Beckett Gladney On Life, Parenthood & Mortality

My friend Beckett has a new blog. Even if you don't know Beckett personally, I highly recommend it. Why? Because Beckett writes SO well, take such gorgeous photos, is an amazing illustrator. She's a cancer survivor. She is the mother of very active twin boys. She's creative in so many different ways.

Being on opposite sides of the continent, Beckett and I don't get to see each other that often. It was a joy to be able to spend some time with her recently, though it wasn't nearly long enough.

During one of our conversations, we talked about death. It may seem like a morbid subject for some, making them uncomfortable. When you've had a close encounter, either through loss of a loved one (both of us) or a life-threatening illness (Beckett), it's not as much of a taboo topic. Or at least it's not for Beckett and me. An excerpt from her blog post:

It's not as simple as a 'bucket list', it's about making choices all the way along about how you want to live and the attitudes you choose to live by and what you see and smell and listen to and savor in your life. It's about trying the best you're capable of to find the best path through the hard places, to live a positive, loving and meaningful life on your own terms without worrying about what society thinks. It's also about how you approach dealing with losing your loved ones or your own loss of health or eventual demise. It's such hard stuff and not something people want to think or talk about and yet everyone eventually goes through it.

Read more at her blog:

ARTBECO

"Seeking beauty in the midst of busy days as an artist, photographer, craftsperson and parent of twin boys"

My MiG pals made me cry

I've been a member of the MiG Writers critique group for a while now, and they recently asked me an odd question: "What's your favorite picture book and what's your favorite middle grade book?"

And then they surprised me with a special post on the MiG Writers Blog, which made me weepy, to congratulate me on the illustration book deal with Simon & Schuster:

THANKS, YOU GUYS. :-)

*snifflesmile*

You can find out more about the MiG Writers group from our blog.

My Friend Paul Sings A Song About Me In His Concert At Consonance

The flute makes a great javelin weapon, don't you think? :-)

Paul wrote this song in retribution for a song I had written about him some years before. Oh Paul, you foolish, foolish man.

(Thanks to Gerry Tyra for the video)

Oh my, this is SO my kind of website

My friend Ray told me about this site a while back, and when David Diaz posted the link on his Facebook page I was reminded all over again about how cool this site is. Not surprisingly, some of the site content is going to be turned into a book.

URL:

http://www.theydrawandcook.com/

Donate to Writers For The Red Cross & win cool stuff from ME :-)

I'm participating in Writers For The Red Cross, and am donating a selection of my writer greeting cards as well as a hand-drawn doodle and handwritten instapoem to the winner of the bid. Read more here. Bidding doesn't start until the event officially kicks off on March 1st.

About the event, from the site:

This online event celebrates Red Cross Month (March 1-31). It is intended to raise funds and awareness for the Red Cross and its work in communities across the country. We’re auctioning off publishing-related items and services donated by authors, publicists, agents, and editors. We’ll also have daily guest posts from authors about “What the Red Cross Means to Me.” All donors who give over $25 will also be able to select one free book from a range of books donated and shipped by publishers for the event.

To find out more about Writers For The Red Cross and about the other participants, organizers and bookstore partners, please visit the Writers For The Red Cross site.