Authors Should Always Stay Clear of the Top of the Volcano, and Other Tips from Famous Author Blondie

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Two years ago, I introduced you to my daughter Blondie. At the time I was befuddled by her refusal to explore her imagination with words or pictures. These days? Well, let’s talk to her and find out what she thinks of writing. In honor of her 7th birthday, I give you: Blondie.

We start talking about her poetry and proceed to her story, but then the boys cause a ruckus in the yard and I have to pause.

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Biff decides to add his own two scents…from the toilet.

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Then Bash just had to get involved, too.

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Am I keen to push Blondie to do more and more with her writing? Two years have shown me Blondie adventures creatively on her own terms. It’s so easy for a parent to hoist those passions onto the kid and expect the little one to love it just as much. A child’s got to find her own way through her own imagination, as well as her own way to express it. Maybe she’ll complete her 12-volume set of mysteries, or maybe she’ll start writing about tornadoes.

The joy buzzing through me when she’s eager to create makes any wait totally worth it.

51 thoughts on “Authors Should Always Stay Clear of the Top of the Volcano, and Other Tips from Famous Author Blondie”

  4. The mind of a child is a remarkable thing. Firstly, I agree with young Zoolon’s point, namely that the secret of an artists success can be assured by avoiding lava flows. The logic is perfection itself. It is your daughters metaphor for saying ‘keep safe for starters’. Secondly, there are her intelligent scribblings in notebooks that one day when she’s grown up will come out of hiding and embarrass her, whereas to you they will always be worth more than any other treasures past, present or future. A lovely, gentle, satisfying post.

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      • YES! Brilliant! I need to get her on that!
        Though I will say that one of our birthday presents to her was a book journal.While she’s an amazing reader, her teacher did note Blondie tends to treat reading like a race, which means nothing ever has time to sink in. The book journal’s been helping her to slow down and pause to write her favorite pieces of a story, which, by the way, are currently about a classroom hamster.
        Not exactly what I would call fantasy, but it’s fiction she reads under the covers with the flashlight, and that kind’s always the best. 🙂 xxxxx

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      • And today, poor Spoty the Dog is all but forgotten. Now she’s determined to create her own series of nonfiction books. She’s currently torn between writing about tornadoes or mummies. I have to admit, that’s a tough choice….

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  6. Awww, thanks for sharing! (She got that amazing handwriting from you, right? 😉 What a joy to see the completely uninhibited imagination of children!

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  7. Thanks for sharing! Love the uninhibited imagination of children! You know, we are camping by a volcano this fall…maybe you all should come along to make sure we remember her good advice? 🙂

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    • Oh my g.o.s.h., are you serious?! Okay, chronicle that, then when we get over to you…seriously, I’m hoping we can swing that in 2-3 years…we do that camping again. With or without lava, I won’t be picky. 😛

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      • Excellent! HOPEFULLY there will not be lava, though when we visited a few years ago they said the lava dome inside the crater was starting to build up again…bum bum BUUUUUUUM! And we’re staying in a yurt, so I guess there are beds, which is a plus. We’ll scout it out so we have it all figured when that happens 🙂 !

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  8. Thank you Jean. Not sure which I liked the best, the story about Spoty, the creative spelling or the illustrations. Either way, the girl’s heart is open to possibility. Only God knows what is in store for her. Blessings, Julie

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  9. You had me at your title!
    And how FUN to hear ***your*** voice and the adorable Blondie’s!!!!!
    I’m so glad you thought to include the interviews!

    I love the tone of this post, your sense of humor, and your dreams for your Blondie. You’re an awesome, awesome mother (and friend!) and I have a feeling that someday she’s going to be an incredibly gifted writer like her mom.
    XoXo you!
    SpyDy
    p.s. a while back you wrote something nice to me on Freakbook and this is a belated thank-you! Maybe it was Happy Mother’s Day? Clearly my memory is going….

