dulemba

Victoria Alvear's THE CLEANSING

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth O Dulemba) — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 19:42:00 +0000

My dear friend Vicky is celebrating the release of her new historical thriller, THE CLEANSING. I was an early reader for the manuscript when she was working on it and have been rooting for this fabulous book ever since.

Midwest Book Review says about the book:

“Original, exceptional, deftly crafted and a simply riveting read from cover to cover, "The Cleansing" will hold a very special attraction for readers with an interest in a suspense thriller set in an Ancient Rome where the game of thrones is a blood sport -- and there's no guarantee of fairness or success.

With the publication of "The Cleansing", author Victoria Alvear reveals a genuine flair for the kind of eloquently descriptive attention, and narrative driven storytelling style that raises her historical thriller to an impressive level of literary excellence. While this hardcover edition of "The Cleansing" from Hypatia Press is especially and unreservedly recommended for community library collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists that it is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $4.99).

Vicky stopped by to talk about it!
When Writing for Children Takes an Unexpected Turn

By Victoria Alvear

It has taken me more than a decade to get my upcoming novel published. At first, I stayed in my “lane” as a young adult novelist, but I could not sell my book to kids’ publishers. I came close once—a YA imprint editor brought my book to the marketing team, but they shot it down. “Too hard/weird to sell,” they claimed.

So, I went in hard on the weird and dark realism and shifted to the adult market, where there is greater room for the subtleties of sexual politics and the ugly harshness of a violent and misogynistic society. The Cleansing is historical fiction that tells the true story of a Vestal Virgin in ancient Rome falsely accused of having sex. And her desperate attempt to defend herself in court to avoid the death sentence that follows such a “crime.”

Blaming a woman’s sexuality for the crimes of men is not a new thing, but this story is so over the top it’s shocking. Yet it really happened: When 50,000 Romans fell in a single day at the Battle of Cannae, priests asserted that there could be only one reason why the “gods turned their back on Rome.” A Vestal priestess broke her vow of chastity. Accused of a crime she did not commit, my main character must defend herself against a hostile religious court and outwit the political leaders bent on avoiding accountability. (Sound familiar?)

This is a dark story with unnerving parallels to today’s purity culture and our society’s growing misogyny. Even today, many fundamentalist religious leaders blame women or LGBTQ folks for “having sex” as the reason why God sends natural disasters. Perhaps it was a blessing that the YA imprints passed on the story because, by rewriting it for the adult market, I could more fully expose how religion and powerful leaders use superstition and fear to hurt and punish the most vulnerable among us. Sometimes rejections turn into opportunities.

The Cleansing: A Novel of Ancient Rome, by Victoria Alvear, releases January 20, 2026, and is published by Hypatia Press. Victoria writes for children under the name Vicky Alvear Shecter, and is the author of multiple MG and YA books. Her website is: www.vickyalvearshecter.com.

Vicky has also been creating a series of fascinating bits of history on ancient Egypt on her Instagram. Go have a look!

Coloring Page Tuesday - Graduation Mouse!

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth O Dulemba) — Tue, 13 May 2025 19:57:00 +0000

     For many students, classes are now over and graduation ceremonies are nigh. It's time to CELEBRATE!
     CLICK HERE for more coloring pages.
     Remember, I create my coloring pages to draw your attention to my books! Especially... Merbaby's Lullaby! Click the cover to learn about this sweet board book written by New York Times Best-selling author, Jane Yolen! Makes a GREAT baby shower gift!
     I create my coloring pages for teachers, librarians, booksellers, and parents to enjoy for free with their children, but you can also purchase rights to an image for commercial use, please contact me. If you have questions about usage, please visit my Angel Policy page.

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Charles Vess at Hollins U!

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth O Dulemba) — Mon, 05 May 2025 20:24:00 +0000

I was thrilled to host Charles Vess on campus recently for students to learn from this master illustrator! Charles is a world-renowned illustrator who has worked across the globe for comics (e.g., "Spider-man: Spirits of the Earth," 1990) and publishers (e.g., The Books of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin), and won just about every award there is, sometimes multiple times (e.g. the Will Eisner Comic Industry Award). He's also worked with some of the best authors in the world (e.g. George R. R. Martin, Jane Yolen, and Susanna Clarke).
      Lucky us, Charles lives near Abingdon, Virginia, so has visited campus several times. But this batch of students hadn't met him yet!
     Charles always brings so much original art with him, it makes your jaw drop! These are pieces done in ink, watercolor, pencil and and colored pencil.He talked about his process, shared stories of the folks he's worked with, and got us excited about the projects he's working on. It was a serious treat for these budding illustrators and writers!
     Afterwards, a group of us took him out to dinner to Alejandro's - our nearby staple. I'll treasure this photo of me with Charles. All said, it was a wonderful visit. I was able to record most of it and hope to have an available link to share with current students and alumni soon!

Building Stories with Leonard Marcus!

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth O Dulemba) — Mon, 28 Apr 2025 15:39:00 +0000

You may recall that I took at trip to Washington, DC last fall as a dry run to see what it would take to invite my students on a field trip to the Building Museum this spring. Well, it all came to fruition this past Friday. Several of us hopped on Amtrak at 6:15am to head to DC. Here are a few of us (Hale, me, and Karen) in Union Station upon our arrival. From the station, we walked the pleasant short distance to the Building Museum, where we met up with several alumni and one of our instructors who live nearby. Leonard Marcus met us there. Don't know who Leonard Marcus is? Well, he is one of the world’s preeminent authorities on children’s books and the people who create them. He is the author of more than 25 award-winning biographies, histories, interview collections, and inside looks at the making of children’s literature’s enduring classics. He is a founding trustee of the Eric Carle Museum, curator of the New York Public Library's landmark exhibition The ABC of It: Why Children's Books Matter (that I visited and talked about HERE, and interviewed him about HERE.) He has served as a consultant to the National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature, National Book Foundation, Bank Street College of Education, American Writers Museum, Bard Graduate Center, National Book Council (Singapore), Lamsa Media (UAE), and Trust Bridge Media (China). In 2007, the Bank Street College of Education awarded Leonard an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters. In 2019, Leonard became the first American to win the Shanghai-based Chen Bochui Foundation International Children’s Literature Award for “special contributions to the development of Chinese children’s literature.” He also recently published a fascinating article in the New York Times: The American Picture Book’s Unsung Parent: Japan Missing for decades from the Anglophile version of its origin story was another great visual narrative tradition, of the East.
I met Leonard at the Decatur Book Festival following our very successul SCBWI Southern Breeze Illustrator Conference in 2012 and we've been friends ever since. So, when I heard he had curated this new show, I knew I had to connect him with our Hollins students! And what a magical connection it was! Leonard pointed out so many things I'd missed my first time through on my own. For instance, the arches were designed with twigs, sticks, and bricks from The Three Pigs: Or the tunnel that was designed to look longer than it actually was - like a magical portal into another world, just like in so many picture books that do the same. Or the debut book by Korean artist Yoon Kang-mi (Changbi, 2019) about a girl "gazing out her high-rise window" who reinvisions the polluted city view as what she would rather see. We all learned new things and so enjoyed Leonard's passion and knowledge. He was an absolute JOY to listen to and learn from! What a rare opportunity - it was an absolute treat for all who came. But my fave photo was of the two of us on the way into the David Macauley room in the exhibit, just under the Chaos of it all! Thank you, Leonard!!!

