This is in my writing life. Add kids, work, the usual stuff of momness, and I feel more like an octopus than a fish. So: Two directions. (Not to be confused with boy band.)
Really?
Today, you will find me elsewhere. Direction #1 Children's author me is thrilled to be visiting Brenda Drake's blog today. Brenda interviewed me and my good friend/writing mentor Joy McCullough-Carranza for her Pitch Wars Success Stories series. I think our story is like Cinderella. Joy is the fairy book-mother who helped get my manuscript ready for the ball. It felt like everyone wanted to dance with my book, but midnight came with the end of the Pitch Wars contest, and my book went home with no agent to love. Until that glass slipper moment when Stephen Barbara returned. As an agent, he's been a perfect fit.
It's about falling in love with a guy, a culture, and a green pasta sauce all in the same summer. Now -- when your basil plant is full of leaves -- is the perfect time to try my recipe for pesto sauce. Great on pasta, but also delicious to top chicken or salmon on the grill. I'll be back at AuthorAmok for Poetry Friday. Meanwhile, keep swimming!
I met author Mary Amato through SCBWI. She was speaking at a local conference and the two of us discovered we have a common love of poetry.
Her Riot Brothers series -- a kinder, gentler read for kids who love the humor in Captain Underpants -- soon became one of my children's favorites.
We also love two of her other books that include poetry, Please Write in This Book and Edgar Allan's Official Crime Investigation Notebook. (Read my interview with Mary about Edgar Allan here. With a main character named for Edgar Allan Poe, you won't be surprised to learn that Mary is a Marylander.)
In addition to being an author, Mary is a talented musician and singer-songwriter. She has melded all of these skills into a new YA novel, Guitar Notes.
Mary conducting a song-writing workshop with young authors.
I am thrilled to welcome Mary Amato to Author Amok! Take it away, Mary...
Ever since my 8th grade English teacher did a unit on lyrics as poetry, I’ve been writing songs. My newest book, Guitar Notes,
is about the power of songwriting and includes eight original songs.
Because poems often live on the page, readers can go back and read the
poem a second or a third time, slowly adding a deeper and deeper
understanding of the poem. A song is meant to live in the aural world
and so, I believe, the poetry of the lyrics has to be more immediately
graspable. The first line is like the doorway into the song; you want it
to open easily. If your listener gets stuck on the threshold, then he
or she will miss what’s coming next.
Let me share an example of how I
got this wrong…and then how I corrected it with one of the songs from Guitar Notes.
Getaway
is a song that the characters Lyla and Tripp write after they have this
amazing night together delivering a stolen surprise on someone’s
doorstep. They’re delivering something that they have stolen, but
they’re not bad kids; they’re actually doing a good deed, in a way, and
it’s very funny. (You have to read the book!) In the scene, snow begins
to fall, so I used that as my inspiration for the first line of the
first stanza:
Steal the snow out of the sky.
I’ll be Bonnie you be Clyde.
Steal a joke and let it fly, let it fly.
After
singing the song for a while, I realized that my doorway into the song
was interesting but not very clear. The second line really was a
stronger way to begin the song.
I’ll be Bonnie you be Clyde.
Steal the snow out of the sky.
Steal a joke and let it
fly, let it fly.
The
second line sets up the fact that the song is about these two people, a
boy and a girl, who are playing at being thieves; but right away with
the next line you understand that the focus is on the “play”…they’re not
robbing a bank, they’re stealing the snow out of the sky. Works much
better.
Take
a
look at your first lines and ask yourself if they provide what the
reader/listener needs to enter in to the experience of the poem/song.
I have posted a behind-the-scenes explanation of the song's full revision on the book's website. Read more about GUITAR NOTES and the power of music at http://thrumsociety.com/
We've been spending a few days with Muriel Weinstein who -- in her 80s -- has a new career as a children's author.
Muriel's first two books are When Louis Armstrong Taught Me Scat, a jazzy picture book, and the newly released chapter book bio, Play, Louis, Play. Muriel is currently working on her third book for children.
Muriel, how did your picture book -- a little girl's bubble-gum romp with a scatting Louis Armstrong -- lead to Play, Louis, Play?
When I wrote the picture book about bubble gum and Louis came to the little girl in a dream, my editor said they'd like a one page article on Louis' life. No problem. So I set about reading more about Louis.
