Mars, the Moon & Christmas Eve

I'm finally surfacing from a month of intense work demands! And not too soon because today's the winter solstice. This morning I read a wonderful article in my local paper about the fact that Mars will be unusually bright this Christmas Eve and there will be a full Moon. Why? According to Jack Horkheimer, a planetarium director and host of public television show "Star Gazer: Because Mars will be directly opposite the Sun, reflecting the most light, and fairly close to Earth, only 55.5 million miles away. The full Moon will appear nearby, rising about an hours later. In honor of the event, Horkheimer wrote these lyrics in honor of the event. Sing them to the tune of "Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer"


Mars is a red-tinged planet
With a very shiny glow
And if you look to see it
You will find the Moon in
tow.

All of the other Yuletides
Santa would have at his
side
The shiny nose of Rudoph
Acting as his big sleigh's
guide

But this very Christmas
Eve
Santa came to say;
Rudolph, now with Mars
so bright,
You can stay at home
tonight.

Then all the reindeer teased
him.
And they shouted out with
glee:
"Rudolph, the red-nosed
reindeer
Outsourced to astronomy."

Author Visit

Tomorrow I'm doing an author visit in Sophie's pre-school class at the Medical Center Nursery School in New York City. I'm going to read pieces I wrote for U*S*Kids: A Weekly Reader Magazine (no longer in publication)-- "Stamps!" a brief nonfiction article on stamp collecting and a short fiction story "I Like It When People Laugh." I'll introduce my readings by telling the youngsters that when I write fiction I get to make-up stuff and when I write nonfiction I don't get to make-up stuff. I checked with the teacher, and she's game for letting a room full of 3 & 4-year-old kids test out different laughs--YEAH for flexible, up-for-an-adventure teachers!!!!

On Writing & Getting Unstuck

Back to blogging after being distracted by Thanksgiving preparations and house guests and then a miserable cold that actually prompted me to cancel classes last week, a first. Happily yesterday I finally got back into writing Stirring Up the World & I want to make an observation about my writing process: when I'm stuck, i.e., I can't move my writing forward, there are two solutions 1. Unravel what I've written to the point that I get unstuck, i.e., find the place where I started down a cul de sac; 2. Resort to paper and pencil (always a mechanical pencil) to work out the problem, i.e., where to go from that point.