audience

A cool spring day, where I thought I would have no more planting to do -- until I saw that the nocturnal beast had once again dug up newly planted lilies and lavender. What's with this animal? He digs, carries it to the driveway, dumps, and digs out another. I may have to stage a night watch to catch him red handed. 

Well, maybe it's easier just to keep putting the plants in. So I plant. At some point he'll get tired of this game. Wont he? Wont he??

Morning walk.

(our oldest hen)

Breakfast.

And soon after -- a long conversation with my Polish friends. Their reaction to my book (Like a Swallow, which is officially released next week, though it can be pre-ordered either at the Little Creek Press or at any of the Amazon, Barnes & Noble and usual book-selling venues) is predictably different than that of friends on this side of the ocean. Here, people are curious, with little idea as to the story that fills the pages. There -- well, they may be curious, but also a touch defiant. Perhaps apprehensive? How exactly did I present this time that we all lived through in Poland? Where were my allegiances?

I can only answer that I did not push a point of view in the book. I offer a life story and I leave it to you to understand the reasons behind choices made and steps taken. The hope is that the reader, the non-Polish reader will gain insight into what was at stake for those of us who grew up in Poland in the post war years. People's ideas are too often shaped by brief media reports and rumors about Poland under so called communism.

So was this written for an American audience? Initially, I did approach the project with that audience in mind. In fact, I start the book in a place familiar to an American reader -- New York. And I write about what's it like to be Polish in the America of the 1960s. And then slowly I take you back to Poland.

But since my 100th rewrite, I've shifted my thoughts on this: I want this book to say something as well to those who were with me in Poland then. Fact is, I looked at Polish life differently through my Americanized eyes. Sometimes being just a bit on the outside (Americanized and non Catholic) helps you frame questions in new ways. So maybe I suggest some additional layers of understanding to this shared time that we had in Poland.

Did I succeed with both audiences? I don't know. You tell me!

And in the afternoon, after school...

... Snowdrop decides to write a book -- her own take on the writer Josh Funk's method of debunking classic fairy tales. (Hers is called -- No, this is NOT Mary Had a Little Lamb. It's funny!)

She has chastised me several times for not telling her about my book. I explain that she wasn't even born when I started writing it and then she was so young! She retorts -- well you could have told me when I was seven!

She finishes writing and illustrating her story and it is late and I take her home.

 

 

And yes, I do think and worry about the drama unfolding in Texas. We all should think and worry about this. Every day.

With so much love...