Category Archive: writing

Jack-O-Lantern Smile

    Jack (c. 1972)                                              My mother, age 12 (c. 1949)… Continue reading →

October

The word “October” has always carried an extra little thrill for me. My birthday falls toward the end of the month, close enough to Halloween that my mother used to make themed cupcakes… Continue reading →

Imelda, The Wonder Tub

I am a hot-bath junkie. I hit the tub late, after my family is asleep. Taking Roger Ebert’s movie reviews along guarantees I won’t be in bed before midnight. Often the cat will… Continue reading →

Complementary

  My best memories are of color. It is summer. I am two. My mother sets me in the red laundry basket on the lawn while she does what she needs to do… Continue reading →

Words and Pictures

I have just finished building the book dummy for Zando with InDesign. Celebration time! My favorite part is adding the story text to the rough drawings. Though I have planned space for the… Continue reading →

Triple Play

I can always tell when my first idea for a story-painting is a flop. I’ll be enthusiastic for a day, just because I had an idea.  “Great job, Brain!” I’ll think smugly.  “Here’s your… Continue reading →

Cat and Mouse Detente

I’m working on a picture-book project using the old nursery rhyme “Hickory Dickory Dock” as a springboard. In my version, Jock Tock, the Clock Doc, every inch a professional, and every inch a… Continue reading →

In Praise of Windows

Third grade. We rode buses to the newly built school on the edge of town. It was our first experience with a seventies “open floor” plan, with only partitions separating classrooms. In spite… Continue reading →

The Lower-Case “N”*

Sesame Street made its debut the year I started kindergarten. Far northern Montana got the broadcast out of Canada, so I learned to count in French. Cool! But the coolest part of Sesame… Continue reading →

A Donkey’s Hind Leg

So, there I was a couple of months ago, trying to draw the hind legs of a donkey for my new children’s book Zando, a re-telling of the classic folktale, “The Bremen Town Musicians.”… Continue reading →