Colorful Ideas

I've been exploring color in my paintings quite a bit lately, so it was quite fortuitous to attend the Rensselearville Writers Conference and hear about the new book The Secret Language of Color by Joann Eckstut and Arielle Eckstut.  The book analyzes the role of color in our world, touching upon science, nature, history, culture, and beauty.  Essentially humans are able to use their three cones of vision to perceive 10 million colors; however our perception of these colors is contingent upon many subjective factors.  Transparency, memory, taste, context, anatomy, even gender influence our relationship to color.  The conference comes on the heels of the recent edition of the design magazine Uppercase, which devoted itself exclusively to color.  What is it about color that captivates us?  The excitement of vibrant color can lift a mood, attract a mate, even relate to evolutionary behavior.  Cornell's Lab of Ornithology recently produced an incredible film documenting the beauty of birds of paradise and their use of color in their mating practice.  From color bombing to a resurgence of neon clothing, perhaps the world's zeitgeist needs a little color to lift its mood right about now.

Loco-vore

 This book amazed me in its philosophy about living beings, especially moss. After I read this book, I wandered Potic Mountain in search of all the different types of moss we  had on our little spot of earth.  The results were surprising, and quite life affirming.

I love this author-- from BEAN TREES to LACUNA... and now this book.  I totally enjoyed the audiobook. As I drove to work each morning, plus a couple of trips up the Hudson Valley, this 12-disc book inspired me to attempt to eat locally and to perhaps even grow my own food this summer.

And in the midst of all this botany love, I enjoyed everything about Black Horse Farms in Athens, NY. Owner Chellie is a doll, and the plants are brilliant, the soups are savory, and don't get me started on the bloody mary mix.  I'm going to try and 'eat the seasons' this year-- buying produce locally as it comes into season.  With climate change now a reality, food consumption, habitat restoration, and bike transportation are added to my list of eco-friendly considerations. Eating locally offers so many benefits. Taste, community, environment, economics all come into play. And please don't even get us started on local beers.  Crossroads in Athens, NY and Great South Bay Brewery in Bayshore, NY can attest to James' love of a full growler.

Bouler Pfluger Architects is now investigating native plantings for many of their Sandy relief projects.  By using native plantings, habitat can be improved.  Properly considered, the platings can serve as habitat for wildlife as well as improving drainage for flood zones.  Best yet is landscaping that doesn't require mowing or pesticides.  If NYC-LI truly considered strategic wildlife and drainage zones, not only could future storms be mitigated, people could experience the return of wildlife to their backyards.

Young Voices on Climate Change

Olivia and Jackson will be interviewed by author, illustrator, and flmmaker Lynne Cherry about their conservation efforts. On the heels of their exciting trip to Costa Rica where they were able to meet with schoolchildren in Guanacaste, the kids are looking forward to connecting with other children who feel equally passionate about the environment. Cherry, the author of many children's books including The Great Kapok Tree, has been an environmentalist since she was a child. It seems fitting then, for her to be the one to champion the environmental concerns and solutions from this generation of children around the world.

Julia and Avis

Looking for a good summer read? I've been enjoying the letters between Julia Child and Avis DeVoto, compiled in As Always, Julia. It is fascinating to see how their transatlantic friendship grows thanks to the quality of their writing and the depth of their intellect. Filled with references to the McCarthy trials of the 1950's, the process of creating Child's materpiece of a cookbook, and even where to find the right kind of onion, the book provides an insight into the era and into a friendship. It makes me miss letter writing-- for who will compile a series of emails in the same way?
Child's newfound popularity is no surprise to those who have read her memoir, My Life in France. The book is a passionate recount of her evolution from OSS member to supreme foodie. In our world of increasing electronica, the physical sensations inherent in cooking are clearly a draw. And yet it is Julia's irrepressible nature that catpivates us all. She grabs life with both hands, takes on challenges with gusto, and surrounds herself with people who do the same.

Book Revue

Huntington's Book Revue is the kind of book store that you might see in a movie-- a funky, independent village spot that functions like a town square. And when Olivia's publisher asked where we'd like to have her Long Island book signing, it was an immediate response: The Book Revue. Sure Bill Clinton signed his book there, and Mary Tyler Moore too, but it was also a store I've frequented since I was a teenager growing up in a nearby town. The turn out today for Olivia was just amazing. Pitched in Newsday today as one of the 'top ten things to do on Long Island', the crowd ranged from friends, family, colleagues, her teachers, my students, James' clients, and people who read in the newspaper about this girl who drew birds. IT was part reunion, part eco-activism. By the time car service came to take Olivia and James to the airport, headed for Portland Oregon, the goodies had been eaten and the books had sold out. Thanks to all of you who were there to celebrate Olivia's Birds!

