Why I Write about the Past

JANICE:  My passion is to make the past come alive for young readers. I am not interested in writing about the present except in my journal. I don't understand the present - indeed, I often feel like an alien because I spend so much time researching and writing about the past. As David McCullough said after completing his biography of John Quincy Adams, "I've been living in the 18th century for a long time and I'm not coming back."

It all started when I read Richard Halliburton's Book of Marvels as a child. He traveled around the world alone and wrote about his adventures. One place he described fascinated me more than all the others, the ancient city of Angkor deep in the jungle of Cambodia. A magical place of sculpted temples built by god-kings to insure their immortality, now being devoured by the eternal jungle - a place I yearned to see with my own eyes.

South Gate to Angkor Thom

When, years later, Tom and I visited the ruins of Angkor, I found myself visually reconstructing the crumbling walls, adding color to the bas reliefs, and peopling the streets. I wanted the place to come alive again. Who, I wondered,  carved this surreal gateway into the city of Angkor Thom? The sculptors' names are lost, and all we have left is the name of the god-king, Jayavarman VII, whose image gazes out in the four directions. Thus he became immortal, but I wanted to know the sculptors who made it possible. The first sparks of an idea kindled in my mind, the story of Surya, a lame boy of noble birth, and his quest to become a sculptor despite his father's fierce opposition. For quite some time now I have been living in 13th century Cambodia, and I'm not coming back until Gift of the Gods is revised and finds a home.

Tom was inspired to paint a wraparound cover scene showing Surya on the Avenue of the South. Notice his lion crutches which he carved from koki wood. He longs to be a sculptor's apprentice and carve stone which will last forever, but his father, King Jayavarman's librarian, forbids it. "No son of mine will dirty his hands with stone dust." What can Surya do?

"Our World" and Others

JANICE:  For Christmas Tom gave me his painting called, "Our World." In amazing detail it shows our living and dining room with many paintings and drawings by Tom, our sons Karl and Daniel, Tom's mother, a needlepoint tapestry by me of our sons' childhood drawings, and family photographs on our dining table shrine. This is our magical tree house.

You will find this same meticulous detail in Tom's illustrations such as this one from I, Vivaldi, showing young Antonio and his papa entering the Basilica San Marco in Venice, their world. Can you find them? Hint: They both have red hair.

Also this illustration from A Peddler's Dream that shows young Solomon Joseph Azar, a peddler from Lebanon, arriving in Austin, Texas, where he will make his dream of having a store of his own come true and make Congress Avenue his world.

Quiet, Still Words on a Page

JANICE:  When I read a book, I want quiet, still words on a page that stir something in my brain, not on my screen. I want quiet, still illustrations that I can study and hear myself think. What does this mean? That I want e-books and apps to disappear? Not at all. I just don't want real books to disappear. To each his own.
Here is a favorite page from our book, A Mare for Young Wolf.

Look carefully at the illustration. The sun is rising from behind the hills. It is Spring, and Young Wolf sits in a field of bluebonnets. He is alert as he looks at the mare, Red Wind. Something is passing between them. None of the other horses are paying him any mind, only Red Wind.
Now read the words. Red Wind speaks to Young Wolf. What do you think "Nnnnn-hhhhh" means? Make the sound out loud.
"Her spirit entered his heart." What does that mean to you? Listen to yourself think.
If you want to read the whole book, go to the library and look for this cover:

Write Yourself into Existence

JANICE:  On September 18 Tom and I celebrated our anniversary and launched Honeymoon Hobos at Book People. It was a heartwarming success.

Since the book is a travel memoir, I talked about the importance of telling your story. For those of you who missed the launch, here is what I said:
Raise your hand if you have ever thought about writing a memoir. (Quite a few hands went up.) Have you put words on paper? (Some hands stayed up.) If not, I encourage you to do so. You are never too young or old to write your memoir. Writing teacher William Zinsser suggests writing one little memory a day. At the end of a year you have a lot of pieces of your life to put together. Look for a theme, something you can hang your memories on.

Dave Eggers, whose first book was a memoir and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, encourages everyone to tell their story. His ancestor, who the family calls Great-Grandaddy Hawkins, led a caravan of covered wagons from the plains to California and wrote about his journey. He had 300 copies printed and bound into a real book. And because he did, his descendants know more about him than just a name and dates. They know his thoughts and feelings. He wrote - himself - into - existence. I love that phrase, but I didn't make it up. Dave Eggers passed it on to me and I pass it on to you. Write yourself into existence. My daddy, Gilbert Jordan, wrote himself into existence in a book titled Yesterday in the Texas Hill Country. It did not win the Pulitzer Prize but is still in print.






















