The End and The Beginning

I have been preparing and moving toward a lot of change this past year. I began the year participating in Julie Hedlund's 12 Day of Christmas for Writers. It begins the day after Christmas and goes for . . . 12 Days. I am ending the year preparing for 2019 with the same program. (You can too, just follow the link) Last year, I decided my quote or theme for the year would be: Does it Move Your Story Forward?

This theme had a double meaning for me. In writing it meant, do the words and images move the one important thing about the story forward? In life, Am I doing the things that help me to move my life forward toward my writing and art dreams and goals?

By holding to my theme, I gave myself permission to say no or to delay doing things that didnt move my story forward.

It also made it easy for me to join and participate in new classes and activities. I joined the 12x12 Challenge. I began attending SCBWI Illustrator's Group in Illinois. I participated in Tara Lazar's Storystorm and created a long list of story ideas, and then participated in ReFoReMo which helped me get into the "reading lot of picture books" habit. These activities took a lot of time and focus. They really helped me stick to my theme for the year.

I had decided with my husband that I would retire from Library work at the end of 2018. (You can retire from the work, but you are always a librarian.) When the end of last school year was approaching, my husband said, "I reviewed the numbers and I think you should retire now." That was too fast for me. There were only a couple weeks of school left, I wasn't 100% sure I was ready and I needed more time to think about it. So I didn't retire. The school year came to an end, I was writing and beginning to make more art, I took a drawing class and a watercolor class. I was feeling the contentment and bliss of making art. I also felt the stress and pain of not being perfect at my art. But, the bliss was winning over. I was ready to move forward full-time into my new career. I decided that I would go back to work for a couple weeks in August so that I could have closure and say goodbye to all the students before entering this new phase.

It's funny, I was scared. I was afraid that no one would care that I was leaving. The people who cared the most were the students. There were some adults who lamented that I was leaving, but they don't react the same way that kids did. The last day was SOOOOOO hard. I cried over and over again. I received so many hugs, and many sweet notes. One girl brought me a small gift. The day ended, the kids went home (I did a cartwheel for the kids waiting for their rides.) And then it was over. Just like that boom, the end.

Thankfully, I had a plan to keep moving forward. I was already working on my writing, I signed up for two consecutive watercolor classes, and took a 4 week poetry writing class. And . . . I had my theme.

I had an amazing year. I wrote 13 picture book drafts. A lot of garbage that will never see light of day, but also a few that I think are gems in need of polishing. I wrote a middle grade scary story that I love and shared with a former student whose mom told me he was in love with scary stories. (A goal is to figure out where this story might go in the publishing world). I received an honorable mention for a 100 word scary story I wrote for Susanna Hill's Halloweensie writing contest. I wrote a whole bunch of poems during my poetry class and actually had 10 that were worthy of submitting for publication.

Then I joined the Storyteller Academ and took Arree Chung's Making Picture Book Stories and Dummies. I loved the class and weekly meetings and discussions. I am still working on revisions to my story for that class and am enjoying making dummies. I can't wait to get started with more classes at the end of January.

As I was writing this post, I was thinking that my theme for 2019 would be: Less is More. I'm not sure that will fit at the beginning of this year as I plan to participate in the 12x12 challenge again, I have signed up for Storystorm, and then there's Storyteller Academy. We shall see. There's a few more days in 2018 and no rule that I have to decide before 2019 begins.

How was your 2018? Can you remember the good stuff that happened? I'd love to hear about your life progress. Do you have a theme for 2019?

Please know that my year was not perfect, and there were many things that slowed down my process requiring me to change focus for a while. What I am most proud of is that I was able to re-focus and keep moving forward.

Happy End of 2018! Cheers to 2019!

Six Ways to Get Rid of Your Parents

As a writer, I spend a lot of time reading. I read to see what others have written, to gain an understanding of how a story was put together, to see the story arc, and to keep up with stories that are being published.

Recently, while working on a story where I wanted to include a father and son relationship.  It's a story about a rogue cloud and as I head toward the ending, it becomes a big boring didactic mess.

I have heard before that you need to get the adults out of the story to allow the child to solve the problem. But, I kept wondering how do you do that when the story is about family teachers.

So I read. I read picture books with families and teachers in the stories. I discovered that you can have family stories and get rid of the parents in a variety of ways. Here is what I discovered.

1: Turn them into Children.

Arree Chung's Ninja: Attack of the Clan is a story about family. Maxwell wants to play, but his mother is too busy, his sister says no, and then his dad says yes, but not really. Maxwell is in charge of his world, but in the end, family does come in and play. It's just that they let go of their adult selves and let their inner child shine.

2. Be brave, and let the child go.

Miranda Paul's new book which will be released on Tuesday, October 16th, the parents allow Mia to "move out," so she can discover the things that are truly important to her. When I read an ARC (Advance released copy) of the book, this was a very poignant moment for me. I thought about how hard it would be to let your little girl go off and make her own discovery. Many parents would be too afraid to let their child go, but it's those times of letting go, where everybody grows.

3. Just stay in the background.

Spencer loves books. His mom and dad read to him every night. When his books begin to disappear, his parents don't get involved. They let Spencer go off to solve the mystery and come up with a solution on his own. OK, so this might be the same as letting your child go, but it's on a different level as the parental stakes aren't as high. So in my opinion, it feels more like knowing that they are in the background rather than letting their child go.

4. Go off and do your own thing, and let the child do theirs.

This is much easier to do when you are an anthropomorphized cloud. Claudette has bigger clouds in her life and they invite her to go and do big and important things. She is not ready to try those things, but she does want to do something special. Claudette is blown away in a storm and her journey to make her mark takes place when she is on her own.

