan, there was no longer an option to work part time. I had a fledgling illustration career started—this was the whole reason I'd gone to NYC; I knew a full time art director position would not allow sufficient left-over time for my own work. I have been freelance art directing/designing and illustrating/writing since the mid-90s. When I have a lot of work lined up into the future (stockpiles from hunting) is when I'm most productive; only then am I not agitated about finances. When work is scarce, I need to devote more energy to foraging, less to reaping. Foraging seems to scatter my energies. I try to cover too much ground. I'm considering part time employment again to address this issue. If I can be still enough, centered in one place, then I can harvest.

Playing out this analogy, it also helps to have great farmers—trusted writers groups, an editor who knows how to fertilize what is best and weed out the worst, makes for the heartiest crop. My best work comes when I have this community of support.

When the stars align...

2011-10-31T10:44:00.000-07:00

Writing is very enabling for a procastinator like myself.

I need to write today, but...it's cloudy.

I need to write today, but...there's a Battlestar Galactica marathon on SyFy.

I need to write today, but...we need dog food.

Basically, anything can be a reason to not write. So what conditions are right for me to get something done?

Luckily, I don't have to wait for the stars to align.

Tomorrow is the first day of 2011 National Novel Writing Month, which I plan to participate in. So for the next 30 days, I'm going to have to make sure the conditions are right.

It helps to have an idea, and I do have one that I'll start writing on tomorrow.

It helps to have my laptop sitting in a productive place, other than the couch in front of the tv.

It helps to have a hot drink at hand.

It helps to have quiet, so I will walk the dogs early so they will be more inclined to nap the whole day.

It helps to have convenient food so I don't take too much of a break. I plan on making a big pot of chili later today.

These may all sound a little silly, but for a procastinator like myself, eliminating all the things that keep me from writing is exactly how I end up getting something done...

Anyone else doing NaNoWriMo this year?

Traveling for Research and Inspiration

2011-10-25T13:47:00.000-07:00

As a person who’s had a few publication credits but has not published a novel (yet!), I haven't done any traveling for school presentations. However, like others on this blog I have certainly traveled to do research for my work, whether it be hiking in the alpine backcountry of Rainier National Park in search of pikas and marmots to star in a middle grade novel, or visiting Fairbanks to reconnect with the town where I spent my formative years.

I don’t have much advice regarding trips of this nature, other than to say remember to check your supplies a few times before you depart! Once, on a trip to Rainier, I drove 3 hours to the park, hiked two miles (uphill!) off the road, came upon a family of marmots playing just a few yards off the trail – and then realized that amongst the various notebooks, snacks, and water bottles in my backpack I had forgotten to bring my camera!! Although I stayed for a few hours and had fun watching the pudgy little critters going about their lives, I sure would have liked to take some pictures. Luckily, I made several trips researching this particular project and so I had other opportunities to photo-document my discoveries. (A picture from one of these later trips accompanies this post. If you look on the boulder near the pine tree in the lower right corner, you might be able to see a marmot lounging in the sun, admiring the view. Though I took most pictures at closer range, I couldn’t help but take this long-view picture, thinking, “That marmot sure has a nice view from her front stoop!”)

I have traveled to several writing conferences as well. When I think back on these experiences, no real advice comes to mind except to remind everyone never to book a hotel room over the internet without talking directly to the hotel in question. I learned this lesson the hard way a few years ago when I visited Portland, Oregon, to attend a book festival. I arrived at my hotel, checked in, and went to my room—only to find that I had been assigned a smoking unit with two double beds instead of the non-smoking room with king bed I had reserved. The gal at the desk, though sympathetic to my predicament, could not accommodate a room change because there were no vacancies. When I told her I had made a reservation weeks in advance, she asked if I had spoken directly to the hotel. I had not, and that’s when she told me that many online reservation sites do not actually guarantee you will receive the room you reserve. Most if not all of you probably already know this, but I add my little tale as a warning for those who may not!

David LaRochelle's New Book

2011-10-24T13:15:00.000-07:00

Hi Fellow potatoes, just saw this in The Horn Book. Thought you'd all like to see it too!! Congratulations on the nice write-up David!

Boo to you!
By Elissa Gershowitz
Halloween’s not just for little boys and ghouls. Here are some funny, eerie, and downright creepy titles to scare up readers of all ages.

The goofiest of the group is David LaRochelle’s picture book The Haunted Hamburger and Other Ghostly Stories. Ghost siblings Franny and Frankie demand a story before bed. Of course, one is never enough, and Father Ghost is persuaded to tell three. The humor is freewheeling and perfectly calibrated—diapers! lipsticky smooches! yuck!—for the book’s audience. Paul Meisel’s illustrations lend an exaggerated tongue-in-cheek quality. Perfect for Halloween (but too good not to read all year round). (6–8 years)
Read More…

Salt Lake City Here We Come

2011-10-24T12:53:00.001-07:00

I am travelling very little for my books right now, although I do get to make a quick trip up to Forest Falls to a one room school house at the end of this week. I am hoping to see the trees changing colors and feel a bit of winter up there. We've been in the 80's here lately and while I love the warmth, I do feel a little jealous of those with snow and fall colors.

I loved Christy's blog about finding things to write about wherever she travels, and as I commented on her post, my husband and I are doing a great deal of travelling to Salt Lake City to visit our son and his girlfriend. In following this pathway, I see that I could write about the national parks or the salt flats that we visit on our way to his apartment. They also have a gigantic copper mine that can be seen from space. The possibilities are endless, and thanks to this new way of viewing my travels, perhaps some new stories will be born. Thanks Christy! Happy travels to all potatoes.

Travel and Taxes

2011-10-22T22:51:00.000-07:00

Twenty years ago my husband and I spent our honeymoon in Hawaii and New Zealand. We lived in Brooklyn at the time. I worked as a children's book art director at Four Winds Press, but had originally moved to NYC study illustration at Pratt Institute. I was nurturing other illustrators in my job, but still hoping for my own picture book contract. My husband writes, so we decided to combine forces on picture book projects and make our trip tax deductable at the same time.

We collaborated on a whaling story set in Hawaii and submitted a dummy to Rosemary Brosnan at Lodestar Books. I worked with Rosemary in my first publishing job at Dutton and she had been pestering me since to show her my portfolio. The whaling story was not acquired, but Rosemary saw something she liked in my work and offered me my first picture book to illustrate, Juan Bobo and the Pig retold by Felix Pitre. At tax time the whaling story covered the Hawaii part of our honeymoon. My husband and I also came up with stories set in New Zealand. Perhaps some day I'll dust off my Maori story, A Paddle for Mokopuna, and I should definitely polish my dummy for my husband's funny kiwi story, Lester's Bug Hunt Goes Bad.

