ON PERSISTENCE

 

On Persistence

Readers often ask if I have a pet, so I thought I'd introduce the newest addition to my family...Poppy. She's wearing her festive paper crown from the holidays, just in case you are wondering!

Poppy came from an animal shelter in Scotland. She is seven years old, and she has been through a lot. Her original owner died, and she had a very difficult time bouncing back from that big loss. When we rescued her a year ago, right before the holidays, she was a mess.

Back then, we didn't know anything about caring for a sad and sickly little dog because my husband Mike and I had never owned a dog before. And she didn't know how to love a different owner because she'd never had one before. 

All of us had a LOT to learn.

Poppy peed on our carpets, barked at our friends, barfed on our beds, refused to walk on a lead, and shivered like a terrified leaf even when it wasn't cold. After several weeks, we were at our wit's end. We wanted to give up. 

But if there is one thing I have learned about myself as an author -- it is that I am ridiculously stubborn and persistent. I refuse to give up on a book, even when everything seems to be going wrong, and the task ahead seems impossible. I will spend hours trying to find the right sentence or the right scene. I will do as many as a dozen rewrites. One novel, Jump into the Sky, took me four years to finish.

If I could write books through tough times (pandemics, illness, grief...) and not give up, I could find a way to reach this crazy, sad, frustrating little dog. 

I would not quit...even if it took four years. That's what I told myself.

And slowly, the persistence began to pay off. Little by little, Poppy became less shy and shivery. She began to trust us. We were able to take her on car rides and walks, and she joined us on a few weekend trips. 

Just as book characters reveal themselves, little by little, we discovered new things about Poppy the more time we spent with her. I found out that she loves busy city walks and hopping up apartment steps and playing hide-and-seek with slippers. And just like my book characters -- she sometimes does something that surprises me (like patiently wearing an orange crown for a silly photo.)

So that's Poppy's story! We've just finished our first year together, and we're working on the next chapters.

OFFERING WINGS

These days, I'm a virtual author on the wild and windswept coast of Scotland.

While visiting schools via a computer screen definitely has its limits, I always try to see the screen as a portal...rather than a wall. During a typical visit, I often start out by giving students a glimpse of rural Scotland where I currently live and work -- a land of poets and unicorns -- and yes, miles of rocky coastline (see above). 

From there, I might take students on a virtual journey to see the real Hampton's Throne in Washington, D.C. (The Seventh Most Important Thing). Or we might visit the Cleveland, Ohio neighborhood that inspired All of the Above. Or we might preview the amazing works of land art around the world connected to Things Seen From Above.  Finally, we make the return flight to their own classroom...wherever it may be in the world...for a cozy Q&A chat.   

Last week, I virtually visited with middle school students in rural Wisconsin. They had just finished my novel, The Seventh Most Important Thing. Afterwards, I received a lovely note from the school's librarian who thanked me for opening up the world to her students and giving them wings. 

I loved that comment. 

Giving them wings...

Like many authors and educators, I've wrestled with what role to play in the challenging times we are living through today. Compassion, tolerance, justice, fairness, kindness, openness, and acceptance of our shared humanity -- these are the bedrock themes of my novels and my life. The themes haven't changed since my very first stories written as a thirteen-year old growing up in 1970s Ohio.

As I've watched these closely-held values come under siege in the US and around the world, I've wondered what to say and write on a daily basis. Especially for kids. 

Which is why I'm indebted to the Wisconsin librarian for pointing out that hope is not lost. We still have tools in our toolbox. We still have wings. James Hampton expresses a similar idea in The Seventh Most Important Thing when he says, "It all depends on the wings."

Although my words can't change very much in terms of the enormous issues kids and schools--and our world--are facing right now, I can take students on a journey for an hour. Through writing, through art, through words, through shared laughter, through conversation, through virtual flybys around the world -- we can still soar.

That's my mission as an author.

To give you wings.

A Mythical Land

I've been thinking about my grandpa who took up painting when he retired. I keep one of his works of art in my office to remind me that you are never too old to learn something new. And also, because I love looking at the soft, imaginary world he created and imagining his gentle spirit being there -- in a land of mythical snow-capped peaks and impossibly blue rivers. 

