Enters ‘little girl’

So now there enters a little girl, not sure what her name is…Queen Lichen? Littlest? PenelopeLou? ? She’s stepped onto the Cobble Stone Way and is looking for her lost shoe.  I don’t know much about her yet, except

LittleGirlThat she is pretty confident and adventurous, outspoken, and innocent to the ways of The Hillock. All I know for now.

 

Whoo! Whoo! Whoops!

I just checked up on myself by researching how owls see, and I realize now that I wrote all of this based on a wrong assumption! How could I have so mis-perceived how owls ‘perceive’?!  Well, I’ve learned that’ it’s better to do my research before rather than after! And that’s worth knowing. And perhaps there’s more to learn from my mis-perception. I think I’ll post this and see what else I can learn!OwlFaceInTree

Owl was WISE. Everyone came to him to learn how to see more clearly.

He could see so much from his high place, even to the farthest of far. Everyone knew that he could give them the real picture of things, even things they couldn’t see. He was known to see spots that were blind to every creature and critter who lived on the Hillock floor.

And yet as…

One eye looked west and one looked east,

Owl’s view of the Hillock he thought was complete.

Until one day he became quite dizzy.

From too many Whooo’s and too much busy.

As each eye spinned  to see a different place,

He no longer saw The Hillock through Queen Anne’s Lace!

For the first time ever Owl saw things newly.

And for the first time ever both eyes saw truly.

ALL seemed different and so profound.

Each eye beheld The Hillock with a puzzled frown!

His western eye  saw the privileged few.

And his eastern eye saw what workers do.

WHHOOOO WHOOOO!! Owl asked his deepest thoughts.

WHOOOOO can untie such unfair knots?

He ruffled his feathers and panned through the branches,

To find such a creature bold enough to take chances.

Perhaps the potter, a bug or a bird?

No not so…, even more absurd.

A tiny young girl was skipping right through.

Looking here and there for her tiny lost shoe.

 

 

A Wiser View of Things?

When I just write…words go on and on. When I write with a rhythm, it automatically morphs into rhyme. I’m hoping to not end up using rhyme, but for now, that’s how I’m getting my thoughts to come out! I find it easier to keep things more crystallized. I keep hoping the rhyme will disappear, but sofar it hasn’t. So for now, I’ll let it help me stay focused. Crazy how that happens.  So here’s what happened. Gives one possible way to start, but not necessarily the simplest or chosen one yet.

OldOwlsTree

Old Owl noticed  The Hillock from his high up nest.

One eye looked East  and one looked West.

On the eastern slopes under the old oak tree,

He watched royalty sipping afternoon tea.

Yet on the western side as the sun was setting

He saw simple folk working,  panting, and sweating.

For…down at the Hillock on the royal part,

Lived the one winged bird near the Castle of the Heart.

Life was easy. Not a care or a woe.

Everything came with an easy flow.

The old aqueduct carried water and mail.

And the snail queen painted her diamond trail.

The cedar swayed with a sassy bend.

Critter seahorse frolicked til each day’s end ….

Yet on the western side of the large old oak,

Lived simple, hardworking, humbler folk.

For them there was hardly any pomp and play.

The potter dug deep and worked for his clay.

The artist cried as she felt their pain.

And the cooks worked tirelessly through wind and rain.

Postal people sent bottles to the queen.

And the aqueduct delivery system was kept smooth and clean.

Preena’s spa polished  royal crowns.

And fluffed up sheets of milkweed down.

The metalworker toiled through heat and wind

To craft tools and needles for every job’s mend.

 

 

 

 

So Many Ways to Look at the Hillock

Down at The Hillock, I keep walking around the big old oak tree in the middle, looking at all the places and possible characters. So many starts and restarts! Which way to go? Which character (s) will jump on the page and say, “I’m ready to take this one!” I think I’ve been nurturing this setting so long that it’s teeming with life every way I look! 

Teeming with life

Yesterday and today were big writing days as well as researching how to publish my Jingle book. I researched agents that represent children’s author/illustrators, writing groups, workshops, classes, etc. And then I’d write some more, stopping every now and then to sand and paint a library stool or two. I wrote some possible ways to organize the story.

•meeting held to talk about some crisis at the hillock…The Crisis: for generations things have always been seen a certain way…and suddenly some new ray of light/shift in nature/…squeezes their consciousness to a sharper perception…the return of a lost villager? or the loss of an old ruler? or the arrival of a new ‘princess’ or a stranger? with news of another way? evolution of a new language?

Three changes have happened to cause the call for all villagers(hillockers) to come together:

1.a huge supply of acorns was falling to the ground all at once!..or is it…the big shade branch on the south side has fallen, leaving a big hole in the sky, with new rays awakening old consciousness in the hillock

2.the regal snail has lost her crowning glory, her jeweled shell, reducing her to the status and stature of a common slug

3.more and more holes appear on the Hillock floor for some unknown reason, no evident cause for such change in the earth’s surface.

People disagree on how to solve the crisis (perhaps they only see what’s going on on THEIR side of the Hillock)

They notice someone is missing at the meeting WHO IS IT?)

They have evidence of a note written in some foreign script that they can’t understand

The lowliest or most unlikely character comes forth with an idea/solution/found object/new way of looking at things.

This character must prove worthy of the villagers’ trust to solve this problem:

•decipher this new language

•brave the underworld

•help everyone in the Hillock let go of their old way of seeing things and learn/embrace a new way.

The villagers must prove that they, too, can be trusted to change:

•be willing to switch sides of the Hillock to learn how the other side lives and views the world.

•be willing to learn a new language so together they can create a new way to communicate with others not like themselves.

•make a shift in thought about something thought impossible before.

Then I decided to just write! And I’ll share that tomorrow!

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