Whenever I travel, even within the U.S., I make sure there is some way I can make the experience meaningful for my work life (nudge, nudge, wink, wink—write it off!) When I moved to California after living eighteen years in NYC, I was thrilled to have research that took me back "home." Sky Dancers is about Mohawk high steel workers building the Empire State Building. I spent extensive time researching in the NY Public library as well as the ESB, and as a bonus got to reunite with dear friends, too. I enjoyed traveling to many Noguchi exhibits in New York, Seattle, and Los Angeles when I researched The East-West House, and recently gave a presentation at a Noguchi exhibition in Laguna Beach. All of these trips combined business and pleasure.

When I leave home to speak at conferences, give presentations, meet with publishers or editors, I save all my correspondence documenting our plans, a calendar of my appointments, and any pertinent receipts. If I travel for recreation I make sure to come up with new story ideas set in that location. There is nothing really shady about this. I'm a storyteller—visually and verbally. I approach life finding the narrative around me.

The Adventure of Travel

2011-10-22T06:19:00.000-07:00

Traveling is in my blood. My father's entire career was spent as a flight engineer with Pan American Airways. I began traveling as an infant, and throughout my childhood I had the good fortune to travel around the United States, to Europe, and to the Caribbean Islands, sometimes with my father as the crew member. I still have the journal I kept on a 6-week vacation through Europe when I was 14 years old. (See the photo above at Stonehenge, long before it was fenced off from tourists!) Since that time, I have made it a practice to keep a journal whenever I travel--jotting down detailed descriptions of the setting, including not only the scenery, but also the people, the food, the language, the way of life as I view it. I cannot imagine trying to write a story about a setting I have not actually visited.

In my career as an author, I have not made exotic trips to other countries, but I have made road trips to a handful of states: North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Florida, Rhode Island, Maine, and, of course, my home state of Maryland. I always view these trips as an exciting adventure and love to visit schools in these various places--to look for the similarities and the differences in rural, urban, and suburban students. As David mentioned in his post, it's a thrill to walk into a school and see a sign welcoming me and a student waiting to escort me to a class!

Happy Travels to all my fellow spuds!

Traveling to Research

2011-10-20T15:25:00.000-07:00

THIS IS LA MALAGUETA IN MALAGA, SPAIN
WHERE YOUNG PABLO PICASSO WENT TO WATCH THE BULLFIGHTS

As you know, I research as much as I can from home. Then I write the first and second draft of my book. By now I know where I have gaps. After I make as many appointments as I can from home, I travel with my questions.

WHO and WHERE:

César:¡Sí, se puede! Yes, We Can
Fresno, California and Independence, Oregon
I met farm workers and Dolores Huerta

Frida: ¡Viva la vida! Long Live Life
Mexico City, Mexico
*I took advantage and studied Diego Rivera during this trip

Diego: Bigger Than Life
Guanajuato, Mexico
I met his daughter Guadalupe Rivera

Sonia Sotomayor: Supreme Court Justice
Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, Bronx, New York, and Washington DC
I met her cousin, Tito Baéz

Alicia Alonso: Prima Ballerina
Havana, Cuba
I met Alicia Alonso, her first husband, Fernando Alonso, and her husband, Pedro Simón

Pablo Picasso:Yo, el rey I, The King
Southern and Central France, Málaga and Barcelona
I met his grandson, Bernard Picasso
*I took advantage and studied Salvador Dali during this trip

WHY:

To have the smells, the sounds, and the sights of the places, and eat the food so that I can write about them

To meet the experts in order to be able to contact them for questions and to check the manuscript.

To take photographs for possible illustrations and power-point presentations

To be able to speak about the places with some authority

HOW:

Saving money

Asking for bigger book advances

Writing grants: I've got a work-in-progress from the Society of Children's Book Writers and illustrators and a fellowship from Oregon Literary Arts

WHAT:

I keep every single receipt from the trip for tax purposes.

Good informational travels to you!

Hit the road, Jack

2011-10-19T13:53:00.000-07:00

This autumn has seen me traveling to Hayward and Wausau, Wisconsin, as well as Royalton and Sebeka, Minnesota for speaking engagements. I don't do a lot of traveling for work, but just enough so that it still remains enjoyable.

I like getting away from home, even for a few days. It's a treat to stay at a hotel where someone else makes my bed and I don't have to worry about doing dishes, taking out the garbage, or other household chores. Some authors get a lot of writing done on the road, but I don't. Instead, staying at a hotel allows me the luxury of an hour or two of reading in the evening, which I don't often take at home. I'll sometimes even turn on the television to see what the rest of the world is talking about as I don't have a working television in my apartment (so that's what "Dancing with the Stars" is all about!).

Visiting rural schools is especially rewarding, as those students don't have the opportunities kids from larger cities have, and they - and their teachers - are usually very appreciative. When I visited the small town of Sebeka last week, there was a student waiting for me at the school door to escort me to the office, the hallways were lined with bulletin board displays of my books, and I was given the honor of being celebrity judge for the fifth graders' pumpkin decorating contest. In the mail yesterday I received a thick packet of letters from the Sebeka students thanking me for my visit. These sorts of things make the long hours of driving well worthwhile.

Other highlights for me about traveling: visiting the local diner AND the bakery (don't miss the Moon Pies in Little Falls), listening to books on CD (which makes driving time fly by), and being able to soak in a hotel's whirlpool at the end of the day. And one of the most important things to pack to ensure happy travels: earplugs, just in case the hotel's walls are thinner than you'd wish.

Autumn

2011-10-16T11:53:00.000-07:00

I love autumn. I love the word autumn. It conjures a crispy excitement and colors I want to wrap myself up in as if I were jumping into a pile of leaves. This autumn has offered me an opportunity to teach creative writing at a New Orleans charter school. I am humbled by the trust and talent the young people have invested in our workshops and classes. This mix of trust and vulnerability, and deep creative work is a pure gift.

In that same spirit of trust, I’ve put some finishing touches on my own picture book and have fine-tuned a middle-grade novel, releasing both to the world. (Persistence beads on my forehead.)

I’ve also begun writing for The Times Picayune, the greater New Orleans newspaper. I write a column that runs each Sunday, and I write feature stories. Another delight that autumn has delivered is the premier publication of Citizen’s Together Magazine. I wrote the cover story, and was asked to speak at the launch celebration. It was held in an old neighborhood in New Orleans, at a corner church. The Zion Harmonizers, a well-known, gospel-singing group, sang and clapped and alleluiaed. My autumn has been rich.

