Helen Frost

What's New?

Crossing Stones
Crock Pot Apple Butter
Barra
Gift Egg
Diamond Willow
Lavender cookies
more monarchs

August 13, 2010

Okay, so titles can be hard, and this one has been the hardest yet, but I can now say FOR SURE that my next book will be called Hidden. Once I found this title, which took a lot of searching and listening to others' ideas, I saw how it works on so many levels. It will be a spring 2011 title on Frances Foster's list (FSG/MacMillan). I can't wait to see what the cover will be.

Monarchs are emerging from chrysalises every day. That first flight is always so beautiful.

Pears are ripening. Lots of them.

--new section-

July 23, 2010

(Celebrating 27 years of a joyful marriage to Chad.)

The past two weeks, I've participated in two camps for Miami children:

--an overnight camp at the Indiana Dunes, and

--a day camp on the IPFW campus (here in Fort Wayne, Indiana). The children were learning the myaamia language and culture from enthusiastic and knowledgeable teachers.

You can see photos of the day camp here.

Neewe (thank you) to everyone involved.

And this week, I'm enjoying the monarchs as they rest on the flowers and milkweed I've planted for them. At the moment, I'm caring for 4 monarch eggs, two small caterpillars, and seven chrysalises. In about a week, the monarchs will emerge.

June 2, 2010

My book has changed shape several times, and is now finished, except for final polishing. The title: You Know What Happened. It will come out next spring, in time for summer reading (part of it is set in a summer camp).

I'm taking a few deep breaths before embarking on the journey to discover my next book.

Off for a family reunion on the Oregon coast tomorrow!

March 2, 2010

Yesterday a Carolina Wren and an Eastern Bluebird visited our backyard, and today a small white bird I don't recognize. It was turning its head almost like an owl would, but it's way too small to be an owl.

Other visitors are: cardinals, grackles, blue jays, finches, woodpeckers, nuthatches, sparrows, and then the chipmunks and squirrels scampering everywhere. A squirrel must have run off with one of the feeders--a metal stick that goes through a cylinder of suet and seeds, and hooks onto the feeder. I can't find it anywhere.

February 8, 2010

Friday afternoon, I received a wonderful phone call letting me know that Crossing Stones is an honor book for the 2010 Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award.

Congratulations to Alice Schertle, who won the award, and Betsy Franco and Mary Ann Hoberman, whose books are also honored. Such wonderful company!

Sylvia Vardell writes about it on her blog: Poetry for Children.

Huge thanks to:

* Lee Bennett Hopkins

* this year's committee

* the Pennsylvania Center for the Book.

Krumkake

Here's a Christmas recipe I make almost every December. It comes to me from my father's mother, and probably came with her and her family from Norway in the mid-1800's. I have an electric Krumkake iron, which makes two cookies at a time, in about 40 seconds (once the iron is hot).

1 cup sugar

1 cup butter

2 eggs, well-beaten

1 cup milk

2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp vanilla

Cream sugar and shortening.

Add eggs.

Add flour/baking powder and milk a little at a time, alternating wet and dry ingredients.

Put about a tablespoon of batter in the center of the iron and bake until golden brown (less than a minute for each pair).

Roll quickly over a dowel or wooden cone-shape.

December 20, 2009

It's been awhile since I entered anything here, and it's interesting now to read that last October entry. As it turned out, the two girls have come home to live with me for awhile longer. That is, the book I thought was nearly finished still has a long way to go. I'm rewriting it, working more slowly this time, so that the reader will come to love my characters as much as I do. No one ever said writing was easy!

October 8, 2009

I've been working hard to finish a book, and now that it's almost finished, I'm finding it hard to let go of the story and characters. There will be lots more interaction with these two girls as the book goes through the editing process, and the process of book design--but for a few more days here, the story is "mine" in a way it won't be once I send it off to my editor next week.

It's wonderful, though, to see Crossing Stones coming through the doorway, entering the world on the other side of that process--a full-fledged book now, finding its readers, its place in our conversation, our community of readers and writers.

