…continued working on this diamond art project (think paint by numbers but with little crystals) that my niece gave me when my husband and I were in Michigan in July. Sometimes I’d sit down to do a bit in the afternoon, but mostly I worked on it once dinner was in the oven.

…launched a book! It was such a celebration! Some of my book club, the Dead Authors Society / Antediluvian Readers, came to the first event (the book is dedicated to these dear Book Women of mine)…

…and some came to the second event. Two members came to both! Look closely at this picture and the following two, and see if you can figure out why we’re laughing.

…(virtually) graduated from Chautauqua Institution‘s CLSC (Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, an education program that’s been around since 1878). The 2026 graduating class is called Keepers of the Flame with the motto Voices for Democracy. To qualify, I had to read at least twelve books from the thousands of titles on the book list kept since 1878. So far I’ve read fourteen and have already planned which books I’ll read next to earn my first badge. (Like Girl Scouts. It’s perfect.) I love these last lines from an article in the Chautauquan Daily about the event:

“…to celebrate reading and encourage reading, who does that?” Hollier said.  

 Chautauqua does.

…hosted various backyard visitors. Yes, that’s Clover in the middle. She’s tried for a second and third time to nest in my garden, but I’ve got her completely blocked from entering. (Thankfully, we haven’t had bears — at least not any we’ve known of!)

…worked on notes for a picture book I wrote in May (from an editor I’ve done two picture books with previously). No promises have been made, but my fingers are firmly crossed!

…signed up for a second continuing ed. philosophy class (since I really enjoyed the one I took in the spring). This one is “Love and Beauty in Plato: A Study of the Dialogue Symposium”.

…got a rejection for another picture book I wrote earlier this year. (Onward, as my agent says.)

… FaceTimed with my little friends who moved to Idaho so I could read them Books Up the Mountain.

…slowly picked the apples in my backyard.

…slowly added words to a middle-grade manuscript.

…sadly learned my picture book, My Brother is Away, is going out of print.

…continued sticking tiny pieces of glass on this canvas.

…celebrated my mom’s eighty-fifth birthday. (Hi, Mom!)

…thought about my book in Washington DC representing New Mexico at the National Book Festival.

…prepped for this end-of-the-month event by packing a cooler full of books to transport to Silver City.

…discovered My Brother is Away is the current StoryWalk title for the North Liberty Library in North Liberty, Iowa.

…finished my art project. It was really fun.

…marveled at these precious twin fawns who came for a visit with their mother. I’m not sure if she’s the mother of the yearlings or another regular backyard visitor. As I often say to Dan, I wish the neighborhood deer wore name tags and GPS trackers. I’d love to more clearly tell them apart and know where and how far they roam when they’re not hanging out here.

…spotted this guy while walking at the neighborhood park.

…had an absolutely spectacular event in Silver City. While I got lost at Western New Mexico University and had to ask three different people how to get to the library, I still made it with time to spare. It was great to speak with Philip Connors, an author whose work I’ve long admired (whose Fire Season had a huge influence on The Burning Season) and am now honored to call a friend. Fifty to sixty people attended the talk. The discussion and readings and questions were invigorating. I love this job of mine. You can read about the event here in the Silver City Daily Press. Because I neglected to take any pictures at the event, this humorous license plate I snapped while window shopping the afternoon before will have to do!

…came home to discover I’d spoken too soon about bears in the neighborhood. A mama and baby were spotted in our culdesac. That dark blob on the left is the baby peeking at my driveway and across the street the next morning. A mega drought (going strong since 2000) has deeply impacted New Mexico wildlife. Last year’s dismal snowpack and a weak summer monsoon season have driven many bears into cities and towns across the state in search of food. My hope is the predicted Super El Nino comes to pass and really dumps on New Mexico this winter!

… got two more rejections on the picture book I wrote earlier this year, one a “regretful pass.” My agent “remains hopeful,” so I will too.

…enjoyed this harvest (of one) from the little fig tree I planted in May.

The post In August I… appeared first on Caroline Starr Rose.

Poet, novelist, farmer, essayist, environmentalist, all-around decent human being Wendell Berry died earlier this week. I wanted to re-run this post I wrote about August 2024 that ends with my favorite Berry poem. (Confusingly, my next blog post is about this August, but more on that next week.) In looking back to this moment, I see lots of evidence in my writing life now of all that was taking root below the earth then as darkness did its work.

August was a strange month. I spent much of one week picking, peeling, and coring apples, making applesauce and apple butter, freezing bags and bags of them and giving more away. This is my second year with an apple tree, and while I love it, it’s a lot of work. (If anyone has favorite apple recipes, I’m ALL EARS.)

I got to share the cover of my next novel, The Burning Season, which was wonderful (thank you again for your fabulous support) and worked on first pass pages, but I also spent much of the month in creative discomfort, not knowing where I’m heading next as far as my writing goes. In the last weeks I’ve read close to a hundred picture books to explore and study and get in the groove for a future project of my own. Few of those books caught my fancy. I read six different middle grade novels searching for inspiration. Subjects I thought I’d like to write about have been done and done again. A picture book I’d thought about working on no longer interested me.* A glimmer of a novel fizzled out.** While I’m not a writer who’s swimming in ideas, I don’t think I’ve ever been in a place where I don’t know what I want to do next. It’s been unmooring. I haven’t been pleasant to live with.

So it was encouraging to find in my blog draft folder the quotes I recently shared. They felt like messages to me:

Being an artist means…ripening like a tree, which doesn’t force its sap…Patience is everything.

Artists are always working, though they may not seem as if they are. They are like plants growing in winter. You can’t see the fruit, but it is taking root below the earth.

