Jane Yolen's Blog, page 30
January 6, 2010
January 4-5, 2010:
A word about my journal–it is sporadic, episodic, more about writing than personal stuff, and antic. Meaning basically I write it when I want to, say only as much as I care to, and amuse myself. Sometimes I give writing advice, sometimes I review books and/or movies in sound bites rather than in any orderly or academic way. And always I have to amuse myself or boredom would lead me to drop it for good. So enjoy. Take away from it what you will, what you can. Notice, it is not interactive in t...
January 4-5, 2009:
A word about my journal–it is sporadic, episodic, more about writing than personal stuff, and antic. Meaning basically I write it when I want to, say only as much as I care to, and amuse myself. Sometimes I give writing advice, sometimes I review books and/or movies in sound bites rather than in any orderly or academic way. And always I have to amuse myself or boredom would lead me to drop it for good. So enjoy. Take away from it what you will, what you can. Notice, it is not interactive in t...
January 4, 2010
January 1-3, 2010:
Adam and family left promptly on Jan 1, and I spent the next two days being a slug, slowly getting the house back to pre-holidays semi-neatness, reading, watching tv, but not otherwise doing much. I think I was wrapping my head around the new year. I had made no resolutions, just carrying on carrying on. But something in the back of the lizard brain must have been working because after a lovely brunch on Friday at Rabbi Yechiel Landers and his lovely wife Rose's house, I began to sort...
January 1-3, 2009:
Adam and family left promptly on Jan 1, and I spent the next two days being a slug, slowly getting the house back to pre-holidays semi-neatness, reading, watching tv, but not otherwise doing much. I think I was wrapping my head around the new year. I had made no resolutions, just carrying on carrying on. But something in the back of the lizard brain must have been working because after a lovely brunch on Friday at Rabbi Yechiel Landers and his lovely wife Rose's house, I began to sort...
January 1, 2010
December 30-31, 2009:
The last two days of a decade are a good time to think about things. For the most part it was a terrible time. My much loved David got sick, died, and the family has rebuilt itself the last three years of this tenner-span. But after almost half a year of not writing anything but poems during his illness and then death, I had gotten back to writing again. Though I miss his partisanship, his editing, his belief in my talent, and his ability to give me space to do my writing and book tours. And ...
December 29, 2009
December 29, 2009:
Book News: I had a poem picked up by Pirene's Fountain, a really classy online poetry journal for their love poem issue. It is one of the poems I wrote when David was dying, so it has a lot of meaning for me to have it taken around this time of year. David and I had our first real date on New Year's Eve. And that was that!
I finished rounds 3 an 4 on the Hamline MFA graduation speech. Still a bit too short. Completed the SCBWI speech revisions, now ready for print out.
Other stuff: Physical...
December 28, 2009
December 27, 2009:
A writer's vacation is often filled with. . .yup. . .writing. I worked on the graduation speech for the MFA students at Hamline University in Minneapolis since I will be there mid-January which is creeping ever closer. My first pass on it was about five pages. My second ran to seven. I assume I need to speak about 15-20 minutes which means at least twelve pages. Sigh.
Adam and Betsy took the children to the Amherst College Natural History Museum and lunch out. Then Heidi and I took the girls (...
December 26, 2009
December 25-26, 2009:
Ah–Christmas day, after eight days of Chanukah, almost a relief. Presents, dinner, family friends, all at once. I made a pancake breakfast at my house, Heidi made the dinner at hers (though I made the traditional Yorkshire pudding and gravy and brought it over. Neighbors stopped in for drinks and laughter. Then Adam and Betsy's kids both got sneezes and hives from the cats, so the dinner and festivities were over by 8:30.
On Boxing Day, we sat around and ate leftovers. I worked on the speech f...
December 25, 2009
December 22-24, 2009:
Book News: And the good book news continues with the wonderful cover by Brian Karas for Switching on the Moon, the new poetry anthology that British poet Andrew Fusek Peters and I have put together for WalkerUK and Candlewick in the US. All goodnight poems, lullabies, from Tennyson up to the latest poets writing in both our countries. The cover arrived in an envelope the day that all publishers shut down for a ten day holiday. Andy Peters is a dream to work with, Brian Karas is an under-sung ...
