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Mysterious Patterns on NYC Reading List
Mysterious Patterns: Finding Fractals in Nature made another good reading list: recommended for third graders by the New York City’s Department of Education. See the full list here.
Many things have been going on around here so I’ve been away from the blog for longer than I care to calculate. Now seems like a good time to jump back in, though, because I have a few events coming up.
First up, I will be at the Jambalaya Writers Conference at the Terrebonne Parish Public Library on April 2nd. My presentation is titled, “Story + Photographs = Winning Nonfiction.”
After that, I will be at the Fay B. Kaigler Children’s Book Festival at USM in Hattiesburg. My presentation, with Cheryl Mathis and Carrel Muller, is titled “Amazing Author Visits that Won’t Break The Bank.”
I will be signing books at both festivals. Please come by and see me if you are in the area.
Out and About Dresses – #selfishsewing
One of my quests this year has been to find a dress pattern with a good fit that I could make out of comfortable knit fabric. I think I’ve found a winner, the Out and About Dress by Sew Caroline.
I kept seeing the dress on a dress form at Bernina Sewing Etc. (made by Cindy Hampton) and finally I asked to try it on. After I saw the fit, I decided to buy the pattern and the very same fabric pattern, one of the Art Gallery knits. I also bought a grey print.
I actually made the grey dress first.
For the next version, I decided to make it sleeveless with a skirt made from a woven cotton print. I modified the neckline, which involved a little math. 
So, I’m posting these because it happens to be Selfish Sewing Week (#selfishsewingweek) in the world of Indie sewists and pattern makers. I have loved learning from Indiesew blogs and buying fun patterns like the Out and About Dress. My thanks to Roderick Red of Red Squared Productions for the photographs.
Mississippi Book Festival
What a wonderful day it was on Saturday for the first Mississippi Book Festival! It was amazing to have full rooms (though not so amazing to have people turned away).
I had a tough time getting into any of the other sessions, but the crowd was tremendous, the bookstore(s) fantastic, and I always love seeing colleagues (though, again, I hated missing out on hearing/seeing/greeting some of my favorite people.)
One great thing was that since the festival was in my home town Richard got to come along. He took some nice photographs so we can update the website with my “new look” so I won’t surprise people when I show up with longish hair.
I love this panorama of the room.
And, guess who else gets to come when we festival in my home town: my nephew! Another budding Wolfsnail fan, I’m sure.
Summer Reading at Tisdale Library
I read recently at the Charles Tisdale Library as part of the Summer Reading Program. One challenge of these programs is the wide-range in age of the children who come. Many in this group were two years old, but the range went all the way up to 10- and 11-year-olds. I brought an activity for the older ones to do with the librarian, using Mysterious Patterns. I stayed with the large group of little ones and read a wide range of snail-related books, including Wolfsnail. With about 15 minutes left in my program, I asked the older ones back to talk with the whole group about fractals and other geometric shapes. I appreciate the help of the librarians, Patrick McCarty and Miss Mays.
Cook Prize Ceremony
Recently I was at the Bank Street College of Education to receive a Cook Prize Honor for Mysterious Patterns.
The folks at Bank Street have a video stream of the event on their website.
My portion of the ceremony begins at 57:18.
Summer Reading at Eudora Welty Library
I visited Eudora Welty Library on Monday to launch the 2015 Summer Reading Program. We read Wolfsnail and Growing Patterns and I brought along Private Eye magnifying loupes for everyone to try.
Tomatoes Ready to Roast
It has become my habit to start Saturday morning with some cooking. Typically, I am prepping for later meals. Today, I needed to roast some tomatoes for a Fennel Compote.
Richard decided to grab the camera when he saw the tomatoes lined up in a row.
Wolfsnail Classroom Visits
The lush green days of Spring are here and I’ve been talking about wolfsnails. I visited Spencer Loomis Elementary School in Hawthorne Woods, IL, very near Chicago. Alex D., the daughter of my college roommate, Sarita, goes to Spencer Loomis. We had a great time with private eyes and some garden snails and slugs. Some of the snails were reluctant to move around, but we nudged them with water. The slugs seemed more eager to move; we wondered whether that’s because they have no shells to hid under.
Also, my former neighbor, Shirlene Phillips, found a wolfsnail in her yard so I brought my book to The Redeemer’s School to talk with her students. It was pretty much the same size as the snail I photographed for the book. The 4-year-olds, kindergartners, and first graders had really good questions.
Earlier this month, I spent a few days at the Fay B. Kaigler Children’s Book Festival with Julie Owen. We presented a session titled Photography and Place: Engaging Projects for Libraries. We pulled together materials related to our presentation on Pinterest here.
“Portrait of a Painting” Showing Time
Richard’s 
short film will grace the big screen at Malco Grandview Theater on Saturday, April 11 th, at 11 a.m.
“Portrait” tells the story of a landscape painting created by Jerrod Partridge, a Jackson artist, after a trip to Tuscany, Italy. The painting was commissioned. Richard filmed Jerrod from start to finish, with some help from our son, Douglas, and from Roderick Red of Red Squared Productions.
The film will be shown along with five other short documentaries selected for the 2015 Crossroads Film Festival.
This image of Jerrod to the left is a screenshot from the film. The image below is an image of the painting itself, also from the film. You can’t get the full effect without the big screen, unfortunately. Jerrod used handmade paper as his canvas.
Richard’s “Portrait” Film Selected by Crossroads Film Festival
I am very excited to announce that Richard’s short film, “Portrait of a Painting,” was chosen for the 2015 Crossroads Film Festival.
The film chronicles the creation of a landscape painting by Jerrod Partridge, an artist who lives in our neighborhood. It will be shown at Malco Grandview Theatre in Madison, Miss., on April 11.
“Portrait” is Richard’s first film, though he has been creating with moving pictures for about four years. Most of that work has been created to help market our three pictures books and to spread the word about Hope Enterprise Corporation and Hope Credit Union.
Crossroads Film Festival features work by artists from Mississippi and around the world. #XRoadsFF
Filming for “Portrait” stretched over several months. Richard had help from Roderick Red of Red Squared Productions and our youngest son, Douglas Campbell.