From My Window
My daughter and I are going on a cruise this month. We’re taking a paddle boat cruise on the Snake and Columbia rivers. When I made the reservation, the only cabin left on the boat was the one over the paddle. I don’t know if the paddle wheel is noisy or not. I do know we’ll be the first to know if the paddle fails!
Photo courtesy of Amy Hodgson.
I gave a two-hour doodling workshop at my church. All the techniques were from my book, Grief Doodling: Bringing Back Your Smiles. With these simple techniques you can create hundreds of pictures. At the end of the workshop, I showed some of my doodle art and this landscape was one of them.
Recently I attended my great grandson’s birthday party. He is now three years old. (I don’t know where the years went.) Uncle John gave Everett a child’s guitar and a harmonica. The guitar was a hit because Daddy plays the guitar and sings. It took a while for Everett to figure out how to blow the harmonica. Once he did, however, everyone cheered. When Uncle John cued up a video of a professional musician who played the guitar and harmonica, Everett’s body language changed, and he became a rock star. Happy Birthday Everett!
Everett with his brother Judah. Photo by Amy Hodgson.
Book Business
I submitted Grief Doodling to the 2021 INDIE Awards. These awards are given by Foreword Reviews, a review journal that showcases independently published books. More than 2,700 entries were submitted and they were divided into 55 categories.
Grief Doodling received the Bronze Award in the grief category. I’m thrilled to receive this award and hope it helps bereaved people of all ages. Here I am holding my official award certificate. Thanks to WritingLife Publishing for having faith in the book and me.
Photo by Amy Hodgson.
Reviews
The Children’s Book Review evaluated my forthcoming children’s book, First Steps, First Snow. I’m grateful for this lovely review.
The forest is always beautiful, but at night, in the snow, under the glow of the full moon, it is truly wondrous. From deer grazing with their fawns to foxes and raccoons hunting in the drifts and an owl gliding from branch to snowy branch, the forest is full of nighttime friends. To walk through the first snowfall of the year and hear it crunching under your boots as you walk through the “timeless trees” is the perfect way to celebrate winter—especially when, afterward, you get to curl up in a nice warm bed!
Filled with scenes that will be familiar to anyone who lives in and loves the woods, First Steps, First Snow uses both images and text to evoke the hush, mystery, and peace of a forest in winter at night. Simple, short snippets of text combine ryhme, poetic imagery, and sound words to encourage readers to imagine with all five senses, while beautiful, subdued ink and watercolor illustrations depict the forest and its inhabitants in loving detail.
When read aloud (with the time taken to linger over each image), the text is restful and meditative—perfect for bedtime reading. First Steps, First Snow is beautiful, timeless, and joyful.
Here’s another review by an author. I’m grateful for her review and friendship.
First Steps, First Snow is a beautiful story with beautiful illustrations. I wanted to bundle up and go out in the snow. In today’s technical world, how refreshing it is to depict nature, capturing precious moments, memories, the smiles, to be read over and over. Making snow angels is one of my personal favorites! This book will become a children’s classic. -- Judy Lipson, author of Celebration of Sisters: It’s Never Too Late to Grieve.
Quote of the Month
I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep. Quote from “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost, world-renowned American poet.