Working

2011-10-13T12:39:00.000-07:00

My work this fall is centered on the death of my mother at the end of August. In this picture of her from last year with my daughter Sophie, her oldest grandchild, you can see how full of life she was. She was the one who read poetry to me and taught me to love language. She was the one who was so proud to have an author in the family. She was the one who had been to the library the day she fell to check out books including How to be Good by Nick Hornby. So many people had kind words to say about her life and reach and all of them provided comfort. I'm sustained by her love and grace and reminded of the importance of living my own life fully.

Thank you to all my fellow spuds for your cards, your care, and your support during this challenging time.

Is It Fall Already?

2011-10-12T05:58:00.000-07:00

The busy-ness of this past summer has blended right into Fall for me. The only break was seeing my daughter off to college again and waving good-bye to my son as he boarded the bus to his sophomore year in high school. It is all good busy and it will be helpful to make a list here on our Potato blog:
I am in the final stages of my next book, TELL ME ABOUT YOUR DAY TODAY, written by the author, Mem Fox. Above is the first spread at the start of the story. It has been a very challenging book to illustrate, which is precisely why I said yes to the manuscript in the first place. Mem wrote a brilliant bedtime story that rings true about a child asking his stuffed animals about their day. It is challenging because it is left to the illustrator to tell the story of the day in pictures and somehow have them all relate. After many months of visual storytelling, I think I am finally there. Left to do are a few edits and the cover. What a journey it has been.
Good-bye Grimm, Hello Wild West! Every summer Circus Juventas presents its most advanced performers in a show with a different theme each year. Last summer's show was based on six fairytales by the Grimm Brothers. This year's theme is going to be the rompin' stompin', cowboy lassoin' Wild West. As the script writer for Circus Juventas's Summer show, I have already been in many meetings with the Artistic Director and her assistant, as well as the Director of next year's show and the clowning coach in order to create a coherent storyline that will run throughout the circus acts. The roles are cast, the outline is almost there, the plot thickens, and I was up at 3:30 AM last night rolling about while ideas for the perfect ending floated in the dark. I love writing the script for these talented young performers. Next, we will be meeting for the set design! I work with another designer to plan and create the set that will illustrate the story. Set design and scenic painting become book illustration larger than life for me!
I have just returned from a visit to Southern California where I was the featured Author at the A.K. Smiley Library in Redlands. The entire day was a celebration of reading! Activities inspired by my books were offered for all the families who attended and I spoke about my process, folded origami with everyone, and signed books! To read more about my experience of the Smiley Library go here. I have already presented quite a bit this fall and right now I am trying to take advantage of a few weeks of quiet for writing and beginning my next picture book: DEER DANCER, written by the author Mary Lyn Ray. I have illustrated two of her books before, MUD and RED RUBBER BOOT DAY. I am looking forward to beginning new sketches. I always love beginnings and endings~ it's the middle where things get sticky!

Potato Update

2011-10-10T13:19:00.001-07:00

Hmmm. How do I follow all of Edie's activities? You sure are an active bunch of potatoes!!! I do have a visit to a one room school house in Forest Falls coming up, as well as a speaking engagement for a teaching club on the Cal State campus. While my life is pretty quiet, my books are having a busy life of their own - two are being illustrated presently, and two more are being shopped around to editors. I'm working on another one that seems to have some potential, so the quiet life has not been too bad for me - but, I am eager to get out there with people again. Oh, I'm attending the Southern CA Council of Children's Literature luncheon in November, and I'll be teaching writing classes at UC Riverside in January. So, there you have it.

Fall already slipping away...

2011-10-07T18:30:00.000-07:00

It seems only days ago that fall was just on the horizon, and now suddenly we're into October!

In early September, I made a weeklong trip to North Carolina for three school visits and a talk in an Appalachian State University children's lit class. Last Monday night, I participated in a panel discussion on The Art of Children's Literature following the screening of the award-winning documentary film, "Library of the Early Mind" as part of Hood College's annual Colloquium. And what an amazing film it was! This past week I've also been a "visiting" author for an online ALSC course entitled "Connecting With Tween Readers." The students are twenty-one librarians from across the country.

Unfortunately two school visits have been cancelled, due to lack of funding--a sad result of today's economy. I have another coming up in a few weeks and am keeping my fingers crossed it isn't cancelled.

In my other life as a regional advisor for the MD/DE/WV region of SCBWI, I've been busy planning a tri-regional conference to be held in Gettysburg, along with the two Pennsylvania regions over the weekend of Nov. 11-13. We have an amazing line-up of speakers, including Patricia MacLachlan, Jim Murphy, and E.B. Lewis, as well as a number of editors, agents, and an art director. If you're interested in details, here's a link to the conference.

And I would be remiss if I didn't mention our family celebration of my father's 90th birthday on September 24th. Seventeen of us gathered at a large house on the salt marshes of Chincoteague Island, Virginia.

I do try to squeeze in writing time around my busy schedule, as well as some relaxing evenings around the campfire.

Pumpkins and Tigers and Ghosts, Oh My!

2011-10-05T19:14:00.000-07:00

Like the other Potatoes, I am having a busy fall.

The visiting author season has started and I've already been to several schools, with plenty more scheduled throughout month.

This past week I've been working on some final tweaks to a new picture book that is scheduled to come out in the fall of 2012 from Chronicle, IT'S A TIGER! Jeremy Tankard who creates wonderful images with the computer will be the illustrator.

I've got several more book signings this month to celebrate my latest picture book, THE HAUNTED HAMBURGER AND OTHER GHOSTLY STORIES.

The Children's Theatre in Minneapolis will be presenting The Wizard of Oz and I'll be leading a book discussion after one of the performances.

Of course October means pumpkin carving. I carved my first pumpkin of the year last month at the Northwoods Children's Book Conference in Hayward, WI. More pumpkin carving events are slated for the end of the month.

And I am frustrated that I can't find the time to work on a new picture book that I am both writing and illustrating, ART ATTACK. Deadlines are approaching and I'm starting to panic. I haven't scheduled any school visits for November or December, and having some long stretches of time to work on this book sounds very welcome.

And though I feel overwhelmed, I am also grateful to have so many interesting projects to keep me busy. But the beautiful autumn weather we've been having makes it difficult to stay inside and work on them!

I'm just an URL who can't say no . . .

2011-10-04T21:44:00.000-07:00

This fall I'm finishing up illustrations and design for two books soon to be published: Our School Garden! (Readers to Eaters, spring 2012); and The Forgiveness Garden (Fiewel & Friends, fall 2012). I've been in wait-wait mode for almost a year to get going on my next author/illustrator project with Lee & Low, Dreaming Up: A Celebration of Building. I'm eager to have this book published, so I hope to hear from my editor soon. I have a few design and art direction projects and a few upcoming author visits, but I need to drum up lots more of everything.