As I started to read, I wanted to read more and more. He interested me so much that by the time I finished I FELL IN LOVE WITH HIM. There were a million books on the market about Louis Armstrong, but I didn't care. I read them and felt I had something else to say for young kids that kids needed to hear. "Lookit this kid!"
Armstrong had to work at many things, think them up because no one hired a seven year old kid. (Play, Louis, Play shows the young Armstrong helping to support his mother and sister).What impressed me most about Louis as a boy and man was his honesty and his generosity. He was a loving, lovable guy.
I love this section of the biography:
"Mayann's [Armstrong's mother] neighborhood was as rough at the Battlefield. But Little Louis never noticed that. Music was all he heard: horns wah-wah-wahing, slow 'n' sad drag-me-out blues, riffs on razzmatazz cornets, and jazzy beats of thumping piano keys. Their sounds, like waves in an ocean, rolled into him, flooded his ears, and flowed through his body."
What kind of research did you do for the chapter book?
There is a Louis Armstong archive at Queen College in Queens, NY. They give you a large pad and a pen or pencil, and you enter a room with a large table in which you alone are present and you have access to any book or article or photo or music concerning Louis or that Louis ever wrote.
I LOVED reading Louis' autobiographies. It was is if you were hearing him speak. No corrections were made. All his scribbling was left and I had the feeling of reading over his shoulder -- as if he were alive and watching me read, as if he heard my laughter, my incredulous sighs, and was loving it.
Armstrong wrote two autobiographies: MY LIFE IN NEW ORLEANS and LOUIS ARMSTRONG IN HIS OWN WORDS. They were of inestimable value. They made me FEEL what he felt.
What's your advice to would-be authors about finding your voice and about longevity.
My advice? I don't give a damn what are you are, whether extremely young or old. If you feel like writing then, by golly, DO IT!!! Dont' think of anything but doing it. Don't think of future gains. Don't think of publishing. Don't think of money. If you want to write, then write. The rest will come into play.
Muriel -- thanks for the visit. It's been a joy to get to know you. I wish you luck in your continued success, lady!
Yesterday, children's author Muriel Weinstein told us how, in her 80s, she became a children's author.
Her picture book, When Louis Armstrong Taught Me Scat, came out in 2008. This month, her second book was released. Play, Louis, Play is a chapter book biography of Armstrong, told from the point of view of his first horn.
Muriel, describe the role of poetry in your work. You have published poetry for adults in literary journals. (Read one of Muriel's poems in the Cortland Review.)
Poetry is my life's blood. Poetry continues to grow in my soul. It came in a time of stress when I was getting a divorce, a million years ago ... in the Ice Age ... and I am still with it. That's w hat my marriage felt like; frozen tundra, isolated Arctic, ice floes -- so I turned to poetry. Private poems, but they saved my life.
I discovered how healthy and how important it was to write our feelings out. Then little by little, one raindrop at a time, I showed my work and was encouraged to continue. When I sent it out, VOILA! It was published.
Which poetic skills serve you well as a children's author? How did you incorporate poetry into your non-fiction biography of Louis Armstrong's early life?
Many skills in poetry serve me as a children's author. First, the wonderful metaphors, similes, the abilities to see unlike things and find a common thread. The ability to write clearly, to crystallize a point, to paint pictures, to show feelings, all of these come to play in both poetry and children's fiction.
PLAY, LOUIS, PLAY is full of poetry. In fact, poetry drives it. There are many regional types of dialogue that Louis might have with his grandma or with himself. He often talked to himself, and he was a colorful speaker. So poetry was in his soul, which poured out in music, but it was also on his tongue and I had to find that.
How and why did you decide to describe Armstrong's early life from the point of view of his first cornet? (Here is a photo of that cornet. It has been at the Smithsonian and other museums.)
The horn really held his heart. I had a phrase, but my editor felt it was too hard for kids to understand. Under the title, PLAY, LOUIS, PLAY, I had written "The Story of Satchmo Whose Heart Was in His Horn." And that explains everything.
I'll wrap up my interview with our inspiring octogenarian tomorrow.
A few weeks ago, I reviewed a jazz picture book for Poetry Friday. When Louis Armstrong Taught Me Scat is a playful, rhyme-filled book, and a fun introduction to the music of Louis Armstrong for younger kids. The review is here.
