A Difficult Week

This past week has been quite difficult. My mother-in-law was in the hospital and hospice was called in for my brother-in-law, John. Despite these difficulties, I was able to find comfort in the facts that my mother-in-law is now home recovering and we were able to visit with John right before he left the rest home and opted for hospice.

I have always admired John for his loving spirit, his musical talent, and above all, his complete faith in an unseen Heavenly Father. This is a faith shared by my husband, daughter and I as well as our family. It is the reason that John, despite incredible pain and weakness of body, smiled at us the entire time we visited him. It is the reason for the unexplainable peace he had about dying. And the belief that we will one day see him again makes the loss that we are going to soon experience a bit more endurable.

Unfortunately these events meant I was unable to visit the library and gather a new stack of books to review, but I am put in mind of a wonderful book by a friend of mine that explains the concept of life and death to children. It is entitled The Life of Bud and is the story of a leaf from formation to falling from the tree. 

Well, that about wraps it up for this week. Join me next week, same crazy time, same crazy channel. Also be sure to drop by Literacy Musings Mondays for more great blogs as well as my personal website Fun With Aileen where you will find more on reading, writing, and my very own chapter and picture books. And finally, you can find me on twitter if you want an extremely brief glimpse into my days.

Friends

Everybody wants to find a really good friend or two, and while I do have a some very wonderful local friends, I've also been blessed with a small group of literary besties. It has been my good fortune to be able to meet and hang out with these  fantastic people at events I attend. This weekend I attended such an event when I participated in the Marion Library's Read Local Author Fair, and I was thrilled to see my fellow Ohio author bestie Deborah Bence Boerema, proud book mother of The Innkeeper's Dog.

Deb and I met several years ago through our publisher and have since formed a close bond. We are sounding boards for each other when things seem bleakest. We are cheerleaders for each other, encouraging continued growth in our writings. And we even share the occasional recipe. Deb's Cinnamon Raisin English Muffin Bread is divine!

Deb and I usually only see each other in the fall and once in a blue moon in the spring, but this year we are planning on attending Nerd Camp this July, and I can hardly wait. Not only will we connect with teachers, illustrators, and other authors, this will be the first true test of our friendship__ we will stay overnight in a hotel. Here's hoping that neither of us snore.

At this weekend's event, I also met my social media friend Meghan Colvin for the first time. I can already tell that Meghan is going to be part of my literary bestie group which includes Deb, author Laura Eckroat, author Lori A Moore, author Lisa Tortorello, author Phyllis Griggs, author/illustrator Mark Wayne Adams, author Gail Nall, author/illustrator David Biedrzycki, author Paul Czajak, and author David A Kelly.

 

 

 

 

This group of fabulously talented people makes me want to be a better writer, they cheer me on, they encourage me not to give up, they help me revise and polish my work, they put up with damp shoulders when I need a good cry, they give me tips for achieving better rhyme when mine stinks, and they never ever tell me I talk too much even if they're thinking it!

And so of course, this week's reading selection from my library pile is about (drum role please...) friendship. I know, shocking isn't it. The book I read is Friends to the Rescue by Suzanne Chiew. It is a beautiful story of Badger, Mouse, Hedgehog, Rabbit, and how they work together to help rescue their new friend mole. The illustrations are colorful and quite adorable to boot.

Well, that about wraps it up for this week. Join me next week for another exciting episode, same crazy time, same crazy channel. Also be sure to drop by Literacy Musings Mondays for more great blogs as well as my personal website Fun With Aileen where you will find more on reading, writing, and my very own chapter and picture books. And finally, you can find me on twitter @AileenWStewart if you want an extremely brief glimpse into my days.

Road Trippin'

I know this week's post usually comes out first thing Monday morning, but Emily and I didn't get back from our recent road trip until late Sunday evening. So here I sit scrambling to compose all of my thoughts about our visit to Hershey, Pennsylvania and the Central Massachusetts Children's Book Festival.

This year I decided instead of just going straight to the book festival, we would take two extra days and visit the delicious town of Hershey. We stayed at the Hershey Lodge which was quite nice and boasted an indoor mini water park. The water area is really geared more toward children six and under, but Emily found just enough fun stuff to entertain herself. The beds in the room, however, were a bit on the hard side. Emily flopped down on one and it did not bounce at all. Speaking of bouncing on the bed, one of the books in my review pile was called There's a Bison Bouncing on the Bed! This book was a bundle of rhyming fun which started with Bison bouncing on the bed. Friends started joining Bison on the bed and the inevitable happened__ the bed broke. The surprising part was that it wasn't Bison's bed and someone was in the bed while Bison and his friends bounced. I don't want to spoil the fun, so you will have to read this book yourself to see who became a bouncing board.

And of course it goes without saying that we went to Chocolate World. We took the mini tour and heard singing cows. We saw a four D interactive movie (which we both  highly recommend). We made our own candy bars. We took part in a research taste test/survey and earned free Hershey bars. Emily found pressed pennies for her collection. And, we shopped.