I have no shortage of ideas for stories, illustrations, craft books, classes, presentations, consulting, commissions, curriculum development, and more. However, when I go to pitch my ideas I need a stronger web presence to back me up and showcase my work. Life=URL.

I designed my site years ago, so it is outdated and due for an overhaul. The last couple of weeks I've been refreshing my knowledge of Adobe Dreamweaver, preparing photos and content, creating new template designs, reading forums on specific html coding, and obsessing for way too long about Spry collapsible menus (comparative samples of collapsed and expanded menus shown below). I live in the heart of Silicon Valley where designers must be able to tackle more than print design. I will not be put out to pasture quite yet. I hope to share my revamped site in the next month or so. It's turning out to be an enormous amount of work.

Meanwhile I'm reading about flash fiction, creative non-fiction, short stories, and poetry, while simultaneously trying to write something longer. Go figure.

A Full Fall

2011-10-03T13:23:00.000-07:00

I was hoping that once school started for my college sophomore and high school senior things would quiet down for me. Alas, a peaceful autumn was not to be. The past few weeks have been a scramble as:

1. My new novel The Raft went to copy edits, so I had to review those quickly and make any last changes I wanted before the ARC's went to print. I'm so excited that it is just about "done", always a moment to celebrate. The book is due in June, and I got a peek at the cover. I'll show as soon as I'm allowed, and it is FABULOUS.

2. I'm finishing up the draft of what will be my fourth novel with Feiwel and Friends. My working title is The Margin, but that will change. I am hoping to hammer out the end in the next week or so, get it off to my trusty reader, and then get it to my editor before fall is over.

3. I'm working on a synopsis. It is hard and I don't like it. Enough said.

4. I leave tomorrow for school visits in Connecticut, where my novel The Compound is on the 2011-12 Nutmeg Award List. I'll be in middle schools in Orange and Bloomfield. Two weeks after that I head to Colorado Springs to speak at a middle school where my novel The Gardener is up for Book of the Year at their school. I love that there are schools that have a competition for Book of the Year.

5. On a personal note, my college daughter will be meeting me in CO for her fall break. Her boyfriend is stationed in the Army there, and is being deployed to Afghanistan a couple days after we get there. This is not a political blog, but may I say, I wish we were not sending our young men to such a war.

6. The thing on my mind the most this fall? Volleyball! My high school senior is libero on the varsity and they are having an amazing season. This photo was from one of the three tournaments they've won. ( My kid is the white jersey) This weekend, I watched them come back from a 20-8 deficit and win. I had to watch through my hands as my kid started serving when the score was 24-20, which means every serve was game point. But she did it. ( She did not get her composure from me, that's for sure. There must have been ice in her veins.) They're ranked #3 in state, so I will have a full blown case of bleacher bottom by the time the season is over...

Here's to a productive fall for us all.

Four potatoes to go...

2011-10-01T16:48:00.000-07:00

Look who came into my neighborhood this weekend, my favorite winter-time author, Lauren Stringer. She presented a wonderful show on how she works on books, circus's, etc., and had a line out the door waiting for her autograph. It was great to meet her, if only for a few minutes, and now I can check one more potato off my list. Just four to go! I have asked our children's literature festival coordinator to please hire the last four to come and speak at her yearly conference so that I may meet them. I am sending her your names in the hopes that you will come to me!!

It was a great event, Lauren. You project so much warmth and delight (and talent) through your presentation.

Summer with Persephone

2011-09-28T06:32:00.000-07:00

This past summer of reading was more books than I could keep track of, but the ones that stand out are the Persephone books. Last January when I was visiting my editor in sunny California, I had brought a slow, dark, depressing book that I could barely open. On my editor's shelf was a beautiful book that caught my eye, The Making of a Marchioness, and it was by one of my favorite childhood author's, Frances Hodgeson Burnett ~ ("The Secret Garden").

If you loved "Pride and Prejudice", you will love this book- it sweeps you off your feet with quirky, romantic characters. Curious about the publisher, I visited their website and became obsessed with their mission, their culture, everything about them. I am now an avid collector and reader of Persephone books. Here are some of my favorites from this summer:

The Far Cry ~ A coming of age story with a fabulous passage to India with accurate descriptions of arrival by sea to Bombay, then a harrowing train ride to a tea plantation. I could sense everything about India with this story. The writing was exquisite! Persephone books are beautifully crafted- the size of the book, the endpapers, the quality of the paper- making the reading experience like a delicious feast followed with a rich dessert.

Another favorite was Saplings ~ a very complex story of a family of children who were ushered out of London before the bombs began to fall. It is a heartrending story of how war can nearly destroy a family, not to mention a country.

For laugh out loud, slap-stick reading, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day is the perfect book. The Guardian refers to it as a "flight of humor" which describes it exactly- and I just recently finished Mariana, a book filled with the details of daily life in London~ following the growing up of a young girl, whom I did not particularly like, but found myself rooting for her by the end. Interesting to read a book about a character that is not a likable heroine.

I recommend signing up for Persephone's catalogue in the mail~ their newsletter is excellent reading about the joy of books and can be enjoyed over a hot cup of tea.

Old Books, New to Me

2011-09-27T20:01:00.000-07:00

For whatever reason, this summer I read only a handful of “new” books. The rest of the time I spent rereading old favorites. There was a Freddy the Pig book or two in there, of course, along with The 13 ½ Lives of Captain Bluebear, Matilda, Fergus Crane, and The Marvelous Inventions of Alvin Fernald. I picked up the last title at a used bookstore recently, not realizing it was an “old favorite” until I read a few pages and said to myself, “Hey, I read this book when I was a kid! I forgot all about it!” What a great feeling.

I also read half a dozen books in the Horrible History series, and I’m reminded why the series has sprouted a cottage industry: it’s a fun way to learn history, for kids or adults.

Of the new (for me) fiction titles I read this summer, two books stand out: Tucker’s Countryside and Harry Cat’s Pet Puppy—two titles in the series that began with A Cricket in Times Square, which I read years ago, then listened to again this spring on audiobook. Curious about the series, I finally decided to check them out. How did I miss such a fun set of books? Whether it’s Tucker Mouse and Harry Cat helping to save the Old Meadow, or tending an adopted puppy and finding it a good home, I found their adventures enthralling. Tucker Mouse! What a character! And the soothing theme of friendship permeating both books reminded me a lot of the Freddy books—another point in their favor.

I still have a few more titles in the series yet to read. I can’t wait!

2011-09-26T14:26:00.001-07:00

My summer reading tends to reflect what I've been doing lately, which is to help a friend study for her composition test (Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe), join the Methodist church (Three Simple Rules by Rueben P. Job), and join a sci fi book club (A Case of Conscience by James Blish). Do I recommend any of these books? I'm sorry to say, no, but I, too, read A State of Wonder and loved it, as well as a Nora Roberts book about a woman and her search and rescue dog, aptly entitled, Search and Rescue. It has been a joy to read what I want to read after three years of studying for my master's! My next book will be The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett - once my husband finishes it!!

