Author: beckylevine

Becky Levine is a children's book writer, working hard to strengthen her picture-books skills. She is the author of The Writing & Critique Group Survival Guide, a book to help you get started with a critique group, learn to revise from a critique, and strengthen your own critiquing powers. She has also published two nonfiction children's books with Capstone Press. She is currently seeking representation. Becky lives in California's Santa Cruz mountains, where she spends a lot of time sitting on the couch, knitting needles in hand, thinking through the next revision. At her day job, she writes grants for a nonprofit healthcare organization.
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Reading with Baby Bookworm: An Interview with Jen Robinson

Posted on by beckylevine

Years ago, when I first started reading blogs, one of the first I discovered (and, yes, I probably did yell “Eureka!”) was Jen Robinson’s Book Page. I have used Jen’s reviews for years now, to suggest books to my son and to add to my own reading list. Jen  is so much about the things I love–reading kidlit as an adult, by choice, and getting new kids to fall in love with books for life.  Since starting her blog, Jen has taken on many roles. She is an advisor to the  Foundation for the Santa Clara City Library and Literary Evangelist for the Cybils awards. She also maintains the Children’s Book Review wiki.

I know I’m not the only person in Jen’s virtual circle who cheered when I found out she was going to have a baby. That was just so…right, the knowledge that a very lucky baby was going to come into the world, a baby that would be surrounded by love and books and the best combination of both. When Baby Bookworm (who we’ll call BB for the rest of the post!) was born early, I think we all held our breath, and then we cheered again when she came home–even more loudly this time.

I love reading Jen’s Facebook posts. Yes, all of them, including the links to new reviews and to important literacy articles. But the posts about BB and books–well, those just make me smile. A lot. And I thought it would be fun to interview Jen about their reading–about how Jen’s reading has changed since BB came into her life and about BB’s own reading–with Mom and by herself. Luckily, Jen thought it would be fun to do the interview.

And I know you’ll have fun reading it!

*                                                                    *                                                                *

BL: If I’m remembering right, Baby Bookworm (BB) was born early, and I think she spent some time in the hospital before coming home. I’m guessing you were reading to her there. Do you remember the first book you read to her and why you chose it?

JR: The first book that we read to her was One Night in the Zoo by Judith Kerr. That was a book that we had read to her in utero, and it was on top of the stack when my husband went home to pick up some books (we didn’t have a lot of time for planning). One Night in the Zoo is a lovely, soothing read-aloud, and I was pleased with it as our first book. I still know it by heart.

BL: In general, were the first books you read to BB picture books? If not, what age/genre did you start her on?

JR: While she was in the NICU, I actually started reading her The Secret Garden by Frances Hodsgon Burnett. It was easier to hold than the picture books, and easier to just stick with one book over longer periods of time than to have to switch. I figured that the important thing was that she hear the sound of me reading. She wasn’t really able to look at pictures at that point anyway, though we did read her some picture books in the hospital. After she came home I read her a mix of picture books, board books, poetry, and chapter books. We read the first Harry Potter book and the first Penderwicks book before she became too restless to sit still for books that didn’t have pictures.

BL: I know your reading habits/patterns had to change tremendously once BB was born. What would you say were the biggest changes between the year before her birth and the year after?

JR: Well, quantity, obviously. I just had nowhere near the time for reading that I used to have. In 2009 I read 167 books (not counting picture books). In 2010 (she was born in April), I read 67. I’m pleased to report that for 2012 I was back up to 134. In general, I read a lot more picture books now than I used to. And I’ve gotten better at squeezing in reading time.

BL: I know from your Facebook posts that BB definitely spends time on her own with books. Is there a difference between the books you and she read together and the ones she reads to herself? Do you think her self-reading times are mostly when you’re not available, or do you see her choosing times to read by herself and times she wants you to share a book with her?

JR: She’ll tend to pick books with which she is very familiar to “read” on her own. And she’ll say the words that she knows aloud as she does so. She also favors wordless books for this activity. I’ve seen her sit down with Good Night, Gorilla, and all I’ll hear is the “Goodnight, goodnight, etc.” on the page where the animals all say goodnight to the keeper’s wife. She will choose self-reading sometimes even when I’m available. She’ll just say “I’m going to read in my Little Corner,” and off she’ll go. I justify the time that I spend reading in front her as “modeling reading,” and it does seem to work  She’ll also pick up chapter books sometimes, and pretend to read those, which is always entertaining.

BL: How do you set up your day (or week!) so that you have your own reading time, with just you and the book you want to lose yourself in?