I learned about the author, Muriel Weinstein, from a mutual poet friend (thanks, Shirley Brewer!) Shirley gushed about this poet and retired educator who, in her 80s, was starting a career as a successful children's author.
I had to speak with Muriel myself, so she's stopping by for the next few days to talk poetry, Jazz, late-life writing success and her muse, Louis Armstrong.
To whet your appetite, here is Satchmo playing "The Saints Go Marching In." Look for the Duke Ellington quote that opens the video clip.
Hi, Muriel. Congrats on your second book (PLAY, LOUIS, PLAY, published this month). What's your story? What led you to become a children's book author?
Hi, Laura! I've always written. As a kid, I remember creating my own magazine. I was the editor, the columnist, the interviewer and made up stories about everything from interviewing the milkman whose tin cart was pulled by a horse (his horse's hooves clopping on the gutter cement each morn awakened me) to interviewing imagined Hollywood stars. I even printed it myself.
Later, as a teacher, I loved the children's authors -- particularly Maurice Sendak. Even interviewed him and he sent me a note on how much he enjoyed the article. When teaching, I had stopped a lot of my own writing in favor of encouraging my students.
I think a lot of teachers who write have that experience.
Not till I retired did I start in earnest to write again. No longer motivating kids to write, I felt it was "my turn." Also, the arrival of grandchildren drove me to write stories for them.
Now I am writing full time. I have about a half dozen books in rough drafts. I can hear their voices shouting, "ME!!! ME!! take ME!! I'm NEXT!! Hurry! This drawer and file are like a PRISON."
What's it like to find publishing success as a senior senorita?
First, I must confess, I'm 87!! Cannot believe it. I look in the mirror and say, "That can't be me! I'm younger! Much younger!" What I'm really talking about is my spirit, my mental energy.
I love reading and selling and writing and am pumped up that I have my second book out (the chapter book bio, PLAY, LOUIS, PLAY) and can't wait for the third.
PLAY, LOUIS, PLAY is your second book featuring Louis Armstrong. How did he become your muse? What do you think makes him an interesting subject for kids to read?
I come from a home that was filled with music. Dad played the French horn, my brother -- the violin, Mom had a lovely alto and I played the piano. Neighbors would come in and we'd all join in together. That's was what led me to Louis. LOVED his voice and music. To me he was Cooool. While I played piano and loved music, I had a horrific voice. I sounded as if I were gargling!! That's why I really liked Louis A. A man whose voice was not as smooth as silk or who slid so meticulously into the various keys.
My first book WHEN LOUIS ARMSTRONG TAUGHT ME SCAT only deals with one aspect of Louis, his "scat," the musical skill of finding nonsense words that match in rhythm and mood to the song. PLAY, LOUIS, PLAY had to be researched. I had to read a great deal and cull what kids would be interested in.
I didn't want to do more than his youth because he had such a difficult, such a rough time that -- to me -- he is a heroic character. Other kids would complain about not having running water or an outdoor toilet or no bathtub or electricity. But Louis was the kind of kid and adult who only saw the "good" things. I fell in love with him while doing research.
The book is a testament to his strength of spirit, but it doesn't clobber the reader over the head with that "message."
The innate good in his character shines out. So many have difficulties and think they'll never rise above them. Louis did and his hurdles were huge.
I also think that today's kids do not have enough heroes and Louis was heroic. While some bad things happened to him, he rose above them and kept his eyes on his goal and he made it! I refer to such poverty that he didn't have shoes till he was in the orphanage. I refer to being picked up and taken away to a Colored Waifs Home.
But, as you show in PLAY, LOUIS, PLAY, Louis made the best of that situation. Your book shows him playing successfully with the Colored Waifs Home's band. Even as a child, Louis used a difficult experience to get closer to his goal of being a musician.
I'll post Part Two of my interview with the fabulous and spunky Miss Muriel tomorrow.
Here is one final holiday treat. It's Louis Armstrong reciting "The Night Before Christmas." Enjoy!
Yesterday, I posted a Portrait Poem lesson. The model poem and painting was "Down Highway 163," from Shonto Begay's lovely book Navajo.
The fourth grade students I was visiting had lots of questions for Mr. Begay, and he was kind enough to answer them. Big excitement at Harford Hills E.S!
Here is some of that conversation:
Harford Hills Fourth Grade: How do you come up with your ideas?
