This Is My Father's World

Many of our blog group members have scheduling conflicts this summer. I usually blog on Tuesdays, but since Stephanie is under both the weather and a mound of edits, and today is Father's Day, I thought I'd jump in early and celebrate a memory of my dad.

A tiny beam circled the dark corner of our cellar in West Peabody. No Tinker Bell flitting fairy, this was Daddy’s magic—a whole world in HO scale made just for us. Coal cars, flat cars, freight cars, hoppers—climbing, crossing, looping, stopping. My tank car was coupled behind Dave’s diesel locomotive. Next came Jeff’s boxcar and then little John’s caboose. Chug-a-chug-a-choo choo!

Hour upon hour Daddy had bent over a waist-high plywood board large as a bed; working and playing were always the same for him. The four of us watched in wonder, helping whenever possible. At one end of the board Daddy molded plaster mountains covering them with grass, rocks, shrubs, and trees. Using fine tools, model glue, and mighty patience he assembled a farmhouse, barn, water tank, and freight yard. With the addition of a schoolhouse, church, fire station, homes and businesses a small town grew. This was our Main Street with names in decals on the buildings to prove it—Dave’s Auto Parts, Chris’s Gas Station, Jeff’s Diner, and John’s Five and Dime. We were learning our importance.

Eight busy little hands arranged miniature accessories and figures. We positioned stoplights, cars, telephone poles, post boxes, fire hydrants, fences, and crossing gates. There were horses and cows to roam and graze the hills, tractors to plow fields, children to play in the schoolyard, and pedestrians to wander in shops. And railroad station personnel and travelers with suitcases always awaited the next arriving train. All aboard!

The straight tracks along the sides of the board had occasional turnouts or switches. Tracks ran up hills, over bridges and through tunnels then curved around at the ends. Hitched together in age descending order our cars moved as a unit. Daddy pushed the lever and we hummed along, the headlight from Dave’s engine leading the way as we circled our corner of the world.

Play Ball

Today I am in New York watching the sky. I am scheduled to sign books at a baseball game between the Staten Island Yankees and the Brooklyn Cyclones at this beautiful park on Staten Island. My friend Jordan Sonnenblick, who grew up on Staten Island and is a terrific author, will also be signing.

Here are details about the event:

http://www.silive.com/news/advance/index.ssf?/base/news/1245414631259320.xml&coll=1

The game is sold out, but we have one problem. It's is forecast to rain tonight. Not just rain, but pour.

So keep your fingers crossed. I hope we get to hear thoses wonderful words this eveing, "Play ball."

Distractions

I must confess that I am an expert at being distracted from writing. It's not the facebook or the e-mails, though. It's the kitty litter that must be changed immediately and the plants that have to be watered, as well as the floors that need sweeping and dishes that need washing.

This summer, though, it's going to be different. I have asked my husband to lock me in the computer room until lunchtime. I've got some good ideas to work on and nothing's going to stop me.

Of course the bookshelves in here are really dusty and my stack of papers need going through. The window could also use a good washing and the bushes outside the window are due for a pruning. I wonder if J. Crew is having any sales...

How Do I Write?

BIC= But in Chair:

I write one word then another then another until I have a sentence.
I write a sentence and then another then another until I have a paragraph.
I write one paragraph then another then another until I have a page.
I write a page then another then another until I have a chapter.
I write a chapter then another then another until I have a book.
But notice that I start with a word.
If I don't put that word down, I won't have a book.

Then the editor says that I have to make the book shorter. :(

I delete one word then another then another.
I delete one sentence then another then another.
I delete a paragraph then another then another.
I delete a page then another then another.
I delete a chapter then another then another.
Do I end up with a book?
Yes, I end up with a better book.

The Luddite's Dilemma

In Christy's last blog entry she expressed her frustration with all the technological distractions that tempt us from doing the work we want to do. Boy, can I relate!

I try to avoid checking my email until I've finished my quota of writing for the day, but often I'm lured into going online by noon, "just for a break." Before I know it, an hour or two has passed and all I've done is weeded through the daily spam, viewed the latest photos of my great niece, and sent an email to my sister who I'll be seeing face to face in a couple of days.

So far I've resisted joining Facebook, though other authors have told me they've found it a good marketing tool. But do I really need another excuse to keep me from following my dream: creating children's books? What's the good of marketing if I'm not writing?

