7-Imp’s 7 Kicks #331:
Featuring a Small Crew of Smiley Faces
May 19th, 2013 by jules
My Imp readers will have to forgive me today: I don’t have illustrations to share this morning, as I always do on Sundays, but I was out of town this weekend for Knoxville’s 2013 Children’s Festival of Reading. Knoxville does these festivals up right, and they’re always good fun.
This year (as I did last year) I moderated a picture book panel. 2013’s visitors included—as pictured left to right above—author Deborah Diesen, author/illustrator Bob Shea, author/illustrator Jarrett J. Krosoczka (had never met him in person before, but I feel like he’s an old friend, so that was particularly fun), author Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen, and author Marc Tyler Nobleman (do you all know about his pop culture research projects? … I love that).
So, that’s what I offer you today — a photo of people having just finished discussing picture books, which is always a kick. (Best question was from a child, and it was along the lines of “you’re grown-ups, so how do you relate to kids?” Or maybe it was “…so, how do you write for children?” Either way, it was a pretty profound question.)
Note for any new readers: 7-Imp’s 7 Kicks is a weekly meeting ground for taking some time to reflect on Seven(ish) Exceptionally Fabulous, Beautiful, Interesting, Hilarious, or Otherwise Positive Noteworthy Things from the past week, whether book-related or not, that happened to you. New kickers are always welcome.
1) Seeing Bob Shea reminded me that this book below comes out soon, which I plan to write about on account of its SHEER AWESOMENESS. (I’ve had an F&G of the book for a while.)
2) As Bob was talking yesterday at the picture book panel, I also remembered this video from him, which surely I’ve posted here before? I mean, SURELY, because it makes me laugh so, so hard. (It’s evidently from a Texas book festival from a couple years ago maybe? I dunno. I wasn’t there.) Do yourself a favor and carve out seven minutes to watch that. (And—because SURELY I’ve posted it before??—I apologize if I’m being redundant here.)
3) One day, I hope you too get to hear Jarrett J. Krosoczka read Punk Farm from a stage.
4) This CD is really flippin’ great:
5) So is this one. I can’t get over what a fabulous song on so many levels “Ohio” is.
6) I keep meaning to say: Candlewick has sent me and Betsy a few samples of what the design on our book will look like. (The book is slated to be released early next year.) It’s very exciting—and wild—to see it as a book-book (or at least what it will soon look like as a book-book) and no longer just a Word doc on my computer screen.
7) This book trailer makes me laugh, and it really makes me happy that there’s a picture book out in the world that stars capers. ‘Cause, capers … Mmm.
I’m sure I’m forgetting a whole bunch of stuff, but maybe I can make up for it next week. See you soon with some actual illustrations, but for now … What are YOUR kicks this week?
A children’s book festival is a very decent excuse for no pictures, Jules. Glad it was so good! Because of my seventh kick, I can’t stop to watch the video you posted, but will try to remember to do so tomorrow! I have just bought the Patty Griffin album, very excited. (it came out ten days later here in Australia, what was up with that??)
1. We travelled a few hours north to a close friend’s wedding. It was the most beautiful weather imaginable, which was good as the ceremony was held on their property next to a small dam.
2. The reception reflected my friend’s job as a farmer – she rode to the wedding in a (very clean!) tractor and the reception was in their giant sugar cane mulch shed (bales of which also provided handy seats).
3. We headed back this morning to eat a barbeque breakfast and help to tidy up which made it feel like the festivities continued
4. Stopped at a roadside stall on the way home and stocked up on cheap fruit & veggies
5. Finally got around to making some pumpkin soup for work lunches this week
6. It’s the last month of autumn and I’m just shutting windows that have
pretty much stayed open since spring last year (bar the odd dramatic storm). I love this climate.
7. As I get ready to post this we are watching Eurovision 2013, which is always great fun – you have to love a competition where pyrotechnics, wind & smoke machines and acrobatic back-up singers play such central roles.
Fun post, Jules. Glad you got to meet Jarrett in person!
My daughter danced an excellent ballet-and-tap recital yesterday, but today I’m thinking of our recent visit to the RISD Museum:
Details from John Singer Sargent’s A Boating Party
(1889, oil on canvas, Rhode Island School of Design Museum)
Portrait commissions left him flush enough
To rent an English house for holiday
Where River Avon glides, the side notes say,
Giving him time to make a pencil rough
He’d later trace to canvas, leaving holes
To weave a tapestry of willow trees
For background. Jotted autumn colours freeze
A figure fronted by two punting poles.
Violet, his sister, caped in fur, far right,
Leans on her forearm, dressed in green chapeau.
A second lady, standing, casts below
Her corseted reflection, balanced, white
As her husband’s lanky trouser leg that bends
To hook the flat red punt to his canoe.
