This guest post is written by author Marilyn Singer, who won the 2015听
The snow monkeys at the Central Park Zoo.
The exhibit hall at an American Library Association convention.
My cat sitting on the living room chair.
What do these things have in common?听 They all provided inspiration for several of my books.
Most writers I know are happy combinations of the sedentary and the peripatetic.听 I am certainly in that camp.听 I get some of my best ideas while sitting on my stoop or sofa in Brooklyn, New York.听 I get others when I鈥檓 traveling or wandering about, keeping my eyes, ears, and even nose open (if you don鈥檛 believe me about the latter, take a peek at my book, about plants and animals that smell bad, inspired by the gingko trees dropping their malodorous nuts on my street).听 I have a great sense of curiosity about the beings, behaviors, and situations I see, hear, and smell.听 That curiosity leads to detective work, which in turn, leads to writing books.
The were responsible for my poetry collection 听(ill. by Ed Young). So was Usher鈥攏ot the singer, but an adorable Humboldt penguin I met many years before at the Rode Tropical Bird Gardens in Bath, England. Snow monkeys don鈥檛 live in rain forests, but on cold Japanese islands. are not found in Antarctica, but on the hot and dry coasts of Chile and Peru. These animals made me wonder how many other creatures survive and thrive in inhospitable environments. I put on my detective hat, learned the word , and produced a series of poems that became a book.
Conferences are great book nurseries. The wealth of literature on display at , ILA, ALA, BEA, and other conventions makes a writer want to 鈥� well, write. At one particular ALA conference, when I was strolling around the exhibit hall, checking out the forthcoming books, I noticed that there were plenty about Christmas, but none featuring New Year鈥檚 celebrations. Back at home, I checked out library catalogues and booksellers to reveal that there were very few New Year鈥檚 books, period. I knew that there鈥檚 a Jewish New Year, a Chinese New Year, and a Russian New Year, which are not celebrated on January 1. Could there be other celebrations at different times of the year? More detective work led to the discovery that some cultures celebrate in March or June or November鈥攊n fact, depending on the lunar calendar, there can be a New Year鈥檚 celebration every month of the year. I鈥檓 delighted to say that, as a result, next year, my poetry collection, (ill. by Susan L. Roth), will be published by Lee & Low.
And what about that chair-loving cat? She has the honor of inspiring a poetry form, the reverso. A reverso is one poem with two halves. You read the first half down as you would most poems, and the second half with the lines reversed, with changes only in punctuation and capitalization. That second half has to say something completely different from the first. When I saw my cat on her favorite chair, a little poem came into my head:
A cat听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听 Incomplete:
without 听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听 A chair
a chair:听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听 without
Incomplete.听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听 a cat.
It got me so excited that I wanted to see if I could write more.听 So I did.听 They were on a variety of topics, but a number were based on fairy tales.听 A wise editor suggested that I base the entire collection on fairy tales.听 I did鈥攁nd the collection became (ill. by Jos茅e Masse). 听Subsequently, I鈥檝e written two more books of reversos, based on more fairy tales, and featuring Greek myths.
Editors have made many helpful suggestions and sometimes given me ideas for books, including my , about a young ballet student, and .听 I may never have come up with these concepts myself, and I thank the good folks who gave them to me.
Then there are the articles in newspapers, online, and on TV; the encounters with people and other beings; the day dreams, night dreams, and other fantasies that have led to more books and stories.听 I could go on and on鈥攂ut I won鈥檛.听 The point is, when folks ask the time-honored question, 鈥淲here do you get your ideas?鈥� I can honestly answer, 鈥淓verywhere!鈥澨� I just need to go out or sit still to find them!
Winner of the 2015 起点传媒Award for Excellence in Poetry, Marilyn Singer has written over 100 books in many genres.听 She lives in Brooklyn, New York and Washington, Connecticut with her husband and several pets.