SCBWI: 40 Years

Olivia with author Lin Oliver

At the podium

Olivia's doodle

Our hotel room's view

For the past six years, I've looked forward to the annual winter conference of the Society for Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. Every year offers a new perspective on the creative process, the publishing industry, and the love of literature. This year's speakers, a veritable who's who of children's literature, shared inspiring stories of their youth, hilarious letters from their fans, and their key secrets on being funny. Lois Lowry spoke of the pain in losing a sister, while RL Stine recommended being open to writing to a different genre. Jane Yolen described the poetry of a line with Mark Teague at her side, and Mo Willems made us laugh with Lenore Look and Marvin Terban. As always, the insights were inspirational, the conversations collegial, and Lin Oliver's witty banter made me laugh. Despite the seeming similarities, this year, however, was truly different. Now a writer and illustrator herself, my daughter Olivia also became an SCBWI member, perhaps their youngest. With Olivia's Birds coming out in April, bringing her along seemed like the perfect way to share the news with fellow SCBWI members. She enjoyed listening to the speakers, but especially loved the big welcome she received from many of the 1,100 attendees. Together we met artists, authors, bird lovers, and even an ornithologist who studied at Auburn University in Alabama. It was a joy to share this world of creative and bright people who are so dedicated to both their craft and to bringing joy into children's lives.

The Truth of Fiction

Some have argued that the value of literature is in how it portrays the human dynamic with more truth than a psychology book. But what about the veracity of historical fiction? With The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory becoming a best seller and motion picture, the popularity of this genre has reached new heights. It has become a favorite of mine as well. Recently I finished reading the stunningly written Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant, who also wrote In the Company of the Courtesean. Both novels, set in Renaissance Italy, pull from a rich context of art and literature to craft fictional accounts of women, not unlike The Girl With the Pearl Earring. Two other books in the genre which I've enjoyed are The Coffee Trader and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Although these books pull details from history, some more accurately than others, it is their compelling stories which give them the complexity of a good read.

The BBC Reading List

When modernemama sent me this BBC list of books, I enjoyed checking off the titles I had read with great smugness. I also went back to the 2003 list for comparison and to see who had been dropped. Which books make the canon and which do not serves as an evergreen discussion in literary circles. Are all books equal? Are there some that are more worthy than others? The debate as to who determines which books are essential makes for amusing discourse on the subjectivity of reading in general. Though I've read nearly half on this list, there are some significant titles missing. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn? Women in Love? The Stranger? Meanwhile, the BBC evidently loves the dickens out of Dickens. As an educator, I like to think of literature as a springboard for discussion. As a reader, I love to get lost in another world. I'll never forget how I sat down and read House of Mirth cover to cover in 12 hours. Or how I read and reread the Little House series as a child. Neither made the list, but were powerful moments in my life as a reader. So accurate or not, here's the BBC list.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zifon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Inferno - Dante
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factoy - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Nook vs Kindle: Your Opinion Please

Olivia asked Santa for an e reader. I myself have remained a rather old-fashioned book reader, quaintly marking up hardcovered books with notes, audiobooks filling in during the school year commute-- but the idea of carrying so many texts on one little device does pique my interest. And although it won't look as snappy on our bookshelves, if a kid asks for a new way to read, one e reader coming up! As to which one to choose, I'm doing a bit of investigation. Illuminated touch screen, one point for Nook. Audio text, a point for Kindle. I've read the reviews and asked a few folks, but please, if you have an opinion, kindly weigh in.

The Legend of the Guardians of Ga'hoole

With our 3-D glasses and our bag of popcorn, Olivia, Jackson, and I eagerly anticipated the Legend of the Guardians of Ga'hoole. We were not disappointed. Based on the children's books by Kathryn Lasky, this fast-moving, action film captured the flight of owls so beautifully that I hardly needed the story to be mesmerized. From screetch owls to burrowing owls, the film covered the entire species with impressive accuracy-- well except for the British accents.

In Life As In Literature

What can be said about the toxic sludge oozing across Eastern Europe? Yet another man-made, ecological disaster. It happens as I am about to begin teaching Enemy of the People, the Henrik Ibsen play where a whistleblowing scientist is ostracized from his community for trying to reveal that the local spring water is contaminated. Written in 1882, it's a cautionary play warning us about the battle between public safety and the bottom line, and how the majority is too easily swayed to know the difference.

