Everyone who has children should experience the joys of sharing journals and writing daily observations with children. There is not a whole lot of joy in it in real time. Actually, it is more like pulling teeth. Occasionally, I think that I have not spent enough time encouraging my children to write. I made   valiant efforts to insist that they write down their impressions of places we traveled while on vacations. Beau generally complied, while Brian drew on everything from napkins to the backs of old letters and  lined legal pads. The joy came to me when I discovered my stash and sat for hours reading their recollections. The postcards from summer camp were the best. I've never scrapebooked although I've kept a scrapebook. now, I've found myself looking through just the right photograph to illustrate their youthful writings.

Now, that they are both in college, I've been amazed at how some of the observations have impressed them. They often remark about certain exhibits in museums or certain small towns in North Carolina where we explored ancient courthouses. That's how I got the idea three years ago that it would be nice for them to write a book together. It had to be about their travels in North Carolina while they were running around helping me with research.

They wrote and submitted and honed and complained and six or eight months ago their efforts finally manifested itself into a book, "Discover North Carolina from Murphy to Manteo. Out of the tedium they found their best efforts in writing were edited down to fit a certain page size and the photographs that they thought were the best illustrations might not be the one the page designer could fit into the space. However, finally things are moving along and probably the greatest lesson my sons have learned about writing is the one about process.

Writing is creative. When the mental juices are flowing, it is down right thrilling. Writers can get caught up in their own words. Sometimes, they actually think that they are clever because of the words they can artfully put together. Ah, that's the way it seems until the editor of a children's picture book comes along. The art and the words have to fit.

Beau and Brian found that enough words were cut that they could write another book. So, this spring we'll see the fruit of labors that started years ago, rather than months ago.

Books come in the time of the publisher, not the time of the writer!