Well, I officially got no writing done today. That's the bad news. The good news is, I woke to the sound of my children gasping at the four inches of snow blanketing the Warren this morning.In my song "You Came So Close" I mention a line about the winter in Nashville being "gray without a trace of snow", and that's usually true. But every winter we get at least a dusting (which melts in a matter of hours)--and if we're lucky, we get enough to sled on. And that, ladies and germs, is something this Florida boy doesn't take lightly. (Nor did I fall lightly when I tried sledding down the hill while standing up. My whole body still hurts, and I can't remember who the President is. But it was awesome and very awesome, I tell you.)Today I ate Jamie's famous cream of chicken and wild rice soup for lunch and dinner, sipped coffee and hot cocoa, sledded, came in to warm my toes, sledded some more, and got walloped twice in the face during a snowball fight. If that ain't a reason to hang up writing for a day, I don't know what is.Plus, the woods made me think of Lantern Waste. Because I am a nerd. (Unabashedly so.)Here are a few more pictures I took:
A Month of Adventuring
Dear Readers,I'm sitting by a fire on my deck. No, the deck isn't burning. The fire is nicely contained in a chimnea from Lowe's, and while it's an attractive bit of kiln work it isn't doing a very good job of keeping me warm. It's dusk, and for some reason there are thousands of cedar waxwings, house sparrows, cowbirds, and starlings flying over me, heading north as if they have somewhere important to be. A bird council, maybe, or a worm and seed buffet.About a hundred yards away my son Aedan is standing at the base of an old dead white oak trying to snap a picture of a kestrel perched on a high branch. He keeps a journal of bird sightings and always records the time of day, and after a week or so he realized the kestrel shows up every day between 4 and 4:45 p.m. So you see, it's not so far-fetched that the birds flying over are keeping an appointment.The things I'm describing are part of the reason I'm writing the Wingfeather Saga. I love to play music. I hope I never have to stop. I enjoy everything from the creative process to the traveling to the concerts themselves, except for one significant thing: leaving my family and my home. It's true I have some wanderlust. Jamie will tell you I get antsy after a few weeks at home and itch to hit the road for a day or two with the family or the band. But as soon as I'm gone I miss the rhythm of home life. I miss the changes in the color of morning at the Warren. I miss the fluctuation in my children's moods from giddy to melancholy and everything in between. I miss reading together. I miss a regular quiet time in the morning (it's really hard for me to keep up with it on the road, when every day is different).So several years ago I started writing these books not just because I love telling stories, but because I hoped it would lead to more time at home. I hoped it would lead to conversations with my children about Janner, Kalmar, and Leeli Igiby and their search for a place of rest. I hoped I would sink into the routine of my family life in a way that I can't when every several days I have to pack my bag and catch a plane (which I'm really thankful to be able to do). Well, guess what? I don't have a single tour date this month. That doesn't mean I have a month off, mind you. It does mean I'm setting my alarm for the same time every morning. It means I can help Jamie and the kids around the house a little more. It means I can be at church every Sunday. As for work, it means I can climb the hill behind the house every day and light up my imagination, here where my imagination is well-fed. It means I can keep an eye out for that kestrel every afternoon.Thank you, dear readers, for your letters of encouragement and your many comments after concerts. I aim to try and tell you a great story, and your support of the Wingfeather books is allowing me to give it my best. I'm on chapter 15 of The Monster in the Hollows, and will be Tweeting updates every day, should you care to follow my progress. If all goes as planned, the book will release in mid- to late-April.Happy Twenty-eleven.AP
Two More!
Jim Hamilton, a theology professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, has fine taste in books. (Ahem.) He posted this picture of Podo Helmer on his blog. He claims his little boy drew it, but I'm not sure I believe him.
After my post, either Jim or his son was inspired to draw this one too, from the end of North! Or Be Eaten.
Thanks for the drawings, young (or old) Hamilton!
Some Pictures by Readers
Dear Reader,
Here are a few pictures emailed to me at [email protected]. As always, clicking on the picture lets you zoom in. This one is of Maraly Weaver, one of my favorite characters. (I hope to bump into her in Monster in the Hollows.) Great job, Marie Vande Hey!
Here's one from 13-year-old Bryan Zahn, of the scene where the Igibys are at Peet's treehouse. In the email, Bryan's mom said it was the scene the oldest of 11 of their kids (!) were working on for a drama project. I'd love to see that, too. Thank you, Bryan!
These next two are by a young man I met in New York this Fall. His name is Jonathan Dunlop, and these are just two of several great pictures he emailed me. The first is of Peet battling the Fangs at Anklejelly Manor, and the second is his take on the elusive (and horrifying) Cave Blat.
This one is another of my favorites, by Bridget. SPOILER ALERT! This is from the scene where Tink is reaching for the hand of the Stone Keeper, and Artham is reaching for Tink. A big moment in the story.
And last but not least, here's another from Jonathan Dunlop. This is Podo and Peet the Sock Man fighting the Fangs in Glipwood. I love all the detail.