Are artists working when they seem not to be even to themselves? How does the work happen? Can we work for the work, search for it straight on, or do we have to wait to catch it out of the corner of our eye? I don’t fully know the answer to this, but I do take comfort in the thought of things taking root below the earth. I’m thinking again of Wendell Berry’s poem that speaks to art and agriculture and our whole human selves:

The seed is in the ground.
Now may we rest in hope
While darkness does its work.

*2026 update: I’ve written four picture book manuscripts since this time.
**A week or so after writing this, I found my way into my current middle grade project. I’m a third into the first draft of that manuscript.

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A good reminder when it comes to our creative pursuits: “It doesn’t do any good at all to know that you can’t please everyone but not use that knowledge to be bolder, walk lighter and do better work for those you can please.”
You Can’t Please Everyone :: Seth Godin

“It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions.” An excellent reminder for writers…and all other human beings.
Martha Graham on the Hidden Danger of Comparing Yourself to Others :: James Clear

I have thought of this post so many times over the years. Do I agree with it? Yes! Do I always write like this? No!
Only Show Characters Crying When They’re Truly at Their Wits’ End  :: Nathan Bransford

Anyone else struggle with either of these?
Show characters getting from Point A to Point B :: Nathan Bransford
How to Pass the Time in Fiction :: Erin Entrada Kelly (thanks, Amy, for sharing this link)

The more you know.
Stereotypes, Tropes, and Archetypes :: Tale Foundry

Has anyone else read Emma M. Lion? I listened to the first book sometime last year, and it was a delight!
Who is Emma M. Lion and Why Can’t Readers Get Enough of Her? :: NYT (gift link)

The post Writing and Reading Links appeared first on Caroline Starr Rose.

What typically comes first for you: a character? An era? A story idea? How do you proceed from there?

I find that every story is a little bit different, but typically it’s a character or a historical event. For Five Days at the Hotel Adams, it was this long-standing fascination with the building. I’d known I wanted to write about it for a long time so everything – Ruth, Luisa and all the threads of their investigation – sort of flowed from there.

How do you conduct your research? 

I use a lot of historical newspapers. Especially since this story was set over the course of a week, it was really helpful to read newspapers for what was going on in Phoenix throughout that timeframe. It’s how I learned about Halley’s Comet’s presence during that time. I also work really closely with local museums. I booked an Archives appointment with the Arizona Historical Society and sent a bunch of questions to one of my favorite museums, The Square PHX, about what life was like in turn-of-the-century Phoenix. I also read a wide variety of nonfiction and fiction books set around the same time period to really immerse myself in their way of life. One of my favorite things to do when writing about U.S. history is to read a presidential biography for the time period too; it gives me such a good glimpse at the national climate and is so interesting to me.

How long do you typically research before beginning to draft?

I think I do this a little differently than other authors in that I don’t do a ton of research before I start outlining or writing. I think if I researched before, it would be really hard for me to look at all the information I accumulated and dive into drafting. So I tend to do it simultaneously. As I craft my zero draft – what I call my combo outline-first draft – I do read some informational texts, watch some documentaries, and read historical fiction set in the era to give myself a starting point. If there are points in the draft where I need some specific historical details, I actually just skip it the first time through and leave myself a comment with questions to figure out what information I need to research. Then when I go back my second time through, I’ll pull all those little comments into a to-do list. This helps my research be a little more targeted so I don’t fall down a hundred different rabbit holes with every search I do. 

What are some obstacles writing historical fiction brings?

My favorite historical fiction – both to read and to write – centers on stories that are less common within widespread historical narratives. I like to uncover moments and perspectives that are lesser known. Because of this, it’s sometimes hard to find primary resources or research on the people or events I want to write about. Not impossible, but hard! For example, a lot of sources pertaining to marginalized communities were not as well preserved as resources on non-marginalized groups. Additionally, when settings are no longer in existence – like the Hotel Adams – there are some challenges in figuring out how to capture it. That’s part of the art to the fiction piece – the balance between what we know and what we could reasonably imagine for the purposes of both informing and entertaining readers.

Because life isn’t always clear cut, the motives behind our actions don’t always make sense. But stories need to follow a logical path. What sorts of decisions have you had to make about “muddy” historical figures or events in order for your book to work?

I love this question. This was top of mind as I wrote Five Days at the Hotel Adams both because of what we know about the fire and what we don’t know because of the fire. The ending of the book was a really big conversation point for me and my editor, balancing the mystery plot, what we know to be true about the event, and the message of the book. It was deliberately constructed and I think it reflects a lot of the truths about lives for young girls and Mexican American communities at this time, in addition to leaving some questions for readers to ponder. I like my books to feel like the characters’ lives continue beyond the final page, and while I know readers will have opinions on the last chapters of the book, I hope it gets them thinking!

Why is historical fiction important?

You can learn so much from historical fiction! There is so much research and information packed into these stories, and sometimes it’s more engaging to readers than a nonfiction text because of the storytelling and fictional pieces. It’s a way to pull readers into studying history and uncovering stories and asking questions, and in a time where history is so contested, we need as many people studying the past as possible.

***

Hailey Alcaraz writes multicultural coming-of-age books about girls using their heartbreak to change the world. She began her writing career in the sixth grade as a Kid Reporter for Time For Kids and remains passionate about crafting stories about identity, love, and resilience. She is the author of two YA novels, Up in Flames and Rosa By Any Other Name, a Pura Belpre Award Honoree, as well as the new middle grade novel, Five Days at the Hotel Adams. Hailey lives in Scottsdale with her husband, two daughters, and precocious German shepherd, Lemon. You can find her online here.

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