Snow worries…

On Thursday at 9 am my children and I board a plane to visit with my parents for a week. The problem is snow, or the forecast of snow, 12-18 inches of it. I’m doing everything I can to try and make things go smoothly: take dog to kennel early, check in with snow plow friend and make sure he knows I need to leave at 5 am Thursday, get the car checked out today for fluids, tire pressure etc.  I know that it will be a day of delays but if we can just travel safely I’ll be happy. I am a nervous flyer and you really can’t be with kids. I put on the everything-is-all-set-just-fine face but really my belly aches and I’m taking deep cleansing breaths. Keep me in your thoughts.

Pity party for me

So my hubby is tucked in bed and getting ready to leave tomorrow  with the Navy. No, he will not be in harm’s way, no, he will not be gone for months and months and he has a specific date to come home so I’m not worried. For this I should thank my luck stars and I do. However, I do not want him to leave. Whenever he does, we get a big snow storm or something in the house breaks (knock on wood). Mostly, I miss him and it is hard to be alone with the kids for two weeks. I know, poor me, blah, blah, sob, sob. But there you have it. Here is the bright side. 1) I will go see my parents for the second week as it is also winter break week and 2) I will write and draw in the evenings as we will not need “catch up” time. I don’t feel very bright yet. Hmmm…

JacketFlap.com

Bad, very bad. I signed up for JacketFlap when J.Bell posted something on the NESCBWI listserve and I just spent a good long time, okay hour(s?) finding friends and setting up “MY” jacketflap. Good G-d. There are plenty of dog fur piles to be vacuumed, clothes to be washed, a small boy to be loved on (he’s doing Perler Beads right now) and lots and lots to write an draw. Why, Anna? Why, why, why. With you all as my witness, I do solemnly swear to only check JacketFlap once in a while.

Illustration article

The Fall and Rise of Illustration is an Interview with Charles Hively of 3×3 Magazine. Anyone interested in illustration and the enormous competitive nature of the field right now may want to read it. I’m looking forward to winter  break. I’m going to visit my parents with the boys. Ready for some TLC myself. I’ve been working on an image that is starting to bug me. I’d love some feedback on composition, color, value, drawing, line… any help would be great. Take a look.

Peterborough Visit


Here is the view from the the Little River B&B in Peterborough, NH. My husband and I had a great childless weekend exploring the town of Peterborough, where everyone is so friendly it made me want to move immediately. We were the first guests ever for Robert and Paula who were wonderfully welcoming. The room was spacious and warm with its own gas stove and comfortable bedding. There were “no worries” when it came to breakfast. The main course was a “Hakuna Matata Fritata” with cheese and sausage, preceded by banana-chocolate-chip scones and a yogurt, fruit and granola parfait with tasty homemade granola. Check out this great B&B next time you are in Southern New Hampshire!

We were fortunate to be invited to Lita Judge’s home for dinner and a tour of her studio.

Lita is an accomplished painter and illustrator who I met two years ago at the NESCBWI Illustrator’s Day at Simmon’s College. (By the way, Marilyn, we should do this again it was great!) Lita’s sense of composition, creates movement in her drawings. Her dark values placed next to almost white lights create focus and drama in each painting. Her color is rich and hard to achieve in watercolor. I wished I lived closer so she could be my mentor.We were both starting out at the time, and Lita has been able to bank on her tremendous talent to grow her illustration business by leaps and bounds.

You may have seen her work on Donna Jo Napoli’s book, Ugly but do not miss One Thousand Tracings, published by Hyperion and coming out this spring. Lita wrote and illustrated this historical picture book about American’s who helped the German citizens after World War II. As a Jew, I had always focussed on the atrocities committed during the Holocaust. This book reminds us that no matter whose war it is, the citizens of a country get swept up in the remaining poverty and destruction left behind. An important thing for us to remember in this day and age.

PEN entry

My PEN New England entry is officially complete and in my paw ready to take to the post office to get that fabulous February first postmark. Then, of course, comes the waiting. I’m sending in 10 poems and need to work on many more to make this collection complete so I have plenty to do in the mean time. I’m also prepping my artwork for my spring mailing. Oops, still haven’t sent out the January mailing. More manuscripts need revising and subbing. I’m already waiting on 2 picture books, 1 non-fiction sub to an agent and the same to an editor. Highlights contest deadline coming up February 28th. (By the way, Children’s Writer had a good magazine mystery how-to article. Re-read and revise entry.) Must clean the house as my father-in-law is visiting this weekend. Geez, too much to do.

