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The Year of Exploration is here.
On Being a Late Bloomer is here.
My speech at Vermont College (moments, memories, meaning) is here.
====================
Day 48 was a travel day. We had four days in California and spent it with monks and in monasteries in Trabuco Canyon and in Hollywood; with our son and his sweetheart; and at the SCBWI conference in Los Angeles, where I made a little speech as I accepted the Golden Kite for fiction, for REVOLUTION. I am still so giddily happy about that. I'd never been to the Summer Conference before, either -- an amazing experience.
Met with my agent, too, and got all strategic about the rest of my Year of Exploration, and roughly mapped out the next ten years. More on all that after some photos, so I can remember:
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| Sweet Southern Breezers at SCBWI, breakfast Saturday morning. Love y'all. |
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| Bodhi tree at the Hollywood Temple, Vedanta Center of Southern California |
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| Two monks, more or less. |
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| Vespers at the Hollywood temple |
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| My son Zach lived in the Trabuco monastery for a year. Now he has a music degree from the University of Colorado and has moved to L.A. |
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| Hollywood Temple, dedicated in 1938 |
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| Om |
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| non-gmo treats only! distilled water only! |
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| lovely Megan and lovely Zach |
What I learned in my 48 days is that I can work on more than one thing at a time, but I am still not good at multi-tasking, if that makes sense. If I'm deep into the work, the house is a wreck. If I'm deep into the garden, the work gets set aside. If I am deep into the work, the kitchen and all I love to do in it, lies dormant, which is a shame this time of year. I didn't buy one peach this season, and peach season is about done.
So my balance is still off, or maybe I'll never have it. I like long, luscious hours stretching ahead, to immerse myself in something. It feeds me. So I dunno... I guess in this 48 days I learned that I could work on picture book projects and have four or five going, but forget everything else. It was good to set everything else aside and concentrate, joyfully.
Everything else still needs attending, and part of the attending was looking critically and dispassionately at how I make a living, which is what I did with my agent on Monday before Jim and I hopped a plane home. Long and short: I can't get off the road and just write. That's my biggest practical take-away of the Year of Exploration so far.
That's fine. I like the work I do in schools, at conferences, teaching and speaking. I just need a better balance, so there is time for the writing. So that's what we worked on, getting to that better balance. We. Have. Plans. For now, "Don't give up your day job" is my reality once again, and I choose to embrace it. Bring it on, I say, and let's get to work.
I've had my 48 days of continuous writing, and now it's time to be back out there again, and living in the world in that lovely out-there way, which teaches me so much and gives me plenty to write about.
So. We have liftoff...
From bound manuscripts to the National Book Award dinner, from home to far away, from family to friends to strangers to new friends, from schools to conferences, from high to low, from hard work to a few lazy days...
0 Comments on the characters of fall as of 1/25/2015 2:17:00 PM
One week in the life, and what a week. Monday I started out for North Carolina, with REVOLUTION, and Sunday night, last night, I sat in the tutti-fruitti chair at home in Atlanta, with Masterpiece Theater and my phone, watching and texting along with my Mississippi cousin, Carol, a long-standing tradition. Some of the life between those two moments is captured below in phone photos -- I miss my camera! But I did not miss my friends. They were right there, all along, right beside me, as you will see, accompanying me and championing me and coaxing me forward, in person and online, and certainly in my heart. I kept up my travel-marathon training on the road (for a trip I'm taking in Feb/March, which we'll get to). More to say on the other end of this string of photos, including a little about next week in NYC. Thanks for coming along with me!
WHEW. It fills my heart right up. Thanks so much to the fine folks at the
Carolina Friends School, Cary Academy, A.B. Combs Elementary School,
Quail Ridge Books and Music,
McIntyre's Fine Books, the
Fearrington House Inn,
Scuppernong Books, and the Chatham County Community Library. Y'all were so gracious and generous. Thanks to Charlie Young for accompanying me for a good leg of the tour -- you are the best.
Jandy Nelson: THREE booksellers hand-sold me your book on this tour. I got two photographs. Booksellers loved
I'll Give You the Sun. I love
you! And your wonderful new book. Busting my buttons over my former student's success!
That's
Jennifer E. Smith,
David Levithan, and
Stephanie Perkins, reading from their new books and signing at my local indie,
Little Shop of Stories in Decatur, GA, yesterday. I came home
to walk a 5K as part of my travel-marathon training, and to see my editor, David, do his thang at Little Shop. Then Jim and I walked the old
Decatur Cemetery, a soothing end to a busy week, and had a little supper at
EATS, one of our favorite Atlanta eateries.
This will be a quiet (hahahaha) week of getting ready for the National Book Award events in New York City next week. We leave in six days. I have a fabulous black dress. I bought some bling for my dress. I am returning it. I called the shop and said, "I forgot! I'm going to be wearing a medal!" Because I am.