Coloring Page Tuesday - Bunny Love

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth O Dulemba) — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 13:56:00 +0000

     Easter is just around the corner which makes me think of bunnies! Even better, bunny love!
     CLICK HERE for more Easter-themed coloring pages.
     Remember, I create my coloring pages to draw your attention to my books! Especially... Merbaby's Lullaby! Click the cover to learn about this sweet board book written by New York Times Best-selling author, Jane Yolen! Makes a GREAT baby shower gift!
     I create my coloring pages for teachers, librarians, booksellers, and parents to enjoy for free with their children, but you can also purchase rights to an image for commercial use, please contact me. If you have questions about usage, please visit my Angel Policy page.

Sign up for KidLit News (formerly e's news)!

The Bologna Children's Book Fair 2025

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth O Dulemba) — Wed, 09 Apr 2025 22:53:00 +0000

SCBWI hosted a booth at this year's Bologna Children's Book Fair, and as their official Educational Parter, Hollins had a third of the booth.I love being so close to my SCBWI family again, it feels like coming home! Here's Dorothia during her portfolio review with our dear friend and head of SCBWI, Sarah Baker.      We were in an excellent location, right next to the Illustrators' Survival Corner, which is the gathering spot for all the illustrators from around the world who attended the Fair.This is the first year we've had such a strong presence at the Fair and it was quite exciting. Our marketing department did a bang up job on our decor!      In fact, I gave a workshop at the ISC this year on Understanding Color. It was sold old with folks standing around the edges - marvelous!SCBWI also did a Master Class panel led by Sarah and including Laurent Linn, who is a dear friend from way back. I also gave portfolio reviews at both the ISC and the SCBWI booths. I love doing those.
     Out of the 80,000 or so attendees at the Fair each year, thousands of them are aspiring children's book illustrators. The reason is that only big names in industry tend to attend the BCBF—it is Italy after all! And many of them offer free portfolio reviews while they are at the Fair. So, illustrators have the rare opportunity to show their portfolios to the very people who can give them their big breaks. Lines will oftentimes be 100 people long as they wait for their five minutes.
     Some of them like to make sure they're memorable and dress up in fun outfits. My fave was The Mad Hatter.
     For Hollins, that means that thousands of people who want to do exactly what we teach, all show up at the same place each year for four days of chaos and magic.
     But not only are there portfolio reviews, there are also about a dozen highly competitive art shows at the Fair each year. I was thrilled to see artwork by Lauren Paige Conrad featured in one of the shows. I reconnected with Lauren recently when I discovered that she had stepped into her mom's illustrator shoes, doing cut paper and using many of her mom's tools to create her own beautiful artwork. Her mom was Liz Conrad, my best friend who passed away in 2009. Talk about meaningful to see this in Italy! Liz would be so proud!      Illustrators also flock to Bologna to participate in the Illustrator Walls. These go on forever and they fill up in about 15 minutes when the Fair first opens.Here is Dorothia's artwork. She even had little fairy lights illuminating her shadow-box-like work. The elevator walls also fill up eventually, but Larissa got there first and popped our Hollins posters on there for some instant billboard appeal!Mary Jane Begin's cat illustration always grabs us tons of attention!
     Of course, there are plenty of reasons to wander around at the Fair as well. For instance, I got to say 'hi' to Mo Willems who was there celebrating his new publishing company. (We were supposed to be the guest author/illustrators sharing a dinner table at the Savannah Children's Book Festival years ago, but he was so popular even then, I got pushed from our table. He has stories of unruly fans and crowds!)I stopped by the Phillipines booth because they have a booming children's publishing industry. They were giving out shots of a popular purple liquor from their country. It sort of tasted like chocolate milk, with a serious kick! (They were very small cups - ha!)Meanwhile, the Saudi Arabian booth was giving out tastes of their delicious coffee spiked with cardamom seeds - yummy!I also spoke with representatives from South Korea and hope to build relationships there. I also received a kind gift of a glass pomegranate from the Azerbaijan representatives. (Pomegranates are positive symbols in their culture.) Truly, the entire world is at the Bologna Children's Book Fair and they're all trying to make a good impression! You'll also see lots of products represented, and some of them are downright magical, like the Mouse Mansion.

     There are lots of food trucks and pop-up vendors for food at the Fair. I was sad my Thai truck wasn't there again this year. But there was a pop-up restaurant that searched roasted veggies that were delish!     And truly, having Dorothia and Larissa there was such a treat. We made a great team and represented Hollins WELL!And Dorothia's beau even helped carry out the collateral when it was time to leave!The entire event comes down as quickly as it goes up and everyone returns to their busy lives. But in Bologna, for four days each year, we come together as the children's publishign family that we are!

READ MORE ABOUT THIS AMAZING ADVENTURE!
SCBWI Party at Libreria Treme
An Italian Miracle
Italy with Students!

Party at Libreria Treme!

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth O Dulemba) — Sat, 05 Apr 2025 22:14:00 +0000

After our Italian Miracle, we were thrilled to be heading to the annual SCBWI party hosted at the lovely bookstore, Libreria Treme! You might recall that last year I made a thank-you card for the owner, after she helped me get HU brochures to Italy.
It was a beautiful night, so the party that usually squeezes into the tiny shop, spilled into the street.The food was amazing, as usual, and everyone had a marvelous time! (This is Jim with Kim Turrisi.)Here I am with Martha Rago, Larissa, and Dorothia.Of course we had to tell everyone about our Italian Miracle - what a story! And see how happy Larissa is? Wouldn't you be? It was a fabulous night, filled with Italian magic!

