Thanksgiving Day

Today I give thanks for the sun’s warming ray,

her goldenrod light turning night into day.

Feeling earth underfoot, whether mountain or plain,

to see sweeping of clouds, smell the sprinkle of rain.

A tree’s gentle breeze giving swell to my lung,

its fingertip nests raising songs yet unsung.

So thankful am I for my heart full of cheer,

friendships and laugh lines carved deeper each year.

With family beside me I sit down to feast,

and think of life’s glory—each snowflake, each beast.

My thanks for gorillas and whales and bees,

the bounty of life filling jungles and seas.

Today I give thanks in the sun’s warming ray,

just for being alive and the gift of this day.

But soon a full moon will hang soft overhead

then thankful I’ll be for my pillow and bed.

-Brooke Bessesen, November 2009

My treasured friend Tony Subia just surprised me with this 3-minute video that he created using elements from my website:

    I first worked with SubiaCreative (www.subiacreative.com) when I was eighteen years old. I soon met Tony and his family—gorgeous wife Ruby, their great kids Patty, Kenny and Tanya (who are close to me in age), and subsequently all the grandchildren who came into the fold one precious birth at a time.

                                      What connects us with certain people for a lifetime? I don’t know.

    But the Subias have been in my heart ever since and I love them like family! Together through the years we have watched children grow (little Brittney is a new Phoenix Suns Dancer http://www.ahwatukee.com/articles/suns-7857-phoenix-team.html) ...jobs change ... skin age. We have shared holidays’ joy and tragedies’ tears. We are forever linked.

Tony and I are especially close. He is a trusted friend and father-figure, who I've always turned to for advice during major life decisions, and his insight and support have undoubtedly shaped me.

Professionally, Tony is a marketing genius. For over thirty years he has been an ally to clients trying to share company messages in an ever-changing American culture. Nowadays he focuses his creative mind and savvy business sense on developing websites about beautiful and interesting destinations; he opens windows to the world. He has taken Internet browsers to Sedona, La Jolla and Orlando...

                                                                                                                                ... and now he’s taken my goofy mug to YouTube!

If your reading this, Tony (and I hope you are), thanks for the super cool video! But most of all, thanks for believing in me.

If you like to travel as I do, here are some of Tony’s top-rated websites:

www.arizona-leisure.com

www.dreamsedona.com

www.dreamlajolla.com

www.orlandomagicalvacation.com

www.dreamflagstaff.com

  Several years ago I had the honor of signing at a renowned bookstore in Denver, Colorado cleverly named Tattered Cover Book Store. I bought a t-shirt that day to commemorate the special event and, woven of soft blue cotton, it quickly became one of my favorites. Through the years I wore that shirt as I wore the covers of my treasured books, reading late into the night. Now the t-shirt itself is a “tattered cover”.

I have oft remarked of this coincidence—the shirt existing exactly as its logo implies...

                                                     My Tattered Cover

                                                         My tattered cover wraps silken pages

                                                         Weathered by memories of fingertip nights

                                                         And legs curled in sun drenched chairs

                                                         Words playing leap frog in affable rows

                                                         Folding—origami of time and tale

                                                         Bound and binding

                                                              Cadence remembered like a song

                                                         My tattered cover drapes tender heart

                                                         In yesterday’s fabric still loved

                                                         Soft as puffs of dandelion poised

                                                         Found dancing against familiar curve

                                                         Folding—communion of cloth and body

                                                         Worn and wearing

                                                               Each warmed by the other

                                                         Landmark where the two assemble

                                                         Silken pages and tender heart

                                                         Ample shelves surrender dreams unending

                                                         And far-flung journeys real or imagined

                                                         Holding—bounty of magic and paper

                                                         My Tattered Cover

                                                               Rugged brick shouldering the wind

                                                                  – Brooke Bessesen, July 2009

You may have wondered if while tromping around this gorgeous globe, I made some foolish misstep and plumb FELL OFF! No. I’m here—alive and well—it was just such a tremendously busy springtime! If you’ve taken a peek at my calendar lately you know I’m not exaggerating.

I’ve been traveling a lot. And meeting gobs of interesting people at talks, signings and school visits. What an exciting time!

                                                  book signing at Gridley's

My newest children’s book, Look Who Lives in the Ocean! is finding its way into bookstores and aquariums in more and more cities and is, much to my delight, being well-received. There is no sweeter reward for author-illustrators than to have people enjoy and appreciate our words and pictures.