REVOLUTION is a National Book Award Finalist. I am so proud of my book. I love my book. I love my publisher, Scholastic, for publishing the book I wanted to write. I love the NBA judges for recognizing my book. I love the process. I love the books REVOLUTION is keeping company with this season. I love the lofty ideal of writing from the heart the story that is asking to be written. I love having the opportunity to share that story with as wide an audience as possible. Thank you, thank you, thank you... that's what I want to say, over and over again. It has been such a rush, such a trip, such an excitement, such a delight, such a surprise, and such an honor. I am forever grateful. See you all in New York next week.
Love, Debbie
By:
[email protected],
on 9/20/2014
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An afternoon drive out of Atlanta, a patriotic rest stop, a Confederate flag flying over the Columbia, South Carolina Statehouse, an arrival at Mama's house on John's Island.
O Charleston, O Youth, O History of Long Ago. The marsh, the swamp, the salt, the
By:
Sue Morris,
on 5/16/2014
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Welcome to day 6 of Children’s Book Week. These last two days of Children’s Book Week 2014 Kid Lit Reviews presents two publishers well-known for their children’s books, in particular, picture books. Tomorrow Capstone will present two books you could win. Today Chronicle Books is sponsoring Lately Lily: The Adventures of a Travelling Girl. To WIN this picture book LEAVE A COMMENT! For additional entries, CLICK HERE TO WIN!
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Lately Lily: The Adventures of a Travelling Girl
by Micah Player
Chronicle Books 3/25/2014
978-2-4521-1525-2
Age 4 to 8 32 pages
.“Meet Lily the Travelling Girl! Where has Lily been lately? EVERYWHERE! Lily takes her trips by plane, train, bike, boat, and even by camel, and her best friend,, Zeborah, is always along for the ride. Whether venturing far away or staying close to home, Lily knows that the joy of discovery is the best way to travel each and every day. Join the jet-setting Lily on a world tour, and experience the surprises of ravel through her eyes.”
Opening
“BONJOUR! CIAO! HOLA! HELLO! I’m Lily, the Travelling Girl.”
The Story
Lily’s parents work all over the world and take Lily with them. Lily takes Zeborah, her stuffed zebra doll and best friend. As the story progresses, you will learn where Lily has been—lately, meet her friends, and discover what she does.
Review
The author/illustrator, Micah Player, is the Creative Director of a company that makes kids apparel. That company, called Lately Lily, “the international teeshirt brand for thoughtful little girls,” specializes in clothes for young girls age 2 to 10, all based on Lily and her travels. Lily’s parents are a journalist and a photographer for the International Exposition (the Definitive Journal of Global Curiosity), working around the world. According to Lily’s website, the International Exposition is the world’s greatest magazine.
Lily travels carrying her yellow suitcase—her home away from home—and Zeborah, a stuffed zebra-doll. Lily writes notes in her journal describing her travels. These notes are what inspire the fashions at the store. In addition to this book, Lately Lily also has flashcards and a yellow suitcase, both available at Chronicle Books. I think this could be a series, or rather, I hope this is a series. If not, and maybe still, the book is another product placement to induce kids—and parents—to shop at the Lately Lily store. Still, Lily said a few things that are encouraging signs that she can be a role model for young girls.
“Every day is an adventure.”
“The world is full of possibilities”
“Sharing stories keeps us [friends] close.”
“New places lead to unexpected discoveries.”
Joining her working parents, Lily travels from the U. S. to China, England, and France. Lily makes even the mundane parts of travel exciting. Her energy is boundless and will have kids enthusiastic about travel. I like that Lily records her travels, what she’s seen and learned. Even Lily says her journal makes it easy to remember her travels. Lily is an intelligent, curious, well-dressed girl who has no trouble entertaining herself when not with her worldly friends.
I like that she writes—with paper and pen—to her friends when they are not together. Letters are personal and tangible. Writing a letter seems to be a lost art, replaced by emails and instant messaging. Lily appears much older than her age, which is not stated but is no more than ten based on her backstory.
The illustrations are bright and cheery, giving Lily a sophisticated look. Young girls will like Lily and Lately Lily, though the book is more a travel log or a “This is my life,” than a story. Regardless, girls who love wearing Lately Lily will enjoy the picture book. Young girls new to Lately Lily will love the girl and her Zeborah. Many of them will want to transition into wearing Lately Lily clothes.
LATELY LILY: THE ADVENTURES OF A TRAVELLING GIRL. Text and illustrations copyright © 2014 by Micah Player. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Chronicle Books, San Francisco, CA. .
Buy Lately Lily: The Adventures of a Travelling Girl at Amazon—B&N—Chronicle Books—your local bookstore.
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Learn more about Lately Lily HERE http://latelylily.com/
Meet the author/illustrator Micah Player, at his website: http://paperrifle.com/
Check out the Lately Lily store at the website: http://latelylily.com/shop/
Find other books at Chronicle Books’ website: http://www.chroniclebooks.com/
Also by Micah Player
The Around the World Puzzle
Chloe, Instead
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WIN Lately Lily: The Adventures of a Travelling Girl by LEAVING A COMMENT below this review. For additional entries, and MORE CHANCES TO WIN Lately Lily, and other wonderful children’s books, CLICK HERE TO WIN!