An Italian Miracle!

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth O Dulemba) — Fri, 04 Apr 2025 21:53:00 +0000

We experienced a miracle while in Italy. Was the patron saint of lost things, St. Anthony really helping us out? You be the judge...
     Larissa and I left the Fair on the last day. She took her bus ticket out of her purse to pay for the bus. When we got off, we went to a pretty shoe store (I was on a mission!), then she gave her food to a homeless couple on the sidewalk because she was leaving the next day and couldn't take it with her. We then returned to our flat where she was going to hang out with us until it was time to go to the airport to catch her flight at 6:00am the next morning (leaving our flat at midnight or some such). But when we got back to the flat, Larissa made the terrible discovery that she no longer had her purse... the one with her passport and credit cards in it!
      We tried not to panic. First, we backtracked our steps, back to the homeless couple, and back to the shoe store. No luck. If she'd left it at the Fair, that would be a nightmare. But then, possibly worse, she remembered pulling her ticket from her purse on the bus. The "28" bus to be exact. Would it help to call the bus company, knowing full well that most people in Bologna don't speak English? No.
      Dorothia and Jim stayed at the flat repeating the prayer to St. Anthony: Tony, Tony, look around. something's lost that must be found.
     Obviously, you can't travel internationally without your passport and the nearest US consulate (we learned) is in Florence, a train ride away. What to do!? It was time to go to the police.
     The first location Google sent us to turned out to be closed and the woman on the door's speaker sent us elsewhere. We tried to stay in good spirits as we walked, but of course, Larissa was wondering if she should cancel her flight and all her credit cards and wondering how in the world she would get anywhere with the remaining cash she had. Meanwhile, I was worrying about the responsibility of the university. Did I need to cancel my flight and make sure she got to the consulate to get home?
     We made it to the correct police station where the very nice officer asked Larissa to fill out a detailed report. She did that and we talked about her options. We didn't know if the purse had been stolen or simply lost, so there wasn't anything more the police could do. We didn't want to leave, because it felt like giving up, or heading into much bigger challenges.
     Just then a woman walked into the building, looked at Larissa and asked, "Are you Ms. Powers? I have your purse."
     WHAT!!!???
     OMG!!! We fell apart, almost fainted, checked her for wings sprouting out of her back. Certainly, she had a halo!
     As it turned out, the purse ended up somehow on the seat of the woman's scooter. We have no idea how it got there, but thank goodness it did. Because this generous soul did not wait until the next day to do something about finding the purse, she went straight to the police station. If our walks had been off by five minutes, we would have missed her. A talented author couldn't have written a better scene. (Although a friend pointed out that noone would ever write a scene like that because it was too unbelievable.)
     I made sure Larissa got her name and contact info: Stella. Of course her name meant "Star" - star from above!
     Needless to say, we were ecstatic and greatly relieved. And ended up with one heck of a story to share!

Italy with my students!

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth O Dulemba) — Wed, 02 Apr 2025 21:19:00 +0000

Sadly, Jim left Monday to fly back to the states - through Istanbul, Turkey of all places! He took lots of photos. Meanwhile, I moved to yet another flat, a VRBO this time, with one of my students, Dorothia, and her friend, Jim-also! Another student, Larissa, also came along and the four of us hung out quite a bit. (This is at Trattoria Fantoni.)It was so lovely to have them both there to help with our Fair booth and hang out with around town! The flat we stayed in was a flashback to the Art Deco period—there were Mucha prints all over the apartment, and heavy, carved furniture. It was also very well located more on the north side of town. It was rather high up, so we were so grateful it had an elevator!It also had amazing views out the kitchen balcony. Walking out the front door, we were immediately in the thick of the covered walkways.Like my new Italy pants?We did quite a bit of wandering and discovered lovely new things. Of course, there's the obligatory pose mimicking the mermaids at the Neptune Fountain in the Piazza Maggiore. And these playful Satyrs. (Mimicking the poses is a thing!)But we also passed this fountain on our walks to and from the Fair.And somehow I'd not yet discovered the lovely Piazza Santo Stefano before! Flower shops spill their marvelous blooms - here's Dorothia in an ideal shot.Bologna is just so pretty! And so very OLD.We did a LOT of walking! Which was a good thing because we also ate a lot of pasta!We ate at the Gran Cafe., admired the restaurant across the street where they make their own pasta in the window (I ate there last year and it's very good too!).One restaurant I'd eaten at long ago with my SCBWI friends and must try again was the Trattoria Osteria. Next time! You simply can't eat it all in one trip, as I proved - HA!

Bologna with friends!

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth O Dulemba) — Mon, 31 Mar 2025 21:04:00 +0000

Friends Connie and Kevin joined me and Jim for a few days in Bologna, Italy before the Children's Book Fair. We rented an Airbnb together—an incredibly well located flat on the east side of town that I had never explored before—and we hit the town! An immediate fave was La Prosciutteria that was just around the corner from our flat.You stand in line to order the most amazing charcuterie trays with wine! Kevin and Jim hit it off - I had a feeling they would. And we made more new friends right off the bat.Across from the deli(?) was a gallery with this amazing chair - wish I could have shipped it home!Bologna really comes alive at night. Some restaurants don't even open until 8:00pm. THAT is when you want to wander this beautiful city!Kevin and Connie are both amazing cooks (you may recall Stan and I met Connie through the salons she used to host), so Kevin picked out the restaurants. The first we went to was owned by a sous chef for a Michelin Star restaurant. He's trying to put himself on the map, so had some really delicious dishes...and some flat out interesting ones. Like the sorbet... and the white chocolate mousse dusted with sage accompanied by sweetened cauliflower? Yeah.We had to have gellato as well, which sadly, after multiple and massive assurances from the employees that the flavors I chose were dairy free, turned out to be all dairy. Between that and trying to eat most of Italy in one day, I got quite ill. But not before we had a chance to visit the Archiginnasio Palace. How had I never seen this before? And we had spritzes looking over the Piazzo Maggiore.Turns out that Jim was an amazing traveling companion and I returned home even more crazy about him than when we started out. He seems to simply fit wherever he is-a true natural. Happy!

