Adventures leaving a Writing Retreat

 In the =It's always something category. I didn't worry about Kindling Words staff not giving us lunches to take with us, because I thought I'd get some food at the airport or on the plane. But when I got to the airport, all the food places were using computer screen ordering instead of people, so - not wanting to touch something that thousands of others had touched, I decided to wait to eat on the plane. A few minutes before the plane was to let us get on, we all got messages that there would be no food or snacks or anything on the plane because that service was on strike. (and the closest food place to the plane was about a half mile back into the airport, so we didn't have time to go buy food) Luckily, they offered us water bottles on the plane, so I survived on bottled water until I got home. 

Despite not having eaten for hours, when I weighed myself at home, it turns out that I may have gained about 5 pounds at Kindling Words. Wonderful time, great food, and got a draft of my book done.

Banned books experiences

 Speaking of banned books:

I was refused access to books several times.
1- in second grade I was reading my way through the Wizard of Oz series (I loved the illustrations, too) and when I tried to check out the fourth or fifth of the series, the volunteer running our tiny public library in our tiny town took it away from me. This is a fourth grade book. If YOU take it, you'll be denying someone who has the right to read it.  
2. Elementary schools didn't have school libraries or librarians in the 1940s, so no access there.
3. In fifth grade, my father had a meeting of his astronomy club (only adult men attending) in the public library, so he took be along so that I could browse the children's department and find books for me to read while I waited for him. But the children's librarian didn't work that evening so THE CHILDREN'S DEPARTMENT WAS CLOSED. The librarian (or circulation person) that was there grudgingly let me read a magazine, but only one that she picked out, not the more interesting one that I wanted to read.

Adventures with washing machines

 I had my old Maytag washer for over 40 years.  Of course it helped that my husband had been a washing machine repairman in college.  But when I moved across the country, I decided to get a new one when I bought a new home.  So I bought a Whirlpool.

It wasn't as good as my old machine, but no washers are these days what with using so many plastic parts instead of the old, sturdy metal ones.  And over the years it got louder and louder.  Plus, since I live in a one level, small house, the washer is right there in the middle of the house.

I had it fixed once, but recently the noise of the spin cycle was so loud that I wanted to leave the house while it ran.  So I called the repairman.  Repairman said the cost of a temporary fix would be over $700 and buying a new one would also be about that much so he recommended buying new.

So, I went down to Lowe's and examined the new machines.  Too many were digital. The Whirlpool in my price range had a removable agitator (???? why?) and was semi-digital and the activating buttons weren't buttons at all.  So I wandered around.  (mainly because it took a half hour before I could flag down a sales person.)

It's probably a good thing that I had to wait so long for service, because in my wandering I found a Maytag that worked on analog with clicking controls, easy to use.  Since Maytag is made by Whirlpool these days, that's the one I bought.

It was delivered today (one day delivery!) and I discovered that my previous washer/ dryer set was the extra large set, but this new Maytag was the smaller version.  But, I'm okay with it, because I had been doing mostly small washes anyway. (We'll see just how well it handles a towel load, though.)

What I have to mainly watch out for now, is the fact that there now is a wide gap between the washer/ dryer and things might drop there.  But being a wide gap, it should be easy to get anything that falls with my grabber.

So, now I can't wait to try out my new washer!

How long does it take to write a picture book?

 I love telling how long it took to write my first published picture book. It took 20 minutes. 

(and my husband tried to tell me something and I kept saying, wait. just wait. I've got to get it down. When I finished it, he said, "Did you know that eggs will explode in the microwave?" yes, then I had to go clean up the microwave.)  

But wait -- it then took several years of REVISiON. So , did it take 20 minutes, or 3-4 years?

How long does it take to write a picture book?

 I love telling how long it took to write my first published picture book.

 It took 20 minutes. (and my husband tried to tell me something and I kept saying, wait. just wait. I've got to get it down. When I finished it, he said, "Did you know that eggs will explode in the microwave?" yes, then I had to go clean up the microwave.) 

But wait -- it then took several years of REVISiON. So , did it take 20 minutes, or 3-4 years? 

Boys and books - memories

We were talking on FaceBook about boys and books and it kicked off a memory:

When I spent a week doing author presentations about writing books (featuring my books) to various Chicago Libraries as part of their Summer Reading program in the early 2000s, at one library the audience was full of boys from a summer camp. Boy Scout or some other camp.

  As usual, after discussing my other books, when I got to discussing picture books I began by reading Busy Toes which was created by three of us - Mary Bowman-Kruhm, Claudine Wirths, and me under the pen name of C.W. Bowie.  (Yes, I'm the W part.)  Then I talked about how we discussed what to write next and began thinking of things we could do with our fingers. At this point in my presentation I always ask the children in the audience to think of things we could do with our fingers.

Well!  Those boys kept coming up with outrageous suggestions.  I kept my face serious and receptive (while giggling inside) and kept saying, "Ya know, we just didn't think of that one."  Meanwhile the librarian at that branch in the back of the room had turned around to face the back wall -- she was either so embarrassed, or was also giggling.  She worried I'd be offended by their suggestions.   :)

Not to worry.  I'd been a Children's Librarian too long not to be aware of the things boys can think up.

Memories of snow

 With all the snow (and rain) hitting the west coast, I was remembering when we were hit with lots of snow in Maryland:  

We got over 5 feet of snow once just outside of Baltimore, Maryland. It was not fun shoveling out. My husband would wake up every few hours to start up the snow blower to make a path to get the latest layer off the sidewalk from the driveway to our house. But when daylight came, we had to use hand shovels to clear off the driveway all the way up a small hill to the road. Then the snowplow would come by and block our driveway entrance with ice and snow and we had to break through that - several times during the day. 

Not to mention that my boss kept calling, trying to convince me to get to work, but it went to the recording because we were outside shoveling. When we took a break, we listened to her messages, most of which were her YELLING -- Wendie! Pick up! Pick up the phone! Stupid lady had some strange idea that we could hear her telephone recording (which we couldn't - it was being recorded) and were purposefully ignoring her. She had made it to work because she lived near the bay and the branch library where I worked was near the bay and had gotten much less snow.