However, truth be told, my brain got a little muddled from all the to and fro. And although I fell into bed happily exhausted every night, I ultimately had to give a few things up until my schedule slowed down.

I decided better my blog than my mind.

But now as I slip into the mellow yellow of summer, I've employed time and memory to add several back-posts for your reading pleasure. Many are blogs I started and finally found time to finish and post. They share highlights of the last months—including some exciting news about Earth Day (posted April 24th) and details of a spectacular whale watching trip out of Santa Barbara. They should fill in gaps and catch you up nicely. Scroll down the page to read the new entries. And thanks for not giving up on me.

BTW… Monday, June 8th has been officially declared WORLD OCEANS DAY by the United Nations. Start your celebration by learning more at: http://www.theoceanproject.org/wod/.  

                                                  I hope you celebrated Earth Day on Wednesday, April 22nd.

I did! I enjoyed a special author school visit at Kyrene de los Cerritos in Phoenix, Arizona. All of us—students, teachers and I, too—were dressed in green and blue. Signs decorated the library and we all had a wonderful time talking about books, wildlife and the importance of caring for this beautiful planet. Thanks, Cerritos, for a truly fantastic day!

signing a check to Ocean Conservancy 

                                                                        the stellar library team at Cerritos       

And another super exciting event occurred this week, which will take these Earth Day Author Visits to a whole new level. I have been working all year with friend and award-winning author Jennifer Ward to prepare and launch a new website called Authors for Earth Day. It’s designed to support a coalition of children’s authors and illustrators who will make April 22, 2010 a day to remember in classrooms across the country. Check it out: www.authorsforearthday.org.

If you are looking for new ways to take a stand against climate change, here’s a fun food facts sheet about eating “green”: http://www.nrdc.org/globalWarming/files/EatGreenFS_0509.pdf.  

I wrote like crazy while I was living at the OBC in Costa Rica! I couldn't help myself; I was so dang inspired! Below are two unrelated literary chunks—ramblings, really—that made it from brain to paper during my time there. 

                                            a page in my yellow notebook

I share them because they offer insight into my thoughts and surroundings of the time. But they also exemplify the kind of free-flow writing that allows ideas to rush onto a page unhindered by serious worry for grammar, punctuation or paragraphing (which can always be fixed later).

#1:

I cannot stop writing, words gush from me like flash floods, forcing me to dash for paper and pen and hold to them as life rafts until the urgent waves of inspiration have passed. Last night, I woke abruptly at 1:00am, writhing with ideas, only to find my pen conspiratorially out of ink. Unable to sleep without exorcising the words from my head, I had to crawl from the nighttime safety of my mosquito net, quickly apply a layer of bug protection and scurry the full length of the compound to the kitchen for a writing utensil. There, I nudged around in the dark like a large nocturnal rodent, tiptoed like a cartoon burglar looking for diamonds. Minutes later, pencil secured in fist, I hot-footed back to bed and scribbled by headlamp for almost an hour, pages of my small yellow notebook turning black with lead—a frenzy that left me exhausted. Utterly drained, I then slept without moving until a crest of morning sunlight came to jiggle my shoulder.

#2:

The power and force of the sea is supreme. Even from here, with a great wall of trees between, the ocean can be heard. The swish and roll, followed by a deep rumble: water tripping on sand and crashing head over heels onto the shore. The sound repeats… the push… the roar and tumble… the pulling back to regroup before trying again. I imagine the vast ocean found guilty of some unforgivable disturbance of prehistory—at which point the ancient tides were cast from the land. Now, in repentance, they endlessly beg, clawing their way back ashore. The bass tone of the water is distance and embedded in the more prominent notes of the night—insects and frogs playing treble in this nocturnal music—but when you focus your attention on the waves, listen with head and with heart, the other noises drop away in insignificance. Soon, the deep call of ocean is the only sound you can hear, as if all other tones have been sucked into an auditory black hole. It bellows low and deep, the echo of all life past, present and future… calling us home.

NOTE: Beginning in March, I will be blogging every 2nd & 4th Friday of the month... see you March 13th!

I am often asked what inspires me to write. If you have read the last two week’s blog entries you surely have a ripening notion. 

 But why write children's books? 