5. Give up on the kid.

Rufus' parents are worried that he won't survive in the big cruel world so they send him to The Big Bad Wolf Academy. All the other wolves do as the teacher tells them, But not Rufus. The teacher teaches all the other wolves, but doesn't spend much time on Rufus. Of course, in the end Rufus is the one to save the day when the hunters come.

And the 6th way: Just don't have them in your story at all. 

Squirrel and his friends Hedgehog and Bear wake up to spring. Hedgehog falls in love and squirrel helps hedgehog win the heart of the lady hedgehog. There are no adults in this story, just childlike animals on a Don Quixotesque quest.

So as I writer, I am learning that even if you have a family story, somehow you need to get rid of the parents so the child can solve the problem. If one way doesn't work, then try another. On my cloud story, Carrie Charley Brown, founder of ReFoReMo, suggested in her wonderful critique ninja critique on 12x12, that I try reworking the story without the father. It has taken a lot for me to let go of the father. A new attempt moved the cloud to cloud school with a teacher, but right now, the story is using "way to get rid of your parent" number 6. No adults allowed. I am not yet sure this will be the right path for this story, but I am learning a lot about getting rid of parents, the dangerous didactic woods, and the importance of rewriting your story.

So if you are a writer and struggling to keep your parents from taking you into didactic woods, you may just want to get rid of them in one way or another.

The Scent of Pineapple Sage

I have a very eclectic enjoyment of life. I write, make art, and spend a lot of time outdoors. This can be distracting and make it challenging to get things done. (Hey look, a Chicken). In the end, somehow; everything comes back to using my creativity for one purpose or another.

Time spent in the garden, cooking and making up recipes are of particular enjoyments. My mother was a fan of Julia Child and I still remember being with her in the kitchen learning how to cook and bake. I often pretended to be Julia adding my own flair to recipes. (Adding cinnamon red hots to cake batter was a favorite though not very successful idea when I was little.) Now that I have a better understanding of proportions and flavor combinations which I learned from years of cooking practice and reading and testing out recipes,  I often make up new meal ideas and rarely completely follow a recipe.

Pineapple Sage

When my Pineapple sage began to take over the herb pot on the deck, I needed to figure out a way to use it. BTW, Pineapple sage really does smell like pineapple. Yum.

Like Winnie-The-Pooh, I put my thinking cap on.

I got it. Sage goes with Turkey. Wait. Turkey is for Thanksgiving. Wait. Why? There is no rule that you can't eat turkey year round. Pineapple is summery, sunny, and delicious. That's it. Turkey breast with a little salt and pepper and a bunch of Pineapple Sage on the grill. Then pair it with a nice pineapple salsa and some guacamole.

Pineapple Salsa Recipe
pineapple (I bought a bag of frozen pineapple chunks and chopped them into tiny bits when they thawed. I was feeling lazy and didn't want to cut up a whole pineapple)
jalapeno pepper - Seeds removed (I used half of a pepper as I made a pretty small portion of salsa)
chopped pineapple sage ( a few leaves)
salt
and a bit of garlic.

No I don't have exact amounts. It depends on how much you are making and what your heat to sweet ratio preference is. I just started with the pineapple and mixed in the other ingredients until it looked balanced.

It was delicious. Turkey really can be a light summer treat.

I am not sure if the pineapple sage made much a a difference in the flavor of the meal, but it sparked the idea, and that made it priceless.

Whether you need to use some herbs in from your garden, want something different for dinner, or need an artistic spark for your next project, I recommend letting the scent of an herb take you on an adventure.

New Year or a New Moment: Move Your Story Forward

I keep thinking about all the posts on Facebook and other social media sites about ending this year and starting fresh with a new one. Many say they are ready for it to end because it was a terrible year generally noting the changes in our political climate. I think it is sad that we use the outside world and the rantings of a crazy person as our barometer of a good or bad year.

It may be helpful to think more about your personal year, the things that you had control over. Maybe you spent too much time caught up in the craziness and not enough on making the world a better place by you actions. Maybe you did wonderful acts of kindness and did make the world a better place for you and a few other people. Maybe you learned so much and are taking that forward into this new year.

I wonder why we feel that an arbitrary day (January 1) is the one to mark new beginnings? We have new beginnings every minute and opportunity at any moment to change direction and do things differently. We can begin the creation of new habits and new action right now.

Of right now.

I attended a Society of Children's Book Writer's and Illustrators (SCBWI) Conference in September in Wisconsin. I heard authors, illustrators, agents and editors speak and I took loads of notes. I made new friends and learned so much. I didn't wait for today, January 1 to begin to implement what I learned.

One of the pieces of advice that was given by several speakers was to always ask if what you have written is moving your story forward. That phrase, "Does it move your story forward?" has been haunting me a lot lately. Not just as I am writing or editing a story, but because I am working on moving my personal story forward.

For me 2017 was not a bad year. I learned so much, I have moved my story forward and am very excited to continue doing so in 2018. Not just today, but every day of the year. Each action we take is is a step in a direction. Little changes. Wonderful small changes add up to big new stories.

We never really get a fresh clean start. We will always have our past. The question is, how do we take that past and use it to move our stories forward?

Do we create drama for the sake of drama, or do we create peace for the sake of peace? What do we want out of this life? What will it take to get us there? What little actions create a scene that leads to turning to a new page? Life is a choose your own adventure, what direction do you want to take? When will you take charge of the adventure?

I am taking steps forward now, and


now



and Now!