This idler is the painter Paul Helleu,
Who knew what ends in grace begins with friends.
©2013 Steven Withrow, all rights reserved
[To view the painting and poem together, please visit http://cracklesofspeech.blogspot.com/]
Julie, featuring the book festival is a perfect thin to read about on Sunday. What a great panel. Bob Shea’s new book looks fun. Squee for seeing copies of your book. I can’t wait to hold it in my hands.
Emmaco: the wedding sounds totally fun. A tractor? Love it.
Steven: ” Who knew what ends with grace begins with friends” lovely.
My kicks:
1. SCBWI- OR conference, Friday and Saturday.
2. Hearing Karen Cushman as the keynote.
3. Oldest grandgirl’s school’s art show.
4. Grandgirl telling someone that I am a writer and poetry.
5. On-line critique group as a result of HighLights workshop.
6. Third grade book club with my manuscript started.
7. Roses in the garden.
Have a great week.
Hello from the road. The fam. and I are in Portland, Maine for MeCAF. We’ve never been to a comicon before, should be fun.
Looks like my fellow Imps are having fun inspiring weekends as well.
Cheers!
Happy Sunday, Imps! Anyone else see the mad tea party on Doctor Who last night?
Jules: So glad that you had a blast at the event! Everyone looks so happy in the picture. I’m digging the score music in the Caper trailer. Yay for unicorns!
emmaco: Congrats to your friend. Pumpkin soup sounds good. Enjoy the foodstuffs and the entertainment.
Steven: Kudos to your dancin’ daughter!
Jone: Sounds like a packed week!
Have fun, Moira!
My kicks for the past week:
1) Musical today!
2) Rehearsals for the musical
3) Rehearsals for the play
4) Really good TV
5) Potential
6) Offers
7) Manageable
Hello, Kickers!
No images for just about any reason is cool, Jules, as long as you’re still hosting here! But like the others have said, a reason like that one is plenty reason enough. 🙂
A couple of things about your kicks: (1) Marc Tyler Nobleman’s 1970s-80s pop-culture series is GREAT, and thank you for the heads-up on it. (For starters, there’s his interview with the guy who played the toddler version of Clark Kent — okay, nerds, Kal-El — in the first Superman flick.) (2) …and THANK YOU for alerting me to the new Patty Griffin. (I’m so lucky to have friends whose radar works better than mine.) “Ohio” definitely kicks!
Hey, emmaco — I have been reading about Eurovision (in tweets and FB status posts and such) for years, without bothering to understand it for “real.” So I still don’t know, really, what it is. But I love the way it seems to periodically unhinge so many of my non-US friends. (It unhinges them in one direction or the other, but almost no one seems neutral about it. In the US, we’d probably call that “politics” but I sense it’s something else to the rest of the world.)
Steven, what jone said: “what ends in grace begins with friends” is lovely. (And that’s a perfect painting to have led to it.)
Hi, jone! I first read Kick #5 as “one-line critique group” and thought, like, Hey, I could do that! But an on-line critique group is pretty cool to have found, too.
Hi to you, Moira. Have fun in Maine — hope you get out and about some; bet it’s beautiful up there in May.
LW: what ho, have not seen last night’s Doctor episode yet. Can’t wait to see what they’ve done with that trope. Have fun with the musical! (Can’t recall if you’ve mentioned a musical “thing” before — singing, dancing, instrument-plucking/-tapping/-tooting and/or…?)
Kicks here:
1. breezes
2. shadows
3. evening and nighttime (hmmm, sensing a theme here, gotta kick the needle out of that groove, I mean, I do live in bloody Florida after bloody all…)
4. catching occasional re-run fragments of The Sopranos while pressing off clothes for work; ye gods but I loved that show, and I love rediscovering how funny (often sickly so) it could be
5. having one of those bright little flashes of why-I-love-software-development one morning this week
6. the recent stacks of short-story anthologies by my bed, by my elbows here at the desk, and even making my Kindle seem to bulge a little when I open it up
7. came across an interesting mini-documentary this week, about and narrated by Anaïs Nin (including a segment of her and Henry Miller talking together)
Have a great week, all!
I heard about both the new Bob Shea and the Lollipop Caper book this week, and I though they both sounded like my kind of books. That festival looks so much fun! I’m glad you got there and had a good time.
My kicks:
1. This was a crazy-busy week, and I’m feeling grateful to have fulfilled all my obligations without ignoring anything important like sleep or eating properly.
2. We’ve gotten back to sunny and warm weather here. It feels so good to be opening our windows! (I thought that especially when I read of you closing yours, Emmaco.)
3. I’ve been rewatching the old TV series Soap with friends, and it makes me laugh so much.
4. Also, I like my friends.
5. On Friday, I went to a local conference and did a short presentation, and it was such a lot of fun.
6. Today, the library marched in the town parade. Also fun.
7. Because I walked a lot for the parade and then went for a run, I am feeling aok about spending the rest of this evening reading.