Well, I am not the only person who is fascinated with wildlife or yearns to explore the natural world—I am not alone holding sea turtles and other amazing oceanic nomads near to the heart! Kids love animals! But, hey, so do a lot of grown-ups. And since people of ALL ages enjoy the fun and fancy of picture books, they are a universal medium for me to share my love of animals and adventure with other animal and adventure lovers.

It sounds like a one-way transfer of words—writer to reader—but it's not. It's a more symbiotic relationship; we must support one another to thrive. I write books for you and, if inspired, you tell people the books are appealing and worth reading. This, in turn, allows me to write more books.

So it is with tremendous thanks to all the readers, teachers and librarians who enjoyed and recommended my first book

      Look Who Lives in the Desert!    and who encouraged me to write more about wildlife in distinctive habitats, that I offer this sneak peek at the sea turtle spread from the soon-to-be-released sequel

                                         Look Who Lives in the Ocean! 

Like the desert book, it has 21 animals and presents each one using four elements: 1. rhyming prose (humorous but still non-fiction), 2. a silly illustration (with wacky tidbits for readers to find), 3. a facts bar (to stretch the brain), and 4. a photograph (so you can see the real animal).

Young children (1-6) are drawn in by the vibrant colors and lilt of the rhyme. Older kids (7-13) really get into the scientific facts and the clever twists of humor in both prose and art. Even adults learn and laugh!

If you are curious, the illustrations start as pencil drawings and are colored with fabrics. Notice the textures and patterns? By presenting the facts in such a whimsical package, readers may have an easier time relating to the animals and remembering what they've learned.

I hope you find Look Who Lives in the Ocean! a fresh catch. And—if you do—please take a moment to tell me (and a friend). After all, inspired as I may be by journeys into the wild, I can only write books with your support.

Dive in! And happy reading!

(The book will be in bookstores by March 1st. You can pre-order it through Amazon.com or your local bookshop. ISBN 978-1-932082-82-1)

I'm home from Costa Rica. But don't worry... there will be many more installments of rainforest adventure to come, including details of my sea turtle work and my watery trek into Corcovado National Park. So stay tuned for this month's upcoming blogs.

But today, here in Arizona, I enjoyed another kind of adventure... a library adventure. Ha! You laugh. But the library is a virtual landscape of adventure—shelves towering with heart-thumping mysteries, comedies, thrillers and tales from every corner of the world. If you can’t swing on vines through a real jungle or careen across the thundering path of elephants on the actual African savannah, the next best thing is certain to be found at the library.

But today wasn’t about reading a book, it was about explaining one:

                                                                                                                          Illustrator Jenny Campbell and I have been working on a new exhibit for the Burton Barr Library's Center for Children's Literature. It's about our recent title Zachary Z. Packrat and His Amazing Collections. After weeks of planning, building, sorting and organizing, I finally installed the 21-foot exhibit, which will remain up until end of March, 2009. It includes early sketches and several original paintings, two standing cases (one with items from an actual packrat midden and another showing Jenny's artistic process), plus a podium with a couple books for readers to browse. It's very visual!

       the full wall        cover & books below 

   items from a midden    jenny's art process

The glass-encased wall explains how Zachary Z. Packrat and His Amazing Collections is “based on a true story” because it’s about packrat kids, sisters, brothers, uncles, grandmas and best friends—beloved human packrats who love to collect things! It shows that my mom is a packrat (she has gobs of collections). And so is my dad (he never throws anything away). They have taught me to cherish special treasures.

Some human packrats even protect things from the past that we all can learn from… just try to imagine a world without libraries or museums.

But the book—and, so, the exhibit—are also about the namesake animals who gather gobs of stuff for their nest piles, called “middens”. Turns out, these wide-eyed rodents also protect things from the past. By collecting items from nature and sheltering them, furry little packrats help scientists study ancient landscapes. Some enormous packrat middens even date back over 40,000 years!

So, when I say Zachary is a real packrat, do I mean a human packrat or an animal packrat? The answer is: BOTH!

The exhibit details how Jenny and I wove their characteristics together in the story, which is part of the book’s fun! 

We hope library-goers will enjoy the display. If you happen to be in downtown Phoenix over the next several months, you can stop in at the Burton Barr Public Library (Central Ave, just north of Roosevelt) to see all the treasures and tidbits Jenny and I have put into our collection about the making of Zachary Z. Packrat and His Amazing Collections.