Illustrator at work

One of the most wonderful things about writing a picture book is seeing what the illustrator brings to life. It's the most exciting sense of anticipation... what will my main character look like? Where will she live? Will she be made of delicate water colors or carefully cut paper, or combinations of art supplies that only illustrators and art directors know how to talk about?

My manuscript, Big Cat Pepper, is in the hands of illustrator Lauren Castillo. Her drawings are delicate and whimsical and touching all at the same time. She's posted a few incredible cat sketches on her blog as she finds her way into the manuscript. Which one will turn into my beloved Pepper?

People often don't realize that the editors get to choose the illustrators. There are a lot of good reasons for this. Editors see lots of portfolios, know who is fun to work with, who gets their work in on time, and all kinds of things I know nothing about. But if you are really, really lucky, your editor will ask you how you feel about someone they are thinking of approaching. When Jill Davis told me she was considering Lauren, I went to her website and starting shouting, "Yes! Yes! Ask her!"

And Lauren said yes, and here I am, eagerly waiting to see what Big Cat Pepper looks like, where he lives, and the boy and his mom who love him.

Children's Book Week poster by Mary Grandpre

A great poster by Mary Grandpre for this year's Children's Book Week (May 12-18 2008). It's energetic and wacky, and yes, done by the great Harry Potter illustrator. Everything in the poster looks alive!

For me, her poster is a great example of the Hun (Dream Spirit) in action, which I wrote about in this article in the Hornbook.

The poster is free, so go check out the Children's Book Council website for how to score one.

Children's Book Week is in May this year, moved from November in previous years. Lots of totally cool events, and a great wrap-around theme.

And you might also check out the books they've nominated as favorites. Over at the Hornbook, Roger Sutton has his knickers in a knot.

The Middle Place by Kelly Corrigan, and how to get ready for spring

Spring wanting to burst out.
What to do?
Send son into the fig tree,
with a small saw and clippers.

Meanwhile, I read the most wonderful book. It's The Middle Place by Kelly Corrigan. My niece Jessica recommended it to me -- she and Kelly are friends. It's a beautiful, tender memoir-style book (Corrigan is a fantastic essayist) of her life as a mother of two little girls, dealing with a very scary breast cancer, as well as her father's cancer. Touching. It will make you think about your own life and your family relationships and everything you value. I highly recommend it.

Purple mountains majesties

Last week my sister Meg and I drove north to visit our other sister, Joan, and her husband, Bernard. They live at the very top of California in a gorgeous valley where people mainly grow alfalfa and raise cattle. The cowboys drive either really big, fancy trucks, or old beaters. Joan and Bernard run a little cafe there and one night while we were there the Cowboy Christians met. They came in, young and old, the women bearing trays of brownies and other treats, the men stopping to put their hats on one of the round cafe tables, upside-down. Then they all sat in a big semi-circle and shared their stories about Jesus in their lives.

I wanted to take a photo of that table covered with cowboy hats, the beautiful round circles made by the inside of the headbands and then the wide brims, touching, and behind the table all the people in the circle. I didn't want to disturb them though, so you'll just have to imagine it.

And in the mornings and the evenings, the hills were purple and, yes, way majestic. I have a heart full of the tender, earnest people there, and beauty of this amazing country.



Big thanks to my sister Meg for the photos.

New East Asian library open at UC Berkeley

The new and beautiful East Asian Library has opened on UC Berkeley's campus. I'm really looking forward to going to see it. They have a huge number of very, very, very old books, and now access to them will be easier. It's a great acknowledgment of our place here on the Pacific Rim.

For my book, John Lennon: All I Want is the Truth, I did research at this library a couple of years ago, when it was small and cramped and had a lovely smell of old books and dust. I couldn't find my way around the shelves at all -- nothing was in English -- but with help of the librarians I was able to request an old issue of Bungei Shunju magazine from the depths of storage. Yoko Ono had written a wonderful article in the magazine about herself and her art work. I had it translated by a Japanese woman, Kyoko K. Bischof, and found it a very revealing self-portrait of Yoko. Which was great, as so much about John Lennon and Yoko is half truths, or out and out untruths that have been repeated over and over again. Love those primary sources!

And much older than Yoko's article, here is a poem I have over my desk by Izumi Shikibu.

In this world
love has no color-
but how deeply
my body
is stained by yours.