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By:
keilinh,
on 9/5/2013
Blog:
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by Stacy Whitman, Publisher of Tu Books
I had two Korean roommates in college. Ever since then, I’ve said, “Someday I will learn Korean and visit Hyun Mi in Korea.” Last year, when I made new Korean friends here in New York City, I decided that “someday” needed to finally be today. I started to learn Korean from a book and a podcast, got addicted to Korean dramas, and this May, finally made that trip to Korea I’ve been meaning to make for over a decade.
On my way to Korea, I had a 7-hour layover in London, another place I’ve never seen in person before. I got to meet Cat Girl’s Day Off author Kimberly Pauley, who showed me 221B Baker St. and the whole area around Parliament—Big Ben, the London Eye, and Westminster Cathedral, for example (the outside—no time for the inside), and then we finished off our whirlwind tour with a full English breakfast.
(center) Kimberly Pauley and Stacy Whitman at Paddington Station with Paddington Bear; other sights in London
A subway entrance in Busan, South Korea
I didn’t get to visit my old roommate, but I did visit my new friend from New York, who had moved back to Seoul. I stayed with her and her family in Mokdong, a suburb of Seoul, which I loved not only because I was visiting my friend, but also because I got to experience Korean culture from a closer point of view, not as a tourist in a hotel but as a guest. I got to do normal everyday things with my friend, like going to the grocery store and post office, to the bookstore and to the repair booth on the corner run by the ajussi who might know how to fix my purse (sadly, he didn’t have a good solution). I was greatly impressed with the public transportation system, which got me everywhere I needed to be, and often had malls in the stations!
I also met up with the Talk to Me in Korean crew (from whom I’m learning Korean), who happened to have a meetup when I was in Korea. Here I am with Hyunwoo Sun, the founder of Talk to Me in Korean, and his wife, Mi Kyung. A few of us went out for a kind of fusion chicken, the name of which I’ve forgotten, and then patbingsoo—sweet red beans over shaved ice—after the meetup of over a hundred TTMIK listeners.
Meet-up with Talk to Me in Korean teachers and students
I love Korean dramas, which are often historical, so of course I wanted to see places like National Treasure #1, the Namdaemung Gate (officially known as Sungnyemun), which burned down in 2008 and was just recently restored and reopened, and Gyeongbokgung Palace in the heart of Seoul. The folk museum was fascinating, letting me see Korean history in person—for example, they had a living replica of a Korean street that brought you forward in time from the Joseon era to the 1990s.
Gyeongbokgung Palace, Seoul, South Korea
A tour guide at Gyeongbokgung Palace wearing a hanbok, a traditional Korean dress
Outside the National Children’s Library in Gangnam, Seoul, South Korea
I also went to the Namdaemun Market, across from the gate, and had my first real Korean market experience, and found a stylish purse. I rode a bike along the Han River (and saw cleverly disguised trash/recycling cans), discovered the national children’s library in Gangnam, watched the changing of the guards at Gyeongbokgung Palace, stopped off for a chocobanana smoothie at Starbucks for a quick wifi fix, wandered around in a park filled with fortune teller booths, got makeup samples in Myeongdong, and found bargains in an underground shopping mall at the subway entrance. What I didn’t do was stalk a Korean drama star, though that was tempting. 
Cleverly disguised recycling
Cheonggyecheon River, Seoul, South Korea
Not too far from the palace was the Cheonggyecheon River, which is a reclaimed river that has been turned into a recreational area. It was my favorite area of Seoul—I loved to walk along it and returned three times while on my way to other places. The first time I discovered it (on the recommendation of Korean American library educator and friend Sarah Park Dahlen), it was decorated for Buddha’s Birthday, a national holiday in Korea. The next day, on Buddha’s Birthday, my Korean host and I went to the local Buddhist temple to discover how the holiday was celebrated among Buddhists, which neither of us are. That night, the Cheonggyecheon was all lit up in celebration.
Stacy Whitman at the Buddhist temple in Mokdong, South Korea
Cheonggyecheon River, Seoul, South Korea
Beomosa Temple, Busan, South Korea
I spent a total of two weeks exploring Korea, the second week of which was spent climbing a mountain on Jeju Island, discovering a Buddhist temple and a famous beach and fish market in Busan, and staying in a hanok (traditional Korean house) in Jeonju—where I also happened upon a famous Joseon picnic spot (Omokdae Terrace, famous for a king having once picnicked there), a famous royal shrine, and a Confucian school where one of my favorite dramas was filmed, and where I saw a delightful sight, a class full of toddlers in hanbok, learning about their country’s history. Jeonju also is the home of a traditional Korean paper (hanji) museum, where they have a hands-on room where I made a sheet of hanji! Later I met the driver of a truck full of garlic, who insisted I take a picture of his truck.
Schoolkids at Jeonjuhyanggyo Confucian School in Jeonju, South Korea
Truck full of garlic in Jeonju, South Korea
Then I rounded out the experience with my friend’s one-year-old’s birthday party in Seoul. (The first birthday is very important in Korean culture, a momentous occasion for which my friend and her husband rented hanbok to wear for family pictures, which I took for them.) However, I didn’t get to the top of 9 km-high Hallasan, the big mountain in Jeju (though I made it 7.5 km!), as I didn’t start early enough in the morning. I’ll just have to go back. Oh darn! (I did, however, get the rare opportunity to see a native deer.)
