GET OFF THE BUS!

This morning I received word that Piper Reed Navy Brat is a nominee for the 2010 Oregon's Beverly Cleary Children's Choice Award. Thank you Oregon!

To learn about the award and the other nominees: Oregon's Beverly Cleary Children's Choice Award

A QUIET MAN WHO WROTE ABOUT QUIET PEOPLE

Years ago when I worked in radio sales, I received a call from a movie distributor who wanted to advertise on our station. Our radio station had a small listening audience. I was used to call-ins from lawn mowing and window cleaning services. But the distributor wanted to promote their movie, Tender Mercies with our audience. We accepted the account.

One of the perks of working at a radio station was receiving complimentary tickets to events. So that weekend my mom and I went to see Tender Mercies. It was a gentle movie about a man trying to become a better person. When the movie was over we left the theater, but the story never left us.

Quite a few years later I learned that Horton Foote, the same man who wrote Tender Mercies had also adapted, my favorite book, To Kill a Mockingbird into film. I shouldn't have been surprised to learn that he also wrote The Trip to Bountiful, the story of an old woman returning home.

Horton Foote was a great example of how sometimes we start down a road and realize it's not the journey we were meant to take. If we're smart we make a detour to the right road. As a young man, Foote went to acting school. Thank goodness he soon realized his true calling. He went on to win two Oscars, an Emmy and a Pulitzer Prize.

Harper Lee biographer Charles Shields shared his thoughts about Foote. "After winning an Academy Award in 1963 for his screenplay of To Kill a Mockingbird, Horton Foote, a stocky, soft-spoken Texan with blue eyes, was asked how he chose his subjects. 'I just want to work on things I'm interested in,' he said.

What interested him were small American lives. He grew-up in a small town and recognized that drama is wherever you find it: in porch gossip, at church suppers, or during arguments between farmers, for instance. In small towns, the great and the reprehensible know each other by first name. And in understanding that, he and Harper Lee, another American miniaturist, were very much alike."

Author Sarah Sullivan whose mother grew up in the south, the daughter of a judge, has felt a lifelong connection with To Kill a Mockingbird. Foote's passing caused her to reflect on that affection. "I've probably watched To Kill A Mockingbird twenty times and I could easily watch it again right now. What I love about Harper Lee's novel and Foote's screenplay is the way they show the quiet dignity and courage of ordinary people who take a stand against violence and hatred, not for any grand reward, but simply because it is the right thing to do."

Actress Tess Harper, who played in Tender Mercies, called Horton Foote, "America's Chekhov." She said, "He's a quiet man who writes quiet people."

In this world of high-speed and technical chaos, it's nice to know that folks can still slow down and enjoy a quiet story.




Horton Foote

March 14, 1916-March 4, 2009

AN ARTIST AT HOME: GABI SWIATKOWSKA

Where do you work best at home?



At my desk.
It is mine, it is terribly messy, but I know where everything is,
until somebody borrows something without telling me (ZAK!!!!!!)

What time of day would we find you there?

Now that's a tricky one...
I use a different desk for Internet and reference.
I like frequent distractions ie: take 15 min. to wash a bit of a floor in the kitchen (am part polish!) Remember that haven't seen the red blouse
bought at anthropology and go look for it etc. etc.

So, you'll find me at my desk in between all the walk-abouts.
The 'walk-abouts' keep me fit (especially as our house is a 3-floor narrow-non-escalator stairs type-house, which makes it sound enormous, but it isn't.
It's a one + 1/2 room per floor)


(note:Amazing cookies made by Gabi. She says:"I'm the one on the very edge with a girl (Zak). There's one of me with one of my artistic edifice's "Ilona's anti-blackmail fairy.")

What is your favorite comfort food while you work?

Whatever I can find in the fridge.
And chocolate.

How does home feed into your work?

*Read above answer
+
Does home include kids?
Because my daughter
feeds into my work in most uncanny ways.
She's in fact, a super-star of my work.


A bit more about Gabi from Gabi:

I was born in Poland and er...
they didn't have any toilet paper.
Moved to States (NY, Brooklyn),
went shopping a couple of times,
got scared of the overwhelming abundance,
consequently developed a fantasy
of going to India.
I am currently on my way there.