Scotland with Jim!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth O Dulemba) — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 19:21:00 +0000

I had to go to the Bologna Children's Book Fair in Italy recently, and happily, it was the week after our spring break at Hollins U; so, I tied in a week-long vacation in my homeland of Scotland! And this time, my new beau Jim went with me to meet all of my Edinburgh and Glasgow friends. It began at the airport with the iconic photo... My dear friend Johnny picked us up from the airport and we hung out with him and Meredith at their lovely country home to catch up. Of course we ended up in Johnny's emaculate man-cave, where he keeps his BSA named "Stella."We stayed at the Sonder Airbnb, which turned out to be a lovely choice, right across from the Portrait Museum, at the top of the hill from where Stan and I used to live. It was somewhere between an Airbnb and a hotel with a great view of the garden (for quiet), where we saw a BIG fox!...and also had a view of the Firth of Fourth. It also had windows on the side looking down Queen Street - the best of both worlds!
Once we were settled in, we began walking. I wanted to show Jim everything! I showed him where I attended convocation for my MFA. (I'm still amazed I did this!)We went by The Writers' Museum and admired the lovely quotes on the stones outside.Of course, we had to visit the castle! (Although this photo was from below in Grassmarket.)It was so fun to see Edinburgh through Jim's eyes. Being a contractor/builder/renovator, he was in awe of the architecture and I often caught him like this.We had crepes at my favorite crepe stand, Tupiniquim, which has upgraded their seating with a little garden in the back. In the garden is a piano shed where anyone can drop by and play. And they do! Several who dropped by were quite good! On Sunday, I took Jim down Circus Lane, one of the most photographed streets in Edinburgh, on the way to the Farmers Market.Happily, they once again had their amazing paella and this time, there wasn't a long line yet! So, I got my dungeoness crab! It was a mess, but Jim helped get the meat out of the shell and I was so happy!The next day, which turned out to be a beautiful day, Jim rubbed the bear's nose for good luck in the Princes Street Gardens.We had our pictures taken with the owls on The Royal Mile. I had Hazel and he had Archie.I think they got along quite well.This time we went all the way up to the castle, where I took another iconic shot. I kept trying to get Jim to buy a kilt. I think he'd look great in one. Can you envision it? Of course, we had to get a flight of whisky at The Whiski Rooms.
Jim hadn't tried a Scotch Egg yet, and they made a great one for him.In fact, he had several classic dishes: haggis, blood sausage, cullen skink, fish-n-chips with both mushy and regular peas... One day we took the train to Glasgow so that I could show him the Cloisters at the University. We also were able to have a wonderful lunch at the Hanoi Bike Shop (an old haunt) with my PhD supervisors Bob Davis and Maureen Farrell. I love these two so much!Back in Edinburgh, we went for cocktails with Alix, Max, and Connie before heading out for tapas for dinner.Somehow we missed getting photos with Robert and Penelope when we met up at a fabulous Lebanese restaurant, and with Amandine in her lovely new flat. In other words, we just have to go back again, for pictures and to see more! (And Jim took pictures too, so I may do a Part 2 post with his photos.)

Sheree's Birthday Party

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth O Dulemba) — Sun, 16 Mar 2025 20:31:00 +0000

Dear friend Sheree Scarborough celebrated a biggie birthday recently and threw a big bash for the occassion. We all got dressed to the nines!The venue was lovely, the food was fantastic, and we made new friends... Sheree even hired a band to dance to, which Jim and I did!

We had so much fun! What a celebration of love for friends and family!
Happy birthday, Sheree, and I wish you many more!

Coloring Page Tuesday - St. Patty's Day Snakes!

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth O Dulemba) — Wed, 12 Mar 2025 15:42:00 +0000

     Here's an odd one for you... It's the Year of the Snake, and St. Patrick's Day is around the corner. Of course, he was sainted for getting rid of all the snakes in Ireland, so.... I bring you St. Patty's Day snakes! Can you find the four-leaf clover?
     CLICK HERE for more St. Patrick's Day-themed coloring pages.
     Remember, I create my coloring pages to draw your attention to my books! Especially... Merbaby's Lullaby! Click the cover to learn about this sweet board book written by New York Times Best-selling author, Jane Yolen! Makes a GREAT baby shower gift!
     I create my coloring pages for teachers, librarians, booksellers, and parents to enjoy for free with their children, but you can also purchase rights to an image for commercial use, please contact me. If you have questions about usage, please visit my Angel Policy page.

Sign up for KidLit News (formerly e's news)!

I am a 20 over 50 in The Roanoker Magazine!

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth O Dulemba) — Wed, 05 Mar 2025 14:55:00 +0000

I am honored to be one of the 20 featured women over 50 in the latest edition (March 2025) of The Roanoker magazine. The article says: "From bold career pivots to inspiring new ventures, these women are redefining success, embracing empowerment and proving it's never too late to chase their dreams." I share the spotlight with some amazing women, including Hollins' own Leeray Costa, Executive Director of Leadership Studies and the Batten Leadership Institute and Professor, Gender and Women's Studies and Anthropology, and Donna Davis, Director of Community Engagement, Goodwill Industries of the Valleys, and also fellow Board Member for the Roanoke Arts Commission!
I love the attractive layout of the article. I share a page with some remarkable people. Many thanks to Aila Boyd who did the write up on me based on the extensive interview questions she sent me. It was fun to see what she pulled out to include. Here's my particular bit. Many thanks to The Roanoker for making us all look so good and celebrating the amazing people who make up our dynamic community!

Coloring Page Thursday? - Hugging Turtles!

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth O Dulemba) — Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:03:00 +0000

     It's not Tuesday, but every day is a good day to share a hug—even a slow one!
     CLICK HERE for more coloring pages.
     Remember, I create my coloring pages to draw your attention to my books! Especially... Merbaby's Lullaby! Click the cover to learn about this sweet board book written by New York Times Best-selling author, Jane Yolen! Makes a GREAT baby shower gift!
     I create my coloring pages for teachers, librarians, booksellers, and parents to enjoy for free with their children, but you can also purchase rights to an image for commercial use, please contact me. If you have questions about usage, please visit my Angel Policy page.

Sign up for KidLit News (formerly e's news)!

