My friend LARRY WAKEFIELD died on this day in 2023. I just reread his obituary, which I wrote thanks to the sweet invitation of the family. During this brief time, Larry’s sister, MARIDEL NIEDERRITER, has passed away and so has her husband SNEED. Our dear friend MARYANN no longer lives in their beautiful home but is doing well and we still get together to visit and reminisce about wonderful times the four of us had over the years.
The other day I came across a picture of Sandy and Maryann sitting on the floor under a table and beaming for the camera. As Sandy’s dad used to say about such things, “I don’t explain them.” Here’s to those memories that keep loved ones very much alive after they leave the room. I miss you, Larry Bill.
"Hope is the live wire in your soul that keeps your fire burning." ~ (c) 2026 Robin Harrison Williams
Our daughter was born with that wire in her soul. The last line in her poem for February Word of the Month Poetry Challenge leaped out at me. Yes! That’s Robin. Hope has always been her strength. She deeply understands that the world and the people in it are not now, never have been, and never will be perfect. She paints. She writes poetry. She plays the guitar. She sings, does crafts, goes to yoga. She loves her family and her friends. That wire in her soul keeps the fire alive, keeps her balanced and independent.
Thank you, Robin. I love you and am proud of you and urge you to put that quote on something permanent. Have it framed. Put it on a card. We just can’t have too much hope. We just can’t let that fire burn out.
TIM RASINSKI and I just finished a new article on poetry that will appear on The Robb Review, probably from mid-March through April. Here’s a recent article posted there by LESTER LAMINACK, https://therobbreviewblog.com/blog-2/ . We look forward to returning to the site hosted by LAURA ROBB and her educator son, EVAN ROBB. Laura and I are in discussions about a new book that we might do together, but that’s still down the road a bit.
For now, the search for a new story must wait while I work on a series of poems that I’ll present during an upcoming event. More about that soon. Can’t talk about it.
Last week I decided it was time to get a new story going. I’ve been talking lately about the need for more children’s stories. I wrote an article about it for a reading journal. I’m been reminded of the power of stories in young lives by some recent fan letters about books I wrote decades ago. Got another one three days ago, from a woman who loved The Huffin Puff Express when her dad read it to her 39 years ago and is now reading it to young ones in her family. But I didn’t have an idea for a new story. What to do?
I had a thought. Many of my poems are small stories. It’s my nature. MARY JO FRESCH and I have a title coming out later this year that features 101 of my poems. I would scroll through them in search of a story-starter for a new picture book. When I finished, I had three candidates. The most promising was about a dancing pig. “Hot diggity-dig, I see a dancing pig, he isn’t very big, hot diggity-dig.” I seem to have an affinity for feisty pigs a la Piggy Wiglet and the Great Adventure. I started roughing in a story inspired by the hot diggity-dig pig but stopped after a bit. It didn’t feel right to pull from material that will soon be in the new book. I started over by making a list of words that rhymed with tail, hoping that approach might produce a different telling about a dancing pig. But I would still be plagiarizing myself.
One of the words in the tail-rhyming list was mail. A totally new idea. I went whistling off down a new road about a boy who finds mysterious messages in his mailbox. Great! Except that I really didn’t have a convincing beginning, kids probably don’t pay much attention to their mailbox, and the ending was, frankly, weak. I started over, switching from mailbox to phone (technology don’t you know) improved on the first and last of the story, salvaged most of the middle pages, and what did I have? A boring, weak, trite, who-would-ever-want-to-read-this story. I showed it to Sandy. If she reads this, I think she will agree with what I am saying. Over the course of a week I’d gone from a dancing pig to a boy receiving strange messages on his cellphone, and a beginning that telegraphed the ending.
As a sweaty, wined-up Michelangelo, played by Charlton Heston, epiphanized on a problem he was having with the Sistine Chapel, “If the wine is sour, pour it out.” Simple advice that writers as well as artists should take to heart. I have symbolically poured the story out. It’s time to write one that tastes sweeter.
I’m happy that my picture book set for September 8 now has a cover that you can see on Amazon.
The book can be preordered now and is off to a nice start. It is for young readers/listeners and can be acted out as it’s read aloud. I love the pictures created by ALICE FEAGAN, a first-time collaborator. More information as we get closer to release date. My thanks as always to my editor at Holiday House, GRACE MACCARONE.
Children's Author David L. Harrison's Blog 