LUKE
What to share? Here are a few little known things about me, mostly as a kid.
I had a pet squirrel (ChiChi) who was hand raised and returned to the wild successfully. She returned to show me her baby one Thanksgiving. I’ve also rescued baby rabbits and fed a bat with a medicine dropper.
As a toddler, I repeatedly told my mother about a man who stood over my crib at night. He had a big hat with a feather.
I joined with other neighborhood kids to build forts out of metal siding. Our constructed town was called Springville. A spring trickled through the main street.
As a ROTC cadet in college, I threw up on my first and only trainer flight. I blame it on a breakfast of orange juice and candy bars.
Coming from a large family (7 kids), I always longed for a quiet place. Not surprisingly, I read a lot.
Why write for children? Because children can (and will) change the world.
“I don’t want to write for adults. I want to write for readers who can perform miracles. Only children perform miracles when they read.” Astrid Lindgren
Maggie & Millie
ELLIS NELSON BOOKS 
I love your remembrance as a toddler of that mysterious hatted man with a feather… Have you tried illustrating him?
LikeLike
No. There is an image of a Christmas with a ghostly figure with a big hat, standing behind us. My mother always believed it was the ghost of an early Dutch settler from pre-Colonial NY. The idea of Dutch ghosts did fuel a novel I wrote and am circulating that amongst agents.
LikeLiked by 2 people
In England they love the tradition of ghost story writing! Good luck with your novel!
LikeLike
Ellis, I can relate to your need for quiet..I am the youngest of nine children.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Ellis,
Thank you for the visit and the like. I really appreciate the work you do with “story.”
Very intrigued with the man with “the big hat.” …perhaps, a teaching, guiding presence…
Scott
LikeLiked by 1 person
Maybe so. I’m sure I have them.
LikeLike
What a fun page! I love this idea.
Thanks for the “like” at Writers Plain & Simple, by the way. 🙂
LikeLike
Thanks Ellis for your kind visit to my blog..I also am one of a large family and I am sure it enhances our artistic vision and in my case a love of chaos !! 😀
LikeLike
Thanks for visiting my editorial illustration page. Starting connections with authors like you is important.
LikeLike
Thanks for your visit to my blog. I too came from a big family (6 girls) and always escaped the hubbub in the world of books. I can’t say enough about how important it is for kids to have those alternative worlds to visit.
LikeLike
Children will change the world! I love that. That’s also why I teach writing to children—because their brains are so big and open (and so are their eyes and hearts).
LikeLike
Well said!
LikeLike
Thank you for liking my book Ellis! I’m the middle of 3 but I too am a squirrel and animal lover and tried to build a town out of snow every winter when I was a kid lol! If you do buy my book, I would love to hear what you think about it – cheers 🙂
LikeLike
Ellis, may I also spotlight you on my blog?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Would love it! Thanks.
LikeLike
Hello Ellis, I grew up listening and watching Pippi Longstocking written by Astrid Lindgren. She was a wonderful storyteller and had a great imagination but most of all made girls feel very strong and intelligent:) Your way of writing is very ‘musical’ you have a way with words. As a fellow author I love to read others books. Reading is something I do all the time.
LikeLike
I grew up with Pippi too! Thanks for the compliment on my writing.
LikeLike
Did you live in Sweden or the Scandinavian countries?
LikeLike
No, but the Pippi books are popular in the US, too.
LikeLike
Of course:) lol. I and my children grew up living the life of being powerful as a girl was normal and we could be whatever we wanted to be:) I guess it made me not reflect when I wanted to try new things like being and artist or actress or author….it was just something I wanted to try and did:) I sometimes feel I wish I had the 100% certainty that I had then….I miss that. Now I think more before doing..before I just did and maybe thought afterwards…haha
LikeLike
Guess I’m a bit opposite. I followed the conventional approach out of a working class family. Did what my parents wanted, got the scholarship, competed with men (science & military). Very unconventional at the time given the first women at West Point went in 1976. I had very early leanings toward art, writing, and spirituality but those could only be honored late in life. It also makes me reflect on what women today experience. My daughter’s generation has no idea what women of her grandmother’s generation went through in a culture that did not support opening opportunity for women. Meanwhile, my mother-in-law thinks “women’s lib” ruined her life by “making her a second class citizen.” So much for opportunity.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I competed while I was growing up with boys/men in sports and intellect. I grew up with a lot of cousins many of them boys. We dared each other to climb the highest trees and swing the highest and then jump off… sometimes it wasn’t the smartest thing to do.. I remember not having fun playing with some of the other girls because they didn’t want to compete…tennis, running, sailing, climbing, skiing and I always had a love for books. Being a natural I would never get lost in the woods. My grandfathers estate had acres and acres of old woods and we would go there everyday and play cowboys and indians, build tepees, gather berries and other fruits we could eat…this is the summers of course. If it had been winter we would be skiing or building snowmen or having snow fights….great memories
LikeLike
I had much the same experience. We lived outside as kids.
LikeLike
I know. That was how I grew up as well. Outside running around and getting into mischief…
LikeLiked by 1 person
This was amazing to read. Thank you for sharing these stories!
LikeLike
Thanks for stopping by!
LikeLike
First of all, thank you so much for liking my post. I too come from a large family of five girls and one boy. I was the youngest, and I’m sure my brother was relieved to be the oldest. : )
Creating my first children’s book has been great fun, indeed! The publishing process has been quite a challenge, but I am crossing my fingers that my first children’s book will entertain many young readers for years to come. Thanks again for stopping by my author page.
LikeLike
Good luck, Penny!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you so much, Ellis. : ) I really enjoyed your memories of childhood. Being a child of the 70’s was the very best! We could run around the neighborhood, and play outside ’til after dark. I never wore shoes, and loved every minute of it. You brought back so many memories for me. Thank you! And best of luck to you, too.
LikeLike