Tucson book Festival: Part two: Books alive and well

Imagine a school that greets you with a Mariachi Band! Note I do not have an instrument and I do not sing ;-). These kids were great. I want to dance!

A school with Acquabioponics in the library...my kind of place...I want one!

A school that is bilingual....REALLY Bilingual. I want to learn Spanish!

Attentive listeners...that author must be good;-)

And finally? It was all about books...thousands of people and there would have been more if they could have found a place to park...I guess that was a good thing...too many people coming together for books.

I even sold a few!

Another Navajo Day: It's All Material

Friday January 28 on the Rez, Chinle, AZ.

Can't resist the swap meet where I find anything from jewelry, to a bale of hay, to our patio table, my cowgirl boots, that axe handle we needed...to well just about anything whether I need it or not.

Lucky to hear about this sweat. Led by Navajo traditional healer trained in the Lacota way. Pitch black, hot and steamy. I hear the hiss of water on seven hot rocks one for each of the seven grandfathers, the wind sings outside, a raven caws. Inside we honor the four directions, share and give thanks. Sage scented steam coats my body.

Finally getting that third rug off the loom. The weaving is tuff going near the top. Tiny space, fat fingers...Can't wait to warp and begin a new project using all I have learned from my mistakes.

A walk to the west on the mesa, into the sunset with my rez rescue companion.

Not much writing? It's all material.

Interview with the Author...ME!

Last week I reveled in connections with the ancients on canyon walls.

Today I am back to connecting in cyberspace.

Check out the interview posted at: http://www.teazurs.blogspot.com/

Thanks to Angie for giving me the opportunity.

Stuff that Inspires

I collect stuff. I admit it. This is materialistic behavior. Christmas time can be the worst. I make sure I get what I want...for me. When I shop...it's one for him...one for me...one for her...one for me. Etc. Etc.

But I like to think the things I have are thoughtful, filled with ideas. The stuff I like has a story behind it, makes connections.

Like these seed pots from the Navajo, Hopi and Pueblo traditions.

These pots range from tiny to 12 or 18 inches in diameter. Today they are intricately hand-decorated and sold to collectors and tourists. Traditionally these vessels with small openings were used to save seeds after harvest time so that rodents and other animals could not get at them. In the spring the pots were smashed open and the seeds planted.

Reminds me of traditional piggy banks...smashed open when full( maybe to buy Christmas gifts). Which brings me to real pigs in Haiti. There, people told me they bought pigs and used their earnings to feed them so they would not spend the money in other less prudent ways. When the pig was grown they sold it and had the cash.... saved up in a real pig.

See? Seed pots on the Navajo Rez, to piggy banks, to Haitian pigs. A writer is always making connections.

Mostly, I love the metaphorical image of saving from the harvest and smashing into rebirth. Saving up the hope for a new planting season. I could work with that.

But first I have to finish shopping, wrapping, baking. Collecting. Procrastinating? Tis the season ...May yours be filled with things that inspire.

(some of these seed pots are even decorated on the bottom!)

Peace Corps 50th Anniversary

Yes! That is me on the cover of the Southern Connecticut State University Alumni Magazine. I might look a tad different now since the photo was taken a few years ago ;-). This is great article on Southern Alums who have served in the PC published this year in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Peace Corps. Steve and I served for nearly 4 years and now our son Christopher(born in the PC in Malawi) and his wife, Laurie are PC Volunteers in Mozambique. To see the article go to http://southernct.edu/publications/Southern_Alumni/Southern_Magazine_Fall_2011.pdf

AZ SCBWI 2011

On October 1 I had the honor of speaking at the AZ SCBWI conference in Scottsdale AZ. I shared my experiences writing the picture book from travels and life's journeys.

I also got to listen to editors, agents and authors confirm that there will always be room for good books for children in this new digital age and beyond.

It was inspiring to listen to young editors who are passionate about what they do, articulate, intelligent and serious about creating good books for young people. Voice, plot, character...the craft does not change. Now to get back to work and put the inspired muse to work!

Old Year Out, New Year In

As always it was a hectic end of year, lots of work, N1H1, holiday prep and always some good things happening.

I did my first online classroom visit using Skype and it was great.  I did have to comb my hair and look presentable but I could do this visit from my office!  I could see the classroom and they could see me.  The students had been prepped and they had great questions.  We spent a little over a half hour.  Here is what their teacher had to say:

Hello Karen,

Thanks for a successful skype!  My students filled out a 

reflection sheet afterwards, and it was amazing how much 

they absorbed.  Your discussion on why you write 

children's literature really resonated with them.  Many 

students wrote that they would begin to write about their 

'childhoods'.  Your honest and meaningful explanation 

really affected them!

