highlights summer camp in fiction!! {almost} the best version of myself!
^ yep, it's a photo of the polaroid of our summer camp in fiction group photo.
last week, thanks to a scholarship, i got to attend the highlights foundation summer camp in fiction. (yes, that highlights: the magazine we all know and love from the dentists' office!) they have a writers' retreat center in the hills of pennsylvania and it was one of the most wonderful weeks of my life.
remember kindergarten? when it was as easy as:
"hi! you're little! i'm little, too!" and you were immediately best friends?
well, summer camp at highlights was similar:
"hi! you're trying to write a book? me, too! and you have a rainbow dinosaur reading a book on your tee-shirt? yay! we're best friends now!!"
(no, i didn't have that exact conversation, but it was that easy to make friends!)
which, for me, a creative, high-sensitive introvert, it was a HUGE deal to be able to be in my comfort zone even though i was around people for 12+ hours a day. ack!!
so i'll share some pictures and try to encapsulate my experience before i write you a whole memoir here... ;)
^ this was the view outside my cabin my first morning there. no, really.
and unlike the summer camp experiences of my childhood, i didn't have to get up at 5 a.m. so i'd have the bathhouse to myself. thankfully, i had my very own cabin at highlights. complete with indoor plumbing and a full bookshelf: both high priorities on my existence list! :D
^ this is "the barn." where all our meals, lectures, seminars, etc. were. there was a loft for writing. two libraries. and a kitchen that fed us three elaborate local farm-to-table meals every day.
out on the patio was where we had s'mores and open mic nights and writing prompts and appetizers... and i told you it was a lot of people-ing. but i made it. {more why later!} ;)
i had flowers in my salad (and on my cake) for the first time ever! and i see no reason to go back to just vegetables (and frosting.) :)
^this was my cabin! number 18. i was often greeted with bunnies in the morning. and in the afternoon. and in the evening. i lost count on day two when i was up to nine bunny sightings! {also one chipmunk, a giant toad, and a woodchuck!}
^this is nikki shannon smith, my beautiful author mentor for the week.
ahead of time, we sent in pages from our work in progress (my theatrical middle grade novel i've hinted at with you guys!) then at camp, we got one-on-one feedback with an author. nikki is from california and has written more than a dozen middle grade titles. she gave me GREAT feedback on my work, and the last day of camp, i got to sit and chat with her about what i want my writing career to be, and what to do when i got home and back at it! {she's also met one of my dream agents and gave a good report, so i just keep feeling confirmation all over the place!!}
yes, you are correct. this is not my photo. but nikki gave a beautiful seminar about getting out of our comfort zone and did, indeed, use this moment from what about bob? to drive home a point that is SO going to stick with me for a very, very long time. {hurray for visual learners!}
nikki pointed out how bob {bill murray} is strapped to the mast. he's wearing a life vest. and a life vest around his knees. and yet look at his hands: he's FREE! he's SAILING! and then look at the second person from the left in the boat: look at how in AWE she is of him! he has his TOOLS. and he's conquering his fears! he's strapped to the mast {which he obviously couldn't have done on his own}, he's got all his safety gear on, yet he can proudly proclaim that he is, in fact, sailing! so grab your tools! get help! keep sailing! you'll never know how you'll inspire others to face their own fears. and how proud of you they'll be when you're brave!
i mean.... does this even need a caption? let's just say 1. daisies are my favorite flower. and 2. just walking from my cabin to the barn i had to hold in tears almost all the time because i was just so grateful to be there and amongst such beauty.
^this is my new author friend sona charaipotra. her book HOW MAYA GOT FIERCEcame out tuesday (7/12), but she had finished copies with her, and so i got the world's SECOND signed copy! {thankfully her mom got one first!}
sona was great and very open about her experience as a brown girl in publishing {she got her start at people magazine, teen people -rip-, and now works as an editor for parents.com!} plus, she's published multiple best-selling YA novels, some co-written with dhonielle clayton!
sona also shared about her adult-diagnosed adhd and all the TOOLS (i'm sailing! i'm sailing!) she's learned along the way and how her writing habits have shifted to support that!
while i took more than three dozen pages of notes from all the workshops and seminars and such, here was my last page from sona's closing keynote address: just keep going!!