JR: I nearly always read in bed for at least a little bit before I go to sleep. I also use audiobooks to squeeze in reading time while I’m flossing, cooking, etc. (though I can only do that when BB is not around). Lately when my husband reads to BB before bed, I’ll sit with them and read my book. But the days of reading for long stretches of time, and losing myself in books, are pretty much on hiatus, except for special occasions. Sigh!

BL: I just read your post on the Mercer Mayer books, and I love the honesty of these lines: “I must admit, these books are not my favorites. But I must also admit that Baby Bookworm, at nearly three years old, adores them. How often does this happen, that BB likes/loves a book that just doesn’t get you? Have you discovered the magic trick of balancing between letting your child pick their reading and making sure you get to read what you want?

JR: Well, at this age a big part of the trick involves selecting the books in the first place. When books come into the house, I usually screen them first, and Baby Bookworm never sees the ones that I don’t think I could stand reading over and over again. There are also certain locations where the books that we read most frequently live, and I can sneak books into or out of those locations. But she always has veto power, too, and she’s not shy about using it. She’ll say that a book is “too long,” or “maybe for when I’m older,” and cast them aside without a backward glance. In truth, though, as with the Mercer Mayer books, if there are books that she loves, I’m so happy to hear her seek them out that I tend to have a pretty high tolerance. She has certainly expanded my perspective.

BL: Do you do any reading with BB on an e-reader? Does she spend time reading books on an e-reader herself? If yes, do you see any difference between sharing print books and e-books with her? Do you see any difference in how she responds to the differences?  If no, are you choosing for her not to read electronically yet, and would you share your reasons?

JR: I do allow BB a certain amount of time interacting with apps on the iPad. Some of the apps that she has are book-based, like The Monster at the End of this Book. But I still view them as a different sort of activity than reading books, and I prefer for her to read print books. I have purchased or borrowed a few Kindle books for trips, but haven’t found that they capture her interest. I think that she’s come to expect a high degree of interactivity to the apps that she uses, and to just look at a non-interactive book on a device doesn’t do much for her. She is fascinated by my Kindle Paperwhite, though. She doesn’t want to use it herself, but she will pick up other objects, and tell me that they are her “Kindle Book.” I’m always careful when I’m using the Kindle to tell her that it’s a special book, and that I’m reading it, because I don’t want to undercut that whole “modeling reading” idea.

BL: With all your research about and advocacy of literacy, have there been any surprises for you about reading with a child/raising a reader, since BB was born? What were those? What has BB taught you about reading?

JR: I don’t know that I would call it a surprise, exactly, but I think that BB has taught me to expand my perspective. There are books that show up at our house now that I would never have given a second glance when I was just an adult reviewing children’s books. But I appreciate them now. For instance, I was thrilled to see Big Girl Panties by Fran Manushkin arrive on the doorstep, because I knew that she would love it. Also not a surprise, but something that I love, is how often we make connections between books and our daily life. We are constantly referring in daily life to things that happened in books, and we love when we’re reading a book, and can relate it to something that we’ve done recently. I’ve seen literacy advice to work to build on those connections, but I had no idea how much fun it would be.

BL: If you got to share (only) three of the best read-aloud books that you’ve discovered since BB was born, what would those be? Would BB choose the same ones and, if not, which would she choose?

JR: Such an impossible question. There are so many books that we enjoy. But three of my favorites for reading aloud are: Good night, laila tov by Laurel Snyder, All the World by Liz Garton Scanlon, and Little Fur Family by Margaret Wise Brown. BB would probably choose those first two, and then she would try to sneak all three Knuffle Bunny books in as her third choice. Because she is always trying to get some extra books in.

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Into the Music, Dear Friends…Once Again

Posted on by beckylevine

Yes, I know we all talk about this a lot, but I felt like having just a little fun with it on a blog post today.

The music I listen to when I write is all over the place. For years, I had to put on the same CD to get me into the groove–The McGarrigle Sister’s Metapedia. Then Pandora came along, and I made a McGarrigle station, and all sort of other stuff popped up. I tended to listen to various “angry women singers,” while I was working on the YA–Melissa Etheridge, Alanis Morissette, P!nk, Pat Benatar. For my picture book, I created a House at Pooh Corner CD, but that didn’t really work, so I tend to go more random on that.

For non-writing work, there are days I need to be woken up, so a little Katrina and the Waves sometimes helps, or my wonderful Cyndi Lauper. Maybe some Motown. Then there are days when I need to be settled down and not get distracted by the beat–Van Morrison, The Duhks.

