Day #70: Writers and Illustrators
Day #70 is 10 weeks, ya'll. That's a summer vacation's worth of time.
So at the beginning of this adventure during week maybe 2 that school was closed James and I wrote a couple of letters. He had gotten really into this book series called Polly Diamond and we had bought the first one and gotten the second one from the library (those were the days,) and he had a lot of questions. I didn't know how to answer them, but I said, hey, for one of today's school assignments let's write a letter to the author and one to the illustrator and ask them.
He loved this idea. Now, he's little, so it took some doing on my part to get this to actually happen...much like recording a thank you video for the doctors and staff at the hospital was his idea but took some coaching to actually make happen, but believe me, the content was all him. Well, yesterday he got a response. The illustrator of Polly Diamond drew him a little card and wrote him a nice note, in which she suggested an adventure Polly might go on that he could illustrate. Which became his school assignment for yesterday.
For real, this was a highlight of this entire adventure for me. And, when I stalked this lovely woman on Instagram to tag her in a photo he drew (he loved the idea but got bored with it, so his book is fuzzy on some of the details but still oh so cute) she sent me such a nice message about what it meant to her to receive his letter.
Then, yesterday, we were watching more Mr. Rogers (I swear to you, I think I turn it on as much to soothe myself as for the kids) and he mentioned that in the next episode (which we don't have because our DVD set from the library is highlights, not complete seasons) King Friday was going to stage an opera in the Neighborhood of Make Believe, and OMG I remember that episode!!! I was probably James's age and I was so inspired by that whole thing that I wrote an opera...which I likely still have, my mom saved a lot of my writing from that era through junior high school, I have it around here somewhere. It starred King Friday and the whole Neighborhood of Make Believe gang (characters I had forgotten about until we started watching these DVDs.) Now, I don't know *how* I wrote an opera or if I ever attempted to perform it or any part of it because of course in this era of my life I didn't read music much less write it. But what do details like that matter when you are six years old?
It made me smile, but there was a little sadness in there, too. You see, the six-year-old me who wrote that opera would fully have expected grown-up me to "be a writer," however she would have defined that and I can't help but think she might be disappointed in forty-one year old Kris. I wonder when I stopped thinking of myself as a writer...when it started being something I used less and less in the list of words I use to describe myself. You know the list. Everybody has one. I'm a woman, I'm a mom, I'm a daughter, I'm a wife, I'm a librarian, I'm a sister, I'm a friend, I'm a Girl Scout, I'm a Lutheran...that list. Writer is on there, sure, but it isn't as far up as it once was. Isn't as far up as reader, even, these days.
Who gives you permission to call yourself that? Who allows you to spend the time and space to make that dream happen? I mean, I don't have hours to spend each day in my office writing. The kids are my full time job, that was the deal I made when I left my *other* full time job when James was born. If I didn't have them, I'd have a day job, so they are my day job and I can't just stick them in front of screens (like they'd stay) to pursue writing. But there are minutes in the day, sometimes more of them than others. When I finished reading Celeste Ng's Little Fires Everywhere, I read the whole acknowledgements section, something I've taken to doing lately after reading in a book for book lovers that there's some interesting content back there (which there is...sometimes.) She wrote that she was grateful to her husband for telling her writing was her job long before she acknowledged it herself. To say it is my job...long before it ever pays if it ever pays (to date I have made enough money writing to pay for a movie I took my then boyfriend to in 2004...and I've spent far more than that on classes and workshops and submission fees) feels like a GIGANTIC thing to say...but maybe saying it out loud and believing it to be true is the only way it will ever happen. I don't know. I don't know how I make the leap from where I am now to where I want to be but I know I want to make it. If James can call himself an illustrator (and he should!) why not me?
Today = bleh. Weather not great. Need to shake things up a bit tomorrow, not sure right now how to. Feeling uninspired. We all got a lot of screen time today.
Today's media consumption: we watched a fair bit of the Dick van Dyke show this morning...me and both kids. Went to bed way too late so had some trouble getting started. And later we watched some Mr. Rogers because mama needed soothing. I started reading Anne Lamott's Operating Instructions from 1993 about her first year with her son. I really am enjoying it so far. I love her voice. I'm nearly done with Will Grayson, Will Grayson on audio and I'm remembering why I liked it so much although it's different from what I remember.
Today I'm grateful for Ina Garten's turkey meatloaf recipe, Girl Scout cookies, finding an excuse to get out and run an errand, my new way to wear a mask, genealogy. Coke Zero, good health, and my family.