Marcie Flinchum Atkins' ONE STEP FORWARD

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth O Dulemba) — Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:49:00 +0000

Hollins alumna Marcie Flinchum Atkins is celebrating the release of her new book, One Step Forward. She stopped by to talk about it...
Stories in My Backyard
By Marcie Flinchum Atkins
Versify/HarperCollins, March 4, 2025

      I didn’t know when I walked into a local museum located in an arts center, that I would be walking into my next book. When we moved from the Roanoke Valley to Northern Virginia in 2015, we learned that the Workhouse Arts Center in Lorton used to be a jail–and that it jailed women who fought for suffrage. I had to see it for myself. The first time I went to the museum, I truly couldn’t believe I’d never heard the story of the suffragists who were abused and force fed for protesting in front of the White House for fighting for the right to vote.
      I didn’t feel equipped to tell their story. Who was I to write about suffragists? I only knew about Alice Paul, and I didn’t even know much about her.
      By 2017, I gave myself permission to read and research their stories in earnest. I attended several local events that talked about the events at the Occoquan Workhouse. One day, I went on a tour in Washington, DC, and I realized one of the facts the tour guide mentioned about the suffragists was incorrect. At that point I knew I knew enough to write the story–or to at least get started.
I have an analog desk where I read each morning and write by hand. I write almost all of my poetry and picture books by hand first before moving to the computer.
      I wrote One Step Forward from many different points of view. First I wrote it from the “we” voice of a multitude of suffragists, then a draft of 11 different characters’ points of view, and finally I settled on Matilda Young’s point of view.
      Matilda Young was the younger sister of a prominent suffragist, Joy Young. Matilda was also the youngest suffragist in a group of women who were arrested at the White House gates in November 1917 and then transported to the Occoquan Workhouse where they were beaten. It later became known as the Night of Terror. Matilda was only nineteen at the time.
At the Lucy Burns Museum, one display shows how they force fed the suffragists an egg and milk mixture and poured it in a tube down their throats.
      One thing that never changed in the process of writing the story was the verse aspect. I knew the story–full of gritty details and emotions–needed to be told in verse.
      The inspiration for this story was in my backyard (or about 10 miles away) at the Occoquan Workhouse (now The Lucy Burns Museum). More than that, I was able to do almost all of the research in my local area. I walked the neighborhoods between Matilda’s Washington, DC high school and her home on 18th Street NW and the 1913 Woman Suffrage Procession route down Pennsylvania Avenue. I stood at the White House gates and at Lafayette Square where they protested. I went to the Belmont-Paul Women’s Equity Museum on Capitol Hill, and went through the National Woman’s Party papers at the Library of Congress.
Going through the National Woman’s Party papers at the Library of Congress Manuscript Reading Room.
      The story covers seven years of Matilda’s journey from the 1913 Woman Suffrage Procession to the 1920 election. My journey of researching, writing, revising, and getting the book into the hands of readers spanned from 2017-2025–another seven year journey.
      One Step Forward comes out from Versify/HarperCollins on March 4, 2025.
Marcie Flinchum Atkins is a 2005 (MA) and 2011 (MFA) graduate of Hollins Children’s Literature program. She is a teacher-librarian in Northern Virginia. One Step Forward is her debut YA novel. Her nonfiction picture book Wait, Rest, Pause: Dormancy in Nature (Millbrook, 2019) was a Kirkus Best Informational Book of 2019. Her next nonfiction picture book, When Twilight Comes, is forthcoming from Chronicle in 2026. You can connect with Marcie at her website: www.marcieatkins.com

New York SCBWI Conference!

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth O Dulemba) — Fri, 07 Feb 2025 19:53:00 +0000

The annual New York SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators) has become an annual destination for Mary Jane Begin and me to promote our graduate programs in children's literature and illustration at Hollins University.SCBWI opened up the conference to sponsors two years ago and its proven to be a fabulous opportunity to spread the word to the 850 or so attendees. MJ and I make great roommates and we had a heck of a view this year. We quickly set up our table and went to grab something to eat at a fabulous diner.Back at the hotel, the Friday night party is THE party to attend. It's formally a portfolio showcase for a select bunch of illustrators.But it doubles as an opportunity for folks in the children's book industry to schmooze and reconnect. I've been doing this since 2001 and I know a lot of industry friends - it's so good to see them all! And I do mean ALL!MJ and I are like butterflies as we dance from one group of friends to another. We were most thrilled to see three of our students there: Caroline, Lisa, and Lauren!Lauren won the Student Illustrator Scholarship to be there. That is a VERY BIG DEAL out of all of those portfolios!!!! But we also got to reconnect with the fabulous heads of SCBWI who put toghether these wonderful events. Here we are with Kim Turrisi, Sarah Baker, and Tammy Brown. Thank you for all you do!!! I also reconnected with old friends from the SCBWI Carolinas region, Elizabeth Rawls, Ashley Belote, and Erica Wood (that’s Becky Shillington’s head on a stick since she couldn’t attend in person).We also got to connect with Heidi Stemple who joined our faculty this past fall to teach writing picture books. The students LOVED her, of course - knew they would! We went to lunch on Saturday at the French bistro around the corner from the hotel - lovely!Of course, the whole reason we go is to find potential new members for our Hollins family. I'm happy to report that I think we did! Can't wait to welcome them to campus!

New Yawk City!

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth O Dulemba) — Fri, 07 Feb 2025 19:34:00 +0000

It's become an annual pilgrimmage... I go to New York for the SCBWI winter conference, but go up a few days early to stay with my dear friends Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman. They have a lovely flat overlooking the Hudson and walking along it each morning is one of my favorite things to do - no matter how cold!The grand old trees greet me as if I'm entering Narnia. Where is Mr. Tumnus?Although my photos make it look like I had it all to myself, there were actually doggies and their humans everywhere. But it was COLD. Polar fleece is not the easiest thing to pack, but for walks along the Hudson, I pack it happily!One morning, Delia went with me and we went the other direction, that I didn't even know about. It was just as stunning.Our big adventure this trip (we always plan at least one) was to go see CABARET by the New York City Theater. My friend Mikki Knudsen (author of The Library Lion) joined us. The theater itself had been completely transformed. The entrance felt like entering some shady speak-easy. The girls decided we needed to look tough in our photos.The insigna for the show was a large eye.But this is all I get to show you because they wouldn't let us take photos inside where they'd reconfigured the theater to be in the round with cafe tables, little lamps, and gold fringe hanging everywhere. It was meant to mimic a bordello and it did! It was fabulous! That said, the interpretation of the musical they chose to share was more raw and emotional than the typical performance, made especially more poignant in the fact that it could all be taking place today in today's political atmosphere. When the nazi armband was revealed, reactions from the audience were strong and just as relevant now. It was so well done, but also deeply disturbing. So we went to dinner afterwards to decompress and discuss. We found a fabulous Thai restaurant that we all enjoyed.Other than taking baths in their luxurious tub, I spent the rest of my time with them just writing. Something about being in the home of two writers makes it very easy to get so much done, and I did!
On Friday, I packed up my considerable suitcase, and caught the subway to the hotel for the conference. More in the next post!

