You may know Nancy White Carlstrom because of her Jesse Bear books, but did you know she lived in Alaska for almost 20 years?
Please note: I received a copy of this book from the publisher to review, but the opinions, as always, are my own.
Welcome Nancy!
Me: I can’t imagine anyone isn’t familiar with your work, but can you tell us a little bit about your writing journey? When did you start writing? How did that lead to where you are now as an author of this book?
Nancy: I started writing in second grade and wrote all through elementary and high school and college, too. For four years I taught first and second grades, and in 1973, I sent in my first manuscript. Also, I worked in the children’s department of our public library in Washington, PA from 8th grade through high school. You can read more about this on my website.
In 1976, my husband Dave and I moved from Boston to Seattle, Washington, and five months later, I opened The Secret Garden Children’s Bookshop. I loved selling children’s books but also wanted to get back to writing. In 1981, I took a writing workshop with Jane Yolen and after that, I knew I would persevere no matter how many rejection letters I received. There have been 125 -plus rejections over the years for many manuscripts.
In 1982, our first son Jesse was born, and when he was six months old, I started a book, Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear?, for him. It was accepted on his second birthday, and I was thrilled to hear that Bruce Degen would be the illustrator as Jesse’s favorite book at the time was JAMBERRY. The book was published when Jesse was 3 ½ and his baby brother Josh was five months. Nine months later, we moved to Fairbanks, Alaska.
When we left Seattle on January 15, 1987, I had seven picture book manuscripts under contract, but it was in Alaska that my writing career really took off.
Me: I love how each page of this book is a poem by itself and yet each one adds to the whole: counting winter. What gave you the idea?
Nancy: I wrote Counting Winter many years ago, and it grew out of experience, which is the way most of my books and poems have started. I found a long-hand copy with lots of scribbled changes on it, but the various versions mainly sat in my file drawer for over twenty years. It all began with one lone fox walking across the snow in Alaska merging with a memory of one lone fox running across the fields of my brother’s farm in Pennsylvania – a swift swish of red in a background of new green.
Me: You have published over 60 children’s books at this point in your career. What does your writing process look like? Any specific routines?
Nancy: I never had a regular routine for writing but fit it in whenever I could. I have written in the shower, while waiting, waiting, waiting in restaurants, on airplanes, at the beach, in city parks by sandboxes and swings.
I have written a picture book when I did not want to move, when I thought a friend was dying, when my father pretended not to cry when he said goodbye to his grandson. Writing for me was, and continues to be, therapy, relaxation, family fun, work, pain relief, and spiritual exercise. For me, writing is a way of life.
In Alaska I first wrote up in the loft of our log house and then later, in a little cabin on our property. You can see these places on my website. Now I write at a very cluttered desk in the upstairs of our apartment on Queen Anne Hill in Seattle. For over a year, my husband has had severe medical issues and has almost died four or five times. So right now, writing is a wonderful distraction from the very unpredictable roller coaster of our present-day family life.
Me: I’m so sorry to hear about your husband. I completely understand about writing being a distraction. That’s a wonderful way of putting it. You have written so many books. What is one thing that still managed to surprise you in writing this story?
Nancy: I think every book in its final form is usually much more than my original vision and it’s true for Counting Winter. Because my words were written so long ago, and I had not been submitting manuscripts for the past ten years, I don’t have as much of a history of the process. However, looking through my files, I found at one time I was thinking of this as a single poem for a quartet – each a different season. I even had the titles – Counting Winter, Singing Spring, Growing Summer, Winging Fall.
Getting the finished book in the mail is still a thrill, and I have been so pleased with Claudia’s illustrations and the whole direction of the book. It is much bigger than I first envisioned and I would add, much better.
Writing the Author’s Note at one of the most difficult times in my husband’s medical journey last fall was actually a wonderful gift as distraction, but also as reminder of the part he played in my career and the kinds of things we were able to do because of him—such as flying in a small plane, which he learned to pilot the first summer we lived in Fairbanks.
Me: I love that you wrote about Alaska (given that I live here). I didn’t know that you lived here for 19 years! If you had to pick just one memory, one story that perfectly captures your experience in Alaska, what would it be?
Nancy: It is difficult picking just one memory, but early on in our Alaskan time, I saw the Northern Lights swirling over my head in neon green and that was a truly mystical experience for me. Then shortly after that, our son Jesse, (4 ½) said, “Goodnight, Mommy Moon!” and I said, “Goodnight Jesse Star,” and in the morning I started writing Northern Lullaby. It seemed as if I had dreamed it in the night. I remember scribbling madly as I waited for Jesse in the parking lot of his preschool.
In moving from the city to the countryside of Fairbanks, I felt a new closeness to nature—the river we lived by, the mountains in the distance, and the trees all around, and the amazing aurora borealis. The nature around us had become like family.
“Goodnight Papa Star. Goodnight Mama Moon, Bending your silver arms down through the darkness.”
Me: I love that. The illustrations by Claudia McGehee are stunning. I don’t know that I would’ve picked scratchboard and watercolor after reading only the text of your story, but after seeing the illustrations, I can’t image this book any other way! Were there any illustration surprises for you? Any favorites?
Nancy: Yes, stunning is a good word for Claudia’s illustrations, and they certainly take my text to a whole different level. I really like the Owls and Woodpeckers because I can visualize very specific woods where I encountered those birds in the first winter of our Alaskan sojourn. And I love that she uses scratchboard, which is so different from my other book illustrations.
Me: Any advice for other aspiring picture book writers?
Nancy: My advice for an aspiring writer of any genre is the old, tried and true of “Read, read, read and write, write, write.” Persevere if you want to be a published author but be true to who you are.
No matter how bad things get in the world or in my life, I do believe in joy and hope because I believe there’s someone greater than myself in charge. It is my own religious faith that affects both the way I live and the way I write.
My own writing now continues to be the way I celebrate and the way I grieve. I am very grateful to be able to write out of my own experience and that of my family’s and sometimes to strike a universal chord, which allows a poem or a book or a Caring Bridge post or a devotional to have a life of its own. It does not always happen, but when it does, it’s wonderfully satisfying and a shared joy.
Oh my goodness. Yes! I love that as well. I hope this interview brings you joy as well. Thank you for stopping by my blog today Nancy.
Dear readers, this book released this week. It’s not often that you get to see scratchboard art in a picture book, but as I said before, I can’t imagine this book done any other way, after having read it. The pairing of words and images weaves together so strongly here that I felt right at home in this book’s pages. This is the world I live in and I’m so glad it is being shared like this with you.