In reading back over my blog, I see that my sentence structure is faulty. It looks like I helped my friend study, join the church and join a sci fi book club. Not sure how to fix that without a great deal of effort on my part. Forgive my faulty wording please.

Summer Reading

2011-09-25T18:37:00.000-07:00

Over the past four days, my family has been celebrating my father's 90th birthday. Seventeen of us gathered at a large house on the salt marshes of Chincoteague Island, Virginia. So, steeped as I am now in the sights, sounds, and scents of the island, I have to begin by mentioning Marguerite Henry's books, Misty of Chincoteague and Stormy, Misty's Foal, both of which fostered my own childhood love of horses, as well as my children's and now my grandchildren's. We've been reading them together.

As for my summer reading, I would highly recommend State of Wonder, by Ann Patchett. The "story centers on Dr. Marina Singh's quest to investigate the death of a colleague who went deep into the Amazon to check on the efforts of a Dr. Annik Swenson -- a research scientist and former teacher of the heroine who has gone AWOL while developing a drug that prolongs fertility in women into advanced ages. Marina must confront her former mentor, her own medical skill and use all the nerve she possesses to discover many more truths than she bargained for." Not only was the plot compelling, but the ethical questions raised in this novel make for some interesting discussions.

A book I am currently reading and chose for it's unusual, alternating points of view is A Dog's Way Home, by Bobbie Pyron. Set in the Blue Ridge Mountains, this "is an unforgettable tale of the many miles, months, and mountains that divide two loyal friends—but that can't possibly keep them apart." The voice I find most compelling is that of the dog, a sheltie named Tam. I am amazed at the way the author has managed to get into the head of the dog in a realistic and unsentimental manner.

Reading for Work

2011-09-22T18:24:00.000-07:00

Or is it work while reading?

I have been blessed with my free-lance writing job, and my jobs teaching at Writers in the Schools and at the Whidbey Island Workshop. These jobs require me to read.

I read for work!

For the January 2012 Directed Reading for the Whidbey MFA program, students will be required to read cross-over books, books published for young adults that adults read and books for adults that young adults read.

Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is in the list. I find it an honest book, a book with a message for all of us. But also a book that every writer should read because of the proportions between authentic dialogue and authentic descriptions, believable characterization, and humor that ends up into us being serious.

I'm telling you, I am blessed because of all of you who write books.

Summer Reading

2011-09-21T19:57:00.000-07:00

Of the books I read this summer, here are my favorites:

I came across WILDTHORN by Jane Eagland as I prepared for a talk I'm giving in Hayward, WI this Friday about including Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgender books for young adults in your public/school library. A 17-year-old girl in Victorian England dreams of someday becoming a doctor, but finds herself imprisoned in an asylum for the insane instead. Slowly she discovers why she was sent there, and desperately plans an escape. Both harrowing, and eventually hopeful.

Another outstanding historical fiction book for young adults was Katherine Sturtevant's THE BROTHERS STORY. Set during the Great Frost of 1683, 15-year-old Kit escapes to London to find a better life for himself, even though it means leaving behind his simple-minded twin brother. It isn't a book I would have picked up on my own (the cover doesn't do it justice) but thankfully I was given it as a gift, and the rich details of the time period kept me fascinated as Kit discovers what is most meaningful to him.

Finally THE POPULARITY PAPERS by Amy Ignatow is a hilarious book describing two fifth grade girls' attempt to become popular. I found it a kinder and funnier DIARY OF A WIMPY KID-type book. As a side note, one of the girls just happens to live with two dads, which is dealt with very matter-of-factly. If you know any middle grade girls (or even middle-aged men), they will eat this up.

summer reading

2011-09-19T22:52:00.000-07:00

The Shakespeare Manuscript

by Stewart Buettner

What would happen if a new play by Shakespeare was discovered? This is a page-turner for mystery fans and theater buffs, and particularly meaningful for me was that the book was written by my college art history professor. I read it on trains as we traveled up and down the UK this summer. I was so engrossed I had to remind myself to look out the window every now and then to catch the landscape. This was published as an e-book/print on demand title.

Caller Number Nine

by Debbie Duncan

Set in 1967, this middle grade novel harkens back to the author's own experience at age 13, when she repeatedly dialed the local radio station on her pink princess phone. Duncan really did win a trip for two to Hawaii with a D.J. heartthrob. Debbie is in my writers group and I'm thrilled to see how she created a completely new character and introduced many of the issues in the 60s: Vietnam, feminism, and civil rights. Caller Number Nine is recently published as an e-book and I designed the cover and various interior elements. I even wrestled with Smashwords conversion.

The Memory Keeper's Daughter

by Kim Edwards

I'm working on my own middle grade with a theme of family secrets, so I was drawn to this title. During a severe winter storm, a doctor must deliver his own twin babies. His wife is heavily sedated. Their son is healthy, but their daughter is born with Down syndrome. The doctor attempts to spare his wife the heartache of caring for a special needs child, and tells her their daughter died at birth. He orders the nurse to place the girl in an institution, however the nurse secretly decides to raise the baby girl as her own in another city. The two families live in stark contrast to each other as years pass. I loved this book and it reinforced my own experience that family secrets have consequences.

Cutting for Stone

by Abraham Verghese

Here's another book with a similar theme. Twin brothers are born of a secret union between an Indian nun and a British surgeon. Orphaned by their mother's death and their father's disappearance, they are bound by an extraordinary connection and both share a fascination with medicine. The story is set in Ethiopia on the brink of revolution. I was also intrigued to learn that the author lives here in Palo Alto. He is both a doctor and accomplished writer, having taken a time out of his medical career to attend the Iowa Writer's Workshop. The writing is beautiful.

So many books, so little time...

2011-09-19T07:31:00.000-07:00

I'm often asked, "What would you tell someone who wants to be a writer?" And the first thing out of my mouth is, "They should read. A lot." I find that I'm most productive in my writing when I'm also reading. And this summer, I read a lot. Several of the books were YA novels in series, follow-ups to the first or second books. I'm not going to mention the titles because I was disappointed. But so many of the books I read were so great. I'll start with one I just finished the other night. ( Technically, fall doesn't start for another week or so, right?)

Those Across the River by Christopher Buehlman. Wow. I still can't get this one out of my head. Set a few years after WWI, failed academic Frank Nichols and his wife arrive in a small town in Georgia, which has some serious secrets. A reviewer called it "As much F. Scott Fitzgerald as Dean Koontz."