I have won a couple of awards in the meantime:

2007 Show Me Readers Award winner by the children of Missouri.
2007 Young Hoosier Book Award winner in the Picture Book category.
School Library Journal Best Book of the Year (2005, 2003)
Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year (2005, 2004)
Outstanding Science Trade Book for students K-12 (2005)
Ezra Jack Keats New Illustrator Award (2004)
IRA Notable Books for a Global Society (2004)
American Library Association Notable Children's Books (2004)
Child Magazine Best Books of the Year (2003)
Nick Jr. Family Magazine Best Books of the Year (2003)
NY Public Library Children's Books List - 100 Titles for reading and sharing (2003)
Chicago Public Library Children's Books 2003 recommended list- Best of the Best
New York is Book Country Festival- Bookmark Choice Book for 2003
USA Today - favorite books of 2003 for children and young adults
Smithsonian Magazine Notable Book (2001)


Visit Gabi's Website.


Want more? Visit these previous At Home profiles:



Tracy Porter




Hope Anita Smith







Kathi Appelt

THIS WEEK'S VISITOR

When I speak at schools and conferences, people want to know how I work with my illustrator. They are shocked when I inform them that we don't even speak during the process. They seem even more surprised when I tell them that doesn't bother me. I am not an artist, not in the drawing and painting sense anyway. I love discovering what an illustrator brings to the story. Maybe I'm able to accept this better than some writers because of what I heard a famous illustrator say at a conference about the process. He said, "The writer thinks it's her book, but when I get the manuscript it becomes mine."



Magical things can happen because of this belief. I think that's what happened when Gabi Swiatkowska agreed to illustrate my first picture book, Waiting for Gregory. As one reviewer said, "Kimberly Willis Holt must have thought she hit the jackpot."



Gabi Swiatkowska is a talented artist and she has the awards to prove it. Among her many recognitions, is the Ezra Keats New Illustrator Award in 2004.



Her work delights with whimsy and realism. How does she do that?



Shortly after our book came out, serendipity played a role in our relationship. Gabi had recently moved to a little village outside of Krakow, Poland. And I had just received an invitation to speak at the American School of Warsaw. A few months later my family and I waited outside a church in the Krakow Market Square, holding copies of Waiting for Gregory. Snow began to fall. Across the square I saw a young woman waving at us. Then I noticed she was holding a copy of Waiting for Gregory. For a couple of hours our families joined together and ate lunch at a cafe.

"How does the process begin for you?" I asked her.

"It begins with one line," she said.

Thursday we will see where this artist makes her first lines that lead to her brilliant creations. Please, join us then.

GOOD THINGS IN MAGAZINES

(picture by Paul Hawthorne)

One great reason to buy the March issue of Architectural Digest is for Francine Prose's essay on creating her new writing space. Prose makes a good argument for writing with a view.





If you can't afford to plop out the money for an issue, at least take a look at Architectural Digest on the web. This month includes four essays by John Updike. In Fictional Homes, Updike explored the importance of homes used in fiction from writers such as Thomas Hardy and Edith Wharton. An Exile's Impressions is about returning to New York.

The Houses of Ipswich paid tribute to living in historical homes. In the essay, Updike said, "We ourselves felt part, deeply and effortlessly, of the community because we owned a piece of its past, sleeping and eating in rooms where fourteen or so generations had left their scuff marks."

The last piece, Spat, gives an entirely different view of living in an historical home. Updike's opening may give you a hint--"The burglar alarm and furnace keep fighting. Early in the morning, when with a snort and rumble the furnace comes on and heat begins to pour in palpable sheets from the radiators, the alarm feels suddenly imposed upon, and lets out its enormous, heart-stopping wail."

Thank you, Architectural Digest, for your generous posting of these essays from a fine writer who is no longer with us, but whose work will last forever.



And while we're on the topic of magazines, congratulations to Kim McCole whose dear Daisy Cottage was profiled in Country Sampler this month. Kim's cottage makes you want to curl up in one of her chairs with a book and a glass of lemonade. Here's a little peek of what you will find inside:


(photo by Mark Sickles)

AN ARTIST AT HOME: TRACY PORTER

Where do you work best at home?

