December 24, 2008

From the very day my daughter was born until she was about 13 or 14 when she asked me to stop, I read to my daughter for about an hour before she fell asleep. Although she did not grow up to be an avid reader as I was told and expected, I always felt the power of the word through her imagination and vocabulary.

During the holidays we switched our reading choices to holiday themed books. In December those books were concentrated on the holidays of Chanaka and Christmas. One of our favorite discoveries was L. Frank Baum's "The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus." "Claus" as he is known to the wood creatures was found in the woods and raised by Necile who needed someone to love. It is a charming story and I highly recommend getting copy and reading it regardless of your age.

Happy Holidays

Peace Always

Sharon

December 23, 2008

The Eve before Christmas Eve.............

For the past few nights I have been waking up mid sleep with a sentence or phrase that I thought would work better in the book "Adventures of Sophie". Two night ago I woke up and having found no writing utensil or paper besides my bed I went back to sleep sure I would remember what I had thought of and how i was worded. Last night the same thing happened only this time I used the land line to cal my cell phone and leave a message. Just listened to it a few hours ago-makes total sense and I will gladly use it to replace some of the story that seemed to not flow. This is the page where Sophie leaves her house and crosses her yard to go to the neighbor's yard to visit with the dog that lives there. What I recorded was " The journey was short though not without distractions.

Peace Always

Sharon

December 22, 2008

Photo of Sophie for back cover of book
By Sharon Lee

Finished the bulk of illustrations and writing of "Adventures Of Sophie". All that's left until I switch things over to the computer is to design a cover, spine, back cover and rewrite one of the pages. My goal has been to get all the hard copy stuff (illustrations and writing) done before I start school (re-entering college as an ancient student) mid-January. Next week I will take the illustrations which are black ink on vellum and have them scanned at the photo place in town.

I'm happy with the illustrations, fairly pleased with the writing and think it is a good solid book with potential for series. Used the characters from "Adventures of Sophie" in my Christmas cards this year created for friends and family. Good practice getting to know the lines of the characters as well I got to explore a bit with color of which at this point the book has none of. Will be taking the next few days off, tomorrow to clean an apartment (gotta make the fakin' bacon) and then Christmas and Christmas Eve for food prep., gift exchanging and general insanity.

Happy Chanaka
Peace Always

Sharon

December 21, 2008

Todd Rundgren at the Birchmere
Arlington, Virigina
Photo by Sharon Lee

Having been an active supporter of Todd Rundgren's music for the past 31 years, the impact his work has had as important to my life as any friend or family member. There is not a time in the past 31 years that Todd's music was not playing in the background like some kind of theme music for my life.I had assumed that his fans would share my feelings about his body of work. But of course this is by no means true. Whenever I go to a live show or read a review or internet post I am over and over again hit with this reality. Thing is whether or not I like each and every bit of song that Todd creates, I still respect and appreciate the man as an artist. Some things work and some things don't but I always feel that what is made is a genuine reflection of his creativity. Even an album like "Deface the Music" which was an obligatory album made with attitude has many things of merit.

It's common for artists to be strongly criticized but good to remember that sometimes things that don't work at first morph into something amazing.

Peace Always

Sharon

December 20, 2008

Adventures of Sophie
Play Date with Bella
page 7 & 8

In the wood milieu
Dwelled Sophie and Bella 'longside

In translation...

In the middle of a beautiful forest setting lived Sophie and Bella in homes that were situated next to each other.

While many men, women and children battled the crowds for some last minute shopping, I spent a good part of today working on "Adventures of Sophie". Finally finished the linquistic part which for me was the most difficult part. I created a book that has some depth in it so as it is read more things are realized both linquistically as well as visually making the read entertaining enough to last for multiple readings. When my daughter was young we read favorite books over and over. One such book was Peter Spier, "Grunt, Growl, Gobble", which sustained both our interests through perhaps 40 or so readings.

Peace Always

Sharon

December 19, 2008

Photo of construction worker, Cape May, New Jersey.
From the "Construction Series"
By Sharon Lee

Spent the day snowed in doing a combination of computer stuff, shoveling, wood managing, working on book, cooking and yoga.
Very tired...not much else to say.

The idle man does not know what it is to enjoy rest.--Albert Einstein

Peace Always

Sharon

December 18, 2008

Todd Rundgren
Rachel Haden and Kasim Sultan
Birchmere
Alexandria, Virigina
Photos by Sharon Lee

Yesterday my family and I took an overnight vacation and went to see Todd Rundgren a the Birchmere in Alexandria, Virginia. Living a rural area is much different in many ways than living in a city though my theory about living in different places is ultimately that you still get out of the same bed in the morning and eat the same breakfast no matter what your address is. Nonetheless we got a night in the suburbs (Alexandria, Virginia) and day in the city (Washington D.C.) and will spend the next many days back in rural PA.

Highlights of the trip

*Todd Rundgren (of course-fabulous as always with a great band: Jesse Gress (guitar), Kasim Sultan (guitar, keyboard and laptop), Prairie Prince (drums) and Rachel Hayden (bass)

*table in front of us at the Birchemere-at one end a guy playing wicked air drums and at the other end a beautiful lesbian couple comfortably sitting with the arms around each other.

*passing the George W. Bush Center for Intelligence driving into D.C.

*Sticky Fingers Bakery in D.C. all vegan!

*Pink house across the street.

*Ethiopian food somewhere in a great ethnic neighborhood on 14th (couldn't tell if it was N,S,E, or W) with no less than 25 television sets wall to wall around the perimeter of the top of the room.

*Finding my daughter's purse at the bottom of her suitcase (several hours after leaving D.C.)

Peace Always

Sharon