Happy August!

I love August because so many in our family are born in August, and are Leo the Lions, my husband Joe, daughter Lia, daughter-in-law Catherine, and Grandson, Gavin.
We are out in the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts for the summer, as my husband Joe, plays the Double Bass in the Boston Symphony Orchestra. I have several children’s books with musical themes, BERLIOZ about a bass playing bear, and GINGERBREAD CHRISTMAS, where inside you can see instruments of the Symphony Orchestra made of gingerbread, as well as the gingerbread baby himself.
Much has been written about art imitating life, and how the everyday world inspires the imaginary world or when the two merge. An interesting incident happened as I was hard at work on my new book THE SNOWY NAP that is a curious example. My studio is part of a sprawling log cabin set up on a cliff overlooking Goose Pond. I share my studio with Little Snow, who became our pet when I needed a model for the white rabbit in THE ANIMAL’S SANTA. He lives in a fairly large, open area in the cabin also made of logs, raised up on legs, and he is close enough that I can look over my shoulder at him. You may have seen him when I went on the three week book tour in 2014 on our bus, he came too. I was intensely working, listening to an audio book when out of the blue there came a hard rap, almost a bang. We live in the woods and thought a branch had come crashing down on the roof over my head. I took a quick look out the windows, fore and aft, but didn’t see anything, so I went back to work. Again I was startled by a resounding, sharp, very loud rap, only this time, I realized it came from Little Snow’s corral. I got up again and realized he had thumped the floor with his strong back foot. We’ve had little snow for four years and he does all sorts of antics, but he has never made this very loud bang. I knew that wild rabbits thump the ground when they see danger to warn other rabbits so I checked out the windows again. It was morning, and the woods and lake were sparkling in the dappled sunshine. Little Snow seemed a little frozen in place, but seeing nothing, I turned to go back to work, peeking out the hard to get to window beside his pen as I did so. There was a black bear’s face looking up at me!
The amazing thing for me was that Little Snow is a domesticated rabbit. I can’t imagine how many generations his ancestor bunnies have lived under human watch. Yet he recognized that the bear was not in his comfort zone. Then, not two days later, a friends brought their chocolate lab to visit. He ran into my art studio and looked right into Little Snow’s corral, it’s hinged door wide open. This time Little Snow ran to the other side but didn’t make his alarm thump.
As long as we have had Little Snow he’s never even seen a dog. I am left wondering about animal intelligence and instincts and I am waiting for the next alarm thump to help with my theory that our pets have complex behaviors that are sometimes hidden from us.
In THE SNOWY NAP, I overstate the interaction between Hedgie the hedgehog and the farm animals as my imagination takes my story into fiction. Hedgie takes a last ramble around the farm before the snow flies, and for him, hibernation. When the animals gently taunt him about what he will be missing, Hedgie tries to stay up to see winter. This doesn’t work out, and luckily, before he is frozen, he is rescued by a little girl who brings him inside for warmth and food. Outside, the animals can see his wonderful life inside as he views winter scenes from his cozy window. At the first opportunity the outside animals move inside!
I am working on the finishes of THE SNOWY NAP, and the beginning pages are sequential. I have a book dummy that maps out the exact 32 pages the book will be. My next spread will skip ahead to one of the snowy scenes, and then I’ll do the farm animals and wild animals in the house scene which is uproarious and funny. The publisher, Penguin Random House likes to have a partial dummy to promote the book early on, way before the book is due which is why I do it this way. I love this stage of the book when I feel I can enter the world I’ve created, it seems real.
I will probably get started writing the book that will follow. It is set in India, and has a tiger as the main character. The working title is THE RUNAWAY SLIPPERS. Four years as go I went to India and saw a wild tiger in a large game reserve from a jeep. It was very cat like and very large. You know when a tiger is on the move because the deer bark, and the monkey scream warning. Nothing can prepare you for the sound of that roar that makes hair stand up on the back of your neck, or the sight of the slinky, cryptic, majestic striped presence.
When I’m not looking forward to the next book, I am getting excited about my first early book signing on Cape Cod. I hope Cape Codders will stop by their famous historic bookstore, Eight Cousins, to let me sign them a copy of THE MERMAID. It will have been just published. My usual national book tour will start the day after Thanksgiving. All the details will be on my website. I am about to send copies of THE MERMAID to Bailey and Tony at the New England Aquarium. They introduced me to “Sy”, the Giant Pacific Octopus who features largely in THE MERMAID. Every year I make a picture of a momentous day in our year for my husband. This year I painted us at the aquarium, the day of our amazing visit. I made copies for Bailey and Tony, only I think their minds are totally emerged in the fascinating work they are doing with the aquatic creatures that make up their world at the New England Aquarium.
When I’m not painting I have been trail running on the stretch of the Appalachian Trail two miles from our cabin. The “thru” hikers, the intrepid people who have hiked from Georgia, are traveling North in large numbers this month. Upper Goose, the lake connected to us by a small channel has Appalachian club cabins for hikers to stay at if they choose. I really enjoy meeting the hikers who tell me their “trail names” which I then put up on my wall. The trip to Mt. Katadin in Maine from Georgia takes six months. It takes a lot of mental fortitude and physical endurance. They hike through weather extremes and with heavy packs. The tradition is that if you share the trail, or just want to show your admiration, you can offer trail magic. I tried to perfect my choc chip cookie recipe when my daughter was in Iraq as a US Marine and I was   told my recipe was good, so that’s what I bring on my runs to give as   trail magic. Here is my recipe, which is off the choc chip bag with a few modifications. I mostly concentrate on really good ingredients.
Sift 2 and 1/4 cups King Arthur flour
3/4 teas sea salt
1 teaspoon of baking powder
Combine after mixing the following:
1 and 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 cup Kate’s homemade butter, softened
3 of my chicken’s eggs( they are bantams), use 2 store eggs
1 teaspoon Baldwin’s vanilla extract or substitute high quality
1 bar of Ghiradelli’s white choc bar chopped up into small chunks
I LG packet of Ghiradelli’s semi sweet choc morsels.
I cook at 375 degrees for 8 minutes, but adjust to your own oven
So far, the thru hikers I’ve met are:

Honcho, Shop Teacher, Chugging Along, All Aboard, Speedy, Night Hawk, Slim Jim, Bear Pop, Capt Bob, Hiking Home, Young Gandolf, Blue Bird, Dr. GO- MO, Ogi, Two Step, Pio, Stack, and Warden.

I hope hikers stop at Goose Pond’s AT Cabins, I’ve only seen the cabins from the lake, but Upper Goose is a beautiful clear lake with great swimming.
Tonight I will go hear Joe play at a Symphony concert and let the music take me away to more interior worlds. Maybe we’ll see meteors over Tanglewood since we are near the Perseid meteor shower time, when the earth is going through the tail of 109P/ Swift-Tuttle Comet
Good luck with all your creative projects, and Happy Birthday Leo the Lions!
Your friend, Jan Brett