I love working in our den/library. I have a set up in our bedroom as well which is also really a lovely place to write. Although I find myself always drawn into the library. I put on the fire, I put on all the lamps. I dim the overheads. I light a candle. It all feels so delicious and warm and inviting. It opens my mind. It allows me to go into a place that is inspired and magical. I keep stacks of books at my feet, all kinds, and a fresh notepad. I think that while I write well anywhere on an airplane, in my studio office, I just love the feeling I get from this room. It is red, which I love. I am surrounded by family paintings and drawings and photos. I look up at a photo of my French grandmother when I am stuck and I find my center again. I lose myself and this is so important to me.



What time of day would we find you there?

Depending on the day, I sometimes write at home during the week as the studio is full of loving interruptions nonstop.( by my own doing I realize) I can write anytime, any day. Once I have a cup of tea next to me and a little plate of cookies, I can fly. Sometimes I write at night, and then I will smell cooking from the kitchen as my husband John is a really fantastic cook. It really gets my creativity flowing to smell good food, then I spot of wine with that! I am as happy to write on a Sunday afternoon. Our son Gus may be napping, and Max, Fin and Sigerson might be on their own computers. I will sneak off to the library and just get down to it!!

What is your favorite comfort food at home?

I am a comfort foodie deep down in my heart and soul. Food is a luscious part of our world. It inspires me in so many ways. So...where to start...oh....my goodness!Well...I adore meatloaf, poached eggs are insanely delicious to me, Italian tomato bread soup, peach cobbler, pork loin roast.....I know, you only needed one food thought from me, but I am helpless, helplessly in love with comfort foods that make our house smell good. I'd be happy throwing some onions in my cast iron pan with some butter and just breathing that in!

How does home feed into your writing?

Our home is our nest. It's where I am inspired to be a great mom, a wonderful partner to my dear husband, an explorer. It's where so much goodness is every day. It is not perfect and I love that. It is scratched, and spilled on. It is dented and stained, but then so are all of us, and it makes each of us better. Our home inspires everything about our life because we have chosen to make it a home. We have allowed it to have a life. It is not treated as a museum, but rather a lovely breathing part of each of us. So, yes... it feeds my writing with its every breath. It is quirky and happy and real and noisy, and it has dog hair and little match box cars nearly everywhere you step,and that is where enchanting sits.



Tracy Porter, nationally known lifestyle, home & fashion designer, operates her multi-faceted design business from the rural college-town of Ripon, Wisconsin. Humble beginnings (1991) started with Tracy’s hand painted luxury furniture line created from her farm’s vintage chicken coop, left retailers on an exclusive waiting list for her one-of-a-kind treasures. Tracy is renowned for her fanciful dinnerware collections. Tracy’s recent foray into fashion has been an exciting addition to her brand. Tracy’s entrepreneurial bliss wouldn’t be complete without the warm life she’s built with husband and business partner, John, and their four young spirited boys. The Porter family resides on a country gentleman’s farm.

Visit Tracy's Website


Did you miss these At Home profiles?

Hope Anita Smith







Kathi Appelt

TOMORROW'S VISITOR

One of Tracy Porter's book dedications reads, For my brother, Danny, who assured me ten years ago that my paper, scissors and glue would never fetch me a career.(KMA) It seems Tracy proved to her brother and the rest of the world that you could indeed make a career out of having fun. Tracy's approach to design and life and love is all mixed together because...well, that's the way she likes it. She is a true optimist and readers can gather inspiration from her books that go well beyond home design. Between the luscious pictures of her home, are words of wisdom that every writer or artist could live by.


Here are just a few:

Follow your heart today. Life will fall into place once you make this a priority.

Walk down a path you have never traveled...You might just find what you are looking for.

Allow yourself the freedom to change your mind.

Curl up with hot chocolate, a warm fire, and a good book.


Tracy is married to John and she's the mother of four boys. They are all important parts of the mix. Recently I told Tracy that I wish I'd witnessed her philosphy when I was a young mom. I would have taken myself a lot less seriously. When you watch Tracy's video blog, it is not unusual to see one of her sons playing in the background. She wouldn't have it any other way.

Tomorrow you'll meet Tracy. I'm honored that she agreed to be our first Artist at Home.