I ate loads of delicious Korean food, most of which was homemade by my host family, but I also discovered new foods like Jeju’s famous gogiguksu, a pork noodle dish very similar to good ramen. I also had the chance to try Koreans’ interpretation of Italian food, which is very popular—and was very tasty.
(clockwise from upper left) Korean street food in Busan, kimbap in Seoul, pizza in a cone & smoothie in Jeonju, Italian food in Jeonju
And I took a break from my vacation one day to work, because you can’t publish diverse books and travel halfway around the world and not take the opportunity to meet publishers in the country you’re so interested in. An agent at the Eric Yang Agency was happy to introduce me to several Korean publishers, who were happy to introduce me to their books and to learn about mine. Here’s a picture of the mural in their lobby, a testament to the love of reading in Korean culture and a great riff on the famous photo.
Lunch atop a Skyscraper, now with books!
It was interesting to see how similar and yet different the two country’s publishing styles were—often, we publish similar books, yet we market them completely differently because Korean parents/readers and American parents/readers are looking for different marketing messages in the books they buy. Young adult literature as a category is still relatively new in Korea, particularly in fantasy (though the age category’s storytelling is strong in dramas and manhwa, the Korean form of manga)—the emphasis in Korean children’s book sections of the bookstore is very much on educational supplements. I look forward to someday bringing Korean YA and middle grade voices to a US audience looking for diversity and new stories.
* And it was a bear trying to pare down my pictures. If you’d like to see more, follow me on Tumblr, where I will eventually be posting more pictures a few at a time.
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DIRECTIONS
by Connie Wanek
First you'll come to the end of the freeway.
Then it's not so much north on Woodland Avenue
as it is a feeling that the pines are taller and weigh more,
and the road, you'll notice,
is older with faded lines and unmown shoulders.
You'll see a cemetery on your right
and another later on your left.
Sobered, drive on.
Drive on for miles
if the fields are full of hawkweed and daisies.
Sometimes a spotted horse
will gallop along the fence. Sometimes you'll see
a hawk circling, sometimes a vulture.
Today is a traveling day, and this poem seems apt. Especially the part about the horizon (you'll have to read the whole poem).
Happy Friday! Happy Poetry! Jama has the roundup this week at
Jama's Alphabet Soup, and as usual, it is drooliciously wonderful!
I managed to post using the updated blogger, and I also found umpteen comments "awaiting moderation." Who knew there was such a thing? So I moderated. Thanks for the kind words, all. I've published most of them with their appropriate posts now. It's good to hear your voices.
It was good to return to Mississippi last month to do research for book two of the sixties trilogy. I've been to the Delta
I sit this early morning in a hotel room in Boone, North Carolina. I will work here for the next two days. Today is a day in schools and a public library event. Tomorrow I will keynote the first Appalachian State University Children's Literature Symposium and work with teachers throughout the day -- exciting!
This fall has been full of travels, and I am overdue on some October thanks. Thanks so much to Mikey Jones at Powhatan Elementary in Boyce, Virginia; Kathy Crane and Joy Simpkins and all those who brought me to W.G. Coleman Elementary in The Plains, Virginia; Carole Butler and her intrepid team at Moorestown Middle School; and Bev Grazioli, Carol Herb, and the Home & School team that brought me to Moorestown, New Jersey's Upper Elementary School -- amazing, insightful days of teaching and learning.
Here you'll see teachers modeling for their students in assembly, teachers telling their own stories in workshop, students writing away in assembly, and projects using Deborah Wiles' books as a jumping off point, and more.
I've been busy this morning! All the important things, dontcha know. Breakfast. Baaaaath. Tidying up and packing. And a little reading, too, of course.
Remember when the
bathtub first arrived? It was some of the best money I ever spent. I can sink down deep into that tub and let all cares float away, be immersed in another world for just a little while... or a long while. Soaking meditation. hee.
(In looking for a post about my bathtub, I turned up so many posts wherein I mention soaking in the tub. hmmmm.... !)
The dresser and bed photos are a mystery for you. Where are they taken? In my house, but where? Long-time readers here can probably guess. More next week.
Quick trip to Alexandria, Louisiana -- I'm almost ready to go to the airport. Hello, Rapides Parish Library system! I can't wait to meet my new librarian friends later this afternoon, have some supper tonight, and do good work together tomorrow. I've got my li'l silver camera with me. Let's see if I can remember to take pictures.
You know, I hadn't stepped on a plane in over 20 years, when I began this traveling gig ten years ago (this, from an Air Force kid who had grown up all over the world... I think I wanted to Stay Put and raise a family... which I did). Now I can't count the number of planes I've been on in the past ten years. It's all good.
Hello, world! It's fall.
Here I come!
xoxoxo Debbie
You'll remember I decided to delete the blog, and then I didn't. le sigh. I felt a little like Tom Sawyer, faking his funeral. I have such a love/hate relationship with social networking. It's not you. It's me.I'm working on it.