Over the summer, I've been taking a few art classes myself -- dabbling in pastels, watercolor, charcoal, and portraiture at a local art gallery tucked above an antiques store in Castle Douglas, Scotland. (I've shared a view I sketched of the main street from the studio window). 

What I like most about doing art is how it creates a spirit of "flow" in my soul. I lose track of time and place and all the worries that constantly cycle through my mind -- and just focus on what I'm making.

I believe that having access to these creative experiences -- the arts -- are critical for all of us as human beings. Creativity helps us process those too-big emotions, make sense of the world around us, connect with each other, share our common humanity -- and sometimes, the arts help us "escape" and relax. 

In two of my books, The Seventh Most Important Thing and Things Seen From Above, art is central to the story and helps to save the main characters in different ways. As James Hampton says in The Seventh Most Important Thing, art is about creating beauty from the broken things...

If you are looking for ways to bring more creativity into your classroom this school year, please feel free to visit my website for ideas, as well as find more information on my books and 2024-2025 virtual programs. www.shelleypearsall.com

Growing Beyond the Book

Is a book a permanent object? Or does it change and grow with each reader?  

Maybe this is a radical idea, but I believe a book is an ever-changing thing. As an author, my job is to plant the first seeds -- that's it. Then I let the story go. As each reader brings their own experiences, emotions, and imagination to the page -- my book and its characters always evolve and change and grow. 

Although it doesn't happen often, sometimes I get the chance to see how the seeds of my stories take root with readers and grow in wonderfully-new and unexpected directions. Earlier this year, the fifth graders in Mrs. Cohn's class at Dunwoody Elementary in Georgia read my novel, The Seventh Most Important Thing and gave me a glimpse into their own impressions.

After finishing the book, they created works of art inside plastic lightbulbs to share their personal connections with the themes of the novel (which is based on a real artist who used lightbulbs to create his own museum masterpiece). 

One student used orange and yellow paper inside his lightbulb to recreate the eternal flame of JFK's memorial which he connected to the book's theme of grief and healing. Another student managed to fit a tiny clock into her lightbulb because "time is the reason why we age and to me that is important." 

Others included water and soil and plants -- the vital building blocks that sustain our lives on this fragile planet we call home. Other readers turned their lightbulbs into airplanes and angels and dreams for the future. The lightbulb pictured above is designed to represent how "ideas can grow into beautiful things" and to "show the beauty of creativity."

Pretty incredible connections and creativity, right? That's what happens when books (and readers) are allowed to grow. 

Thanks to Dunwoody Elementary's fifth graders for sharing your creativity with me!  

Virtual Author Visits from Our Scottish Barn

 

My virtual author visits are in full swing for the 2023-24 school year. It has been fantastic to chat with classes in New York, Ohio, and New Jersey so far. And Mariemont Schools were the FIRST to virtually visit my new hayloft studio in Scotland last week.

If you look closely at the photo, you can probably spot the little window above the glass archway--that's my hayloft writer's studio. Our new/old house in Scotland is a former barn from the late 1700s. It has been a hayloft, a henhouse, a stable for horses...and now, an author's house. As you can probably tell, the walls are made of stone. (Yes, I'll confess that I like to imagine the space as a castle...) This part of Scotland once had large granite quarries, and many of the buildings are made of granite. In fact, granite from here was shipped all over the world.

Although I'm based in Scotland, never fear...I'm still scheduling virtual visits with US-based schools. Remember that if your school is doing an all-school read of one of my books, you can get a free virtual visit after your school has completed the book. 

I also have a brand-new Author Mentorship program for individual classrooms where I'll present a virtual writing workshop, a Q&A session, and then, every student can get personal, written feedback on a piece of writing from me. If your students are reading The Seventh Most Important Thing, I also have a new workshop called "Hampton's Throne Speaks" where we create a character from the artwork itself. A great lesson in personification and brainstorming! 