JES: Let me know what you think of last night’s Doctor Who, and what you think of Clara in general. Musicals make me happier than anything else, because they typically allow me to at least three things I love (singing, dancing, and acting) all at once. Enjoy the short stories. Make sure to put Four Summoner’s Tales on your to-read list — It comes out in September.
http://christophergolden.com/summoners.html
Adrienne: I am glad that you managed to eat and sleep during your crazy-busy time! Glad that you had fun at the conference. Oh my goodness! Parade! Have a calm evening.
Emmaco, the bride rode up on a tractor! You and yours have the most interesting lives … Enjoy Eurovision 2013 — and Patty’s CD! What a good week you had.
Steven, thanks not only for the poem, but for that extra link. Like Jone, I particularly like that last line.
Jone, kick #5 is especially great, though I’m impressed you heard Karen Cushman speak, too.
Moira, enjoy MeCAF!
Little Willow: Ooh, potentials and offers are especially tantalizing. Break legs! No, I didn’t see the mad tea party. Boo.
John, I KNEW you’d appreciate Marc’s pop culture projects. … I like your themed kicks, and I often think I’d like to re-watch The Sopranos. I am envious of your 6th kick. I haven’t read in so long (well, anything longer than 32 pages, that is). But when the prep for this grad picture book course is done, I’ll return to my beloved novels.
No way you’re watching Soap, Adrienne! I’ve been thinking lately I’d like to do that. I remember so vividly my parents watching it when I was little. … Also: TOWN PARADE. WOOT!
Jules – any time you post a picture of happy smiling faces – that include your happy smiling face – it’s a party!
So glad you had fun at the book festival!
Flyby kicks, since I am so late, but
emmaco – your adventures are always inspiring.
jone – my roses are blooming too – and I love the ones with the lovely fragrance.
LW – hooray for offers! (Watched the shorter interview you were part of – nice work!)
Hi Moira!
JES – love your description of your bulging Kindle. Sometimes I feel like the daily deals from Amazon are going to bankrupt me.
Adrienne – glad the presentation was fun and that you’ve got sun.
My quick kicks:
1) Accomplished a lot at work this past week, even though still more to do.
2) Watched the first Start Trek yesterday so I can watch the just released one soon.
3) Started reading Ender’s Game so I can then see the movie.
4) Soccer game last night – we lost but had fun, and had even more fun going out for beers afterwards. Love my teammates.
5) Picking out a date outfit via texts/photos with my 2 best girlfriends who are in different parts of the country. Fun & nice to feel so connected.
6) Planning a trip to Vegas soon.
7) Got a birthday over a month early from someone very special. There was a reason he sent it early, and that card may be my most favorite birthday card ever. It was a very sweet surprise.
Have a wonderful, surprise filled week everyone!
John, I’m probably not the right person to explain Eurovision, because as an Australian I think we might be watching it in a different way – we don’t have anyone in it, so most people I know who watch it are doing it because they love the zaniness of it all – the over the top props, the 80s music video elements, the strange collection of music. When I watched it in the UK their commentators obsessed over how the best song doesn’t always win, failing to see it’s also about the costumes and special effects etc.
Jules and Rachel, I have to point out I have never seen a bride on a tractor before…or ribbons on a shiny tractor come to that – so I wouldn’t count this as part of my adventurous life 🙂
Adrienne, I like the thought that you’re opening your windows as I shut mine.
LW and John, just about to head off to watch the most recent Dr Who!
Rachel, ooh, you had a good week. Thoughtful birthday cards can pretty much kick your week up a notch, huh? . … Hope the date was good. And Ender’s Game is already coming out? When?
adrienne (and Jules) — I have been thinking of Soap for MONTHS but have no idea where to find it. Are you watching it via DVD or something, Adrienne?
LW: will let you know my reaction to the episode, maybe in next week’s Kicks. As for Clara, I have no idea what the fandom’s consensus is. But I really like her, and I like the mystery (so far) around her, and the fact that she herself doesn’t have a clue what’s supposed to be so special about her. AND — no kidding, I swear this is true — from her first appearance this season, I thought I wonder if Little Willow watches Dr. Who…? Because I was sure that you’d like Clara.
Hi, Rachel! One of my Kindle downfalls is the free samples. Once I’ve read them, whether or not I proceed with a purchase you’d think I’d get rid of the samples. But noooooo. I actually went through the steps to set up a collection just for holding samples!
And thanks for the Eurovision highlights there, emmaco. Like I said: the unhingeing effect. 🙂
Jules – Ender’s Game comes out in November – I am trying to beat the rush. ; )
Date was nice, but birthday card boy is better. : )
Rachel: Ooh la la!