My very first inspiration for writing was a homemade felt ornament. When I was about 4 years old my mother decided it would be fun for me and my two sisters to make felt Christmas ornaments. My sisters were older than me by seven and twelve years, so they were about 11 and 16 at the time.
Not my actual kitchen or mother but resembles my childhood kitchen. My mother also never dressed like this š and our kitchen was never this clean!
We sat down at our Formica kitchen table (it was the 1960ās) and got to work. I donāt remember a lot about the day except that my sister Jeanne; the 16-year-old; made a yellow felt angel with black stripes on her wings, blue eyes, red lips, and white fringe hair, and lots of glitter! I thought she was beautiful, but they laughed at her and said they wanted to throw her away because she was so awful. I got upset and said I wanted to keep her. For some reason I loved her, maybe because no one else did.
I kept her for years, always placing her in a spot of honor on the tree. Every year my sisters wanted me to get rid of her, but I stubbornly refused. My mother said, āIf he wants to keep her let him keep her.ā I loved that my mother stood up for me and the ābee angelā as she was known.
My writing inspiration
In my twenties I moved out and took the bee angel with me. (Truthfully, I was afraid if I left her someone would throw her away!)
I always wanted to write a story about her. I started and stopped many incarnations of bee angel stories through the years but was never really happy with any of them.
Finally after I retired from teaching and began writing I started my Magical Recipes books and developed serious writerās block with the story.
I decided to give the Bee Angel another shot to give my brain a rest from the Magical Recipes books.
What are some ideas you have for writing a children’s book? As you can see mine changed over time and may still become a book like the one I originally wanted. Books are very fluid and change substantially as you go.
Enjoy the process and let me know what inspires you.
Coming Soon!
A pattern and directions to make your own bee angel with your kids.
