Kate DiCamillo's Blog, page 16
March 11, 2014
A few days ago, there was a red-tailed hawk sitting in my chinaberry tree.
His...
A few days ago, there was a red-tailed hawk sitting in my chinaberry tree.
His back was to me, and his feathers looked like a cloak and I stood at the window and stared at him until, slowly, he swiveled his head and stared back at me.
How do I describe the look he gave me?
Ferocious? Disdainful? Dismissive?
It was the look a king gives a peasant.
My knees felt weak. It was all I could do to keep my eyes locked on his.
Finally, bored, he turned away from me.
When I stepped out on the porch, t...
His back was to me, and his feathers looked like a cloak and I stood at the window and stared at him until, slowly, he swiveled his head and stared back at me.
How do I describe the look he gave me?
Ferocious? Disdainful? Dismissive?
It was the look a king gives a peasant.
My knees felt weak. It was all I could do to keep my eyes locked on his.
Finally, bored, he turned away from me.
When I stepped out on the porch, t...
March 6, 2014
In the mail: a letter from June Shanahan, a fifth grade teacher in Helotes, Texa...
In the mail: a letter from June Shanahan, a fifth grade teacher in Helotes, Texas:
“Dear Kate DiCamillo, My students are strutting around the hallways like superheroes. The girls are nibbling on cheese puffs and acting like rodents. It’s all your fault. Help me! Only YOU can stop this malfeasance.”
I laughed out loud the first time I read this letter. And I laughed again as I typed it out here.
But I have to say this, too: HOLY BAGUMBA! It is just the most thrilling thing in the world to s...
“Dear Kate DiCamillo, My students are strutting around the hallways like superheroes. The girls are nibbling on cheese puffs and acting like rodents. It’s all your fault. Help me! Only YOU can stop this malfeasance.”
I laughed out loud the first time I read this letter. And I laughed again as I typed it out here.
But I have to say this, too: HOLY BAGUMBA! It is just the most thrilling thing in the world to s...
March 4, 2014
I went to the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis on Saturday morning to s...
I went to the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis on Saturday morning to see an Open Eye Figure Theater performance about Hans Christian Andersen telling (with the help of scissors and tea kettles and paper and rope) his story “The Ugly Duckling.”
The story begins with these words “It was so lovely out in the country. It was summer. The rye was yellow, the oats green . . .”
The world outside the Swedish Institute was grey and grim. There was nothing yellow or green in sight. And I, myse...
The story begins with these words “It was so lovely out in the country. It was summer. The rye was yellow, the oats green . . .”
The world outside the Swedish Institute was grey and grim. There was nothing yellow or green in sight. And I, myse...
February 27, 2014
I have often said that the only part of writing that is easy for me is character...
I have often said that the only part of writing that is easy for me is character names. For some reason, that I have never truly understood, names just pop into my head.
Some of them are odd (Despereaux) and some of them make me laugh (India Opal Buloni) and some of them are run-of-the-mill (Edward Tulane, Flora Belle Buckman) but sound just right to my ear and my heart.
All of this is to say that I learned a word yesterday.
The word is “eldritch” and I had never before seen it in my life.
I...
Some of them are odd (Despereaux) and some of them make me laugh (India Opal Buloni) and some of them are run-of-the-mill (Edward Tulane, Flora Belle Buckman) but sound just right to my ear and my heart.
All of this is to say that I learned a word yesterday.
The word is “eldritch” and I had never before seen it in my life.
I...
February 26, 2014
From the Candlewick team:
Kate DiCamillo is spearheading “Indies First Storytim...
From the Candlewick team:
Kate DiCamillo is spearheading “Indies First Storytime Day” as part of Children’s Book Week this year. On May 17, Indies First Storytime Day will be celebrated at independent bookstores nationwide. Find more information in this Shelf Awareness feature:
http://www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?issue=2191#m23228
If you’re a published author or illustrator, sign up to read; if you know a kid, plan to visit your nearest participating store on May 17!
Indies First St...
Kate DiCamillo is spearheading “Indies First Storytime Day” as part of Children’s Book Week this year. On May 17, Indies First Storytime Day will be celebrated at independent bookstores nationwide. Find more information in this Shelf Awareness feature:
http://www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?issue=2191#m23228
If you’re a published author or illustrator, sign up to read; if you know a kid, plan to visit your nearest participating store on May 17!