Take a look at the website charactercounts.org and see Four Feet Two Sandals is still being recognized by thoughtful students, teachers and educators.

And on another front my story,  the Best Toys Ever first published in Chicken Soup for the Kids Soul was part of a creative family interactive advent calendar for this month of December.  See the website info@Growinggreatfamilies.com

These are only a few new things happening with my books and my writing life.  Much more to come in 2010.  And right off the bat I will start with a trip to Park School in Baltimore on January 4.  I am looking forward to sharing reading, my books and the writing life with students there.  More when I return.

Happy New Year!

Where I Write Now

I began writing, really writing, at the dining table in Malawi.  I wrote the first few drafts of each project out in long hand in ink on Malawi secondary school copy books and typed the final draft on an orange typewriter.  I bought it used from a Japanese volunteer who was headed home.  It was lightweight and small, missing the e-key, it did feature the symbol for the yen!  My typing skills were poor and the process was painful but I had lots of free time in Malawi and plenty of inspiration. 

When we returned to the US I still wrote at a table that doubled as dining room and kitchen table.  It was also the drawing table and game table for my children.   I wrote when the children napped(or that was the plan).

We moved to a larger house and I had an office for a while until we had more children and the office turned into a bedroom and I moved up to the third floor craft space and shared an office space with the sewing machine and sat back to back with my husband.  He shared that "office" as well but couldn't stand to look at the distraction that was my writing space.    During this time my husband decided I needed a real typewriter and he dragged me kicking and screaming into what was then the world of technology.  He gave me an electric typewriter.  I hated it.  It moved too fast and the touch was too light.  But I learned to appreciate it and began to feel like I was sailing instead of paddling through my writing time.

In Haiti I had a desk in the living/dining room where I could see my youngest out the window as he played in the dirt with the Haitian street children and chased the pigs out of the yard.  By then we had a desktop computer but I still wrote out first drafts by hand.  The desktop doubled as the only game computer for the expatriat children on the hospital compound where we lived.  My material was sometimes accidentally deleted by me or the kids.  The computer was grounded by a wire that ran to a wet cloth on the polished cement floor.  Still it sometimes gave me shock and I don't mean the writing.

Back in the US, the nursery turned into a teen's room and when he went to college it was the guest room.  But when another child left home, we spread out a little more and the guest room, a closet size space, is now my office.  I write on a laptop and I like the set up just fine, mostly.  

But the distractions at my desk-phone, email and a clutter of work papers for teaching and writing and household tasks can inhibit my muse.  An afternoon at a local coffee shop does not provide the distance I need.  When I can work it into my schedule I go off for a few days to a bed and breakfast.  My favorite place for B and B's is about an hour away in Confluence, PA.  The rooms are cheap and comfortable and the only way to get a signal on my cell phone is to drive up a two mile hill, and park in the church parking lot.   Free of everyday distractions, the tension falls away, nature inspires and the muse returns full force.  I can sit all day on a wrap- around porch overlooking a river lined with wild flowers and write.   If I write enough I promise myself a bike ride in the evening and I begin the day with a walk down country roads.

I have also been lucky enough to have my sister-in-law offer me her cottage on St. Simon's Island when she was away.  I went there with a writing friend.  We had ten days to enjoy the Island and write.   Compatable travelers and writing partners we gave each other space during the day and shared our writing in the evenings.  I took long beach walks in the early morning.  Sharon biked in the late afternoon.   Sometimes we worked at the same table, laptops back to back.  The Palm Coast Coffee shop, once a slave cabin, in the village was a welcome change of scenery too.  There we could write and munch if we felt like it.  Local shark taggers on the pier, at night, taught us that most sharks are not bad and about the need to help keep them from extinction, more fodder for the muse.

Closer to home, I have on occasion headed north of Pittsburgh for the day to New Wilmington, PA.  Mugsies is a coffee house that is NOT Starbucks and if I sit facing the window I am enchanted by the passing Amish buggies.  A drive through the countryside on the way is a good way to enhance the writing too.    The beauty of farm country and the Amish blues invite a flow of creativity.

Recently I have found I do not have to leave home to find the same quiet inspiring writing space that I have at Mugsies or Ohiophyle or St. Simons Island.  I took the huge black grill off of our tiny back porch and replaced it with a bistro table.  Covered with a flowered table cloth, it brings me back to France.  Seated at the table I overlook my garden and I write.  Oddly, though this space is only one floor down from and exactly below my office, it is a whole new world where I find the peace and inspiration to write with the chaos of my office overhead.  That’s where I write from now. 

Soon I intend to check out the picnic tables along the trails in the lush, cool park near my home.  I walk there daily and the writing begins in my head.  I can only imagine what will happen if a take a few hours there with my laptop and let the muse wander and get the writing up on the screen.