To that end, I've made some changes. Tomorrow I get back into book 2 of the '60s trilogy, just in time for a family gathering over the weekend and all next week in Charleston. You'll remember we go to Charleston every September, in time for hurricane season. Maybe you'll do the photo challenge with me this year -- more to come about that.
So I'll catch you up with book two tomorrow. In the meantime, click through (if you're not there already) to the blog to see the new look! New title: Field Notes. New design. New sidebar material, including a list of current reading and listening, as well as books/music/dvds I'm using or have used for research -- I wanted to collect them in one place, so I created an amazon store so you could see them, too.
Full disclosure: As an affiliate, I receive a tiny portion of sales that click through from my blog or amazon store. I'm not looking for sales, though; I got most of these books from my local library, through inter-library loan, or from abebooks. (I *love* abebooks.) And I wanted to collect these resources in a readily available place and share them with you.
I was going to switch the blog to WordPress -- my Web Goddess Allison had me all set up. But I've decided to stay here on blogger for now. It's easier for me and I like the openness of the look for now -- what do you think? At some point I want to integrate the old 2007 tour blog with this one. When I started a new blog, I didn't understand I didn't have to. Live and learn.
If you visit my website (which is a WordPress site) you'll also see it's had a little refresh, too. I do like it, although at times, when I think about it too much, it also feels too loud to me, compared to the very understated look I had before. What do you think? I really want to know. Again.
We're just back from Hayesville, N.C. where Jim played a gig with some musician friends over the weekend. Great good fun. I have no brain cells left with which to be scintillating or even make sense. So here ya go. Some housekeeping, and some photos and (always) a little music when one can't think straight. Thanks, y'all. More anon!
My friend Jenny is spending an entire year doing things she has never done and blogging about it. This has led to some deep thinking -- on MY part. Today her entry is about a friend of hers who is moving away, and Jenny thinks about what it is like for the person left behind. I am a person who has moved so many times I can't remember how many, and until today I don't remember giving a thought to how the people I left behind were feeling. Maybe I did. But I don't remember it. I do remember wondering why they would be angry at me, why they wouldn't be happy for me.
From the time I started reading books at age 4, and knew there were other places to be, I wanted to go to those places. And I didn't just want to see them, I wanted to live there. I wanted to live in faraway places. But in lots of places. Also, I love houses. Apparently, all houses. So, I always wanted to move. I like decorating, I like redecorating. I'm forever seeing another place I want to live in. Once I was away from home (at 15), I started changing houses. Once I was free to move out of town, I did. My second marriage was to a military man. After I divorced him, I was even freer to move around. I started in Missouri, but I've lived in Alaska, Texas, Kansas, at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, and in Oregon.
I've traveled to every state but Delaware and Rhode Island, and to 20 countries on 4 continents. I have friends in many places, friends I see fairly often. Two of my dearest friends live in other countries. I have as many close friends in NYC as I do in Portland.
Maybe. Maybe I feel that close to them because traveling is such a part of my nature. Maybe they don't feel that close to me. Maybe they only feel that close to people who ARE that close, literally. If I can't be there to wrap my arms around them, hold them when they need it, bring them something to read, make a pot of soup, am I really the friend I think I am? Or am I all just talk? Nice warm cozy words that no one can cuddle up to when pain is real and what they really want is a warm body, not a virtual hand.
These are the thoughts I am having today. I have no plans to move today or any time in the future. I'm happy in my 250 square feet. But if I ever do move again, I will have a different attitude about leaving people behind.
...all of New Orleans last week, posted here chronologically.They tell a story only I know, although you could write a fictional story using these photos, in this order. Or, mix up the order. Or, choose only ONE photo and write a story. Choose three. Which three would you choose? What stories could you tell?
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Cool tonight, and darkish at 5:30. One day home for me. After a meeting this morning and a lovely girls-lunch-out (with the newest little girl in attendance!) at Farmburger in Decatur, I returned home to get ready for tomorrow's travel.
But I didn't pack. Instead, I filled the coal hod twice with ashes from the last of the winter fires, swept the hearth, and lit a fire in the fireplace. It's May 17th, and I have a fire. In Atlanta. Cool.
I popped corn. I made Spanish coffee. I washed the grapes and sliced the cheese and found my favorite banana bread recipe in my favorite old cookbook.
And I contemplated the next project.
Thanks for all the great comments about
hand work. Isn't it amazing how we gravitate to it, even in this electronic age. It soothes us. It centers us. It used to be essential for survival.
Maybe it still is.
Thanks to the wonderful teachers at S.L. Mason Elementary School in Valdosta, Georgia, for the fabulous work day yesterday, and special thanks to instructional lead teacher Tina Nunn, who worked with me for months to make the writing day come together for all of us.
And now... switching gears -- come see me
tomorrow night, 6pm, May 18, at
Octavia Books in New Orleans, where I'll be talking about and signing
Countdown! I'll be at
Page & Palette on Thursday night, May 19, in Fairhope, Alabama. I'm traveling with Charlie Young, Scholastic's Southern Sales Rep Extraordinaire. We're set to hit the road with sixties tunes and stories -- come with us.
More from the Big Easy. Stay warm tonight. Be as reasonable as I am; put whipped cream on top of your Spanish coffee.
