Writers Always Steal

It's true, we writers listen in on conversations, read what others have written, and when it suits we make it ours. My children used to introduce me to friends, " This is my mom, the writer. Be careful what you say. It can and will be used in a book."

It works like this sometimes...I have an idea for a picture book I want to write. The story is about a Navajo girl who wants to learn to weave but she is given the task of herding the sheep instead...Not sure where I can go with this story. The idea came from reading a non-fiction book on Navajo weaving.

Then presto I am hiking in the canyon with a Navajo friend who tells me a story about their sheep. Her nephew was herding them and how a bear got one of the sheep and they found the remains in the woods. Of course I am a little dense sometimes, until it hits me. Like a gift this friend has given me the answer to how to write my picture book. I think maybe not a bear but a coyote will work.

Yes, always stealing snippets of conversation, ideas from books, magazines, news programs. I am not suggesting plagiarizing or copying. I am suggesting that we writers take in what we see and hear around us and make it ours...a new take on a theme that is already out there. Or a new theme for an old idea.

And talking about stealing, another friend, writer, Leslie Davis Guccione http://lesliedavisguccione.blogspot.com/ shot me a picture of the Christmas tree HER friend made out of driftwood they collected on the beach. I miss the beach. I live in the desert. I want a tree like that.

Wait a minute...there are tons of wind blown and water- sogged bits of wood on the mesa behind my house. I dragged it home, daily, often under cover of dark so no one would see this crazy woman with twigs sticking out of her backpack, dragging more behind...late evening walks with my res dog, Reena.

I saved that wood for a year, piled in the laundry room. And built my own Mesa wood Christmas tree. Same idea, new theme... a gift from the friend of a friend who doesn't even know I stole her idea. I think she got the idea from something she saw in a gift shop. See? Stealing.

Happy holidays. With thanks for friends... who share tidbits, ideas and stories that I steal turn into something new and exciting.

Have snow shoes....Will Write

An early Christmas present had me headed to Colorado this weekend to trek Lizard Head Trail.

While slogging through six feet of snow, at high altitudes, under crystal blue skies I got to thinking.... Snow shoeing is a lot like writing.

Like beating your head against the wall...it feels so good when you stop.

But like writing, when you are trekking uphill and find your pace and rhythm you can be lost in another world and never want to stop.

On the steep bits I tell myself to take ten steps and then I can take a break. I will still get to the top.

Just write 200 words today, everyday. One day I will get to the end of that book.

Lizard Head. A good title helps and you should know your destination. Where do you want your characters to end up?

I will never break trail.

But we writers always follow in the footsteps of the greats, one way or another.

You shouldn't go it alone. Trusted friends (husband, faithful canine or writer's group)who listen, encourage and tell you what they really think make the trail shorter, the writing stronger.

Leaving your comfort zone in the mountains or on the page makes you and your writing stronger. A short poem or a novel...it's always worth the work in the end.

Downhill? It might be easier than the rewrites but at least you are on your way...cruising.

To Write a Picture Book

My latest picture book, Facing Fear(working title) is about Enrico. His family calls him Kiki. He is a ten year old Mexican American, born in the US, to undocumented immigrants. This project has me interviewing FBI agents, news reporters, teachers and young Mexicans, and passing through secondary border checkpoints.

I traveled to ElPaso, TX last weekend where I talked to kids at the fence. They were in Juarez and I was in Texas. La migra (border patrol agents) in armored vehicles watched patiently from four directions.So much more goes into the writing of a book than ever gets on the page. This is as true for a picture book as it is for any other work.

How can I tell this story in 800 words? Why won't Kiki's father let him travel to the tournament with his soccer team? Why is his sister so angry with him? Why do they have to hide at Tia's house overnight?

How will I capture the struggle the fear, the hope, the love in 32 pages?

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

Beatrice reviewed in Kirkus!