September 4, 2009

We had a wonderful conference in Fort Wayne last weekend about "Community-Based Language Revival." So many of the languages that were once spoken on the land we now call America are no longer spoken by very many people. The speakers at the conference acknowledged the deep sadness of this, while challenging the notion that the death of such languages is inevitable.

We had speakers from Canada, Ohio, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Indiana.

A few notes:

Daryl Baldwin told us about the Myaamia Project at Miami University, and about "family immersion" as a way of bringing back a language that has been called extinct. He and his family speak Miami in their home, and his children have grown up knowing how to converse in Miami.

"Language" is not a noun in all languages.

"I want to demonstrate a strength of purpose when I use this language I was given."

Donald Perrot, one of 6 fluent speakers of Potawatomi, out of 34,000 tribal members--he spoke the language exclusively until he was 6 years old; he's 70 now.

Other speakers: Chad Thompson, Gretta Yoder Owen, Scott Shoemaker, and Paul Stone. (I wish I'd taken more and better notes, as I don't want to mis-quote anyone, so I'm not being specific about what each speaker said. (I also spoke about the use of English and Dinak'i in Telida, Alaska, 1981-1884.)

July 28, 2009

I was asked to write a short piece of advice for someone who is writing, or wants to try writing, a verse-novel. I thought I'd share my response here:

I usually call my books novels-in-poems rather than verse-novels.

It's important to learn the craft of poetry, and become adept at using all the tools in the poetry toolbox.

I love the music of language, the intricacies of the way sound patterns and patterns of meaning intersect and weave together, the way language brings it's own history into a story so that the story becomes multi-layered--the story of the narrative and the story of how the narrative takes shape within language.

It's not easy, but if it's done well, the effort can--in the most glorious moments of writing and reading--become unfelt and invisible. That happens when you go so deeply into the story-poem that language is doing all the heavy lifting. Language can do that for you because it has evolved through eons of specificity. Our job is to trust it.

May 12, 2009

A swan has made a nest between a restaurant and a pond in Fort Wayne, and doesn't seem to mind if I go close enough to take pictures. She's beautiful, and I'm not alone in eagerly anticipating her babies--any day now!

February 21, 2008

Something that made me really happy this month:

the announcement of the 2009 Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award for Diamond Willow. There were so many great books of poetry for children published in 2008; the knowledge that this particular committee read all of them and selected my book fills me with gratitude. And I always find that deep gratitude is a firm standing place from which to launch new work. So, thank you, to:

* Lee Bennett Hopkins

* this year's committee

* the Pennsylvania Center for the Book.

Congratulations to Margarita Engle and Patricia McKissack whose books are also honored.

January 18, 2009

We're having an unusually cold winter in northeast Indiana this year. Just before Christmas, we had an ice-storm that left about 80,000 homes without power for 4 or 5 days, and now we're having sub-zero temperatures, so everyone is scrambling to keep pipes from freezing, or to thaw them out once they have frozen.

It makes me remember my years in Alaska, when this kind of weather was the norm for five or six months each winter. In Fairbanks, the schools had indoor recess if the temperature was colder than 20 below zero, but when it was warmer than that, everyone just bundled up in snow-suits and Sorel boots and fur hats and went outside to play.

In Telida, the small community where I lived and taught school for three years, we didn't worry about freezing pipes because we didn't have running water in our homes. We didn't have electricity, so power outages were not a problem. But we did have to be sure to keep a good woodpile, a mix of spruce to get a fire going, and birch to keep it burning hot. When the temperature was 40-60 below, I'd get up several times each night to stoke the fire, and still my water bucket would be frozen in the morning.

I'm a little nostalgic for the coziness of those winter nights, the northern lights sweeping the sky, moose tracks in the deep snow, and everyone helping each other get through the winter.

November 25, 2008

I'm remembering my mother, Jean Timmons Frost, who lived from March 30, 1917 to November 16, 2008. She raised ten children and had 24 grandchildren and 18 great-grandchildren, most of whom gathered in Los Alamos, New Mexico last weekend to honor and appreciate her.