An appropriate quote, especially for me as I get ready to go to Canada midweek.
Happy weekend everyone!
xoxo
Lo♥
By:
Claudette Young,
on 4/10/2011
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One of the things that keep a person engaged is finding new locales to explore.
A person doesn’t have to take a plane, train, bus, or even a car. All that’s required is physical mobility. Some use feet, others use personal wheels. Sometimes when the weather is bad, a leisurely finger walk through the yellow pages can give a person an entirely new look at their hometown.
When Sister Jo and I go into a new town where we’re going to spend a few days, I look at the yellow pages as soon as I can. From those pale tissue leaves I discover the range of amenities available to locals and visitors alike. The demographics of the community are contained with that phone book section.
If you don’t believe me, go to the restaurant section of the pages. See what’s available for your dining pleasure. How many Mexican restaurants are there? Chinese, Thai, or Japanese? What about Mid-Eastern fare? Any Russian, French, or American Steak Houses? These numbers often reflect the population of an area.
What about churches? What denominations are there and how many of each can one choose from?
Is there a dealership where you can take your car if something goes wrong or you need an oil change? What if you need a new tire? Can you find a reputable local tire dealer that won’t cost you the contents of your bank account?
Sheer volume of entries in the yellow pages, their sizes, and the boldness of print tell the explorer much about where they are and what they can expect while in the area. This kind of information is overlooked many times in favor of asking available locals specific need-to-know questions. That’s fine, too, but laborious in nature. The phone book holding the yellow pages also gives you a map of the town so that you can find your way around without having to use the trial and error method.
Much entertainment can be reaped by locals from tourists asking those “Can you tell me…?” questions. Ask any farmer outside any small town how much fun it is to give directions to newbies.
Of course, if you ask the right questions and pay attention in the right locales, you can find your way around easily. Oklahoma is one of those places. The state’s smaller road system is set up on a one-mile grid and named accordingly. That holds true everywhere with one exception. Those areas in former logging areas along the eastern edge of the state and where rivers and lakes don’t allow for straight roads.
Local signage also clues the traveler as to the demographics of an area. There are clues everywhere. It’s up to the visitor to look for the gems.
Here’s an example from yesterday. We took in a local fresh-air farmer’s market in Templeton, CA. There was almost a carnival air to the occasion. Kids ran and played while parents selected the best of the locally grown produce.
We saw artichokes twice the size of softballs. I’ve never seen anything like them. Beside them were egg-sized purple artichokes. I’d never seen their like before either. Vine-ripened tomatoes that filled the hand snugged up against green onions that could feed three. It was marvelous.
The local historical society building was open for visiting where we found fodder for many future investigations. Watching the shoppers told another story. Old or young, they enjoyed the sunshine and produce presentations. Conversation was lively and relaxed
So I went back to work. My second week in the Philippines was spent at Brent International School's Subic Bay campus, which holds classes in the old naval base elementary school. Students had prepared for my visit.
Writing with third graders
Finding fourth-grader Ramon in the library later in the week. "I'm the first person to check out Countdown!" Great, Ramon! "What'cha reading right now?"
Wowee. Ramon's teacher later told me Ramon has checked
Hugo Cabret out of the library over and over again. He was so proud to be sitting in the middle school library reading, instead of in the lower school library. "I like the books here," he said. You go, Ramon.
First and second graders get ready to sing the song
Jim wrote that accompanies
One Wide Sky. It was fabulous!
Heading out of the Subic compound and into the city of Olangapo with librarians Angelo Fernandez and Rose Austria.
our jeepney! I sat right up front behind the passenger seat and forked over my fare.
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I didn't think I could go back to Clark. It had made me too sad. In fact, the Philippines was filling me with grief. I spent the weekend at a lovely resort-type place on Subic, all by myself, crying about the poverty I had seen all week long outside the compounds where I lived and worked, railing against the effects of long-term colonialism in the Philippines, grieving for a past I never made peace with, and journaling long into the night.
I was confused by what I didn't understand, and I was exhausted from the work week, from the jet-lag, and from the homesickness. Homesick for my parents who died seven years ago. Homesick for who we all were, for that time in our lives. Heartsick about Clark and wondering how memory and time works on the heart. Homesick for a sense of comfortability and safety in a country with no infrastructure and armed guards at checkpoints and entrances to compounds everywhere.
And yet, even in the midst of the noise and dirt and poverty and pollution of the cities, there was such beauty and amazement -- and a rainforest. It was like whiplash to be here.
I didn't think I could go back to Clark. But as I journeled in my notebook, and as Sunday's quiet, still, beautiful day worked its magic on me, I got some perspective, and on Monday, as Rose Austria, the lower school librarian at Brent Subic, picked me up with driver Jay, I said, "let's go," and we went back to see what we could see.
1 Comments on the homesick weekend, last added: 3/23/2011
I am home from the Philippines, where there was little time or adequate internet connection for blogging, but lots of photos were taken. The next few posts will be catch up photos as *I* catch up on sleep, mail, and home tasks.
