For as long as I can remember, I’ve liked to make arts and crafts. Finger painting. Macramed bottles. Thumbprints transformed into faces and animals with an ink pad and a felt-tipped pen. Silly Putty used to lift the images of Dennis the Menace and Garfield and Snoopy from comic strips, then stretched and contorted in ways that would make Picasso smile. In high school, I learned how to do calligraphy, really quite well. During college, there were painted rocks and sand candles and friendship bracelets I made as a summer camp counselor.
Making things — be it bracelets or pencil holders or mittens — makes us uniquely human. No other creature on the planet is quite as crafty as we are.
For me, writing is a kind of art too. Each little word creates something bigger… a story, that has never been told in quite the same way before. It’s as unique as a sand castle. As uncommon as a tie-dyed T-shirts. As one-of-a-kind as a thumbprint.
Perhaps that’s partly why I so often include a craft when I do book events. Because working with our hands helps us discover who we are. And writing stories helps us share what we discover about ourselves along life’s way.
This month, I’m planning a book event to celebrate the release of my newest middle-grade novel, Big & Little Questions (According to Wren Jo Byrd). You’ll have a chance to hear me read a little from the book and ask me some questions about it. We will eat cake. And, yes, we will make a craft! Here are the details:
Book Launch Party!
Big & Little Questions (According to Wren Jo Byrd)
Saturday, March 25
10:00 – 11:30 A.M.
The Local Story & Volume One Gallery
205 N. Dewey Street, Eau Claire, WI
I hope to see you there!
~ Julie