Pickin’ Pinons Part II
Pickin' Pinons Part II: Where Grandma Gets Lost, There be Bears, and I Make it Home in Time to Serve Dinner for Ten.The plan this time was to meet at the Saw Mill store (the place where my friend's cows hang out when they disappear).For once I found my way over dirt roads in my trusty four wheelin' jeep and got there first. No cows.My friends arrive and I jump into their car. We take the road to Blue Springs Canyon and pass Deer Springs Village(three hogans)."There are some things you need to [...]
Pickin’ Pinons Part I
Pinon Pickin' Part I: Where the Sling Shot comes out and I Don't get to Pick Pinons.I have mentioned before that a writer takes every opportunity for a new expereince that could lead to material. So when I got a text message inviting me to go pinon picking, I texted back "sure, when?" (My texting abilities are limited and I actually said sur, wen?) After several texts, it was determined we would meet on Monday morning at the Little White House Canyon and I would follow my Navajo friends to the Pinon picking [...]
Galimoto Dream to Reality:Grassroots “Ford” in Tanzania
The most gratifying part of being a writer is to have your books go out into the world and bring back freinds and connections and the unexpected....I recently recieved an email because someone in Tanzania found my book Galimoto. He wrote to me of a young man who lives in Tanzania and made these toy cars from old wires when he was a child.The young man tells of how, when he built these remarkable scultures, he dreamed of building his own real car one day.Now like Kondi in the book who sat under [...]
Getting High is Never Easy
Handies Peak, a 14er in the San Juans of Colorado is the highest I have ever been. But first you have to get to the trail head. We stayed in Durango (Downtown Durango Innhttp://www.durangodowntowninn.com/ right on the Animas River, dog friendly and a one block walk to restaurants and shops). It is about a one hour drive to Silverton through beautiful mountian switchbacks. This was Labor Day weekend and a few Aspens were already turning Colorado gold. The temperature was a perfect not too hot, not too cold and the sky turned blue [...]
Who Remembers Cowboy Small?
Cowboy Small by Lois Lenski. A classic.I had my own Cowboy small living with me for ten days. Grandson Ethan! Ride 'em cowboy! Cowboy Small...I remember him from my childhood. One of my favorites! First published in 1949. Share this post if you remember this book. Or even if you don't 😉
Writing A Picture Book is Easy….Not
Just do hours and hours of research for days and days.....Then you develop a passion...or maybe you already had a passion. You become more passionate.You ignore other writing projects...that news article about the bats in school...hmmm that could be fun...who ever heard of a bat day off from school? Two actually. OK save that for the next project.You ignore your family....as much as possible.(photo by Suchitra Baker)You do more research and have some fun along the way. Then you write ane write and write..... The you rewrite and rewrite and rewrite....Then you [...]