President's Day Rain

It's cold and rainy again here in SoCal. Yuck! This is getting old. It's been raining on and off for about two weeks now. I usually welcome rainy days and don't mind them. Allows me to get some reading/writing done, chores around the house, catching up on DVR stuff. But now that I have an almost 2 year-old daughter, it's much harder to keep her entertained when it's wet outside. Not that I'm complaining. I finally get to spend time/play with her, since she's at playcare all week long while mommy and daddy go to school (we both work at schools).

Speaking of -- my daughter does love to read or try to read. She even licks her finger before she flips pages.  Her favorites right now are No, David! (she loves the naked picture of David running down the street) by David Shannon and The Hello, Good-bye Window by Chris Raschka and Norton Juster, who I've had the pleasure of meeting. 

Another good thing about all this rain is that it's made me reflect on using "weather reports" in my own writing. Sid Fleischman, who I've raved about here before, is a genius at this. A good example is By the Great Horn Spoon, about two stowaways, a boy and his butler from Boston, bound for California via ship around Cape Horn. Throughout this novel, Fleischman consistently uses weather as a supporting character in his prose while constantly giving the reader detailed descriptions in so few words. Clearly a master at work. 

That's the key, isn't it? Give a weather report, let your reader feel part of the scene, part of the region, while using as few words as possible.  That way you don't veer off track and lose pacing.

Hope the sun is shining where you are. Or maybe not. Depending on what you want to accomplish today. If it's writing, start your scene with a weather report. And remember, shorter is sweeter.