SO FAR AND YET SO CLOSE . . .
** I can’t just push on with my usual day and let my guests fend for themselves, can I? Especially not in Trinidad where they can’t drive, the only place close enough to walk to is the mall—or around in a circle, and if they leave the building without a “fob” (of which there are only 2) they’ll be locked out forever and have to sleep under a car and catch a long green lawn lizard for lunch . . . What sort of host would that brand me?
Recently . . . okay, last October, sis-in-law Marilyn came to visit. I placed the TT Travel Guide on her bedside table, handed her a pad of sticky-notes and told her we could go anywhere in the book she wanted. (Being new to Trinidad myself, I’d never been anywhere in the book, either, so it would be an adventure for both of us.)
Yes, I did warn Marilyn that I’d already suffered 2 flat tires, run out of gas and driven on the wrong side of the street more than once, as well as the wrong way down a one-way. . . Eternally “yar,” Marilyn rose to the challenge.
Our first few outings were timid enough: jaunts around town; up up up a scenic hill; over and around the mountains to the beach…on a narrow, shoulderless pitted roads . . . during a rainstorm. . . .
On the day of our last outing, Marilyn flipped to a sticky note which directed us South on the highway to a Hindu Temple, “Waterloo Temple in the Sea.” At high tide it’s surrounded by water; at low tide by mud flats. It serves as testament to Sewdas Sadhu, who built it, “single-handedly”--spell check doesn't like this word apparently, it suggested: highhandedly, underhandedly, offhandedly, evenhandedly--over a 25 year period, by carrying stones on his bicycles and preparing and dumping bucket after bucket of concrete on the seafloor at low tide to build the foundation.
According to the book, the way to the temple seemed fairly straight forward---it was NOT! Others might have been tempted to turn back. Not us! If Sadhu could do what he did, we could, with air-conditioned confidence, find it!
Good thing we passed a “doubles” vendor on the side of the road, and hostess mindedness—and tummy growls—compelled me to crank a U-turn so Marilyn could try one of these fist-sized gloppy curried chick peas-drizzled-with-chutney-cucumber-and-pepper sauce (if desired)-sandwiched in fry bread morsels or we might still be looking . . .
It was low tide and the scene around the temple island was mudflat and religious relics mired in muck. Not the most photogenic, but inspiring none-the-less as they reminded Marilyn of something more she’d read in the guide book—the Chaguananas Pottery makers, where red clay is fashioned into all manner of pottery and fired in open wood-fueled kilns.
Although Southeast Asia is far from Trinidad—on the other side of the world--our visit to Benny’s Pottery Works, “the oldest and most famous” of the traditional pottery workshops transported me right back to Java or India or Nepal. . . The methods are the same. The workers possess the same wiry builds, same stance with cigarettes dangling from their mouth, same quickness and expertise.
So far and yet close . . .
*I’ll only say this one time, never again, and only way down here at the bottom of the post. So if you’ve read this far, this is to you: Forgive me for slacking on the blogging. Truth is I've been so busy "filling my writer's well" (as my friend Richard Harnett puts it) I haven't taken time to blog. Stick with me, I'll be better about it, promise???
Be Mindful What You Wish. . .
Adages are busting out all over. To quite Phoebe Figalilly’s theme song, “so many splendid things keep happening!” Most significantly, my children, Max and Lexi are growing—have grown—into adults! Max married Michelle this past September; Lexi is engaged to Ryan, preparations are underway for their wedding this November; and Max and Michelle recently announced that they have a baby on the way. I’m going to be a GRANDMOTHER!
Aging aside, any/all of these wondrous events are enough to keep one awake at night…hence this post which comes as part Announcement, part Revelation and part Cautionary Tale:
I’m in New York at my first ever SCBWI Mid-Winter Conference where it is all about writing and books. In yesterday’s roundtable session, I brought a picture book manuscripts I’ve been obsessing over for about a year now to be workshopped. It’s about an excited sibling awaiting the birth of a new baby in the family. Afterwards, the writer seated beside me asked about my books: “Have you written anything I’d know?” A question that is flattering. . . and humbling. “I’d know” translates as “a book that’s sold a zillion copies or won a major award.” I was floundering wondering how to answer when my eyes fell on her baby bump. First I thought: “So that’s why you liked my story. . . “ Then an Ah hah!: If you haven’t read them, you should—and buy them, too, because you and your mother are my intended audience:
As this morning was dawning, it dawned on me that each of these joyful, life changing family events I’m enjoying now came after a “brilliant, inspired, must-write-it-right-now” story idea struck. I’m not talking about a little “oh this will be fun” idea, either. I’m talking capital letters kind of IDEA that pulls me to my chair and holds me there captive, obsessed and loving the process. Which lead me to pose the oft posed question: Does art imitate life or does life imitate art?
Stories—even picture books—take a long time. The manuscripts for Your Mommy was Just Like You and Your Daddy was Just Like You, had to be written and revised, and then sent to my agent, and then sold to the amazing Susan Kochan, my GP Putnams' Sons editor, and then sent to David Walker who created the art, and then published—years! Back when the notion of Max being a “grown up” was just wishful thinking. As for this “little” story I had workshop, I’ve been tinkering with it for over a year, long before Max and Michelle tied the knot. It’s as though, on some cosmic level, my story IDEAS portend the future—cue Twilight Zone theme.
Which led me back to another book, one I read and worked through with the GGs, my creativity group, The Passion Test, by Janet and Chris Attwood, a guide to finding and achieving your goals based on the “Laws of Attraction.”
