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!

Under the Sea, Three Books You Should See

Well, it may officially be fall here in the Midwest, but that doesn't stop me from thinking about water and the ocean.

I love the ocean. I love water. I grew up on Lake Michigan and have gone in swimming soon after the last of the ice was gone for the season. Throughout my youth, we played in the waves and tooled around on little boats, fished, and watched many sunsets. Sadly, I never took the love of water any further than being able to swim and spend time there.

I remember the first time I swam in the ocean, I was afraid to get off the raft because I could see these strange creatures lying around on the bottom. (Sea cucumbers and starfish) I was stunned when I held a starfish and it suctioned itself to my hand at my aunt and uncle's cabin outside Seattle, Washington.

The next time I was in the ocean, I was quite a bit older and in Hawaii. Everything is so blue there. From shore, we watched dolphins leaping and jumping. I saw humpback whales and sea turtles. I was truly in love and awe of what the ocean had to offer. We went on whale watches, I read books, I listened to everything that anyone had to tell me about ocean life. That was vacation time, then I would go back to the reality of living in the Midwestern cornfields with the closest large body of water 65 miles away. That doesn't sound very far, but when you have a job and family obligations, it takes planning to spend a day at the beach.

The most recent body of water I spent my time in was the Kishwaukee River. We had a great time, but my knees didn't even get wet. We saw frogs and polliwogs, minnows, mussels, macro invertebrates, and damselflies landed on my arm. There is so much to see and learn about in any water.

When I can't be in the water, it's fun to read about it. Here are three titles that take you deep into the sea with courageous people who changed our understanding of the ocean.

She fell in love at the aquarium. With the sharks. She was told this wasn't a career for a woman. She didn't care. Her love of sharks, drove her toward her passion. This beautiful picture book biography by Jess Keating about Eugenie Clark offers an overview of her life as well as a look into the lives of sharks. She started the Mote Aquarium in Sarasota, Florida. Don't miss the authors notes and added information at the end of the book. You can also check out the article about her from the Mote Aquarium.

I discovered this book at the library recently. It is quite a story or two courageous men who wanted to discover what was deep in the ocean. When they met, they worked together to find a way to see the deep blue sea. As I read the story of the bathysphere going deeper and deeper in the ocean, my heart rate went up, and I felt the thrill and fear of this dangerous journey. Exhilarating and scary. Be sure to read the author and illustrator notes to learn mire about their research in creating this wonderful book.

Even with the Bathysphere, the world deep in the ocean is remains largely uncharted territory.

Since 1964, Alvin began making dives and more and more discoveries in the ocean. Michelle Cusolito takes you on a day trip down in Alvin a deep sea submersible. Her simple text reads like a poem and her use of onomatopoeia bring the sounds of the journey to life. Nicole Long's illustrations are beautiful and full of detail. The back matter provides details bout the author and illustrator's journey to create their book, facts about Alvin, a glossary, and details about the organisms seen on the trek to the bottom of the sea. Such a lovely book taking us to a world within our world.

As an additional note, these books were written and illustrated by women. It is wonderful to see more and more children's literature being published by women.