Startling

When I was little, my best friend Andy and I had a plan: he'd write books about dinosaurs and I'd illustrate them.  For hours we'd sit at Andy's kitchen table (which was actually an awesome, cozy booth with a sewing machine pedal underneath) with a huge stack of white paper and thin colored markers.  I always remember Nancy saying something about the importance of not following lines--which I now realize she intended much more as a mantra for life than just the freedom of a blank page.  She always has been a sage.

Anyway, this was the dream...and so I couldn't help but smile when I discovered Celie, right about the same age we were at the time, hard at work on her own book. It's something she's taking her time with and enormously excited about. Each day since starting kindergarten, she sits down to draw and practices her letters, asking me how to spell out the words as the story unfolds.  So far, it's a real nail-biter...and startling to say the least!