In the old Story Shipyard, Essex, MA, now the site of the Essex Shipbuilding Museum.
Photo by Lenice Strohmeier.
Before I came across the above quotation, I somehow knew it to be true and always approached life with the belief that there'd be time for all the things I felt compelled to do. Though much of it had to wait until the last of our five children was in school, I'm grateful that I've been able to pursue just about all the endeavors that are still so important to me.
Today I write poetry,children's books,
and young adult novels.I'm also a painter,
have illustrated the work of others, and
recently illustrated my own picture book,
SCHOONER.
For me, writing picture books was a natural outgrowth of writing poetry. Both art forms are dependent on precise, often visual, imagery and careful word choices. Where the two forms differ is in the fact that though my poetry for adults is usually centered on my own thoughts and feelings, my picture books and poems for the young are very sensitive to the thoughts and feelings of my audience.
I came to write young adult novels after I'd finished one novel for adults and found that I could sustain interest in something lengthy and demanding. Since many of the main characters that present themselves to my imagination are young adults, I began to concentrate on work for that age group.
My stories are sometimes based on things I remember from childhood and sometimes on what I have observed in my children's lives or my own life. I may even be inspired by something I've read about. Often they're taken from many sources, some of which I'm not even aware. That's where the muse comes in, that sprite whom a writer likes to blame for a lack of inspiration or for some mysterious input.
Though none of my books appear on the surface to be alike in any way, they share a careful attention to detail and to the sound and rhythm of words and phrases. Each attempts to connect to the reader's own hopes and dreams. A reviewer has pointed out that all my young adult novels are about teenagers out of sync with their own culture or society. I would add to that that my characters, in fictional picture books and novels, are struggling to succeed or stand out in some way (such as the turtle who wanted to fly,) often against what seem to be impossible odds.
Sometimes I need to go to the site of my story's action, whether real or imagined. In the above picture, I'm at the old Story Shipyard where the schooner, Thomas E. Lannon, was built and where I photographed the building activity and kept a journal of its progress.
To add believability to my recent YA novel, THE FATTENING HUT, I travelled to Anguilla, an island in the British West Indies, and studied its history, topography, plants, and animals.
While researching WAITING FOR BABY JOE, I took a course for the parents of premature babies at Nashua Memorial Hospital in Nashua, NH.
For my young adult historical novel, VOICES FROM HEAVEN(Candlewick, 2009) I traveled to Venice, Italy, to do research on the composer, Vivaldi, and the Ospedale della Pieta, where he spent much of his working life.
