Moss Whispers

John Gordon did some other wonderful recordings of Martha Julia Agnes Adele in Three Parts. I am presenting it on my website in the three parts with three posts in consecutive order. If you can’t access the other two by scrolling down after this post, go to the category on the left, called Martha Julia Agnes Adele and you should be able to scroll through them consecutively, I hope! Here’s the Audio with Illustrations. for Part I:

Part II audio and story illustrations continues on next post. Go to left side of website page and click on the category, Martha Julia Agnes Adele, and all three posts with the audio will be there consecutively.

Continue to page 20 and audio Part III on next post.

Here are the pages before I’ve made next writing edits and painting edits. It’s a good way for me and others to get the gist of the story. Now that Old Owl has found Martha’s Shoe, I’m challenging visitors to my Mosswhispers website to see if you can find these discrepancies in my paintings: 

Challenge 1: On which pages is Martha wearing a tennis shoe instead of a red leather shoe? There is one page where her shoe never got painted.  For a bonus point, what is that page number? List the page numbers where is Martha wearing her shoe on the wrong foot?

Challenge 2: List the pages where Slab is missing his shoulder strap and map.

Challenge 3: Slug helps Slab find clay. Where does he usually do this for Slab?  Who is Slab’s other clay helper and where does he help him with his clay? He actually is not pictured in the story and is only mentioned once. 

Challenge 4: What do the fairies know about the One-Winged Bird’s missing wing?

Challenge 5: What is the name of the Cafe where Slab and Martha make their Search Plan?

Challenge 6: There is one character who is actually performing  family role reversal in this story. Who is it? And what is the role that should be played by a different family member?

Challenge 7: How many places on social media would you be willing to share my moss whispers website?

Doing this last page was a challenge. Not sure why but I have many ‘suspicions’….•finishing anything has a charge to it! (is it ‘enough’? what will I do next? I’ll miss this little project so might be hard to ‘let go’ and ‘move on’ •have I really reached the end? • painting what’s in her mind (PLUS what’s in MY mind!) gets complicated. • I need to stop and learn how to paint ‘firefly glow’ • I need to practice how to get her body moving right and figure out how to merge the different sizes and scales. • I’m wiped out from a bunch of woodworking I’ve been doing • I MUST procrastinate and take a break!

I guess I’m good at making such lists! Now finally here’s a rough last page!

Way to go ME! And way to go Martha Julia Agnes Adele! We’re all proud and relieved to have done what we’ve done and learned what we’ve learned!

Now comes the really fun part!!! Re-editing and re-editing everything from type-os to mistake-os! And rewriting the book, changing words, concepts, plot and all! For now, we’ll let you ‘Sit and rest a spell, Martha Julia Agnes Adele! Thanks for this adventure!

Something about this last page seems to be asking my imagination to pull together lots of pieces, to practice with pens, pencils, and paints, and maybe procrastinate a little in between each part? So here are a few pieces waiting to find their place in the last painting.

I spent all day on this one painting! It was actually quite fun since I did the drawing yesterday and got to start on the painting early in the day while my hands were sort of nimble. Then after I had loaded it on my computer and added the pre-written text, I realized that the fireflies somehow were not on the page! They must be off on some other twilight job, so will add them when they return! One more page to go! And it may take awhile to map it out! We’ll see!

Hard to say goodbye to her friends at The Hillock, but Martha’s excited to have made new friends and learned something new! I identify with the energy involved in going on adventures and then heading home. Feeling a little fatigue which can be helped by a good night’s sleep! Sleep well everyone!

Been doing a lot of rewrites of these last pages and even ended up adding an extra page! Also trying to paint without using the ink drawings. Still ended up adding ink at the end! I’m looking forward to the day when I can paint without drawing first! Still learning as I go! Thank goodness!

This page invited me over and over to rewrite, reread, re-edit, and spend days learning to draw. Each time I re positioned and redrew Martha Julia Agnes Adele, she grew up a tiny bit more! I KNOW she felt like she had learned and mastered something new, and probably DID feel a little older and smarter, yet I think she grew up a little too fast! Glad you’re realized you can tie your shoes tight and that you are feeling more confident, Martha, but I DO wish you could keep your baby face and chubby arms a little longer!