Think of the time-span of her life. She recalled the first time she saw an airplane--at a demonstration by the Wright brothers in Minneapolis when she was a child. She was born before women could vote, and lived through WWI, the depression, and most of WWII before she began the 40 years of her life that would be primarily, but never exclusively, devoted to her children.

She and my father had a loving, fun, supportive marriage, and I feel exceptionally lucky to be a part of the family they brought into the world.

October 29, 2008

And now I can show you the final jacket art for Crossing Stones. Isn't it beautiful? The story takes place in 1917, in rural Michigan. The book will be out next fall, Frances Foster Books, FSG.

October 3, 2008

My next book, Crossing Stones, is beginning to seem real. The initial sketch of a possible jacket design gives a sense of the time (1917) and the form (water flowing over stones).

September 28, 2008

Crock Pot Apple Butter

“Marlene’s recipe” from Diane Schmucker

Core and slice apples.

Heap in crock pot.

Add:

2-2 1/2 cups sugar

2 Tbsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp cloves

Put lid on crock pot.

Cook on low for 12 hours.

Take lid off crock pot.

Cook on high for 2 hours.

Remove from crock pot and put in blender.

Store in freezer.

September 17, 2008

Where did summer go?

The bluejay family entertained us for weeks, and is not so much in evidence now.

Our pear tree had it's most prolific year yet.

Crossing Stones has been copyedited, and I've seen the sketches for the cover design, by Richard Tuschman--just beautiful! It makes the book seem so real. It will be out in about a year.

And this weekend is the Johnny Appleseed Festival here in Fort Wayne, one of my favorite weekends of the year--old-time music, food cooked over wood fires, great craft booths, fresh apple cider, warm caramel corn, and a crowd that always seems both large and intimate.

June 22, 2008

We were in Scotland for two weeks, mostly on the Isle of Barra. I was able to renew old friendships and share the places I love with Chad, as well as discovering new places and meeting new people. Especially delightful were the young people we met in Castlebay School.

I noticed much more Gaelic being spoken than I remember from my last visit, four years ago. I didn't learn much myself, but I think if I spent a year or so there, I could learn it.

Since we've been home, we've been picking cherries from our two trees. The birds got more than we did--it was fun to see the birds, and this evening I saw a family of fledgling blue jays on the branches of one of the trees (now empty of cherries). I wonder where the nest is.

May 18, 2008

Sometimes I see ducks wandering around the streets in our neighborhood, but I've never seen one in our yard. We aren't close enough to water, and there aren't any of the hidden places that ducks like. The other day, I found an egg nestled into the mulch around the lamppost in our front yard. I think it's a gift left by a duck who knows it can't nest here, but would if it could.

March 28, 2008

I'm enjoying the response to both my new books.

Crocuses are appearing, woodpeckers are back, robins are everywhere, goldfinches are turning gold again--I'm pretty sure all this is a good indication that spring is close!

I heard Marianne Boruch read from her new book, Grace, Fallen From, on Monday evening--a beautiful reading, and, as always with Marianne's work, a gorgeous book inside and out. If you're looking for a way to celebrate National Poetry Month this April, this book would be a great place to start.

November 29, 2007

Each year at this time, the sandhill cranes gather at Jasper Pulaski Wildlife Reserve, about 2 1/2 hours from Fort Wayne, and we meet friends there to watch the birds. Last Saturday, at dusk, we watched about 14,000 sandhill cranes fly in and land in the field. Some of them circled very close to us on their way in--the sound they make is beautiful, haunting. One of our friends saw a whooping crane. As we were leaving, a full orange moon rose over the horizon.

November 20, 2007

I've been in New York and Philadelphia for ten days. A few highlights:

The Leo House, on 23rd Street in NYC--a quiet place to stay, with a great breakfast buffet every morning. Started over 100 years ago as a safe, welcoming place for German immigrants, and still offering that welcome to travelers.

Poets House workshop at Mulberry Street library with a great group of teens who wrote and shared some really good poems.

Learning my way around the trains and busses in NYC, and getting a sense of what's "walking distance" there.

One last visit to FSG at their iconic adddress of 19 Union Square West, before their move to 18th street. Lunch with my wonderful editor/publisher, Frances Foster.