Great work, folks. I love getting emails like these. That my story has made its way into each of your imaginations is something I take very seriously--it's a great honor, and I mean to honor you back by telling the very best story I can. As soon as I post this I'm heading up the hill to my little cabin to hammer out the next chapter in book three. Thanks for all the encouragement.
A Song from the Green Hollows: "The Boatwright's Daughter"
It's been so long since I've updated the dear old Wingfeather Saga page, I thought I'd share some of yesterday's work with you. I wrote this lyric for a scene in chapter five. The words are to be sung to an old Hollish whistleharp tune. Here it is in all its strange glory:-------------------------------------THE BOATWRIGHT'S DAUGHTERI’ll come to you in the wintertimeWhen the fruit of the Fall is fadingI’ll bring a barrel of apple wineAs long as your love is waitingBut oh! the sorrow a sailor seesWhenever he meets your fatherHe’s mean as a swarm of deadly beesHe’ll cut off your legs right at the kneesIt does no good to beg him pleaseTo marry his only daughterBut I’ll come to you in the spring of the yearWhen the bud and the bloom is growingAnd I’ll drive an ox to plow, my dearAnd ready the field for sowingBut oh! the sorrow a sailor knowsWhenever he meets your fatherHe reeks of the sweat between his toesThe roaches gather wherever he goesAnd never a man will ever proposeTo marry his only daughterYet I’ll come to you in the summertimeWhen the grass in the hollow is swayingWe’ll nibble the grapes and clementinesAnd look at the children playingBut oh! the sorrow a sailor weepsWhenever he meets your fatherHe picks his nose when he’s asleepHe’s big as a cow and smart as a sheepI pray the Maker my soul to keepI love his only daughterSo I’ll come to you when I’m old and grayI’ll sail from over the waterI’ll lay a rose at your father’s graveTHEN I’ll marry his only daughter
A Map of the Warren
Yesterday my little girl turned eight.She invited nine of her friends over for the party, and made one request of her dear ol' dad. She wanted me to come up with a treasure hunt on the property, complete with a map. I've done this for several of the kids' birthdays, and I'm always excited to dust off the sketchpad and come up with something fun. Here's the map (the clues were written on the back). By the way, it led them eventually to our dog Moondog, who had a key on his collar that opened up a trunk full of candy and presents.I like maps. And my daughter.
Questions? Mysteries? Loose Ends?
In answer to a few questions:1) Yes, I'm related to the A.S. Peterson who wrote the swashbuckling adventure tale The Fiddler's Gun. He's my brother. He started his two-book epic Fin's Revolution (which concludes this December in Fiddler's Green) right about the same time I started On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness. He's three years older than me, and in a bout of brotherly competition we challenged each other to finally get around to writing that book we'd always talked about writing. Mine was The Wingfeather Saga and his was Fin's Revolution. Mine features sea dragons, three kids, a treasure map and a reformed pirate. His features an orphan girl, the American Revolution, unrequited love, a treasure map, and a reformed pirate. But they're very different books, I assure you. One big difference is that The Fiddler's Gun isn't written for children, but for young adults. There are pretty intense situations, and it's about real-life sailors who sometimes talk like real-life sailors.2) I expect there will be five books in The Wingfeather Saga. There's always the possibility that more could happen in The Monster in the Hollows than I expect, leaving only the fourth book to complete the saga. I don't possess the genius of J.K. Rowling (and yes, I think she's a genius), who mapped out all the Harry Potter books meticulously and somehow kept millions of obsessed fans on the edges of their seats (including me). She knew where she was going at every turn, from what I've read about her process. Nor am I following my nose. I have in my mind a story arc, along with certain scenes in my mind (one of those being Kalmar's transformation in North! Or Be Eaten). I'm writing to get to those scenes. There are valleys and mountain ranges between me and the those moments, and getting there is as much an adventure for me as it is the characters in the story. Well, I'm not in mortal danger, so that may not be true.What about you? What are the mysteries you want solved? What are the questions you want answered? I'm curious because I'm wondering if I posed the questions well enough, and because I want to make sure I tie up all the loose ends I have so cavalierly severed. Heaven forbid I do to my readers what the writers of Lost did to me.
A Picture of Leeli
I doodled this today on the porch. Don't ask me what she's doing. Or why the wind is blowing so hard. Or why she's barefoot. For some reason in every picture I've ever drawn of Leeli she's barefoot. She's not in the stories, so don't read too much into it. I also don't know why she's holding her whistleharp, or why her crutch is too short, or why she looks afraid, or why, in the words of my son Asher (10), she looks like she has to go to the bathroom. I'm no Justin Gerard. It is what it is.In other news, I'm planning to push through chapter three and into chapter four tomorrow. Now that the first grueling chunk is done, finding out what happens when the Igibys reach the Green Hollows should come easier. I can't wait to tell you all about it.Thanks for reading.