Practicing Hope

A year and more ago I was finding solace from the political turmoil in the world by tuning in to the physical world around me, surprised by the small but significant delights I found there. Taking these moments back to my desk, the act of writing and drawing about them soothed me, gave me hope. The world goes on. 

After my show of poems and paintings Surprised by Delight was up in a gallery for the spring and summer, I didn't stop noticing, but I fell away from the practice of writing and drawing about these moments. 

Now, in the spring of 2020, as we live in an uncertain present, I am finding tremendous comfort in the daily act of noticing, turning words around, noodling with pen and paint. I am surprised every day when new delights appear, and when words rise up to greet them. I have hope. 

Words the Birds Say:

cheery up cheery up

luckluckluckluck

we        see        you  we        see        you

cheery up up up

My Dog Dreams

My Dog Dreams

My dog dreams of deep grass

a pungent trail

squirrel tails

corpulent frogs

a tasty stick

He's a lion lurking

stalking deer

hunting with eagles

soaring with hawks

He's a coyote keening

for a broken moon

a black bear cub

in his underground room

he's conquering winter

conjuring spring

My dog dreams of deep grass

-sketch and poem,  Anne Ylvisaker

It's Thursday. I'm writing. Buster's in the doorway, dreaming. We're both waiting for spring.

My Writing Process Blog Tour

I am thrilled to be participating in the My Writing Process Blog Tour, which has been touring the world for many months, through many genres. Lauren Stringer, author and illustrator of many beautiful picture books, passed the baton to me. Please check out her post here. I’ll answer the tour’s four questions today, then tag two authors to share next week.

1. What am I working on?

I am getting ready for the November release of THE CURSE OF THE BUTTONS, my final book about the comically unlucky Button family. I reeled in generations of this fictional family to discover what put the Buttons on their path of misfortune and uncovered Great Granddaddy Ike’s boyhood story, set during the first summer of the Civil War.

I’m also writing my way into a new story. It’s still in a shy stage, so more on that another time.

2. How does my work differ from others of its genre?

William Stafford has a wonderful essay about how historical events were once experienced by individuals as current events. As I write about an event in the past, I experience it through fictional individuals as if it was a current event. I hope that sense of immediacy comes through in my novels.

3. Why do I write what I do?

I write because I wonder about us in all our humanness. I wonder about choices we make, relationships we have, how we resolve difficult emotions, why and how we interact in community. I was fortunate to have had a childhood that was particularly rich in intergenerational community, so that is a theme common to my books.

4. How does your writing process work?

As I begin a novel, I sort collections of images, posting on my wall anything that catches my eye, for color, for subject, for a feeling it stirs up in me. I especially like historic photographs for which I don’t have the background story, allowing scope for my imagination.

Once I have a collection of images, I start over and over and over again, writing the first things that pop into my head. At the same time, I follow tidbits of research about whatever era my noodlings lead me to. Then, once I have a spark of a story, I write to find out what happens next. Every day starts with “I wonder…”

Look for answers about the writing process from these authors next week:

Michelle Edwards is the author and illustrator of many books for children, one book for adults, and nearly one hundred essays and cards for knitters. Her titles include: CHICKEN MAN (winner of the National Jewish Book Award) and A KNITTER’S HOME COMPANION (an illustrated collection of stories, patterns and recipes). Michelle grew up in Troy, New York and now lives in Iowa City, Iowa, where she shares, with her husband, a house full of books, yarn, and the artifacts of their three daughter's childhoods.  www.michelledwards.com

Jacqueline Briggs Martin has published 16 books for children. Her picture book biography of a self taught scientist–SNOWFLAKE BENTLEY, illustrated by Mary Azarian, (Houghton Mifflin, 1998), was awarded the 1999 Caldecott medal by the American Library Association. THE LAMP, THE ICE, AND THE BOAT CALLED FISH, Houghton Mifflin, 2001) was named an ALA Notable Book. ON SAND ISLAND (Houghton Mifflin, 2003) was named to Publishers Weekly’s “Best Books of the Year” list.  Her most recent book FARMER WILL ALLEN AND THE GROWING TABLE (Readers to Eaters Press, 2013) was named a Notable Book by the ALA.  This fall Readers to Eaters will publish a picture book biography of Alice Waters—ALICE WATERS AND THE TRIP TO DELICIOUS.