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    • Oh hey, no worries about memory, SpyDy. I’m just glad I can FINALLY get your comments back on my site! But thank you 🙂 Her voice always sounds so much smaller when I hear it recorded, or on the phone. And I never know what she’s going to say. Clearly, she got her mind fixated on the volcanoes that day…it’s curious to see where her creativity will take her. On the one hand I would LOVE for her to continue exploring creatively, but she’s even more fascinated by science. She was so, SO thrilled to get a chemistry set for Christmas! While I’m not that into science, I can still see that science still engages her more than imagination. But you know? That’s totally okay, too. Like right now, she’s creating a research book about ancient Egypt and tornadoes. Yup, that combo.
      And that’s okay, too. xxxxxxxxxxxxx

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  12. Not one of my kids likes writing so I totally get the need to not “foist” but isn’t that how dynasties are created, handing down knowledge and passion from generation to generation? Ah well. I guess we’re stuck being normal.😘

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  13. This is such a lovely post, probably my favourite for a long while. I don’t do much commenting but thought I should say how beautiful this is.

    She’s a little star.

    My son, due to being severely dyslexic avoided reading and writing like the plague until we got him a computer. Having that made correcting his spelling much easier. He’d tap away and create little masterpieces to go with his wonderful drawings, creating comics and mini graphic novels. I miss those days, he’s now 19 and at University just across the Irish sea, in Wales.

    Thank you for sharing.

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    • Thank you so much for sharing!

      Oh how cool! I loved making up stories when I was a kid, too. I wasn’t very good at drawing, but it was always a treat to write on the computer instead of by hand.

      Honestly, I wasn’t sure if this post was going to work. She didn’t have much to say about her poetry, and I was worried that would continue on the other two “books,” but thankfully she perked right up for those. Her mommy never knows what to say about poetry, either. 😉

      When did you find out about your son’s dyslexia? I’ve wondered if Bash has issues with that. I try not to think too much on it because Biff is a HUGE reader, and super-advanced for his age. It’s not fair to compare the two. Yet Bash is often jumbling numbers and letters when he looks at things, and often goes from right to left. I guess pre-school will be the teller of these things…

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      • We knew something wasn’t right from about the age of 4 but they don’t test for it in schools until the child is 7 in Ireland, which I believe is normal.

        Being paranoid parents with only the one pampered son to fret about, we got overly worried about him falling behind so we went private and got him tested when he was 5.

        He couldn’t settle in class, he’d be anywhere but working at his desk. He’d be under it, on it, in the bathroom, sharpening his pencil, disturbing others, anything but tackle his work. He just couldn’t do it and he’d get really frustrated, aggressive and constantly getting into trouble.

        Thankfully, we were lucky enough to find a local woman that took him privately for a few days a week for many years and this helped him significantly.

        He did really well in all his exams and is studying Aerospace Engineering at the moment, though he’s finding it increasing difficult as he never got to study chemistry or physics at school, they just weren’t subjects available at the time… he’s playing catch up with those subjects and is worried he might not pass this year. If he doesn’t, he’ll have to change subjects.

        Good luck with all your little ones and I hope to see more from the Famous Author, ‘Blondie’.

        Adele

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      • Ah, that’s what I wonder about my sons. I’m hoping that the next school year will enlighten all of us as to what the little guys need, and how we can get it for them.
        Thank you so much for sharing this, and Godspeed to your son as he continues on his academic journey! xxxxx

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  14. This is priceless in so many ways – thanks for sharing Blondie’s matter-of-fact imaginative writings, illustrations, and pondering with us!

    Blondie’s cinquain about storms reminded me of early childhood days when me and my sister would run around the house with a dejected piece of upholstery fabric that we gleefully jumped under very time we heard a crack of thunder! Thanks for the memories.

    Brothers! down through the ages it’s always about the boogers and the pooping with them, isn’t it?

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    • Thank you so much for listening and reading! It’s always fun seeing how little ones interpret the world around them. Blondie’s usually my most practical, scientific child, so to see her having fun with words–and hot dog burgers–is really gratifying.
      Yeah, the boys are pretty fixated on boogers and poop. The boys love joking about what happens with poop, calling each other poop head, etc. Ah, the poop….

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  15. Priceless moments … great post… I will try to find a brief story in the shape of comic I once wrote when I was a kid… I think I have to it somewhere in my room … (I´ll forward it to you, if I do: it was quite good, BTW) Love & best wishes to you. 😉

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