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.

Lightning and lightning bug

As I've just rediscovered for the zillionth time, Mark Twain was right: there's a big difference between lightning and a lightning bug.  There is also a big difference between "almost finished with my novel" and "turned in my manuscript to the editor." Big. But I did it. Late, late, late at night I attached it to an email and pushed send.

I took a day off (okay, I was exhausted) and then wrote up the titles for the three lectures I'll be giving at Kindling Words in a few weeks. For the last month or so I've been chucking ideas into a folder. I've got a nice, fat folder. Now, time to organize my thoughts.

Here are my three titles:

1) Steal from the best: strengthen your characters using narrative non-fiction techniques, Chinese medicine, and a few other tricks.

2) Kick ‘em when they’re down: complicate your characters relationships with each other and their environment.

3) Consolidate your gains: get Mean Barbara off your back and fly in new directions.

I'm really looking forward to the retreat.

And while I was busy finishing the novel, we managed to have a birthday party for Tom. Kind of an exuberant guy, as you can see by the photo. This party wouldn't have happened had it been left to me, but our son Will made Vietnamese pho, we invited over a few dozen of Tom's closest friends (like I said, exuberant) and we had a feast.

The boys decided to play a little music to wind down the party, and Sophie who is three-about-to-turn-four shut down the place by dancing all night.

She has now dubbed our place "the house with the band." I think she's under the impression there is always live music here....