(no, i didn't even have time to doodle in the margins while i was there-- but thankfully i'd brought a full colorful array of papermate felt pens, so i could at least switch note-taking colors while scribbling furiously!!) :D
^this is the view off the barn porch. the few times i had a minute to write, i'd sit under the awning and admire the "just enough nature not to be terrifying" beauty of the place. i also sat here and took sensory detail notes because a book i've got stewing in my head takes place at summer camp, so yay for on-site research! :)
for the group photo, we each picked a word rock from the rock garden (great place to make poetry!) and since i couldn't find a "pixie dust" rock, i chose the "wish" rock. (hallie bonus: it was shaped like a heart!!)
there were a LOT of spaces i never even got a chance to explore. the lodge. the screened-in porches. the farmhouse. the creek. the art coop... the only time i even sat at the writing desk in my cabin was to write in the guest journal. i left behind a tearful thanks and "g'bye for now."
^ me in the loft of the barn, dumping out my story notebook-- ready to spread my words and stories out into the world!
i say i was {almost} the best version of myself at highlights camp for two reasons:
1. i believe i've found what i'm meant to be doing. books and art and my own stories.
2. two: a huge credit to highlights. camp was a completely SAFE SPACE. non-discriminatory. non-judgmental. a zero-harassment policy. we all came from unique backgrounds (race, religion, so many different states and cities, a range of neurodiversity, differently-abled, sexual orientation, etc.) and it was beautiful. there was no reason for me to cower or hide or wait to be invited (what i've been doing most of my life). there was no reason not to share my work or introduce myself. i sat with different people at meals. i joined conversations. i asked for autographs. i gave out business cards. i asked follow-up questions. all the things in-the-past hallie might never have dreamed of.
3. so okay, full disclosure in the name of erasing mental health stigmas, my other reason: anxiety meds. you might remember last fall when i went with my friend haley to ya'll fest in charleston. (you can read that blog post here.) i was shaking so hard i almost fell over while waiting in line to meet one of my favorite authors. i hadn't slept for a month ahead of time. i was excited and freaked out about all the author people i wanted to meet and see and be. the schedule nuances, the future conversations... but NOW, thanks to some medication, i was able to be ME. i wasn't shaking uncontrollably. i was exuberant. and social. and unintimidated! i was there to learn. which often comes by asking questions. i'm so grateful for my newest TOOL. (even if it took a harried time in charleston, at a wonderful event no less, to realize maybe i shouldn't have to live like this.) my highlights camp experience would not have been this great if i hadn't started anxiety meds earlier this year! so for that i'm also grateful!
the campers at highlights were there because, as the foundation director george brown, the great-grandson of the founder of highlights magazine, said: "because we believe children are the most important people in the world."
we were all there to create new stories for kids. because when kids can see themselvesin a book, they start to believe THEY can achieve it, too.
saying good-bye to everyone after lunch on sunday was VERY emotional for me. i definitely left some tears in the gravel (click HERE for a ten-second video if you want camp sounds; promise i'm not crying in this one) on the way to my car for the 800-mile drive home.
i got some of the world's best hugs g'bye. i swapped phone numbers with my mentor and my middle grade author peer group so we can keep in touch. {i completely believe we'll be in each other's "author origin stories." as in, i knew her when...!}
over the course of those five days, i'd gotten so much positive feedback on the pages and work i'd shared. i heard so much wisdom, and i generated new ideas, and i collected next-step advice. i also met some truly wonderful, creative, inspiring, encouraging people.
i was full of smiles (& happy tears) all week because i was in a safe space. sharing it with fellow book people. and i can't wait to go back.
thank you for your continued support as i edit so i can start querying agents with this story i believe in so absolutely much.
thank you for cheering me on from afar as i was away at camp. i definitely felt and carried all of your good vibes and prayers. if you have any questions about highlights (5 stars; completely recommend!), just ask. you can also learn more about donating to their scholarship funds on their website here.
you can support me on my writing and illustrating adventures in the crayon box, my author/illustrator patreon at patreon.com/halthegal thank you! :)