Shonto Begay: I want to share the moments we all are compelled to laugh as well as to cry. To fear and to feel the magical caress of stories, that is my intent.
"Down Highway 163" is a stretch of road between Kayenta, Arizona and Moab, Utah, through some of the most spectacular landscape on earth.
HH Fourth Grade: Many students had questions about the old woman in the painting, who is also described in your poem. Is she is a real person, someone you know or observed?
Shonto Begay: The painting is an homage to the strength of mothers here where the highway ends and the true west begins.
It was painted with the idea in mind of that perseverance that the maternal part of my history is so well defined. Her intensity of this strength and compassion shows on her face, not to be confused with anger or anything negative. She has journeyed far, sometimes in the back of pickup trucks. The young and untested children might be in front.
She knows it has been colder.
HH Fourth Grade: Did you make the painting first, and then write about it? Or did you write the poem and then do the picture?
Shonto Begay: The words came later. Paint with a story or a voice in mind. Heed those magical moments. [Yours] are the Voices that need to be heard. Most of us seem to do it well through the arts.
Author Amok: I read students a portion of your biographical statement from Navajo. They were surprised to hear that from age five you were not allowed to speak your native language at government boarding school, and that your parents were not allowed to visit. They asked, was it hard growing up?
Shonto Begay: My voice, once forbidden spoken in my language, is now what I will always celebrate -- what I aways have buried deep and safe within, in times it felt threatened, in my youth.
Mr. Begay, thank you very much for your openness and taking this time to share with students. The message you sent them -- about the importance of sharing their voices -- made a huge impression on the fourth graders.
Late last night, the local poetry community started spreading the sad news that poet Lucille Clifton died yesterday morning.
She was a resident of Howard County, Maryland, where I live. Clifton was beloved for her active support of local poets and literary groups.
Lucille Clifton's poetry had a raw honesty. When she spoke to an audience, you knew right away that the honesty of her poems equalled great personal bravery.
I was lucky enough to interview Clifton for a Baltimore Sun article about the 2002 Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival, where she was a featured poet.
She said, "Poetry speaks to something in us that so wants to be filled. It speaks to the great hunger of the soul and I define soul in a broad way.”
When I asked her about her popularity with Dodge attendees (Clifton appeared at every festival but the first, 1986), she said, "I do seem to have an audience that cares about me...I don’t quite know why. I’d like to think it’s because what I write about is about being human. . . I invite humans to join me there in that place where we are human.”
I am celebrating the life and work of Lucille Clifton with her poem,"Blessing the Boats."
blessing the boats
by Lucille Clifton
(at St. Mary's)
may the tide
that is entering even now
the lip of our understanding
carry you out
beyond the face of fear
may you kiss
the wind then turn from it
certain that it will
love your back
Children's writers who follow this blog might know that Lucille Clifton was also an author for children. In addition to her National Book Award and being a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist for her poetry, Clifton's picture book, Everett Anderson's Goodbye is a Coretta Scott King award-winner. The Boy Who Didn't Believe in Spring is a favorite at our house.
May the tide that she is entering even now love her
Susan at GottaWriteGirl tagged me. I’m not sure what being tagged means, but I’m willing to play along. If you haven’t seen Susan’s site, check it out. http://www.gottawritegirl.com/. It’s a must read for children’s authors (like me) in pursuit of that first book contract.
I’m tagging some writing friends to join the game: Gina Hagler, http://ginahagler.blogspot.com/, Mary Bowman-Kruhmhttp://marybk.blogspot.com/, Lois Szymanskihttp://loisszymanski.blogspot.com/, Cynthia Lord http://cynthialord.livejournal.com/.
1. What do you do before bedtime? As soon as the kids turn their lights out, I read. On my bedside table now: a book of Tolstoy novellas. I’m up to “The Cossacks.” My favorite piece was “Happy Ever After” because of its insights into marriage. Just finished Kevin Crossley-Holland’s wonderful Arthur series.
2. What is your favorite sound? “I’m afraid even I really just don’t know” -- my kids (ages 8 and 11) quoting Monty Python sketches. Makes me feel like I'm being true to myself as a mom.
3. What were your childhood fears? Being “It.” Playing Truth or Dare with mean girls.
4. What place have you visited that you can't forget and want to go back? England. We used to visit our grandparents there every year until I was in high school. Have you ever seen the movie “Shadowlands” with Debra Winger & Anthony Hopkins? It’s about Narnia author C.S. Lewis and his marriage to an American poet. I was bawling before the opening credits ended. The rolling green landscape did me in.