Heidi Stemple's JANIE WRITES A PLAY

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth O Dulemba) — Wed, 22 Jan 2025 14:00:00 +0000

Jane Yolen's daughter, prolific author Heidi Stemple, who also teaches in our graduate programs at Hollins University, has written a book about her mother's writing journey called JANIE WRITES A PLAY (illustrated by Madelyn Goodnight, published by Charlesbridge, Feb. 11, 2025). I'm happy to share this very special book release. Heidi dropped by to tell us more about it.      My mother is a storyteller.
     Actually, that may be selling it short. If you know children’s books, my mother is THE storyteller.
     I am an author. Have been for 30 years and almost 50 books. In my family that makes me a slowpoke.
     My mother is Jane Yolen, author of 450 books. But, the book I want to talk to you about today isn’t one she wrote.
      My mom has been telling me the story of her “first big success as an author” for as long as I can remember. The story began: I always knew I wanted to be an author, my first big success was in the first grade when I wrote our school musical…” If you tell my mom about an incident like that, the first thing she will tell you is, “that’s a picture book! Go write it!” And because of this, I always assumed she would write the story herself someday. She never did. So, in late 2019, I sat down and started writing. I realized I didn’t have a ton of facts about this play, so I filled in the parts of my mom’s young life that I did know and fleshed out the story. At this same time, my mom had surgery after a nasty fall. While she was recovering, I continued working on the manuscript. When it was done, I read it to her.
     She was thrilled.
     I asked her a bunch of questions and worked those details in. I switched things I had gotten wrong. We had a fun time talking about her neighborhood and class.
     She and I were scheduled to teach a picture book intensive at SCBWI in NYC, but since she was still not so steady on her feet, she decided to back out. I asked one of my favorite editors, Yolanda Scott, to present with me and she said yes. When I visit NYC, I always meet with my agent Elizabeth. I brought her the manuscript and a crazy idea. “I want to hand the manuscript to Yolanda because she is my dream editor for this project…” Elizabeth agreed, even though we both knew it was bad form to hand your editor an unsolicited manuscript at a conference. (Please don’t do this!) To my great relief and joy, Yo was happy to hear about the concept and promised to read it. This was February, 2020. We had no idea what was on the horizon.
     Fast forward into what happened next—the pandemic. Everything was topsy turvy and books seemed less relevant and more relevant all at the same time. I spent my time making masks for teachers and librarians, posting free content for kids at home, and I wrote a lot. When it became clear that we were in it for the long haul, publishers began to settle into this new normal and Yo bought the book! This was still early 2020, April, I think. So a pretty quick purchase.
     You know what the BEST part was? I got to tell my mom that I had sold the book about her. I asked her how she felt about it. She told me this: “I feel proud at the wonderful job you have done and thrilled that I didn't have to write it!” When the first copy arrived at her house, (for some reason, Charlesbridge sends all our books to her house—but to be fair, we live next door to each other, share a PO box, and are fine with these mailing glitches) she didn’t read the name on the envelope. So, of course, she ripped open the package and she was the one who got to see the actual book. I may have been a little disappointed that I didn’t get to be the first one to open it… but, also, it seemed right for her to be the first. It is, after all, her story.      Madelyn Goodnight’s art is perfect. When Yo presented her as the potential artist, she said, “she is so talented… she can do it all!” And since I was already a fan, (I mean, have you seen her color pallet in Traci Sorrel’s POWWOW DAY?) I got onboard at day one. I sent off photos of my mom as a child, my grandparents with young Janie, and some pictures of NYC during the 1940s. She added so many cool things—the words swirling around little Janie as she writes in her notebook is my favorite. Oh, and the endpages!! I love the endpages! Madelyn made them into bookshelves with titles of my mom’s books. They are cozy and informative and so colorful. The perfect opening—both meaningful and playful. When an illustrator comes aboard the project, it ceases being just a story and it becomes a book.
      At the last minute, when the illustrations were done, all the revisions were in, and the book was set to go to print, my mom and I were in the car and we were talking about the book. She started singing one of the songs from the play. I pulled over and typed the lyrics into my phone and sent them off to Yo. She managed to get them into the illustrations!
     When I asked my mom to tell me what her hopes for this book are. She said she hope kids will think they can be the next Janie. As a follow up, I asked her, “do you hope people will buy this book?” Ever the pragmatist, she responded “Oh Heidi, everybody who writes a book hopes that.” Thankfully she redeemed herself by adding, “but, for me, this book is special for two reasons—one it’s my story, and two, it’s your telling.”

Thanks Mom!
Love you xoxoHeidi

Kerry Madden's WEREWOLF HAMLET

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth O Dulemba) — Mon, 20 Jan 2025 20:44:00 +0000

