Writing

November is PiBoIdMo!

/ still a dreamer / 2 Comments

Created and hosted by Tara Lazar, PiBoIdMo – Picture Book Idea Month – is a 30 day challenge during the month of November to come up with a new idea for a picture book every day of the month. This is Tara’s 3rd year hosting PiBoIdMo, and my first year of participating. I’m excited! I find I am already buzzing with ideas in my morning shower or while making coffee.

To participate, you are asked to take the PiBoIdMo pledge to record a new idea daily, (you’re on the honor system), and when you sign up at the beginning of November and end the month with a note of completion, you’re even eligible to win prizes, such as critiques with literary agents. Go, Tara! And …. when you are signed up to participate, you can also put this cool PiBoIdMo Pledge button on your blog.

PiBoIdMo, was inspired, by the way,  by NaNoWriMo, the November writing challenge for novelists, but this one is just for us picture book folks.

So go visit Tara’s site, read all about it, and if inspired you’ll find a link to sign up. But hurry – Nov. 7th is the last day to comment/sign up and you’ll have a bit of catching up to do.

Getting Too Caught Up

/ still a dreamer / 2 Comments

It’s so easy to get caught up in how much there is to do – how much work, how much running around, how much taking care of the kids or pets … how much, how much, how much. And serenity, inner peace, is out the window faster than a flash. Here’s where Monday morning often starts … already running with a mile long list of things to do.

It really is kind of depressing. We wake up and feel calm for about 2 seconds, then the to-do-list, the who-needs-what, comes crashing into our consciousness. How to stop this free fall of impending needs of others, our work, etc. that comes crashing on our heads so early? I do know the answer, but we really do have to do it.

And that is to take – or make – some small bit of time for ourselves. Whether it’s a short meditation, maybe a walk, journal, or doing whatever it is that centers us – in my case this morning, it’s writing a bit on my blog – it’s something to beat back the incessant demands of too much to do. All that stuff to do is not going away, but we can get them in a place where they are more in perspective and we can breathe. Take a deep breath … and let it go.

I’m writing this for me as much as for you who might be reading this … I’m still on the path of learning. And no matter how insistent all these demands are – unless they truly are life and death – we can be in a better space in how we look at it. Though it sometimes gets lost in all the crazy busy-ness, I always remember what Louise Hay says on her tapes – the only thing we can change is our thoughts. We can’t change the car-pooling, the amount of work our job demands, the daily errands, etc., but we can change how we think about them. It takes practice, but the getting too caught up in them is costly to our well-being.

So today I’m writing a little … I’m taking a deep breath … and starting all that stuff.

Have a great day!

Sorry, Henry — Sorry, Clare

/ still a dreamer

I tried – I really did – but The Time Traveler’s Wife just jumped around too much for me to follow at this juncture in time, when I am reading so sporadically. This book has such a unique and interesting premise, but I found, that with very little reading time available at the moment, (and often at the end of the day), that The Time Traveler’s Wife was not getting the true attention it deserved. And by all reports of friends who have read it, it’s tricky to follow anyway. So, back on the shelf it goes, to be picked up when I have the luxury of reading for hours on end and truly appreciating Henry and Clare and their time-spanning relationship.

What, then, should I choose? The finds from the Hunterdon County’s Annual Book Sale beckon! There awaiting me are best-sellers, favorite authors, new-to-me authors, and children’s books – lots of them. Among these are fairly current offerings and some classics. Of the latter are some I have not yet read, like Old Yeller, and some I have, including my current choice – The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

I can remember the copy I borrowed as a child from the Dixon-Homestead Library in the town where I grew up – it was a hardcover, and a medium dark green. I also remember loving it, and am curious to see how it stands up today. Written in 1911, The Secret Garden intermixed some of the history of Burnett’s own life with her imagination, and became instantly popular, and then in time, a classic.

Do you remember reading this as a child?

Banned Book Week – Sept. 25th-Oct.2nd

/ still a dreamer

Did you know that the American Library Association (ALA) – who bestows the John Newbury Medal and Randolph Caldecott Medal (among others) – holds an Annual Banned Book Week? I was very interested in this and went to their web site which has extensive sections on not just their greatest concern – the 1st Amendment – but also lists of the books in question sorted by different criteria.

Among their lists are: the 100 most challenged/banned classics, and the details of who banned/burned/and/or challenged them and why; the most challenged/banned books sorted by decade, author, year, plus statistics.  Some books are banned by entire countries, entire states in our own United States, by schools, religious groups and others. Who would have thought that so many people on the planet thought they had a right to tell us what we can and can’t read?

Looking just at children’s books for a moment, here is a partial list from among 100 books for all age audiences banned or challenged in the last decade – Harry Potter (series), by J.K. Rowling (Harry’s number 1!); His Dark Materials (series), by Philip Pullman; Captain Underpants (series), by Dave Pilkey; The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain; Forever, by Judy Blume; Go Ask Alice, by Anonymous; Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily von Ziegesar: In the Night Kitchen, by Maurice Sendak; Bridge To Terabithia, by Katherine Paterson; Junie B. Jones (series), by Barbara Park; A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeline L’Engle; Goosebumps (series), by R.L. Stine; Are You There, God?  It’s Me, Margaret, by Judy Blume and oh-so-many more.

What are they kidding me?! Be afraid, people, be very afraid … clearly there are lots of others out there who think they know what’s best for you, me and our children. I am alternately scared, disgusted and outraged. Well, the good thing is that the ALA has this extensive web site which supports intellectual freedom and the upholding of the First Amendment. On the ALA OIF (Office of Intellectual Freedom) section of their site, there are ideas, resources and activities for teachers and parents who believe in the freedom to learn, and various events for the week.

Think you should decide what you and/or your children reads? This may be a site you want to check out.

Let Them Eat Cake II

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Every now and then, people ask me what my blog is about. Well, let’s see … it’s about writing, illustrating, art, children’s books, reading, animals, nature, home, music, the wonder and mysteries of life itself, and oh, yes … food.

So I guess, in sum, my blog is about many of the things that inspire me!

I occasionally think I should really have more of a focus on my blog, specifically on the children’s book field.  But so many people already do that SO well, I figured I might do best to share slices of life, and serve them up in an as attractive manner as I can … such as this lovely cake I made recently.

This is a Nectarine Upside-Down Cake, made from scratch, all butter, as is my wont to bake. I wish I had more time to bake … and even cook … but life being what it is, I will just continue to bake when I can and memorialize the results in a photograph. And share it with you. This was quite delicious, my last tribute to the fruits of summer, and was served with fresh whipped cream. Yum!