Another one I highly recommend is The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. "The circus arrives with no warning. No announcements precede it, no paper notices plastered on lamposts and billboards. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not..."

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children was another I thoroughly enjoyed. A mysterious island, an abandoned orphanage, a strange collection of odd photographs...

And my last recommendation:

Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley was one of my favorite YA reads of the summer.

In the summer before Cullen Witter's senior year, a birdwatcher in the small Arkansas town claims to have seem a bird declared extinct in the 1940's. Amid all the hubbub, Cullen's beloved younger brother disappears.

It was hard to narrow all my summer reads down to just this list, but they are terrific and I think you'll enjoy them as much as I did.

Guest Author

2011-09-17T10:38:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to say - Lauren, this is you!! Our library in Redlands has an annual Family Day (I helped start this many moons ago), and I'm pleased to see your name as the guest author. Having been a guest author myself, I can vouch for the enthusiasm of the children and the parents. We are a small town, so this event is very meaningful and BIG! I guarantee that you will love it! :)

Summer 2011~ Is It Really Over?

2011-09-14T10:12:00.000-07:00

I just now sent pdfs of the FINAL art to my editor in San Diego before shipping the art off to New York. It is a good thing I live in the middle of the country where I can easily communicate with both coasts. My summer was spent painting the illustrations for a story written by Mem Fox which will be published next fall with Beach Lane Books. You will hear more about it as that time draws near...

I also spent the summer painting large sets for Circus Juventas' summer show, "GRIMM, Happily Ever After". From castles to cottages, gypsy wagons to tree stumps; all were needed to transport performers and audience into a magical, fairytale world and my brushstroke is apparent on almost every wall. I also write the script for the show and my son Cooper performs with the other amazing kids who dangle and swing from the air or leap 30 feet onto the shoulders of another waiting below. Truly it astounds me, which is why I keep doing it every year. I am already beginning on the script for next summer's show!

With a literary theme like the Brothers Grimm, I was able to link up Circus Juventas with our wonderful local bookshop, The Red Balloon for a Circus Event. For the first time in the store's history there were contortionists, jugglers, unicyclists, and chair-stackers performing, and of course Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm to lead the way. Whenever I do an event at the Red Balloon Bookshop, I get the honor of painting their window. This summer's image was a hats off to GRIMM and was inspired by the circus paintings of some of my favorite artists. Look closely and you will see references to Picasso, Chagall, and Seurat.

Like fellow Potato, David LaRochelle, I was honored to be "Author of the Day" at the Alphabet Forest~ a wonderful haven for literacy created by the author, Debra Frasier, at the Minnesota State Fair. Celebrating my book, FOLD ME A POEM, written by Kristine O'Connell George, I spent 8 hours folding origami animals with Fair visitors- and since everything at the fair is on a stick, we put our origami on a stick, which made for some very fun puppet shows!

And one of my favorite memories of this past summer was a gathering of six of us potatoes in Maryland for a SCBWI conference that kept us all busy sharing our experiences and creative spirits with attendees as well as with each other. I was fortunate to travel with both David LaRochelle and John Coy to and from Maryland and let me tell you... if you ever need help getting through the red-tape and chaos of an airport in bad weather, bring John Coy along~ what a master communicator!

It hardly feels like summer is truly over, though I hear we are supposed to go below freezing tonight, thus I better cover my tomatoes! Yes... I found time to garden too, though the weeds have more energy than me!

My Summer Vacation

2011-09-13T10:38:00.001-07:00

For me, summers tend to be the busiest time of year, filled mostly with sailing adventures and interacting with our son while he is home on summer vacation. We did a lot of both this year, along with moving into a new home in August. It was fun, and also a bit hectic at times.

One of the highlights was encountering a pod of whales while we were sailing Rosario Strait in the San Juan Islands. Other highlights included a "battle cruise" on the Lady Washington, and discovering a new flavor (lemon meringue pie) at the Friday Harbor Ice Cream Company!

I tend to take summers off from writing projects, to recharge my batteries, but I still managed to do a lot of reading, thinking, and note-writing. Now that school is back in session and the weather is starting to turn cooler, I am ready to resume my usual daily writing schedule. I have a few projects I hope to complete this fall, and I’m excited to see what happens!

Peace

2011-09-11T21:12:00.000-07:00

I'm writing a day early, as today was such a peaceful one. The air was cool this morning, the birds were chirping in the trees, and a distant train was huffing its way over the tracks. It was the perfect time for remembering, for being grateful for life, and for praying for those whose lives have been changed forever by violence. The line, "Peace be with you," kept playing through my mind. Peace be with you all.

This summer was filled with revisions of two books, the waiting for illustrations for the third book, and the dreaming up of a fourth book. In other words, it was productive, yet it was still a little lonely. It's been awhile since I've attended a conference and I miss the interaction. It has made me resolve to do more SCBWI events this next year and become more social. I want to feel the magic again, and that means connections, even though I'm more comfortable on the sidelines.

My Querencia

2011-09-09T11:20:00.000-07:00

This has been a summer packed with family gatherings and concerns, writing-related SCBWI business (which brought together 6 of our One Potato...Ten spuds), and the realization of a dream. Although I didn't manage much actual writing time, other than revising my first picture book manuscript, I did finally move into my long-awaited writing cabin.

The construction began last winter and continued sporadically through spring and into mid-summer. We hired a team of good-humored men to build the frame of what they teasingly called my "play house."

Then my husband did all of the interior finishing work. (I helped paint :>)

The exterior staining of the wood and painting of the door is still to come before winter sets in, and the bookcase may end up being my Christmas present, but the essence of my "querencia" is here for me to savor.

Just this past week, I traveled to North Carolina for four school visits. At Jacobs Fork Middle School (near Hickory), I led the students through a writing exercise in which they wrote about their querencias. I was amazed at some of the results after only a short 15-minute writing time!

In Spanish, querencia describes a place where one feels safe, a place from which one's strength of character is drawn, a place where one feels at home, where "whenever you return to it, your soul releases an inner sigh of recognition and relaxation."

This is mine.
Where is yours?

What a Summer!

2011-09-08T09:53:00.000-07:00

For a long time Portland, Oregon didn't really have any summer. It was cold and rainy. But I had decided to dedicate June and July to writing and that I did! I wrote that novel that I have been talking about for so long, Late She Came to Know.

Then the sun came out, brilliant and warm. It brought a baby! My second grandson, Parker Raymond Kelly, was born August 31st. He's glorious!(See profile photo)

With him came other good news. My Alicia Alonso:Prima Ballerina got starred reviews from Booklist and Publisher's Weekly.

What next? A biography of Salvador Dalí. I did the preliminary research this summer, and I'm ready to start writing!