A first visit to Simon and Schuster to meet the people behind Monarch and Milkweed.

NCTE / ALAN -- four days of meeting old friends and making new friends.

Poetry teaching panel with Ingrid Wendt and Terry Hermsen.

Poetry Blast with 12 children's poets

Notable books roundtable

ALAN panel about novels-in-poems with Allan Wolf, moderated by Lynne Alvine.

So many great books for young people, and so many intelligent people reading them, somehow keeping up with it all.

And now, I'm home for Thanksgiving.

October 17, 2007

I had a great time in Michigan last weekend at a booksigning sponsored by a delightful bookstore, Book Beat, in Oak Park, Michigan.

I read with Kathe Koja and Sarah Miller, an interesting combination because our three books all feature strong young women.

Kathe pointed out that "Sarah's book, Miss Spitfire, has a character named Helen (Helen Keller--the book is told in the voice of Annie Sullivan), and Helen's book, The Braid, has a character named Sarah."

Kathe's book, Kissing the Bee, has an excepeionally well-drawn portrayal of a healthy mother-daughter relationship. Teen readers will find that supportive and interesting, and will be immediately caught up in the just-complicated-enough love relationship at the story's center.

I also met Kathe's husband, Rick Lieder. I've admired his book jacket designs for years, and have recently discovered his amazing photographs.

September 23, 2007

I've tagged 50 monarchs, which are now on their way to Mexico. Eight more are still in their chrysalis form. No more caterpillars. The milkweed is beginning to burst open and send its seeds flying.

September 1, 2007

I've been busy with butterflies!

This summer I've found over 200 monarch eggs, too many for the small tent I've been using the past few summers.

I set up a larger tent in our backyard, and put the caterpillars there, fed them milkweed, and watched them grow and make their chrysalises, then become butterflies. About 50 have flown so far; I'm now tagging them and hoping they will make it to Mexico. There are about 50 left in various stages. No more eggs on the milkweed. The asters are in full bloom, which is a sign that the monarchs are heading south.

July 31, 2007

I've just received the cover design for my next novel, Diamond Willow, set in interior Alaska. This always makes a book seem more real. I love a cover that leads me deeper into my own book, as this one does. The artwork is by Max Grafe.

July 4, 2007

Uriah Schmucker

Our friends, Mervin and Keturah Schmucker, are facing huge expenses for their baby, Uriah, who was hospitalized with spinal meningitis for several weeks last winter. Uriah has a beautiful smile and is making good progress, with much love and support from friends and family. I would like to extend that sense of community to my own circle of friends, family, and readers.

If you are in a position to help this lovely family, you may make checks out to:

Mervin Schmucker Fund

and send them to:

Grabill Bank

c/o Mervin Schmucker Fund

P.O. Box 99

Grabill, IN 46741

Thank you, from me, and from the Schmucker family.

Here's a great summer recipe:

Lavender Cookies

from Colleen Benninghoff

1/2 cup butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/2 tsp. vanilla

4 tsp. lavender (flowers, dried or fresh picked)

1 1/2 cups flour

2 tsp. baking powder

Cream butter and sugar 'til light and fluffy.

Add eggs, vanilla and lavender and bear well.

Add dry ingredients and mix well.

Drop by teaspoons on a greased cookie sheet.

Bake 12-15 minutes at 375.

May 5, 2007

I put some Angelique Tulip bulbs in the ground last fall, with a spoonful of cayenne pepper to keep the squirrels from digging them up, and it seems to have worked. They're beautiful!

TLA (Texas Library Association meeting) in San Antonio was great. I met several people whose blogs I've read--always so interesting to see the physical smiles and gestures of a person you've met only in words--and was on a panel on "YA Voices" with Sharon Draper, Paul Volponi and John Green, moderated by Tina Sanders (YALSA). The poets, a panel moderated by Sylvia Vardell, were next door at the same time; I wish I could have been in both rooms at once!

I'm missing Janet McDonald. We became friends during the past year, and her passing leaves a big empty place. Her voice was so deeply textured, her Condi Rice impersonations hilarious.

