




Filed under: journeys, love, snow, stars





























The illustrated adventures of three friends, which will be updated regularly. Go here to read and follow: bearandwhitefox

I haven’t been posting lately – I got unwell last year and have been in hospital a couple of times, but getting stronger day by day – yay!
One of my publishers just asked me to make a bio – she said I could draw it if it was easier…so here’s the result!
Wishing you all a beautiful 2013, full of good bits, sparkly bits, romantic bits, playful bits, fighting-for-those-who-need-someone-in-their-corner bits and tons and tons of giggly bits. Oh, and a huge hug and love too, linda xx



In the mail from Altrincham, England came an unassuming little volume, The Thing in the Gap-Stone Stile. It's Alice Oswald's first book, published in 1996 and now in reprint from Faber and Faber. I take the liberty of posting a complete poem here as a way of making sure as many of us Americans get to know this work. Really there are half a dozen I'd like to post. She's changing my poetry brain, but I need more time to understand why and how.
Bike Ride on a Roman Road
This Roman road — eye’s axis
over the earth’s rococo curve —
is a road’s road to ride in a dream.
I am bound to a star,
my own feet shoving me swiftly.
Everything turns but the North is the same.
Foot Foot, under the neck-high bracken
a little random man, with his head in a bad
controversy of midges,
flickers away singing Damn Damn
and the line he runs is serpentine,
everything happens at sixes and sevens,
the jump and the ditch and the crooked stile . . .
and my two eyes are floating in the fields,
my mouth is on a branch, my hair
is miles behind me making tributaries
and I have had my heart distracted out of me,
my skin is blowing slowly about without me
and now I have no hands and now I have no feet.
This is the road itself
riding a bone bicycle through my head.
~ Alice Oswald
The Thing in the Gap-Stone Stile, 1996
Poetry Friday is at The Family Bookshelf today (I can't link because this site keeps shutting IE down). Happy Mother's Day to all, especially to my own mother, and to my English mother-in-love (no laws pertain to mothers except those of the heart, who celebrates on a whole different day and who sent me this book.
4 STARS This is a picture book written by Michelle Hall with illustrations by Dawn Phillips. It is the story of Frisky and her journey back to her best friend Sassy. Because of a lack of space, Nick’s mother no longer wants a bunch of cats in their apartment. Nick puts the four cats, kittens really, [...]
I am so excited – Jo Williamson, from Antony Harwood Literary Agents, is now my agent! Yippeeee!!



Welcome to all and sundry who may have tripped over here via Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast or, as we like to say in our culture of abbreviation, 7Imp.
When I agreed to the interview I thought "well, it'll be small and quick and a fast read" because, honestly, it's not like I'm M.T. Anderson or Grace Lin or someone like that. I didn't realize I had so much of myself... out there, for all to see. It feels like way. too. much.
The interview is there, the blog is here. Thanks for stopping by. Now, back to the business at hand.
by E. E. Cummings illustrated by Meilo So Liveright/Norton 2004 I have Jules over at 7Imp to thank for pointing me this direction. She mentioned this collection in her review of Catherine Reef’s biography on Cummings and I was intrigued. I had originally skipped the biography because I have a personal relationship with Cummings work that I have tried to preserve -- a preferred ignorance of
Ron ’s amazing picture inspired the poem, “The Journey” which both celebrates the role of the rescuers and the fire-fighters, and highlights the traumatic events they were dealing with moment by moment. The courage and dedication of such unsung heroes is what it means to be ‘my brother’s keeper’! I am so grateful there are people around like this - inspiring wonderful role models for our children in a world which seems to be increasingly full of hatred and violence and selfishness - TO THEM!!!

The Journey, text by J.R.Poulter, art by Ron Chironna
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Tears in my eye!
Absolutely beautiful Linda x
Thanks so much hedwig and Wendy xx
Unfortunately, I cannot read everything (even on the screen of the computer), but I feel the mood and find so exciting this confession in love – “unique au monde!” Its colourful magic is so evident, yet full of secrets…