A couple of things: TILLIE HEART AND SOUL just won another award—this time a Moonbeam Gold Award in the Pre-Teen General Fiction category. Add that to TILLIE’s Best of Kirkus Indies 2017 award and to the shiny star it got from Kirkus and rave reviews from real children who’ve read it, and well, you just might want to get a copy for yourself or your young friends. You can find TILLIE in independent bookstores in Maine (yay!) and on Amazon in paperback or on Kindle. [Read more…] about Another Award and Maine Craft Weekend
Events and Blog
A Barred Owl and the Nudge to Write
This morning as I was taking my walk down our long dirt road in the woods of western Maine, a barred owl soundlessly swooped out the the trees. I wouldn’t have known it was there (owls don’t make sound when they fly–click here to find out why) except it flew right down the center of the road ahead of me for a good eighth of a mile. It’s always a magical and unusual moment when a barred owl appears out of nowhere. [Read more…] about A Barred Owl and the Nudge to Write
Uh oh! Author Visit and I Forgot My Phone!
I realized half way to a book event at the Charlotte Hobbs Library in Lovell, Maine that I’d forgotten my iPhone. The library had ordered copies of TILLIE HEART AND SOUL, kids had read it, and they were coming to meet the author (me!), discuss the book and eat pizza. What an opportunity for photos to put on social media! The pizza alone would make people buy my books!
I had enough time to turn around and get my phone, but then I decided, no. I’ve lately been noticing how thinking up marketing strategies has been taking up too much space in my brain. This marketing “habit of mind” depletes my creative impulses, and like most writers, I’m not happy about it.
Wouldn’t it be nice just to meet with the kids, talk about TILLIE, do some writing, and eat pizza without always looking for that perfect photo op to splash over social media?
I’m so glad I forgot my phone. I had the best author visit ever. I was totally present. I relaxed into my presentation, our conversation, the writing exercise, and yes, the pizza, too.
I tried a new activity that really worked out well. To get the conversation rolling (like I really had to encourage this group to talk…ha!), I’d selected quotes from the central characters the book—Tillie the protagonist, her best friend Shanelle, new girl Glory who unwittingly disrupts Tillie and Shanelle’s friendship, and Uncle Fred, Tillie’s guardian.
I read the quotes and asked the kids to identify the characters. I was thrilled when they were able to do it. It meant they’d read my book and I’d succeeded as a writer in differentiating my characters (which, as I told the kids, comes from spending lots of time with them and finally letting them speak for themselves.)
Then, using prompts, the kids created their own characters and drew their pictures. (Sorry no photos—not even of the seven-year-old detective whose high heel shoes were really weapons, or the teenager who lived in 5000 A.D. in the world’s tallest building, or the girl who lived in a camper and saved wild animals). I suggested that the young authors get their characters in lots of trouble over the summer and write their stories.
Later, when parents came for pick up, the authors shared their characters and pictures. And here’s the exciting part: at the children’s request, parents exchanged phone numbers. They wanted to arrange a writing group at the library like the critique groups I described because they wanted to keep writing!
Would all of this have happened if I’d been clicking pictures with my phone? Maybe. Maybe not. But I know one thing for sure, I was 100% my true self and I had a blast.
Writing en Plein Air
Painters take easels, paints, brushes, and canvases outside to paint en plein air to capture the light and beauty of the natural world; why not writers?
When I take my journal outside (certainly not during black fly season or when mosquitoes are everywhere here in Maine) whether I’m brainstorming ideas, drafting scenes, or writing poems, I find my plein air writing has, for lack of better word, an “airy” quality to it. I’m more open to experimentation. There are no boundaries. [Read more…] about Writing en Plein Air
Walking in Scotland: “as a pipe for any wind to play upon”
I just got back from walking over 70 miles in Scotland, most of it on the Borders Abbeys Way. I discovered long distance walking five years ago and have done walks every summer since, four times in Scotland, once in Corsica.
I’ve always enjoyed hiking and going on walks, but a walking holiday is a totally different experience. You commit to spending most of every day being outside, walking from town to town with a daypack. (Other luggage is transported by a service to the next stop.) This year a friend and I walked for six days.
We started of each day with anywhere from 8-18 miles ahead of us. In the beginning there is excitement, then soon self-doubt creeps in. Why am I doing this? Can I walk this far? When will the aching muscles and stiffness from yesterday’s walk disappear? Will I get lost? (yes, I always get lost) Why didn’t I stay in bed in the comfy B&B and take a bus to the next town?
But soon, as Robert Louis Stevenson wrote in Walking Tours, “It becomes magnetic; the spirit of the journey enters into it. And no sooner have you passed the straps over your shoulder than the lees of sleep are cleared from you, you pull yourself together with a shake, and fall at once into your stride.”
In Scotland there is rain. There is always rain. But also blue skies and sun! Raingear is put on and taken off several times a day. (That’s the hard part of walking.)
There are sheep, lots of sheep.
And cows and horses.
River paths and hill trails.
Flowers.
And smiles.
Why do I love this so much, I ask myself, as I chug along through mud, scramble over rocks, avoid ruts, or stroll on grassy trails?
The answers come to me. I’m outside. It’s beautiful. It smells good. There is birdsong, the rustle of wind through wheat fields, the flowing river. I’m proud, amazed, and thankful that I can do this. I feel safe and confident. I’m on an adventure that I know I can handle. Miles pass without talking. Thoughts, memories and great ideas come and go. I am part of the earth.
Again, Robert Louis Stevenson: “And then you must be open to all impressions and let your thoughts take colour from what you see. You should be as a pipe for any wind to play upon.”
At day’s end, we take pleasure in removing our boots and wiggling our toes, taking hot showers, going to a pub to eat, and sleeping deeply —only to start the marvelous, magic, magnetic journey again the next day.
