Novel Foods & Brave Goals

Another strange graffiti in the city; this is right next to the bizarre hummingbird/oil barrel thing. Someone uses photographs to create stencils to great effect. It’s neat, but there’s still a part of me — the part they usually ban from art galleries — which is mumbling under my breath, “Okay, but what does it MEAN!?!?!” I may soon find out; the building into which we are moving is on the other end of the street from this one. Perhaps I’ll skulk around and catch the artist en flagrante. Or, perhaps I’ll keep working on my revision and actually finish it before my editor asks what I’m doing with all of my copious free time.

“Ah, choices,” she says sardonically.

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I’m so proud that my friend Mitali is being featured in the School Library Journal this month talking about children’s books and race. The article brings up some really challenging ideas that I’ve always enjoyed discussing on Mitali’s blog, and I hope you get a chance to read the article.

Preparing herself for the commentary — because these things always create the need for dialogue, some positive, some we wish we could ignore — Mitali is asking the question of how young is too young to ask questions about racism with kids, either during storytime or in a classroom setting? My mother is the director of an early childhood education center, so my opinion is that as soon as a child realizes that there are some kids who are different from them, it should be discussed. It only seems logical. But then, I don’t have any kids, so…

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Novel Food is a culinary/literary event in the foodie blogosphere that has been going on since 2007. Chefs, cooks and amateur foodies create dishes from published literary works (novelss, novella, short stories, memoirs, bios, poems), and post them to their food blogs. Then the chefs at Bricole do a round-up type of thing, and everyone gets to read and enjoy. It’s not something I’d ever heard of before, since I’m only a minor foodie, but doesn’t it sound fun? And guess what? Chef Paz wrote up Saint Julia’s “Perfectly Hard-Boiled” Egg Salad from A La Carte!

Color me proud and pleased!

Of the adults I’ve heard from who have read this book, many of them have cautiously tried out the recipes — figuring that if the teen narrator can do it, certainly they can. That’s the idea! No one should be intimidated by their kitchens! Comfort food for all!

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Unlike many writers and children’s lit bloggers, I haven’t managed to make any of the meet-and-greet Kidlitosphere Conferences, and in some ways I feel like I’m out of the loop (in other ways, my introverted soul rejoices and goes back to happily haunting the edges of the world, well contented to just observe). I’ve never met Laini Taylor in person, but much of her musings on the topics of writing really speak to me. I will leave you with this comment of hers today, and encourage you to go and read the whole post:

“The story must come out somehow — sometimes coaxing works, sweet gentle coaxing. But other times it must be forced, dragged, inelegantly, unwillingly, its heels making skid marks on the wood floor.

This is the job: figuring out what works, day after day, and doing it.”

My quote for this week, which has slammed me over the head and has left me blinking is by child development specialist Joe Chilton Pearce who writes, “To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.”

It’s one of the biggest things that blocks us from writing — fear of getting it wrong, fear of having to start over and revise, fear of pushing our work into the public eye, and having it scrutinized and scorned.

It takes a lot of courage to drag the words out, day by day, and set them spinning. It’s not always successful, but the courage comes with continuing to try.

Write Bravely. And though the steps change daily, keep dancing.