Your Daily Miracle: Vocation

Click on the book (above) to see the book trailer at Grace Lin's website.

One of my great privileges this year is reading to Beatrix's 1st grade class twice a week.  I sit in a rocking chair and they sit down on a rug in front of me.  Some of them nudge my shoes like baby goats while I read.

I started a new book, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin.  I read it last fall and just loved it; the story weaves many Chinese folk stories with the heroine's adventures to form a rich tapestry of wonder. The book contains luscious color illustrations, too.  I wondered if the parts of the story would be accessible to first graders (third grade might have been a better target, I thought, as I started reading last Friday), but the students were just mesmerized.  I loved looking up into the eyes of one boy in particular; his whole body reflected his absolute captivation.  When I finished each chapter, the students begged for more.  And as I walked out of the classroom, the boy caught me by the door: "That's a really good book," he said.  "Can you come back on Monday?"  Is there anything better than that?

I had elevenses a little late today but it was good: gooey, warm Nutella and peanut butter on toast and lemon tea with honey.  I am slightly queasy as a result but happy nonetheless.

I've procrastinated in all manner of ways this morning.  After getting the kids to school, I cleaned out the backseat of the car, vacuumed, and shampooed the seats (it was in the grossest, most horrible state ever).  Then I came in and took a shower.  Then, feeling that the air was a wee bit chilly and damp, I started a fire; then, distraught by the state of the kitchen, I emptied the dishwasher and loaded it; then of course it was past time for elevenses so I had to toast some bread; and now I am blogging about next to nothing.

Why the procrastination, you may ask?  Well, I'll tell you.  Martin, my harshest and sharpest editor, is reading the latest draft of my Maple book.  He says he loves it (whoopee!)  but I also have the daunting task now of rewriting some action sequences to make them exciting and 'present.'  I have found this is one of my great weaknesses.  Give me a page and ask me to reflect and I'll fill it in a half hour or less.  Give me an action sequence and tell me to write it with exciting detail and I rip my hair out.  This is one of my greatest problems, and I see it reflected back to me in agent's and editor's comments: The writing is good, they say, but it sounds as if it's an adult writing about when she was a kid.  For this book, I've bent myself to the genre and concentrated, rewritten and rewritten, but getting down fast action is still a learning curve.

I've deviated in the past decade to other projects--picture book texts for Spider and Ladybug, short stories, poems and essays for literary journals, and a book for middle-grade readers--but Maple is terribly tenacious.  She keeps tapping me on the shoulder: "Remember me?  Come on back to Muncy Street, Kim.  You know you love it here."

To those of you who have read this book in one of its many iterations, thank you; you will not be surprised to know that this Maple book is completely different.  But for the characters and setting, everything has changed.  Maple tells her own story in a simple, hilarious (bordering on slap-stick) book that is completely age-appropriate from the word-choices to the subject matter.  At least I am aiming for all of the above.

There is nothing more to do now.  I have to study a photo of a goat and plunge back into Maple's story.  Why a goat?  Well, you'll just have to wait and see.  :)