Sharon Creech's Blog, page 31

Big Love

Ahhh, the grandchildren, Nico and Pearl, post-beach and baths, settling in for a video. I love them beyond love.

Small Things for Small People

 
The grandchildren are coming--we get so excited! All around the house are small things for their small hands: small figures (our grandson calls them his 'guys'), small books, small houses, small animals.

We found the miniature (two inches high) pottery bunny house for fifty cents at a thrift shop. I probably love it as much as the kids will.


The blue shelf was an antique store find. The two frogs on bottom come from a local shop, Bullfrog Corner, a child's haven of toy animals and critters.


The white bear, also from Bullfrog Corner, is not so small, but it is soft and squishy and beloved.


After speaking at a book conference in Savannah, Georgia, a couple years ago, we had time to stroll around and discovered in a small shop this etching of giraffes and elephants–perfect!


And finally, of course, there are books: on desks and bureaus and tables and shelves, on floor and counters and beds. Books, books, books.

With all the small things, the kids make up their own stories, and when they're done, we read the books, books, books. Of course there are books!

Wordless

Today at the beach, noon, a stunning rainbow all around the sun (above) and scattered skybows here and there (below):


Sometimes it's best to be wordless.  So I'll be quiet now.

More Spring

When spring springs, it surely springs--boing! Was all that bounty really hiding beneath the brown and gray and snow all these months? What a show.

Does it make you want to clean the windows? The house? The nest? Stay outside all day?  It makes me want to do all those things, but the new story is also springing to life. Let me out! it demands. Listen to me! Okay, okay, okay.

While the bushes and trees sprout hundreds of leaves and blossoms each day, I'm only sprouting five pages a day. That's a good pace for me, though.  I used to be able to do twenty pages a day, but stories emerge more slowly and carefully now, and they are more fully formed when they do emerge.

And after I write, I'm outside. Are you?

Beach Day

To the beach with my grand-nephew today. I've yet to meet a child who does not love the beach, all that wide open space to roam, and sand, waves, water, shells, and critters. Here's one critter we almost stepped on:


And here are a few of the shells that came home with us. We like the small, imperfect ones:


And you, do you like the beach?

A North Carolina Day

It's one of those North Carolina blue sky spring days and the wind is blowing and the birds are winging and singing and the pollen is making it all a fuzzy sort of day.

Those new buds on the tree opened up overnight, and that's how a new story is arriving, too: with each morning a new revelation, like something opening up in a burst. I tried to stop it–I'm not ready–wait–but it won't be stopped.


Outside, the dogs are losing their hair (and horses, too, I've learned from Lori Skoog), and even the trees seem to be shedding. Don't you love birch trees?


The tall pines are whipping their heads around, shaking pollen from their hair . . .

And me, I am outside, looking around . . .are you?

Small Things

On the kitchen counter, small things gather in their own odd world. The figures above are metal, less than two inches high and probably part of an old train set landscape. I love this pair, but it is hard to say why–because they are patiently waiting? That space between them? The way they sit and what they hold?


The frog (or toad?) is also metal and sits on a plaster leaf. The frog is slightly bigger than the couple above and could possibly eat them.


The couple and the frog live among greenery in this four-inch pottery vase made by a Southport, NC, artist.  The vase is soft blue swirled with cream; the greenery is from a winter bush by the back door.

I am partial to small vases and small things. Some day I'd like to do a very small book with small words and small illustrations and big beauty.  

Do you know the Mole Sisters books? Like those, but smaller still, and hardback.

What collects on your kitchen counter?

Ba-bloom!

Round nearly every turn here in NC, you come across these enchanted scenes, trees and bushes exploding in blooms, petals sailing through the air and carpeting the ground, pollen infiltrating your eyes and nose and painting every surface.


Because we are here in NC in April and then return to western New York state at the end of the month, we are able to experience two springs--ba-bloom! There is nothing quite like the surge of spring . . . except perhaps for the red and gold trees of autumn or that first quiet snowfalls of winter.

Do you have a favorite season?

Reflections on Reflections

Is the person in the mirror you or a reflection of you? Is the character in the book a reflection of the author? And which is more 'real': the person/character or the reflection?

Well. I've been thinking about reflections lately.


Maybe those musings will be reflected in the upcoming book (in 2012.)

You are real . . .aren't you?

Thinking Time

Every writer's office needs a comfy sofa, don't you think? Sometimes you just have to lie back and read or close your eyes and think or maybe . . .nap.

I'm a big believer in the nap as precursor-to-great-ideas.  The first page of Walk Two Moons surfaced from a nap; most other books of mine have leaped into life following a nap or a good night's sleep.

Sometimes the mind is most creative when you leave it alone.

As productive as naps, ordinary rhythmic pursuits like walking,  running, kayaking, skiing, cycling, ironing, and knitting also free the mind of clutter, allowing new insights and new connections to reveal themselves.

You do need to sit down and write in order to get a story down, and many ideas come while you are writing, but much also surfaces when you're not writing.

Take a walk. Take a nap. Leave the mind alone for a while.