BookLust

BiblioQuotes 13

"Of course it's alright for librarians to smell of drink."

– Barbara Pym

I'm Drawn to You 4

 
Been trying to make more time in my life for just 'drawing for the sake of drawing'. Here's my latest I'm Drawn to You subject. No guessing games this time – for those not in the know, it be the witty and wonderful Dorothy Parker, who throughout her writing career was known for her caustic and witty quotes. (Though she was truly a very talented writer, and like Oscar Wilde to some degree, was sometimes labelled as a literary lightweight, I think).

That's not to say that I do not enjoy Ms. Parker's numerous clever quotes. My favourite one by far:

The two most beautiful words in the English language are 'check enclosed.'

Pirate and Penguin on TV!

Hoopdeedoo! CTV British Columbia has done a segment about The Best Books of 2011 by the Canadian Toy Testing Council. Great recommendations for Christmas presents, folks!

Check it out!

Hoopdeedo!

Random Readings 32

People write books for children and other people write about the books written for children but I don't think it's for the children at all. I think that all the people who worry so much about the children are really worrying about themselves, about keeping their world together and getting the children to help them do it, getting the children to agree that it is indeed a world. Each new generation of children has to be told: 'This is a world, this is what one does, one lives like this.' Maybe our constant fear is that a generation of children will come along and say: 'This is not a world, this is nothing, there's no way to live at all.'

– From Turtle Diary by Russell Hoban (photo is a still from the movie, starring Glenda Jackson as Neaera).

Blast From the Pirate & Penguin Past

Inspired by the delightful sketches of artist Werner Zimmerman from his wonderfully illustrated book, A Porcupine in a Pine Tree (written by the fantabulous Helaine Becker!), I thought it might be fun to share some early stage sketch ideas from my book The Pirate and the Penguin.

This is the first sketch I ever did of the two main characters. They've changed a bit since then, but I actually think that in some ways they haven't changed that much (other than getting gradually shorter and squatter over time). Looking at these sketches just confirms for me my belief in being really loose and relaxed and playful when starting on any creative project. Have fun and be goofy and silly – that's when some really interesting things can happen on the page (hmmmm ...maybe I should use these same concepts when approaching my writing, no?).

In the next sketch, you can see Pirate has started to shrink and widen, soon to become that charming little purple and green gumdrop...

Until at last – ta da! Those wonderful chubby, slightly crabby cuties appear...

I think all us creative folk need to remind ourselves when starting anything new that perfection on the page is probably the most non-creative approach to have. None of us are perfect people – like my loosy-goosy rough drawings, we gradually grow into who we are going to become (which hopefully is a positive growth!). We shouldn't expect perfection from ourselves (or others), so why should we expect perfection from our creative endeavours, especially in the early baby step stages? And yes, this post is really a conversation I'm having with myself a lot these days.

Ok, back to work, and remember, kids – have fun!