5. What has made you unhappy these days? Mean people. See #3. They never went away. I’m just better at dealing with them.
6. What websites do you visit daily? I find technology overwhelming. Keeping up a blog takes up a crazy amount of time. I still read a print newspaper every day. Does that count?
7. What kind of person do you think the person who tagged you is? Susan and I met briefly at the MD/DE/WV SCBWI conference. She’s cute. She’s enthusiastic. She’s determined to reach her goal of seeing her YA novel published. What’s not to like?
8. What’s the last song that got stuck in your head? Seal’s cover of “Lips Like Sugar” on the 50 First Dates Soundtrack. (Susan -- you're mention of Elton John's Sugar Bear triggered this.) The original song is by Echo & the Bunnymen. I loved them in high school. Now, their music is kind of scary and jarring. But I love Seal’s version and this entire soundtrack. Modern reggae-style remakes of 80s tunes? Totally Rad.
9. What’s your favorite item of clothing? I have a blue ¾ sleeve t-shirt that looks sort of like clouds. It’s got some Asian-inspired artwork on it. I love it. I would wear it every day, but that would be gross.
10. What is your dream for the future? I’ll quote GwG’s “To publish my first YA (or any) novel.” I’m five years into this adventure, with magazine credits under my belt. Still working toward that first contract.
Thanks for the game, Susan. (Find Susan's response to these questions here: http://gottawritegirl.blogspot.com/2008/09/game-on.html)
Writing Exercise (Middle School and Up)
Ask your fiction character the above questions. You are the tagger. He or she is the tagee.
An alternative for kid lit & YA authors: what would happen if your character played "Truth or Dare" with a mean girl?
so much depends
upon
a red mini
van
filled with
women
who publish
children’s books
A few weeks ago, my straight-off-the-lot Toyota Sienna had some unusual passengers.
I’d volunteered to chauffeur a carload of children’s lit agents, editors and authors to the airport/train station near my house. They were in Maryland for our regional SCBWI (http://www.scbwi.org/) conference. In the back, where my kids usually sit: Linda Pratt of Sheldon Fogelman Agency, Martha Mihalick of Greenwillow, and Aimee Friedman – Scholastic editor and YA author. Riding shotgun, none other than Newbery Honor winner Cynthia Lord. Wow.
I listened to their shoptalk. Chimed in about hot titles and favorite reads in children’s books. But the most fascinating topic that came up is what I am calling literary cross-dressing.
The conversation began with Kevin Henkes. The picture book author is also an award-winning children’s novelist (not to mention a hottie, according to my passengers). I loved his Newbery Honor winner Olive’s Ocean. The book is told in third person, but the limited omniscient narrator sticks to the thoughts and experiences of adolescent Martha Boyle. The voice is so true to girlhood that Aimee Friedman said her reaction to the book was, “How did Kevin Henkes get inside my head?”
I wish I had written down the lengthy list of male authors who the experts in my car said write great female protagonists. However, when I asked about women who write well in boys’ voices, it was quiet enough to hear my van’s brand-new engine humming.
“J.K. Rowling,” someone offered. Lots of agreement. Then…not much else. “Why is that?” I asked, realizing that the novel and two picture books I’ve been shopping around all feature boys.
The conversation stuck with me. Why do so few women write in boys’ voices? Is it that hard to do?
Maybe you’re like me – growing up with sibs of the opposite sex. I did not realize until I was an adult and an author how fascinated I’d been with my brothers, how deeply I remember their adventures and quirks and mishaps. Probably because they were so strangely different from me. (You'd never catch me with a pair of y-fronts on my head, pummeling my brother in a mock pro-wrestling match.)
Some cross-dressed reading to check out, in addition to Olive’s Ocean: Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy is third person omniscient, but pre-adolescent Lyra is the central character in the story; Nancy Springer’s realistic YA novel, Toughing It; Wendelin Van Draanen’s middle grade novel, Flipped, alternates between the female and male first person narrators; William Carlos William’s poem, “The Widow’s Lament in Springtime,” is one of my favorites -- the speaker of the poem is a woman; classics like Anna Karenina and Madame Bovary. Love, Stargirl, by Jerry Spinelli. To my mind, Stargirl was a better read because the male narrator guided the reader as he tried to understand Stargirl.
