on my desk monday

My brush painting 6 classes later! It's fun, but I don't think I will continue it (at least not now). Brush painting is more about spontaneous expression--one just starts a new painting over and over again until it satisfies. For me, used to being able to sketch, erase, paint over and fix, it can be frustrating. I don't like to cut my losses and start over, I like to doggedly work on something until I get it right.

But I am glad I did it, I remember what I needed to know to write "Dumpling Days" and maybe I'll go back to it someday!

fortune cookie friday

“Only one that has traveled the road knows where the holes are deep.”
-Chinese Proverb

revision

So, I have a lot of work to do. I have "Dumpling Days" to revise, a new picturebook to sketch...sounds like the perfect time to clean the studio, don't you think? Strange how squalor doesn't bother me until I have a deadline for something else...procrastination techniques at its best!

I have to admit one of the things that inspired this cleaning frenzy was seeing posts on where other fellow author and illustrators work. Check out Jenny B Harris's and Liz Dubois's studios. Finish it off with where Laura Resau works, and I have some serious workplace envy!

My studio, which used to look like this has had to change since the arrival of my Sasquatch. Making my mess of a studio into more of an oasis has been a work in process. But at least now it is a clean one!

Because after a good 24 hours of organizing, decluttering, dusting and vacuuming, the studio looks like this:

You can see the floors! You can see the tables!

It does still look a little cluttered though:

(but you should have seen it before)

My favorite studio revision is that I now have a little reading corner:

with our wedding cranes hanging overhead:

One of which is watching over my Newbery award!

So my clean studio will probably last...a week? maybe two? I guess it depends on how much more work I have to procrastinate do.

book talk tuesday

FARMER BOY, by Laura Ingalls Wilder

IndieBound Desciption: As a young man, Almanzo Wilder will meet a brown-eyed, brown-haired girl named Laura Ingalls and fall in love. But as a young boy, Almanzo has no time for girls.

His life is about farming and chores, and most of all, about wanting his own horse. Before his dreams can come true, Almanzo must prove to his father that he is ready to take on more responsibilities - and this is harder than he ever imagined.

My Thoughts: I grew up with all the Little House books, often imagining myself as Laura. I was a little sad that they reissued the books with different covers (I read the "classic" cover on the right) but anything to get them in the hands of today's readers!

Because, I loved those books. I loved reading about the houses, the farms, the clothes and the FOOD! I have to admit, I really loved reading about the food. That is why FARMER BOY ranks pretty high as one of my favorites in the series. That boy can eat and, oh, how I loved to read about it. That might be a reason why I write so much about food in The Year of the Dog and the The Year of the Rat! Those food descriptions have stayed with me since I was a child, so much so that as an adult I even made apples'n onions!

on my desk monday

I'm cleaning out the studio and purging all the printed drafts I went through for Where the Mountain Meets the Moon. They stack higher than the book!

fortune cookie friday

““Hatred corrodes the vessel in which it is stored””
-Chinese Proverb

at the grocery store...

it's all apples! I guess it's fall!

rubbing elbows

So I was incredibly honored to be one the authors at the Boston Public Library's Literary Lights Event this past Sunday:
One of the best things at this event was something that Jerry Spinelli noted in his speech, it was an event where there were more children than adults:
Which made it wonderful. Also what made it quite wonderful was that I got to rub elbows with literary greats such as Karen Hesse, Neil Gaiman (!!) and the aforementioned Jerry Spinelli.

See how happy I am?
They were extremely nice to me, especially considering how awkward I felt during certain star-struck moments. Thank goodness for the the children and everyone involved who helped smooth things out for me for the rest of the event, making me feel like I wasn't quite akimbo next to the other authors. I think this is the first time where I can honestly say my hand did get tired from signing. Never has a muscle cramp caused such happiness! Ha ha!

And with that, I will leave you with the little speech I said upon receiving my lovely award:

When I asked what they’d like me to talk about in my five minutes, they said any tips or advice that would be helpful to a young writer.

Well, I like to think I am still a young writer but I guess according to the actual calendar I am not. I remember one of the first stories I wrote. It came to me like magic, as if the gorgeous rainbow the sky ended at my brain. The words poured out of me like a fountain and I wrote and I wrote and I wrote. When I was done, I knew it was great. It was best story ever.

And because it was the best story, I decided it should be published. I sent it to a publishing company and waited for them to make it into a book.

Instead, I got a rejection letter. “We’re sorry, we cannot offer publication of your story,” they said. “Well, what did they know?” I thought and I sent it to another publisher and got another rejection. And then another publisher and another rejection, again and again.

Finally, I put the story in a drawer and, this is very, very important, I wrote another story. And I wrote another story after that and another after until over ten years later, I am now here at the Boston Public Library with my stories being honored alongside Jerry Spinelli, Karen Hesse and Neil Gaiman.

So, recently, I opened that drawer with my first story in it. And I read it. And you know what?

It was absolutely awful.

No wonder it wasn’t published. Reading it was like 1,000 raining clouds inside your bedroom while you are trying to sleep. I was so, so embarrassed that I had thought it was the best story ever.

So when I was trying to think of advice for young writers, I came up with this:

Be humble. Know that what you have written is not the best.
But, also, be confident. What you will write will be better.

book talk tuesday

THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH by Norton Juster

IndieBound Description: Illustrated in black-and-white. This ingenious fantasy centers around Milo, a bored ten-year-old who comes home to find a large toy tollbooth sitting in his room. Joining forces with a watchdog named Tock, Milo drives through the tollbooth's gates and begins a memorable journey. He meets such characters as the foolish, yet lovable Humbug, the Mathemagician, and the not-so-wicked "Which," Faintly Macabre, who gives Milo the "impossible" mission of returning two princesses to the Kingdom of Wisdom.

My Thoughts: One of my favorites! It's fun and nonsensical, yet also full of allegorical wisdom. As an author, I realize how hard this kind of book is to write without being annoying--and this book never is. I remember loving the word marketplace and the idea of "eating your words." When this book hit it's 35th anniversary (in 1996), the publisher reissued it in hardcover which I, very luckily, got autographed! One of my treasured possessions!

on my desk monday

My award from the Boston Public Library Literary Lights for Children!