First Day of School approaches

It's getting close to the beginning of school (happens in 2 weeks) and the teen is suddenly muttering, "I'm going to be a Senior this year. I have to look Good!"

(I see a shopping trip in our future.)

Have a great Fourth

Writer's Quotes

Maya Angelou:

We may encounter many defeats, but we must not be defeated.

I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud.

Writer's Quotes

David Foster Wallace:

I just think that fiction that isn't exploring what it means to be human today isn't art.

Fiction is about what it is to be a human being

Writer's Quotes

Louisa May Alcott:

I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship.

Far away, there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations.  I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.

hmmm, that one reminds me of the motto the class of 1961 at Parkersburg High School which went something like this:  A man's grasp must always exceed his reach.
Actually, I never understood it. These days, I'm only slightly beginning to understand it.
I think Louisa May Alcott's statement makes much more sense.

A little bit about ME

                           (photograph by Roxyanne Young)

I was the oldest of 4 children, so you know who was in charge of the other children - me. Babysitter. Wasn't asked back to babysit for several people which was fine with me because their kid(s) were brats. 
Since I was used to handling my own siblings, I wasn't taking any guff from those brats, so they complained to their parents that I was mean. (It's quite a surprise the first time you see a kid who seemed to be enjoying you babysitting suddenly burst out with -fake- tears them minute the parents come home.) I was quite willing to never go back to those families. 　 
In high school, although I was on the academic track, I worked in the cafeteria to help out with lunch (free food was always good), and then discovered that others got leave from school in December to go work at stores in the downtown. I joined that group and learned all about working the Christmas rush. fun!
I wrote my first stories those last years of high school.
In college my first year I was student assistant to the Journalism teacher. Every summer during my college years I worked at a photo developing place. Black and white photography. It was quite exciting when color photography was invented and the public began using it. Only the more experienced workers were allowed to work on that side of the building, but every so often I helped there as well.
My Senior year of college I worked at the top of the library building recording and organizing the collection of donated papers and photographs. Worked with some very interesting Civil War letters. (I was a History major)
In 1966, I got married to another history major, Francis Elbert Old III (otherwise known as Chip Old).
My first year of grad school (as a history major, again) I worked as a secretary in another college building. (only was asked to make coffee once. Since I don't drink coffee, I knew not how to make it, and they never asked me again. A new invention was installed in the building and I was nominated to learn how to use it. It was the very first word processor, called the MT/ST (Magnetic Tape/Selectric Typewriter).  
Then we both got accepted to library school in anther state - Kentucky - UK.
We needed jobs as well, so with my store experience (see high school above) and my husband's warehouse experience (and washing machine repairman) we both got jobs at the Stewart's department store in downtown Lexington. Eventually we got a scholarship and an assistantship and completed our Masters in Library Science and both began working for Baltimore County Public Library in Maryland. 
He became a branch manager and I retired to have children.
While they were growing up, I wrote, worked part-time as a librarian, and did some substitute teaching at my daughter's middle school, much to her embarrassment. (evidently what they wanted subs to do was show up and show movies - I could do that.)
I also worked part time as a reporter doing feature writing for the local neighborhood newspaper - the Parkville Reporter.

When our kids wanted to go to college, I went back to full-time work - as a children's librarian in another county to the north - Harford County Public Library. One of the reasons the head of the Children's department hired me was because she knew that I had organized several library and children's literature conventions. (also a National car convention - The New England MG'T' Register.)
Meanwhile, I was being published - first in children's magazines, and in the 1990s, a good many books. (My first books were easy readers for the Reading Roots - Shared Stories program.)

I retired from Harford County Public Library in 2011, but now was raising a second generation. (She's now a teenager - and driving.)
And I earned another degree - I received master's degree in writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts, Writing for Children and Young Adults in 2015.
So that's me - mom, grandmom, children's librarian, writer, teacher, Girl Scout Leader, secretary, sales clerk, etc., etc., etc.

Writer's Quotes

From Franz Kafka

Start with what is right rather than what is acceptable.  (which might explain his use of a insect as a main character)

In the struggle between yourself and the world, second the world.

From a certain point onward there is no longer any turning back.  That is the point that must be reached.