The Lucky 13s

Posted on January 27, 2012 by

I’m part of the Lucky 13s, a group of authors with debut works of children’s literature scheduled for publication in 2013. Even though we’re spread out across the English-speaking world, from Australia to the U.K., we work well together. Each weekday, for instance, one of us posts a new entry on our group blog. Today, it was my turn. I wrote about some fantastic writing advice doled out by film critic and novelist Stephen Hunter.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

In Praise of Solitude

Posted on January 17, 2012 by

This weekend, the New York Times ran an opinion piece that spoke to me. In “The Rise of the New Groupthink,” Susan Cain makes the case for solitude at work. “Research strongly suggests that people are more creative when they enjoy privacy and freedom from interruption,” she writes.

My eyes went right to my rather barren office wall, to an old desk calendar page I tacked up years ago. It’s a Jill Krementz photo of the writer Dorothy West. The photo–dated Oak Bluffs, Martha’s Vineyard, April 28, 1995–shows West in what must be her work space. Underneath, there’s this quotation: “When I was seven, I said to my mother, may I close my door? And she said, yes, but why do you want to close your door? And I said because I want to think. And when I was eleven, I said to my mother, may I lock my door? And she said yes, but why do you want to lock your door? And I said because I want to write.”

Whether you’re a writer, a grocer, or a computer programmer, you need at least some solitary, uninterrupted time to do your best work. Wishing you that and more in 2012.

 

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Saint Lucy

Posted on January 3, 2012 by

 

A few days ago, at a New Year’s Eve party, I met Mark Alice Durant, the force behind the wonderful Saint Lucy website. His online one picture/one paragraph gallery is right up my alley, so I contributed something to it. Check out the site in general, though–it’s quite lovely, full of good things.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

People of the Blind Line

Posted on December 30, 2011 by

 

When you’re doing blind contour line drawing, you select a subject, pick up your drawing implement–a pencil, say–and without looking at the paper or lifting your pencil off the page, draw what you see. As your eyes move over your subject, your pencil moves over the page. Last summer, my son learned this technique at art camp, so we tried it at home. He produced the two figures at left. Mine is on the right.

The process is like walking on a balance beam or carrying a tray of full glasses: If you look down, you might lose your balance, so you keep your eyes forward and steady. You feel kind of giddy as you approach the drawing’s end, finishing off whatever you need to finish off–be it a collar or a fringe of leaves. The result may please you. If not, it may entertain you. Barring that, you can toss it. It’s just an exercise, after all.

I know a lot of writers who rely on detailed outlines, hewing to carefully plotted points as they make their way from chapter to chapter. But I hope that once in a while, they try writing by the blind line–venturing forth into the blank page, charting observations as they go. The blind line can lead you to unexpected places. It’s kind of like the Yellow Brick Road, except the wizard at the end is you.

Here’s to 2012 and its discoveries.

 

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

My Favorite Picture Book of 2011

Posted on December 17, 2011 by

 

I love picture books that are simple and charming. In automobile terms, they’re Mini Coopers. In food terms, they’re BLTs.

Jon Klassen’s I WANT MY HAT BACK (Candlewick, 2011) is just such a book. Modest and delightful, it charts a bear’s search for his hat. Much like the bird in P.D. Eastman’s ARE YOU MY MOTHER?, the bear must investigate different possibilities. My favorite page shows the bear putting two and two together and, literally, seeing red. He knows where his hat is.

The New York Times Book Review awarded I WANT MY HAT BACK one of its Best Illustrated Children’s Book Awards for 2011, and that’s no surprise. I loved it. I think you and the small people you know would too.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The Tomato Cage Christmas Tree

Posted on December 15, 2011 by

 

In December, Christmas trees are lovely. In January, they’re tragic–laid out curbside, the neighborhood a graveyard of fir and pine.

So this year, inspired by a friend, I tried something new: The tomato cage Christmas tree. First, I hauled a metal tomato cage and large red plant pot out of winter hibernation. Next, I pruned a pine tree that desperately needed reshaping. Finally, I bought some brown pipe cleaners.

To assemble the tree, I stood the cage on a table, then built the tree from the bottom up, starting with the longer branches and tapering to the shorter ones. I positioned each branch at a slight angle, then tied it with cut pipe cleaners onto the metal cage at two different points. The top of the tree looked a little messy, so I camouflaged that with a Santa hat. Finally, I fit the cage into the planter, and we decorated the tree as we would any other.

I don’t “craft” a lot. Crafting can make me cranky. But this was fun, and I know I’ll be happy come January 2, with one less tree in the neighborhood graveyard.

(Warning: I’m not sure this tree could survive cats, toddlers, or crawling babies. It may also dry out quickly. I made it with less than two weeks until Christmas, but if it starts to look less like a live tree and more like kindling, I will have to toss it.)

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

CityLit Kids

Posted on November 17, 2011 by

 


(Photo credit: click from morguefile.com)

I have spent a lot of mornings with the fictional fifth graders of GENIE WISHES, but today I spent the morning with some very real, very cool fifth graders at a Baltimore elementary school. I was there as part of the CityLit Kids project, in which various Baltimore-area writers guide students through reading and creative writing exercises.

It was my second time observing this group of fifth graders, which contains some ambitious young writers. Nobody’s pieces are perfect at first, of course–whose ever are?–but all the pieces have at least a nugget of greatness. With the help of the CityLit Kids instructors, the kids are learning not just to create but also to workshop and revise.

Sometimes the kids knock it out of the park, or maybe I should say rink. Two weeks ago, one student wrote, “Skateland tastes like pizza but smells like feet.” How great is that?

If you’d like to learn more about CityLit Kids, a group I’m planning on working with more often, check out this recent article.

 

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Breathing Ghosts

Posted on November 10, 2011 by

 

This morning Baltimore woke to a damp, warm fog. My son and I drove to school through it, switching as always between his favorite two pop stations. At some point, after the Party Rock Anthem played for the bajillionth time this month, the morning DJ mentioned the fog. It felt like breathing ghosts, he said.

Breathing ghosts! William Faulkner himself could not have described it better.

The fog has vanished now, leaving behind the regular outlines of a world that is, I am once again reminded, full of poets.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

That Cytoplasm Needs More Vanilla

Posted on November 9, 2011 by

cell tart

 

GENIE WISHES follows a group of kids through fifth grade. Like kids in schools everywhere, these fifth graders have projects to complete, everything from constructing bridges out of toothpicks to wrapping holiday gifts for homeless kids.

This week, the students in my son’s seventh-grade science class had to build a model of an animal cell using any materials they wanted. Edible materials were a popular choice, of course. The photo above shows my son with his finished animal cell–a tart made from scratch. The pineapple ring is the nucleus, a strawberry the nucleolus, some kiwi bits the Golgi body, and so on.

I didn’t get to taste the tart before it left for school, but I tried the leftover cytoplasm. It was delicious.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Fledgling Post

Posted on November 6, 2011 by

 

Fledgling owls for a fledgling post…

 

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | Leave a comment