Birthday 2007

Well according to

[info]slatts

, Thursday is song game day so here’s mine. “Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I’m 64.” I’m not 64, I’m 36 today and while I’m eager to find success in publishing my dear sister sent me a lovely email saying that she already finds me a success. The wonderful thing is, I know there are many people in my life who also feel this way about me and that gives me a sense of peace.

I had an especially difficult mothering day yesterday. I had to be at synagogue in the afternoon to teach Judiasm (this still amazes me) and found myself praying during the service for greater powers to “help me temper my desires and high expectations so I can see my children as they are.” I was a very mature and compliant child and it is difficult for me to understand why my children can’t get up, get dressed, and get to the bus in a more fluid way. My kindergartener has had almost 100 days of school now, the second grader has no excuse at all. No excuse except they are who they are: A little slow to motivate, transitions have always been difficult, and they are more interested in the world around them than the appointments they have to keep. Of course, I have to say, they are downstairs now helping my husband prepare my birthday breakfast so the motivation was certainly there this morning.

This has been a happy and wonderful week for my friend Cindy Lord, but it has been a heart wrenching week for the members of the Denning family who lost their daughter Hanley Denning (also 36) to a car crash. You can find out more about this wonderful woman and her mission here. Below, I’ve posted a letter to the Denning family. I hope you will consider her mission, Safe Passage in your giving this year.

January 22, 2007

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Denning,
    I am writing to express my profound sense of grief and loss upon hearing of the death of your daughter. While Hanley and I never met, I followed and supported her work with Safe Passage. I first read about Hanley in the Press Herald.
    I sat in the Miss Portland Diner and looked at a photograph of the sweeping vista of garbage and filth. In the middle of this filth sat a child with a doll cradled in a cardboard box. Further inspection made clear that it was not a doll at all. It was her infant sibling. The article told of the Guatemala City dump and Hanley’s project to educate these children. A educator myself, I was moved and wished to jump on the next plane to be of direct help but my two small children at home made that choice impossible. Instead, I used my position as a 5th and 6th grade teacher to assist Safe Passage.  I worked with my team teachers to organize a school supply drive. After a slide presentation from a Safe Passage employee, our students were also moved by the obvious poverty of the children in Guatemala City. They collected boxes and boxes of school supplies and sent them to Hanley’s school.
    I’ve since left the public school system to pursue children’s publishing. Perhaps I can continue Hanley’s message of peace and education by creating a picture book manuscript about the children of the Guatemala City dump. I don’t know. I do know that Hanley was doing “good work.”  Good work in the tradition of Eleanor Roosevelt.  Good work that this world needs so desperately. I applaud her and the others in the Safe Passage organization.
    Again, my sincerest sympathies to your family and Hanley’s families and friends in Guatemala. Hanley will be missed.

Fondly,

Anna J. Boll

Emotional Day!

This morning I started to reassimilate into my home and family after an amazing and productive writing weekend. Of course I checked my emails and there were numerous emails about some call from Seattle. Seattle? What’s in Seattle?

The ALA had, as you all already know, announced that Cindy Lord won a Newberry Honor and the Schneider Award for her wonderful book Rules. I was thrilled to pieces. I think my actual reaction was:

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! OMIGOD, OMIGOD, OMIGOD!!!!! Guess what!” I said jumping around the house cornering my son who was home sick. (Again, but that’s another story.) “Cindy won the NEWBERRY HONOR!” I said jumping around him as he tried to put a puzzle together.
“Cool, Mom. That’s great. What’s a Newberry?”
“Kind of like a Caldecott,” I explained (I’m a picture book person.)
“Oh, cool, really awesome.”
I jump away a little like a kangaroo on steroids.

I immediately called the bakery to order a cake. Why cake? Because Cindy, I am honored to say, read some of those original chapters at our in-person crit group of which she was a part for many years. (five, or six years was it?) I was there when it got rejected. I was there when Scholastic said, “yes.” And that is when our group buys the author a slice of cake from the cafe where we meet.

I was also there (as were many who have been touched by Cindy’s kind, humble and giving nature) as Rules made it’s journey to publication. Now I am able to say I was there when Cindy won her first ALA awards. This calls for more than a slice. Let her eat cake!

I’m sure there will be more.