Back to Writing

 I’m still struggling to meet my deadline.  This week I was reading the March/April issue of Horn Book Magazine.  (Bedtime reading, not computer time, and yes, I know I’m behind.  BTW, Horn Book is the classic magazine of children’s literature—highly recommended to anyone thinking of writing for children or young adults.)  This issue honors Katherine Paterson , a missionary kid from China who has written more than 25 books (many of them award winners.)  She is also the newly appointed National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature.  In a short essay (p.36) Linda Sue Park (herself a Newbery Medal winner) talks about the impact that Katherine Paterson has had on her life.  Park was only thinking she might like to try writing when she found Paterson’s book of essays The Spying Heart.  In the essay “Do I Dare Disturb the Universe?” she came upon the author’s technique of writing two pages a day.

Seeing God in Thin Places

 Reading Mary E. De Muth’s Thin Places; a memoir, I wonder if I am reading memoir or devotional.  As she bares her soul, searching for thin places, “snatches of holy ground, … where, … we might just catch a glimpse of eternity”(p.11)—as she shares those place in her own life, Mary touches my soul as well.  Although I never had the terrible childhood experiences of abuse or losing my father at a young age that Mary experienced, I do make lists of the things I “ought” to do to be good enough.  I have been a broken missionary returning from an experience where I thought God owed it to me to bless.  “Pursue Me, not perfection,” Jesus told Mary in that thin place.  “Follow after Me, not a set of ideals.  Grab My hand and walk with Me in adventure.” (p. 178)

Touching Emotions with my Nose

I have been going through my shelf of books on writing and children’s literature, wanting to post them with reviews on Shelfari.com and Goodreads.com so when people ask, “What’s a good book on writing?” I know which ones I like best and why.  I have re-read a couple that I remember liking a lot.  The first was a disappointment.  Although I recognize the chapter on fantasy as the source of many of our family favorites, the rest of the book spends too much time analyzing works that haven’t stood the test of time.