Sharon Creech's Blog, page 21

Beaches and Writing

Maybe you love beachesespecially deserted oneswhere the only sounds you hear are the waves and the seagulls. 

Maybe you come here to walkand to empty the mindso it can absorb the rhythmof the water.

Maybe you stand in shallow waterand see the sun reflectedat your feet

and then look upat the blue blue skyand that astoundingsun.
And maybe thenwhen you are realignedyou go hometo write.
Mm?

Of Books and Dogs

Books, books, books. I can't help it - I can't resist buying books, books, books. I also have a Kindle, but much prefer holding a Real Book.  Some of these books are kept forever and some are donated.

Last week I vowed: No more books until I finish reading the ones stacked beside the bed.

Today I bought:


So much for vows.
Have I also mentioned this book (link below): S.O.A.R.,  animal rescue stories by Jack Floyd?  S.O.A.R. stands for Southport-Oak Island Animal Rescue, and Jack is a long-time volunteer there.  I'm partial to it because I know the author, but you might want to check it out. [It's an ebook; the link below is for iTunes, but you can also get it elsewhere.]

S.O.A.R. Stories by Jack Floyd

What is your latest book purchase?

Love That Dog Trailer

Love That Dog trailer

A friend recently emailed me this link (click on above) to a short, cute trailer for Love That Dog, and I thought you might enjoy it, too.

Have a dog? Have a boy? Have poetry?

Story Fuel

I'm in full-tilt writing and revising mode, having cleared the decks to write for the next couple months with few interruptions. It's a good feeling when that time is there and the story is cooperating.  In the above pic, the white stack is the newly revised portion, the second draft; the blue stack is the first draft, with chapters yet to be revised.

Yesterday, a reader asked me "What do you eat when you write?"

Well.
I'd never been asked that before.
I thought it interesting that the reader did not say "Do you eat when you write?" but rather, "What do you eat . . ", seeming certain that some eating was going on.

Yes. Eating does go on.
Until recently, the munching was any or all of these: nuts, chocolate-covered almonds, mini Milky Ways (dark chocolate ones), popcorn, kettle corn, more chocolate . . .

I know, I know.
And so last week I stopped eating sugar and re-booted my food supplies.
Take a look at the current snacks-for-writing:


I'm not kidding.

And here's what I drink when I write:


Water.  Fizzy.

I know, I know, I'm being so virtuous I can hardly stand myself.

The question is:  which fuel will produce the best words/stories, mm?
Stay tuned . . .

Meanwhile: what do YOU munch on and drink as you sit at the computer, mm?

Road Trips

Sunrise :  Blue Ridge Mountains
on the road 
that quiet feeling at dawn
that always-surpise 
of the rising sun


you feel as if
you could go on forever
in that silent way

North Carolina

My husband and I have just completed a 900-mile road trek from western New York to southern North Carolina, and I'd hoped to post a photo taken early on the second day of the trip: sunrise in the Blue Ridge Mountains - all deep blues and lavenders and rose. But I've not yet been able to transfer the photo from phone to computer.  Maybe tomorrow.

Meanwhile, these two photos reflect what I'll be doing here:



No, not photography (though I'll continue to take photos), and no, not self-reflection (though that is ongoing, as well) . . .
I'm focussing on the new work-in-progress (not the one to be published in September - that one is finished), this new one that is three-fourths complete. What is it really about? What is IN there? I can almost see it.  Almost.  It came from me, but it isn't me. What is it?
I usually have to ask my editor that question when I submit it:  "What exactly is this, anyway?"
If you know, please let me know, mm?

Morning Moon

The moon at 7:00 this morning.
What a sight!
What a sky!

Blue Sunset and Endings

This was today's sunset, above, 5:15 pm:  the sky dramatically blue, the lake smoothly glazed.

Just two days ago, the sunset was full of gold and amber and orange, the lake newly frozen and snow-covered:


I am proofreading the first-pass page proofs for the upcoming book,thinking about endings.
Is my ending blue or amber?
Hmm.  Amber, I think.
Of the books you read, are they more likely to have blue or amber endings?  Mm?

The Puppy in His Glory

Well, now, didn't he have fun?
It's not as bad as it seems.
The puppy was given that big stuffed frog for Christmas
specifically so that he would chew that
instead of sofas, chairs, shoes, hats, gloves.
And
it
worked.

The Transforming Power of Snow

The much-awaited blizzard arrives

and transforms the dull browns
begone brown!
hellooooo white!


and just when I'd been thinking
Why don't we live in the South?
the answer comes

in pure white mounds

and vast vistas of white 

and silver
and gold.
Love that snow.
Do you?