My good friend Kerry Madden has a new book out, and it's a book of her heart. I can't wait to read it! She dropped by to talk about... My new children’s novel, Werewolf Hamlet, is coming out into the world. It’s my most personal novel aside from Offsides, which came out, almost thirty years ago in 1996 and was a New York Public Library Pick for the Teen Age in 1997. My older kids were six and eight when Offsides was published, and I remember Doug Dutton of Dutton’s books in Brentwood kneeling down to help my son with his necktie. Flannery wanted to wear a tie to my signing at Dutton’s, and my husband was driving from his teaching job in South Central to meet us, so he couldn’t do it, and I couldn’t figure out how to do it on our rush to drive to the Westside in LA traffic from Silver Lake.
      I still don’t know how to tie a necktie, but I remember thinking – remember this – as I watched Doug kneeling and looping Flannery’s tie in a perfect knot.
     I remember Lucy saying, “Why don’t you sign me a book? Huh? You sign one to everyone else. I want my own book.”
     So, I signed her one, and she drew a self-portrait in the book.
     How was it all three decades ago? Time is slippery, the years piling up one after another. Now Lucy is married, a mother, and the executive director of a preschool with three branches in Chicago. We have a trans son, Bo, who was born two years after Offsides was published, and while I was pregnant in 1998, I received a letter saying Offsides was going out of print. I felt like such a giant, broke, and pregnant failure. I couldn’t even afford to buy copies of my novel about to be pulped. It was also the scorching summer Mark McGwire was hitting a gazillion homeruns, and Flannery looked at my calves while baseball blared and said with pride, “Mama, look! You have Mark McGwire calves. So cool!”       Werewolf Hamlet is my ninth book, coming out with Charlesbridge Moves, Eileen Robinson’s new imprint for reluctant readers. I learned that Charlesbridge Publishing keeps books in print and for that I am grateful. I don’t have to strike it hot within three years before the book gets pulped. All my books, although well reviewed, went out of print due to lack of sales.
      But Werewolf Hamlet is a story I didn’t want to write. I didn’t want the story to be mine. I wanted a different version, and it began very differently when I wrote the first sentence in 2008. It was going to be a lark of a novel, a romp, and a way of capturing my children’s childhoods. I wrote it first as a diary, and then an editor warned me that Diary of a Wimpy Kid would kill it, so to write it as a traditional novel, because she loved the premise and the first draft. Then she left the publishing house, and it was inherited by a new editor, who didn’t love it. I rewrote it some more, and it was rejected by one and all in 2014, so that was that.
     In 2013, addiction came to our family. It was the monster at the door. It didn’t just knock. It barged in and took root - deep, ugly, gnarled roots. For the last twelve years, we have been on a journey with our son, who currently makes his home beneath a bypass in Silver Lake. In the beginning, when I protested to a counselor – “How can I have a kid who is an addict? I write books for kids! My son was my editor and inspiration for so many stories. So were my other kids.”
     Unimpressed, the counselor shrugged. “Write the book for the kids who need it.”      I resisted for a while, but since nothing I was doing (trying to rescue-fix-save, etc.) was making one bit of difference in “helping” Flannery, I took an early version of Werewolf Hamlet, and I began to write all the things that scared me about the freight train of addiction, and I channeled it all into a ten-year-old, determined to save his big brother. I put a Post-it note on my desk that said, “It’s for kids!” to keep my saggy-sad-sack mom voice out of it.
     I found a brilliant editor, Karen Boss, who understood on a deep and intrinsic level what I was trying to do, and she helped me find the heart of the novel. I’m both delighted and terrified as we approach pub date. Instead of doing a traditional reading for the launch, I’ve asked two young actors to play the brothers in some of the “interlude” scenes that take place between each chapter called “Conversations with Liam in the Night.” I wrote these interludes when my dear friend, Jennifer Richard Jacobson, told me “There are no quiet moments in your novel.” She was right, so I decided to write dialogues between the brothers, ages ten and seventeen. I found these so effortless to write because I imagined these brothers talking to each other, arguing, insulting each other with the “Shakespearian Insulter” while the younger one, Augus Gettlefinger, tries to rescue-fix-save his beloved big brother, Liam, who is rapidly changing and sneaking in and out at night.
     Someone asked me what I hope kids take away from this book, and I hope that if they learn anything, it’s that they don’t have to save anybody today. They can still love and care for the person who is causing them pain, but they still get to live their own lives and find out what they love to do whether it’s putting on plays or making movies or playing baseball or painting or drawing. Werewolf Hamlet is the book I didn’t want to write, but it’s the book I needed to write, and maybe it will offer solace or comfort to a kid who trying to figure things out and make them laugh too. It’s my love letter to my children, whom I love so deeply, and to the city where we raised them, Los Angeles, where my heart will forever reside, even more so after the devastating fires.
     As a lonely and awkward child, I read tons of books to feel less alone, and I hope Werewolf Hamlet makes readers feel less alone in the world too.

The book is already getting great reviews and an award!
*BOOKLIST gave it a starred review and says that is is:
a story that is rich in wise insights, comical and emotionally wrenching moments in turn...

It has been awarded a JUNIOR GUILD LIBRARY SELECTION GOLD STANDARD, 2025
BRAVO! Photo by Sonya Sones

Arts Commission - Bring on the Bells!

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth O Dulemba) — Mon, 30 Dec 2024 18:02:00 +0000

I am a newer member of the Roanoke Arts Commission, so was thrilled to experience our recent Christmas party! One of our members, Becky Carr, made lovely ceramic bells for everyone, another brought gingerbread ornaments to decorate, and we all brought cookies and sweets - it was fun! Click the image to hear them ring as we wish you a very happy holiday season!

Friday Links List

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth O Dulemba) — Fri, 13 Dec 2024 18:12:00 +0000

From PW: Holiday Gift Guide 2024: Children's and YA

Julie Benbassat's THERE'S THAT SUN AGAIN

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth O Dulemba) — Fri, 22 Nov 2024 16:32:00 +0000

Our new Design professor at Hollins University is the incredibly talented Julie Benbassat. She's been taking off in the illustration world the last few years and we're lucky to have her inventive and imaginitive voice and talent in our program. Want proof? I talked to her about her most recent picture book, THERE'S THAT SUN AGAIN, written by Mk Smith Despres for Neal Porter Books. e: Hi Julie! We've loved having you as part of our Hollins family!
What was your creative process/medium, can you walk us through it?
I knew I wanted to do something different for this book than what I did for THE BOOK FROM FAR AWAY, specifically in how I rendered the final art. I started off with sketching the child characters and my own Philly neighborhood I was living in at the time. Mk’s poetry evoked images of a city landscape so I took in as much of my neighborhood as I could. With these sketches as well as some cute drawings from my very young cousins as inspiration, ideas began to form into whole compositions. I guess you can pinpoint my process as: Sketch, Thumbnails, More Sketches, Dummy Sketches, Linework, and then Color.       For the final pieces, I used a mixture of traditional pencil line art and digital coloring in Procreate.Mk’s poetry lent itself to this warm feeling that can only be expressed by the soft lines that graphite can give. I used a Kol-i-noor mechanical pencil specifically to get that buttery soft feel. It’s a drafting tool so it can get very fine details if sharpened while giving subtle shading gradients on its sides. Procreate was used to color the piece with slight alterations in photoshop. I always try to restrict myself to as few layers as possible to maintain that sense of permanence that traditional media gives. I also made sure to start off each spread with a golden undertone to enhance that sun feeling. What can I say? I love the color yellow. e: What was your path to publication?
I received the manuscript from my agent, Rebecca Sherman at Writers House, with a lovely note from the Holiday House editor, Taylor Norman, who said such wonderful things about my work and how this manuscript felt right in my hands. I immediately was in love with Mk’s writing style and honored by Taylors words, so I jumped on the chance to work on THERE'S THAT SUN AGAIN. We signed the contract and then went to working together in the next few months. It was such a pleasure to work with the whole Neal Porter books team, from Taylor’s expert input and Jennifer Browne’s page design instinct. They made the book just as special as Mk’s manuscript did.

