It's Snowing!

I woke up yesterday to a world of white and carried my camera around all day yesterday to capture the evidence. I hope it's sunny today because the bare tree branches are heavy with snow. Beautiful.

The view out my dorm room window yesterday morning.

College Hall in the snow.

Me all bundled up in front of Noble Hall.

And the snow kept falling. 

SING ME TO SLEEP in the VCFA Bookstore.

Our MFA program for writing for children and young adults is 15 years old this year! They commissioned the bear from the Vermont Teddy Bear Company. Doesn't it have great taste? 

Here's my radiator. It keeps my room cosy.

Here's the desk area in my dorm room,

These are the beds. I think they've upgraded the mattresses. I'm sleeping better this time.  They bought pretty, fluffy blankets for all the rooms, but the laundry they sent them out to BURNT them, so this rez we're making do with the old ones.

View of College Hall from Dewey at the end of the day. The world has turned white.

Vermont College Musings

I'm here at Vermont College of Fine Arts for their winter residency. I'm having a great time being a grad assistant. No new pictures yet. Keep forgetting. I'm enjoying being with supportive writers 24/7. Being here and listening the lectures is like having a warm dose of creative juice poured all over my head. I'm soaking it up.

The opening lecture last night got me so excited AGAIN about what I do. This is a tough, tough business, and we writers bare our soft-underbellies all the time. It's amazing to feel that what I knock my brains out trying to do has worth. Last night after the lecture I couldn't sleep. So I wrote this. It's my new anthem. Marching orders. Too bad it isn't a poem!

I love transformation. I love growth and change. I love to turn my work upside down, inside out and give it a good shake.

I love the divine creative power I'm blessed to weild. I love ending up with something so much more than I expected.

Out of pen and paper, brain and inspiration, we writers create a journey that can bring our readers to an inner awareness they've never know before--a glimpse of truth, a taste of hope.

Every time I get an email from a reader, who has had that experience reading my books, or a comment from one of you, I'm so grateful for the brief moment I was blessed to connect and commune with each individual. And I hunger for more.

When I feel like this business is too hard, the waiting too long, the mean-spirited critics too loud, I need to find that hunger, that truth, that hope. Nourish it. And release it to the world once more.

I especially love all of you. I love your patience and loyalty. I love your devotion to books--especially mine!

Next post, pictures! I promise.