Jacqueline Briggs Martin and her husband Richard live in Mount Vernon, Iowa. www.jacquelinebriggsmartin.com. 

Sketch Lessons

Edward Hopper: Studies for Nighthawks

It's the persistence that makes the understanding happen.

I have an amazing instructor for my sketch class this summer. It’s clear that Ms. Thorson feels about drawing what I feel about writing – that it is a skill that can be learned by everyone and that it enriches the way we experience the world.

I’ve had a major aha moment in every single class. Exhilarating. Using this other part of my brain is revving up my creative energy. And what I’m learning about drawing is having a direct impact on my writing. I’m in the drafting stage of several new writing ideas, a stage that is much like sketching.

Here is a selection of the many wise words of my instructor that can be directly applied to the writing process.

Sketching is a process, a practice, and a way of understanding what you see.

Tonight we’ll inhabit the sense of experience.

…there’s interest in how life happens around us.

You’re building a set of steps to a new understanding.

A lot of the creative process is finding solutions. Find a solution to this small problem and then something happens.

We are cultivating stamina and focus.

Be more conscious of what you know and use it.

And my favorite quote, worth repeating, one I’ve applied to my writing each and every day:

It’s the persistence that makes the understanding happen.

Beginner's Luck

 

While writing a novel, I often tinker with ideas and resolve plot hiccups by attempting to sketch them out on paper. I lack the skills, though, to translate what's in my head onto the page. 

So my pencils are sharpened, my school bag is packed. I start Sketch 1 tonight at our local community college. I am a beginner and I can’t wait.

When I was a classroom teacher, one of my favorite parts of the job was introducing a new skill, anything from long division to cursive writing. A buzz would go through the room as students played with the new idea, talked amongst themselves, tried it out, stumbled, and tried again. Then there’d be a ripple of excitement as one by one, they earned success.

Because even the smallest step is one not taken before, beginners are infused with the thrill of success. Lucky beginners. Lucky me. 

I've been tagged...

There's a global blog tour galloping around the web. The Next Big Thing is a virtual game of blog tag in which authors and illustrators are sharing their latest or forthcoming work by answering the same ten questions. I've been tagged by these amazing authors who have already played:

Siobhan Fallon

and Lauren Stringer

Check out their blogs and new books, then keep reading for my interview and the authors I'm tagging next. 

1. What is the title of your latest book?

2. Where did the idea come from for the book? I found a postcard of the Grant Wood painting Plaid Sweater as I started writing The Luck of the Buttons, the first Button book. The boy in that painting was a story begging to be told. He became a model for the character of Ned. I thought of him as the boy Ned imagined himself to be, not who he actually was, football and all. After Ned was done playing a supporting role to Tugs in The Luck of the Buttons, I was eager to put him on the field and see if he could find the hero in himself.

3. What genre does your book fall under? Button Down is middle grade fiction, which means primarily readers between the ages of 8 and 12. 

4. What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition? Absolutely Nolan Gould for Ned. He plays Luke Dunphee on Modern Family. I love his comic timing. I’d put a bushy mustache on Dustin Hoffman for Granddaddy Ike and cast Robert Duvall as Granddaddy’s best friend Mr. Jackson. 

5. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book? Ned, of the comically unlucky Button family, hasn't caught a thing in his life until he faces bully Burton Ward in a challenge to catch their town hero's football.

6. Who published your book? The marvelous Candlewick Press. 

7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript? It took about nine months to form a complete draft from beginning to end, though in my files, that was draft version 38. 

8. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre? Richard Peck’s novels A Long Way From Chicago and A Year Down Yonder are humorous intergenerational stories set in a small midwestern town during the 1930s. 

9. Who or what inspired you to write this book? One of the main themes of Button Down is the relationship between Ned and Granddaddy Ike. My grandparents lived nearby when I was growing up and were very involved in our lives. Writing this book allowed me to explore all the ways in which they influenced my childhood self. 

10. What else about the book might pique the reader's interest? Football! While I'd played pick up football as a kid, and lots of a little hand-held electronic football game of my brother's, it wasn't until I wrote this book that I really took the time to understand the strategy behind the game. It's a lot more than a simple knock-em-down sport and I had a great time writing the football scenes.

