Posts by slthomson@earthlink.net

First Moments

Posted by Sarah L. Thomson on Dec 11, 2019 in Writing Process | Comments Off on First Moments

A little green bee-eater in Keoladeo Bird Sanctuary, India. Tiny and vivid and swift–a perfect metaphor for a writer’s first fleeting idea for a new story.

I was talking with my writers’ group yesterday about that moment when an idea starts to form in your head. You’re thrilled yet anxious–what if you get distracted and it vanishes? What if what seems wonderful and glowing and yes! at this moment turns out to be absurd or embarrassing or just plain stupid a little later on, in the cold light of reason?

One of my friends quoted C. S. Lewis, saying that this moment is like birdwatching–you see something precious and beautiful and rare alight near you, but you know you can’t grab at it or you’ll lose it. So you sit, quietly, patiently, and then another image comes to join the first, and another, and you have it–the story. The start.

Another said it wasn’t images that she saw, but a mood she sensed–lightthearted and zany, sad but tough, tender and funny. This makes sense because I’ve yet to see her write two stories that are similar. Each one has a unique emotional hue.

For me, it’s a character–actually, it’s a sense of a character’s journey, like a glimmering thread. I can get this person from HERE to THERE. I’m not sure how or what will happen along the way, but I can glimpse the path we’re going to travel on.

Fingers Crossed

Posted by Sarah L. Thomson on Dec 3, 2019 in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Fingers Crossed

The choice of an artist really creates a picture book–it doesn’t truly exist until art and words come together. The lovely and talented Erin Robinson is considering illustrating one of my picture book manuscripts at the moment. With her it would be a dreamy, rich, poetic, evocative, emotional book. Keep your fingers crossed, everyone–I really want to see the book that would result from her art and my words!

Thankful For…

Posted by Sarah L. Thomson on Nov 28, 2019 in Children's Literature, Inspiration, What I've Been Reading | Comments Off on Thankful For…

Readers.
Readers who take a chance with a new book they might just like.
Readers who cling to dogeared favorites with covers worn shabby and soft.
Readers who cry when a favorite characters dies.
Readers who cry when the dog dies. (That’s me.)
Readers who can’t wait for the next book in the sequel.
Readers who make my job possible.
Readers who will turn into the next generation of writers.

Thank you.

You Can Never Go Back

Posted by Sarah L. Thomson on Nov 21, 2019 in Childhood, Children's Literature, Uncategorized | Comments Off on You Can Never Go Back

So many wonderful lines in this amazing essay by Anya Jaremko-Greenwold, I can’t keep myself from quoting:

I’d trade sex and booze and wisdom—all the best parts about being Grown—if I could have back [childhood]. Colors brighter, smells stronger, days bleeding on forever, and oh . . . reading. In childhood, there’s almost nothing to keep you from reading.

Kid’s books are where I personally learned most everything important about the world: About rape and sinister men from Beatrix Potter’s Jemima Puddle-Duck; about eroticism from Sendak’s In the Night Kitchen; about feminism from P.L Travers’ maverick goddess Mary Poppins; about loss and the unceasing progress of time from E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web.

And lots more. Go read it!

You Can Never Go Back: On Loving Children’s Books as an Adult