Cathy C. Hall Writes

Can you believe my backyard hawk let me get this close? I’ve seen him high in the sky, circling above the pines in the late afternoons, the screee-screee of his cry echoing around me.

But yesterday, he swooped down into my yard and I grabbed my camera and headed outside. Whoosh! He soared across the grass and landed on my fence. And there he perched, in his all his glory while I clicked away. I turned to find a spot on better footing. When I looked back to the fence, my hawk was gone. I hadn’t heard so much as a flutter.

What a majestic creature! Inside again, I remembered Sigrid Undset’s powerful Christmas message and wanted to share it with you.

“And when we give each other Christmas presents in His name, let us remember that he has given us the sun and the moon and the stars, the earth with all its forests and mountains and oceans–and all that lives and moves upon them. He has given us all green things and everything that blossoms and bears fruit–and all that we quarrel about and all that we have misused–and to save us from our own foolishness, from all our sins He came down to earth and gave us Himself.”

You know why having two blogs is nice? I get to spread good news twice! (And make a little poem about it, too!)

Last year, I read about a call-out for puppet plays. Not just any puppet plays–these had to be plays tied into books or words or other concepts that librarians could use. And the plays had to be written for a young audience–4 to 7 years, I think. So I figured I’d give it a try.

And I really liked writing that puppet play. Mostly because I love dialogue. In a perfect writing world, I’d write all the dialogue and get someone else to write all the descriptions and transitions and settings. Kind of like…well, plays. But something tells me that writing plays longer than 3 pages might be more difficult than it looks.

Anyway, I was thrilled when my play, “Oh, Deer! Oh, Dear!” was selected for Puppet Plays for Librarians. It’s a funny, little mix-up play with a Princess, Santa, a deer and a fly, introducing little kidlets to the concept of homonyms. I’ve read quite a few of the other plays and all I can say is that if I were a kid, I’d love storytime at the library!

You can get more information about Puppet Plays for Librarians here. Now if only I had a few more blogs…