NEXT UP: 

Michelle Edwards will be posting tomorrow, February 14. 

A little boy frets that the spare room where his baby sister or brother will sleep will never be emptied of things his mother has collected from neighbors for years, but she uses those things to sew and knit everything from diapers to Hanukkah gifts.

Rebecca Janni will post February 20. 

Nellie Sue is taking her cowgirl flair to the county fair! There are rides and contests and a bicycle rodeo, too. Nellie Sue wants to win that blue ribbon. But can she do it while still being "fair at the fair"?

Thanks for joining this reading rodeo! 

Growing a story: The art of doing nothing

How much time do you spend doing nothing? Nothing as in being by yourself without the TV on, without your phone or computer or even a book. If you want to write, learning to do nothing is an important skill to develop. 

In her book If You Want to Write, Author Brenda Ueland calls this “moodling” time. Moodling is letting your mind wander and explore without distraction, allowing it to work out problems and find ideas. 

I was moodling one day a few years ago in my house in Iowa. There was a picture on the wall of my great-grandparents on a rickety porch with chickens running around in the yard. I looked at that picture and let my mind wander for a long while. 

I let one thought lead to another and then another, from that photo to a tombstone in a prairie cemetery with the name I’d misread as “Tugs Button,” to my grandmother and her long gangly arms and something her father had said to her once about not getting a swell head. 

The thoughts piled one on top of another until an idea sprouted. I took that idea for a walk in the woods and let it grow a little taller. I sat again in front of the picture until the idea bloomed, then I picked up a pen and started scrawling loose sentences. 

All the time that may have looked to an observer like I was being unproductive, I was actually growing a story that turned into three books about the comically unlucky Button family: The Luck of the Buttons, Button Down, and a third that I’m writing and moodling over now. 

Do you want to write? Put down your pen, turn off the TV and radio and computer and phone. It’s time to do nothing! 

Tiny Collections

I'm on a virtual trip to New Zealand this month as Christchurch Library's Star Author. What fun to connect with readers and writers on another Pacific shore. This week's topic is tiny collections: things writers anywhere, with any amount of space, can collect. Find links to the other entries on this page's Guest Blogs sidebar. 

I am a collector of small things. One of the great things about being a writer is that even a hobby like collecting can be part of the job. Do you like to write? Here are a three collections you could start for yourself.

I’ve been collecting postcards and photographs since my great aunt started sending me art postcards before I could read or write. Hundreds of postcards and photographs fit nicely in a shoebox. Read my last post to discover how collecting images inspires my writing. 

In elementary school I started collecting names. The smallest notebook has space for dozens of names. Characters like LeRoy Pence (Dear Papa), Harold Sylvester George Klein (Little Klein), and Verlon Leek (Button Down) were inspired by names I collected as far back as 3rd grade. Whenever you hear a name that you like the sound of, or is interesting to you, write it down.

And my favorite tiny collection? Words. I keep my words on small slips of paper in an ordinary jar. Sometimes a word just strikes my fancy and I’ll write it down: labyrinth. If I’m feeling verb-y, I’ll go to a cookbook and write down all the action words: mix, stir, whisk, sift... Sometimes I start thinking of a group of words and add a bunch at once. Recently I added words I like saying out loud: Iowa, Ohio, Maori, autumn, iota, swift, oriel, oleo.

I started collecting words with my writers group several years ago. We drew words from our word jars each time we met then each of us would write something using the same four words for our next meeting. 

Every chapter in Little Klein was written using those word jar words. Harold turns out to be sickly so I could  have his mother warm a teakettle day and night. A storm arose when I had to use the word wind. 

If you like to write, I think you’ll have as much fun as I do collecting pictures, names, and words. Better yet, grab a friend and start collecting together. Then watch your writing soar!

Independence Day 1929 to 2011

A fun Luck of the Buttons review appeared online today, written by a twelve-year-old reader who retells a bit of Tugs’s Independence Day 1929. Thanks, Faith McPhee!

