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Jul
22
I’m going to turn forty in exactly four months. I don’t feel forty. I probably don’t act forty. I don’t know how this happened. It seems like I turned 25, I did a few things, and then I was forty. (Well, not quite yet, but when you’re 39 2/3 you start to tell people you’re forty.)
I’ve been wondering how to commemorate this milestone in this journal. What I’ve decided is to post forty posts about the last forty years. Forty autobiographical fragments. Not necessarily one from each year since 1968, and not necessarily in chronological order, though I will roughly date them as I go so they can be re-organized later. I’ll start soon and post 2-3 a week until the big day gets here.
I guess there’s no better way to begin this than the fateful day my second grade teacher at Lakenheath Elementary School, Miss Round, asked the class to write and illustrate their own stories. I loved books, but it had never occurred to me I could make my own!
I penciled a fable called “The Toad Who Told Lies.” It was about a dishonest amphibian. The toad looked more like the shmoo of cartoons. Few people could read the story without being profoundly moved by the scene where the toad tells a squirrel or a mole or something that the rabbit’s hole stinks, and the rabbit feebly defends himself with the memorable speech, “no it doesn’t.” I don’t remember how the story ended, but I think the toad is either confronted by the friends he’s maligned or is eaten by a snake. Many writers, I think, are driven by a profound sense of justice.
Miss Round was very impressed and read the story to the class, who gave me rare and (I think) sincere compliments. I beamed the shameless way I still do when I get any recognition as a writer–the way I did when my sixth grade teacher chose my story to be turned into a play, the way I did when friends read the zines I put together in high school, the way I did when I saw my own columns in the student newspaper in college, the way I did when I sold my first story, and the way I do when I tell anyone about my book. I basically realized that writing stories made me profoundly happy and than I was good at it. I’ve had other jobs since, and even other aspirations, but at that moment I knew I was a writer and always would be.
The story itself, sadly, is lost to the years. I’ve ransacked my mother’s house looking for it. I hope yet to find its yellowing pages and remind myself how it ends.
When: Fall 1975 (age 7)
Where: Lakenheath Air Force Base, England
Moral: Don’t mess with rabbits.
Jul
21
Milwaukee
Filed Under Travel & Adventure, Travels with Torii | 1 Comment
About once a year we go to Milwaukee. Usually it’s to see the Minnesota Twins play the curious brand of baseball they have in Wisconsin, which is played on a substance called “grass” in a curiosity known as “an open roof stadium,” which means there’s sky up above and sun and clouds and no teflon. Schedules didn’t permit that this year, but our friends were getting married this weekend and we made the trip.
It was raining as we set out, and continued to rain, and was very wet and miserable and occasionally nightmarishly dreadful. Torii sulked in the back while we took brief refuge at a 50s-themed diner on the road. Now, when I was a kid, these independent theme diners lined the highways of America. It’s nice to see a few are still around.
Torii made a friend at the Shriner’s building near the B&B where we stayed. They had a series of stare-down contests; Torii won the best of seven series.
We had a hard time convincing Torii that this museum wasn’t a really big, killable, eatable bird. Even when we took him inside and showed him the art work. He’s convinced his brother and sisters now that the bird just ate him first, but he survived.
And there our troubles just began. When Torii saw the more reasonable, catchable-sized fowl in the duck pond, well, we just had to go out in the pedal-boat to save him from some his own big appetite. I think he’s learned what I already knew: geese are mean!
Whew! After all that misadventure, we needed to re-energize ourselves with buttery hamburgers (yep, you heard me right) at Solly’s, complete with Sprechers root beers, made right down the street. Then we had treats and coffee at Alterra Coffee Shop, a curious cafe in an old pump house, and setting of a crucial scene of a story I just sold to Cicada magazine. More about that later.
Jul
10
Books for Africa
Filed Under Organizations | Leave a Comment
I will rarely proselytize my readers, but I think this is cool enough to rate a mention: Books for Africa.
Books For Africa. A simple name for a simple organization with a simple mission. We collect, sort, ship and distribute books to children in Africa. That’s all we do. Our goal: to end the book famine in Africa.
Like a lot of cool things, this program has its beginnings in Minnesota… a bookstore owner named Tom Warth visited Africa and saw libraries with empty shelves. There are rare people who just see a problem and think, Oh, I could do something about this. Now his organization ships 1-2 million books a year.
Recently BFA arranged a “Million Book March” in Liberia, where several years of civil war basically wiped out the reading supply, even for universities. Primary and secondary schools also benefited from the march, with 500 books going to each primary school and 2,000 to each secondary school. I used to live in Liberia, and the story caught my eye. Quite a coincidence to find out this remarkable program originated right next door in St. Paul. Next time I have a big box of books, I’m going to them instead of the used book store.
If you think this program is cool and want to do something, follow the link above. Or just buy a few books from Better World Books, which dedicates its profits to programs like BFA.
Jul
6
Saints Alive
Filed Under News & Events | 2 Comments
Thanks to The Children’s Literature Network and The Red Balloon Bookshop, I was invited to read a story to kids before a St. Paul Saints baseball game. I decided 5-7 year olds wouldn’t get much out of my middle-grade novel, and read the great read-aloud stories by Crockett Johnson from the book Ellen’s Lion.
I was met by Carly of the Saints crew and a young pitcher named Charlie Rudd. Charlie told the kids he likes reading and is in the middle of the Ice and Fire Saga by George R. R. Martin. Ooh, I should have read that! In its entirety!
Actually I only read two of the three stories I’d chosen as it was, since it was hot and the kids were dropping like flies. But it was fun.
The Saints aspire to give the whole family their money’s worth, packing the between-inning downtime with games and silliness. Highlights included seeing the Saints mascot Mudonna and her porcine sidekick Barack Ohama (get it?).
Our entire section was also turned into an all-kazoo orchestra in a performance of “Batman Theme” by a duo of nerd conductors. The middle guy had to guess what song it was, and did so, despite everybody pretty much just blasting away at their own speed.
There were some other familiar faces, too — like Sharky, from Underwater Adventure (I think he’s a dolphin or something) and this statue of a famous former player from the Saints’ glory years.
Oh, and there was actually a baseball game going on….
Jul
4
True Colors
Filed Under Miscellaneous | Leave a Comment
A quick dispatch from a day of leisure to share three chromatically apt scenes from the day: fresh cherries on the tree, three Snoopy dolls sunning on the deck (my wife was airing out some toys from her parents’ basement), and Pippi enjoying some Tasty Unbelievable Nutritious Awesome snacks.
