"Ghost Rider"
London Wilder, '10
At the Taos Summer Writer's Conference this year, one of the author/presenters Rob Wilder had us happily sell his young son's postcards! Ah, childrens' art, my first and favorite style of art. My love for childrens' art and picture books led me into wanting to be an illustrator, which led me into wanting to also be a fine artist. This month I will finally have a chance to go down to Albuquerque to have fun with my illustrator's group! It's been a year since I could get together with them ~ way too long!
Also inspiring, and so useful at the conference, were two new books out. One is John Dufresne's Is Life Like This? The book takes one through six months of writing a book, including all those wonderful anecdotes and moans we writers have such as life's time eaters and how to write anyway. It's all done with humor and real advice. John lives the writer's live! Priscilla Long's The Writer's Portable Mentor is the new fun tome that combines the Chicago Manual of Style advice in exciting palatable form along with fascinating exercises, plus how to write and get your book out there. So far my two favorites are making my own word journals for my current book and playing with verbs. I finally have permission for using the same verb over and over in a paragraph for emphasis! It's all in learning the skill!
