Dancing until Midnight!

Last night VCFA's fourth semester class threw a costume party to honor the graduating seniors. We all got to dress up as our favorite book character from childhood. I went as none other than Jo from LITTLE WOMEN. Louisa Mae Alcott is my hero and she is Jo. When I was in second grade, I discovered INVINCIBLE LOUISA--an old biography about Louisa as a child with a voracious need to tell stories. I loved her and still do.

The party was hopping and a few of the first semester students agreed to let me post pictures of them here. Thanks! My battery was low so the flash wasn't working, but you get the idea.

Meet the Pippi's and Fancy Nancy. True confession. I made my dress in high school for the 4-H Dress Review.

Ah, now here's all three Pippi's in the shot. True confession number #2, I won the 4-H Dress Review.

Ah, those darn Pippi's. Obviously Team Jacob!

Okay, from right to left. Me as Jo March, Harry, Hermione, and the end papers from A VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR. Bella and Edward were there, too, but they just stood around glaring at people. 

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.

CAYMAN SUMMER, A WHITNEY AWARD NOMINEE

I'm excited to announce that CAYMAN SUMMER is an official Whitney Award nominee. Thanks to all of you who nominated it. And thank you to the wonderful community of readers who found this blog and followed while I wrote it. You added so much. If I could, I'd write all my books on the blog.

I'm packing my bags for another trip before I'm done blogging about my last big adventure. I'm going to save the pictures and story of my journey through Jerusalem for Easter. It's perfect to post around then. Meanwhile, I'm planning some new contests to keep things lively while I wait for word about SLIPPED and MY ONLY LOVE. I pray we have good news about them soon.

So, where am I headed? I'm leaving beautiful, sunny Arizona . . .

This is a sunset shot I took from my front yard. I love the desert. Especially in January!

And flying until midnight tomorrow night to get to Montpelier, Vermont for Vermont College of Fine Art's winter residency.

This is Vermont College last time I was there--in the summer.

I get to be a graduate assistant and help the incoming MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults candidates. It's supposed to be sunny--at least for a few days--but it's going to below freezing and will probably snow by the end of the week. I love Vermont College. It's worth getting cold to get to spend ten days with the best children's writers and faculty in the world. My time at Vermont College changed my life. I'm excited to reconnect with my mentors and mentor some younger writers. I'll try to post pictures (of all that snow!) and some reminiscences while I'm there. 

Michael was born in a free write during my very first Vermont College residency. Leesie evolved in response to him. I wrote the poem about her experience with her grandmother after I had a similar experience at 3 a.m. in one those old dorm rooms. Wow, that was ten years ago this July. My grandmother still inspired me. I hope to start work on a middle grade novel inspired by my grandmother's illness told from my mother's point of view. Maybe I'll get some work on that done while I'm in Vermont. I'll keep you posted. 

One thing I always do at Vermont is write poetry. Mostly poetry about writing. Here's one of my favorites.

Muse at Midnight

Settling to sleeping stillness--

     fresh and tingling clear words

             f

               a

                 l

                   l

                       

splattering 

in a foaming tumble

crashing

swirling

in a whirlpool torrent

sucking me

            d

              o

                w

                   n

        up

churning, casting me

onto the page

beached and breathless,

aching,

bruised,

Awakened.

The Jordan River

Happy New Year! I hope you are all blessed with health and happiness and lots of love in 2012. Thanks to the followers who entered my Christmas Week contest. You all win! YAY!

This is our last stop in Galilee--the Jordan River. There are two sites that claim to be the place where John the Baptist baptized Jesus in the Jordan River. It's all speculation and no one really knows. Our guide said he was probably baptized at the site closer to Jerusalem--where the Jordan River empties into the Dead Sea. We got there after dark, so couldn't see a lot. I just wanted to touch the water!

There's an area cordoned off so people can get in and be baptized. They rent white clothes at the huge gift shop. Yes, those heads are people in the water.

There was some kind of creature--muskrat or something like it--swimming in the river. You can't  quite make it out.

This is the view upriver. I prefer this shot because it feels less commercialized and more authentic. John and Jesus could step out of the trees and right into the water.