It’s hard to believe that it is already mid-summer and Independence Day 2011 is upon us. The Fourth of July is one of my favorite days of summer because all over the country, communities are gathering in celebrations similar to ones I participate in as well as the fictional celebration in Goodhue eighty-two years ago.

The image I had in my head when I first sat down to write a scene of what would become The Luck of the Buttons was of the community Fourth of July event that takes place in the neighborhood where I lived for many years, St. Anthony Park in St. Paul, Minnesota.

There is a parade down Como Avenue. Convertibles carry various local dignitaries and veterans march with flags. When I was a kid, my Grandpa marched with the World War I vets. A vintage fire engine rolls down the avenue followed by a lawn mower brigade, a group that choreographs steps with lawn chairs, clowns of course, school groups, musicians, and more. When all the paraders have passed, children join in on decorated bikes and trikes, then all the spectators follow the parade down the hill to Langford Park. Families claim spots with blankets. Kids wander. Everyone eats. Patriotic essays are read. There are races for all ages, and ribbons.

I dropped Tugs and the Buttons into a Fourth of July like the ones I’ve known and felt immediately at home in Goodhue. Check out the chapters Independence Day, Ribbons, and Click to read about Tugs’s Independence Day.

Enjoy your community celebrations this Fourth of July and may you have many lazy hours for reading this month! 

Just a note: I will be away from the internet until late July, but will respond to your comments and emails when I return. 

Novel and Nouveau...Settling Esther B

One of the things I like about writer Barbara Watson's Novel and Nouveau blog is that she keeps posts concise and to the point. With so many sites to keep up with these days, it's nice to know that when I pop in here, I'll get an interesting, focussed tidbit in a manageable size. 

One of her regular features is Marvelous Middle Grade Monday for which Barbara recently reviewed The Luck of the Buttons. Lucky me. She also asked me to write a guest post about the process of writing the book. It got me thinking about where characters come from, which got me thinking about my dear Grandma B. I pulled out a photo of her and was surprised to find how much she looks like the picture that ended up on the cover of the book. Click over and have a look!

The Rowdies

Setting The Luck of the Buttons in 1929 gave me an excuse to peruse newspapers from that year. One of my most charming discoveries was The Brooklyn Standard Union. In the company of headlines like "Woman's Wit Foils Bandits After Payroll" and "Florence Berger Not Worried" I found this gem:

McGUINNESS After Park Rowdies
   Alderman Peter McGUINNESS is making good his threat to war on rowdies who
visit the parks in Greenpoint. He has been seen strolling about the parks for
several nights.

And from there, Goodhue's band of rapscallions, the Rowdies, were born. Luther Tingvold, Walter Williams, Bess McCrea, and Finn and Frankie Chacey mostly lump about parks and alleys looking tough but one never knows where they'll turn up or what their intentions may be. 

Midwest readers, I will see you soon! Come hear more about Tugs, the Rowdies, and other Button tales in St. Paul at The Red Balloon on Saturday or in Iowa City at Prairie Lights on Sunday, 2pm both days. 

Why Iowa

When I moved away from the Midwest, I was surprised at how many people confuse Iowa with Ohio and Idaho. It’s true that the vowel-laden names sound similar to ears that don’t hear them frequently, and all three are land-locked states, so what sets Iowa apart?

Today I’ll share why I set The Luck of the Buttons in Iowa. Learn more about Iowa by checking back in the following days as several authors, artists, and others answer the question, Why Iowa?

Young Corn - Grant WoodI was living in Cedar Rapids, Iowa when I got the inspiration for The Luck of the Buttons. (Read about Tugs Button here.) But the reason for setting the fictional town of Goodhue in Iowa goes deeper than that.

Iowa has at once a wideness of space and a closeness of community that is enticing.

New Road - Grant Wood
Waiting for the Parade - Marvin ConeThe paintings of Cedar Rapids natives Grant Wood and Marvin Cone illustrate the sense of wideness and closeness of landscape and people that captivated me. I visited their work at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art as I settled my imagination into the atmosphere of Iowa, 1929. I could see Tugs, Ned, and the rest here.

Stone City - Grant Wood

Do you have a Why Iowa thought you’d like to share? Add a comment below. If you’d like to write a guest post or share an image on this topic, email me here.