If you think of more good reads, send a comment. Or maybe you know of a book where literary cross-dressing does not work – a male author just couldn’t pull off that female voice (or vice versa).
Driving home one afternoon, I saw a familiar looking boy. He was holding a broken geode in his hands – each of his upturned palms holding half of the stone.
I kept one hand on the wheel and started scribbling in my notebook. I knew this boy. It was Archie Nagle, eleven-year-old hero of the children’s novel I’d been working on. He was in my vision as clearly as the traffic light ahead of me.
The light turned red, giving me enough time to ask, “Why is Archie holding a geode? What does it mean?” Another flash. The stone split in two meant Archie was a twin. Had been a twin (duh! Why didn’t I know this two drafts ago?) He lost a brother before the story opens. My light-hearted middle grade novel suddenly had a heart.
Where do these creative flashes of story come from? Last weekend, I was amok in New Hampshire, hoping to find out. My friend Jennie and I headed to Squam Lake for a workshop with master storyteller and musician, Odds Bodkin.
Odds has been a professional teller for 30 years. Before the workshop, Jennie and I (like the former English teachers we are) looked up “Odds Bodkin” in the dictionary. It’s a mild curse. Think “Holy cow!” in the 1600s. It’s a good thing we did our homework. When a guy greets you with: Call me “Odds,” you don’t ask why.
Odds doesn’t script his stories or write the accompanying music. He knows the basic plot and characters, but tells a tale differently each time he sits in front of an audience, adding details, dialogue, and a soundtrack (on guitar, harp or kalimba) as the Muse strikes him.
As opposed to TV and video games, Odds said that tellers of tales “go right down into this ancient tap root in children’s minds” that activates cognitive areas screen-entertainment misses. Hooray for the children’s authors among us! Stories, especially spoken stories, tap into more than kids’ visual imaginations. Stories can activate our hearing memory, sense of taste and smell -- even create physical sensations. To prove the point, Odds described eating a slice of pizza. Granted, it was right before lunch, but all it took was the words “gooey cheese” and my mouth was watering. (Odds Bodkin! that was tasty.)
Odds also talked about two creative styles. Some of us are like Mozart, who transcribed his compositions whole and perfect: “The Witness.” I’m not big on the Muse concept, but I knew what Odds was talking about. Many of us compose paragraphs or poems in our minds without writing a word down – often unaware that we are doing so – until the piece is close to perfect. When my mind produced the image of Archie holding his broken geode, I was acting as Witness.
The other creative style is “The Director.” This is the skill I use when writing non-fiction -- putting facts, quotes and description together as if they were pieces in a jigsaw puzzle. I was relieved when Odds told us that Beethoven composed music this way. He made it clear that, as a storyteller, being a Witness is no better or worse than being a Director. In fact, most creative folks use a combination of the two styles in their work.
Okay, readers. Are you more of a Witness or a Director?
This Week’s Writing Exercise (Appropriate for All Ages & Levels)
Don’t Write! Imagine
We often ask students, and ourselves, to be imaginative when writing. But imagination without boundaries can be uncomfortable. After all, our imaginations produce nightmares.
Here is one of Odds’ best recommendations from the storytelling workshop: when you’re asking someone to use his/her imagination, start with a familiar setting to warm-up those mental muscles.
So, put away the notebook and pencil while you try this exercise in sensory imagination (adapted from Odds Bodkin’s workshop). You can take notes later.
Sit quietly, close your eyes and imagine that you are in your bedroom. Your bare feet are standing on a low marble pedestal. Turn slowly – 360 degrees – and take in every detail of the room. Not just the pictures on the walls and the colors of the bed spread, but also any smells, and the temperature of the air.
You notice a light coming from under the bed. Filled with curiosity, you step off the pedestal. You move the bed aside with one hand – it’s as light as an empty box and glides across the floor. There, where you expected to see carpet or planks of wood, is a window. What a strange place for a window! How can sunlight be shining through a window in your floor? You kneel down beside the window and see…
this is the tricky part, writers. Without composing a story, let your imagination see, feel, hear, taste and smell whatever is beyond that window. Let us know what’s out there.
Next Week: Amok in Men’s Clothes (Literary Cross-Dressing)