Angeles City, outside of Clark. I am traveling from Manila to Subic Bay, having worked at Brent's Manila campus all week, and now traveling to the Subic campus, three hours away, where I'll have the weekend off and start teaching again on Tuesday morning. Clark was an hour from Subic, and Brent's driver Roy was kind enough to take me there on the way.
When I rolled down my window to take a photo in Angeles City, a small child ran to my car with her hand outstretched.
There is no longer an American presence at Clark, as the Air Force left in 1991 after the Mount Pinatubo eruption covered Clark in volcanic ash (and a typhoon made matters worse), and the Philippine government refused to renew the American contracts for an air force base at Clark and a naval base at Subic Bay.
Clark was a ghost town for close to a decade after Pinatubo. Today the Philippine Air Force occupies part of Clark, some commercial flights fly into and out of Clark, and Filipino businesses have taken over some of the structures. The Clark Development Corporation is working on redeveloping Clark. People have moved into the more desireable empty barracks and houses.
At one time, Clark Air Base was the most urbanized overseas military base in the world. I lived there from 1970 to 1971 and graduated high school at Wagner High on Clark. The building below was part of a complex that housed the base commander and administrative offices. It is now home to the Clark Development Corporation. So much of Clark was covered with ash for so long...
In the past two weeks, I've worked with teachers at Harding University, and I've hung out with the 7th-grade girls at Heritage School in Newnan, Georgia, talking about Countdown. I've had lunch with Ralph Abernathy III and my friend Jane, and I have photos from all these fabulous moments.
But I've not been able to concentrate on much else this past week but the trip to the Philippines that I'm about to begin. I'm checked in. I fly to Detroit in an hour. Then on to Japan. Then to Manila. It will take me the better part of 24 hours, and I've brought:
My novel. Enough said.
My knitting. Enough for three hats, two washcloths, and a few odds and ends.
Five audio books on my Zune:
--
Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
--
Charles & Emma by Deborah Heiligman
--
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
--
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
--
The Secret Pleasures of Menopause by Christiane Northrup
(See how secure I am in my own self that I can even mention the last title? I saw that book at my library's website and said out loud, "Please, God, let there be some." hahahahaha!)
-- A movie rented from Netflix: Get Low with Robert Duvall and Bill Murray.
-- Tylenol PM and two Nyquil (a friend's recommendation, not to be taken together, of course).
-- A Bucky pillow -- neck pillow filled with buckwheat. A new purchase.
Do you think I'm ready?
It's not just the international flight that's had me pre-occupied. It's the fact that, the last time I flew internationally away from this country, I flew to.... the Philippines.
I looked like this, that year.
I don't look like that anymore.
Forty years later, I'm returning to the Philippines. I will work in Manila and at Subic Bay for two weeks, at Brent American School. On the weekend, I'm going back to Clark Air Base. To Wagner High School. I'm going back in time.
Just like I did with
Countdown, I'm revisiting my past with an eye toward a story. That's not the only reason, of course, but it's always one reason, for me. I'm going back into the eye of the story, to find out who I was in 1971, to discover what happened to that girl, that year, what happened after that, and to fig
By:
Claudette Young,
on 2/28/2011
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Like many people on Sunday, I spent a quiet day yesterday. Part was spent in study, part in worship, and part in socializing. During each of those activities came reflection.
I doubt if writers ever truly stop writing since so much of the outside world gets rolled into potential material use. Yesterday was no exception to that unwritten rule.
For those who haven’t spent time with an official manual for Microsoft Office 2010, take the time to do it. I began my in-depth study of it yesterday and came away astounded at the possibilities for my future work. Does that mean that I haven’t been using Office 2010?
Nope. I’ve used it for nearly a year now—as a simple point and shoot word processor that allowed me to put words on-screen, add and delete, and create unsophisticated raw formatting that could maybe impress the local insect zoo. I had no clue that the whole package could do so much.
Why? You ask. Simple. The software comes without a manual.
Anyone who’s bought software or downloaded any in the past few years knows that the only option for major understanding of it is to go online and read the tutorials, etc. for that particular program or pay to take a class. Only then do you get the overall picture of uses, functions, and potential support needs.
I happened, by chance, to find my small manual in Borders not long after I had purchased Office 2010. I wasn’t happy about having to buy any support books for it. I felt that given the price of the software, it should come with an actual manual.
Extra time is something I didn’t have a lot of at the time and the manual got put aside until later. So when we began this journey of ours, I threw it into my work satchel so that when I found some down time, I could learn the software.
Nice thought, wasn’t it? Actually, yes it was, because when I decided to do more than glance at the manual, I found a world of possibilities I will be exploring for a long while to come.
It was like Christmas.
In fact, all of yesterday had a sprinkling of holiday cheer to it for no specific reason. I went to bed with that satisfied feeling, coupled with anticipation, of having come to a junction in my life. Oh, not because of the software study, although that did give me pause.
The reflection that I’d done had broken loose some unrecognized needs that required fulfillment. That’s when the light bulb when on. That’s also when I knew that my life was taking another turn.
I suppose that sounds a bit out there, but what I rediscovered were neglected layers of me and my own potential. I started asking myself what the manual to my life contained that I’d never paid real attention to. That personal question needed more reflection. As a result, it became a late night.