Here's what she wrote when I asked her to tell me something beautiful about Paris:

"when warm weather opens my windows on the courtyard whispers of conversation float in, faint enough for words to sound like a hum but clear enough to let me know someone is there if i need them."

March 28, 2007

I've just returned from Los Alamos, New Mexico, where my family gathered to celebrate my mother's 90th birthday. My father would have been 100 on April 26 this year.

February 15, 2007

Fort Wayne is buried in snow this week, quiet and beautiful.

The children of the neighborhood spent most of yesterday making a ferocious-looking fort, with sharp spikes of hard snow sticking out all over it, and a hole in the side so they can roll their ammo into it. Very impressive.

In book news:

Diamond Willow has been copy-edited and is on its way in the journey from manuscript to book. Max Grafe has agreed to do the jacket art.

January 8, 2007

I received the illustrations for Monarch and Milkweed, and they are beautiful! I'm very excited about the book.

I always do a lot of baking around the holidays. I love knowing that I am making the same cookies and breads as my ancestors in Scotland, Denmark, and Norway, and that others in my family are making the same things in other places around the world.

Here is one of my favorite recipes:

Cranberry Bread

Sift together and set aside:

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp. soda

1 cup sugar

To the juice and grated rind of one orange, add:

2 Tablespoons butter or margarine and

enough boiling water to make 3/4 cup

Add this to one well-beaten egg

Add dry ingredients and mix well

Add 1 cup chopped walnuts

Add 1 cup cranberries, cut in half

Mix well

Pour into greased loaf pan(s) (1 large, 2 small, or 4 mini)

Bake at 325 degrees F. about 1 1/2 hours for large, 1 hour for small, 45 minutes for mini

Test -- cake tester should come out clean

Best if stored 24 hours before serving

Will keep weeks in refrigerator, months in freezer

November 29, 2006

I travelled to Austin, Texas and delivered the quilt I've been working on, a wedding quilt for Lloyd and Penny based on an old family quilt pattern.

There are still monarchs in Austin, but we didn't see the one we mailed there last month--here's hoping it's made it to Mexico, or is well on its way by now.

In other news:

Diamond Willow, set in Alaska, scheduled for publication in 2008, is now finished, and in the hands of the talented FSG copyeditors and book designers.

Monarch and Milkweed, Atheneum, also scheduled for publication in 2008, is with Leonid Gore, who is doing beautiful illustrations.

October 16-19, 2006

The last 2 monarchs were still in their chrysalises when the temperature dropped below 55 degrees farenheit, the lowest temperature at which they can fly. I knew they wouldn't make it to Mexico if I released them here (Fort Wayne, Indiana), so I decided to try mailing one to my son Lloyd in Austin, Texas, where it is much warmer. I put it in a glasine envelope (the kind they put stamps in at the post office), put a sprig of a nectaring flower within reach of its proboscis, then put the envelope in a padded box, and didn't tape over all the edges, hoping some air would get in.

I mailed it on Saturday morning, and this afternoon (Monday) it arrived in Austin, alive! As soon as Lloyd opened the envelope, it flew straight out and up into a tree.

He called me and told me to turn on my iChat, and we opened a video chat, with him pointing the camera at the monarch in the tree. I could see it spreading its wings in preparation for it's long flight (but not as long as it would have been without the lift from the USPS)! I put a MonarchWatch tag on it before mailing it, so if someone finds it in Mexico, we will know it made it!

Here's Lloyd's response when asked to describe the butterfly's arrival:

I'm afraid there isn't much to account, as it unfolded rather quickly (making a narrative of it somewhat lacking in important details). While I'm certainly not above making up details, the account is still too recent to warrant such embellishment. I will, however, give an outline.

+ When the package arrived, Cameron asked me not to tell Jordan, as he feared the butterfly would be dead, and this would upset his sister. The reality is that it would have probably upset him more, but three cheers for a kind older brother anyways. Hurrah! x3.

+ Helen's packing job was up to her usual standards.

