Rasco From RIF

LGM, Ugly Orange Couch, Plans A, B, and C

March 2nd, 2010

   She gasped, because Miss Loupe had jumped on the Ugly, Ugly Couch.  She was perched on its flat, squat back, one leg hanging over each side.  And then she started rowing.  And singing.

   “When my great-granny was ninety-one,” she belted out, pulling with all her might against imaginary oars, “she did PT just for fun!”

So started our recent RIF staff visit with Sara Lewis Holmes reading from her book, OPERATION YES. 

We asked how the book was “born” in her head….and we learned Sara wanted to write something about contemporary military families, both for young people in those families but also for those of us who haven’t been in a military family nor had the opportunity to really know a military family.  And the two things she knew for sure she would include:  (1) the ugly orange couch that came with her husband as they married and his bachelor roommates divided up the lovely orange living room furniture set and (2) improv theatre from Sara’s collegiate days where theatre was part of her major, the other part being government. 

Great dialogue followed including cover art, the role of the editor and the actual editing process, Sara’s own life as part of a military family once she married, choosing a book title — thank you, Sara, for sharing so freely with us!

 There were LGM (Little Green Men) cupcakes for all;  RIF was proud to present to Fisher House a contribution in Sara’s honor raised through our own sale of LGM (Read the book, friends, and you’ll learn the significance of LGM’s and the help they brought to wounded warriors.).

Happy Reading!

Carol 

P. S.  Wondering why that top photo has such a “unique” frame?  That is called leaving Rasco to her own devices and the system for cropping photos seemed to have changed since she last did it…just call it artistic or an accident of art, maybe?

Filed under: Author/illustrator visits, Children's Books, RIF Staff Events

Tags: Fisher House, LGM, OPERATION YES, Sara Lewis Holmes