The last couple of days, I’ve actually been sticking in my earbuds at my work desk and listening to, wait for it….my yoga music. Well, okay, it’s the Deuter station–which is a group recommended by one of my Yoga teachers. I’m rather in shock at this, actually, because two years ago, I scorned the thought of yoga music, even for yoga. How we change. I do think it’s a sign of how I’ve been feeling in January–pulled in multiple directions, brain bouncing like a pinball in reaction to stimuli. It seems to be helping me focus, helping me stay quiet. So I’m going with it.

Let’s play a little in the comments. What are you listening to today? Why? And what project is it helping you with?

 

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Writing in Patches

Posted on by beckylevine

2013 seems to have started out full-steam-ahead, on multiple fronts. Husband, son, and I were just talking about how we’re all three particularly busy this month, which not only gives us all our own individual life-balance stress, but leaves each of us reacting to/dealing with the waves of that bouncing off the others onto us. Just a little bit of Tasmanian Devil/caught in the whirlpool feeling. Luckily, most of the busi-ness is from really good stuff, which is helping keep us at some level of sane.

But, boy, am I feeling the consequences of this in my writing. I’m working on the Capstone history book and loving it, but wishing for just a few more days in a row where I could sit down with it and only it, to clean the moss off the stone and really get rolling. I talk all the time about the advantages of sitting down every day with your writing project, but this month has brought home the disadvantages of not doing that.

  • Lots of going back over what I wrote the last time I worked on the book. Just to remember where I’m at and what I’ve got out of the way (for the first draft, anyway).
  • Refreshing myself on the history I’ve already read about.
  • Taking another read through a few paragraphs of the sample book I’ve got, to remind myself about the content and writing level.
  • Stepping back out of today into the past.
  • Reorienting on the kid audience and the voice I want to use for them.
  • Getting over the first hump of putting words on the page.

I know. Really a no-brainer. Any of you could have told me it’d be like this. Any of you could have scolded me to put in those 30 minutes in the evening, so this wouldn’t happen. Yes, sure, I could have/should have told myself all that. And I have. But…

Today, the goal is to get that ball rolling again, over the first bumps where the hill still feels level, or even a little uphill, and get it past the crest and heading down, at some speed. Or, just to load you up with another  metaphor, it’s time to turn that massively heavy, sticky, never-been-opened-in-the-reign-of-this-king valve and open the dam and let the water  words come gushing forth. And then reward myself this evening with a lovely Restorative Yoga class at which I will try not to doze off during the guided meditation.

Here’s to a happy, productive writing week for us all.

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Where (If Anywhere) Does Reading Fit into Meditation

Posted on by beckylevine

This post is really a question. Maybe it’s the writers I’ve been connecting with over the past few years, but a lot of us seem to be getting interested in meditation in some form or another. That form, for me, tends to be a mix of wishful thinking, intimidation, and impatience. In other words, I’ve tried it a few times and gotten discouraged by how hard it is to sit in stillness–body and mind. Yes, I know that’s not giving it a fair shot, and I have goals to do better, even if they’re not goals I’m actively working toward. I do manage to get to some kind of meditation/quiet while I’m in a yoga class–I think because my mind gets to think just a tiny bit about what my body’s doing, gets to stay just busy enough that the other thoughts go away and some quiet can ease in. My next step is to get myself to show up to the Sunday morning meditation class they offer at my yoga studio. It’s not too early, so I think I might actually make it there.

Anyway, back to the question: Does reading have a place in meditation or, if not in the specific activity, in the shared goal of quieting the brain. For decades, I have used reading as an escape–not necessarily from any specific problems that might be going on in my life, but from the general business/anxiety that comes with that life. (And I’m pretty sure this is true for a lot of us!) If I have a bad bout of insomnia, I’ll drag myself out of bed and take a book into a hot bath. My recharge routine on a weekend is essentially to plant myself on the couch for several hours with a book (or two!) and just go away. This year, with going back to work part-time, I’m trying to get myself up a half hour early, so I can sit with a cup of tea and a book before the day starts.

readingyoga

Basically, books have always done for me what I think meditation does for people who manage to actively and successfully practice it. It quiets my brain. It settles me down. It replaces the to-dos and what-ifs that can get to circling around in my brain like a whirlpool, replaces them with a story and characters that draw me into another place, a place where my own plans don’t follow. I found this year that if I don’t give myself this time in the mornings, I basically shoot straight from morning wake-up plans to all-day work tasks with no transition, and–honestly–the work tasks are just so much harder to focus on. The quiet spot lets me put the first set of thoughts away and move calmly into the work of the day.