Sharing: A New Marketing Strategy

Here's a unique marketing strategy I heard about-- scatter books around like seeds and hope someone walks off with them or shares one with a friend, colleague, or family member. That's just what Sterling Publishing did all day yesterday, distributing their book of the month, The Law of the Garbage, all over Manhattan, starting with sanitation workers at 4:30 in the morning, to convey the book's message of gratitude and generosity. Armed with a couple of copies of my own, I spent the drive into work wondering where I would strategically leave my extra copy to have maximum success. I also pondered the book's garbage truck metaphor, considering less how people dump on me, but instead how I can dump less on others. NOw that's an idea worth sharing.

Before and After

Potic Cottage: Before

Potic Cottage: After

Crow's Nest, Hog Island, Maine: interior Before

Crow's Nest, Hog Island, Maine: Interior After
Even while rusticating, where we reside can have an impact on our experience. Just ask Thoreau. House Thinking by Winifred Gallagher and At Home, a new book by Bill Bryson are just two of many texts that explore how our homes evolve and the impact they have on our psyche. Both of these Bouler Architecture 'before and after' projects were on strict budgets and wanted to tread lightly in their environmental impact. The top one is our weekend place, Potic Cottage, in the Hudson Valley--a one bedroom cottage originally 665 square feet. The other, Crow's Nest on Hog Island, Maine, houses Audubon's summer ornithology camps. Through a combination of economical design and creative use of materials, these projects were able to transform the space to be most hospitable.

Summer Reading: Classics

People will often ask me about my favorite book, but choosing one title in particular is impossible. Favorite books often relate to my personal circumstance. My time at Chapel Hill was perfect for reading D.H. Lawrence's Women in Love, and Florence, Italy was ideal for Dante's Inferno. Don't even get me started on reading Anais Nin in Paris. But there are some books which transcend time and place for me. Jane Eyre is that book. Moody and mysterious, the book is both defined by its era and its timeless. Centered around a female protagonist who defies societal convention and a great old house with its dark secrets, its rich use of language makes this book by Charlotte Bronte a classic, one I plan on rereading this weekend. Please share a classic title you would like to recommend as a summer read.

The World We Want

Today I attended The Ethnic Pen, an annual writing conference at Bay Shore High School, now in its 19th year. Lead by the inspirational educator Nina Wolff and teacher coordinators Shannon Handley and Joanne Dineen, the conference committee proves just how much individuals can change the world around us. Appropriately, this year's theme of "The World We Want" was discussed by prominent poets, writers, musicians, filmmakers, and students.

Keynote speaker Da Chen, author of the highly acclaimed memoir, Colors of the Mountain, spoke about his childhood in Communist China, where the only thing to combat the boredom and indignities of his life in a repressive small village was the gift of a bamboo flute. He described the contrast between his American-born son's childhood with his own, telling the young people in the audience that with the privileged life they have in America comes the responsibility of making the world a better place. Afterwards, he signed copies of his book, giving each person a different message in Chinese calligraphy. Mine, above, reads longevity. The young man in the image with Da Chen is my student Justin, whose family emigrated from the same region of China as the author. His message: good fortune.

Poet Patricia Smith gave a powerful spoken word performance, reading a range of poems, including several from her new collection entitled Blood Dazzler. Her moving, multi-faceted portrait of the victims of Hurricane Katrina haunted me all day, though it was her poem about her son growing up which brought me to tears.

In honor of the conference's theme, the committee recognized several young people who have already become active in changing the world. One of my students, Sofia Rajabali, seen here with her mother and her sister, was inspired by her reading of Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson. Reflecting on her own Pakistani background, she organized a fundraiser and cultural awareness night, raising $1100 to send to Mortenson's organization for a girls' school in Pakistan.

This year's conference and those in attendance prove that words are a powerful way to create the world we want.

Chop Wood, Carry Water

Here's a photo essay of the 'Before and After' of the meditation garden clean up.

Every year I swear I'm going to clean it out in the fall to prevent unwanted mold and blight, yet when early autumn rolls around, I can only savor the last moments of greenery. By the time the leaves are down and blanket the garden, I seem to lack the spare afternoon or energy to put the garden to bed properly. Instead I tell myself the ground will stay warm and cozy until spring's clean up.

Yesterday's clean up was especially grand with its warm sunshine after a long winter. I turned on the last of a great audiobook-- Hunting Unicorns by Bella Pollen-- and savored the afternoon preparing for this year's herbs and flowers, celebrating its completion with Clara, James, and a bottle of prosecco.

Celtic Tiger

Having had many students participate in my writing process proved invaluable. My first YA novel, Celtic Tiger, is about Johnny O'Shea, a disenfranchised dropout from Queens, who, after losing his mother to a life of drugs and murder, finds connectedness with his great-uncle on the west coast of Ireland. It leads him to solve the mystery of his mother's death.

Though the novel is yet to be published, its had a healthy share of teen readers who generously offered insights into how they related to a character like Johnny O'Shea. Email me for the complete PDF if you would like to download it for free.

