One day in 2010 I was invited by my friend JoAnn Fannon to attend a talk by Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s Way, a must-read for anyone on the artistic path. That would be the beginning of my journey writing for children. I was lucky enough to meet Randi Mrvos who published her own online magazine called Kids Imagination Train. Randi published a number of poems and short articles I wrote while KIT was up and running. She has been a tremendous support to me as I write and submit my work. We also co-authored an article for Children’s Book Insider, an online website for adult writers of children’s literature. I wrote a separate article on the power of dreams and the imagination. I include some of my poems and articles published by KIT under my heading Poems and Articles on the main menu.
And then there’s the famed writers’ slump when no ideas seem to come and one faces the dreaded blank page. What to do? For me the answer was to try my hand at drawing, even though growing up and being in a class of 50 kids in elementary school, I never had a nurturing art teacher or one that told me I had any kind of talent. Leonard Bernstein said, “The best way to ‘know’ a thing is in the context of another discipline.” A dear friend Sara Golfinopoulos told me about a book by Danny Gregory called How to Draw Without Talent and so began a small foray into drawing. I bought some watercolors and acrylics and set off on that mini journey. Every so often I heard some compliments from my husband at the end of the day and I was uplifted. Could I really draw something?
But back to the writing journey. One of the most important virtues to have as a writer today is that of persistence. There are many rejections to face when submitting one’s work. However, if you believe in the message that you want to bring to your readers you can stay the course and hopefully one day find a publisher for your work.
My Home Town of Croton-on-Hudson
The village of Croton-on-Hudson has been home to many artists, authors, and singers. Some of the most famous personages who lived in Croton for both long and short periods of time are: poet Edna St. Vincent Millay, playwright Lorraine Hansberry, opera star Jessye Norman, journalist and writer John Reed, actress Gloria Swanson, T.V. producer Allen Funt and sculptor Alexander Calder. Proximity to New York City may have played a role in attracting people to this area, along with its inspiring location on the Hudson River.
A Bit of History
The origin of the word Croton is uncertain but most authorities believe it is a derivation of “Kloten” or “Knoten”, the name of the Kitchawanc Indian Chief. In 1609 when Henry Hudson sailed up the famed river named for him, he passed an Indian village located at Croton Point. The Dutch traders were the first white men with whom the Indians had contact. Later Stephanus Van Cortlandt, son of a wealthy Dutch merchant and the first native born Mayor of New York, bought land to create a manor in 1677. This became known as Van Cortlandt Manor, a rich treasure trove of the history of those early years. During the American Revolution the Van Cortlandts were strong supporters of the American cause. The manor mills worked around the clock to provide flour and other essentials for the Continental army. Today Van Cortlandt Manor comes alive in September with the Great Pumpkin Blaze where hundreds of carved and lit up pumpkins attract visitors from all over the New York area with exhibits both small and large including dragons, a merry-go-round, the Statue of Liberty and more, all made of pumpkins.
Just a stone’s throw north of the village’s limits is the New Croton Dam (also called Aqueduct). Happy to escape the potato famines of 1825 and 1830, many Irishmen came to work on the Dam. The first Dam was almost finished in 1841 when an 18-inch snow storm hit the Croton Valley, followed by three days of incessant rain. The masonry and earth collapsed taking with it everything in its path. It was not until years later in 1907 when the New Croton Dam was finished. It is reported that most of the Italian laborers who came to build the Dam never returned to their homeland. It is considered to be the second largest hand-hewn masonry structure in the world and some have compared it to the pyramids of Egypt. Part of the Croton watershed supplies 333,000,000 gallons of water a day to Manhattan and the Bronx.
