Just before the beginning of this new year, I had the opportunity to visit the Library of Congress's Children's Department. I got to see a rare edition of what is considered the first ever children's picture book, Orbis Sensualium Pictus or 'Visible World in Pictures'. This particular copy was published in 1664, as you can see if you look closely at the bottom of the right hand page. Visible world in pictures. I keep thinking about that as I begin a fresh round of revisions and dig a little deeper into my current manuscript. That's what I'm doing, making imaginary pictures out of words, invoking all my senses - of the visible but also the invisible world around me. And I wonder how those two things relate, the real and the imaginary, the visible and invisible. And then I stop for a moment and the cursor blinks and I feel grateful, that this is how I get to begin each day, before the sun rises, crafting a story, making pictures.