BUT…I’m sure this is why other people get up early to, you know, actually meditate. Without the book. Without the replacement of one story (mine) with another (the author’s).  I am not emptying my brain when I read, I’m filling up all the space with something calming, yes, but something external. I’ pretty sure this isn’t actually the point of meditation, or the process.

Obviously, I’m not giving up the books.

rofl

And I am going to keep trying to bring/thinking about bringing some more meditative meditation into my life. BUT I am wondering whether this kind of mind-resting, if not mind-opening, doesn’t fall somewhere on the spectrum of meditation’s purpose. Not just for readers, but for true meditation practitioners.

Thoughts?!

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Brave or Not Brave? AKA There’s No Light in the Story

Posted on by beckylevine

Last week, I had a bit of insomnia. I get it periodically, nothing horrible, but where I just lay in bed not sleeping. I may have been exhausted two minutes before, but once my head hits the pillow, the sleepiness disappears (not the tiredness, drat!), and the thoughts & worries come in. Like I said, this bout wasn’t bad. I wasn’t all stressed, or tossing and turning, but just…awake. And thinking.

And I ended up thinking about my WIP.

I wasn’t sure if/when I would post about this. But as usual, I got the nudge I needed from “out there,” or in this case, from Jeannine Atkins, who blogged earlier today about her very special kind of bravery–speaking out. Read the whole beautiful post for yourself, but here’s what got me today:

I was scared to post my new year’s theme of loudness, to risk stating that I want something that I might not be able to achieve. I don’t want to jinx even luck I don’t entirely believe in, don’t want to annoy any listening spirits, who might mock me for sounding greedy. It’s embarrassing to display hopes and make them look big and fabulous and like we mean it.

Yeah. I know. This hit me right over the head, because–yes, I know what I want to do this year. I knew that night, with the insomnia, and it’s only been confirmed in the past few days by the emotions I’ve been feeling about the decision and the pull I’ve been experiencing back toward my writing, a pull that’s been gone for a while. But I wasn’t going to blog about it. Because, what if I’m wrong. What if I look foolish? What if I sound like a rank amateur? What if I’m actually not being brave, but am giving up? Quitting? Wimping out? I’m not afraid of the choice or the change–okay, yes, I am afraid of it, but I’m also excited and relieved and dancing just a little bit. What I was/am really afraid of is stating the new step out loud. Here. In public.

But I’m gonna.

I’m putting the YA Historical  novel (YAH) in a drawer. I have been working on this book for over two years now. I have written a full draft and a half and plotted the thing pretty fully twice. I have changed stories and tried to change characters and tried to play with voice. I have done GOBS of research about people and events I find fascinating and admirable and awe-inspiring. But what I’ve been denying to myself for quite a long time, and what I finally faced up to last night, is in the title of this blog. There is no light in this story for me.

I’m not really talking about the light of hope for the character or the lightness of a humor thread, although both of those are missing, too. I’m talking about the spark of light that, for me, creates the pleasure in the writing, creates the reason for opening the file and doing all that struggling to get things down and get things right. It’s really a spark of love for something that I’m putting on the page. And I can’t find that anywhere in the YAH. When I think about working on this book, I see the story that I thought to tell, and I know it’s a good one. I see the character I imagined, and she is powerful and strong and active. Both the story and that character disappear when I sit down to write about them.

I lay there that night and asked, am I just not trying hard enough. Let me quote Charlie Brown for a minute: AAAAARGH! Yeah, sure, very possibly, I’m not trying hard enough. I’m not sure how I would try harder, though, and the thought of it just makes me feel even more trapped by this book than I already do. Is it just that I’ve taken on more things this year, and a book of this size seems insurmountable? Sure, that’s part of it. Am I not good enough yet to write a historical novel? I sure as heck wouldn’t take odds against that thought. Is YA the wrong age-genre for me? I’m starting to wonder if…yeah? But, honestly, it comes down to the light. Because I believe that, if the light were there, none of those things would matter.