Hayward Historical Society, Ron Partridge photo show, "From the Byways to the Highways"

We had a blast. Despite huge changes in Hayward, my dad was able to get me to the Historical Society Building. He's one of those people who can still remember how things looked years ago and run a commentary on all the changes. I was hoping we'd pass Eddie Badiati's place, but we didn't. (This guy is legendary in my dad's mind for hot dipping all parts of his car's engine in chrome when they were teenagers and cars were God.)

The evening was terrific. Great group of enthusiastic people showed up, and my dad was funny, encouraging and inspiring. Thanks to Jeanine Sidran, Education Director, and all her crew, and the board members who made our evening.

Pictures of the evening say it best: (first photo by me, second Jeanine Sidran, and last three by Thomas Taylor. Thanks for sending them to me!)

Hayward Historical Society, watch me wrangle my dad, roughly equivalent to wranging a dozen cats!

Off to speak at the Hayward Historical Society tonight. They have the traveling exhibition of my dad's photographs, From the Byways to the Highways, which I curated from two shows we did a couple years ago. One of them, at the California Historical Society, I co-curated with Sally Stein, the other, at the Oakland Museum, was curated by Drew Johnson.

CERA, California Exhibition Resources Alliance, travels shows to small California museums for a moderate price they can afford. They do really cool stuff. I especially love their photography exhibits. Great photos that have to do with California history or California photographers.

We'll be showing the short film, Outta My Light, that my sister Meg Partridge made withour dear friend Dyanna Taylor. (Her dad, Ross Taylor, was our dad's best friend, so the film is highly personal.) After the film, my dad jumps up and answers questions and I basically provide continuity and fill in the gaps. Guaranteed to be fun for all.

ADHD and good Feng Shui in my writing space

Ever since I heard of the label, ADHD -- Attention Deficient Hyperactivity Disorder -- I thought it probably described me pretty well. I come from a family full of people who can't say the alphabet from A to Z, can't remember appointments, can't sit still, but are full of genius ideas about how to take photographs or put together scanning tunneling electronic microscopes. We've got a couple math geniuses and a few who can't add simple numbers. Spelling in my family is totally random.

Wonder about yourself? check out this easy self administered test with a few simple questions. I scored really, really well.

And then there is my son who never went to class as an undergrad, but preferred to just do the reading and show up for exams. And why didn't he go to class? "The professors talk too slow." Actually, honey, it's that your mind is going too fast.

The good thing about being ADHD is that it frees your mind to run in really interesting directions. The tough part is putting it all together in a logical way.

Fortunately, I have an awesome, amazing friend, Sydney, who loves good Feng Shui. She is determined to help me in my kinetic quest to get my writing done by helping me set up a comfortable, efficient work space. Syd's into clean, non-cluttered desk space and just had some brain waves about how to redo my office. I wish I had a "before" picture so you could see how totally different it looks. but... AH. New space.

The joy of getting a totally wonky first draft done

I've just hit one of the most amazing points in writing a book: I've finished my crappy first draft. This isn't a draft that I'd be willing to show my editor, or even anyone else. Far, far cry from that.

This is the draft where I start trying for some semblance of order. I'm a very intuitive, free-form writer. So I start writing by what my lovely friend Bruce Coville calls "barfing on the page." And another pal, Deborah Brodie, more tastefully calls "dessert first." (Funny that they are both eating/un-eating metaphors.) The basic idea is just get something down. Write down snippets of scenes, put bits of character tags down. You can do the hard work later.

Then after I have masses and masses of this stuff, I start trying to arrange it which is absolutely my weak point as a writer. (and as a human, I have to honestly say.) I write up big charts on a huge piece of butcher paper taped on my wall, I go through stacks of post-its. I whine a lot during this stage. And despair. Eat huge amounts of chocolate, the darker the better.

Then I begin putting everything in some kind of order. So I've got scenes in first person and scenes in third. Characters inexplicably come and go, and my main character has a split personality from having so many different, weird issues. There are giant, looming empty spots and optimistic little notes that begin with "TK" journalist speak for To Come. (Don't ask me about the TK/TC thing, because I have no idea.) Last year I took a class from Dennis Foley (very kick-ass, no whining allowed) at Writers.com and this was one of his helpful hints. Put in TK -- you can search for it later -- and keep moving.

So now I have 59,997 words, of which probably 58,997 will need to be replaced at least once and probably two or three times, but I have a START.

Next up: another Bruce-ism: "run your character up a tree and throw rocks at her." I've done that. Now, I'm clueless how to get her down more-or-less in one piece.