Yesterday afternoon, Ms. L, M, and H created cool sculptures out of the crazy-big icicles knocked down from the edge of our roof. This one reminds me of a city skyline.

And speaking of cities, this weekend is the SCBWI conference in New York. For those of us not going, here’s a link to the SCBWI blog coverage of the event. Thank you, Alice Pope and team members, for keeping us in the loop. Wish we were there. On the bright side though, more time to play in the snow.

Starting the Week Inspired

Do dentists, home-appliance manufacturers, or zoologists leave their conferences as energized as I feel from this weekend’s New England SCBWI gathering? Possibly zoologists if, say, during the course of the conference, someone successfully resuscitates a koala or brings along evidence of a whole new subspecies of squid, but I doubt it. I’m so glad I’m in the profession I’m in and can go to conferences like the one this past weekend in Fitchburg. The tremendous creative talent that was there … opportunities at every turn to talk to others who write and illustrate … and, perhaps best of all, the chance to see old friends and make new connections. Fun!

 

With my awesome writing friends Nandini Bajpai and Francine Puckly. Photo from NB.

 

Allyn Johnston and Marla Frazee’s talk on their picture-book work together, followed by Allyn’s PB workshop, were superb! (And left me nostalgic for the days when we lived on the Southern California coast.) I agree, picture books are a form of high art. And getting that ending just right—well, getting the whole story just right, the pacing, the language, each page turn leading to that ending …  Sunday’s PB intensive with Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen was also excellent, filled with amazing insights on structure and some funny asides, too.  Today, while I’ll be gutting my current PB project, I do so inspired!

But my gosh, so many other great workshops and discussions. I mean, we had the amazing Cynthia Leitich Smith with us for two days—her keynote address on Saturday, full of wisdom and wit, plus a great interview with Melissa Stewart on Sunday.  Jo Knowles, Kate Messner and Carrie Jones offered a fab presentation on blogging, which will definitely help me as I look to bump this space to the next level. Kelly Fineman’s session on free verse, no surprise, terrific!

I loved having chance to hang with my Holliston group members, though Marilyn, Shirley and Jean are due some real hang time, given the tremendous effort they put in as part of the team that kept the show running all weekend. Judy from my online poetry group, so nice to finally meet face to face!

Nandini and Heather, I’m proposing some regularly scheduled Natick face time to talk writing!

Much more to say, but I’m committed to getting to work this morning! Thank you, Anindita, Greg and all of the conference committee members and volunteers!!

Hope to keep up with everyone through the blog world, Twitter, etc.!

Signs of Spring

We’re at that fickle time of year, between winter and spring. The snow is gone (for now), and we were treated to a few warm days this week. While our garden beds need to be cleaned out, I can see that the daffodils, hyacinth, even the irises are coming along. And there’s lots of bird chatter in the forsythia, deliberations on whether we can commit yet to it being spring.

I’m in the same phase with my writing, revisiting a couple of older pieces, working on some fresh ideas. Definitely need to clean out the soggy leaves to see what’s taking root. Today that means taking my work off-site, seeing if a fresh writing space might stir up the creativity, so I’m off to do that. Not yet spring on the page, but moving out of winter.

Time for something fresh.

What lies beneath?

Kitchen Celebration

We had a great time last night at our friends’, the Bajpais’, house. Nandini and I were celebrating taking the next steps in our writing, and what better way to celebrate on a bitterly cold night than cooking together and sharing a meal? The best part was, I got to learn how to make Nandini’s delicious chicken curry and baingan bharta (a yummy eggplant dish), and how to prepare the dough, and fry, puris—though mine didn’t come out as puffy as I think they were supposed to. Our meal was wonderful, thanks to a patient instructor. I took careful notes so I can try these dishes at home, though I doubt they’ll taste nearly as good.

Our kids always have a blast together, and they joined us in the kitchen, too, making homemade pumpkin bread and cutting the puri dough into fun shapes.

Thanks, guys, for all the fun! Rob’s looking forward to learning the recipes, too. And it was great seeing Yogi!

Our chef-instructor for the evening.

I want a drawer like this. Lentils and spices ...

A warm pot of chicken curry. Over rice, yum!

Puris and baingan bharta.

Looking forward to a good year!