Things I Love

Yes, I know, all that hoopla about creative people working in messy spaces. Those researchers obviously didn't consult anyone who'd wanted to be a librarian since she was in fifth grade.

We recently closed up our place in New Jersey. Packed a few boxes that I couldn't live without. Offloaded some stuff. 
But I don't work well in messes. So I'm delighted to have unpacked THE LAST BOX. And even more delighted with my beautiful new bulletin board. 
Full of things I love (Thanks, Jay!).

You can't read this in the photo, but there's a little corner, bottom left, full of writing advice-- and life advice!-- mostly scribbled while talking to my brilliant editor over these past almost six years we've been together.

Usually we're talking so fast and I'm writing editorial notes and trying to answer thoughtfully and wisely. But even over lunch, she says smart things I want to remember. 

Here are a few from my beautiful blue bulletin board. 
From Andrea and other sage writers and editors.

What's the page turn?
Create oh-my-gosh moments.

I call that the "glittery hand of God."
(from the very first time my new editor and I talked on the phone and I told her about our connections)

Read each chapter and look for small astonishments. (Joyce Sweeney workshop)

You can never go home again, but the truth is you never leave home, so it's all right. 
 (Maya Angelou)


If anybody cares, also pictured is a card from the Rose Window at the National Cathedral sent by a friend, after my daughter's wedding. A photo my brother book of our daddy's fishing camp on Lake Beulah, MS. The Blue Angels. The Eiffel Tower. A beautiful postcard from the Rothko exhibit in Houston (thanks, Kirby). My 2016 Quaker Motto Calendar. A photo from my 4th birthday...

Going back to Baltimore

Packing my Junk Poker box, my Glory Be notes, my book for a very exciting three days in Shelby County, Indiana (more on that later) and sharing a recent really fun day with kids.

I love Baltimore. Another city I think of as Home.
Is there anything more fun that returning to a place you love, speaking to young, enthusiastic readers about the book you wrote? I doubt it!

The Bryn Mawr School's Newbery program has been going on since the mid 1970s.  
It has evolved since my day as a librarian there. Now, instead of creating books for the younger students, some 5th graders create Book Trailers.  Instead of dressing in costume, acting out a scene, and writing reports, they blog about their favorite books.

But the love of literature hasn't changed.
We did a fun project with boxes, inspired by my Junk Poker Box.

At the noontime event, I was invited to speak to the students and their special guests.

Here I am going on and on about how excited I was to be back home. It was all true. I was very excited.










In anticipation of my visit, I reread and skimmed recent winners and new books that the girls might be reading and discussing. When reading an award-winning book as if I were a student, dissecting the writing, I was surprised at how picky I could be!

Parents made these beautiful tabletop decorations. Each table was different. Book jacket art from all the books the girls had read. I'm in very good company, hanging with Ivan.

It was a great, fun day. 

And, false alarm-- We didn't even need the services of this guy, thank goodness!

(Though the snows came the next week when I was safely back in sunny Florida. Whew.) 


Read more thoughts, visits, friends from Baltimore from these PAST POSTS:

http://ascattergood.blogspot.com/2012/05/another-homecoming.html

http://ascattergood.blogspot.com/2009/12/going-home-again.html

http://ascattergood.blogspot.com/2009/05/childrens-book-week.html


 Writing this is reminding me of a quote hanging over my desk:

You can never go home again, but the truth is you can never leave home so it's all right.
Maya Angelou

 What do you think about Going Home Again? Truth or myth?

Happy Birthday, Maya Angelou

Today is the birthday of Maya Angelou. How do I know this? I clicked over to the Writers' Almanac site, looking for my Poem-a-Day for Poetry Month. Yes, April is Poetry Month, one of those events celebrated in schools and on publishers' web pages, but really shouldn't poetry be something we think about- celebrate- every day, not just during April?

Here's my favorite quote by Maya Angelou. I've had it tacked up on various corkboards, as I've moved from state to state, house to house, waiting for each house to become home. That's a close-up of my messy board. That's her quote. Can you see it?


You can never go home again, but the truth is you can never leave home, so it's all right.
~Maya Angelou

I love that thought.

And since I kept on clicking and scrolling down the Writers Almanac website, I learned it's also the birthday of blues great Muddy Watters-- (McKinley Morganfield), born in Rolling Fork, Mississippi (1915), who taught himself to play harmonica and guitar. He played in various bands in bars on the south side of Chicago, and in 1950, he made the first recording for Chess Records, a tune called "Rolling Stone." He later became famous for songs like "Hoochie-Koochie Man" and "Got My Mojo Working."

Rolling Fork, Mississippi, right down the road from my real home.


Related posts: Poetry Month, Poetry Month Pt. 2