That night, I compared how I’ve been feeling about this book with how I feel about other ones I’ve written or am writing. The books I’ve finished: The middle-grade mystery, my first picture book, and the new Hounds book from Capstone? Oh, yeah, they have the light. Okay, sure, but they’re finished. So of course I love them, right? Well, two are finished but not published, and while they’re getting nice responses, they haven’t been snatched up. I still love them, though, with that feeling that is completely heart-based and absolutely non-cerebral. And how about the other books that aren’t finished, that still need a lot of work before they’re even close to done. Three picture books from last year’s PiBoIdMo that need plenty of revision, and one idea from this year that I still need to draft. Light? Oh, yeah. But every time I pick one up, I feel guilty about spending time with it instead of the YA Historical. Guilt?! SO not an emotion I need to mix in with my writing!

I thought of Debbi Michiko Florence’s YOW (Year of Writing), and I thought, what if I were to give myself a YOWF (Year of Writing Freedom)? What would that be like? And a picture of four brightly colored file folders popped into my mind, laying invitingly on  my desk, ready for me to pick up whichever one I wanted to, on any given day. I pictured my filing cabinet, too, with some ideas that I’ve stashed there over the past two years. One title joined the colored folders on my desk. The boy in it had a name and some problem that was rushing toward him, some problem for which he’d developed a coping mechanism that was causing…problems. An irritating sidekick joined him, and she told me her name. At that point, I got out of bed and dug out a new notebook, because her name was too perfect to risk forgetting. And suddenly I realized that YOWF, for me, was not just about being free to explore these projects, but it was even more the idea of being free from the YA Historical.

Am I actually being brave to make this change, to start going for what I really want? Or am I just being distracted by the sparkle of something bright & shiny? Is this the right choice? Well, if you’re asking me about the future, I have no idea. It’s very possible I’ll get to the end of this year and feel just as miserably unproductive and wrong-pathed as I’ve been feeling up ’til now. But the idea of working on the YAH for another twelve months, on the assumption/hope that it’s the right future decision just feels so completely wrong for my now. I know I haven’t been hating it this whole time I’ve been working on it, but I think if I try to work on it now–tomorrow or next week–I will hate it. So I’m tucking it away

So what WILL I be writing this year? Well, maybe this new idea. Maybe the pb revisions. Maybe something from another file. Maybe something that I haven’t thought of yet. But I am going back to freedom, to writing for the love of what I’m working on. This year, I’m writing for the light.

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Friday Five + One: HOUNDS: LOYAL HUNTING COMPANIONS

Posted on by beckylevine

When I came home from work the other day, there was a box on the table. That’s not unusual–I do plenty of online shopping, and there’s often a box on the table. It took me a minute, though, to realize where this one had come from. Then I pretty much ripped it open.

Ta Da!

houndsbookbox

I really loved writing this book, and not just because it was my first chance to put my name on the cover of some children’s nonfiction. Okay, on the cover of a CHILDREN’S BOOK (!!!!!), period. The research and the writing was lots of fun. So much fun, I can probably come up with, oh….FIVE reasons.

1. Talking to dog people. They’re different from cat people, you know. And, as much as I love my cat and all the cats I’ve had over the years, there’s a piece of me that is…doggy. I really do love meeting a dog on the street and stopping to say hello and chat for a minute. And I am talking about chatting with the dog, not just the dog’s owner. You know, if you try to have an active conversation with a cat, yeah, well…they’re not all that excited by the concept. Have you fed me? Are you offering a lap? I’ll be with you as soon as I finish staring into the corner to weird you out. Yes, they’re always good for a snuggle or a rub-against-the-leg on passing. But the level of greeting a dog will give you is just on another plane. Especially if they’re a smart dog and a nice dog and they know you’re a smart and nice person who’s not threatening their owner in any way. For research, I got to talk to several breed specialists and breeders. Very cool people who love their dogs, who get their dogs, and who were incredibly generous with their time and knowledge.

2. Figuring out the cool facts about dogs in general, hounds specifically, and different breeds of hound even more specifically–the cool facts that the kids reading the book would love. Things like the difference between how a scent hound and a sight hound will go after a rabbit. Like how high you really do have to build your fence to keep your hound from jumping it. Like how to pick your puppy out of a litter.

3. Sorting and sifting. Honestly, this is the best part, for me, about writing nonfiction for kids. You research and read and interview, and you gather simply oodles of information. For a 32-page book. Oodles. 32 pages. Then you pick the big concepts, the important topics, to share. Then you filtering out all the stuff you can’t write about and write tightly about the stuff you can. In an engaging voice. Engaging to the kids and engaging to you, as the author. It’s a persona, I think, different from the one in me who speaks out loud, different from the one who writes novels and picture books, different from the one who sits in my office at work. I think it’s probably the closest to a teacher persona I will ever have, and–happy days–it comes without lesson-planning  or classroom structure or essay grading (all of which I am in AWE of teachers for; none of which I’m any good at).