BEATRICE'S DREAM
A Story Of Kibera Slum
Author: Williams, Karen Lynn
Photographer: Stone, Wendy
Publisher:Frances Lincoln
Pages: 32
Price ( Hardcover ): $17.95
Publication Date: December 1, 2011
ISBN ( Hardcover ): 978-1-84780-019-0
Category: Picture Books
Classification: Nonfiction

Life for a girl in the slums of Nairobi.

Beatrice, 13, tells readers about her life in Kibera, a shantytown of discarded metal, wood and other refuse. The youngest of five children, she lives with her eldest brother, Francis, and his wife. Her father perished in in a car accident, and her mother died of tuberculosis when she was 9 years old. Every weekday morning, rain or shine, she walks half an hour to school, a building built of tin. Her favorite subjects are English and Kiswahili, the official language of Kenya. Beatrice is the school timekeeper during lunch. They eat githeri, a special Kenyan dish made from beans and maize. She stays after school for extra lessons but must be home before six o'clock, when it gets dark. Often, her dog Soldier is waiting for her. Beatrice's nightly chores include making dinner and ironing. If there's enough paraffin in the small lamp, she'll also study. On weekends, she works in her brother's shop, washes clothes and helps with the marketing. All of this is told in Beatrice's matter-of-fact first-person voice. The book ends with a two-page description of the Kibera slum and a sad picture of it. Stone's beautiful color photographs—40 in all—work in tandem with Williams' simple, direct prose to capture the poverty of Kibera as well as Beatrice's resilience and many unique aspects of her life, likely unfamiliar to most American children.

Informative and affecting. (Picture book. 5-10)

The writing? life

Seems like I am not getting enough writing done at the moment. Teaching, travel, family, Navajo language class, house and garden all take my time. But I take every opportunity I can to explore life and land on the reservation. I need to trust that soaking in life in the canyon will turn into material for a story or book or essay or article. Am I fooling myself? Procrastinating when I say this is my writing time? This is how I have always worked...writing as a natural part of my life eventually falls into place. I look at every adventure in the canyon with a writer's eye. I am making friends and reveling in the opportunity to explore my passions, nature and culture. Here is where I have been, trying to figure out what it means and how to express the stories of this place. A collage of part of my summer. Rodeo, Canyon ruins, weaving in the canyon, Navajo rug auction.

Beatrice go to the Netherlands and more

Just got my copy of Beatrice's Dream in Dutch. Can't wait to read it ;-).

I love sending my books out into the world.

And my children...Chris and Laurie are in Mozambique with the PC. Peter lives with his wife Chimei and son Ethan in Taiwan. Jon is about to go for a Semester in New Zealand. Rachel is in Pittsburgh. Four kids, fours continents.

At least I can keep a copy of my books with me at home.

And Beatrice? Here is what Corbis Photo agency has to say:

Wendy Stone’s photo essay on life in an African slum is a heavyweight anchor of reality for American teenyboppers, often spoiled by iPods and designer jeans.

Kibera is the largest slum in Nairobi and the second largest in all of Africa. Census reports estimate the population to be somewhere between 170,000 and two million people.

In Kenya—on the surface between an impoverished and illiterate majority—emerges the dream of Beatrice, a 13 year-old orphan determined to carve her way out through higher education.

Corbis Contributor Wendy Stone and author, Karen Lynn Williams, provide us with a compelling set of pictures and words to balance a young girl’s account of living uncertain in Beatrice’s Dream: A Story of Kibera Slum. The powerful essay describes a young girl’s, “walk to school, the dust that blows between her teeth [and] her fear of being alone…”

The photography offers a wonderful contrast between hope and despair that Wendy captures well. Her images, so deeply rooted and honest, make obvious that Stone has lived in Nairobi for quite some time. In 30 years, familiarity appears to have bred anything but contempt. Bare witness to her self-realization, that despite being worlds’ apart we are all in this together.

Experience it for yourself.