Traveling for Research and Inspiration

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.