Daddy Scribe is out of town again, so I am once more exhausted beyond capacity to think while trying to take care of Little Scribe and Baby Scribe by myself. Will writing/ working on my novel(s) ever be in my future again?
Early this morning, after Little Scribe crawled into bed with me at five o'clock in the morning, he had a nightmare and screamed out loud, "I want Dad!" while crying at the same time. Then he fell back into a deep sleep. Poor sweetie.
I wish I could be inspired by my children to write, but to be honest, they just don't do it for me. They are my world, and I love them more than anything, but they drain my artist's well, not fill it. Maybe I am going about this the wrong way. I found an alphabet board book yesterday in the greatest shop, Presents of Mind, while wandering the Hawthorne district in Portland, whose author was directly inspired by her newborn son to write it. The book is called AWAKE TO NAP by Nikki McClure, and it has gorgeous black paper cut-outs highlighted with a single color (some orange, some blue, some red, etc) for its illustrations. The funny thing about this board book is that it ends at the letter N. The author only worked while her newborn son took a nap, and once the naps became too short and life too "thrilling," she couldn't finish past the letter N. But the book is just beautiful, and it is amazing to me that she got that much work done at all!
How can I emulate that?