When is it wise to embrace technology and when is it wise to say no? I don't own a cell phone (do I really need to be connected to the rest of the world when I'm out for a walk around the lake?). Then again, when I see all the cool things the new I-phones can do, I wonder if I'm missing out on all the fun. I haven't turned on my television in months, but at times I feel like I'm clueless as to what the rest of the world is talking about (just who are all those people like Jen and Jon and Brad on the cover of People who keep getting married and divorced?). I wasn't even sure what a Wii was until a librarian explained it to me last month (it seems the senior citizens at her rural library love to go Wii bowling).

If you haven't read M.T. Anderson's Feed, by all means do. It's a gripping YA novel about a future where people choose to have computer transmitters implanted in their brains. The young people who have this operation become pawns for every mega-corporation's advertising department. The few who resist are ostracized by the rest of society. It's all too frighteningly believable.

Am I smart to keep my life simple, or am I simply a Luddite (I had to look up that word on my Internet dictionary because I couldn't find it in my paper one). Do I need more self discipline to stay focused (in the process of writing this blog entry, I ended up watching Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog...don't ask me how I got there), or do I need to be more adventuresome and welcoming to new technology?

How do I find the right balance. Frankly, I don't know.

Two Hats, Two Minds

Writing and illustrating necessitates seclusion. I have interactions with family and friends, the occasional outing, but mostly I am alone. As I step into the author role for a first time with a September publication, I feel nervous about taking on a public persona. Must I toot my own horn, schmooze, and pretend I’m an extrovert? Nowadays this is required for the success of a book. I have so much to learn! Presumably I will need to set up as many signing and presenting events as possible. So, how will I get anything done in the studio if I am not there?

Lately I worry about adult ADHD. My whole life I’ve taken pride in my ability to multi-task, to bear down and focus as needed . . . but now, not so much. What has changed?

An illustrator friend sent me an invitation to join Facebook last summer. After hearing lots of buzz about the importance of social networking, this seemed a handy way to reach out of my studio while remaining in my studio. However, between the bouncing icons and sounds alerting me that I have new e-mail, instant messaging, and now Facebook interactions, I am constantly interrupted in my work. So far I am resisting Twitter. Communication just gets faster and faster, more and more invasive. Tweet, tweet!

Some recommend avoiding e-mail and Facebook while working, but since I live on the west coast and deal with publishers on the east coast I feel compelled to begin my day by signing on and addressing communications. I avoid Facebook, but when an e-mail notification alerts me that someone has made a comment, I am lured to Facebook despite my best intentions. My plans for quiet writing time are frequently derailed. Yoo hoo, discipline, where are you? I have to fight my tendency to respond immediately to everyone else’s demands.

I would love to hear from other people about how they manage tension and balance, their interior life as creator and subsequently, the exterior life when the work is delivered.

Blessings

As a writer, and a pseudo-pessimist, I tend to focus on the challenges of the craft most of the time. At this time, we have a few fellow potatoes going through some life challenges, which makes me realize writing is just writing, not life, and I need to focus on the blessings in my work too. Here's a short list of some recent blessings related to my writing:

1. I just got a great invitation to be part of a summer author series at a university in Arkansas. So I'll be heading down there in July for a couple days, all expenses paid.

2. My picture book Babu's Song is in the second grade language textbook from McGraw Hill, and I received some fan mail last week from a second grade class in Bellevue, WA. Always fun.

3. Last week at BEA, I was a guest of Brilliance Audio at the Author Breakfast ( with Julie Andrews, very cool! I tried not to break into song.) along with my wonderful agent Scott. We don't get the chance to meet in person very much, and it was wonderful to sit between him and the remarkable Tim Ditlow, discussing my next novel The Gardener, which is, like The Compound, with Feiwel and Friends and Brilliance Audio.

4. Later, I got the chance to meet many of the people at Feiwel and Friends during the Macmillan dessert party at Dylan's Candy Bar. How fun to hear people have such great things to say about The Compound. I'd met my editor Liz a few times before, since she was also my editor for Elizabeti's Doll a decade ago, but we'd never had a picture taken. ( She is also an editor of John Coy's, a fellow potato.)

5. Today I'm having a bookcase installed. Which means I finally get to unpack all my books. And I will be ready when the 75 pounds of books I shipped home from BEA arrive via UPS. Yes, much to be thankful for all in all...