Miki's essay on imagination

I thought you might enjoy reading this essay by a friend of mine in Florida about her imagination. I used to live across the street from Miki and her mother, Betsy Williams and was a good friend of Miki's grandmother, Mary. Miki is in high school and doing very well. I was thrilled to read this wonderful piece about how her mind works. It is reprinted with permission. Go, girl! You may be an author someday.

Imagination

I've always been told to not act my shoe size. My shoe size is eight, sometimes eight and a half. As an eight year old, I believed in fairies, Santa, goblins, and dragons. I still do.

Having a child’s imagination always seems to get me through the day. I'll be sitting in class watching everyone bored out of their minds, yet I'll have images of flying chipmunks and multi-colored skies. There are never dull moments in my head. Even when math class has everybody down I am an aquatic bird soaring through the deep sea and with my night vision I see a medley of colors. Those creepy squids and eels try to eat me but in my mind I am safer than if I was in the a dark alley.

I tell my friends stories of animals with sixteen heads. They don't believe me. They have all grown out of their childhood beliefs, all of their creative juices gone, but not me. I have the mental maturity of a fifteen year old and the imagination of an eight year old. At least that’s what my friends say. I however think that I am just right. It’s the rest of my peers that are wrong. They just want to seem older by ditching their childhood too soon. Which is not only completely immature if you think about it but just plain dumb. I plan to skip every dull moment by delving deep into my subconscious for a wild fantasy adventure.

The thought of other children like me not believing in snowmen that come to life or enchanted glades filled with elves makes me sad. I think to myself, where has all the fun and excitement in your life gone? I think about magical tree houses that lead to magical lands in the clouds where only me and my imaginary friends can go before I sleep each night, my friends think about sex. I dream about partying with aliens in space, my friends dream about partying with alcohol.

There is no doubt in my mind that if I were not to think and live with these beautiful thoughts that I would be a very boring teenager who idols Brittany Spears instead of Sponge Bob Square Pants, of whom I plan on marrying one day.

Miki M.

Book signings

Hope to see you at upcoming book signings--this Saturday, Dec. 1, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at The Griffin, 106 Hanover St., in Fredericksburg. Eileen has wonderful coffees and teas and delicious baked goods, which are a nice treat during the holiday shopping season.

Then, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 8, I will be at Hunter's Landing store on Rt. 719 (off of Rt. 522). It's a great shop, with lots of Lake Anna brand gifts and a good restaurant attached. If the weather is nice, you could come by boat.

On Saturday, Dec. 15, from 11 a.m. to 2, I will be at Marshall Farms Corner in Unionville (Rt. 522 and 20). More great gifts and food. Love those lemon cookies.

Books are available on Amazon.com bn.com, and at a lot of stores in Virginia, including Dickinson's, Elk Creek Store, Sweet Creations, Touch of Fusion, The Fabric Hut, Christopher Run, Tavern on the Rail, Gordonsville Pharmacy and the Wild Bird Center in Charlottesville. And you can get the books at the Book Exchange, and the Pear Tree in Spotsylvania County, and at my favorite children's bookstore, Jabberwocky, and the Griffin in Fredericksburg.

E-mail me if you need directions. baileyfish@gmail.com

Squirrels and birds

Bailey called this weekend to tell me what a wonderful Thanksgiving she had at Sugar's house. All the Keswicks and their guests were invited, and even the Rudd family. It was very crowded in Sugar's dining room, but because the weather was warm, the kids ate dessert outside. She said her favorite pie was pumpkin with squirts of whipped cream. She wanted more turkey leftovers for sandwiches, but Sugar bagged up a lot of pieces for company to take home. Bailey was especially happy because her mom called from Costa Rica. They had a long chat.

Bailey also said that she was watching squirrels making a nest in one of Sugar's tall hickory trees. They selected small branches with brown leaves on other trees, then jumped to their home tree and scurried up to make the big nest. Bailey hopes she will be able to see their babies.

She also told me that the mystery of the bearded birdhouse has been solved. Sugar has bluebird houses in her yard. They are wooden with a large hole in the front and a door that can be opened so that Sugar can clean out old nests. A few weeks ago the strands of nest started hanging down from the hole, making the birdhouse look like it had a long pointed beard. Yesterday, Sugar saw a male bluebird pulling out pieces of the old nest. Bailey put extra meal worms in the bluebird feeder because he was working so hard.

I told Bailey that with all the warm weather we have a problem in our garden. We planted wildflower seeds after the first frost, but now they are sprouting. So, we don't know if we will have flowers at Christmas instead of in the spring.

Glorious day

Who would have guessed that the weather would be this warm (68 degrees) two days before Thanksgiving. The ladybugs are back and the cats are enjoying the sun on the front porch. See you at Jabberwocky, 810 Caroline St., Fredericksburg, on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. And I'll be at the Griffin bookstore on Hanover Street December 1, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

I've been trying to correct my last posting. Mary's organization is Volunteers without Boundaries. Unfortunately, the edit feature isn't working at the moment.

Salt Cay Library

Thanks to the generosity of my friend, Mary Lightfine, the library on Salt Cay, population 66, now has a set of my Bailey Fish Adventures. I met Mary at the Florida Publishers Association President's Book Awards luncheon this fall. She is a nurse who has done much humanitarian work around the world, often in very dangerous situations. She is also involved with VolunteersWithoutBoundaries.com, an organization that helps people and animals. Mary took more than one hundred pounds of books to the Salt Cay library last week. The picture is of Sheila, the librarian opening the package and looking at the Bailey Fish books. I hope the residents of Salt Cay enjoy the series and that Mary and her friends continue to be successful.

Arlington Library

I'm looking forward to seeing many of you Saturday at 2 p.m. (Nov. 17) at the Arlington Public Library on N. Quincy. I will bring the mysterious green suitcase with me, filled with treasures from various books.

Tomorrow I will be reading to students at Tyler Elementary School in Gainesville where one of my grandchildren is enjoying kindergarten. She is a quality student and starting to read.

The trees are finally filled with beautiful color and today is rather warm, compared with this past weekend. (Brrr.) With the warm weather comes a zillion brown ladybugs trying to get in our house to stay warm. There are so many flying around outside my window they look like snow.

Reading quizzes available

For all of you who want need reading information--readability index, word count and quizzes-- please e-mail me at baileyfish@gmail.com or tabbyhouse.com and we'll send them to your school. The quizzes are available for all five books in the series. I recognize that having this information available is very important for some schools. The quizzes are publisher-generated. If enough schools request that the books be included in the national Accelerated Reader program, they might be included.

As a lifelong reader, I hope that reading books is not just based on points and rewards, but for the love of reading.

My great-nephew, Jimmy Slatter, has told me about some of his favorite books. He really likes the Magic Tree House series and I can see why. The kids in the story have great adventures when they read books!

The Moonbeam Children's Book awards today in Chicago. I'm sorry I can't be there, but I have two book signings this weekend. Maybe next year!