I wrote! And I hiked, and read, and swam a tiny bit, and visited friends and wrote some more. But for all that writing, I only got halfway through the book about the mummies in Peru. I wrote in a very leisurely fashion - everyday I would read what I had written the day before, cross out masses of it, change words, switch whole paragraphs around, and only then would I write the new part. Then the next day I would read everything all over again, and cross out and add and play with sentences, and finally get to write the new bits. Eventually, it caught up with me, and I had little time left in the day to write any new copy. On the last day before our lovely jump into Fall, I squeaked out 368 words. But I'll get there!

First I have to get to some events this weekend. I'll be signing books at the Princeton Book Festival this Saturday, Sept 12th. Dha'sean Serrano, the musician/dancer/composer in STEEL DRUMMING AT THE APOLLO will be with me, tapping and dancing in the entertainment tent! Then on Sunday, Sept. 13th, I'll be at Governors Island off of the southern tip of Manhattan with author and friend Louise Borden, as part of the Hudson-Fulton Celebration, which is really a big birthday party for New York City's 400 years of existence, marked by Henry Hudson's voyage up the Hudson River in 1609. We'll be talking about TOUCHING THE SKY, THE FLYING ADVENTURES OF WILBUR AND ORVILLE WRIGHT. Wilbur Wright, for the Hudson-Fulton Celebration in 1909, took off from Governors Island and flew his Flyer, with a red canoe lashed underneath it in case he landed in the harbor, around the Statue of Liberty - twice - and then up the Hudson River. By proving the Flyer could turn and also could fly long distances (in those days, that was a very long distance in a plane!), he became an instant celebrity, and the Flyer was taken seriously.

This is how a book starts being written.
One thing,
one simple, elegant, lovely thing,
that is personal to the writer,
that may mean nothing to another person, seeing the same thing, having the same experience,
but means the world to the writer.

All books for children need an emotional core. In writing nonfiction for middle-graders, I look for what wordlessly touches me. For ONE THOUSAND YEARS DEAD, about the mummies of southern Peru, it was the balls of yarn, still vibrantly red and yellow, found in the tomb of a thousand-year-old mummy, that was the arrow connecting me to the rest of the story. My grandmother's balls of yarn, in her knitting basket, looked just the same. I had something real, in my life, to both keep me grounded and let me fly back through the years and see/visualize my subject's life.

Zena Sutherland, internationally recognized expert on children's literature, said that stories are read and loved by adults and children because 'they satisfy, deeply satisfy, a basic emotional need what we as human beings have, and, in fact, can't escape.' Why would we want to? It's called life, and it is the raw material for our work.

I'm back from Peru and my head is full of mummies. I'm looking at a photo of one right now, wrapped in soft llama wool and surrounded by bowls of food. She has some secrets, too, under her llama wool wrap, which you can read about in the book. Before I can start writing it, I have to transcribe the tapes I recorded while in Peru (Transcribing means listening to the tapes and writing down every word that is on them. I do this long-hand - not on the computer, as that way I remember everything much better.)Then I will have the tapes that are in Spanish transcribed. I am hoping to start writing early in 2009. I'll let you know!

In the meantime, I have been trotting around New York to book signings - Barnes & Noble for STEEL DRUMMING AT THE APOLLO, with three boys from the band - Aaron, Ahmel, and Dha'sean(this was a Project Cicero event - check out www.projectcicero.org)and then on to the Hue-Man bookstore in Harlem with the boys, who wowed the audience with their Steel Drum playing. The whole band came back to the Apollo Theater in New York City the next week for a special performance on Amateur Night and where we all signed books (myself, the photographer, and all the boys). In November I gave a talk to aspiring children's book authors at The New School, and I will be talking about ELEPHANTS AND GOLDEN THRONES, INSIDE CHINA'S FORBIDDEN CITY this week at The Little Red School House as part of their Book Week. I can't wait, because you always surprise me with your questions, your energy, and your enthusiasm and your really great ideas.

Labels: HE

I have my old favorite jacket and boots, my hat, my sunscreen and bugspray, and, of course, my notebooks and tape recorder. I'm off to Peru! Can't wait! Photographer Cindy Karp and I will be following anthropologist Sonia Guillen around as she discovers and digs up mummies in the high southern desert of Peru, bordering on Chile. Sonia finds human mummies, lovingly wrapped in layers of soft cloth made from llama wool and surrounded by the aritfacts of their peaceful culture - musical instruments, goblets, food - but she also finds animal mummies. She has even found a dog cemetary, and the ancient fleas still on the dogs! I'll be a sleuth in Peru - who were these people? Why were dogs so important to them? What did they eat? IF you send me your questions, I'll ask her those, too!

In preparation for this trip, I tried to learn Spanish. Hola! Me llama Trish Marx. Como esta usted? Most importantly, I learned the word for breakfast (desayunando) my favorite meal of the day! Sleuths need lots of energy!

Cindy and I are flying to Lima, then catching another flight south to a town called Tacna on the coast, then driving two hours to Ilo. I hope to post more messages to you from Ilo, and on my return, I'll post photos of the mummies.

Until then, keep reading!