+ The monarch, upon release, was quite feisty. It couldn't fly too well and kept sort of sputtering around and landing. I was about to ask the kids to distract the cat (her name is No. 6 and she likes feisty things that sputter around), when the monarch flew out the window on to a tree outside the front window.

+ The monarch slowly opened and closed its wings for several minutes on that tree. This is where the picture was taken.

+ The monarch flew to a higher tree, slightly south of the first tree, and then eventually to a higher tree, and then eventually it disappeared over the house and disappeared - flying south. Viva la Mexico! Viva Zapata! It promised to bring me back some stuff from the pharmacia. Nothing hard core - just some antibiotics as at least one person in my house has been sick for the past month.

Helen has pledged to send a new monarch, arriving on Thursday. I'll try and draw that one out a little more so I can give you an account full of flowery language, philosophical reflections and a grand conclusion that makes us reflect on our own humanity.

Maybe Helen can write a poem.

-lloyd

October 20--the second butterfly also made the journey and is now on its way to Mexico from Austin. So far, no philosophy from Lloyd nor poetry from me, but great rejoicing all around!

September 2, 2006

Too long since I've added anything--so what IS new? I have my author copies of The Braid, and I've given a copy to my mother. The official release date is October 13.

There were lots of monarchs this year; I'm waiting for the last 6 chrysalises to make their transformation into butterflies.

And the winner is...

June 17, 2006

The Atlanta Film Festival's Southeastern Media Award, an award that gives $100,000 of in-kind services to the winning screenplay has been awarded to Steve Coulter and Dee Wagner for : KEESHA'S HOUSE!

The Monarchs are back!

June 15, 2006

I've seen several monarchs and put protective sleeves around two caterpillars and two eggs.

The returning monarchs look a little travel-worn as they look for milkweed and nectaring plants. I'm glad I've planted those things in my garden to welcome the monarchs back!

Keesha's House Screenplay

The screenplay for Keesha's House (see original entry below) is one of five finalists in the Atlanta Film Festival's Southeastern Media Award. The award gives $100,000 of in-kind services to the winning script. The winner will be announced on June 17th, the last day of the festival. Good luck, Steve and Dee!

Robins Update

May 26, 2006

The robins hatched and grew and flew.

When the first one flew, I was in the back yard, about 20 feet away lifting my camera to point it at the nest. Within about 3 seconds, the baby launched itself from the nest and the mother robin launched itself straight at me. I ran screaming in the opposite direction, and the robin chased me all the way around my house until I ran inside and closed the door behind me. When I looked out into the back yard, the mother robin, a cardinal, and a sparrow, were all positioned in the branches of a maple tree above the fledgling: they were either cheering it on or protecting it from me. I saw the second baby make its first flight a few hours later. The next morning, the last baby was still in the nest, along with the fourth egg, which had never hatched. This last baby fledged later that morning.

Robin's Nest

April 26, 2006

Today would have been my father's 99th birthday.

A robin is nesting outside our back door. We have watched her make the nest and lay four eggs.

Keesha's House Movie

Steve Coulter and Dee Wagner have bought the movie rights to Keesha's House, and have written a beautiful screenplay.

I met Steve and Dee through their movie, The Etiquette Man, when I read an article about the movie and recognized the pseudonym that my friend Ruth Langhinrichs used when she wrote an advice column for teens in the 50's. Steve and Dee found a copy of Ruth's book, Boy Dates Girl, in a used bookstore and used it in the creation of their delightful short film. The Cinema Center, in Fort Wayne, Indiana, brought Steve and Dee to Fort Wayne to help celebrate Ruth's 80th birthday. That was where this all began!

Stay tuned for further details as work on the movie goes forward.

Monarch Butterflies

Sometime in June, the first Monarch butterfly shows up in my backyard, drawn to the milkweed I have planted. I watch for the butterflies to lay their eggs on the milkweed leaves, and when I find a butterfly egg, I protect it and observe it as it hatches into a tiny caterpillar, grows and transforms into a chrysalis, and emerges into a butterfly.

I tag the butterflies for Monarch Watch and release them. They leave Indiana and migrate to Mexico.