When our chocolate tanks were on full, we headed to Massachusetts for the book fest. On all of our long rides, Emily worked on a scavenger hunt and by the time we returned home, she had found twenty four out of the twenty five items. Sadly, we never saw the final item which was a moose.

The book fest was great too. I was able to spend time with one of my besties Laura Eckroat, whom I only get to see every few years. I got to chill with two of my favorite guys, David Kelly and Paul Czajak. Hanging with awesome illustrators Priscilla Alpaugh and Diane deGroat happened as well. Emily decided she needed to purchase two of David's ballpark mysteries because who doesn't love a good mystery! I purchased Paul's book, Seaver the Weaver, for my nephew; and I purchased A Simpler Time, my favorite of all Laura's books, to add to my collection of autographed kidlit!

Well, that about wraps it up for this week. Join me next week for another exciting episode, same crazy time, same crazy channel. Also be sure to drop by and join the Literacy Musing Monday Link Up where you will find other great blogs, or my personal website Fun With Aileen where you will find more on reading, writing, and my very own chapter and picture books. And finally, you can find me on twitter @AileenWStewart if you want an extremely brief glimpse into my days. 

Blog Hop...hop...hop... Apology Version

As you all know authors are a crazy lot. Recently when my good friend and totally awesome author, Laura Eckroat, invited me to blog hop with her, I completely forgot. No excuse other then the fact that I can be a scatter brain.

I found out about my blunder when I posted an article for a blog hop to which I was invited yesterday. Laura kindly re-tweeted it, and then asked if I was supposed to be hopping with her. You can well imagine my mortification when I realized what I had done. So here and now, I would like to publicly apologize for my unintentional over-site. I would also like to post what should have been posted two weeks ago.

In addition, I want to thank Laura host of  The Books of Laura Eckroat Blog for not only inviting me, but for continuing to speak to me. Laura is not only forgiving, she is one of my favorite modern day children's authors. I have read both her first book, The Life Of Bud which is an excellent story of the seasons of life as experienced by a leaf, and her second book, A Simpler Time which is the story of a mother and daughter who take time out from the hustle and bustle of  everyday life and all it's complicated technologies to enjoy the simple things. Laura has two other books about the dog she adopted which you should check out as well!

With apologies out of the way, let me take a moment to start hopping. The blog hop rules are simple. Each author answers four questions and invites three other authors to participate during the following week. My author invitations  have gone out to three very entertaining and talented authors. You will see their names, book titles and links to their sites below.

But before we get to that, I will attempt to answer those blog hop questions!

 1) What am I working on right now?

This very morning I started a PB about a pig named Percy which I intend to call Percy The Pig Takes A Bath. A friend of mine, who owns a pot bellied pig, was telling me the other day about her pig, Percy, who doesn't like to get dirty. She jokingly told me I could use any of her stories as material for my books, and so I took her up on it. The concept is that Percy is jealous of the Farmer's children who are always clean. He doesn't like to get dirty or roll in the mud like the other pigs and therefore, the other pigs make fun of him. In the end Percy;s dreams will come true, however, and he will get to take a bath!
 

 2) How do my works differ from other works in it's genre?

This is such a hard question to answer because people have written about pigs before, people have written about jealousy, and being made fun of, and pretty much anything that can be written about. So I'd have to say it is the creation of my characters and their individual personalities that sets my work apart. My only published work so far, Fern Valley - A Collection of Short Stories, also differs in that most people write either picture books or chapter books but rarely collections.

 3) Why do you write what you do?

I write children's fiction because it is my true literary love. I have never outgrown the awe I feel when I read a good children's book and I hope I never do!

 4) How does your writing process work?

I don't really have a process. I get an idea and I write. I don't write every day like many people suggest all authors should. I write until I run out of things to say and then I take a break. When something new penetrates my brain, I write some more. Sometimes I leave a project for several months, but when I lovingly come back to ten it again I am usually full of fresh ideas.

Now that you all know me a little better, I'd like to introduce my three fellow hoppers...

My first hopper is Dicy McCullough author of several children's books of which my favorite is Tired of My Bath. She is a retired music teacher who has turned her talents to writing books that encourage children. Please stop by her Dicey McCullough Blog this Tuesday when she answers her own four questions and leave her some comment love!

My next hopper is Alyssa Pierce author of the Caroline and Rebecca series. I haven't yet read the second book in the series, but I enjoyed the first book Caroline And Rebecca: Rebecca Gets In Trouble very much. Alyssa is currently blogless, something she is working on rectifying, so just stop by her FB page Alyssa Pierce, and leave her some comment love anytime this week!

And last, but certainly not least, is my third hopper Charline Profiri author of  Guess Who's In The Dessert.and Counting Little Gekos. An Award-winning children's author, Charline Profiri is a former teacher and a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. Her board book Counting Little Gekos has sold over 49,000 copies. Soon to be available, her book  Rain, Rain, Stay Today: Southwestern Nursery Rhymes will debut in 2014. Charline also lacks a blog so be sure to hop on over to her FB page Charline Profiri and give her some comment love any time this week as well.

Signing off for now with Wishes for a bright and beautiful day!