Welcome to Storybelly Summer

Let's begin: Everybody in!

Morning, everybody! Here I am, home after away, catching up and welcoming summer. Read on for our Storybelly summer plans, and thanks so much for hanging out with me here. A reminder that Chat is available for all Lab Coats, and comments on most posts are open for everyone. We have new Lab Coats this week — don’t forget to introduce yourself! Onward!

This is Andrew Jackson’s home, the Hermitage, in Nashville, Tennessee, where we visited last week. I was curious as to how they would handle the Trail of Tears, as well as slavery and other events and experiences of the seventh US President’s life. I have thoughts, from a writing perspective as well as a historical perspective. I will express them in the Lab this week. I think.

Summer’s here, and so is a new season of Storybelly. From solstice to September, we’re going to read what we love, write what we can, gather our gumption, and bask in some sunshine (and some a/c). Here is an invitation to join me for photo-centric weekly essays, light-hearted writing prompts, book talk, and good company in the Lab and beyond. Come as you are. Bring your books, your words, your lemonade, your deadlines, your dreams. I’ll supply the cake.

Let’s begin—everybody in!

“Oh, the places you’ll go!” came to my mind today, as I contemplated the intensity of this year so far. The very best thing about it: I’ve seen all my kids — and their kids — multiple times, and some of them are far-flung, so getting to spend time with them was an absolute treat. Here’s what we’ve done and what we’re currently wrangling:

The Rites of Passage!

Two graduations, one impending move, two spring concerts, one surgery, one job change, a few holidays, many birthdays, field trips, Sunday dinners, quiet times, and chaos, and all of it good.

also lots of reading out loud. Here is Grover's "Granny" (really??) from WHEN IS SATURDAY and omg at the smacking of kittens and "I am affronted!" in THE TALE OF TOM KITTEN. I forgot to take a photo of the page from LYLE AND THE BIRTHDAY PARTY (he of LYLE, LYLE CROCODILE fame by Bernard Waber) and the casual mention of "...or maybe it's the measles." Hannah is "reading the classics" to Evelyn.

The Deadlines!

• I’m working hard now toward getting pages to my editor at the end of this summer. Am I okay with this? Yes. Moving forward. There was a time when I couldn’t.

  

  

• I’m passing the absolute-last dates for getting seeds in the ground or in pots for this growing season. My seed packet pile is from last year and the year before. I didn’t buy seeds at all this year, thinking I’ll get last year’s in the dirt and growing… ummm… maybe not. Am I okay with that? Yes. The perennials are putting on a show, and they make me happy:

rabbit-eye blueberries, pink evening primrose, marshmallow (twice), Sierra Beauty apples, and some crazy-invasive parrot lily I will never be able to get rid of, no matter how hard I try, but the hummingbirds love it, so there's that.

• I’m finding it hard to keep up with Storybelly in this inaugural year, and I have more plans than I am able to wrangle, most days. I am okay with this because still, I persevere. lol. And I enjoy it. And it’s helping me segue to and from the page with Charlottesville. And so:

Welcome to Storybelly Summer.

The summer solstice and the longest day of the year is at the end of this week. From summer solstice to some time in September, I want to try writing an essay each week for you, for me, for us, something I’m working on or something I’ve written already that I want to share.

I’m going to try. Je vais essayer. essay: to try. Want to try with me? Say yes.

Let’s write, and let’s read. Here at the ‘belly lately, Hatchet by Gary Paulsen has been a read and a re-read. Here’s the (ongoing) discussion about that book — see the comments on that post, “What is your Canon?”

Let’s read what we wanna read this summer (as much as possible, anyway) and report in. I’ll start, below and in comments.

So, for everybody, we’ll move into this summertime with books and notebooks and lemonade and fruit bars and somebody to sit on the ice cream churn as it gets too hard to turn the handle, and somebody else to brave the kitchen in this heat and make us a cake.

I braved the kitchen this early quiet morning with a new stainless French press for coffee, one that I hope will keep a pot of coffee warm enough for drinking during deadline mornings:

In the Lab, we’ll start a workshop of sorts, if’n you’re all willing. Loose and free, short and sweet, not too taxing, light and easy, like the summers we remember and romanticize from childhood (in books or in reality). Stand by. I’m thinking about a once-a-week short, live check-in with what we’re writing, and cheering each other on.

And for everybody, if you want to join us in the Writers Lab this summer, you can do that here, with a monthly or annual subscription to the Storybelly Writers Lab. Lab posts appear weekly, and welcome you into a warm-hearted writing community just for you. Come explore and experiment with us.

I’m going to work on shorter intros to THE ASSIGNMENT in the Lab for summertime, before the paywall on each week’s Lab post. Get ready for some really simple but oh-so-interesting and useful writing exercises for this summer, you Sweethearts of the Storybelly Lab.

Those of you who are founding subscribers who got us off the ground earlier this year — O Pioneers! — you will be talking with Ops-Guru Zach soon about consults/critiques. Zach has had a wee bit of outpatient surgery — one reason this past week was jangled, schedule-wise. He’s doing well, but give him a little time and he’ll get with y’all, as soon as he can make cogent sentences again. :>

An all's well from the ops guru, and what a sign at urgent care the next day... talk about a unity of opposites! (And everything really is fine.)

Meanwhile, here’s a new book suggestion for you: Pam Munoz Ryan’s new book El Niño.

Isn’t it beautiful! I feel the tiniest bit like an auntie to this book, as I got to hear part of it on a writing retreat a couple of years ago, got to read the book in manuscript before it was published, and basically got to watch it grow up. I love the story (and Pam), I love the beautifully detailed bookmaking here, from Scholastic Press, and I hope you’ll love this story, too. It’s a book for our time, by a master storyteller. A couple of glowing stars say:

★ "Glistens like sunlight on waves." ―School Library Journal, starred review

★ "Ryan’s skill as a writer shines." ―The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, starred review

★ "Lingers like the echo of thunder―powerful, haunting, and deeply core-shaking." ―Shelf Awareness, starred review

“Sometimes the only way to hold onto what we love is to let go.”

Proud Auntie here! Happy sigh. Congratulations, Pam!

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What are y’all reading this summer? Here’s some of my library at the moment:

Then, lastly, since every one of you who has subscribed to Storybelly has seen my welcome email with my photo and all that long hair — I called it my pandemic hair — I got a haircut. My pandemic is over. Do I need to redo my welcome page photo? :>

And that’s a wrap for this last Storybelly Digest of spring. Come help me welcome in Storybelly Summer next week! Until then, happy reading, writing, sunning, baking, cooking, digging, and people-ing, as you sail into summer.

xoxoxo Debbie