4. Working with Capstone. This part of the job was a joy from start to finish–from the first call from the acquisitions editor asking if I’d like the job (Hello?! Why, yes, I think SO!) to the submission and revision passes, to the emails back & forth about logistics and “tricky spots.” I am so lucky to have made this connection and have this opportunity.

5. Getting to say things like, “My book’s coming out in February.” ” Aren’t the dogs in my book adorable?” “Did you know that a hound can…? Oh, sure. I wrote about it in my book.” Honestly, I do try not to say these things too often or too loud, but you can bet I mutter them quietly around the house when I need a pick-up. It is just an awesome feeling. Like a little extra jolt of caffeine, or perhaps some other more illicit but absolutely risk-free drug. Especially when, as with this book, the work felt so much like not-work.

Now you’re asking, what’s the Plus One? Oh, you know, just that last thing that would have made the experience perfect…

+1. If I’d gotten to actually meet and greet with this guy–whose photo is, I believe, my favorite from the whole book.

nose

Irresistable!

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Maurice Sendak and Jo Knowles: Thoughts

Posted on by beckylevine

Probably a lot of you have already seen and listened to this “illustrated interview” clip from Terry Gross’ Fresh Air interview with Maurice Sendak. If not, go watch it now. Bring tissues.

And probably as many of you have also read Jo Knowles’ lovely post about Sendak’s “Live your life” quote from the interview. If not,,,you got it. Go read it now. More tissues.

Jo says so many things in this post that struck me when I listened to Sendak talking. I, too, thought how different he sounded in this interview than when I’d listened to him years ago. I felt immense happiness for him, for the love and happiness he seemed to have finally settled into, and I felt huge sadness for it, seemingly, having come so late. Overall, the happiness seemed to take the fore, but still I wept at the loss I was hearing–all the people who had gone from his life.  He told Terri, “Live your life. Live your life. Live your life.”

In her post, Jo talks thoughtfully and beautifully about what this means and how we are supposed to do it. She says, with all the honesty & truth she always shares with us, “And yet…What about the days when you aren’t sure you can do it anymore? The days when everything you read or hear feels like it is shoving you deeper into the darkness.”

What about those days?

Or what about the days that aren’t so bad, but we’re just that littlest bit tired of carpeing each diem? The days when what we really want is to retreat from the world, to curl deep into a fleece sleeping bag, with only our nose out to breathe and our eyes out to scan the pages of the book we’ve brought into our retreat? The days when life is right out there, but getting to it means yet another day climbing in and out of a car, driving down yet another series of streets, meeting people’s eyes and nodding as you pass? What about the days when your goals are standing in front of you, waving penants, shouting, “You said you wanted to achieve us! You said we were important to you! You said you were making us a priority.”?

What about those days?

Obviously, it’s a balance. We can only output so much before we have to take some deep, restful breaths to recharge. Push, push, push, and you’ll push yourself right over the edge and crash at the bottom of the cliff. We know this logically. And, yet…when we do stop for the recharge, isn’t there often that little voice whispering at us to…live our life?

I think part of what Mr. Sendak was talking about that day was love. Love. Making sure you do seize the parts of the day that you can share with those you love, making sure you don’t waste them in bickering or sniping or silent anger. Making sure you look at the light in the sky that particular morning as you make your way to work; making sure you, as Jo says, “Pick up your cat and blow a raspberry on his belly.”

And, I’m guessing, this means extending the same love to ourselves on “those days.” Knowing that they are part of living life, even if most of us would pick a different gift from the Lucky Dip if we had our choice.  Spending time in that bickering or sniping or silent anger with ourselves about it…well, yeah, that just doesn’t help.

Here’s to all the wisdom Mr. Sendak left us with–his beautiful books; his words to Terri; and, yes, his intelligent, incisive, sarcastic crankiness. And here’s to Jo, for once again opening her heart to us, letting us all in, and giving us a way to talk about it.

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The Devil’s Not in the Details. The Delight’s in the Details.

Posted on by beckylevine

I dare you: Try saying that blog-post title ten times fast.

Anyhoo…

I just finished reading Elissa Brent Weissman’s Nerd Camp. If I hadn’t seen that the book was a finalist in the Middle-Grade category of the Cybils awards, I might not have picked it up. The premise of (another) kid feeling guilty and embarrassed about his geeky/nerdy pleasures didn’t pull at me. But I SO trust the Cybils judges. I put in on my Please-Give-Me-Some-of-These-Ebooks-for-Xmas list and, voila, it was waiting for me my inbox Xmas morning.