You can find out more details about both of these programs on the school visits page of my website: Shelley Pearsall School Visits

Thank you for reading my books, whether you are near...or far away. Feel free to reach out through my website if you have any questions. 

LOOKING FOR THE MAGIC

There is no doubt that the last three years have changed all of us. Made us face our own mortality. Made us realize what really matters...and what doesn't. Made us discover new sides of who we are -- while, at the same time, pushing us to the limits of what we thought we could endure. Speaking for myself, the last three years have also made me realize it was time for a change. A big change.

I'm not unfamiliar with changing my life. I did it quite often in my twenties and thirties. I moved a half-dozen times. Tried out multiple jobs. Went back to school to become a teacher. Quit teaching and sold everything I owned in order to have an uninterrupted year to write a book (which became Trouble Don't Last)...

But in recent years, it became easier not to change. To stay put. To keep doing what was working. To drive the same roads. To look at the same familiar scenery. 

However, creativity doesn't thrive in the familiar or the routine. Ideas don't sprout from the roadsides you've driven on a thousand times before. It needs adventure, inspiration, interaction, challenge, serendipity, magic...

And so, earlier this year, my husband Mike and I decided to move to a new place. Well, not just a new place...but a new COUNTRY. A place where we would have to learn everything all over again, except the language. A place where we'd be forced to make new friends and try new things. 

In May, we moved to a renovated stone barn, with eaves full of swallows and hillsides dotted with sheep, in southwest Scotland. 

Why Scotland? Although it is a place that has inspired countless artists and writers over the centuries...and given birth to wizards named Harry Potter and fictional islands of treasure...my reasons for landing here were more personal... 

I chose to move to Scotland because this was the place where I found the magic and the words again, the ones I feared the pandemic had erased forever. There was magic in the tiny striped snail living in my crooked doorway. The small and delicate deer that somehow sailed over four foot stone walls into the garden. The mysterious cat who would appear and disappear in an eye-blink. The waterfalls that burbled out of nowhere in the mossy-green woods.  For all those reasons and more.

I hope you'll enjoy this next chapter with me. Stay tuned. (And yes -- I will be making return visits to Ohio, my home state.)

THE EIGHTH MOST IMPORTANT THING: READERS

In early November, I traveled virtually to Queens, NY to meet a class of 8th graders at Irwin Altman MS 172 who read my novel, The Seventh Most Important Thing (ALA Notable selection).

A central theme of the book is the healing power of art and its ability to transform darkness into light, hopelessness into possibility...messages that resonate with many of us these days. 

The novel was originally inspired by "Hampton's Throne," a work of art in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. The sculpture depicts artist James Hampton's view of a heavenly throne room made of discarded objects wrapped in metallic foil. The story follows what happens when a thirteen year old boy, dealing with anger and grief, is sentenced to work for the artist after injuring him.

Whenever I talk with aspiring writers, I always tell them to write from the heart because if you do that, your readers will respond with gifts from their own hearts...however, it still amazes me and humbles me each time it happens. 

After reading the novel, the students at MS 172 created their own artwork from discarded objects, just like James Hampton. They made purses from paper scraps. Stars from cardboard. Flower arrangements from newspapers and magazines. In posters and visual displays, they depicted "light" vs. the "darkness" in their own worlds. And after reading about Mr. Hampton's favorite words, they brought to life the sayings and messages that are most meaningful to them. [You can see examples of their work in the photos shared with this post.]

However, their thank you notes to me after the virtual visit truly brought home the heart-to-heart power of books and reading. I'll share just a few below:

"Your book helped me and so many people find light in even the darkest of times and helped them find gratitude for the small things in life." -- M

"I could relate to wanting to let go of my own worries and putting them behind me just like Arthur does." -- J

"The way Arthur grieved the loss of his father helped me cope with the grief about the loss of my grandfather." -- J

"I hope in the future I could become someone like Mr. Hampton in creating a masterpiece." - S

That's the heart power of stories. And a special thank you to MS 172's awesome teacher, Catherine Guilz-Feldman for making this experience a reality.  

The ninth most important thing? Teachers.