SCBWI Annual Conference

After a weekend at this year's Society for Children's Book Writers and Illustrators annual NYC winter conference, I am feeling the creative spirit in spades. Surrounded by 1,047 attendees who range from the aspiring to the accomplished, the conversation at the conference provides insights into the creative process and offers many opportunities to connect with other writers and illustrators. As always, conference organizer and children's book author Lin Oliver never fails to deliver an energetic and humorous opening speech, so I couldn't help but accost her for a photo op. In a lively key note speech, YA novelist Libba Bray, fresh off of winning the Michael Printz award, aptly encouraged attendees to open a whole conversation through their work.

Indeed, it was a weekend of conversation. In one of the breakout sessions, I had the good fortune to sit next to award-winning children's book author Jane Yolen and her daughter, author Heidi Yolen Stemple, where we chatted about a wide range of topics from the evolving book industry to road trips with children. Yolen's recent book The Scarecrow Dance not only features beautiful images, it is a meaningful message presented in well-crafted verse, which was coincidentally scribbled down by Yolen during an earlier writers' conference. Yolen and I discussed the role of the new media platforms like Twitter and Facebook as a means of creating the author's persona and generating interest in his or her work. During the session, Simon and Schuster's art director Laurent Linn provided a fascinating analysis of illustration, comparing traditional paintings against the visual narratives of picture books. For instance, did you know that illustrations for picture books 'read' from left to right? Makes perfect sense.

At lunch, author and poet Jacqueline Woodson gave a great reading of her Newberry Honor book Show Way, the poetic retelling of her family history from slavery to segregation to freedom marches, and ultimately to her own daughter's life. I had heard Woodson read before at the Ethnic Pen Poetry conference in Bayshore a couple of years ago, and it was a treat to hear her read again.

The SCBWI conference wrapped up today with two more key note speeches-- one by Jim Benton and the other by Jane Yolen. Benton chronicled his career from screening tee shirts to television, proving that a great illustration and a clever wit can bring an illustrious career. And to end with the inspiring speech by Yolen brought the conference full circle.

I could go on and on, but in the end, it's time for me to get back to my own creative process.

JD Salinger: 1919-2010

Few books are as easy to teach as The Catcher in the Rye. Even today, students relate immediately to narrator Holden Caulfield, an alienated teenager whose voice speaks simultaneously of lost innocence, rebellion, and vulnerability. It's worth another read if you haven't read it in a while, and proved to be incredibly influential to my own writing. Johnny O'Shea, the protagonist of my young adult mysteries Celtic Tiger, Celtic Knot, and Celtic Cross, at once references and mocks Caulfield. Despite the intimacy of Holden Caulfield's thoughts and characterization, few writers are as elusive as Salinger, whose mystique only increased with his desire for privacy, but in my mind, a writer who turns disenfrachised teenagers into readers has done the world a profound service.

The Books We Read

Spending a week in a small, snow-covered cabin in the woods without television or internet, inevitably books become a central part of daily life. Armed with several new books, the entire family picked up something to read.

I was given a wonderful gift of Natural Flair by Klaus Kramp, a survey of contemporary buildings around the world which are particularly connected to the landscape and feature alternative energy systems. Talk about a perfect gift for inspiring James and me to set some new goals for Bouler Architecture.

Jackson and I enjoyed looking through the lush photography of The Way We Live With the Things We Love, a book about what people collect and display in their homes, a recommendation from Holy Hudson. It was interesting to see the objects which tickle someone's fancy enough to collect in the truckload: was the collection singular? eclectic? nostalgic? ethnic? Jackson thought of his godzilla collection and I realized after my fifth chicken purchase that I was inadvertently collecting those. The book, however, could do with a little more analysis of this drive to clutter a space with objects. In the end, as much as I enjoyed the book, it made me want to clean house.

Olivia curled up with one of the new Warrior books by Erin Hunter. We didn't see her until the next day, once the 400 page book had been properly devoured.

The Calvin and Hobbes Anniversary Collection became the family hit. Everyone took a turn reading the classic comic strip, which is as fantastic today as it was when it was in the naily papers. I particularly enjoyed reading Bill Wattersons' commentary, as he explained the genesis of his ideas, the challenges of the format, and the conflicts between his artistic integrity and commercial interests inherent in syndication.

On the car ride up and back, we listed to the audiobook of Outliers, read by Malcolm Gladwell, written in his usual anecdotal analysis of our culture, this time about those who surpass societal norms. It was an engaging read that brought on a couple of discussions and helped pass the hours in the car.

So if you are in search of something for the bookshelf or a way to spend a holiday gift card, these are some of the family recommendations.