The premise still isn’t what makes the book, for me, anyway. Gabe is getting a new step-brother, and the boys get along great at their first meeting, except that Zack is pretty much a downer on school, reading, math teams–all the things that make Gabe’s life happy. And this meeting is just before Gabe takes off for six weeks of sleep-away camp–Gifted Camp. Or Geek Camp. Depending on your perspective. Gabe’s debate about keeping his geekdom secret or potentially risking his friendship with this new step-bro isn’t, as I said, all that new. What makes the book so fun, in my opinion, is all the details Weissman chooses to show us the humor, fun, excitement, and sheer happiness of geekitude. Little things, like, just before Gabe’s big lake adventure (that’s as much as you’re getting–no spoilers!), his timid bunkmate gives him “an article from National Geographic Kids about what causes rapids, which was informative.” Because, you know, there are so many rapids in a lake. But the detail fits perfectly with the “Just in Case” personality of this bunkmate. And note that Gabe sees it as “informative,” not necessarily helpful. That’s not a negative, for Gabe and his friends; they’re just assigning the article a different value. Happily.

Gabe starts a chart of things he can tell Zack in a letter–the things that make the camp seem cool–with another column of the things he can’t tell Zack without revealing the true nerdosity of the events/activities. Again, this could have been a chart that didn’t get me–it could have been trite, cliché, already done. Why was it so very much not that? Because Weissman does such a beautiful job of summarizing, precis-ing, nailing the details of the chapters we’ve just read and putting them into Gabe’s chart notes. Every time, in every column, she picks the perfect detail to make the event sound exciting, adventurous and so rockingly awesome that Zack will be seething with jealousy. And then in the next column she details the geek factor that, if Gabe were to share it with Zack, would yank the coolness mask right off.

I had a fun time reading the book, with lots of laughs and lots of “Oh, yeahs.” I also really loved Gabe and his friends, all the campers, because the stuff they were doing was so cool, but mostly because of the sheer fun and laughter they got out of doing it. I wanted to be involved in pretty much everything. Okay, maybe not  memorizing all those digits of Pi. But the Breaking of Color Wars?! You bet! (No, I’m not telling you about that? Go read the book!)

After I finish this post, I’ll be sitting down to shuffle through the sections of my Capstone history book, look at my notes, think about the info I’ve gleaned, and…yeah. Pick the details. The details that will show what was going on way back when, that will highlight events in an action in a way that will catch both my young readers and me. (If I don’t engage, believe me–the kids reading the book won’t either.) And I have to share those details in a way that, like Weissman’s writing, gets some kind of emotional reaction out of my readers. That reaction may not be laughter, but it better be something–interest, intrigue, curiosity, an eye-opening Really?!

Delight.

How about a little Share-and-Tell in the comments. What book can you think of, that you’ve read in the past few years, that had serious power in the details. A book in which the author picked and chose beautifully. A book you still remember, because of those details. The list will be more fodder for our 2013 reading lists!

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The New Year’s Post

Posted on by beckylevine

I’ve probably mentioned here before that I don’t like New Year’s Resolutions. They reek of deadlines and pressure and a life that is actually controllable(which implies one that I should be controlling!). They make me feel like this:

headinclamp

So, those resolutions, I usually avoid them. And I’m not making any this year.

Except…

Well, except that this year there is something I want to accomplish. It’s one of those goals that I keep coming back to, reminding myself about, and that I often manage for a while. This year, I’d like to manage it for longer than a while. I’m thinking of something like Debbi Michiko Florence’s Year of Writing (YOW) or Gail Gauthier’s Time Management Tuesdays. It’s not that I want to blog about this all year, but I would like to be able to make and stick to the commitment. The commitment of showing up.

Kelly R. Fineman got me thinking about all this (again) in her series on Writing Avoidance (start with the entry on December 21st). She talked about a lot of things that resonate with me–writing less when life is happily busy, writing less when you’re questioning the long-term success or value of the words you’re putting on paper, writing less when there are so many distractions that are easy to turn to and relatively easy to accomplish. I’m not sure if she mentioned this, but it’s a new one for me, so I’ll include it: writing less when you have multiple projects you could be sitting down with but feel split over them. In other words, there are days when the minutes I put into a project feel as though all they’re doing is pushing the completion of another project further down the timeline.

