If you squint and look closely you’ll see a rainbow arching behind Portland’s Hawthorne Bridge in this photo. It blazed across the sky after one of those December deluges that leaves your pants soaked to the knees–even though you’re carrying an umbrella which has probably turned inside out anyway. Rainbows are like finished stories. You’ve…
Author: kimgriswell
I'm an author, an editor, a writing coach, and a workshop leader. I spend my days asking questions and looking (or listening) for answers, and thinking up ideas for new stories to write for my favorite audience: kids! I guess I'm just about as curious as Rufus Leroy Williams III, the intrepid pink hero of my picture book series from Sterling Publishing, is persistent. Did you know that in 5000 B.C. people blamed 'tooth worms' for their cavities? Neither did I until I developed THE HAUNTED OUTHOUSE for the Bathroom Reader's Institute. Turns out, ancient dentists filled the wormholes with metals like gold or silver. Except the Aztecs. They used a mix of iron, water, and belly-button lint. As you'll discover by reading RUFUS GOES TO SCHOOL, RUFUS GOES TO SEA, and RUFUS BLASTS OFF! I believe that reading opens up worlds for young people. Books did that for me, and I hope my books will do the same for today's kids.
A Perfect Time for Book Buying
One of my favorite bookish quotes comes from Erasmus: “When I have a little money, I buy books; and if any is left over, I buy food and clothes.” At this time of year, I like to remind everyone who writes that books and magazines make perfect gifts for everyone. And if those of us…
Chai and Chi
One of the most interesting parts of working in cafés is the opportunity to overhear conversations. This afternoon, the background “music” for my pot of eggnog chai (total yum!) was a Portlander who was fretting over how badly his “chi” was affecting his ability to grow his business. If he could just get his chi…
Writing Practice
I’m reading more Natalie Goldberg: Thunder and Lightning: Cracking Open the Writer’s Craft. Thinking about what Goldberg writes reminds me of something Sandy Asher said at Chautauqua last year. If you want to make money as a writer, “Do one thing, do it well, do it over and over again”. Natalie seems to have found her…
Highlights and Me
I’ve met many a writer who first broke into print by publishing a story or an article or a craft or a recipe in Highlights for Children. I was not one of them. It was not for lack of trying. I sent many a tale across the desks of the likes of Christine French Clark…
Former Chautauquan Wins National Book Award
There’s no news quite as wonderful as learning that one of our writing “peeps” has grabbed the brass ring. Kathryn Erskine, who attended the Highlights Foundation Writers Workshop at Chautauqua as well as taking part in at least one Founders Workshop at Boyds Mills just won the National Book Award in the children’s category for…
Meticulosity
The word for today’s post is meticulosity. It means “taking extreme care over the details.” It’s the word that came to mind when I looked down on the luminous mandala you see in this photo. Drepung Loseling monks from South India created this intricate sand mandala in the Collins Gallery of the Multnomah County Library here…
Who Will You Thank?
I just finished reading Libba Bray‘s Going Bovine. What a ride! It’s about a teen who gets mad cow disease and goes on the road trip of his life in search of a cure. If you’re up for physics mixed with myth mixed with music and don’t mind a bit of head-spinning along the way,…
Say “Yes” to Your Writing!
A very accomplished author friend of mine recently sent me an email in which she told me she’d just received a contract for a picture book. She mentioned how relieved she was, after months of waiting, to finally have a new contract. An illustrator friend (with more than fifty books to his credit) told me…
The Importance of Morning
For the past few mornings, I’ve been getting outdoors earlier. The sky is just beginning to brighten. Light has a different quality–a freshness–as if the world creates itself anew each day. Energy shimmers at the threshold between darkness and light. It seeps into me and I think, “Why don’t I do this every day?” Why…
Cozies & Kim Griswell 