A BIRTHING OF SORTS

I thought it might be interesting to see some of the steps I took to complete Skinny Brown Dog. So once a week for the next few weeks, I'll share some of those steps with you. If you have questions along the way, please ask them in the comments. Everyone will benefit from what you want to know.

If you have read any of my past posts, you may already know that writing this picture book broke a bad case of writer's block. Back then I was under contract to write a novel. My mother-in-law had died and I was experiencing grief and regrets. Facing my novel seemed a daunting task. Each day I avoided it. After weeks of not writing, I told myself that I could write about anything that day. When you haven't been writing for a while, you sometimes have to reconnect by taking several baby steps.

First step: Get in the car and drive.

Second step: Go to a coffee shop and order an extra dry cappuccino.

Third step: Find a place to sit.

Fourth step: Web for ten minutes.

For a moment, I stared at the blank page. Then an image of a dog showing up at a bakery entered into my thoughts. My web grew as ideas popped in my head. Cookies, muffins, broken cookies, raspberry muffins. Something lifted inside me. And I felt like a writer again. I quickly wrote the first draft on my yellow pad. Excited about my breakthrough, I rushed home and typed up the manuscript.

Those pages are below. In a way this is like a first and second draft combined. Since I write my first drafts by hand I try to type it into the computer the way I first wrote it. In other words, I try not to tinker with it as I go along.

After I finished typing this story into the computer, I put it away for a couple of days. Then I reread it and thought about the picture possibilities. Some writers make a dummy of their stories where they actually roughly sketch pictures and write the words beneath. For me, circling works just as well. So the circles in this manuscript represent where I thought picture breaks could be. Please note that doesn't mean the artist and editor will see it that way. But it's a good tool to aid the writer in creating a story that lends itself to pictures. Because remember, the pictures are as important as the text in a picture book.

As you can see, I also added in some text and changed the title. I loved the title That's Not My Dog, but someone else had used it. That's how the title eventually became Skinny Brown Dog. By the way, you'll need to double click to read the manuscript.

Next week, I'll share to copy of the manuscript that I sent in with my editor's notes on the copy.

(Important note: I'm posting these pages for your knowledge. Please don't copy these without my permission. Thank you.)

TRAPPED

Last week Bronte and I went to the porch for our power nap. I'd just settled on the daybed and covered with a chenille throw, when I noticed a bird flying overhead. Jerry had left the screen door ajar.

I tried everything to get the bird through the open door. With Bronte following me like we were playing a game, I chased the bird around the porch. I dodged chairs and the daybed. I flapped my arms. I clapped my hands. Nothing worked.

The attempts energized me and I no longer needed a nap. So I sat down to plot an alternate rescue scheme. Another bird was on the outside chirping away at her trapped companion. She seemed pretty worked up about it. I could just imagine what she was saying. "You have a terrible sense of direction. If you would have just asked me, I would have told you not to go that way." Eventually the outside bird and I both gave up.

That night I asked Jerry to help me, figuring that he could stand at one end of the porch and I could lead the bird to the door. But when we went out to check, it seemed the bird had found its way out. We left the door ajar, just in case.

The next day I discovered I was wrong. The bird flew overheard, back and forth, back and forth. I couldn't understand how, in two days, that bird didn't discover his way out. The answer was right in front of him.

Then I had another idea. I sprinkled some birdseed on top of a container and put it near the door. I went inside the house and back to work on my manuscript. When I checked the next day, the bird was gone. After two days of feeling trapped, the bird had finally made his escape.

I can relate to that bird. When I started my historical novel years ago, I quickly ran into a roadblock. The story begins in 1833 and I wanted the main character to go to the Nebraska Territory to live with his aunt and uncle in 1834. They were going to be farmers. Then I found out that the only white women in the Nebraska Territory in 1834 were missionaries. No, I thought, that would not work. This was not going to be a story with missionaries. This was going to be a story with farmers.

Oh, how I fretted. I tried to figure another place that my main character could go, but I needed it to be in the Nebraska Territory because the boy's father would be taking him to his brother and sister-in-law on the way to trapping out West.

For days, I brooded. I even questioned my decision to write the book. (I've done that several times since then, but those are other stories.)Finally one day, I decided to spend some time researching missionaries in the Nebraska Territory. I'll ponder it for a day, I thought. Before the day was up, I got caught up in the story of Moses and Eliza Merrill who ran an Otoe Mission near Bellevue, Nebraska. The story contained drama--problems with the men at the trading post, communication barriers with the Otoe, a small pox outbreak, and death.

Not long after reading about them, I visited schools in the Omaha area. I planned a side trip to Bellevue and found the only remaining proof of the mission--a lone standing chimney. The man at a little museum who gave me instructions on how to get there couldn't believe I was going to bother to find it. But after reading about the Merrills, I knew I must. Standing there, peering through the fence at the chimney, made it all seem clear. Why had I fought so hard not to include a mission in the story? Why was I so stubborn about those characters being farmers?

As writers we sometimes forget to explore the endless possibilities when we create our worlds. Sometimes we hit a barrier and if we're too tunnel-visioned we may lose the chance at adding another layer or plot point that enriches our story. That's what almost happened to me, until I finally explored another way and discovered the Merrills. Even though my story is not about them, their lives and work definitely inspired that section. I would have missed it all if I hadn't finally seen the open door.

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)