Grocery lists and Picturebooks

Grocery lists and Picturebooks just seem to go together. I know they go together for me.

"She could illustrate a grocery list"... is a phrase often said about uber-talented artists.
"He couldn't write a grocery list"... is a phrase one hears to describe truly awful writing.

No doubt I've started a dozen stories by scribbling them down on grocery lists... since that's the paper in the kitchen drawer at 4 am when I have to wake up and write down some blasted idea that won't let me alone! The muse of insomnia!

So let's check today's shopping list... if I can find it for all the pockets I have to search though. (It's a special talent of mine that I can actually lose a grocery list between the parking lot and the door of the grocery store).

milk,
eggs,
butter,
green onions,
yogurt.... and the starting first sentence to that next book idea.

And usually after I've dummied up a book, the printouts get recycled and cut up into grocery lists... that once again return to the kitchen drawer. Hence the 'grocery list' cycle is complete.




I've long thought that I need a 1-800 number to call whenever I get some fool notion about a new story. It would be sort of a help line to talk me out of commiting to this ponderous new idea.

Why? you might ask? Because I know that I'll have to spend the next 7 weeks dummying it up in my spare time. Just the writing it is fine... but when you're an artist also, drawing the pictures can turn writing a story into something that's a bit more of a long lasting commitment.

Pictured in this weeks post are an actual grocery list story idea from my pile of golden ideas. Also there's one of my ideas for a painting that I made up as a collage in photoshop. Haven't got to that one yet... but there's something there... something mysterious... hmmm....