Morning, everybody! NOVEMBER, right? The month of gratitude. I’m going to be talking about picturebooks on the ‘belly this November, starting with my newest book, Simple Thanks. I’ll tell you about the long journey to a home with this book (okay, I’ll tell the short version), and about how it started with a song written by Jim Pearce. (link to Jim’s Instagram page)

The tune Jim wrote is called simply “Thanksgiving.” He wrote this tune after a particular Thanksgiving dinner and recorded it for “The Red Album” (an actual vinyl record album!) long before we met again. I wrote the words to Jim’s music years later.

Then there was a… winding… path to publication. A long and winding road. :>

I want to do right by this story, so I’m going to save it for next week’s Digest. For this week, for some context, I want to share the interview that Cyn Smith did with me titled:

“Career Achievers: Deborah Wiles on Thriving as a Long-Time, Actively Publishing Children’s-YA Author.”

And I’ll share Jim’s music at Spotify. We don’t have a recording of “Thanksgiving” yet; it exists only on The Red Album. It’s on the to-do list. (Jim says maybe he has a piano version recorded but not published; stay tuned.)

These things are all connected over years’ time! The way years and connections thread through a life fascinates me — and maybe you have these stories, too? —so that’s something I’ll talk about this month. Maybe it’s something you’ll write about, too… you could consider that your Storybelly prompt for the week, if you like.

Remember my insistence that all writing is about “what you know, what you feel, and what you can imagine,” which coordinates with “pay attention, ask questions, and make connections.”

For this week I’ll be thinking/writing about Jim’s composition of “Thanksgiving” and recording the tune probably 35 years ago; his long career as a working musician; our chance meeting again; my words to go with his tune; how long it took for Simple Thanks to find a home; and that long-time career as a musician for him, as a writer for me….

Basically this is a story about continuing to create a Writing Life (whether it’s in words or music), complete with its ups and downs, its recastings and repurposings, and the quiet recommitment it takes to keep going.

I was glad to read this interview again myself, as I’ve struggled with that sustained recommitment since the pandemic sent me home from a lead-title national book tour in 2020. I talk about this in the interview as well.

It all takes the time it takes, yeah? That’s what I’m thinking about these days. I know I’m not the only one who has struggled. I’ll say more in the comments.

Meanwhile, here is the Cyn Smith interview. The entire website is a rich resource and a real service to anyone who wants to write, so do take the time to surf around there, and gather some inspiration.

Cyn is also a long-time published author, and you can read more about her and her wonderful books — and her work bringing Indigenous stories, authors, and illustrators to young readers — here: Cynthia Leitich Smith.

Near the end of her interview with me, Cyn asks me:

As a writer, what do you wish for yourself in the future?

And here is my answer:

I would like to have the time to write what’s on my heart to write. I’d like to find like-minded people – writers, readers, editors, publishers, partners – to share the road with.

I feel like Storybelly has come into my life as part of that answer as well.

In this month of gratitude, I want to thank all of you.

Thanks as ever for hanging out here with me each week, for sharing the road, for lightening the load, and for writing your own stories, whether they are written on your own, or written and shared in the Writers Lab.

My fondest wish is that we would all tell our stories, whatever they may be. As I always say when teaching in workshop or speaking from a podium — or as a reminder to myself when frustrated with this or that:

“It’s hard to hate someone when you know their story.”

xoxo Debbie

Pee Ess (thank you, Ruby Lavender): When finding links for Simple Thanks today, I noticed that the book is 59% off at Amazon right now — wow, that makes it $7.82 for the hardcover, and cheaper than the Kindle version. If you grab it there or at your local library as an ebook, you can follow along next week with the story of how it came to be and the changes we made for publication. (It is not necessary to have the book to-hand for this, just mentioning it in case you want to see the way we worked from tune to song to story, or if you might like to gift the book this Thanks Giving season.) xoxo