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Hi, folks!  Whew, it rained buckets this week. I will have to mow my yard soon. This month I've been writing about what waters my work. I've chatted about longing, forgiveness and simple moments; all water my creative ground. Now, I'm going to talk about something that waters me like nothing else, and that is mentoring.  Be the rain.

I received an email this week that just poured more buckets of water into me than any flood. It was from one of the kids I mentored in my teen writing program last year. The program is called TEENSPublish at the Ringer Library in College Station, TX. (Follow the link for the deets) She thanked me for my efforts to help her become a writer and wanted to know if mayhem was going to happen again this year. She planned to tell ALL her friends.

I said, "Of course, mayhem is happening!"

In June, I will be putting on TEENSPublish at the Ringer Library in College Station, TX.  (Cost: Free!, 2:30-5:00 on Wednesdays, skip July 6)The program is for 7th-12th graders and is all about helping young writers find their voice and share it with the world. Here is the deal, doing this will help me more.

In a rut? Surround yourself will people that beginning their journey. It will transform your life.

Sometimes we don't understand our situation. We long to grow, but instead, we are stagnating. You are no longer the ground. You have become the clouds. Stagnation is about your unwillingness to share the water within. Wring out all that water on dry ground. Let what you know flow from your heart to others.  So creative folk, if you want to water your work go out there and volunteer. Give something of yourself. Be the rain.

You are welcome.

I will be back next week with one more April Showers, and then a new series starts.  Exciting news, a guest blogger is going to usher in the month of May with Bloom!  Excellent author Alexandria La Faye will be here! If you don't know her already, please check her out!!! www.facebook.com/alafayeauthor
www.alafaye.com, [email protected]

Ah, April! This month my series is going to be "April showers, bring May flowers." I'm going to chat about prewriting. The stuff you got to do to do the stuff.

Something about Ernest Hemingway has always provoked me. He really lived a dynamic life. Not one that I wholly admire, but one that I see was a great breeding ground for vast stories. He, like many artists I've known, was feeling a lot of pain from living -- a sort of live wire sparking and electrocuting, dangerous. To write you must live.

So many writers, famous figures in history to friends I've known, there is this common thread -- they are all so damaged. Now you may be a writer and not be damaged (yet). I honestly don't think you can make it through life without dings, dents, cracks, and breaks. The sooner you embrace that you will have to do this writing from the shattered places with a basket under your arm to help you pick up the pieces, the better. Understand that all this shaping from the winds of time is what is driving your stories.

Let living, the glory and the pain of it, guide you and enrich you. And for those that share my belief in a power greater than the swirling galaxies, the loving heart of the universe, God with us, Emmanuel, the Christ, let that treasure of the divine shape your words just like water carves the valleys, wind shapes mountains, volcanoes raze landscapes, sunshine powers the great storms that traverse the planet and the currents of our oceans. Don't resent the days you do not have time to write, know that these days are probably the most important ones for your creative journey.

Thank you for dropping by. Come back next week for more April showers. Seize the day.

This week's doodle is "Moses looking at the burning bush".

If people bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them. The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good, and the very gentle, and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too, but there will be no special hurry. Ernest Hemingway

In light of the tenth anniversary of the Columbine school shooting and the renewed media attention its raised towards the subsequent epidemic and the multitude of related issues including school safety, gun violence and bullying, we've collected a... Read the rest of this post

Most of us know that bright children frequently read books written for adults, but it’s less commonly recognized that bright adults frequently read books written for children.  (Harry Potter, anyone?)  No matter how old or how young we are, what unites us as readers is that deep feeling of satisfaction that comes with turning the last page and thinking “Now that was a good book.”  

T.H. White’s The Once and Future King, A Wrinkle in Time, Harriet the Spy, and  The Lord of the Rings  are only a few of the books that have been read by adults and children with equal delight, and have been claimed by both groups as favorites.  The element that these books all share are the magic created by a writer who placed highly original characters in a world that was constructed by considering the story, not the age of its readers, nor any underlying didacticism. 

The people we hope to have in our new book group are readers who can sink into a children’s book with pleasure and want to talk about it in a community of like-minded bibliophiles, whether they be eight or eighty, whether they live in Peoria or Phnom Penh.  Our goal is to host an ongoing conversation in which people from all over the world, adults and children, can unite over books that they all love and want to discuss online. 

The books that are featured will fall into the range of readers between the ages of eight and twelve and will be set in countries all around the world.  We hope  that the magic of literature will help to bring together the inhabitants of far-flung continents, in the same way that the book discussions will bring together people of different generations and different cultures. 

This is a book group that exists in whatever timeframe you choose—send your responses  while you’re still in your pajamas,  while you’re eating lunch, or when you should be doing your homework.  Send your comments and respond to other readers whenever you like—it’s that easy.  If you don’t like the book that’s been chosen, let us know.  If it reminds you of others that you’ve read, tell us.  If you don’t like the questions that have been posed about the book, write about the points that are meaningful to you.  Suggest titles for future discussion. Argue, discover a new point of view, chat about books—for many of us there’s nothing better than that.  Opening a book opens a new world to explore, and a good book makes that world a part of its reader forever.  Let’s discover new worlds together through the magic of books.   

Madeleine L'Engle Remembered...

In case you hadn't heard, Madeleine L'Engle, beloved author of the 1963 Newbery winner A Wrinkle in Time and dozens of other tales, died yesterday at the age of 88. Here's a story about her in the New York Times.