It’s January again and time for the winter residency of the Hamline MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults. I always look forward to this winter “writers’ camp,” where we talk about writing from breakfast until dinner–and after, with lectures, workshops, readings, and old-fashioned conversation.
This winter I had the good fortune to be in a conversation with Jane Resh Thomas, Marsha Qualey, and Liza Ketchum about the reading and writing we’d been doing, what had inspired, or excited us, in the writing of others, what we were working on at our own desks. During that morning as we drank our coffee, and Jane’s dog, Gilly, listened in (possibly hoping to glean ideas for a book he’s working on. How could Jane Resh Thomas’s dog not be a writer?) Jane said two things that I want to share:
- When an idea knocks you’d better answer the door.
- What is writing if not being naked on the page?
And that reminded me of Jane’s wonderful posts on The Story Teller’s Inkpot. Check this one out. It’s like being in the same room and listening to Jane talk about point of view and psychic distance–except that you have to imagine Gilly.