Have a Listen

When I was a kid, listening to an audio book meant slipping a record out of its sleeve, lifting the heavy lid of the stereo cabinet, balancing the record on the spindle, waiting for the record to drop, then lowering the needle carefully so as not to scratch the surface and cause one line to repeat over and over.

The book I remember listening to most often was Robert McCloskey’s Homer Price. Just say the word “donut” and the distinctive voice of that narrator comes back to me instantly, bright and lively, a sit-down-here-and-let-me-tell-you-a-story voice. On those lazy summer afternoons, I felt as though Robert McCloskey himself was curled up inside that cabinet, telling me over and over again about Homer and the donut shop.

The Luck of the Buttons was released last week in audio book and when I got my first listen I couldn’t stop smiling. The charming voice of Laura Hamilton takes me right back to those blissful hours sprawled out on the floor in front of the stereo cabinet.

Hear a sample here and see if Ms. Hamilton doesn’t leave you with a craving for pie and lazy summer afternoons.

Thank you, Librarians!

Miss Lucy, the librarian, was the most exotic person of Tugs's acquaintance. Unmarried, yet not a widow or an old maid, taller even than Uncle Elmer, with wavy sunset-orange hair skimming her belt, and a warm whispery voice, she seemed completely unaware of Tugs's lack of academic prowess whenever she chose books for her. (The Luck of the Buttons, p. 44)

It's book launch day for The Luck of the Buttons and it's also National Library Workers Day. I know Tugs would want to say THANK YOU to Miss Lucy and I'd like to thank librarians everywhere for the work they do to connect readers with books and information. 

I grew up going to the Roosevelt branch of the Minneapolis Public Library where my own Miss Lucy, Lucy Selander, seemed to have magical powers. She would stand in front of the shelves of books, look over at me with a long pause, maybe ask a question or two, then turn back and peruse the shelves while I held my breath, wondering what treasure she'd retrieve. 

Lucy was also the librarian behind the counter when I signed up for my first library card. Because I had an older sister, I knew that in order to get my card I had to be able to print my full name. Anne was easy, but my middle name, Elizabeth, seemed an endless stream of letters. I practiced and practiced at home and was so proud to walk into the library that day and ask for a card.

Lucy passed a card and a pen across the counter. I remember sounding out Elizabeth as I wrote: Eliz za beth. Elizzabeth. I passed the card back for approval. Lucy praised my neat printing then asked me if I was sure that my middle name had two z's. Yes, I said. I'm sure. I pronounced it out loud for her. To her great credit, Lucy did not dampen my big moment by correcting me. She simply smiled, congratulated me, and handed me my card. I've been proud to carry a library card ever since. 

 Thank you, Lucy!

Through the Lens

Tugs looked down through her camera’s viewfinder and pivoted slowly all the way around and down and up. It was like watching a movie, seeing the bandstand, the bakery, the soft evening sky go by in that tiny frame. These were the same ordinary sights she’d been seeing her whole life, but suddenly they were sharp and beautiful, like little jewels collected in a box. (The Luck of the Buttons, p 102)

My first camera was a Kodak Brownie Box, the Hawkeye model. It was my summer of being twelve and Dutch Elm Disease was rampant in Minneapolis. City workers painted red lines around the trunks of doomed trees on the boulevards on my street, and though the infected trees appeared healthy, they were to be cut down within the week.

I remember standing in the middle of the street looking down through the lens of my Brownie at the long rows of elms. I noticed for the first time the perfect arch they made of the three-block length of 47^th Avenue. I couldn’t save our beloved trees, but the act of taking a picture made me feel empowered, like I was witnessing and preserving a small piece of my neighborhood’s history. 

It was a piece of Kodak camera history that led me to setting The Luck of the Buttons in the year 1929. The first Brownie came out in 1900 and was made expressly to put photography in the hands of children. In 1930, to celebrate the company's 50^th Anniversary, Kodak gave free Brownie cameras to children who turned twelve that year. 

I set my story in 1929 because I wanted Tugs to have a camera before most of her friends. I chose the Number 2 F Model for Tugs, which came in five colors. She was able to get her favorite color, green. And, lucky me, I found one just like it on ebay. 82 years old and it still works!

