I wracked my brain for two weeks, more and more frantic to think of SOMETHING that hadn’t been done before. And finally, with 36 hours to a deadline, I had it. The assignment fell in the springtime, with all my senses already heightened to the vivid new life around me, and I wrote that story in an hour. The pictures required most of the remaining hours; I hauled around my art supplies and materials and unpacked on the nearest available surface whenever I had twenty minutes to spare.
I was a high school junior, a Creative Writing student, with a children’s book to produce.
When at last I broke through the blank wall in my brain and found that story, it took up residence in my heart and has never left. I called it simply “The Dance,” and my illustration materials were equally simple: construction paper, tempera paint, oil pastels…and clear packing tape. I had to seal those pastels in somehow, and I invested what felt like a lot of my money for two or three big rolls of tape to laminate my project. I remember distinctly spending back-to-back study hall and lunch periods holed up in the back of the library, chatting with a friend while I frantically/painstakingly measured, cut, applied, and pressed out the bubbles on row after row of that tape. I finished up as the bell rang for class. I handed in that labor of love, proud and excited, knowing I had made something good.
That was just the beginning.
Yes. I’d like to buy a copy of your book😉
I will shout it from the rooftops when we’re published. Goal is Thanksgiving, in time for Christmas shopping!
I’m so excited to see this in book form!! I loved watching you create the artwork for it!!
Rhonda, the more I think about it the more I realize what a neat experience it was to work on this during the scrapbook retreats. The natural opportunity for feedback was excellent, and working on it “in public” there helped me to begin breaking out of my shyness about this whole endeavor. Thank you for being a part of this book.
Agreed!
What, really! You are marketing the children’s book you wrote in CW?
I hope I gave you an A.
Every bit of work you did in that class was as lovely as it was original.
YES! You did indeed give me an A. I have in my memory that you were the first one to suggest publishing it, but reading back through your comments I couldn’t verify that. I may need to revise how I tell the story, ha! I have edited the story and completely redone the illustrations. I am so excited for it. Your class was so fabulous; you somehow managed to inspire and pull out excellent work from all of us, even teaching vicariously while you healed from vertigo. I missed you, but I still loved that class. Thank you!