A Big Bag of Inspiration

My big bag of inspiration (Thanks, Jude).  This has carried over 800 picture books back and 

forth from the library this year.  A dependable bag indeed.  (Image © Lori Gravley)

I had waited until the last minute to write my monthly picture book.   I found one idea, then discovered a  picture book about her had already been published.  I hadn’t finished the research for the book I thought I would write.  I was starting to feel panicked. 

To assuage the sense of writer’s anxiety, I looked at the picture books I had just collected from the library.  A big bag of inspiration.

I sat down, pulled up my Goodreads account (LoriGravley), and immersed myself in this amazing world we picture book writers and readers live in where pictures and stories live together in joy and wonder. 

I read a book about pirates.  I read a book about a pharaoh’s cat.  I read a few books by Dianna Hutts Ashton and Sylvia Long.  I read some other books (46 total for yesterday, though I stopped to write half-way through).

Then I got up to get a cup of coffee, opened a Word document, and wrote a draft.   Doing a quick first read through this morning before I send it out to my new critique group, I could see all the books I read yesterday in the words I had written: an attention to a very specific detail, a conflict inspired by a little snippet in the pirate book, a detail inspired by a period in history in one of the books.  I had to go online and look some things up, so research is in there, too. My trip to Arizona last month is in there, too.  Something I found in Arizona set the story off. 

The book is nothing like the books I read yesterday, except that it’s a picture book.  However, the books I read yesterday showed up in my book in small ways. 

I am almost done with my picture book challenge (956/1000 books read, woot!).  My librarian asked me what I would do when the challenge was over, and my reply was immediate.  Keep reading.  I may not commit to reading 1,000 picture books next year, but I will still read picture books.  Because I love them.  Because I write them. 

Because they inspire me.

Medieval Paris: The Cluny Museum

The Cluny from outside the walls.

The first time I went to the Cluny, I went for the Unicorn Tapestries.  The next time, I went for the gardens.  This time, I was searching for everyday medieval objects.  In each case the Cluny has more than fulfilled my expectations. 

A reliquary, in this case a golden foot intended to hold

the foot bones of a saint.

The gardens were closed this time, but I ate lunch in a little garden off the side of the museum.  Though it wasn’t specifically medieval in its construction and design, it still allowed me a bit of quiet in the middle of a seven-mile day.  The  Unicorn Tapestries have a delightful new room.  Before, I was concerned about the fading of the tapestries, and the new room uses diffused light to keep the rich reds and deep blacks of the Unicorn Tapestries from continuing to fade. 

What draws me again and again at the Cluny are the reliquaries. I remember being disappointed on my first trip there that they no longer held the hair, toenails, bones, or other physical objects connected to the saints the were created to hold, but the care that has been taken with the containers speaks to a devotion, fascination, and faith that I still admire. 

Board games from the 14th century.

I spent a lot of time in the everyday objects room, fascinated by the combs and buttons in one exhibit and by the playing cards and dominoes in another. 

I can’t imagine a visit to Paris without the Cluny.  Next time, hopefully I’ll be able to eat my Nutella and baguette in the Museum gardens.