e: Is there a unique or funny story behind the creation of this story?
I didn’t personally write it so I can’t say anything to the creation of the manuscript per say but I did find a lot of inspiration from these animal drawings my cousins made. They range in ages from 5 to 12 and have such a joyous way of drawing I wanted to bring to the children’s drawings in the book. One of these drawings hangs in my studio right now just because of how much I love it. e: What do you think makes an illustration magical, what I call "Heart Art” - the sort that makes a reader want to come back to look again and again? I’m looking for your definition of “Heart Art.”
Personally, illustrations that bring you into the world/ concept so seamlessly you forget about the law of art. I used to be so enthralled by artists who applied realism (I still am) but as I’ve gotten older I see effective artists as people developing their own way of visualizing the world and stories they want to tell. It’s the reason Ezra Jack Keat’s shape dominant works are just as evocative as the more rendered works of Jessie Willcox Smith. How does this person draw a bird versus the next, and how do we as humans still recognize them both as symbols for birds. That’s the power and beauty of illustrating stories. You are allowing for people to suspend their belief through the way you see the world and in turn inspire them to create their own.

e: How do you advertise yourself (or do you)?
A mixture of social media and reaching out in real life. The world of publishing is in a strange place, where you are the one oftentimes advertising your book more than the publisher. That has positives and negatives, but you have to try and make the best out of it. Many of my fellow illustrators have very little followers but put so much effort into reels, blog posts, and public outreach that it makes up for the lack of social media presence. I have a good number of Instagram followers, but I hardly see that translate to helping me sell books. I recently had a successful book launch for THERE'S THAT SUN AGAIN at my local bookstore, Children’s Book World, and most of it came down to reaching out to people I knew in the area and not social media. It’s a capricious aspect to the job but you get a hang of it eventually. e: What is your favorite or most challenging part of being a creator?
My favorite part is getting to work on a range of projects that offer up so much variety in subject matter. One day I’m illustrating an editorial article about the mafia and then I’m illustrating a chapter book about a girl growing a tree on her head. (This is for an upcoming chapter book with Candlewick woohoo!) It keeps the job from getting monotonous and gives me a chance to learn something new.
      The most challenging aspect is trying to make work without feeling beholden to impossible expectations. I consider myself new-ish to publishing, as I worked as an editorial illustrator for most of my professional career before transitioning to books. In that time, I developed a toxic trait of never feeling like my work was good enough. (Editorial can be cut throat). This transition to books has made me open my eyes to how vast the art world is, and the idea of the “best art” doesn’t really exist in that way. I still have issues unpacking those high standards for myself but I’m working on it.

Is there something in particular about this story you hope readers will take away with them, perhaps something that isn’t immediately obvious?
I hope that readers, young and old, will read this book as it was intended to be: a poem. It’s not just a story of two children becoming friends over the course of a day, it’s also a story of sensations that children might feel in times of change (adults too). I’ve done a few readings of it out loud and the warmth of the words feels like soup for the soul. A gentle slam poetry to the heart that reminds you how much one can feel over the course of a day.

Lovely! e: What are you working on next or what would be your dream project?
I’m currently in between finishing that chapter book about a girl growing a tree on her head, doing final art for a book about a fox named Mungo and planning out dummy revisions for a book about an art collector turned suffragist. I am so grateful to have this range of work and am excited to see what 2025 has in store.
      My dream project is something that alternates from day to day but right now it would be working on a book on fairytales/ myths around the world. I love those old Rackham and Dillon illustrations and if I could do something like that, that would be so cool. Fairytales and mythology have guided children and adults alike through hard times and I think we need that more than ever right now.

e: Thank you, Julie! Can't wait to see more of your evocative work!

Friday Links List

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth O Dulemba) — Fri, 15 Nov 2024 15:00:00 +0000

From PW: Author and illustrator Bruce Degen, best known for his detailed, humorous artwork depicting the fun and informative field trips of Ms. Frizzle’s class in the Magic School Bus picture book series, died on November 7 of pancreatic cancer at his home in Newtown, Ct. He was 79.

From PEN America: Banned in the USA: Beyond the Shelves - "During the 2023-2024 school year, PEN America recorded 10,046 instances of book bans."

Debbie Ridpath Ohi's Guide to new Bluesky users!

From the NYTimes: How ‘The Wild Robot’ Was Born in a Weedy Patch of Manhattan

From Writer Beware: Someone Else is Impersonating Writer Beware

Students and Horses

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth O Dulemba) — Tue, 12 Nov 2024 19:59:00 +0000

Hollins University has a strong equestrian program with a lovely stable full of extremely well-cared for horsies. I've written before about going up on Sundays and grooming the horses - it was my zen every summer when I returned to teach. Sadly, since campus is now where I work full-time, that is something I haven't been doing as much of. So, when one of my students, Caroline, expressed interest in pursuing a stable job and asked if I would be willing to introduce her to the folks at the barn (she's a bit shy), I jumped at the chance——but not just to introduce her to the fine folks who manage the stable, but to also introduce her to what working at the barn might be like. I introduced her to Elise, the barn manager. She met and petted all the dogs. With her calm demeanor, all the critters loved Caroline. The farrier was there that day too, so she got to see a horse being shoed. It was a busy day at the barn! Luckily, I'd called ahead, so they were expecting us and already had a horse ready for us to brush. This is "Also." One of the students working at the barn showed Caroline how to clean out his hoofs and pointed out how to avoid the "frog" (the triangle of the hoof that has feeling in it).She showed her how to walk with a horse (always on the left).We watched some of the riding lessons for a while. Students were trotting (and posting) and cantering - things that I never need to do again. Then we went to the back stables where Phil was mucking out a stall. Phil is a former Math teacher. He shared how he loves the calm, beauty, and physical labor of working at the stables. I can relate. I used to be a groom for the Atlanta Polo Club and I love being in stables. Even mucking out a stall is enjoyable. Phil let Caroline try it out. Of course, the big payoff of working hard in the stable is seeing the beautiful Hollins' view spread out before you. The whole experience simply does a heart good. Happily, Caroline has been back and has found her happy place. No surprise there. It's long been my happy place too!