Indies First St...
February 25, 2014
Last night, right before I fell asleep, I was thinking about the novel I am writ...
Last night, right before I fell asleep, I was thinking about the novel I am writing now and how I can make it work, when I remembered a notebook that I had purchased almost a decade ago in Florence, Italy.
It wasn’t even that I really remembered the notebook.
It was more like an image of it just suddenly appeared in my head.
When I got up this morning, I came downstairs and dug through the closet and found the little book.
Here is a picture of it.
The pages are blank.
Why, I wondered, did...
It wasn’t even that I really remembered the notebook.
It was more like an image of it just suddenly appeared in my head.
When I got up this morning, I came downstairs and dug through the closet and found the little book.
Here is a picture of it.
The pages are blank.
Why, I wondered, did...
February 20, 2014
This little pig is from Skylar, who is six years old.
She sent it to me along wi...
This little pig is from Skylar, who is six years old.
She sent it to me along with a letter that says: “Dear Kate DiCamillo, Please rite at least one more book of Mercy Watson. I LOVE YOUR Books!!! So if you do that I would be very very very happy!!”
Talk about very very very happy.
That is what this letter makes me.
And what the picture of the pig makes me.
And yep, Skylar: I’m working on it.
She sent it to me along with a letter that says: “Dear Kate DiCamillo, Please rite at least one more book of Mercy Watson. I LOVE YOUR Books!!! So if you do that I would be very very very happy!!”
Talk about very very very happy.
That is what this letter makes me.
And what the picture of the pig makes me.
And yep, Skylar: I’m working on it.
February 18, 2014
All kinds of exciting things happen around here.
For instance: a few days ago, a...
All kinds of exciting things happen around here.
For instance: a few days ago, a friend stopped by with a gift for Henry.
It’s a medal with these words inscribed upon it: HENRY, Official Dog of the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature.
Yep.
Henry is, of course, deeply pleased to have a medal.
He likes having his name in all capital letters.
He would like for the wording of the medal to be slightly different, however.
He would like for it to read:
HENRY, DOG AMONG DOGS, CHAMPION A...
For instance: a few days ago, a friend stopped by with a gift for Henry.
It’s a medal with these words inscribed upon it: HENRY, Official Dog of the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature.
Yep.
Henry is, of course, deeply pleased to have a medal.
He likes having his name in all capital letters.
He would like for the wording of the medal to be slightly different, however.
He would like for it to read:
HENRY, DOG AMONG DOGS, CHAMPION A...
February 13, 2014
It has been very cold (the coldest winter in 30 years!) here.
Some days, it is t...
It has been very cold (the coldest winter in 30 years!) here.
Some days, it is too cold to walk.
And this is too bad, because for me there is something about walking out in the world which is conducive to the interior act of writing.
Brenda Ueland’s wrote about this connection between walking and writing in her book entitled If You Want to Write.
I went looking through my copy of the book for that particular quote, but (happily) I found different words, words I didn’t even know I was looking...
Some days, it is too cold to walk.
And this is too bad, because for me there is something about walking out in the world which is conducive to the interior act of writing.
Brenda Ueland’s wrote about this connection between walking and writing in her book entitled If You Want to Write.
I went looking through my copy of the book for that particular quote, but (happily) I found different words, words I didn’t even know I was looking...
February 11, 2014
I’ve been sick and being sick reminds me of being a kid, because I was sick all...
I’ve been sick and being sick reminds me of being a kid, because I was sick all the time when I was a kid.
Last night, I was lying on the bathroom floor and I thought: why does lying on the bathroom floor give me so much comfort?
I had fevers a lot when I was a kid and it was usually the middle of the night when I decided that I needed to go and lay my cheek against the tile of the bathroom floor to cool down.
The dog (Nanette, a standard poodle) and my mother would come and sit with me in...
Last night, I was lying on the bathroom floor and I thought: why does lying on the bathroom floor give me so much comfort?
I had fevers a lot when I was a kid and it was usually the middle of the night when I decided that I needed to go and lay my cheek against the tile of the bathroom floor to cool down.
The dog (Nanette, a standard poodle) and my mother would come and sit with me in...