So at the beginning of this adventure during week maybe 2 that school was closed James and I wrote a couple of letters. He had gotten really into this book series called Polly Diamond and we had bought the first one and gotten the second one from the library (those were the days,) and he had a lot of questions. I didn't know how to answer them, but I said, hey, for one of today's school assignments let's write a letter to the author and one to the illustrator and ask them.
He loved this idea. Now, he's little, so it took some doing on my part to get this to actually happen...much like recording a thank you video for the doctors and staff at the hospital was his idea but took some coaching to actually make happen, but believe me, the content was all him. Well, yesterday he got a response. The illustrator of Polly Diamond drew him a little card and wrote him a nice note, in which she suggested an adventure Polly might go on that he could illustrate. Which became his school assignment for yesterday.
For real, this was a highlight of this entire adventure for me. And, when I stalked this lovely woman on Instagram to tag her in a photo he drew (he loved the idea but got bored with it, so his book is fuzzy on some of the details but still oh so cute) she sent me such a nice message about what it meant to her to receive his letter.
Then, yesterday, we were watching more Mr. Rogers (I swear to you, I think I turn it on as much to soothe myself as for the kids) and he mentioned that in the next episode (which we don't have because our DVD set from the library is highlights, not complete seasons) King Friday was going to stage an opera in the Neighborhood of Make Believe, and OMG I remember that episode!!! I was probably James's age and I was so inspired by that whole thing that I wrote an opera...which I likely still have, my mom saved a lot of my writing from that era through junior high school, I have it around here somewhere. It starred King Friday and the whole Neighborhood of Make Believe gang (characters I had forgotten about until we started watching these DVDs.) Now, I don't know *how* I wrote an opera or if I ever attempted to perform it or any part of it because of course in this era of my life I didn't read music much less write it. But what do details like that matter when you are six years old?
It made me smile, but there was a little sadness in there, too. You see, the six-year-old me who wrote that opera would fully have expected grown-up me to "be a writer," however she would have defined that and I can't help but think she might be disappointed in forty-one year old Kris. I wonder when I stopped thinking of myself as a writer...when it started being something I used less and less in the list of words I use to describe myself. You know the list. Everybody has one. I'm a woman, I'm a mom, I'm a daughter, I'm a wife, I'm a librarian, I'm a sister, I'm a friend, I'm a Girl Scout, I'm a Lutheran...that list. Writer is on there, sure, but it isn't as far up as it once was. Isn't as far up as reader, even, these days.
Who gives you permission to call yourself that? Who allows you to spend the time and space to make that dream happen? I mean, I don't have hours to spend each day in my office writing. The kids are my full time job, that was the deal I made when I left my *other* full time job when James was born. If I didn't have them, I'd have a day job, so they are my day job and I can't just stick them in front of screens (like they'd stay) to pursue writing. But there are minutes in the day, sometimes more of them than others. When I finished reading Celeste Ng's Little Fires Everywhere, I read the whole acknowledgements section, something I've taken to doing lately after reading in a book for book lovers that there's some interesting content back there (which there is...sometimes.) She wrote that she was grateful to her husband for telling her writing was her job long before she acknowledged it herself. To say it is my job...long before it ever pays if it ever pays (to date I have made enough money writing to pay for a movie I took my then boyfriend to in 2004...and I've spent far more than that on classes and workshops and submission fees) feels like a GIGANTIC thing to say...but maybe saying it out loud and believing it to be true is the only way it will ever happen. I don't know. I don't know how I make the leap from where I am now to where I want to be but I know I want to make it. If James can call himself an illustrator (and he should!) why not me?
Today = bleh. Weather not great. Need to shake things up a bit tomorrow, not sure right now how to. Feeling uninspired. We all got a lot of screen time today.
Today's media consumption: we watched a fair bit of the Dick van Dyke show this morning...me and both kids. Went to bed way too late so had some trouble getting started. And later we watched some Mr. Rogers because mama needed soothing. I started reading Anne Lamott's Operating Instructions from 1993 about her first year with her son. I really am enjoying it so far. I love her voice. I'm nearly done with Will Grayson, Will Grayson on audio and I'm remembering why I liked it so much although it's different from what I remember.
Today I'm grateful for Ina Garten's turkey meatloaf recipe, Girl Scout cookies, finding an excuse to get out and run an errand, my new way to wear a mask, genealogy. Coke Zero, good health, and my family.
I want to say, even if it is "only" a blog you are still a writer. What I think it shows is how you value that writing but this has been semi-cathartic to see someone share their candid emotions in a public forum. You open yourself up for criticism but also for a shared experience regardless of whether or not any of us make a comment.
ReplyDeleteSo I'm going to say, "Keep up the pleasant, candid, and humorous work because someone will always be reading it!"
You're awesome <3
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