Climbing the stairs, with a dog standing by for moral support, and surrounded by ribbons of words that 12  year old Ella recites to shore herself up and to memorize for  her CN tower recital–here it is the final cover. This week this image will be finalized with some colour corrections.
Coming April 13 in poetry month.
In my family there are three graphic designers and others trained in  photography and art as well as nine grandchildren. I ask everyone’s opinions on the cover in order to see if they conform with mine.  I definitely wanted railings for my stairs, for safety and accuracy. Dogs can’t climb Chedoke stairs because of the raised metal points. Ella wants to have a dog but is allergic. However, her friend’s dog Bala is a Whoodle–part Wheaten terrier part poodle–supposedly hypoallergenic and he does come to a training session only sits at the top. Dogs on covers sell books, says my publisher.So Ella aspires to climb CN Tower stairs, and hopes to own a hypoallergenic pooch of her own some day. Having those images at the top, even if the CN tower is not  really visible from Hamilton set Cherokee stairs, represents the goal.
What do you think? Accuracy vs mass appeal? Final cover coming up soon.
Twelve year-old Ella wants to conquer her fear of public speaking by climbing the CN Tower to recite her poem on allergies. Â She also wants to someday own a dog that won't make her sneeze or wheeze.
Julie McLaughlin prepared these roughs based on my idea that we showed Ella training for the climb on the Chedoke stairs in Hamilton. I asked everyone in my family which one they preferred and why. Â Which one do you like better? Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 
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Cicadas buzz in the soft evening air of August. Local peaches, and corn and watermelon await our eating pleasure at stands and grocery stores, fresh from the farm yards. It’s still warm enough for a swim at the beach or pool. We are going on a second vacation, from a log cottage to a campsite; we will stretch the vacation vibe as long as possible bringing lots of books to read to take us even further away from real life minutiae. Join us and enjoy your book outside, under a tree.
Here I am hard at work editing my upcoming novel Blue to the Sky, a story about a girl coping with too many allergies and surviving because of poetry. Â Banjo is here giving me encouragement and making sure I take breaks, especially for walks. I’m reading this story for possibly the hundredth time and still loving and rooting for Ella my main character. Maybe it’s because Ella is a composite of some of my grands. In any case, reading a book more than once is a joy. You see so many nuances you didn’t the first time when you were gobbling up the story. Revisiting work through editing is similar in that you can add layers and not worry about figuring so much about the plot. Â What I wish for book lovers is that they take the time this summer to reread a novel and enjoy a story even more. It’s what book shelves are really about.
This is  the room that attracted me when we bought our house 30 years ago. Mostly I Zoom to classrooms and meetings from here and I’m often asked whether my shelves are real or a faux background. There’s a stupid pail in the foreground that I must put away, so you know this is real.
Recenty I flipped through a home design magazine and admired some built in shelves which seemed to lack something. They had the odd empty vase but otherwise they were so bland and blank. What was missing? Books!
“Find the things you want to keep,” says Marie Kondo. “identify the things that make you happy.” Am I going to read any of these books again? There’s that possibility and I love the possibilities in life. Mostly they give me a sense of peace.
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