On our way out, look what we found. A tree planted at the site by Glenn Beck on his trip to Israel last summer. Had to chuckle at that!

After a thorough search of the gift shop that yielded a very cute camel dress-up hat for my Nativity dress-up collection, we hopped on our bus and drove through the night two hours to Jerusalem. We ate a quick dinner and then the bus took us to an amazing olive wood shop. But we left our cameras at the hotel, so I don't have pictures of it. We bought a beautiful nativity carved of olive wood. The owner, an Islamic Arab, told us the shop where it was carved is in Bethlehem. Bethlehem is in the Palestinian controlled area, so to go there you have to plan to spend a few hours going through the checkpoint. We only had two days in Israel, so we couldn't go to the Savior's birthplace, so it was lovely to bring home a piece of it with us. 

Yes, we did all of this in one day. Our heads were spinning. We spent the next day in Jerusalem. Watch for that in upcoming posts.

The Sermon on the Mount

One last stop in Galilee. After our boat ride, we hurried on to the beautiful gardens where Jesus' Sermon on the Mount is commemorated.

Much of Galilee is lush and tropical like this. Our guide told us the Israeli's planted six million trees at the birth of their country to commemorate the six million of their brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers who were slain in the Holocaust. Since then, they have planted an additional 100 million trees. It is beautiful!

Here I am on the path through the garden.

I was honored to read the Beatitudes from Matthew 5 to the rest of our group.

Here's the Sea of Galilee from the Mount of Beatitudes. We were constantly drawn to it.

Since this is our last stop in Galilee, I'm going to share a poem I wrote years ago. I found the first draft and cringed a little, but then I found a revision that I'm pleased to share with you today. 

Walking on Water

If I could paint

the boatload of apostles

on the Sea of Galilee,

the wind,

the boisterous waves,

I wouldn’t paint Peter walking alone.

I wouldn’t paint him sinking in fear.

I wouldn’t paint, “O ye of little Faith.”

I’d paint the Savior catching him.

I’d paint them walking back to the boat—

together.

I’d paint the dry sandals and robes,

of the eleven tucked safely away in the ship.

I’d paint their faces longing 

to be out there with the Lord--

like Peter. 

Have a very happy New Year! There's about 24 more hours left to nominate CAYMAN SUMMER for the Whitney Award. And don't forget to enter my Christmas Week Giveaway. You have until January 3rd for that.

We Danced Where Jesus Walked

The highlight of our first day in Israel was a boat trip on the Sea of Galilee. This beautiful, freshwater lake is where Jesus calmed the storm and on another occasion walked on water.

I love Peter because he tried to join the Savior. Peter had enough faith to get out of the boat. The rest of the apostles kept the firm wooden keel underneath their feet. Peter failed, but the Savior caught him. Good lesson for all of us, don't you think?

Swimmers in the Sea of Galilee.

Here's our boat coming in to pick us up. Archeologists found a wooden boat buried in the mud of the lake that they believe dates to the time of Jesus near here. There is a museum that displays the excavated boat. Our boat was modern, but built of wood and reminiscent of boats that plied these waters in Jesus' time. 

Here's me and my husband waiting to board our boat.

A good view of the old-fashioned boats. 

Don Perry, again, reminding us of events that took place on this sea. You can see the interior of the boat.

View from the boat in the middle of the Sea of Galilee. It was breathtaking.

Here I am with the Galilean hills in the background.

When we got out on the water, after Don spoke, we sang, "Master the tempest is raging," and then sat and enjoyed the peaceful place. Our hosts, who were Hebrew or Israeli, played some lovely music.

Another boat on the water.

We had several minutes to ponder enjoying scared music, but then our hosts got us all on our feet. We stood in a big circle and danced to, "Hava Nagila." (I know I'm spelling that I'll wrong. I'll have to look it up!) The dancing was so much fun. So now, I can say, we danced where Jesus walked!

Wooden floor of the boat--perfect for dancing!

The sun was setting as we returned.

Quite some time ago, I wrote a poem about Peter walking on the water. I'll try to find it and post it tomorrow.

Don't forget to enter the Christmas Week Giveaway! The New Year is just three days away. Wow, 2012! Are you ready for it?