What I Did Over Summer Vacation...

2011-09-07T20:41:00.000-07:00

Like Christy, I was busy with work most of the summer (though I did have a marvelous week in Lake Tahoe to relax, so I won't complain!). My summer projects included getting ready for the publication of my latest picture book, The Haunted Hamburger and Other Ghostly Stories. The photograph is from the publication party at the Red Balloon Bookstore in Saint Paul last month, where kids came in homemade masks to enter the Scary Face Contest.

I read stories and drew pictures to a trolley full of pajama-clad kids in two separate events sponsored by local bookstores.

Just last week I was author-of-the-day in the Alphabet Forest at the Minnesota State Fair, a project masterminded by the amazing Debra Frasier. Kids came and took part in fun, creative, literacy-based, free activities. For my day, I had kids create their own "Hidden Alphabet" bookmarks with rubber stamps (don't you love the wild "Fair Hair" of those two girls?).

And throughout the summer I've been working on a revised dummy for the first book I'll be both author and illustrator, Art Attack. The sketches are going well, but I could easily fill another summer with finalizing the drawings.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the wonderful weekend in Maryland presenting at Edie's SCBWI conference. At the conference I got to present with my editor from Sterling, Meredith Mundy, which was the first time I met her in person, and was a real treat.

Yes, it was a very full, and very fine summer!

Oh! and if you saw a flock of pigs soaring through the clouds, that's because I finally succumbed and signed up for Facebook.

Vacation, who me?

2011-09-06T11:06:00.000-07:00

Today was my radio debut on KQED public radio. Listen to my Perspective and leave a comment. I'm archived at http://www.kqed.org/a/perspectives/R201109060735/. You can still hear the piece streamed live tonight at 11:30 pm (Pacific time) or in a more extensive program of 9/11 Perspectives on Sunday, September 11, at 7:37 am.

Much of this summer I've been finishing art for a picture book for Philip Lee, a publisher familiar to many of us. I began art direction and design work with Philip back in 1991, working on Lee & Low's first list. One of my projects a few year later was John Coy's book Strong to the Hoop. I went on to illustrate books for Lee & Low (including three by Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen). More recently my authorial debut with the company originated with an aside Philip made in 2002, about wishing he had a picture book about Isamu Noguchi. Philip left Lee & Low before my Noguchi book published. I'm excited to work with him again in his new venture, Readers to Eaters (http://www.readerstoeaters.com/).

Readers to Eaters mission is to promote food literacy from the ground up, so children and families become active participants in their local food culture.
They do so in three ways:
1) Retail books about food, featuring newly published and classic titles, popular as well as undiscovered staff picks
2) Publish books about food for children and their families, as well as teachers and librarians, whom are essential in the food dialogue
3) Develop programs and events about our food system by partnering with farmers, gardeners, chefs, teachers, librarians, parents, organizations and communities

Our School Garden! kicks off the Readers to Eaters publishing program and I am the illustrator and designer. Here are a couple of pages for a sneak preview.

Summer summer summer...

2011-09-05T13:15:00.000-07:00

Summer is just about officially over. Looking back on the writerly things I did, there are a few that top my list. I was thrilled to be a speaker at the SCBWI conference in Maryland along with David, John, Lauren, Betsy, and Edie. Definitely a highlight of the summer.

At the conference, my editor Liz handed me her revision notes for my novel The Raft. I'm happy to report after all my hard ( okay, perhaps a tad obsessive) work the past month, it went to copy edits on Friday. Whew.

The most inspiring thing I did this summer involved my work as the Harney County Writer in Residence. Since my stint started in January, I've been in schools all over the county. In early August, I did workshops at the Eastern Oregon Academy, a court-ordered facility for boys ages 12-16 who have found themselves in trouble for one thing or another. The boys are there for a year. I wasn't sure what to expect, or if they would even want to do any writing.

I was blown away. They had all read The Compound and had so many questions for me. They were so receptive and engaged, and all are amazing souls with heartbreaking stories. One boy brought his piece up for me to read and I wept, I couldn't help it. Those boys may feel like no one listens to them, but through their words on paper, they have discovered their voice. Many were already poets and writers long before I showed up, and the work they shared with me was so powerful.

The week I spent with them was my favorite of the entire Writer in Residence program and I was sorry to have to say goodbye. To me, they were so inspiring and they made me want to go home and be a better writer. They made me realize that, despite wanting to please my agent and my editor and the reviewers, I need to be writing for my readers. That sounds dumb, I know, I mean, who else would I be writing for? But honestly, in the world of YA, there are so many adults you have to make happy that you forget your actual intended audience. I won't be doing that anymore.

A Gathering of Spuds

2011-07-25T10:49:00.000-07:00

Last weekend (July 15-17, 2011), six spuds from our "One Potato...Ten" group gathered in Maryland for a SCBWI conference, "Staying On Track." David LaRochelle and his editor, Meredith Mundy of Sterling Children's Books, led the track for picture book writers. Lauren Stringer joined them for the illustrator segment of "Building a Picture Book" and then led an illustrator's track with three hands-on workshop sessions. Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen and her editor, Liz Szabla of Feiwel & Friends, led the track for young adult writers, and John Coy and his agent, Andrea Cascardi of Transatlantic Literary Agency, led the middle grade track. Besty Woods rounded out the weekend with three general creativity sessions for the entire group. What an amazing gathering this turned out to be!

I've been trying to get our spuds to Maryland for SCBWI conferences one by one or in small groups as I can afford, but we had so much fun that we decided a Spud retreat or our very own writing conference presented by all ten of the spuds is in order! What do you think, spuds?

Meredith Mundy speaking to the Picture Book Track

Noguchi's California Legacy at the Laguna Art Museum

2011-07-14T22:11:00.000-07:00

Come say hello this Sunday, July 17 when I'm appearing at the Laguna Art Museum. A fabulous Noguchi show is on! I'll start the family program at 1 pm with a talk about Noguchi and my book, followed by an art project and book signing.http://lagunaartmuseum.org/childrens-art-workshop-and-book-signing-with-the-east-west-house-author-christy-hale

Our Blog Cousin

2011-06-15T16:34:00.000-07:00

I was introduced to a wonderful site that I wanted to share called onepotato. A wide range of thoughtful picture books are contained here and it's organized nicely. Since this blog is spud titled as well, I think it's a good idea to show them some love and spread the word about them. They are interested in suggestions for books as well.

The review of Night Driving at onepotato contains some beautiful images and makes me want to head west. Does anybody else have other sites that they have recently discovered?

http://onepotato.net/index.php/blog/blog_entry/king_of_the_road/

School's Out!