As anyone who knows me knows, I have song snippets in my head and these snippets, while often a source of irritation as they loop---day and night, night and day—these lyrics often also, and perhaps cosmically, point me toward the point of my ramblings. Oddly this morning, instead of song, (which is especially strange on this of all days as last night I went to bed with my noggin humming with Gershwin classics as Lexi and I had gone to Nice Work if You Can Get It with Mathew Broderick (a camp, delightful 20's style musical that have everyone in the theater smiling and humming along) a joke came to mind:
A love-smitten little boy and girl are sitting side-by-side on the steps. With cartoon hearts swirl around his head, the boy grabs the girl. “I get what I want when I get it!” he demands, repeating words he’d heard a TV hero say. Evading his puckered lips, the little girl pulls free, telling him: “You’ll get what I got when I get it!”
Okay, maybe there’s nothing to all of this. Maybe it is just me trying to make sense of my largess and rapidly changing status (I don’t feel old enough to command the title “mother-in-law” much less “granny”). Be this as it may, it seems an excellent time to play it safe and revise another adage:
Be careful (make that mindful) what you wish [or write], you just might get it!
Lamest Excuse Ever
if i ever doubted the power of kRAzy GLue, i don't NOW. . .
I would be working right now but . . . i broke my favorite earrings last night. i got up, set up my computer all ready to work. i was making coffee and had this excellent time-saving idea: indstead of wasting all this time waiting for the water to boil,fix your earrings. it was such an easy fix: just a tiny dab of glue, fit the post back into the whole....DONE.
I WAS WATCHING THE GLUE FLOW TOWARD THE APPLICATOR TIP....next thing i knew, it gushed out onto my fingers holding the post. i saw it happening. AFRAID THE GLUE WOULD GET ALL OVER EVERYTHING, I CAPPED IT FIRST....
HUGE MISTAKE!!!!!
now 2 fingers are stuck to the earring and two others are stuck together.
Directions on back of the bottle read: "soak in acetone nail polish remover then roll skin apart..." I AM SOAKING...
IF I EVER BEFORE DOUBTED THE POWER OF kyazy glue...
i am soaking, gritting my teeth against the pain as i try to pull/roll my fingers apart and typing this.
Palm skyward ala SCARLET O: With you as my witness, if i ever get free, i will never procrastinate or use KRAZY GLUE again!!!
**This posting was brought to you by an impaired in-pain inpatient wrong-handed typist.
Warning: VAMPIRE BABY is coming . . .
Tootie has fangs! And she knows how to use them...
It happens overnight: little sister Tootie goes from cuddly, ga-ga-googoo, I-want-my-ba-ba baby to . . .vampire baby. Now she’s sinking her pointy fangs into everything -- furniture, toys, and especially her big brother ("Youch, Tootie! No bite!"). Mom insists that it’s just a phase, but Tootie’s brother knows better. Just look at her hairline! Or the fact that all her favorite foods are red, blood red! . . .
VAMPIRE BABY is fanged, dangerous, and crawling your way this July.
HIT 'EM WITH A GUT SHOT
Yes, I'm a Cat whose been away (and boy have those mice been busy...) They aren't the only ones. My pal and brilliant writer, Janet Fox has been hard at work as usual!
Check out her historical novels FAITHFUL, FORGIVEN, and soon to be released Roaring 20's romance, SIRENS.This week Janet offered me a helping heaping of her hospitality; I'm guesting on her blog, "Through the Wardrobe."
Hungry for more... Here's the Link: Monday, October 8, 2012
The Gut Shot: Hitting Readers Where it Counts
(If that doesn't work, cut and paste this: http://kidswriterjfox.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-gut-shot-hitting-readers-where-it.html)
Treat Your Grands on Grandparent's Day!
Treat your Grands to a FREE SUBSCRIPTION to GRAND Magazine! In honor of Grandparent's Day, September 9th, the folk at GRAND – The Digital Magazine for GRANDparents and families -- are, offering complimentary subscriptions to my friends. Treat yourself or share the subscription with the Grands in your life!
Sign up for your FREE SUBSCRIPTION: This link www.grandsub.com will give you instant access to the current issue of GRAND – The Digital Magazine for GRANDparents and families.
HURRY! DON'T MISS YOUR CHANCE TO WIN!!!!!!!!!!!
Hurry! Only 4 days and 17 minutes to enter the fabulous RAMBLING prize Give-Away Package. 
Don't miss this opportunity (and see some never-be-for pics and prose)
Click over to Cynthia Leitich-Smith's blog spot. Check out my interview:
Career Builder & Giveaway: Kelly Bennett
http://cynthialeitichsmith.blogspot.com/2012/08/career-builder-giveaway-kelly-bennett.html
And enter to win the Prize! It's a gob-stopper!
WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?????????????
Spilling My Guts to Cyn...
When the cyn-sational , Cynthia Leitich-Smith, Author of, among others, the Vampire/Werewolf/Romance/Suspense/Fab series TANTALIZE, asks you to take part in her Career-Builder series what else is there to do but. . . SPILL YOUR GUTS! So I did. Read all about it (and be the first to see me in my so groovy ballerina tutu). Click here to enjoy the interview: CAREER BUILDER AND GIVEAWAY WITH KELLY BENNETT Or here (if the link doesn't work): http://cynthialeitichsmith.blogspot.com/2012/08/career-builder-giveaway-kelly-bennett.html
Best, sign up for the Cynsational ONE DAY I WENT RAMBLING PRIZE PACKAGE GIVE AWAY
Don't miss your chance to Win!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!