I have written many characters into existence and wanted to do the same for Tom and me. Fortunately the letters and articles we wrote while traveling were saved which helped me get in touch with the moment. Tom did all the illustrations at the time. Some were done for publication in the Asahi Shimbun, Tokyo's major newspaper, some were done for the Texas Architect and later published in the AIA Journal. But all were done to draw our experiences into existence.

Breakfast in Chotokuin Temple, Kyoto

Wading Across a River in Cambodia

TOM:  One incentive for doing these drawings was that the editor of the Asahi Shimbun offered $20 for each article Janice wrote and $5 more if I illustrated it.
JANICE:  Some incentive!
TOM:  But that paid for a whole month's rent.
JANICE:  Yes. Tom also painted during our travels. Here is one called "Jaipur." To see others go to to his website: shefelmanpaintings.com

As for the title, we were dubbed honeymoon hobos by a reporter friend at the Asahi Shimbun, a young man named Dub Swim from Oklahoma, who wrote for the English edition of the newspaper. Little did we imagine then that he had give us the title of a book.
I'd like to read the brief preface to you. But first, please notice the silver stamp on the case - the letters T and J entwined.
                                                       ***
(Here I asked Tom if he wanted to sit down while I read.)
TOM: (spontaneously) No, I want to stay entwined. (This remark brought the house down.)
                                                        ***
JANICE (after the reading):  Now close your eyes if you like, and let's imagine that we have boarded the Tsuneshima Maru, the anchor has been hoisted, and we are headed out to sea for a 3 1/2 minute sound voyage across the Pacific. (We played "Music from the Age of Discovery," track 18, which combines an instrumental version of the Italian song, "I Have Seen the World Map," with the sound of waves and the booming and creaking of a ship.)
And here we are in Japan!
                                                        ***
Even though we sold many books there are some left at Book People, Austin, even a few signed copies. They are also available through our website: shefelmanbooks.com

Our First Book for Grownups

JANICE:  Tom and I are launching our travel memoir this month. Here is a little something about it:
Honeymoon Hobos: A Journey Around a World that Once Was
Yearning to see the world, Tom and I sold our possessions, got married, and set out on a journey we could not afford but had to take. In October of 1954 we boarded a Japanese freighter out of Long Beach, bound for Yokohama, planning to take a year to circle the globe. Our meagre baggage included Tom's sketching and painting supplies and books for the voyage. Our goal was to live inside other cultures.

The world was a different place in 1954. Except for an emergency, the only way to keep in touch with family and friends was by writing letters which could take a week or more for delivery. Those letters and articles written for newspapers and magazines were saved which helped me get in touch with the moment. Tom did all the illustrations at the time. Here he is sketching the Meows of northern Thailand. They did not want their picture taken with a camera, but were fascinated by Tom's drawings of them — so fascinated that I managed to snap one photo.

And here is one of his sketches.

Don't Let Yourself Get Bored

JANICE:  When I visit schools, I tell students that there are too many exciting things to do and see in this world to ever get bored. And they are not on a screen, except for e-books. Try some of them:
Watch the sun set and make a painting. Here is one that Tom made of a sunset in the Puget Sound for our picture book-in-progress, Whale Ferry Tale.

Learn to play a musical instrument like young Antonio in our picture book biography, I, Vivaldi.

Talk to horses like Young Wolf in this illustration from A Mare for Young Wolf.

Read a book like Son of Spirit Horse, the story of two boys who both want to win the horse race at the tribal fair. Neither Young Wolf, on the left, nor Little Big Mouth, on the right, can imagine what he will win and lose. Can you?

Come up with your own ideas and post them here.
Just remember that bored is a five letter word! Don't make it part of your vocabulary.

An Illustration from Rough Sketch to Final Painting

TOM:  Our picture book, A Peddler's Dream, is the story of Solomon Joseph Azar who comes to Texas from Lebanon in the early 1900s to seek his fortune. He starts out as a peddler, traveling the country roads with items that farm families need, such as calico, ribbon, thread, lace, suspenders, and spices. But Solomon's dream is to have a store of his own in Austin.

In order to draw I need visual references like these two, one of Congress Avenue in 1910, the other of a farm wagon out of a 1908 Sears Roebuck catalog.

Before beginning a full size sketch, I make a storyboard of thumbnail sketches of every scene in the book. This helps me see how illustrations flow from page to page.





Below is my first full size sketch of Solomon riding into Austin with a farmer who has befriended him.

The next step is to tape this sketch to the glass top of my light table and lay another sheet of paper over it. Then I can make changes in the lines I can see through the paper, like this one.

Here you can see that I changed the perspective angle and brought the farm wagon more into the picture.
Now a third drawing.

I have added more detail in this one. Since I like it, I go over the lines in ink. Then I lay a sheet of watercolor paper over this drawing. Even though it is thick the ink lines show through. I trace those lines in pencil, get out my watercolors and paint.