2011-06-11T12:11:00.001-07:00

It was a wonderful, rewarding, and busy winter and spring for me, visiting dozens of schools around Minnesota and talking to kids about books, writing, and drawing. Schools welcomed me with paper dogs and dragons, their own photographed "Hidden Alphabets," and backwards stories beginning at THE END and ending with ONCE UPON A TIME.

I visited schools where there were eight students in one grade level, and other schools where there were 8 classes of a particular grade level. There was the school where they chose not to schedule a lunch for me, the school with 8 presentations in one day (what was I thinking!), and the inevitable student who had an "accident" during the middle of one of my talks. But mostly there were students and teachers who were excited about my books and made me feel like a celebrity. Wow. How lucky I am to have a job where an auditorium of students cheers for me!

But as much as I love visiting schools, I am very happy to be on summer vacation, and finally have time again to turn my attention to my own books. It was a joy this last week to work on a brand new book dummy and bring it to my critique group. I didn't realize how much I missed "creating." Spending time working on a new book was nourishment for my soul, and I'm looking forward to having a lot more nourishment in the next months.

I'm interviewed today at HAPA MAMA blog

2011-06-09T09:46:00.000-07:00

Take a peek!
http://hapamama.com/

The Origami Author

2011-06-08T10:20:00.000-07:00

When I visit a school, I try to bring the students into my studio using slides. I even have a show called "Buster's Studio Visit" where my cat Buster is in nearly every shot, explaining how I make a book. This works especially well with younger grades. Since there are cats in just about every one of my books, it is fun to reveal their names and real life stories. I like to share my creative process as it evolves from book to book, sometimes briefly and sometimes more in-depth, especially if I know I will be workshopping with smaller groups of kids on actually making a book together. I point out how storyboards are like maps of the book and book-dummies establish the flow of the book and the "drama of the turning page". But at the end of every large presentation, I always fold origami with the group. Ever since illustrating FOLD ME A POEM written by Kristine O'Connell George, I have become known as the "Origami Author". Hundreds of paper frogs have been folded in a single day at a school. Teachers of kindergarten look up in fear when I announce we are going to fold together, but by the end, every student of all ages walks out with a paper frog whispering a poem or a story in their ear, which they can write down as soon as they return to their classroom. Whether I am visiting schools close to home in Minnesota or Wisconsin or as far away as India, origami delights and inspires writing and illustrating!

A Mountain Welcome!

2011-06-03T08:53:00.000-07:00

While I haven't yet traveled to exotic, faraway places for school visits, I was fortunate this past spring to have my book, ROAD TO TATER HILL, used as part of a partnership between education students at Appalachian State University (Boone, NC) and 5th graders at Freedom Trail Elementary School in rural, mountainous Avery County. In April I visited the students in both sets of classes (5th graders and college students) to talk about my writing process and "turning truth to fiction." What a joy to know that my own childhood experiences in the mountains of NC are relevant to today's readers.

ROAD TO TATER HILL is on the NC middle school Battle of the Books list for 2011/2012, and I look forward to making more trips to NC schools in the next year!

School Visits!

2011-06-03T07:29:00.001-07:00

This has been a crazy year for me and school visits. In addition to schools around my area of Oregon, my trips included Brazil, China, Florida, and Texas three times. I did ages Pre-K through 12, but this year was unique because of all the time I spent in middle schools because of my novel The Compound. And here is how one librarian in Texas went all out to welcome me:

I saw all kinds of schools. From a one room school house in French Glen, OR with 8 students k-8:

to an international school in Guandong, China:

I have traveled by car, bus, plane, ferry, train, and on foot: all together about 35,000 miles. Whew. Yesterday I got the terrific news that The Compound won the Maryland Black-Eyed Susan Award for Grades 6-9. And yep, a school visit trip to Maryland is on my docket for fall. I think I'd better unpack first...

FUN FAMILY PROGRAMS

2011-05-31T13:51:00.000-07:00

I have fun at schools sharing my books with kids. I talk about my subject and process, show materials used, and invite students to do a related art workshop. Sometimes I participate in events which include all generations, like school literacy nights, and family programs offered through the community and museums. Here is a picture from last summer at the Norton-Simon Museum in Pasadena, CA, where I gave a 45 minute auditorium talk about Isamu Noguchi, followed by an outdoor art project (collage with recycled materials) and book signing. I design my talks and projects to appeal to all ages. Below some children at the Museum of Children's Art (MOCHA) in Oakland, CA hold mini-gardens they made, inspired by a reading of The East-West House: Noguchi's Childhood in Japan.

Currently there is a large Noguchi exhibit starting at the Laguna Beach Art Museum. Families, I hope you will join me on Sunday, July 17th, at 1 pm, for a talk about Noguchi followed by an art project and book signing.

http://lagunaartmuseum.org/childrens-art-workshop-and-book-signing-with-the-east-west-house-author-christy-hale

Breaking news;)

2011-05-27T11:20:00.001-07:00

I just learned that The Compound made the 2011-12 Oregon Battle of the Books list for grades 9-12. Here's a photo of the finalists.

And yes, there is The Help, the book I recently read and blogged about. I never expected to have a book of mine end up on the same list as that. Very cool.

The Book I Just Finished Reading by Betsy Woods

2011-05-26T17:00:00.000-07:00

I have just finished a novel by British author, Sarah Dunant, titled Sacred Hearts. The read was a time-machine. The novel is set in 1570 and is set inside the walls of an Italian covent. It was a treatise in part on the shackles young women had to bear then, and how those bindings limited their life experiences. The novel also revealed the interior workings of the covent and how, it both thwarted the off-cast women, and encouraged their passions and intelligence.

The intricate Renaissance world is exposed admist a passionate love story, stories of love and friendship, horror, and the biting political climate of the Counter-Reformation. It is also a story that at its core is about secrets.

Studying the Master of Barnyard Fantasies

2011-05-25T08:50:00.000-07:00

Like others on this blog, my recent reading list has consisted of titles thematically related to the story I’m currently writing—in my case, a chapter book involving barnyard animals. And so for inspiration I naturally turned to the books of Dick King-Smith, dubbed the “Master of Barnyard Fantasies.”

King-Smith is most famous as the author of Babe: the Gallant Pig, but with over a hundred titles to his credit, he wrote many other great books. Some of my personal favorites, all of which I have reread this spring, include The Fox Busters, Pigs Might Fly, Martin’s Mice, and Three Terrible Trins. I also discovered a book I had not read before, Clever Duck, which is now on my list of favorites.

When you delve into a King-Smith book you are assured of a funny, thoughtful, and entertaining read. My only qualm is that he sometimes sacrifices character development in favor of plotting—but his plotting is frequently so brilliant that there is still plenty to inspire me and also to study.

Do you have a favorite King-Smith book?