The other thing that’s going on for me, right now, that I need to do something about, is that–in going back to work–I’ve developed a different relationship with my computer(s). I know, silly, but true. In the pretty-much-just-writing days, I had a desktop and laptop, and the primary work I did on both of them was my writing. That was even more true of my laptop, because I kept all my bill-paying and other life-stuff on the desktop. These days, my laptop has become my work computer–it goes back and forth with me to the museums, all my work emails are on it, and it’s kind of an auto-pilot reaction for me to open it up and go right to the Museums folder of work. So, you say, why haven’t I reclaimed the Desktop as my writing machine? Yes, why? Is it because at the end of a working day, I don’t feel like turning on the computer again? Probably. Is it because I’m tending to clean up the rest of the house to my office desk, so it’s cluttered and disorganized and doesn’t feel like creative space? Yes.

But, bottom-line, whatever is making me avoid the writing is–go figure–adding up to less time writing. Wow, who knew I could be so good at something?

Does that make me happy? No. Do I want to do something about it, this year? Yes.

So, this is NOT a resolution, but hopefully it’s a commitment. In two parts.

Part 1. Show up for my writing. As much as life has changed in the past year, with going back to work, I do still have writing time. It’s there. It’s available. I want to start using it much, much more than I have. This will probably mean figuring out some way to deal with the computer/writing space issue, some way that I don’t leave till the last-minute. All that does is give me more obstacles when the writing time shows up–now I have to clean up my desk first. Now I have to put things in folders so I can grab the project. Now I have to get in the mood to go with the writing time. Meh. I’m honestly not sure what that fix will be, although–from writing things out here–I’m suspecting it has to do with switching computers for tasks. It may be time to take ALL the museum stuff OFF the desktop and reclaim it for its own gig.

Part 2. The blog. I have been gone. I miss it, and I miss reading & commenting on other people’s blogs. But mostly I miss the freedom of the writing that I get here. My blog started out being for me, with a little extra layer of “Nice!” when someone else out there likes & comments on what I’ve written. For some reason, over the past year or two, it’s turned more into a have to, more into a for-an-audience kind of thing. I have enough of that kind of writing in my life. I can’t do what Kelly’s shooting for–daily blogging, this I know. But the commitment I want to make is to at least once-a-week blogging. I’m saying it here, hoping it sticks: If I haven’t blogged by Friday, I will put up a Friday post. And while there are days when a Friday Five feels just right, I’m going to work very hard not to fall back on it every week. Will my posts be about writing? Will they be rambly? Will they be about these commitments? Don’t know. Can’t tell for sure. Just staying that, yes, they’ll be here.

So, yeah, sort of a couple of resolutions. Can we just not call them that, though? Cause, you know, this:

hourglass

What are you resolving or not-resolving this year? Whatever it is, I wish you all the best with it!

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Getting Back to Sane Eating…REALLY?

Posted on by beckylevine

I’ve been inspired by Kelly Fineman’s writing-avoidance series (start here) to get back to my blog in some form or another. I’ll think more clearly about it in a New Years’ post, but for now, here’s a quick post on the treasure trove that is my kitchen today. My parents visited for four days during which we all relaxed, talked, read, knitted and, oh, yeah…ate. I think I cooked more in the past few days than I did the whole month before. Possibly ate more, too. Luckily, everything worked, with lots of help from my Mom.  And everybody seemed to enjoy the food. Seconds were served. Sometimes, thirds. Still, we have leftovers. Oh, do we have leftovers. Here’s what you would find if you stopped by my house and took a look around the counters, peeked into my fridge.

  • Ham
  • Chicken
  • French-Canadian meat pie, with your choice of gluten-free and regular crust)
  • Cold cuts
  • Praline sweet potatoes
  • Bacon
  • Sausage
  • Lemon Bread, Hobo Bread, Gluten-free scones
  • Gingerbread cake
  • Cheesecake (homemade, courtesy of my son)
  • Spekulatius cookies (homemade, courtesy of my mom)
  • Peppermint Joe-Joes
  • Chips
  • Smoked salmon (homemade, courtesy of my brother-in-law)
  • Hersheys kisses
  • Peanut butter cups
  • Licorice
  • Root beer, Ginger beer, Pomegranate Izzies, Raspberry Juice Squeezes, Italian Grapefruit soda
  • Green beans and peas (I suppose SOMEBODY might eat those)
  • Salad (Oh, yeah, at the top of MY list for snacks!)

And all I can think is, I’m supposed to start eating LESS today?

What’s calling to you from your fridge, that you didn’t get enough of in the past few days?