Kindling Words

I've gone from rainy California to snowy cold Vermont. Very, very cold snowy Vermont. It really does look like this.  A little less snow, a lot more cold. It is exquisitely beautiful. Enough to pull poetry from the air while staring out at the night.

Round moon
Blue Snow
Hare goes hungry

I'm here for Kindling Words, a writer's retreat. Chris Raschka is doing the illustrator's strand, I'm doing the author's. And yes, Chris is as smart and amazing and wonderful as his art. You can quickly see where his art comes from -- his brain isn't sitting around in any square kind of box. He gave us a great view of his process.

 

Here he is playing the squeezebox to the accompaniment of one of his book dummies to show us his relationship between 12 musical notes and color, ala Chris. Amazing. 

Don Weisberg, president of Penguin Young Readers, gave a great talk on where he sees publishing going. One word description: he's very optimistic. Sees how the internet connects people to books, authors to readers. We finished off the evening (at least, I did, some people partied, others went to the outdoor hot tub which I though was crazy at -5 degrees) with a first read through of Gregory McGuire's new play. I was "props."

Off for breakfast and making sure my PowerPoint works.