The odd upshot to this is that my daily life won’t look much different from what it is now—at least for a while. Later that will change, but then all things do given time.
In many ways this trip of ours has rewritten my life in profound elemental ways that others can’t see. The mundane chores and tasks of my life remain as always. What has changed is the underlying processor that’s become supercharged to travel on unexpected highways of life.
I don’t know how all the facets came together yesterday to elicit my personal epiphany. In the end it doesn’t matter. Irony does manage to enter the picture. I began my day trying to understand Word. I finished reading The Word. In between those two activities my life shifted. That’s quite a bit to expect of a Sunday, don’t you think?
Until later, folks, a bientot,
Claudsy
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I've been re-reading Pema Chodron's good book, When Things Fall Apart. One has time to do such things when illness falls and not much else can be done but lie abed and dream about the day, three weeks hence, when the body and mind come together enough to work well again.
I last read this book ten years ago, when my publishing career was just beginning, and my 23-year marriage was ending. My meditation teacher gave it to me. It was too dense for me then, but today it resonates, especially the advice to "lean into the sharp points," to name them with tenderness and loving-kindness. Then, to embrace the not-knowing; to give up control altogether and let concepts and ideals fall apart.
For the past ten years, I have been busy working toward the way a publishing career "ought to be," telling myself that "as soon as I'm home long enough, I can write," and "if I were home more, I'd write more and better," and "I'm really not a teacher; I'm a writer," and generally railing against the travel and time away from home, without fully appreciating the many gifts it has given me.
What has it given me? Well,
for starters: A way to make a living. Good friends. Excellent teaching and speaking practice. It has honed my skills. It has taught me that I am not alone. It has given me stories to tell. It has given me great happiness, yes it has. I can see this when I don't concentrate on the deadlines for the books ahead, therefore what's not working, instead of concentrating on all that does work, and work well.
I have worked hard and I
am a teacher. I do meaningful, useful work in the world -- it's right livelihood. I have made a difference in my own life, doing this teaching and traveling and speaking. I have given myself the gift of a rich, full life of such interesting stories, a wealth of intensely interesting people and places, and amazing teaching experiences.
It's hard to choose just a few photos that encapsulate our last full day in Greenwood. But these will have to do. They ask questions and tell stories, so I will just be quiet, and let them speak.
Just finished a late breakfast in bed and took this photo. Not that I usually eat breakfast in bed, mind you, but Jim Williams is cheerily drilling into a wall in my house and I want to be out of the way. (If you follow that link, you can see a photo of my kitchen, front and center, opening his webpage. He does great work.). I need to pack and get on the road to Mississippi. I'm meeting Marianne at The Varsity. Ha!
But no lunch there. Instead, I'm having my ritual oatmeal and thinking about what lies behind and underneath. Underneath those cooked oats are blueberries and raspberries. Underneath the top bedcovers are many other winter bedcovers -- can you see the layers? That's how we do it around here, layers upon layers, and the heat stays way down at night.
And look at all those drawers and doors -- what's behind them, inside them? These are the sorts of questions on my mind as I turn my thoughts toward Mississippi and this weekend.
I wish I could convey the complexity of writing about 1964 Mississippi. So many folks who know about book two of the Sixties Trilogy ask me, "Have you read
The Help?" and I haven't. I won't, not while I'm working on a story that also takes place in the sixties in Mississippi. My story is for young readers, and they deserve no less than adults do. They deserve a story with as much clarity and truth -- and heart -- as I can muster.
And therein lies the challenge.
Chapter One of Bruce Watson's fine new book
Freedom Summer gives a good overall look at what Freedom Summer was. It's good reading for you, if you want to follow me along on the journey to book two's publication. It's good reading anyway.
I was eleven years old in 1964. I spent time in Mississippi that summer with my kinfolks. I had no idea of the revolution going on around us. I only knew that the pool had closed, and so had the roller skating rink, the Cool Dip, the movie theater, the Pine View Restaurant... and no one could explain to me why.
Thirty-five years later I published a picture book I called
Freedom Summer, about the summer I was eleven. Now, I'm writing a novel about (as Bruce Watson puts it) "The Savage Season that made Mississippi Burn and made America a Democracy."
There is so much nuance. There are so many layers, just like you see on my winter-made bed. There is so much love, anger, truth, ugliness, beauty, differing opinion, behind every obvious doorway. Just what WAS Freedom Summer?
The stories are not simple. Mindsets are misunderstood. Motivations were not always pure... or evil. And my heroine, Sunny, is plopped right down into the middle of the mess, in Greenwood, the headquarters of SNCC in 1964, where she must make decisions that will change her life and forever alter her history. Will she do it?
I can't write her story without understanding, from as many valid angles as possible, the mamy layers of Freedom Summer. So off I go again,
to Gre
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I forgot to add, I also got the chance to meet up with a Korean librarian while I was in Korea. It’s always so much fun to listen to different perspectives and learn about how children’s literature and librarianship works in another country, and Korea’s system (all librarians are employed by the federal government, for example, if I understood her right) was fascinating to hear about.