Enter the cat...meet Leopold

This is my great-grandmother's cat, so docile on her lap. She's knitting and he's not even chasing the yarn. But I have a cat that looks remarkably like this one and my cat can act demure and innocent one moment, then get into mischief as soon as I turn my back.

So it is with The Luck of the Buttons's Leopold, who belongs to the elderly Thompson sisters but, unbeknownst to them, finds adventures all over town. 

Leopold outsized most raccoons. His belly hung so low he collected all manner of leaves and ground scraps, which he then left on the library carpet every time someone let his shaggy self through the door. You could always tell where Leopold had been when you went into the library, as there was a trail of leaves and grass marking his path, like Hansel and Gretel's crumbs. Usually he went to the children's area, because he got lots of attention there until somebody's mother shooed him out. Then he went scurrying in a straight line for the door, mewing as if maimed. 

How a cat that fat had gotten himself up in the apple tree Tugs couldn't imagine. But sure enough, there he was, the tiny sisters carrying on beneath the tree.

The Plot Thickens

This is another family photo that has fascinated me for years. Most of the pictures we have from that era are posed, taken for an occasion. So, like the porch picture I wrote about yesterday, I've long wondered who had a camera on this trip. Where is this group going and where have they been? How long have they been stranded? 

Again, I imagined Tugs looking through the lens. I imagined that the man was a stranger who'd chanced along. What was his business, appearing on a country road out of nowhere?

Meet Harvey Moore, a slick and optimistic newsman on his way to deliver progress to Goodhue, Iowa. He's come to help, so why is Tugs wary?

Meet the Buttons

A framed enlargement of this picture has hung on a wall in each of my last three houses. It is a family photograph with my grandmother's handwriting on the back: 1927 House north of town. My grandma is the one standing next to the door. Her in-laws are seated on the edge of the porch, holding my Aunt Sylvia.

Who's house is this, north of town? Why is the window broken? Why are the chickens running around? There is another picture taken just a moment before or after, without the chickens. I could find the answers to these questions easily, but because wondering about it is half the fun, I haven't asked. 

Most of all, I've wondered, why was the picture taken at all, and who is behind the camera? As a writing exercise I tried starting a story with this scene. I wrote as if this weren't my family at all, but some strangers I was encountering for the first time. After a few flat starts, Tugs Button (see yesterday's post) popped into my head as a spunky twelve-year-old girl with a new camera. This is my family, she seemed to say. Let me tell you about them. 

When something went wrong in the Button family, they shrugged, they sighed, they shook their heads. “Just our luck,” the Buttons said. 

Tell me more, I said to Tugs. And she did. 

Aggie, Felicity, Mary Louise...Tugs?

The countdown is on! The Luck of the Buttons launches one week from today.

This is the story of twelve year old Tugs Button, a girl born to a luckless family. The Buttons are content with their lives of misfortune until the summer of 1929 when Tugs decides to become the first lucky Button.

Where does the name Tugs come from?

Several springs ago I was on a picnic with writer friends in a rare tall grass prairie that happens to be in a rural Iowa cemetery. While searching for wildflowers we stumbled across this Civil War era headstone.

Tugs! I said. Now there's a name with scope for the imagination!

I went home to try to write a story about a boy named Tugs who fights in the war. By the time I got to my notebook I remembered the last name as Button, not Britton as on the tombstone, perhaps because I'd recently been to the Pearl Button Museum in Muscantine, Iowa.

But Tugs was elusive, and the Civil War story just didn't emerge.

The next spring we went back for another picnic and I looked at the stone more closely. Not only was the last name Britton, not Button, but the first name was actually THOS, short for Thomas, not Tugs at all. 

Hmmm...I thought...what if someone else made the same mistake? What if...

Tomorrow: how I met the Button family.

"The process is the fun part." Eric Carle

Each of my books has come about because of a happy accident, the result of playing around with ideas or pictures or words or or or…and while it is exciting to hold in my hand the finished book, it is a little bit like paging through a photo album after a great trip. I’ve explored new places, met new people and am eager to share my story with others. At the same time, I can’t wait to go on another adventure.

In this video Eric Carle tells how playing around with a hole punch and colored paper led to his classic picture book The Very Hungry Caterpillar. “The process is the fun part,” he says. I agree.